The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 296 Profit maximization
The meeting begins.

The most important content of the court meeting that day must be the battle report of the Ming Dynasty's surprise attack on the Weining Sea. Dai Yi read the battle report jointly signed by Zhang Zhou and Wang Shouren to the public.

Even though most of the people present knew the result of the battle, they could still feel the brutality of the battle when they heard the specific battle report and the fighting process.

Especially when it comes to Wang Shouren's efforts to overcome all opinions, he almost escorted more than 6000 captives and nearly [-] livestock to Daming, and was trapped in the Tushan Mountain north of Maoerzhuang. After the powerful enemy won the victory of two thousand heads, the ministers present were also thinking about it secretly.

Are you sure this is what happened on the battlefield, and not someone else making fun of them?
In the end, Wang Shouren reported in person, and Zhang Zhou led the troops to kill them, so that the troops of the Huozhai tribe retreated without fighting. From this time, the war fell into a calm, and it was a process of retreating all the way south.

"...It is estimated that in the twelfth day and night, the soldiers and horses who conquered the grassland will enter Yanghekou. Please take Yanghewei as the axis and mobilize all kinds of troops to resist the invasion of the Hulu..."

Dai Yi finished reading the battle report and returned it respectfully.

The ministers present were silent, because they knew that the main event was about to come, and they would be rewarded for meritorious service.

Zhu Youtang took up the conversation and said: "Your family, such miraculous achievements have never been seen in the past few decades. The only thing comparable to it is nothing more than Wei Ninghou's frequent invasion of the grasslands during the time of the first emperor. "

Zhang Mao came out and said, "Your Majesty, Marquis Wei Ning's achievements cannot be compared with him."

Zhu Youtang looked relieved, but he sighed and said, "But Wei Ninghou's battle at Pianguan, and Liaodong Ningyuan's battle, can they be compared?"

These words are actually reminding the ministers present.

Since the change of Tumu Fortress and the battle to defend the capital, Ming has never seen such a great victory like today. Even if it can be slightly comparable, it must be Wang Yue's achievements in sending troops to the grassland during the Chenghua period, but the person who killed the prisoners was this The fraction of World War I, or the next two zeros.

What can be mentioned a little more is the battle of Pianguan and Ningyuan this year, and these two battles were also planned by Zhang Zhou.

Don't compare, anyway, it's either Bingkuan or Bingkuan.

It's not too much to give him a prince, isn't it too much?
But Zhu Youtang didn't seem to be in a hurry to mention Zhang Zhouhe's meritorious service, he said: "Since I ascended the Great Treasure, whenever I read history, I appreciate the demeanor of famous generals since ancient times, and I hope that when the Ming Dynasty will have such ability Heaven has pity on a person who has made extraordinary achievements, and finally bestowed such a famous person on Daming, I should cherish it. Your family shouldn't hold him against him."

As the emperor, he still knows his subjects better.

The greater Zhang Zhou's contribution, the greater the resistance he encountered. It doesn't mean that Zhang Zhou will be valued if you are capable.

Since ancient times, people who have contributed to their family and country may not be tolerated by the king and the ministers in the court. If the rabbit dies, the dog is jealous of the king, and the party's unity and dissent are the criticisms of the three people who become tigers.

It's like reformers since ancient times, all of them are for the stability of the court, but almost none of them have a good end. After a certain period of time, they will be impeached and exiled by their colleagues, or even ruined and die without a place to bury them. However, history But always give these people a name.

No one came out to refute the ministers present, whether they were civil servants or military officials, elders or ministers.

Even Liu Jian and the others were waiting for the emperor to set the tone for Zhang Zhou's achievements.

If it's not about Zhang Zhou, it's about Zhang Zhou's actions. There is no way to focus on what he did, but about the credit after the event. There is always a breakthrough.

Zhu Youtang said: "Now that the Tatar forces are split and the war has begun, Bingkuan means to wait and see the changes and seek development. More importantly, it is necessary to mine and smelt iron and cast guns to calm the people. The Ming Dynasty Salt Administration has done a lot in the past few years. There is a change, Bing Kuan and I have a proposal to restore the method of grain distribution in several places in the Northwest, so as to alleviate the urgent use of grain and silver in the Northwest, and encourage farming and mulberry, what do you guys think?"

They are all waiting for the emperor to ask Zhang Zhou for rewards.

