Chapter 339

Early morning, Love Shenjing, West City, Xiande Gate.

Jia Cong and Ai Li were riding horses, following behind two carriages.

In the carriage in front sat two girls who were following Ai Li to learn bird-training techniques.

Through Ai Li's careful instruction, these two girls had already acquired the ability to raise and train birds independently.

And in the second carriage were many birdcages, inside which were over a dozen trained carrier pigeons, as well as a gyrfalcon that Ai Li had brought back from Liaodong.

This time, Jia Cong was sending them to Jinling; Qu Qu Hongxiu had received his letter in advance and had already made arrangements in Jinling and other places.

Once Ai Li's two apprentices arrived in Jinling with these trained birds, they would be able to quickly establish signal stations.

With the rapid development and expansion of Xinchun Bank in Jiangnan.

Jia Cong, through Qu Qu Hongxiu and Qin Qin Keqing, continuously instilled business concepts from later generations, such as joint-force management, mutual exchange, adjusting according to market demand, and integrated linkage, into branches everywhere.

According to news from the Liaodong Xinchun Bank.

Rice, silk, porcelain, and other goods from Jiangnan were being transported back to Liaodong for operation and sale.

And the most important basic condition for the realization of these later business concepts was the speed and smoothness of information, which was also the reason why Jia Cong was eager to establish bird signal stations in various places.

……

Jia Cong's five policies for governing Liaodong were approved by Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao and issued as an edict, and were fully promoted in the lands outside the pass.

As Xinchun Bank continuously opened branches in various places in Jiangnan and business routes continuously expanded, related signal stations would also be set up accordingly.

In the near future, wherever Xinchun Bank's business routes reached, a huge information network that was interconnected and transmitted rapidly would be formed.

And before leaving Liaodong, Jia Cong had the foresight to let Ai Li help Zhou Zhou Guangcheng establish bird signal stations in advance, allowing Jia Cong to receive information from the Liaodong Xinchun Bank regularly.

He also personally formulated business regulations and sent them to branches everywhere as operating procedures, letting them grind and execute them during daily business operations.

In time, the scale and profit of Xinchun Bank in Liaodong and outside the pass might only be second to the six prefectures and one prefecture of Jiangnan.

In Liaodong and outside the pass, after the battle to exterminate the Jurchens, the great threat was eliminated, and tens of thousands of elite Da Zhou troops completed the construction of stockades in various places, guarding various passes.

In addition to transmitting conventional business information, information related to the national economy and the people's livelihood could also be transmitted and circulated rapidly...

Fur, medicinal materials, mountain treasures, and other specialties from outside the pass in Liaodong were continuously transported to be sold all over the country.

According to Zhou Zhou Guangcheng's letter, because business routes in Liaodong and outside the pass were empty, unlike Jiangnan where business competition was fierce.

And Jia Cong's emphasis on establishing signal stations in Jinling and other places, besides meeting the information support needed for the development of Xinchun Bank in Jiangnan.

……

In this environment, the Liaodong branch recruited a large number of Han people and Jurchen women and children who were in dire straits to work, using local Liaodong resources to process and build materials.

These exquisite Jiangnan goods were favored by merchants from various foreign countries and, through the window outside the pass, were sold far away to Korea, Russia, and the distant Northwest Europe.

In distant Liaodong, Zhou Zhou Guangcheng led the recruited manpower and had gradually established Xinchun Bank branches and workshops in various places.

After all, in this era, this was the only way to transmit letters faster than a galloping horse.

The thousands of officials stationed there gradually stabilized the local government offices and civil administration, and the three thousand li of land outside the pass would surely become the territory of Da Zhou that would be guarded forever!

There was another important reason.

That was that since May, Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao had issued a series of new policies, causing an uproar inside and outside the court.

Actually, since the fifth year of Emperor Jia Zhao, Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao had swept away rebels and dissidents, abolished the abuses of the old policies, and stabilized the imperial throne like a mountain.

He began to push for a series of new policies, such as establishing the Shipping Office in three places, widely opening up maritime trade in various prefectures in the East Sea, and prospering the livelihood of the people in Jiangnan, which was one of them.

In the process of pushing for maritime policy, it also encountered opposition from old ministers and old parties who maintained the ancestral system.

However, the huge wealth and benefits that maritime policy brought to several coastal prefectures were truly visible.

The people regard food as their heaven; pushing for maritime policy in the six prefectures and one prefecture of Jiangnan also benefited the local officials and people.

Therefore, the implementation of maritime policy was supported by the officials and people of Jiangnan, and the increasingly full national treasury also made the group of opposing old parties shut their mouths.

