The eleventh year of Chongzhen was still a year with frequent disasters, and this time even the Three East Prefectures were affected. It had not rained for nearly a month after the beginning of summer. Fortunately, the water conservancy system of the Three East Prefectures was perfect, which supported the past.

In Huguang area, the sun was exposed to the sun for more than half a month, causing locust plagues everywhere, and then three consecutive rainstorms fell, causing floods to become disasters throughout the Han River Plain.

The Huanghuai Plain also had a locust plague, while the Jianghuai area suffered a large hail (anhui area), which was a natural disaster.

Under such circumstances, the number of people coming to Shandong to immigrate suddenly increased, and Shandong also began to continuously transport food to the outside world for disaster relief.

Most of the things transported out are sweet potatoes. This thing is not nutritious, so it can only be said to be able to survive!

Zhao Yan and Zhao Quan discussed it and used two methods of disaster relief to migrate and food dispatch, and Zhao Yan proposed the idea of ​​storing grain.

That is, each government sets up a warehouse. When the price of grain is low, buy it and release it to lower the price when the price is high. After a certain place is affected by the disaster, it will draw grain from the warehouses in the surrounding areas for disaster relief.

This strategy was formulated very early, but not every government has a warehouse for grain stores.

According to this method, there will be basically no big change in the local grain prices. As for the commercial grain market, it is just under normal prices. Such normal prices will allow grain merchants to make money and not reach any huge profits.

In addition to disaster relief, Zhao Yan did not want to save disasters every year. The issue of water conservancy repair is still very urgent. So Zhao Yan immediately sent a letter to Chen Zhongsheng, asking him to increase his investment in water conservancy again.

...Yan Jizuzheng, who was far away in the capital, went to the cabinet to handle government affairs as usual. On the way, he received a report from his servants halfway, and Zhao Yan sent someone to send him a betrothal gift.

Yan Jizu was stunned for a moment and returned to normal again. He didn't go back to see it. He just continued to go to the cabinet and ordered his servants to let his wife deal with it.

Yan Jizu's wife is looking forward to when her daughter will marry into the Zhao family every day! Now she has achieved her wish. Yan Jizu is neither happy nor worried, or she is mixed, and she feels a little confused.

He is a person who receives orthodox education.

But he is now working hard for Zhao Yan, so he is a little lost.

Whether Zhao Yan was a wise ruler in the prosperous era or a general trend, he was still a minister of Chongzhen, and the level of loyalty and righteousness was still a bit difficult to let go.

My daughter married Zhao Yan and she was completely involved in the Zhao family's camp.

"Transfer to Shandong, even if it is for the people of the world!" Yan Jizu took a deep breath and made the final decision in his heart. His daughter was about to marry into the Zhao Mansion. What other choice could he have?

When they arrived at the cabinet, many cabinet members congratulated Yan Jizu.

The news spread very quickly. As soon as the betrothal gift arrived at Yan Jizu's mansion, the news spread quickly. The cabinet officials looked at Yan Jizu differently and paid more attention than before.

This is the future father-in-law, so he naturally needs to be treated with courtesy.

The cabinet has not made much move recently. Apart from the annual tax exemption, it is engaged in water conservancy. It borrowed 10 million taels of silver from Denglai Bank and soon spread it out.

The money is still not enough.

Due to the unusually cold climate, this year is another year of severe disasters, and agricultural production has suffered a great blow. In order to restore the Ming Dynasty's grain production as soon as possible, Zhao Yan once again asked Chen Zhongsheng to propose a loan proposal.

So Chen Zhongsheng once again took out a water conservancy repair proposal to borrow 20 million taels of silver from Denglai Bank. This proposal was different from the last time.

The 10 million taels passed last proposal was mainly used to control the three basins of the Huanghuai River and the Yangtze River, and were mainly used to build dams, strengthen dams, and clear river channels.

But this time, the 20 million taels were used to control the Han River Plain and the Jianghuai Plain.

The Han River Plain is an area covered with water networks, and the same is true for the Huanghuai Plain. However, Zhao Yan couldn't help but frown when he saw the poor water conservancy of the Han River Plain.

In contrast, the Huanghuai Ping principle is much better.

Therefore, the management cost in the Huanghuai Plain is only 5 million taels, and 10 million taels are invested in the Han River Plain and Hunan region to manage the Han River Plain.

The other five million taels will be used to repair the Southeast water conservancy.

The Han River and Jianghuai River were the largest commercial grain production areas in the Ming Dynasty.

Once the water conservancy in these two areas is repaired, it will have strong resistance to drought and flood. In this way, agricultural production will be stable, and once agricultural production is stable, society will be stable.

If the proposal is passed, the cabinet will spend 30 million taels on water conservancy.

The 30 million taels are still owed, and the borrower is Denglai Bank. The loan is still interest-free this time. The cabinet just received a confiscation of 6 million taels from Shanxi merchants, and it was left in the national treasury first.

Since it is an interest-free loan, those opposition parties are happy to pass it.

Two of the three main parties in the cabinet were controlled by Zhao Yan, and one was the royalist party. However, this time the royalist party burst into strong dissatisfaction.

They strongly opposed the passage of this proposal, believing that these water conservancy projects were handed over to the Shandong engineering team to do, and that they were to give Zhao Yan silver.

