Chapter Thirteen: The Origin of Help
When Fang Tian saw that he was unwilling to accept the scroll, his heart couldn't help but feel anxious, and he quickly told him everything about this matter. It turned out that Zong Ze had been a local official for some time, thinking every day about how to govern the people, when one day a report came in, discovering that there was a silver ore vein on the border of Longyou County, with extremely high quality. However, the ore vein was very secretive and deeply buried underground, with many underground water and sandstone layers along the way, making it almost impossible to excavate. If not for a mudslide destroying the mountain body, exposing a bit of the ore vein, which happened to be discovered by one of Zong Ze's trusted subordinates who was good at identifying rocks and terrain, this ore vein might not have seen the light of day for hundreds of years.
Zong Ze received the report and set off immediately, with his two subordinates traversing mountains and valleys to find a suitable location for mining. As a result, they went straight to the Banguan Cave in Qingxi County, a neighboring county. However, this place was a forbidden area of the Mingjiao Sect, with many ambushes set up. His subordinates were killed on the spot by poisonous arrows, while Zong Ze was taken out of the cave by Fang La and Shi Bao, who had rushed to the scene upon hearing the news.
After that, Fang Tianzheng didn't know much about what happened next. He only knew that after a secret conversation with Fang La, Zong Ze spent a sleepless night thinking deeply and left behind this letter before returning to Longyou County. The next day, Fang La summoned several people including Fang Tianzheng and handed over the letter, instructing them to take it to Dongjing (the Eastern Capital) and first report the matter of the ten thousand taels of silver to see which high-ranking official in the imperial court would be willing to take charge of this affair before presenting the letter.
After finishing the story, Fang Tianding stuffed the scroll into Gao Qiang's hands and grasped them tightly with both hands. His eyes looked at Gao Qiang with deep affection: "Although the official has no merits to his name, this time he has exempted the people of Dongnan from paying a large sum of money, showing that the official is not only responsible but also just and righteous. He also has many connections with the elders in the court, so he must not disappoint the expectations of our ancestors and parents. Please accept this strategy for defending the sect."
Gao Jian was shocked to hear this, although he said that one silver mine was not a small matter, but Zong Ze was so serious about it. He didn't report through normal channels, but instead wanted to memorialize through several Mingjiao disciples. What was the reason behind this?
But now is not the time to investigate the reasons behind it, whether this matter is good or bad, it's always an extra card in one's hand. Moreover, Fang Tian Ding has such a "generous" heart, if he were to be cold-shouldered, wouldn't that hurt him? Wouldn't all his efforts on this late night be in vain?
With a serious expression, he took the scroll with both hands and said: "Brother Fang, please rest assured, since this matter is for the benefit of the people, I will take it upon myself, even if I have only limited power, it's my duty to do so." At this moment, their relationship was no longer ordinary, as he had upgraded from "I" to "little brother".
Fang Tianding was overjoyed when he saw the high official take the scroll, feeling as if a weight of a thousand jun had been lifted off his shoulders. He suddenly felt lighthearted and laughed, saying: "Now that the big matter is settled, I also want to bid farewell. Does the official have a way to send me out of the city?"
Gao Jiang hastily advised, "Brother Fang is injured and it's still the fourth watch, the city gate hasn't opened yet. Why are you in such a hurry to leave the city? In my humble opinion, let's return to my residence together and rest for a few days until your leg injury heals before making further plans." In his heart, he thought, "I've gone through so much trouble in the yamen, all for this beautiful sister of yours. If it were in the past, getting her phone number would have been enough, but this era is different, people are like oceans and transportation isn't developed, once you're separated, where can you find each other? Being able to spend a few more days together is also good."
But Tian Ding shook his head: "Sir, you don't know that my father has already instructed me. No matter whether this matter can be entrusted to someone or not, once it's settled, I must return immediately and cannot stay for a moment. Now that Sir is in charge of this matter, this trip to Bianliang can be considered successful, and I should set off immediately back to Jiangnan. As for this minor injury, it's nothing worth worrying about." His tone was firm with the intention to leave.
Gao Jian was taken aback for a moment, thinking that you didn't have to listen to your father's words so seriously. Had he seen through his own wolfish intentions towards his sister and was eager to escape? However, since the conversation had reached this point, Gao Jian couldn't find an excuse to persuade him to stay, and could only reluctantly agree. The group chatted idly in the vegetable garden, with Fang Tianding sharing stories about Zong Ze's time as a county official in Longyou County, which left Gao Jian and the others listening with great interest.
Originally, Zong Ze was well-received by the local officials. One day, he saw a villager carrying a bundle of vegetables out of the city gate in the west of the county and asked him where he got them from. The villager replied that he had bought them at the market. Zong Ze immediately became enraged and ordered his men to beat the villager with a rattan stick, saying that as a farmer, he should be cultivating crops instead of buying vegetables from others, and that this practice must not continue. After this incident spread, all the farmers in the county were shocked and worked hard to cultivate their land. It is also said that when Zong Ze first took office in Chongning, he ordered the destruction of all tea gardens in the county and replaced them with mulberry trees. None of the local elders understood the reason behind this order, but they all respected Zong Ze's authority and carried out his instructions without delay. They cut down their tea gardens and planted mulberry trees instead. By the fourth year of Chongning, Cai Jing issued an edict to implement a tea monopoly policy, requiring all tea garden owners to pay tea taxes to the government, and tea merchants had to purchase special tea licenses and tea containers from the authorities. Those who failed to comply or smuggled tea would be punished, earning the nickname "tea tyrants" among the local people. However, when this edict was implemented in Longyou County, there were no tea gardens left, so no tea taxes needed to be paid, and there were no problems with tea policies disturbing the people. The mulberry trees that had been planted earlier had already grown, and the benefits of sericulture surpassed those of other regions in the southeast. Only then did the local elders understand the wisdom of County Magistrate Zong's actions. All these stories were not enough to satisfy Gao Gang's curiosity, and he listened with great interest...
