I'm really not doing business

Chapter 839: Loyalty shines like the sun and the moon, and the determination to serve the country will never stop

Zhu Yijun thought about it carefully and felt that the records in the Zhongshu Sheren's daily notes might be the reliable history of the background of the signing of the Treaty of Kyoto.

The scholar-official class of the Ming Dynasty chose not to observe, care, or discuss what happened in Japan, because His Majesty was entirely responsible for these things, and observing, caring, and discussing them all violated the principle of loyalty to the emperor.

It is not that sins should not be looked at directly, but that the sins of Your Majesty should not be looked at directly.

After the historian reversed the order, this is the whole truth of the matter.

Sometimes, scholars are so dirty that they don't even change the facts. They simply change the order of a sentence and it immediately becomes something else.

"So scholars must be vigilant." Zhu Yijun said to Feng Bao with great confidence: "They are afraid of the knife in my hand, so they can only use their thoughts to sing praises. However, once I don't have the knife in my hand, or the knife is no longer sharp, they will use these thoughts against me."

"Your Majesty is wise!" Feng Bao said sincerely.

There is no need for him to put eye drops on the civil servants. Your Majesty has never given up being vigilant against scholars.

This is not Feng Bao's fault, and it is not your majesty's fault that he is unwilling to forgive. The main reason is that every time there are scholars who are willing to sacrifice their hearts for your majesty, the country, and the people, there are always scholars who jump out and remind your majesty that such scholars are a minority among the minority.

The reason why Zhu Yijun was unwilling to carry out the purge now was that he wanted to wait and see the results of Zhou Liangyin's work in Shanxi. Everything has its pros and cons. Zhou Liangyin made drastic changes in Shanxi, and Zhu Yijun watched the impact and results from behind. If it caused public resentment and rebellion across the country, he would make some adjustments.

Zhu Yijun did not want to follow the example of Zhu Yunwen, a king who received a negative rating and caused disunity among the people of the world.

If you want to reduce the power of the vassal states, just do it well. No one will stop you, Zhu Yunwen, from doing so. Zhu Di handed over the power to control the northern troops, sent his sons to Nanjing as hostages, reduced his own personal guards to 800 people, and acted crazy and stupid. His actions showed that he approved of the reduction of the power of the vassal states.

The world was just beginning to settle down and was in turmoil, especially with the lightning return of the Han dynasty. The royal palaces were established to guard the country, and the reduction of the power of the princes was inevitable. Ever since the Rebellion of the Seven Kings in the early Han Dynasty and the Rebellion of the Eight Kings in the middle of Jin, the reduction of the power of the princes was a consensus and an inevitable fate.

Zhu Di's willingness to surrender his military power meant he accepted his fate.

If Zhu Di was too good at fighting, Zhu Yunwen would not be at ease.

What about the fact that Zhu Bo, the Prince of Xiang, was a Taoist priest who didn't even have a descendant and was forced to commit suicide and burn himself to death? It's impossible for a Taoist priest who didn't even have a son to raise an army to seize the throne passed down by you, Zhu Yuanzhang.

Even if you have to make up a charge, you should make up something that everyone can accept. The Prince of Xiang privately printed treasure notes? The credibility of treasure notes has completely collapsed. It is a thing that is too hard to even wipe one's ass with. Why would he privately print treasure notes?
He was too hasty in reducing the power of the princes and too eager to win the war. In the end, Emperor Jianwen lost his country.

The same is true for elimination. The Ming Dynasty suffered from the problem of redundant staff from inside to outside and from top to bottom. Elimination is the consensus of everyone, but how to eliminate must be cautious, because you are in me and I am in you.

Zhu Yijun did not want to act too hastily. He wanted to wait and see. Just like the Single Whip Law was only implemented in Songjiang Prefecture, other places did not have the conditions. The same was true for the elimination of corruption. The original intention was good, but if it was done too hastily, it would give people a handle.

But in the end, Zhu Yijun still approved of Zhang Juzheng's approach because it was really too much!

Officials in Beijing haven't reported for work once in ten years. It shows that they don't take the emperor and the system seriously at all!
What is despised is not only the imperial power, but also the power of the ministers. The emperor has been a punching bag for a long time and everyone is used to it. But if the ministers and officials of the Ming Dynasty are not severely punished, who will take them seriously?
Facts have also proved that not reporting for work once in the past ten years was indeed excessive. No matter what the reason was, after the unified elimination, it soon received unanimous praise.

