Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2374: The Wind Within (Part )
It was early winter, and the snow had just fallen. Gao Youshi had been back in Beijing for several months, and Menggu Zhezhe had been in the Secretariat for more than two months. The situation in the court was stable, and everything seemed to be in good order.

Faced with such a smooth situation, Gao Youshi, the cabinet chief, should have breathed a sigh of relief. However, the situation was just the opposite. Gao Youshi was now facing a series of major difficulties, some of which could even lead to a national crisis if he was not careful.

The first major crisis was that the emperor had been in poor health since he returned to Beijing. Except for his public appearance and reception of ministers on the day he returned to Beijing, he had not attended court meetings or made public appearances since the first day of his return.

During the first two months, at least the nine ministers headed by Gao Youshi would occasionally ask for an audience, and although the emperor often leaned on the imperial couch to receive them, he generally looked normal, though a little weak.

After the third month, the number of people who could see the emperor further decreased, and only the four ministers of the cabinet and the Minister of Personnel were allowed to see him. At this time, the emperor's face looked much thinner and a little sallow, and his spirit was even weaker than in the previous two months.

It is said that during one visit to the emperor, the Minister of Personnel Chen Yubei was complaining that a number of official additions submitted by the Ministry of Personnel and the Cabinet had not yet been approved by the Imperial Household Department, and at the same time, a slight snoring sound could be heard from the emperor's side.

Now, the outer court had to be anxious. Although the foundation of the country was now settled, the crown prince could not even walk steadily. The emperor, who was in his prime, suddenly showed a serious illness that was difficult to recover. It was inevitable that people were uneasy.

However, this was also the time when everyone was most afraid to speak. When colleagues met, they could only use their eyes to express their inner worries. Once they opened their mouths, they would say nonsense like "Your Majesty, good luck will come from heaven" and "The emperor is in his prime". However, the more this happened, the more uneasy people felt, so that the entire officialdom in the capital was somewhat depressed and silent.

As the chief minister, Gao Youshi was naturally anxious. He wanted to ask the famous doctors in his own medical department to see the emperor, but he was unexpectedly rejected by the emperor himself.

Of course, the emperor's words were euphemistic: "The life span of an emperor is determined by heaven. I have been blessed by heaven in this life. How dare I not be content? Just take care of your work and don't worry about me."

If he said so, Gao Youshi would have no choice. The problem was that even if he put aside his concerns about the emperor's health, Gao Youshi would still have to worry about the emperor's sharp decline in ability to handle government affairs. A large number of important memorials were now difficult to get timely approval. What's more, the emperor was really ill, and Gao Youshi was not in a position to urge him for fear of being criticized by the world.

The emperor seemed to be thinking slower than usual. After Gao Youshi left with a troubled look on his face for almost half an hour, he finally realized what Gao Youshi was worried about. Fortunately, although the emperor was slow to react, his IQ was still there. That afternoon, he issued an oral order and asked the Imperial Household Department to convey it to the six departments and the Ministry of Public Administration:
"I am ill, and I have entrusted all government affairs to the Cabinet. If any cabinet bill is submitted but not approved within three days, it shall be deemed approved. I decree this."

It was not uncommon for the emperor to delegate power to the cabinet in the history of the Ming Dynasty. However, this was the first time that a clear rule, like some kind of system, was made: "If a cabinet bill is not approved within three days after submission, it will be deemed to have been approved."

This means that the sick emperor had actually basically given up his executive power and only retained the final veto power.

The final veto power is of course of great significance, but isn't executive power itself also of great significance? In the current situation, especially considering that Gao Youshi is both the head of the civil service and the top of the nobles, what is the probability that his executive power will be vetoed by the sick emperor?

However, the emperor was only ill, not dead. As most officials said every day, "The emperor is in his prime", who knows if he will suddenly recover one day? At that time, if he looks back and finds that some things were not handled to his liking, will he have a grudge against Gao Youshi and be dissatisfied with the court officials' obedience to Gao Youshi? No one can say for sure.

