Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 607: Political Amateur
Fengtian Gate.

After all the ministers lined up, Liu Ji suddenly emerged from the crowd and walked up to Zhang Luan in two or three steps.

Zhang Luan frowned and looked at Liu Ji: "Master Liu, is there something wrong?"

Liu Ji smiled and said, "It's a personal matter."

"Oh? Are you here to confess your sins to me and beg for my forgiveness?"

Zhang Luan asked curiously.

"This... I don't know where this sin comes from? How can I ask for your forgiveness?"

Liu Ji asked in confusion, "Laizhan, can you explain it clearly?"

Zhang Luan said, "Oh, then you know you are wrong but refuse to change... I don't know who I offended, but the officials in the court colluded to bring me down. I have already brought a letter of apology and am ready to resign from my post, go back and enjoy my grandchildren, and live a quiet life in the future."

"Do you... have grandchildren?"

Liu Ji asked curiously, "Aren't your two sons still not old enough to get married?"

Zhang Luan said calmly, "Oh, I'm talking about my godchildren. They're everywhere, running around the streets... They've been hanging around in front of me lately."

"you……"

When Liu Ji heard this, he thought, isn't this just the kind of curse words used by the common people?
It sounds very tactful, but it seems that there is no difference between what you did and directly pointing at my nose and cursing at me.

Zhang Luan continued, "Lord Liu, if you are here to remind me of something with good intentions, please don't say anything. I am not a stubborn person and I have never intended to go against your will.

"If someone asks me to leave, I definitely don't want to stay... Whoever wants to take charge of this mess in the court can do it. Oh, by the way, Lord Liu, you are not young anymore, when do you plan to retire?"

Liu Ji originally wanted to show goodwill to Zhang Luan to indicate that the subsequent concentrated attack by court officials on Zhang Luan had nothing to do with him.

Who would have thought that he would be slapped down by Zhang Luan right at the start, and instantly felt like he was being snubbed, so he immediately returned to his seat in shame.

While everyone was still waiting for the court meeting to begin, they saw a group of Jinyiwei, led by Commander Zhu Ji, come out from Wenzhao Pavilion on the right side of Fengtian Hall, go straight to the line of civil officials, call the Minister of Justice Du Ming aside in public, and then take him away.

The ministers present looked at each other, full of doubts.

In the past, people who would be called away individually before court meetings could basically meet the emperor alone, such as the emperor's father-in-law Zhang Luan.

During the Chenghua Dynasty, court meetings were rarely held, so even those who could hear directly from the emperor, such as Li Zisheng, did not need to be called away before the court meetings to discuss matters with the emperor alone.

People like Du Ming who were taken away directly by the Royal Guards...

Everyone was speculating, could it be that Du Shangshu had done something wrong?

Soon, Huai'en, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, and Tan Chang, the chief eunuch in charge of writing, arrived at the Fengtian Gate first and stood beside the throne.

After a while, Zhu Youtang came on foot, accompanied by two eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department, Tan Ji and Li Rong. Zhu Youtang went straight to the throne and sat down.

The emperor and his subjects met each other politely.

The meeting begins.

Zhu Youtang said, "Before we discuss everything today, let's discuss one thing first. My dear, you go ahead and speak."

"Yes."

Qin Ji came out and said loudly, "Since the beginning of winter, there have been several heavy snowfalls in the northwest, which has cut off the connection between many border passes and the outside world. Due to the poor roads in the northwest, the grain for this autumn and winter has not been delivered to the northwest front in time, and the soldiers guarding the border are already starving and freezing."

Originally, many ministers were eager to try and were waiting to impeach Zhang Luan.

But after hearing this, they knew they had to restrain themselves.

No matter how much they disagreed with Zhang Luan, at least they should first discuss the military and political affairs of the northwest and come to a conclusion... Besides, the emperor said that this was the top priority and that this issue should be resolved before discussing anything else.

Qin Ji flipped open a memorial, roughly read the text on it, and continued: "The Northwest is short of a total of 300,000 dan of military rations. This is the result of preliminary calculations. If further calculations are required, this year's shortfall... may exceed one million dan."

Zhu Youtang asked: "Why are there so many missing? Does anyone know the reason?"

The ministers present seemed to be asked about their knowledge blind spots, and no one could come out to answer.