As a result, the emperor found another way, or told Zhang Zhou to "take advantage of the fire to rob", and it was okay to bring up the matter of grain opening again at this time.

what is this?
Blackmail the government with meritorious deeds?If we don't agree, do you still want to make trouble?
Household Minister Zhou Jing came out and said: "Your Majesty, after the reform of the salt policy, the warehouses in Beijing were relatively full, and there were no major mistakes in the allocation of grain and grass. Why do you want to reopen the old system?"

Usually the courtiers of the Ming Dynasty are very opposed to reforms, but they are very supportive of the method of changing the price of silver in the course of grain development.

The reason is that after this change, the control of the Ming court over the northwest has been strengthened, and your frontier troops finally don’t have to set up a small court in the northwest. The improvement of Daming's finances had an immediate effect.

Moreover, the salaries of officials of the Ming Dynasty were distributed in a relatively timely manner. Even if there were still gaps in the discounted salaries, the usual real salaries could be distributed in time, and it was no longer a big problem to support the family.

Zhu Youtang said: "I'm not trying to deny the method of using salt to change sex, but based on what I've seen and heard in the Northwest, and the intensity of the wars in the Northwest, the temporary changes are only implemented in the area of ​​Datong. , Xuanfu, etc., to encourage local farming and land reclamation, and build water conservancy to protect the livelihood of the people in the Northwest. I think that Binglen’s proposal will help improve the use of money and grain in the Northwest, and also save money and grain from the Ming Dynasty. envy."

The ministers present were a little annoyed.

Zhang Zhou came to mention it at this time, so that they didn't know how to object.

Because Zhang Zhou is currently using troops in the northwest, it will consume a lot of money and food from the court. If Zhang Zhou can raise the funds by himself, it will indeed solve many problems. Probably Zhang Zhou also knows that with the current financial resources of Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to support a war in the Northwest for several years. of preparing for war.

That's why Zhang Zhou made this proposal.

But Zhang Zhou did not deny Yan Yin's method of folding color, because Zhang Zhou also knew that there is no direct conflict between the method of opening the middle and the method of folding color. One is to protect the central finance, and the other is to protect the northwest finance. It must be that the local finances of the nine borders are the most important.

But taking the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Dynasty as an example, the color-folding method can bring a lot of money to the Ming court and solve many problems other than border affairs, such as disaster relief, river construction, etc., must it be wrong?

What Zhang Zhou meant was that when I, Zhang, wanted to prepare for the use of troops in the Northwest, I would have to restore part of the food supply so that I could guarantee the commercial settlements in the northwest, and the commercial settlements were the largest outside the military settlements. Supplement and protection, why not do it?
Do you expect me to ask the court for money every time, so that you can get stuck in my neck?
Moreover, the time for the cancellation of the grain opening is still short, and there is still room for recovery and maneuverability of some commercial land. Even if I, Zhang, do not personally sit in the northwest, there are still people from me who will maintain my prestige. The Tatars dare not easily violate the border. Security is provided for those who organize commercial settlements, and the number of tenants can also increase. Wouldn't the Northwest's finances be greatly improved?

Otherwise, I would just fight and create a stable condition, but no one would come to farm...

In other words, businessmen feel that farming is meaningless, so these great victories cannot maximize their profits.

Seeing that the ministers in front of him were silent, Zhu Youtang knew that these people were holding back their anger again. He said: "Unless the imperial court can solve the Northwest's expenses in the next few years, instead of every time the Northwest asks for money and food, it has to be perfunctory. And prevarication. Ladies and gentlemen, please also understand the current general situation in the northwest, if you don’t take advantage of the internal disputes in the grassland to solve the border troubles, you will never come again.”

Liu Jian came out and said, "Your Majesty, it's inappropriate to raise this matter so hastily. Why don't you wait for the Ministry of Accounts to discuss it before making a decision?"

In the meaning of Liu Jian.

You old man believes in Zhang Bingkuan, and if you open your mouth, you will change the sex law and return the financial power to the Northwest, but the problem is that the distribution of Yanyin has become a rule, so if you change it easily, you are not afraid of tossing the court?Jingcang has returned to a state where it can make ends meet, is that what you want to see?
Even if we understand that in order to calm down the grassland, you have to sacrifice all of Da Ming's power for this matter, but don't you think about Da Ming's stability first?

"Yeah." Zhu Youtang nodded, but he wasn't in a hurry, because Zhang Zhou said that there was still a way to deal with this matter.

