Chapter 1147 Go deep into the grassroots and conduct on-site investigation!

With Cui Shao taking the lead, the others also stood up one by one as if awakened from a dream, advising Ye Mingsheng to take a long-term view. Their reasons were that the court had just experienced turmoil, and for the sake of court stability, Ye Mingsheng should stay at the center...

Although Gu Sansi also did not support Ye Mingsheng's southern tour in his heart, he felt that Ye Mingsheng was being too hasty and wanted to persuade Ye Mingsheng to calm down for a while before touring the south. However, seeing that Li Jian, Xiao Lingyu, Chen Fu and others all followed Cui Shao to advise Ye Mingsheng, Gu Sansi hesitated for a moment and finally remained silent!

Ye Mingsheng had expected everyone to stop him. He smiled and waved his hand, saying:

"I understand everyone's thoughts, but Ye Baode's rebellion this time was just an accident. Except for a few bad apples, the officials and soldiers of the court are all loyal and reliable. I, Ye, believe in everyone!"

Cui Shao heard this and spoke again:
"Marshal, the southern provinces have just been pacified and the local areas are not completely stable yet. Now is not a good time to tour the south. Please wait for a while and find another time to tour the south!"

Ye Mingsheng said calmly:
"It is precisely because the southern provinces have just been pacified that I want to personally appease them and let them feel the grace of the court!"

As soon as Ye Mingsheng finished speaking, Cui Shao wanted to say something else, but Ye Mingsheng took the lead and continued:
"Uncle, I have made up my mind, so let's just do it! I think there is no problem with you, Sansi, and Li Jian presiding over the court..."

Hearing Ye Mingsheng calling him "Third Uncle" in front of everyone, Cui Shao felt Ye Mingsheng's determination. Although he still frowned and disagreed with Ye Mingsheng's decision to tour the south at this time, he didn't say anything else!
Ye Mingsheng has always been particular about handling official business impartially, so he would only address him as "Third Uncle" in private, and in occasions like now, he would address him by his official title!

Therefore, when Ye Mingsheng broke this convention, it was enough to prove that Ye Mingsheng had thought carefully and made up his mind to do this!
And what Ye Mingsheng has decided will not be easily changed, so as a subject, Cui Shao can only choose to compromise!

When Li Jian, Xiao Lingyu, Chen Fu and others saw that Cui Shao stopped talking, they immediately shut up and stopped talking. Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng also ended today's meeting.

After the meeting, everyone left except Gu Sansi. Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng let him into the study and asked calmly:

"You also don't agree with my current southern tour?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Gu Sansi nodded and said:
"I support your southern tour, Marshal, but I think it's a little too hasty now!"

At this point, Gu Sansi paused, glanced at Ye Mingsheng's expression, and then cautiously suggested:
“I think it would be best if the southern tour was postponed for a few months…”

Just now when Cui Shao was advising in Zhongyong Hall, Gu Sansi actually supported his suggestion in his heart, but at that time Chen Fu, Xiao Lingyu, Li Jian and others all followed Cui Shao to advise, which made Gu Sansi feel a little worried. So he did not choose to second the motion at that time, but waited until now to advise Ye Mingsheng in private!

Listening to Gu Sansi's words, Ye Mingsheng also completely understood what he meant. He immediately looked at Gu Sansi with some appreciation and said lightly:

"This time on the southern tour, I don't plan to just go to Jiangnan and Huainan. I plan to visit Qilu, Hebei, Henan, and Jingchu, and conduct in-depth research on the lives of the local people. So I'm bound to spend some time on the road, so I need to leave early!"

After hearing this, Gu Sansi no longer had any questions and immediately began to speak:
"The Marshal is so thoughtful, we can't even compare to him!"

Ye Mingsheng shook his head and said:

"Think carefully, you are the Minister of Personnel, and the administration of the court is your responsibility. If you think Zhao Wanxian has done something wrong, you can give him a good scolding. Although Zhao Wanxian is a capable person, he still needs to correct some minor flaws!"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng say this, Gu Sansi was a little surprised. He didn't know what Ye Mingsheng was thinking. After hesitating for a while, he said, "Zhao Buzhengshi is a rising star and a pillar of the country. I will naturally help him grow..."

