I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 158 Xiong Tingbi’s secret (please subscribe)

After everyone left, Zhu Youxiao left the Qianqing Palace and walked into the Dongnuang Pavilion, which was originally the place where memorials were reviewed and government affairs handled.

The secretary's shelf in Nuange has many volumes, and there are many traces of turning. There are many books here, and it is convenient to read the materials. Therefore, after New Year's Day, Zhu Youxiao usually reviews memorials here.

The huge table in the Nuan Pavilion is covered with memorials and epigraphs, as well as red ink pens. On the wall behind, there is a large blackboard and gold clay plaque with the four characters "Xiao Yi, Nie Shi" written on it.

Under the plaque, Wei Zhongxian took out two memorials from his sleeves and handed them to Zhu Youxiao, who was sitting on the throne. These were secret documents from Yang Lian and Xiong Tingbi brought by messengers from behind. Neither the Supervisor of Ceremonies nor the cabinet had the right to see them.

Zhu Youxiao took the secret folder and opened Xiong Tingbi's memorial first. The style of Xiong Tingbi's memorials was simple and direct, without so much nonsense, he just talked about things directly.

After the victory in the Battle of Liaoshen, he had to consider what his next step should be. After dealing with Jianlu for so many years, he knew that with the current food, grass and population of Jianlu, the food and grass could not last past July at most.

Therefore, he expected that Nurhachi would also consider this issue, how to plunder more food.

Xiong Tingbi thought about three ways.

One is to continue to plunder the Ming Dynasty, but after the defeat of Liaoshen, their vitality was severely damaged. As long as the Ming army continues to defend tightly, this plan will never succeed.

The second is to plunder and oppress the Han people with cultivated land within the Jianyu, so that they can barely satisfy the Jurchens' food.

The third is to plunder Mongolia to the west and North Korea to the southeast. However, Mongolia is nomadic and cannot plunder a few hairs. Therefore, the most likely way is to plunder North Korea to the southwest to obtain population and food.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but nod repeatedly. If Xiong Tingbi's situation is true, North Korea is the place where he is most likely to be attacked. This is also the place Zhu Youxiao wants to win.

The current monarch of North Korea is Gwanghaejun Li Hui. This man is nothing. When he was the crown prince, the Imjin Japanese Rebellion happened to break out. The Ming Dynasty was not afraid of casualties and helped North Korea drive away the Japanese.

But not only did he not repay his kindness, but when the imperial court asked him to send troops to attack Nurhaci, he refused and refused to send troops. Finally, under pressure, he sent more than 1 people to help suppress the attack.

From then on, King Gwanghae dealt with the imperial court and Jianlu, pursuing a "neutral diplomacy" that did not betray the truth and did not anger the emperor.

This made Zhu Youxiao curse in his heart, if Wanli hadn't spent so much money to fight the Japanese, you would have perished long ago. Now that the court is in trouble, you don't dare to help. You are really a bunch of white-eyed wolves.

So when Jianlu went to plunder North Korea, Zhu Youxiao was naturally happy to hear about it, and he also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to get involved, get rid of Lord Guanghai, replace him with an obedient monarch, and then take the opportunity to send troops to North Korea.

This not only allowed North Korea to assist the court in attacking Jianlu, but more importantly, natural disasters continued in the late Ming Dynasty. In comparison, North Korea had very few disasters. It also allowed North Korea to support the court or sell grain and grass. Although it was a drop in the bucket, it was more than nothing. Woolen cloth.

In addition, Xiong Tingbi said in the secret book that he received Li Zhu, the nephew of Lord Guanghai, Lord Ayang, who had been attached to the Ming Dynasty for a long time. He despised Lord Guanghai's actions and had already entangled a group of ministers in the DPRK and China to launch a coup. Therefore, Now we urgently need Ming's support.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao really laughed. It was such a coincidence that someone came to give him a pillow when he fell asleep.