Even the most active censors of the Censorate said nothing and ruthlessly purged these people. The performance evaluation law also had requirements for censors, and these people were obviously used as indicators;

The censors of the Censorate received indicators, but none of the old scholars in the Hanlin Academy and the Imperial College stood up to speak for these people. They just kept studying the way the King of Shang used the Qiang people.

Just from the known tortoise shells and animal bones, 11 different uses have been found, including chopping off the head, using the fontanelle, chopping off the limbs, digging out the eyeballs, bleeding, and using the headless corpse as a cavity, etc.

In addition to the Qiang people, there were also fine wine, livestock, domestic animals, etc. One of the particularly interesting offerings was wheat, which was ordinary wheat.

The King of Shang was quite interesting. He actually led people to rob the wheat from the Fangbo (local princes).

He is the King of Shang, but he stole other people’s wheat!
This had a special term in the Shang Dynasty, called "Gao Mai". The border officials of the Shang king would closely monitor the wheat harvest of the feudal lords and pass on relevant information to the Shang king. Once the wheat was ripe, they would report to the Shang king where the wheat was ripe. The Shang king would then carry out armed plunder based on the information.

If these Fangbo disagreed, the cattle they raised would be taken away, their heads would be chopped off and a basin of blood would be placed in it to offer sacrifice to their ancestors; if the Fangbo continued to resist, he might be used up.

The lower half of "麦" (wheat) in tortoise shell and animal bone scripts means to walk or arrive, usually indicating a marching state. After repeated confirmation, the old scholars reached a consensus that "告麦" (earth) means to rob food and livestock.

Moreover, the Chinese character for wheat may have been written incorrectly since ancient times. The upper part of 麥 (the traditional Chinese character for wheat) '来' means wheat, and the lower part '夂' means to walk. 麥 is an act of robbery, but it has been written incorrectly for three thousand years, so it is written incorrectly and cannot be corrected.

I have to say that the ancestors of the Shang kings had a really good appetite. They ate brains, cavities, eyeballs, blood, livestock, wheat, and everything else.

These old scholars worked hard to submit memorials to the emperor and occasionally published some miscellaneous reports to publicize the results of their research, showing that their salaries to His Majesty were not in vain and that they were really working. The meaning was very clear: we are working, and the wind of elimination must not blow on our heads!

The reason why these old scholars are unwilling to lend a helping hand is very simple. People do not worry about the scarcity of wealth but the inequality of wealth. We are all officials in the same dynasty and in the same government office. You are collecting the court salary but doing nothing, and you are running private schools, family schools, and academies outside under the name of the Imperial College and the Hanlin Academy!
The business was going very well, and I made a lot of money! I gained both fame and fortune!

Now this group of people are in trouble, and these old scholars have been very moral in not taking advantage of their misfortune.

What surprised Zhu Yijun the most was that none of the disciples of these academicians submitted a memorial, because these people had something to hide.

You have to know that the tuition fees charged by these private schools, family academies, and colleges are not cheap at all. If there is no interest transfer involved, it would be a scam. Everyone is in the officialdom, and they know whether they take money or not.

It is possible that these disciples are major shareholders of private schools, and they often use their status as Jinshi to support and support these private schools.

Moreover, Lu Guangzu, the newly appointed Chief Censor of the Censorate, was sharpening his knife and looking for indicators on the streets.

Those who had not reported for work for ten years were cleared out, and some who had not reported for work for more than three years were also cleared out. The main reason was that Lu Guangzu wanted targets and required new officials to make three big moves when they took office. All these private schools and academies had to cut off their relationship with court ministers. This was the attitude expressed by Lu Guangzu. Don't think that the Censorate would stop fighting corruption just because Hai Rui was gone.

Anti-corruption is an act of self-correction by the imperial court, and also a power of the Censorate.

Once people get power, they will never let it go until they lose it! Because the power holders know too well the power's power. If you have a dream, it will come true when you wake up the next day. Everything you want can be realized through power. It all depends on whether you are willing to do it.