The Royalist Party proposed that these project fees should be paid to officials from all over the country, and then officials organized personnel to repair water conservancy.

As a result, the royalist party was ruthlessly rejected.

The bill was passed smoothly when most of the time passed.

...The next day, a news broke out in the Royal Daily News, saying that Zhao Yan was a false constitutional constitution and actually stole power. This news introduced the current situation of the cabinet in detail and interviewed many royalist and opposition officials.

The officials interviewed all said that the cabinet was under Zhao Yan's control.

The loan proposal passed this time was actually a means of embezzling national finances in the name of water conservancy repair, because the borrowed project funds will be handed over to the Shandong engineering team, which is Zhao Yan's.

The logic is very smooth.

Chongzhen, who mastered the tools of public opinion, could not wait to discredit Zhao Yan, but under Yang Sichang's planning, he came up with this.

Zhao Yan was depressed in Shandong. He was so conscience! He was not greedy for a penny.

Also very angry were Yuan'er and Yan Yuyao. How could they forgive their husbands in the newspaper? So they raised their pen to criticize him, but Zhao Yan called him to stop.

The Ministry of News has professional gunmen, so they need to do it themselves.

However, Zhao Yan had to speak out for this matter, so he dictated a passage and entered the newspaper. Zhao Yan admitted frankly that he had high control over the cabinet. The reason for this was that the Ming Dynasty had no soil for survival in the Ming Dynasty, but he was working hard to develop education to promote the return of power to the people.

Regarding the corruption, Zhao Yan criticized the corruption of court officials.

Soon, the Ming Dynasty Daily also fought back against the Royal Daily.

The Royal Daily criticized Zhao Yan for being corrupt in the treasury, while the Ming Daily criticized the court for corruption.

It is obvious that the distrust of both sides are seen in the two newspapers. The scholars of the world are completely attracted by the attacks on each other in the two newspapers and turn to join the ranks of attacks.

However, after only half a month of attack between the two sides, Zhao Yan gained the upper hand.

Zhao Yan's hand-in-hand move has a special gunner team, while Yang Sichang has no professional gunners, which makes it difficult for Yang Sichang to resist.

At the same time, Zhao Yan had something he could take, but Chongzhen did not.

In terms of military achievements, Zhao Yan fought south and north, suppressed bandits, pacified the enemy, destroyed Korea, defeated Japan, conquered Mongolia, and recovered Taiwan, thus establishing a vast colony in North America.

In terms of administration, Zhao Yan's anti-corruption efforts were the highest, and he just peeled off a group of corrupt officials.

At the same time, Zhao Yan has been continuously providing disaster relief and people since the sixth year of Chongzhen. By this year, almost all disaster relief in the Ming Dynasty were carried out by Zhao Yan.

In terms of personal character, Zhao Yan also has the same characteristics as Chongzhen, that is, saving. Zhao Yan did not build a palace, did not have many slaves, and did not waste it.

But Zhao Yan also has a moral character that surpasses Chongzhen, such as loving the people and being radical.

Zhao Yan's love for the people is famous. As long as people come to Shandong, they can know how much Zhao Yan loves the people. Shandong officials are just slaves in front of the people. At the same time, there is no corvee service in Shandong and no messy taxes.

At the same time, Zhao Yan is a radical who advocates nationalism. He respects personal property, regards personal innocence and inviolability, attaches importance to personal life and personality, and hardly uses the lives of soldiers as bargaining chips on the battlefield.

There are so many good qualities that can be found in Zhao Yan. The gunmen under Zhao Yan wrote one by one and continued to introduce Shandong's system.

When talking about Zhao Yan's corruption, how much does Zhao Yan spend on infrastructure and education every year? If he wants to embezzle, the money invested in infrastructure construction and education can be completely kept in his hands.

Even if he embezzles, he is also embezzling for the sake of the nation!

Standing at the moral high ground, Zhao Yan completely suppressed Chongzhen's restlessness under the influence of the gunmen!

After reading the "Ming Dynasty" by scholars, many of them turned against each other.

As the saying goes, it is said that it is impossible to distinguish. After this debate, the gap between Zhao Yan and Chongzhen is clear at a glance.

What did Chongzhen do after eleven years of taking office?

Although he was very diligent and undeniable, his ability was limited, and the bandits failed to defeat them, the Jianlu did not win, and he did not provide relief to the victims.

Zhao Yan gained an advantage in this public opinion war, not only because Zhao Yan was not afraid of being in a shady way, but also because the Ming Dynasty Yuebao showed super strong 'combat power' in the public opinion war. As soon as both sides opened fire, the number of pages of the Ming Dynasty Yuebao doubled, but they also sold only one copper coin.

The pages that have doubled are almost all public opinion offensives.

In less than half a month, the Royal Daily retreated completely. Not only did Chongzhen not defeat Zhao Yan because he mastered the tools of public opinion, he was defeated very miserably.

So in the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen's roar was often heard!

Every time he roared, it must be when he was reading the newspaper. This was when Chongzhen was most angry. Yang Sichang was summoned to the palace by him and then scolded him bloodily.

What a fucking bad idea!

How to end this?

Yang Sichang was so ashamed that he had to admit that he was not a match for the Ming Dynasty. This failure was a great restriction. If Chongzhen could perform better, he would not be so passive.

(To be continued)
Chapter completed!