Therefore, Xiong Tingbi suggested that he should support Lord Lingyang Li Zhu in launching a coup, and at the same time station troops in southern Liaoning and even Zhenjiang (today's Dandong) to support Li Zhu if necessary.

You can also go around North Korea to continuously harass and attack the rear of the Jianlu. If the Jianlu plunder North Korea, you can also send troops to rescue and intercept them. You can accomplish multiple things with one stone.

Absolutely. Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao wanted to use his ink pen to give instructions and agreed to do it. But as soon as he picked up the ink pen, he remembered something.

"Wei Zhongxian, has Governor Ying Zhen taken office now?"

Wei Zhongxian never expected that the emperor would suddenly ask him about this matter. He was speechless for a moment. After thinking for a moment, Wei Zhongxian said hesitantly:

"Your Majesty, it seems that Guan Yingzhen wrote a letter in early December, saying that he had arrived in Denglai and was posting notices to inform the people along the coast about the opening of the sea ban. At the same time, he was recruiting craftsmen, ships, and navy..."

Maybe it was too long ago and I can't remember the content behind it. Wei Zhongxian also became hesitant in speaking.

Zhu Youxiao saw that he said this slowly, waved his hand to tell him to stop talking, and directly took Guan Yingzhen's question book.

Xiong Tingbi wants to station troops in southern Liaoning and even Zhenjiang, and Denglai's support is essential.

Denglai is very close to Liaonan, and it only takes a day or two to reach it by water. The transportation of grain, grass, soldiers and horses is very convenient.Otherwise, transporting food by land to southern Liaoning and other places would cost a lot of money on the road.

After a while, Wei Zhongxian entered Dongnuan Pavilion with Guan Yingzhen's title book.

Zhu Youxiao picked the recently written question book and read it attentively.When the official Ying Zhen was appointed at that time, he was thinking that he was the leader of the Chu Party and had a good relationship with Xiong Tingbi. He had also suggested as early as the Wanli period that from the three prefectures of Qingzhou, Dengzhou, and Laizhou, separated by a river, to Liaodong Transfer food and wages.

His appointment as governor of Denglai this time coincided with Xiong Tingbi's Liaodong administration. Besides, the Qi Party and the Chu Party were already allies. When he came to Denglai to work, the local officials in Shandong would not deliberately create difficulties with Qi Party's instructions.

Now judging from the question book, this Guan Yingzhen is still very capable, but he also encountered many difficulties.

Due to the long-term cessation of maritime transportation, few people along the coast of Shandong are familiar with the sea. And because the Dengliao Seaway has been closed for too long, the original official transportation system has been completely destroyed, and merchants everywhere are afraid of war.

Now I heard that the imperial court was going to lift the sea ban and build a navy to transport grain to Liaodong. They regarded Liao as a mountain of swords and a forest of swords, and the crossing of the sea as hot water. They were unwilling to go to Liaodong to transport grain, and were as afraid of it as a tiger.

Not only were the people unwilling to go, but what made Guan Yingzhen even more helpless was that there was not a single ship, not a single sailor, and the entire Shandong Chief Secretary. It turned out that there were only [-] soldiers and horses left in the water camp, and some kind of fire was still retained. .

Therefore, Guan Yingzhen kept writing letters during this period, asking the court to allocate money to him to build ships and recruit troops.

He even came up with a trick, saying that Denglai is close to the sea and has a lot of salt. He could follow the method of opening up China in the early Ming Dynasty and encourage people to transport grain to Liaodong or recruit people to open up wasteland in southern Liaoning. As long as the grain transportation is successful, they will be given salt. Lai is exchanged for official salt sales.

This method is not bad, but this question book was given before, and the cabinet also had the voting plan. He directly turned to the back to see the cabinet voting plan.As it says above:
"Please ask the Ministry of Revenue to allocate 15 taels for shipbuilding and recruiting troops. The reopening of China and France is of great concern and is not allowed for the time being." was followed by the approval of the Supervisor of Ceremonies.