This future anti-Golden General turned out to have two brushes, but I don't know what kind of clever plan was written in this Southeastern defense strategy.
As they chatted, the five watches passed, and when they saw the east turn white, the city gate opened. Chai Jin sent off Fang Tianping and his party outside the eastern gate of Bianliang, presenting them with some silver, money, and medicine for their injuries. The crowd bid farewell with tears in their eyes. Lu Zhishen and Deng Yuanjue had become acquainted through fighting, and now they felt a deep affection for each other; at this moment, they too bowed their heads to bid farewell.
Watching that slender figure disappear at the end of the avenue, his neck stretched out for a long time, until it was out of sight before he came back to himself, and returned to the mansion with a sigh.
This time, Lu Zhishen participated in the rescue all night and highly praised Gao Qiang's performance. As an exception, he exempted him from a day of training and let him return to his room to rest. Gao Qiang was overjoyed and hadn't slept for two consecutive days, so his body couldn't take it anymore. He returned to his room, covered his head and slept until the afternoon when he finally woke up.
Xiao Huan served a meal, but didn't know what kind of food it was. After Gao Qiang finished bathing and changing his clothes, he sat under the tree in the courtyard, opened the scroll that Zong Ze had written by hand, and read it carefully, but the more he read, the more frightened he became.
According to this scroll, the silver ore in Bangyuan Cave is easy to extract. If we use the most advanced cupellation method and have sufficient manpower, we can obtain more than 200,000 taels of refined silver per year. It is known that after Cai Jing took office, he ordered all gold and silver mines across the country to be transported to the imperial treasury for collection. Even so, during the Chongning period, the annual silver tax was only around 20 million taels, which was not enough to pay the annual tribute to the Liao State. If this silver mine is opened, it will undoubtedly be a great help to the court.
The only problem with mining this silver mine is that it is a forbidden place for the Mingjiao, and ordinary people are not allowed to enter. If the government wants to organize manpower to enter and mine, the Mingjiao disciples will not be able to stand by. At that time, the Mingjiao forces in Liangzhe Road and Fujian Road were very strong, and many military officers also worshipped the Ming Zun. Once a large-scale civil unrest is triggered, the consequences are unthinkable, and the loss is not something that can be made up for by a single silver mine.
Zong Ze and Fang La discussed it and suggested that the silver mine be jointly developed with the Mingjiao sect, and the silver obtained could be used by local believers to offset various taxes. In this way, not only would the poor people avoid being exploited due to their urgent need to exchange grain, silk, and other goods for money, but also the labor force of the Mingjiao sect could be utilized without compensation, and a large amount of silver could be provided to the imperial court, which was a win-win situation.
There are several issues with this matter. Firstly, it goes against the imperial court's long-standing policy of collecting taxes in copper coins and using gold and silver for palace expenses and foreign trade. Secondly, Zong Ze himself was promoted by Lv Huiying during his tenure as the governor of Daming Prefecture, and he belongs to the group that was suppressed by Cai Jing's faction. Collecting gold and silver from all over the world is a policy suggested by Cai Jing, so speaking out against it would be seen as a counterattack by a political enemy, regardless of whether it is a good or bad policy. A good thing that benefits the country and the people might end up being buried in the archives of the imperial court. Thirdly, although Zong Ze has a good reputation, the fact that the White Lotus Sect is producing silver still makes Fang La, the leader of the sect, uneasy, and he must supervise the implementation of this policy from start to finish.
Zong Ze thought hard for a night and came up with the plan to test the waters by sending several trusted followers to Beijing to report that the Ten Great Coins were causing trouble, in order to gauge the political climate within the imperial court, find allies who could rely on each other, and then reveal the silver mine matter, thereby changing the tax policy of the southeastern region.
Gao Kuo read the thousand-word scroll from start to finish several times, and couldn't help but put down the volume and think. In the Song Dynasty, when the court had affairs in the northwest, it relied on the southeast for supplies. Although the people of Jiangnan were known for their wealth and prosperity, they bore a tax burden that was nearly double that of other parts of the country. Later, the evil policies of the southeastern supply depot led to official oppression and popular resistance, culminating in the Fang La uprising, which caused the most thorough destruction of the court's finances at the critical moment of the Song-Liao-Jin war. If we want to solve the problem of the southeast, this silver mine in the forbidden land of Mingjiao is undoubtedly a great opportunity.
But is it really that simple? Is there still some unfulfilled meaning in Zong Ze's scroll? All sorts of thoughts flooded into Gao Gang's mind: He vaguely remembered that there was indeed a silver mine in modern-day Zhejiang, but the specific location had been completely forgotten. Could it be this Yuan Dong Silver Mine? But why wasn't such a major event recorded in history? If it had really been reported to the imperial court, there would definitely have been some record of it, yet he couldn't think of any such incident.
The only explanation is that this matter was deliberately concealed in history, and the imperial court did not know that such a silver mine existed. But who did it?
Following the usual reasoning pattern, the result of doing so must be driven by some kind of interest. Gao Liang closed his eyes and carefully thought about the interactions between various parties in the silver mine excavation. Who is the real beneficiary among them? And who can change their current situation to the greatest extent?
The imperial court? Zong Ze? Cai Jing? Zhao Tingzhi? Mingjiao?...
He suddenly sat up with a start, almost knocking over the teacup on the table, but he didn't care about it and let Xiaohuan call out to him repeatedly without responding. His mind was only thinking of one name: Fang Yue, it must be Fang Yue!
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