Huai En said respectfully: "Your Majesty, in the past, the Northwest's grain supply, in addition to grain transport, mainly relied on the Northwest military settlements and commercial settlements. Military settlements are where soldiers farm and cultivate land in their spare time.

"As for the merchant settlements, merchants hired people to reclaim wasteland in the northwest, sow and harvest every year, and obtain food locally."

"Ah."

Zhu Youtang said, "Go on."

Huai En continued, "Military settlements have not been abandoned in recent years, but commercial settlements have arisen because of salt permits. According to the court's rules, official salt can be redeemed from salt fields with salt permits, but the salt policy has collapsed in the past few years, resulting in obstructions to salt fields and merchants' resistance to payment. This has directly led to merchants not being active in exchanging grain for salt permits in recent years, causing a large number of commercial settlements in the northwest to fall into a state of abandonment."

Zhu Youtang said: "What should we do if the army is in trouble? Are we going to let the soldiers on the front line defend the country on an empty stomach? I have read the reports from the northwest in the past few months. Some officials and generals have clearly stated that the military households are now living a very difficult life. The salaries they receive are not enough to support their wives and children. Some even have to do work for others in addition to their daily duties to supplement their family income in order to barely make ends meet.

"After the winter, the weather in the northwest was extremely cold, and even work was impossible. There was really no other way, so a large number of military households fled and migrated to Sichuan and other places. Those who chose to stay had to sell their children to make a living... I originally thought that someone was exaggerating, but according to the investigation of the Jinyiwei... a lot of things are happening."

After listening to the little emperor's impassioned speech, many of the ministers present were thinking, isn't it said that the emperor is a little shy?
There are so many officials now, but he doesn't seem to be that cowardly. When he said this, he was full of energy and seemed to be holding back a lot of anger!
Who is this mad at?
As for the late emperor...our late emperor was a stutterer, so it was strange that he could say so many words in a short time.

Besides, many of us hadn’t seen the late emperor for many years before his death.

At this time, a man walked out from the ranks. It was the newly appointed Minister of Personnel, Wang Shu. He said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, from what I have seen, the northwest is short of food and we must solve it quickly.

"I have served in the northwest for many years and I know the hardships and difficulties faced by the soldiers there. If nothing changes, the soldiers at the border of the Ming Dynasty may not be willing to defend the territory."

Liu Ji stepped out and questioned: "Minister Wang, what are you talking about? If the soldiers have no intention to defend the territory, then it is equivalent to not fulfilling their duties. What is the use of them?"

Wang Shu replied coldly: "Lord Liu, the soldiers have fulfilled their duty to defend the territory, so shouldn't the court also fulfill its duty to support their families?
"If this cannot be accomplished, then why should the Ming soldiers be loyal to their duties? If they can't even get food and starve to death, where will people come from to guard the border?"

Liu Ji looked down on him and said, "Everyone says that you are fair in your work, but what's the difference between saying this and not saying anything? Everyone knows that it should be resolved quickly? But can such a huge food gap in the northwest be resolved in a day or two? How long has it been since we received our salaries?" After these words were spoken, many people sided with Wang Shu.

But suddenly I felt that Liu Ji...his image suddenly became taller.

Knew it.

It’s different being the prime minister.

He actually said things in the court that we dared not say... and asked the emperor for wages on our behalf!
That’s right. Before winter, the court issued a sum of salaries. But now, let alone the deductions from the salaries, even the full salaries cannot be paid. The soldiers in the northwest cannot support their wives and children, and we are about to go out and borrow money to support our families!

How poor is the Ming Dynasty court?

Zhu Youtang was greatly surprised and asked, "Is the court so short of money? The Ministry of Revenue can't even handle such a small matter?"

As an emperor, he actually put the blame on the Ministry of Revenue?

It looks like...

The little emperor is not as simple and kind as the legend says. His ability to pass the buck... is quite clever.

Doesn't this just leave the problem to the people in the Ministry of Revenue?

and many more.

Ministry of Households...

Isn't that the government office where Zhang Laizhan works? We are going to impeach him today. The emperor is still very dissatisfied with the Ministry of Revenue. Isn't this telling us clearly that we must impeach Zhang Laizhan? If we fail to do so, we will be sorry for the good public opinion environment created for us by His Majesty.