Therefore, even if Lu Guangzu became the Chief Censor of the Censorate, he would not give up the power to "fight corruption and catch greedy people", nor would he give up the sharp weapon of the Suyi Censor.

Only a small number of people were lucky enough to escape the disaster. After investigation by the Ministry of Personnel and the Censorate, it was found that some of them were indeed unable to hold office due to illness or accidental disability. Zhang Juzheng did not directly dismiss them, but gave them half of their salary.

Zhu Yijun was also very surprised, because this was a rare moment of warmth in Zhang Juzheng's swift and decisive life.

Of course, there are also unlucky people in this elimination process!
The situation is somewhat similar to that of Song Shanyong from Tianxiong Academy, who suffered an unexpected disaster.

Song Shanyong, the teacher of Tianxiong Academy, was really wronged. Daming Prefecture did not provide funding for Tianxiong Academy for more than ten years, and Song Shanyong could only make temporary arrangements. Otherwise, it would be hard to say whether Tianxiong Academy would exist.

Now, Song Shanyong is also the chief academic officer of the Imperial Normal University of the Ming Dynasty. In a few years, he will have many students all over the world.

A truly honest official would not be missed during the Wanli Dynasty, because there were very few of them and the emperor really lacked honest officials who could work.

In the second year of the Tianqi reign, a young man named Lu Xiangsheng came to Tianxiong Academy.

Later, when Lu Xiangsheng formed the Tianxiong Army, it was formed with Tianxiong Academy as the core. This is also the reason why the Tianxiong Army was so capable. There were many scholars in this Tianxiong Army who offered advice and suggestions.

During the Chongzhen period, there were two pillars of the country, one was Sun Chuanting and the other was Lu Xiangsheng. One won a battle and was imprisoned for nine years, while the other was stabbed in the back by his own people and died for his country with three knives and four arrows.

By the Chongzhen period, the Ming Dynasty had already run out of luck, like a grasshopper in autumn, which was no longer able to be saved by human power. The Ming Dynasty, which had completely died during the Wanli period, had completely decayed during the Chongzhen period.

The purge order, which should have been widely complained about, was quietly carried out with everyone's tacit understanding, and the administration of officials in the capital was in awe.

"Wang Cifu is anxious, he is anxious!" Zhu Yijun said cheerfully while holding a memorial: "In his memorial, he said that the reason why no one dared to file a memorial to oppose is that all officials in the world are afraid of Zhang Juzheng and dare not offend you, so they dare not file a memorial. They just refuse to admit that you are more capable than them."

Wang Chonggu's trade union failed again. This time, after eliminating a lot of reasons, it failed again due to a new problem: there were not enough educated people among the craftsmen.

This was a very helpless situation for Wang Chonggu and Wang Jiaping.

The educated craftsmen now lacked practical experience and were too young. The experienced craftsmen could not even recognize all the characters, had no ability to handle any official documents, and could not form written opinions. Ultimately, the labor union was defeated once again.

Zhang Juzheng's policies of elimination and selection of officials were going very well, while Wang Chonggu's labor unions suffered repeated failures. Naturally, this memorial was full of sourness.

"However, another kind of goods that Wang Ci Fu got was successful." Zhu Yijun said with a smile.

Precast panels, a type of cement product whose disadvantages far outweigh its advantages.

It is very easy to cut corners in production, it is hollow in nature, and can even reduce the use of some steel;

Because it is not particularly thick, it does not insulate heat or sound, and it is even prone to cracking and deformation over time.

The only advantage of this product is that it is cheap. Not only is it cheap to produce, but the hollow prefabricated panels can use less cement and steel, and are also cheap to build, saving a lot of labor.

Cheapness is the biggest reason for the success of this product. Not everyone has the money, time and manpower to build concrete cast buildings. The cost is simply too high.

Prefabricated panels make up for the biggest disadvantage of steel-concrete structures: their high cost.

According to the test of Xishan Coal Bureau, this kind of prefabricated board will not cause too many problems as long as the building is not more than five stories high. Therefore, this kind of product has become popular immediately after trial production and promotion. After all, compared with wooden buildings and brick and tile structures, even hollow prefabricated boards that cut corners are stronger. Everyone knows that cast steel-concrete structures are better. After all, even the central axis of the Daming Imperial Palace used this technology, but it is too expensive.