Therefore, the court has been acting very strangely in recent times. On the one hand, Gao Youshi has been seeking stability in handling government affairs, and he has suppressed any move that might lead to unrest. He has not even attended the autumn drills and competitions of the Imperial Guards in person - he used to attend them in person every year, and the Imperial Guards were used to it.

On the other hand, the court officials did not dare to raise any explosive opinions, as if they were eggplants hit by frost, their spirits were so depressed that they seemed to have been infected by the emperor. At the same time, they resolutely implemented the resolutions made by the cabinet, but on the other hand, they often expressed some dissatisfaction in the memorials - but these dissatisfactions were all unnecessary.

For example, a county recently requested the court to exempt 3,200 taels of tax to accommodate the influx of disaster victims from neighboring counties and prefectures. The cabinet approved the request after review. However, the Censorate wanted to "get involved" and said that according to their strict calculations, the tax exemption should not be 3,200 taels, but only 3,000 taels, so "this matter is of great importance, please ask the cabinet to discuss it again."

What the hell is this? It's just two hundred taels of silver. If the Ming Dynasty spent these two hundred taels of silver, it would be destroyed?
There are too many to mention.

In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see that it’s not that people are looking for trouble, but that the current situation is really too delicate.

After the Nanjing Imperial Palace renovation project, the Practical Learning School became the dominant force in the court, and Gao Youshi reached the pinnacle of both civil and military affairs. No one dared to offend him anymore.

However, the court has now become an "offline monarchy" and Gao Youshi has almost become the "acting emperor", but the emperor himself may "come online" at any time. The civil and military officials did not dare to let Gao Youshi think that he dared to challenge their authority, nor did they dare to let the emperor, who could take back the power at any time, think that they were subservient to the powerful ministers and disrespected the emperor, so they could only act like schizophrenia.

Therefore, everyone in the court, from top to bottom, was walking on thin ice. If the world was at peace at this time, it would be fine and they could just drag it out for a while, but unfortunately, there were many major events around, and some of them were very urgent.

This brings us to the second major event: King Shunyi’s call for help.

Yes, you read that right. Ever since the Battle of Mo Nan, Han Naji, who was helped by Gao Youshi to ascend the throne of King of Shunyi, has been on a smooth sailing. Two days ago, he urgently submitted a petition to the court for help.

When Gao Youshi saw the word "ask for help", he thought the Russians were so awesome that they attacked him 100 or 200 years earlier! But when he opened the memorial, he realized that Han Naji was not beaten by the Russians, but by God.

In short, the disaster hit the south of the desert. It was only September, but the snow had already fallen to a depth of half a person, and there was also an ice disaster. The hail lasted for several days, and it would start again after only two or three days of rest.

According to Bahannaji's description, the hail collapsed the roofs of more than 20 houses in his palace, which was built in the style of the Ming Dynasty palace. It is hard to imagine what would happen to the yurts in the folk areas. It is estimated that it is entirely possible that people would be killed.

Although the Mongols' ability to resist disasters has improved over the years due to the influx of Ming Dynasty materials into Mongolia through horse market trade, they could not have expected that God would be so crazy! Hanaji said that this alone did not count the ice and snow in winter, and at least 300,000 sheep and tens of thousands of horses of the Tumed tribe would die. According to their experience, the appearance of such an omen in late autumn meant that the situation in winter would be several times more severe - that meant that the Tumed tribe could not effectively prevent it at all, and at least more than half of its cattle and sheep would be lost, or even worse.

For the Mongols, cattle and sheep are like the fields of the Han people, the most basic and important means of production and life. Therefore, the crisis facing Tumed is as great as the reduction of half the fields in the Ming Dynasty this year.

What does it mean? It means that next year there will be chaos in the world, and the smoke of war in China is inevitable!
Nonsense, if the property and food are cut in half, how many people will have to rely on stealing other people's food to feed themselves? This will cause chaos in the world. Do you think you can turn on the console when playing games?