"How come I don't know about such a big thing? Who approved this batch of red goods?"

When Zhu Youxiao saw this, he immediately became furious and allocated 15 taels. It was okay not to give him so much money. Reopening China and France would be beneficial to Liaodong's transportation. Why did he veto it? Know.

Wei Zhongxian was still regretting that he had not performed well just now, but now that he saw that the emperor was angry, he knelt down tremblingly and said:
"Your Majesty, this servant doesn't know. This is the red one approved by Eunuch Zou Yi. I don't know either. Maybe you were training troops at that time, so you didn't see it."

"Why don't you remind me if you haven't seen it? Why are you looking at me?"

Zhu Youxiao Long Yan was furious and threw the memorial away.

If he dares to hide this kind of thing from himself, then he doesn't know what kind of criticism he has.Then he looked down at Wei Zhongxian and asked He Ning to come in.

"Wei Zhongxian, you and He Ning go to the Supervisor of Ceremonies to check the files and see what's going on with the memorial there. If it's really Zou Yi who criticized him without reporting it, then he will be dismissed directly according to my instructions. I think he also The old man is a little confused, so he should go home and take care of himself."

He Ning was also surprised as to why the emperor was so angry. When he heard that he was not rewarded for his criticism, he secretly cried out.

The Superintendent of Ceremonies reported that it was a capital crime for an eunuch to criticize someone and not repay him. He thought to himself why Zou Yi was so confused, but there was nothing he could do now, so he immediately followed the order and went to investigate the matter with Wei Zhongxian.

Only Zhang Chang was left to accompany Zhu Youxiao. He was sitting on the throne, and his good mood in the morning was disturbed by this incident.

Although he was also doubting whether Wei Zhongxian had slandered him, so he asked He Ning to check it, but it was unlikely because although Wei Zhongxian was literate, his education level was indeed not high. Zou Yi is still mainly responsible.

If it is found that it was really Zou Yi who did it, then he doesn't care whether he is senior and upright. No matter how good a person is, he can't be used if he doesn't take him seriously. He still wants to "correct" himself over and over again and let him It's really a headache, so I won't punish him. He's getting old, so he might as well retire.

At this time, He Chang also picked up Guan Yingzhen's memorial and put it on the document again. Zhu Youxiao picked it up again and thought about it.

The reopening of China and France was related to the imperial salt policy. Although the cabinet opposed it, he also wanted to discuss the matter. It would be great if this could be used as an excuse to reform the salt policy.

At present, the Ming Dynasty implements the "outline" salt policy, which implements the "official supervision and commercial sales" system of civilian system, commercial collection, commercial transportation and commercial sales. There are special fixed salt merchants responsible for purchase, transportation and sales.This gave these salt merchants a gold mine, and everyone was rich in oil.

As for the imperial court, it could not make much money at all. The price of salt in the Ming Dynasty was very low. In the late Jiajing period, a pound of Guangdong salt was worth 7 Wen, and a pound of Lianghuai salt was worth 14 Wen, which was much lower than the price of salt in the Song Dynasty and even the Qing Dynasty.

As a result, the salt tax was even lower, one-third of that in the Qing Dynasty and half of that in the Song Dynasty, and all the intermediate profits were taken away by salt merchants.

But even so, private salt was still rampant in the Ming Dynasty, and the salt tax could not be collected at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Now the court's salt tax after the increase is 168 million taels. Compared with this, the salt tax in the Qing Dynasty has always been within 400 million taels, and by the Qianlong Dynasty it was close to 600 million taels. This is a complete difference.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao has been thinking about how to change and reform the salt policy. The most direct way is to imitate the Qing Dynasty. The private price of salt cannot be controlled, but the profits of these hereditary salt merchants must be severely exploited, otherwise the court will not be able to do anything without money.

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