In this age when there are more rats than people in the house, prefabricated panels have become an excellent building material.

Feng Bao handed a memorial to the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, Grand Tutor Zhang Xueyan recently investigated a case. Counting the one million silver coins deposited in the old treasury last year, the old treasury should have nine million silver coins in deposit."

"When Wang Guoguang, the Prince of the Imperial Court, retired, he took Zhang Xueyan to hand over the old treasury's silver. I sent Li Yougong to keep an eye on it. There was no problem with the quantity. We also randomly checked the silver deposits and found that none of them were fake."

"The Grand Tutor checked the silver in the vault last month and found that 1,200 silver coins were missing. The old vault has only had money coming in but not going out over the years. It must be theft. The Grand Tutor was furious and started an investigation immediately."

Zhu Yijun was silent for a moment, then frowned and asked, "Isn't it true that the treasury of the Grand Tutor is checked once a month?"

"That's not the case." Feng Bao shook his head.

"Oh, I thought it was inspected once a month. How often does the Grand Tutor inspect it?" Zhu Yijun showed a surprised expression. Zhang Xueyan is a cabinet minister. How could he have the time to check the silver in the old treasury every day.

Feng Bao whispered, "The Grand Tutor goes to check once a day, just like the Wang Tutor. He checks the dust on the boxes, and no one has touched the dust, so it can be seen at a glance. Every three months, a box is opened randomly, and a box is randomly selected, the seal is removed, and a few silver coins are randomly selected for inspection."

"Every October, we start to check the warehouse. Under the supervision of the imperial guards, the East Factory guards, and the Ministry of Revenue's treasury ambassadors, we check the seals, confirm the sealed boxes, and check the silver coins. There are three copies of the seals. If there is a problem with any box, the responsibility of these three people will be investigated."

"Your Majesty, the gold in the imperial treasury is also managed in the same way. Even every gold ingot must have the craftsman's signature on it to ensure that every gold ingot is correct."

"I go there every day..." Zhu Yijun said with a smile, "Even stingier than me."

"The Grand Tutor is still very frugal." Feng Bao carefully corrected his Majesty's wrong wording. This is not stingy, but frugal.

Zhu Yijun rarely visited the silver vault of the imperial treasury once a year. At most, he would go to the gold vault to check. The accounts were there anyway. When he needed money, the imperial treasury could not take it out, so he would really cut it from top to bottom.

This management method was left behind by Wang Guoguang. There was no such rule before because the national treasury simply did not have that much silver to manage. Most of the time, if a mouse ran into the national treasury, it would come out crying because the country was too poor.

This time, Zhang Xueyan caught the rat by relying on the dust, and the traces of dust are really difficult to fake.

"It's just like the local treasury. There are things in the account, but nothing in the treasury. It's normal for national funds to be stolen. Just catch and punish them severely." Zhu Yijun didn't think it was anything strange.

Nine million silver coins, with twelve million less, was quite normal.

The Qing Dynasty was richer than the Ming Dynasty. In the 23rd year of the reign of Emperor Daoguang, on a whim, he sent the Minister of Justice, Wei Qin, to check the actual amount of silver in the Ministry of Revenue's treasury. He was shocked when he checked.

The national treasury had 275 million taels of silver in reserve, but million taels were missing! Only million taels of silver were left.

Moreover, these 275 million taels of silver were not all deposited in the Ministry of Revenue. The silver ingots of the Ministry of Revenue all had the silver stamp of the Ministry of Revenue. Among these 275 million taels of silver, more than 200 million were silver ingots from various places and money houses.

Apparently someone heard the rumor and filled in the gaps, but they were far too far apart. When the Minister of Justice Wei Qin went to check, there was still a huge gap.

When the national treasury is not observed, whether the silver in it exists or not is a question, but once it starts to be observed, it collapses into non-existence.

The silver was lost and someone had to be held accountable. The Ministry of Justice investigated everywhere but could not offend anyone, so in the end they could only trace it back to Ku Ding who had stolen the money.

The final conclusion of the case was: the uneven distribution of the spoils by the Ku Dings triggered the court's investigation. It was the Ku Dings who used tricks to steal the silver from the treasury!