What Zhang Zhou wants to do is to bring benefits to Jingcang and Northwest at the same time through the reform of the salt law. With the increase in output, the problem of people eating salt has been greatly improved, and at the same time, the salt tax revenue has been increased...the capital also has enough salt to trigger release, and there is also salt in the northwest to exchange grain from salt merchants...

Of course, it will also bring about the problem of too much salt and low salt prices, but salt merchants have been seeking huge profits since ancient times. Whether the official salt will be hoarded by salt merchants, Zhang Zhou has not thought about it for the time being.

Anyway, there will be plenty of official salt in the future, so you can stock up if you want. There are not many salt merchants, and there will always be people who will follow suit.

"I will ask Bingkuan to make a detailed decision on this matter, and it should be gradually decided in the future." Zhu Youtang said, "There are other things...will be gradually decided in the near future."

What happened, but the emperor played charades.

……

……

All the ministers have been waiting for the emperor to offer to reward Zhang Zhou for his meritorious deeds, but until the end of the court meeting, the emperor did not mention a word about it.

Not to mention that the civil servant Wu Xun who was present did not expect this matter, even the eunuchs who were in charge of ceremonies did not expect it. Yesterday the emperor said that he would bestow the Duke of Lai on Zhang Zhou. It seemed so convincing that the possibility of His Majesty changing his mind is almost impossible. No, does it mean that the emperor plans to bring up the matter of Zhang Zhou and Wang Shouren's withdrawal from the pass after it is confirmed?
But after the court meeting, Zhu Youtang immediately asked Xiao Jing to call several important ministers into the inner court.

The ministers had not waited to leave, and when they knew the list of those who were summoned by the inner court, they probably knew that the emperor did not forget or postpone the meritorious deeds, but that he did not want to argue with the ministers in the court, so he decided to use the inner court to discuss way to solve big problems.

Inside the Qianqing Palace.

The four eunuchs and eunuchs were all present, and the people who were summoned were the three cabinet ministers, Ma Wensheng, Minister of the Ministry of War, Zhou Jing, Minister of the Ministry of Households, Xu Qiong, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Zhang Mao, the representative of the Governor's Mansion.

Before these people came, they already had a plan in mind, thinking about how to deal with the problems that the emperor might have.

But when they arrived at the Qianqing Palace, they saw a table with a lot of books temporarily prepared to be placed in the center of the hall, and they were all ignorant of what kind of medicine was sold in the emperor's gourd.

Old doctor.

The medicine is never taken according to the prescription, as long as it is thought of, it will come out as soon as it comes out.

The three ministers in the cabinet were all the husbands of the emperor when he was young. At this time, they were also thinking that the emperor had learned badly from Zhang Zhou.

"You guys, I'm looking for you, and you should know what I'm going to say. That's right, it's a reward for meritorious deeds to the soldiers of the Northwest." Zhu Youtang said, "But I'm really anxious about how to talk about it. It's just here Before You Bingkuan left, he compiled the "Da Ming Hui Dian", in which there are many precedents related to military rewards in the Ming Dynasty in the past few decades, all of which are well-founded and not groundless."

"It's also a good time for you to see if there are any mistakes or omissions."

After hearing this, Xie Qian reacted the most. He seemed to be the most determined person who wanted to obliterate Zhang Zhou's contribution before the court meeting that day, even a bit contrary to Liu Jian's and Li Dongyang's opinions.

But now he couldn't help but take a look at Liu Jian and Li Dongyang.

You still say you want to stroke Zhang Zhou's hair?
I'm afraid that if you are stroking and stroking, Zhang Zhou, the donkey, will be able to jump on his hind legs and kick you away before he can be appeased!
Look!

Now His Majesty wants to use the "Da Ming Hui Dian" compiled by Zhang Zhou as a basis to reward him for his merits!Maybe that kid thought of this level when he compiled this book!

Are you in a hurry?
Liu Jian said: "Your Majesty, all ministers and others are clear about rewards for military merits, so there is no need to consult the classics."

"Hey!" Zhu Youtang sighed, "Since you say you all know it, then to be honest, you should also be aware of Daming's first achievement, beheading a Hulu leader, how much should you reward?"

As soon as these words came out, Liu Jian and Li Dongyang looked at each other first.

They all felt a "shock" in their hearts, as if they had calculated everything, always thinking about how to suppress Zhang Zhou's credit, but they didn't worry about a "big trouble", and it seemed to be a "trouble" that could not be solved. ".

