Traveling through ancient times.

Chapter 172: Cooling off

Jiang Yizhou gave a general overview of the current situation, then waved his hand and said he would roll up his sleeves and work hard next year.

But this year, we must provide a wave of benefits to employees so that everyone can have a prosperous and happy year.

Everyone will receive an extra month's bonus, as well as a New Year gift including food, snacks, etc.

There was jubilation throughout Yunshan and Tianshui farms.

After the New Year, just three months after he ascended the throne, he personally summoned the famous head of the Jiang family, Jiang Yizhou.

An order was issued to classify cement as a product under state control, just like salt and iron.

At this time, Jiang Yizhou had already conducted detailed consultations with the personnel sent by the court, determined the location of the new factory, had begun construction, and gradually trained technical personnel, etc.

The reason why it has only been officially announced now is that those who want to stir up trouble behind the scenes, or those who oppose and want to do bad things, cannot stop the trend.

In addition, on this day, the new emperor also announced one thing: to reopen the Ezhou frame-up case seven years ago.

In fact, Jiang Yizhou started paying attention to him since he discovered that Liu Sichang's grandson was implicated in the Ezhou disaster relief case.

After confirming that there is something fishy in the case, they will investigate secretly and collect information more carefully.

Originally, when He Jimin was transferred to be the prefect of Ezhou, she wanted to ask him to investigate and overturn the case. Later, she thought that he had just arrived in a place, and if he rashly touched the interests of the local group, he might become another person who died in vain.

So she never made it public until Boss Yu came in person a few years ago, and then she expressed her request.

Unexpectedly, Boss Yu was also very angry about this: because the official who was killed at that time was his man, who was sent there to survey the local clans.

Ezhou is close to Jiangzhou and Huaizhou. It belongs to the heart of the Central Plains, has abundant water resources, and is a major grain producing area.

However, the taxes collected each year became less and less, and the grain disappeared.

There was also the flood disaster. Although the imperial court allocated funds every year to maintain the river, river breaches still occurred.

In fact, even if the dam broke, the loss of people and livestock would not be very serious. Instead, the local clan thought it was a good opportunity to cultivate land, so they destroyed the dam of another river...

When he found out about it, he was really furious, and sent people to investigate, determined to have those people killed.

However, before he could collect the evidence from those people, he was almost caught.

Only then did he realize that the real mastermind behind all this had always been in the court, by his side.

Over the years, the Ezhou case has always been a knot in his heart.

I was a little surprised when Jiang Yizhou suddenly brought it up that day.

Then I found out that it was actually for the redress of the grandson of a former benefactor.

Boss Yu agreed on the spot that he would definitely punish those people accordingly, but the results would be announced later.

After a while, it was today, three months later.

What Jiang Yizhou didn't know was that she didn't want to implicate He Jimin in the investigation, but in fact He Jimin had secretly received a secret order from the new emperor.

Sufficient evidence has been collected, and the new emperor also holds real power.

So they took drastic measures, from top to bottom, to confiscate the property of the people, to execute people, to exile people...

There was a major reshuffle in the court.

All the officials involved in Ezhou were beheaded, and heads of people were rolling in the sky.

Among those purged this time were Zhang Cong, Fu Xian, and their superior, Lord Wang.

Lord Wang had originally been a strong supporter of King Kang, but after "King Kang was killed by barbarians", he knew that the game was over, so he kept a low profile and wanted to retire and enjoy his remaining years in peace.

Boss Yu thought about how he was almost killed by these old guys. How could he get away with it now?

They found an excuse for corruption, confiscated his property, and exiled his entire family.

Fu Xian and Zhang Cong were also dismissed from office, and they only managed to save their lives after losing all their property.

They had dealings with Jiang Yizhou in the liquor business and came to him for help.

Jiang Yizhou directly rejected her - if she had not been tougher and had strong enough means, she would have been eaten by these people until not even a bone was left.

Not only did he not help, he even stepped on you.

After being summoned, when I came back from Kyoto, I asked Xiao Tongzi to check it out, and I made a lot of purchases for free.

The secret warehouse where Fu and Zhang were hiding was emptied.

A cunning rabbit has three burrows. Although the properties of these two people were confiscated on the surface, they actually had several warehouses of wealth secretly... According to their plan, this was a good opportunity for them to sneak back to the countryside. The wealth was enough for several generations of them to squander and live a carefree life.

However, he did not expect that Jiang Yizhou would cut off his financial support, leaving him penniless.

...After Jiang Yizhou returned from Kyoto, her identity changed from a private farm owner to a legitimate "yellow merchant".

In fact, some people still don’t quite understand why she was willing to give such important cement to the court “for nothing”.

At least, in the eyes of those aristocratic families, this woman is simply a complete prodigal.

It was thought that the head of the Jiang family would be seriously hurt by the loss of his pillar industry. In fact, not only did Jiang Yizhou not suffer any serious loss, but he actually tied his foundation to the country.

Jiang Yizhou knew very well that no matter how prosperous her career was now, her foundation was ultimately shallower than those of the aristocratic families that had been in business for thousands of years.

The most crucial thing is ideology. It is impossible for people to transform from feudal slavery to socialism in the new century.

She could only rely on the country to avoid being cannibalized by those aristocratic families, so that she could free up her energy to continue expanding her territory and benefit more ordinary people from her farm management - thus gaining more merits, which could be exchanged for more useful things.

Although cement is now nationalized, the actual operation is still in the hands of Jiang Yizhou.

Cement workshops were established in Ezhou, Jiangzhou, Yuzhou and other places. With the endorsement of the imperial court, the scale of these cement factories was much larger than that of Tianshui Yunshan.

First, we will supply the repair of rivers in various places, and then the roads from Kyoto to various places...as well as the straight roads leading to the border.

The locations of these cement plants were jointly selected by the imperial court and Jiang Yizhou's people, so Jiang Yizhou took the opportunity to lease the nearby wasteland and mountains and built a farm near each cement plant.

She continued her land reclamation plan, and at the same time, her "grain stations" were flourishing all over the Zhou Kingdom.

For a time, the head of the Jiang family was the most popular person.

But Jiang Yizhou knew in his heart that this was just an appearance. Although she opened farms and reclaimed wasteland in various places, used small tracts of land to mine, and established various workshops, etc.

In fact, their foundation is still shallow and cannot be compared with those aristocratic families.

Moreover, she has already shaken other people's interests and territory, so all kinds of things are happening one after another.

At this time, the advantage of having the court behind him was revealed. Jiang Yizhou was not afraid of any private actions and would just fight back.

On the surface, all those memorials slandering and abolishing the farms that came like snowflakes were rejected when they were presented to the emperor.