The huge deficit of 9 million and 250,000 taels of silver was settled with Ku Ding's ditches.

None of the ministers and officials in the court were held accountable, except Ku Ding, whose ditch was deeper than a bottomless pit. It can be regarded as a piece of dark humor in history.

Judging from Zhang Xueyan's memorial, he would not believe the claim that the warehouse keeper took the silver out using a ditch. After a strict investigation, he traced it back to the treasury ambassador. The treasury ambassador, the deputy ambassador, and the twelve warehouse keepers who were in charge of transporting the silver, divided the 1,200 taels of silver into two-for-one and five-for-one.

This group of people tried their best, from keys to seals, to dealing with inspections, etc., they were all trying their best, but they didn't dare to take more. After taking 1,200 silver coins, they were caught by the Grand Tutor.

The Grand Tutor has poor eyesight, but the censors, imperial guards, and guards around him who want to advance have very good eyesight.

Whether it is a silver vault or a gold vault, it must be strictly guarded from the beginning and severe punishment must be imposed if any minor problems occur. If the management is lax, there is no need to investigate, because if it is investigated, it will only make the court lose face and it will be useless, and even accountability cannot be achieved.

The Grand Tutor's inspection of the old warehouse is like the emperor's inspection of the Beijing camp. Either you do it all the time, or you don't do it at all.

Zhu Yijun took out his abacus and clattered a little before shaking his head and saying, "The salary of these fourteen people is 290 silver coins a year. We gambled our lives and only got silver coins. It's not worth it."

"Exile to the Jinchi Governor's Mansion. They need people there."

Zhu Yijun made the final decision. According to Hai Rui's anti-corruption rules, these people were guilty of the third level of crime, and the maximum penalty was exile to Java. However, the Jinchi Governor's Office was seriously short of manpower, so Zhu Yijun exiled these people there to replenish the population.

Juezhou, this place, is far away from the Ming Dynasty and far away from the West. It is a natural place of exile.

"In fact, even if the scholars and officials don't say it, I know that the Ming Dynasty is now a bit warmongering and attacking everywhere. But there is no way. We have too much homework to learn and we have to make up for it." Zhu Yijun reviewed a memorial. In this memorial, the censors talked about the Governor-General's Office of Jifu, the hometown of the dodo.

The censor compared the Governor's Mansion of Jifu and the Governor's Mansion of Jinchi, both of which were 20,000 miles away by water.

However, this censor did not think that the Jinchi Governor's Mansion was dangerous at all, because Taixi was too far away from Jinchi, and the threat to the Jinchi Governor's Mansion was zero. As long as the Ming Dynasty repaired the big and small Jinchi cities, there would be no risk of losing them.

But the Governor's Palace of Gifu, located opposite the Governor's Palace of Mozambique, is the only way for the overseas colonies of the red-haired and golden-haired foreigners.

Once a conflict broke out between the Ming Dynasty and the Red-haired and Golden-haired Barbarians at sea, Governor-General Ji Fu's Office would inevitably be the first to bear the brunt and become a battlefield. The Ming Dynasty was too far away from there and could not provide effective support at all. It might become a burden to the Ming Dynasty in the future. If they gave up, no one would be willing to bear the guilt of abandoning the land. If they did not give up, the bleeding would continue.

Just like Jiaozhi in the past.

This somewhat conservative censor believed that the establishment of the Jinchi Governor's Office was good and ingenious, but that the Jifu Governor's Office was a bit too ambitious. They thought that being able to take over Nanyang and Juezhou was already the limit of the Ming Dynasty.

"He's right." Zhu Yijun agreed with the censor's statement very much and moved the Ji Fu Governor's Office from the Sifang area to the Liuhe area.

If the cost of maintaining the system is too high, you can choose to give it up. The Governor's Office is in all directions.

Build it first, and if you really can't defend it, abandon it. Give it a try first.

"Has Marshal Qi reported in?" Zhu Yijun asked about the situation on the front line. After the Ming army launched the spring offensive and occupied Nagato City, they had been keeping their troops on hold, mainly waiting for the negotiations with Gao Qiyu in Kyoto. Now that the talks in Kyoto were over, the specific details of the garrison were still under further negotiation and signing.

At this time, the Ming army should have returned victoriously.