Behannaji was the Shunyi King of the Tumed, so of course he only mentioned the Tumed. But Gao Youshi did not dare to consider only the Tumed - there was also the Nenkorchin tribe in Eastern Mongolia, and there were a large number of tribes further to the northeast, such as the Hulha tribe, the Valka tribe, the Ubulin tribe, the Xibe tribe... all the way to the Solon tribe, at least dozens of them, large and small.

Not only that, after the Jianzhou Jurchens and Haixi Jurchens were relocated south to Korea, Gao Youshi had been "breaking through Guandong" for several years. He relocated hundreds of thousands of disaster victims from the northern provinces to Liaodong alone. Most of these people were not directly arranged in the "Ming Liaodong", which was actually a "military control area", but were arranged in the territories vacated by the Jianzhou and Haixi tribes. Relying on the few existing buildings, they rebuilt cities and various small and medium-sized forts, and initially formed some Han settlements and several important city strongholds.

In other words, Gao Youshi had to worry about whether the "Jurchen" tribes in the Heilongjiang River basin would be so devastated that they would no longer care about the reputation of the Ming Dynasty and would have to go south to plunder the Ming territory; he also had to worry that the new Han areas used to "strengthen the border" would also suffer heavy casualties... It was really a headache.

Although Gao Youshi, as a time traveler who knew the severity of the Little Ice Age, had always kept special funds for disaster relief since the reform of the "Ministry of Revenue", the disaster within the Ming Dynasty this year had already made him extremely anxious. Most of the funds reserved for disaster relief had been spent, and some of them were originally reserved for the winter.

Now, not only are the provinces directly under the Ming Dynasty facing a shortage of disaster relief funds, but even the surrounding Mongolian and Jurchen tribes that have surrendered to the Ming Dynasty are also unable to bear the pressure and need emergency rescue from the Ming Dynasty...

Ah, I know I have to save you now. Saving you is to protect the Ming Dynasty from harm. But where is the money? Where are the supplies? I can't conjure them up!
Gao Youshi suddenly felt a little regretful. Damn it, there were too many battle lines!
The Ming Dynasty's Western Expedition was indeed a great achievement, but the aftereffects of the Western Expedition have already appeared. Liu Jing is still suppressing the rebellion in the Western Regions, while Boshoketu and Erdemutu are still leading their troops to continue the Western Expedition to Kazakhstan. They even reported last time that they have already reached the coast of the Caspian Sea, and they also said that they are expected to wipe out the remaining Kazakhs who dare to covet the old land of the Oirat in one fell swoop...

Gao Fusi now really hates that there are no mobile phones in this era, otherwise he would have to call them and tell them to hurry back to the Qihe area and prepare to fight against this year's white disaster!
The communication capabilities were so poor back then that the imperial court's post road system in the Western Regions was still under construction, and even for the carrier pigeons in Beijing, there were only four pigeon stations: one in Ili, one in Hami, one in Yarkand, and one in Andijan (Fergana Basin)... The Qihe region was not directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, and it was not at the top of the queue for establishing pigeon stations in Beijing. Now, not even a single pigeon breeder had been sent there (to establish a pigeon station, one must first send people to raise pigeons so that the pigeons can become familiar with the local magnetic field).

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Now, Boshoketu is scared by Gao Youshi’s PUA and now he has entered the “use the power instead of the merit” mode, and is determined to make a great achievement; Erdemutu regards his teacher Gao Youshi as his lifelong role model, and is also determined to expand the territory, just wanting to get a compliment from his teacher...

The two men worked together, thinking that they could take advantage of the defeat of Kazakhs by Burihatu in the south to wipe out the huge Kazakh Khanate in one fell swoop. As a result, Liu Jing was so exhausted that he could not contact them actively, and could only wait for them to report the battle situation to the Western Regions.

In this situation, no matter how prestigious Gao Youshi was, it was useless because his orders could not reach the two of them and he had no way of calling them back.