Although Gu Sansi acted very sincerely when he said this, Ye Mingsheng still clearly felt a hint of insincerity. However, Ye Mingsheng just smiled and then showed concern for Gu Sansi's life, and then let the Minister of Personnel leave!
After Gu Sansi left, Ye Mingsheng took out a memorial from the drawer and read it slowly. Although he had read it several times, Ye Mingsheng still felt a little shocking when he read it again!

This memorial was written by Jiang Yuyan to herself in Feiyanzhai. In the memorial, Jiang Yuyan first admitted her mistakes, saying that she had indeed used some illegal means and done some wrong things when promoting the savings business!

Jiang Yuyan first criticized herself, thinking that the reason for this situation was that she was ambitious, eager for quick success and instant benefits, and would do anything to achieve her goals!
However, Jiang Yuyan also said that although some of the court's policies are well-intentioned and want to benefit the people and improve the well-being of the people, they always encounter various difficulties in their implementation at the local level!

The most prominent problem among these is the lazy administration. After Ye Mingsheng increased the income and benefits of officials and cracked down on corruption, the administration of officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty has been greatly improved. Some officials no longer dared to think about accepting tributes!
After Ye Mingsheng increased the weight of political performance in the assessment of officials, although most people chose to strive for political performance in order to make further progress, quite a few people chose to govern by doing nothing·························
In the eyes of some people, mistakes are inevitable when working, but as long as you don’t work, you won’t make mistakes. However, they cannot compete in terms of political achievements. So since there is no hope of advancement, they might as well do whatever makes them comfortable!
Anyway, my income and benefits have increased now, and my family and I can live comfortably with the court salary. So instead of working hard, I might as well let nature take its course. As long as I am not greedy or take advantage of others, my official position will be secure!

With this idea in mind, although the Governor asked all prefectures and counties to help promote the savings business of Rishengchang Company, many local masters were just going through the motions!
Jiang Yuyan thought of many ways for this, but in the end they had little effect. In order to meet the performance requirements and give Ye Mingsheng a satisfactory answer, she finally chose the old way of giving red envelopes!
With the help of red envelopes, gentlemen from all over the country finally cheered up and worked hard to promote Rishengchang Bank and help it absorb money from the people!

In addition to the lazy governance at the local level, some people are currently eyeing Rishengchang's money. They are colluding with each other and trying to use various methods to get money from Rishengchang through loans. Because this involves the issue of collusion between internal and external parties, this is also a headache for Jiang Yuyan!
The third point is the issue of commercial loans. One of the main reasons why Ye Mingsheng asked Jiang Yuyan to establish Rishengchang Bank and promote savings business was to solve the problem of farmers’ difficulty in borrowing and high interest rates.
In past research, Ye Mingsheng found that the farmers in this era have very poor risk resistance. Common disasters such as floods, locust plagues, droughts, and illnesses may cause a farmer or a family to lose everything!

Under such circumstances, many people do not have the money to farm, so they can only sell the land or mortgage the land. The high interest rates make it impossible for many farmers to repay their loans, and they eventually become tenants of others and are exploited. This has also exacerbated land annexation to a certain extent!
Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Ye Mingsheng also wanted Rishengchang Bank to provide low-interest loans, so that farmers would not have to borrow those unscrupulous loan sharks!
At that time, Ye Mingsheng had considered that some people would use various methods to borrow money, so Ye Mingsheng adopted a one-size-fits-all approach, that is, only allowing Rishengchang Bank to provide loans to farmers, and not allowing Rishengchang Bank to provide loans to other merchants or handicraftsmen in various forms!
However, in actual practice, Jiang Yuyan discovered that these merchants did have a demand for lending, which led to the existence of many underground Q villages in various places. They lent money in many ways and made high profits from it!

Generally they just make profits from lending, but there are also many underground Q-houses. They lend you money, and then control your business step by step, and finally achieve the goal of occupying the magpie's nest. Some are even more vicious. It is not enough to occupy the magpie's nest, but they also want your family to be destroyed...