Feng Bao took out a memorial with four floating tickets attached to it from the pile of memorials about joining the army, placed it in front of the emperor, and said with an embarrassed look: "The commanders of the front army mean to continue fighting."

"The ministers all have different ideas. Sir, you have posted a blank ticket. The Deputy Prime Minister supports it, the Grand Chancellor opposes it, and the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan respectfully requests the Holy Lord to make a ruling."

Zhang Juzheng posted a blank ticket, reserving his opinion, which actually meant he was opposed. In such a major event, his opinion was very important, but he did not express his position. Silence is also an attitude.

The reason why Wang Chonggu supported it was very simple. The Ming Dynasty needed money, and the money obtained through negotiations alone was not stable enough.

Without silver, there would be no currency liquidity. Without liquidity, government-owned factories would have no way to produce. In the contradiction between demand and supply, the only thing government-owned factories can control is supply. More monetary liquidity is beneficial to the Labor Party.

The reason why the Grand Tutor opposed it was also very clear. If the war started again, how long would it last?

The imperial court is really a bit poor now. It has to deal with education and use force. The Ministry of Revenue is a bit afraid of being poor. The national treasury can run horses through war. He, the Grand Tutor, can't hold his head up wherever he goes. The Ming Dynasty has already won a comprehensive victory and forced Toyotomi Hideyoshi to sign a humiliating treaty.

The Grand Master of the Imperial Clan respectfully requested the Holy Judge, and although it seemed that he had reservations, he actually supported His Majesty. As the leader of a young faction, His Majesty would not stop him if the front line wanted to fight.

"The opinion of the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan is interesting. He said: If you want to destroy a country, you must first destroy its history; if you want to destroy a race, you must first destroy its culture. Does this mean that you want to destroy the soul of Japan?" Zhu Yijun thought about it for a while and said, "Master Shen thinks Gao Qiyu is a little too kind. He didn't destroy the soul."

After the Chinese characters were introduced into Japan, they have been undergoing "Japanese changes", that is, continuous localization. As early as the Tang Dynasty, the "Manyoshu" and Manyogana had already appeared. Time flies, and now the Chinese culture in Japan is very different from that of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ministry of Rites' meaning was very clear. Gao Qiyu was only concerned with his own interests and forgot to abolish the alienated Sinology of Japan. It was Gao Qiyu's dereliction of duty as an official of the Ministry of Rites. Therefore, the Ministry of Rites' opinion was to continue fighting until the Japanese gave up these alienated Sinology.

The Ministry of Rites cares most about getting back to the original. When the Korean "Hunminjeongeum", which is the Korean Hangul, was to be abolished, it was the Ministry of Rites that called for it the loudest. Sinology is the knowledge of the Han people. How can these foreign countries interpret Sinology!
This was a dispute over the right to interpret rituals and laws, and the extreme conservatives in the Ministry of Rites were particularly concerned about this matter.

Qi Jiguang's purpose in continuing to fight was very pure.

The most direct reason was revenge. The daimyo led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched an attack on the Ming army in Ying'en Pavilion. The Ming army needed to further demonstrate its military strength so that the Ming army would have fewer troubles when stationed in the mining area.

Changmen Castle is an isolated city, and it is really difficult to support itself. If we withdraw our troops now, I am afraid that Changmen Castle will eventually be returned to Japan. Changmen Castle needs a supply of 150,000 stones of grain a year to defend it. With such a huge logistical supply, expanding the territory and eating at the expense of the enemy is the best military strategy.
The Mori clan suffered the least losses in the Korean battlefield, and now they are too powerful. Other daimyo have suffered heavy losses, so the Ming army needs to eliminate some of the Mori clan's warriors and clip their wings in order to achieve balance;
It was quite simple to achieve this goal. Qi Jiguang planned to take Iwami Silver Mine in half a year to a year. All the conquered territories would belong to the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office. In this way, he could not only eliminate the threat of the Ming Dynasty to the Japanese mainland, but also ensure the stable output of silver.

Zhu Yijun thought for a long time and made the final instruction: "My loyalty shines like the sun and the moon, and my determination to serve my country has not stopped; I sigh at the storm in front of Fengbo Pavilion, and my long-term plan will settle the nine provinces for eternity."

(End of this chapter)