The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 340

These days, Zhou Chu has been sending memorials to the capital one after another, reporting to Jiajing on what happened in Datong.

After the final memorial was sent to the Imperial Study, Emperor Jiajing was very pleased after reading it.

"As expected of a weighing instrument, I did not expect the situation in Datong to be so complicated. If I were to send Zhixin to Datong rashly, I am afraid she would be plotted against by these people."

Emperor Jiajing sighed.

"Your Majesty, how much of this money should be reported?"

Huang Jin was helping Jiajing organize these financial reports and drafting official documents for him.

"Thirty million taels, I suppose."

After thinking it over, Emperor Jiajing decided that it was necessary to deposit 30 million taels into the national treasury, since the national treasury's annual expenditure was 40 to 50 million taels.

Last year, Zhou Chu confiscated a great deal of money, enough to ensure that the Ming Dynasty would not have to worry about money for the next twenty or thirty years. However, most of this money went into Jiajing's private treasury.

Many of these are even shady dealings.

What actually went into the national treasury was only enough for the Ming Dynasty's fiscal expenditures for five or six years.

Emperor Jiajing is now rich, extremely rich, so much so that he himself doesn't even know exactly how much money he has, so at this time he doesn't mind putting more money into the national treasury.

Just two days ago, the first batch of silver-carrying ships from Japan arrived at the Tianjin dock, and Jiajing immediately ordered the establishment of a special office in Tianjin to smelt silver.

Emperor Jiajing was well aware that the future Ming Dynasty would not lack silver; what it would truly lack were basic necessities, such as rice.

Rice from Annam could be secretly transported to the Ming Dynasty for emergencies, but it could not easily enter the market. If large quantities of Annam rice entered the market, it would inevitably cause a collapse in grain prices. Once grain prices collapsed, the people at the bottom of society would suffer the most.

Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish; the timing and degree of heat must be carefully controlled. Too much or too little heat will be magnified infinitely at the local level, and could very well lead to a disaster.

After Huang Jin finished organizing, he sent it back to Zhou Chu by fast horse. Zhou Chu then wrote a formal memorial and sent it directly to the cabinet.

When Yang Yiqing and Yang Shen saw this memorial, their feelings were completely different. Yang Yiqing was shocked by the ability of Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The problem of Datong had existed for so many years, how could the court not know? They certainly did.

Many civil servants were even involved, and there were vested interests involved.

However, most of the Beijing officials who had connections with the merchants and gentry of Datong had already been purged a year ago when Zhou Chu replaced a thousand officials with his position as commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The remaining half was largely destroyed by Chen Wanyan, leaving only a handful. They are barely able to protect themselves in the court and dare not speak up for the people of Datong.

Even so, Yang Tinghe was still quite surprised that Zhou Chu was able to clear out all the mess in Datong so quickly.

Zhou Chu even casually wiped out more than a thousand Mongol cavalrymen. Yang Yiqing was shocked just by looking at this achievement and this ability.

Given the situation in Datong, no matter who went there, it wouldn't have made a difference. Yet Zhou Chu, after only a short time there, resolved the situation swiftly and decisively.

However, thinking about what Zhou Chu had done in the capital and Jiangnan, Yang Yiqing couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Fortunately, Zhou Chu is currently causing trouble in Datong, which makes his life in the capital a little easier. Otherwise, if Zhou Chu had stayed in the capital, Yang Yiqing could even imagine that his voice would have been squeezed to the extreme.

This is something Yang Yiqing cannot accept.

Upon reading this memorial, Yang Shen was overjoyed—joyful for Zhou Chu, joyful for the emperor, and joyful for the Ming Dynasty.

Datong has been a military stronghold throughout history, but Yang Shen was aware of some of the problems that existed in Datong. Because Datong's location was too important, the court did not want any mistakes to be made, so it chose to turn a blind eye.