Even the emperor was more thoughtful than them.

That is the burden of military rewards, whether the imperial court can afford it.

As the minister of the Ministry of War, Ma Wensheng was very familiar with this matter. Liu Jian didn't answer, but he came forward and replied: "According to the rules of rewarding soldiers who went to war in Chenghua, a head should be rewarded with 40 taels of silver."

"What about the prisoners?" Zhu Youtang continued to ask.

Ma Wensheng said: "Same calculation."

Xie Qian couldn't help but feel ashamed.

A head is 40 taels, and more than 3000 heads are more than 12 taels.

More than 6000 people were captured... Xie Qian didn't dare to think about it anymore.

This fucking thing is going to turn Daming Jingcang upside down in a single battle.

From the Ming Dynasty to the Hongzhi period, the annual fiscal and tax revenue, denominated in silver, was between 200 million taels and 300 million taels.

But if it costs nearly 100 million taels for a reward, the whole court can drink the northwest wind, and the ministers may not be able to pay their salaries in the next three years.

Zhu Youtang said: "Even if the women and children are rewarded, you have to add the merits of livestock, surprise attack, etc., and you have to raise the cost of using troops for the Northwest... I don't think that this battle should be rewarded according to the past rules."

Emperor means.

We can't afford the reward, so let's renege on it.

Ma Wensheng said: "Your Majesty, it is not necessary to reward the meritorious service with the first merit."

"Yes." Zhu Youtang nodded, "That makes sense."

Then the ministers present and several eunuchs who were in charge of ceremonies discovered that it was actually easy for the monarchs and ministers to reach an agreement on some aspects, for example...they all knew such a great contribution, if they killed the heads and captives according to the If the merits of the court are calculated, the court will easily go bankrupt, so let's change the method.

Zhu Youtang said: "I didn't say it before, and I had such thoughts, but since the Tumu Fort disaster, Daming has always judged meritorious deeds based on the first merit. I think the reason, Qing and others should It couldn't be more clear, it might not be easy to change rashly now."

Daming's military merits, judged by the number of beheaded heads, seem to have drawbacks, and it is easy to kill good men and pretend to be meritorious.

But the biggest advantage is that the first merit is relatively "relatively" fair.

At least the first merit still needs a head, and there are exact parameters. If you talk about military merit, that's not the case.

In the early Ming Dynasty, military merits were judged not by first merit, but by military merit.

It is divided into three grades: extraordinary work, first work and second work.

The most representative of Qigong is that after Chang Yuchun defected to Zhu Yuanzhang, when Caishiji became famous in the first battle, he led an army to defeat the enemy with one man's strength.

But the problem is that it is hard to determine whether it is "miracle merit", first or second merit.

"History of the Ming Dynasty" clearly records the disadvantages of discussing military merits: "...the number of three or four hundred soldiers played by the later leading military officers is not included in the list of beheading. , said to charge and break the enemy, said to be the first three times, said to serve the army before the army. The disadvantages of reckless abuse have reached the extreme."

It means that military merit is discussed later, it is all a mess, and even if this person is not on the battlefield, he will be judged for his merit.

Then the court found out that this trick is not good, and it is easy to breed corruption.

Then let's change it.

It is determined by the first merit.

How much credit is given for how many heads are killed, and the captives are also counted. Even if there are cases of killing good people and pretending to be credited, we should do more investigations, which is better than the random credit calculation without standards.

Anyway, the Ming soldiers are all so weak that they can’t kill a few at a time, and we are also very strict in the review of the first merit, and even stipulate that the head should be above the Adam’s apple. , the one with the back of the head up is a woman...

This is why Xie Qian felt that there was a way to suppress Zhang Zhou's credit.

Because Zhang Zhou said from the perspective of "first merit", he did not personally participate in the battle on the battlefield. As long as we strictly implement it, we can push the credit as much as possible to Wang Shouren and Ma Yi. When others are high, Zhang Zhou's gong is low.

Now Zhu Youtang has made it clear that if it is determined by the first merit, it will not work.

The court couldn't afford to pay.

Now let's figure it out, how can we minimize Daming's expenses during this rewarding process, let's save it.

What if Zhang Zhou extinguishes the fire in a few days, and sends you tens of thousands of heads or tens of thousands of captives... We, the monarchs and ministers, can drink the northwest wind together!

(End of this chapter)