Zhu Youtang looked around and asked, "Who is in the Ministry of Revenue?"

Everyone then looked over.

Suddenly, he discovered a very serious problem, which was... the Minister of Revenue and the Left Vice Minister were not there, only Zhang Luan was standing there, as if nothing had happened.

Huai En explained, "Your Majesty, the Minister of Revenue Li Min and the Left Vice Minister Li Si both took sick leave and did not attend the court. It is not even autumn or winter yet, and many officials in the court have caught colds and other diseases and have to recuperate at home."

Zhu Youtang asked, "Isn't my father-in-law still here?"

"Um!?"

Zhang Luan then realized that he was calling me.

"The minister is here."

Zhang Luan hurried out.

Zhu Youtang asked, "How long will it take for the Ministry of Revenue to raise 200,000 dan of grain?"

"This one……"

Zhang Luan thought to himself, I have been absent from court recently due to illness. Today I came to court to debate with the scholars. How would I know what the situation in the Ministry of Revenue is like now?
Besides, when have I, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, ever been in charge of anything?

I have always been a slacker, okay?

Liu Ji asked, "Zhang Guozhang, you don't need to go back to investigate even this little thing, do you? It shouldn't take more than a few days to transfer 200,000 dan of grain from the granary in the capital or Tongzhou, right?"

Zhang Luan was furious when he heard Liu Ji's words. He didn't care what the facts were, and immediately retorted, "How long will it take to transport it from the capital to the northwest?
"Didn't you hear what the memorial said? The mountains in the northwest are blocked by heavy snow, and the roads in many places are cut off...

"Besides, the Northwest is so big. Zhangjiakou Fort is close by, and Ningxia and Gansu are also far away. Can they be treated the same? How many days should be prepared? It depends on the situation. Are you asking me to fool Your Majesty?"

When the people present heard this, they couldn't help but laugh.

He is indeed a political layman!

This is because he has never been an official before and doesn't even know how to do basic things. Look at what he said... It sounds powerful, but in fact... it's no different from nonsense.

Just when everyone thought that Liu Ji would embarrass Zhang Luan, a political rookie, on the spot like he had done to Wang Shu, Liu Ji acted like an outsider and directly retreated back to the minister class without saying a word.

You, Zhang Luan, are so awesome, I can’t argue with you, or rather... I’m the Prime Minister, there’s really no need for me to argue with you.

Zhu Youtang was deeply moved after hearing his father-in-law's words. He nodded in approval and said, "Father-in-law is right. The food shortage in the northwest depends on the situation. We can't just give a deadline just to deal with the court and me. This will make it very difficult for the people below to do their job."

A happy meeting between political novices?
The amateur emperor, after hearing what the amateur minister said, actually felt a strong resonance and even praised him highly in the court meeting?

Zhang Luan said, "Your Majesty, I will do my best. I think 200,000 dan of grain should not be too difficult, right? However, after checking the Tongzhou warehouse this year, we found a large gap. To collect so much grain before the end of the year... it depends on the actual situation."

Wang Shu looked at Zhang Luan and asked, "Minister Zhang, even if you don't have an accurate judgment in your mind, you should have an estimate, right? If the allocation is slow, I don't know how many soldiers in the northwest will starve to death."

Zhang Luan said, "People are starving to death... Isn't that a bit alarmist?"

"you……!"

Wang Shu originally adhered to the principle of not competing with Zhang Luan. Since he returned to the court, he had never had a direct conflict with Zhang Luan.

It also has something to do with the fact that we rarely see each other.

After listening to Zhang Luan's "brilliant ideas" on how to do things, he suddenly felt that this guy was a useless scholar. Such a person occupied the position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and you asked him to do the work, but he kept shirking his responsibilities. Your Majesty actually applauded him?

How can I tolerate such a person?
Must impeach!

At this moment, Huai En suddenly said, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue's warehouses are tight right now, and even many places in the south have not yet transported grain to the capital. If we use the Beijing warehouse to transfer grain to the northwest, we may face many difficulties."

Zhu Youtang said: "I think it is most appropriate for my father-in-law to do this. Just like he was able to take out so much money to build the mausoleum for the late emperor. Can anyone else match his courage and ability?"

(End of this chapter)