Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 690: Inner Court Auditor

Qianqing Palace.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Huai En couldn't help but remind him, "Your Majesty, the last large-scale repair work on the passes around Pianguan was at the end of the Jingtai period and the beginning of the Tianshun period.

"In the past few years, due to the glorious victories in several foreign wars when the previous emperor was still alive, the number of Tatar attacks has dropped sharply, and there is almost no defensive pressure at the pass. The court has not allocated money and grain to repair the pass."

Zhu Youtang asked: "No matter how strong the imperial court is, it is impossible for them to not have any defense at all... Is it mainly because they can't come up with money?"

"You could say the same thing."

Huai En said, "In the early years of our dynasty, the repair of the pass was mainly supported by salt taxes, but in recent years..."

There are some things that Huai En is embarrassed to say.

The original intention of opening up the grain was good, but when it came to implementation, it became difficult to carry out in the border areas.

Because the salt tax was collected, it was mainly used as miscellaneous items outside the main expenses of the Nine Frontiers. After all, the soldiers' food and clothing were mainly dependent on military settlements.

The purpose of commercial settlements is to supplement the shortage of military settlements.

As the salt administration collapsed and commercial settlements became deserted, with salt tax revenues plummeting, all the major military garrisons in the northwest tried to be frugal as much as possible, and were considered lucky enough to be able to feed the military households. How could they spare the money to repair the passes?

The border towns could not come up with the money themselves, and the imperial court would not allocate the corresponding funds for repairs because the imperial court itself was also short of money.

From dredging canals to river repairs, from preventing and controlling droughts and floods, from paying officials' salaries to investing in private education, what can we do that doesn't require money?

Governing a country is like managing a household. A penny can make a hero fall, not to mention that Emperor Chenghua was so fond of extravagance and waste and never knew what frugality was.

Seeing that Huai En was silent and stopped talking, Zhu Youtang had a rough idea in his mind and asked immediately: "If the pass cannot stop the Tatars, what should we do if the Tatar cavalry moves south and even threatens the important military towns such as Xuan and Da?"

Xu Pu said: "Perhaps the court does not need to worry."

"Hey, what do you mean by that?"

Zhu Youtang frowned tightly.

Huai En explained: "Your Majesty, in fact, this is the case. The Northwest has its own response system. Each military town can be said to have its own responsibilities. This system has been maintained for decades and has never had any problems."

"what?"

Zhu Youtang felt that his brain was not enough, so he pointed at Qin Ji beside him and motioned him to come closer.

Qin Ji was a little confused and didn't know what the emperor meant.

When Tan Ji walked to the dragon throne, Zhu Youtang pointed in the direction of the inner hall, meaning for Tan Ji to go in.

As Qin Ji walked towards the inner hall, he listened to Xu Pu's additional comments: "When the Tatars invade, no matter how many troops they have, the areas around Pianguan will have corresponding troops to defend against them.

"But right now, because Li Zisheng has led his troops to the border, it will seriously interfere with the local defense deployment, which may lead to conflicts in military and political orders among the military towns. This will be detrimental to the active cooperation of all parties to stop the Tatar troops from invading."

Zhu Youtang was furious and asked, "You mean to say that I was wrong to send Li Zisheng and Zhu Yong to lead troops to the northwest?"

Seeing that the emperor was angry, Qin Ji was thinking in his heart, if this isn't nonsense, what is it?
These civil servants are sincerely trying to embarrass Your Majesty.

While thinking about something, Qin Ji had unknowingly entered the inner hall. When he looked up, he saw a pair of eyes staring at him intently.

Qin Ji was shocked.

If not Zhang Yanling, then who else could it be?
Tan Ji was a little confused.

When did Zhang Yanling return after leaving the palace?

He was completely unaware of this, and the emperor had not arranged for anyone to greet him. Now this young uncle of the emperor suddenly appeared here, and was secretly listening to the previous discussion of military affairs. It was obvious that the problem was not simple!
Now that the emperor has arranged for him to enter the inner hall, isn't it obvious that he wants him to ask Zhang Yanling for countermeasures?

This level of participation...

Tsk tsk, the decision-making power seems to be greater than that of the Prime Minister.