Therefore, Jiang Yuyan also advised Ye Mingsheng to allow the Piaohao to lend money to other businesses, so as to solve the merchants' needs in this regard and fundamentally eliminate those underground Q villages!
In addition to the above, Jiang Yuyan also played the emotional card with Ye Mingsheng, expressing how difficult it was for a woman like her to manage such a big business!
Even though she had Ye Mingsheng as her backer, money was a tempting thing and gentlemen from all over the place wanted to get a piece of the pie. She was under a lot of pressure and often couldn't sleep at night. Even if she did fall asleep, she would wake up from nightmares. Her hair was falling out in clumps and wrinkles began to appear at the corners of her eyes.

At the end of the memorial, Jiang Yuyan also attached an account book to Ye Mingsheng, an account book in which she gave red envelopes to dozens of masters in Hebei, Henan, Qi and Lu!

Looking at the names and amounts on the account book, Ye Mingsheng felt angry at first, but in the end he felt frustrated!

Although Ye Mingsheng knew very well that greed was inevitable for all human beings, he believed that under his governance, the administration of the Great Zhou had been greatly improved, with only a few black sheep still obsessed with greed and refusing to repent!
However, the account books sent by Jiang Yuyan made Ye Mingsheng realize that his idea was wrong. Although the administration of the Great Zhou Dynasty has improved to a certain extent, there has been no fundamental change. A considerable number of people dare to take red envelopes as long as there is one...

It was precisely because of Jiang Yuyan's memorial that Ye Mingsheng made up his mind to tour the south. He wanted to see what problems existed in the local area that should be solved but had not been solved!
Ye Mingsheng felt that these problems could not be discovered or understood in the study of the Ye Mansion. Only by going deep into the grassroots and conducting on-site investigations could they be understood!

Ye Mingsheng has decided that the first stop of his southern tour this time will be Hebei and Henan, and letting Zhang Zhiwen serve as the governor of Youyan is also the first step of Ye Mingsheng's plan!
The reason why Ye Mingsheng appointed Zhang Zhiwen as the governor of Youyan was not because his name was not in the account book provided by Jiang Yuyan. In fact, in Jiang Yuyan's account book, among the officials at the level of governor of Ji, Henan, Qi and Lu, only Murong Yuliang did not receive any money, but only received a pair of jade bracelets!

Jiang Yuyan gave Zhang Zhiwen a total of 3,500 taels of silver in three installments, and also bought a house for Zhang Zhiwen in Yujing so that Zhang Zhiwen could keep his mistress there!
Although he knew that Zhang Zhiwen had problems in this regard, after careful consideration, Ye Mingsheng finally chose him to serve as the governor of Youyan...
The most important aspect is that Zhang Zhiwen does have this ability. Whether in Liaoyang or in Hebei and Henan, he has proved with his political achievements that he has the ability to lead the development of a place with tens or even millions of people!
Compared with this ability, three thousand five hundred taels of silver and a few women are really not a big problem!

To be honest, the minimum amount of money confiscated from the deputy governors was 30,000 taels of silver, and the maximum was 100,000 taels of silver. Zhang Zhiwen was the only deputy governor-level official in Jiang Yuyan's account book who did not actively ask for bribes!
Apart from his ability, there was really no other suitable candidate to choose Zhang Zhiwen!
Let’s not talk about Lao Jinjin’s achievements, let’s just talk about Youyan’s current Censor Zhuang Shanhe. He is indeed a capable official, and his personal character may be even cleaner than Zhang Zhiwen. After all, he has never served in prefectures, counties, provincial governments and other government offices before!

However, there was one thing Zhuang Shanhe did that made Ye Mingsheng very disgusted. That was when Sun Jingan came to Yijing on the first day, this guy deliberately found an excuse to go to Yuyang and did not greet Sun Jingan.

Although Zhuang Shanhe’s excuse was very good and impeccable, Ye Mingsheng was very clear that it was Li Jian who leaked the news to Zhuang Shanhe, so Zhuang Shanhe knew that Sun Jingan was doomed, so he deliberately kept a distance from Sun Jingan, but what he did was too obvious and deliberate, which made people feel very bad...

(End of this chapter)