But in the last three years, with the outbreak of wars in Liaodong and Tibet, the military expenditure of the national treasury had been huge.

And in recent years, the climate of Da Zhou had been abnormal, with spring floods, summer droughts, and winter cold, which was not optimistic year after year.

This caused poor harvests in the two river regions, with refugees fleeing from famine, which was countless; otherwise, Jia Cong could not have easily gathered so many orphans outside the Love Shenjing.

Although there were supplements from the maritime policy taxes in Jiangnan and the salt taxes in the two Huai regions, the money and grain used by the national treasury for disaster relief in various places were still often stretched.

If disaster relief was not timely, it would easily lead to civil unrest, and might even trigger rebellion, creating the danger of shaking the foundation of the country.

As the monarch of a country, Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao saw the crisis of the country and bore the pressure of the country, which was much heavier than that of ordinary subjects.

Diligently handling state affairs throughout the four seasons and reading memorials all night could not solve the fundamental problem.

The only way was to accelerate the intensity of pushing for new policies.

Therefore, Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao planned for several years, letting the new and old parties in the court argue for a long time about several new policies, overcoming heavy resistance, and in May, issued them for trial in several prefectures of Da Zhou.

One was to reduce the tax-exempt land of officials and gentry to 30% of the original. The second was to change the poll tax to a tax based on land.

As soon as these two new policies were introduced, they immediately caused an uproar, with discussions inside and outside the court, almost reaching a state of being difficult to contain.

Zhou Zhou Junxing's Tui Shi Yuan, under the instruction of Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao, also began to operate at high load.

Within just a few days, five high-ranking officials of Grade 4 or above in the imperial court were successively found to have committed corruption and violated the law.

Overnight, through the investigation and evidence collection of the Tui Shi Yuan, they were raided and imprisoned by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, causing a sensation throughout the Love Shenjing.

And these five officials all had one thing in common: it was not that they all had stains in their official careers, but that they were all the vanguard of opposing the implementation of the new policies.

Facing the road of pushing for new policies, Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao once again revealed his cold and ruthless side.

Treating the stubborn old parties who opposed the new policies, before kicking them out of the court, he first used the hands of the Tui Shi Yuan to ruin their reputations and make them stink for ten thousand years!

Making them never be able to turn over in their official careers from then on, and setting a striking example for the corrupt people who opposed the implementation of the new policies.

Civil officials are much more pretentious than military generals; they are a very contradictory group, each regarding their reputation as more important than life, but almost every one of them has a dirty bottom.

Of course, there are truly clean officials in the imperial court, but they are few and far between.

Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao's move to hit the seven inches was very effective for civil officials; even the most eloquent and self-proclaimed noble old party stalwarts shut their mouths obediently.

When the claws and teeth of the Tui Shi Yuan became increasingly active in the Love Shenjing, the new party celebrated, and the old party collectively lost their voices.

At the daily morning court, the entire court began to appear with a strange unison.

However, there were many who truly supported the new policies, but I'm afraid there were even more who followed them in public but opposed them in private.

And the six prefectures and one prefecture of Jiangnan, the prosperous land of the world, the place where literature and education were prosperous, had a huge base of scholars and officials.

Whether it was reducing the tax-exempt land of officials and gentry or changing the poll tax to a tax based on land, the impact on the official and gentry group in Jiangnan was huge, and it was also a severe test for the political situation in Jiangnan.

But according to Jia Cong's later generation's insight, once the two new policies were successfully implemented, although it would cause losses to the interests of the official and gentry group in Jiangnan.

But it would greatly reduce the tax burden on the common people, and the lives of the people would be much better than before, driving the prosperity of the entire folk silver flow.

With more spare money in the hands of the people, it would naturally be of great benefit to business.

It is very likely that in the next few years, Xinchun Bank will face a development opportunity that only happens once in a hundred years.

But before this, there will inevitably be a bloody storm.

This is also another important reason why Jia Cong was eager to quickly establish signal stations in Jinling and other Jiangnan places.

Whether it was for the development of Xinchun Bank or for the stability of his own official career and family.

Quickly learning about the implementation of new policies in Jiangnan played a pivotal role.

……

Outside Xiande Gate, Ai Li gave careful instructions to the two female disciples again, and the two watched the carriage go far away.

When Jia Cong and Ai Li returned to the city, they saw a tightly covered prison carriage, covered in dust, being escorted by over a dozen Embroidered Uniform Guards, slowly driving into Xiande Gate.

But the direction the prison carriage was driving was not the Embroidered Uniform Guard Command, but the Sun Dali Temple office.

This prison carriage attracted some of Jia Cong's attention, but he only looked at it a few times and stopped paying attention.

(End of this chapter)