Now Gao Youshi is so angry that he has nowhere to vent. He treats everyone like a nail - he wants to hammer them a few times. But with his current status and position, he still has to pay attention to the "prime minister's demeanor", treat people in a gentle and elegant manner, and his words and deeds should make people feel warm and comfortable... It's really bullshit.

If it really doesn't work, why not borrow money? Gao Youshi locked himself in the prime minister's duty room and thought secretly. But he immediately shook his head. Borrowing money is useless. Disaster relief is not a war. The latter has visible "expected returns", but what about the former? Even if Gao Youshi said: Hey, you bought disaster relief bonds this year, and you can get so much uncultivated fertile land in the disaster area next year with the bonds... it would be useless.

Why? Because those places are considered bitter and cold in the eyes of the Han people. If you give him 100 acres in the Northeast, he would probably prefer only one acre in the Central Plains.

Do you think they don't understand that even if the yield of one hundred acres in the Northeast is a little lower, it is still much higher than the income of one acre in the Central Plains? No, of course they understand. The problem is that it is difficult for him to cash in the income from this hundred acres of land locally, so he can't bring it back to the Central Plains, and this income is equivalent to nothing to him.

Why is it so difficult to cash out? The "New Northeast" outside Liaodong is not small in area, but there are only a few hundred thousand Han people, and almost all of these Han people have land donated by the court, which is theoretically enough for them to be self-sufficient. So, how can the harvest of these lands obtained in exchange for bonds be cashed out?
You said you want to ship it back to the mainland? Are you crazy? You'd be lucky if you didn't lose money after adding the shipping cost. Are you so kind?

The reason why Jinghua could transport grain from southern Xinjiang and sell it to the north of the Ming Dynasty, Korea, and Japan was because the land in southern Xinjiang was fertile and the climate supported three harvests a year. In addition, the cost of employing local farmers in southern Xinjiang was pitifully low for Jinghua.

In essence, Jinghua sold grain to the Ming Dynasty because Gao Youshi was willing to suck the blood of the natives of Southern Xinjiang and give it to the Ming Dynasty! The reason why the natives of Southern Xinjiang did not rebel was because Jinghua brought more advanced production methods, improved local productivity, and forced the improvement of the backward local political form, returning part of the income that originally belonged to the local nobles to the local farmers.

Therefore, although Jinghua was sucking blood from the local people in Southern Border, the local people felt that after Jinghua came, their lives seemed to be a little better than before... So why should they rebel?

However, southern Xinjiang was also at war and could no longer "increase taxes". So in the face of Ba Han Naji's letter for help, Gao Youshi racked his brains but could not squeeze out much supplies from the Ministry of Revenue to send over. He could only bite the bullet and ask Xuanfu and Datong towns to each transfer 10,000 shi of military rations to Ba Han Naji to maintain his basic food needs at Fengzhou Beach.

In addition, he also made up his mind to buy 30,000 shi of grain with his own money, together with some various usable commodities in stock, and gave them to Ba Hanaji in the name of Jinghua, and made it clear that it was a gift and he did not ask for anything in return.

These things are actually far from enough for Ba Hannaji's current needs. Gao Youshi knows that what he is doing is just a drop in the bucket. It is just to maintain his personal relationship with Ba Hannaji, but there is really no better way now, so he can only do this for now.

What he didn't expect was that a few days later, Hannaji wrote back: one letter was sent to Gao Youshi himself, expressing his gratitude for his generosity and righteousness; the other letter was sent back to the court...

In this memorial, Bahanaji made a shocking statement: if the imperial court was willing to rescue the Tumed, the "Ming Jin Kingdom" would be willing to submit to the Ming.

When the news came out, the government and the public were shocked.
-
Thanks to the book friend "book friend 20230306194528885" for the reward support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Book Friend 130311122745499", "Chi Yu Jing Feng Chen", "Zai Xia Nan Ge", and "Book Friend 20170107012220447" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!