To deepen the prefect's guilt, Gu Fengchao held nothing back: "Your Majesty may not know, but with the great popularity of this scholar's imitation silver frost charcoal in the capital, the entire area around Xinghua Village in Yong'an Prefecture, including the county town, has come to life."
"Oh?" The Emperor was intrigued.
"Producing charcoal requires trees. Such large quantities of charcoal require even more trees. One village can't supply enough, so they buy from surrounding villages. People in nearby villages earn money by selling trees and are willing to build roads to sell charcoal better."
"Before I came to the capital, the people from Taoyuan County to Xinghua Village were united in building roads—all to sell the charcoal better and earn money from selling trees."
"Although Yong'an Prefecture is near the canal, it had no local specialties before. Few merchant ships stopped there. But with the popularity of imitation silver frost charcoal, many households are sailing to Taoyuan to buy charcoal."
"People have money, merchants are more willing to stop in Yong'an, and over time, the whole prefecture will turn like gears, slowly moving forward. Everything is heading in a good direction."
"If I hadn't come to the capital, with the scholar's imitation silver frost charcoal so popular, how could the prefect of Yong'an give up such huge profits? He would surely pressure the scholar again. I truly couldn't bear to see such a talented person fall."
"Having seen the people's smiles, I couldn't bear to see imitation silver frost charcoal become the prefect's private asset and a tool to oppress the people again. I beg Your Majesty to investigate thoroughly!"
"Investigate! We must investigate!" The Emperor suppressed his full anger. If not for the coincidence that imitation silver frost charcoal became popular in the capital, such a people-benefiting endeavor could have become someone's personal money bag, and he would have lost a capable minister. The thought made him furious.
"Your Majesty treats Yong'an well, and Yong'an will not fail your expectations." Gu Fengchao kowtowed deeply to the Emperor.
The whole world belonged to the Emperor; clearing it of corruption was his duty. How could this local area not fail his expectations?
The Emperor was curious: "How will it not fail?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty," Gu Fengchao didn't expect his words to draw the Emperor's question, so he honestly explained, "Before coming to the capital, I not only observed the changes brought by imitation silver frost charcoal to the local people but also noticed other things."
The Emperor raised an eyebrow: "Oh?"
"It's like this," Gu Fengchao bit his lip and still brought Xu Huaiqian into it. "That scholar who made the imitation silver frost charcoal—because he was sickly since childhood and bullied by his uncle's family—had to marry into his husband's family. While he was blind, seeing how hard his husband worked to support the family, and since his land had been allocated, he used his own fields to figure out a way to grow ginger."
"Using good farmland to grow ginger?" The matters about imitation silver frost charcoal were within normal bounds, so others had no room to interject, but when it came to farmland, the Minister of Revenue couldn't agree.
"Yes." Gu Fengchao nodded. He knew bringing this up would displease the court officials. He didn't mind dying himself, but he didn't want to implicate Xu Huaiqian. "His own land—just five mu, and not good land either, shaded and not sunny."
Hearing this, the Minister of Revenue relaxed slightly. Using prime farmland for ginger would be a waste.
"He grew ginger for a year and contacted medical clinics in Shengbei through escorts!" Gu Fengchao paused. "Five mu of land sold for seven hundred and fifty taels of silver!"
"What?!"
"Seven hundred and fifty taels?!"
"Just five mu of land?!"
Hearing the number seven hundred and fifty, the whole court grew restless. Even the Emperor's eyelids twitched.
Farming could be so profitable?!
"It's because ginger is expensive and the yield is high that he got this price." Seeing their surprise, Gu Fengchao hurriedly added, "For ordinary grain, even the most precious rice, the yield per mu is only about one or two dan. But ginger yields as much as fifteen hundred jin per mu!"
"Fifteen hundred jin?!"
The court officials looked at each other—none had imagined ginger could be so productive.
That was because ginger wasn't a mainstream crop. Although medical clinics grew ginger, who would reveal their money-making methods?
"That's why he earned such a high amount," Gu Fengchao brought the topic back. "Scholar Xu is a Xiucai, so five mu of land isn't taxed—the county couldn't collect taxes. But Scholar Xu has already taught the villagers how to grow ginger. He's willing to let each household grow two fen of ginger and even help them sell it. Starting next year, the county's taxes should satisfy Your Majesty."
The state had just been founded, and the national treasury was empty—everyone knew that. If a county's taxes could ease the treasury's strain, it would be a way to repay the Emperor.
"Absurd!" The Minister of Revenue thought Gu Fengchao was talking nonsense. "Even if a whole county grew ginger, how much tax could it generate?!"
Could it satisfy the Emperor?!
Was the treasury short a few thousand taels?!
"Not one county—five counties!" Gu Fengchao thought since he was already doomed, he might as well help the magistrates of the counties below to the end.