Although it was only aimed at this matter at hand, Qin Ji also realized that the emperor relied heavily on the Zhang father and son.

Qin Ji asked softly, "Second Young Master, what are you doing?" Zhang Yanling said in a voice as soft as a mosquito, "My father is recuperating at home and cannot go out. I am here on behalf of my father to take a look and help Your Majesty solve some problems."

"So what are you doing...?"

When Qin Ji speaks, he usually just gives the beginning, and the rest is self-explanatory.

Zhang Yanling handed over a note with a smile. Qin Ji glanced at it and the specific intention was obvious.

This means that he can hand the note to the emperor and let the emperor continue the discussion according to the contents of the note.

After Qin Ji received the note, he was about to turn back to the front hall, but Zhang Yanling stopped him and handed him a wooden tray with a teacup on it.

Qin Ji was stunned for a moment, then he understood.

Huai En and others saw him come into the inner hall. If he went back empty-handed with a note in his hand, people outside would notice that something was wrong here.

The best way is to use this cup of tea that is still emitting a faint warm steam as a cover-up.

Then others would only think that the emperor arranged for Qin Ji to come in just to get tea.

Of course, this also meant that when Huai En and others asked him what he had done since he came in, he would have to find ways to cover it up and not tell them about Zhang Yanling's presence.

When Qin Ji thought of this, he suddenly felt that all this had been arranged by the emperor long ago, which was far beyond his cognition and ability.

Given his personality, he naturally wouldn't dare to make it public and would just keep things to himself, but it seemed difficult to conceal it for long.

……

……

When Qin Ji came out again, the discussion outside seemed to become more intense.

It mainly discusses whether it is beneficial to the overall situation or there are huge hidden dangers after Li Zisheng and Zhu Yong led their troops to join the defense of Pianguan, and whether it is helpful to the defense of Pianguan or it is extremely harmful.

The person who spoke mainly was the deputy assistant Xu Pu.

As a civil official, he relayed Ma Wensheng's opinions on the matter.

Ma Wensheng himself hated Li Zisheng extremely. This new and old grudges led Ma Wensheng to try his best to prevent Li Zisheng and Zhang Luan from establishing influence in the army. Therefore, he did not praise this matter at all. Instead, he believed that Li Zisheng's going out of the border to meet the enemy was making trouble out of nothing, which put the Ming Dynasty's border into great danger.

Xu Pu may have some doubts about this, but he doesn't want to take the blame right now.

The best way to avoid being blamed is to be a qualified narrator...

It is true that the words came from my mouth, but I adopted the opinion of the former Minister of War Ma Wensheng, so even if Your Majesty disagrees, you should not think that I did something wrong.

Zhu Youtang was already quite annoyed.

I sent a man to the northwest, who won a rare victory. This laid a solid foundation for me to deter the barbarians after I ascended the throne and changed the era name, and made me feel the majesty of an emperor.

But you came and said that this victory was not worth mentioning, and that Li Zisheng and I were just fooling around and even threatened the safety of Pianguan?

Are you still being reasonable?
At this moment, Qin Ji placed the note submitted by Zhang Yanling under the teacup and handed it to Zhu Youtang together with the tea tray.

Zhu Youtang took a general look at it and had an idea of ​​what was going on.

Xu Pu was still talking there:

"…The soldiers of the Beijing camp under the command of the Duke of Baoguo are arrogant and willful. They have no experience in fighting on the battlefield. However, they use the emperor's will to bully local officials and generals internally, but are timid and procrastinate externally. After being humiliated, the local officials and generals will certainly be unwilling to cooperate with them in the battle. They will compete with each other and not move forward. They would have sent troops to resist the enemy, but they may also shrink their defense line because of this.

"It will encourage the Tatars to go even further. In addition to invading the border, they will also harass the people living on the border and destroy the wheat fields in the north that are spending the winter there, forming a revengeful attitude."

A large portion of the grain planted in northern Ming Dynasty was wheat.

These grains are needed to survive the winter. That is to say, if the Ming border soldiers stayed in the city and did not come out, if the Tatars insisted on retaliating, they would likely destroy the farmland, causing a significant reduction in yields during the Ming summer harvest the following year.

(End of this chapter)