"Five counties?!"
"Because Scholar Xu became wealthy by growing ginger, the magistrates of the four nearby counties—Pingxi, Yunmeng, Taoyuan, and Anning—also saw the business opportunity. They are willing to promote high-yield crops without delaying grain farming, not limited to ginger."
Gu Fengchao hadn't wasted his time in Taoyuan County; he had gathered all the necessary information.
Knowing that the other five county magistrates intended to follow Xu Huaiqian's example, he deeply lamented that he was born at the wrong time. He had found the path he wanted from Xu Huaiqian's Xiucai exam papers long ago, but dared not act due to pressure from the prefect above. He could only watch enviously as his colleagues moved forward boldly.
"This isn't easy!" The Minister of Revenue flicked his sleeve. "Forget whether farmers will cooperate—how will they find buyers for what they produce?"
Xu Huaiqian happened to find medical clinics willing to buy ginger and caught the trend because Shengbei was popular to eat ginger. But what about other products?
Would other medical clinics be willing to buy?
Moreover, if farmers could grow it, couldn't landowners and merchants? When they saw money, they would surely monopolize it.
Gu Fengchao recognized the minister's robes but didn't know who he was, so he addressed him uniformly: "Your Excellency, should we not try just because it's difficult?"
He realized the whole court seemed to have a problem. What he saw in Xu Huaiqian was: encounter a problem, solve it. But in the court, the approach was: encounter a problem, don't do it?
What kind of logic was that?
Nothing in the world goes completely smoothly—you can't abandon everything just because it's difficult.
"This..." The Minister of Revenue was left speechless by Gu Fengchao. "In any case, I don't believe a few counties' taxes can amount to much."
A prefecture could generate at most a few thousand or tens of thousands of taels in taxes. How could a county exceed a prefecture?
"Then let's wait and see." Gu Fengchao had said all he could. His life was short; whether he would see success was uncertain. The minister's words couldn't sway him.
He believed that if you dared to act, you would eventually succeed.
The magistrates were already working hard—could success be far away?
Sitting on the dragon throne, the Emperor listened to their argument and easily picked out a crucial name from Gu Fengchao's words: Xu Huaiqian.
Whether it was making charcoal, growing ginger, or inspiring surrounding counties, it was all stirred up by this person named Xu Huaiqian.
If a mere Xiucai could cause so much activity, one could imagine what kind of storm he would stir up if he reached the court.
The Emperor, who had been very unhappy about the series of issues exposed involving the prefect of Yong'an, was now completely pleased by Xu Huaiqian.
The thought of someone who could properly deal with these court officials who only knew how to talk made him delighted.
He had long been dissatisfied with these people—they needed someone like Xu Huaiqian, a troublemaker, to straighten them out!
"Good!" Before the Minister of Revenue could speak, the Emperor above spoke first. "Then we will wait and see."
He looked forward to Xu Huaiqian's path in the imperial exams in two years. If he could reach this Golden Luan Hall, giving him the title of zhuangyuan, top candidate would be worth it!
With the Emperor's words, the entire court fell silent.
He scanned the ministers below with their varied expressions, especially the Minister of Personnel kneeling on the ground, not daring to look up, and asked him: "Does the Ministry of Personnel have anything to say?"
"Your subject... your subjects have nothing to say." With evidence and witnesses present, and the Emperor's attitude showing he believed Gu Fengchao, the officials of the Ministry of Personnel had no choice but to plead guilty.
The Emperor coldly swept his gaze over them and directly issued orders: "The Minister of Personnel is negligent and incompetent—suspend duties pending investigation. All officials of the Ministry of Personnel are to be thoroughly investigated and purged; those guilty of corruption and bribery are to be dismissed after confiscating illicit goods. The prefect of Yong'an Prefecture is unprincipled, embezzles, and accepts bribes—arrest him and execute him after autumn!"
Then he looked at Gu Fengchao at the front: "The magistrate of Yong'an Prefecture left his post without permission and accused his superior—deduct one year's salary, promote to prefect of Yong'an. If Yong'an's taxes double within two years, the merit will offset the fault; otherwise, dismiss. Court is dismissed!"
After speaking, the Emperor left, leaving behind the terrified officials of the Ministry of Personnel and a completely stunned Gu Fengchao.
Gu Fengchao couldn't believe that not only had he not been beaten for appealing to the Emperor in the capital, but he had survived and even been promoted!
Even after returning to Yong'an and sitting in the prefect's office, recalling that day's events felt like a dream.
Regardless of Gu Fengchao's disbelief, Tai Anxiang had no chance of turning things around. One moment he was throwing his weight around in the county office, the next he was a prisoner.
And all the Changnan officials he had bribed were thoroughly purged— administration commissioners, surveillance commissioners, all replaced.