Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 111: Adding more gold flowers, killing several birds with one stone

In front of the Renshou Palace, Fan Sirong and ten others were arranged to stand in the very front, becoming the "thorn in the eyes" of some people.

But we can’t offend them, because... the others seem to be just there to participate in the election?

After the imperial lecture, Zhu Changluo walked back to the Qianqing Palace.

Your body is your own, and Zhu Changluo insists on examining himself every morning and evening in order to improve his physical fitness.

The Forbidden City is not small, and if you walk around every day, you will take a lot of steps.

"Have all those concubines entered the palace?"

The emperor suddenly asked, and Tian Yi smiled: "It was arranged for today, Your Majesty wants to see you?"

"Of course I do." Zhu Changluo's words were ambiguous and quite frank, "But there is no need to meet them. It is more important for them to learn the rules by heart. Now that the list has been finalized, please submit a copy of their origins and family situations to me."

Zhu Changluo, who was born on August 11, the tenth year of Wanli, is actually eighteen years old. Since he began to serve as regent last year, he has actually become the master of the Forbidden Palace.

No one can restrain him, but after all, he is at an age full of vigor and vitality.

Although Zhu Changluo was not impatient enough to attack the palace maids first, he was still curious and expectant about the beautiful girls entering the palace.

However, the first thing to consider is whether there are any additional benefits.

Although there is only one queen and two concubines, it does not mean that they cannot be given some other positions to give people some expectations.

Below the concubine, there are the imperial concubines, who do not need to be canonized this time; and below the imperial concubines, there are various positions such as Zhaoyi, Jieyushi, Meiren, Cairen, Xuanshi, and Shunu.

How should I put it? It is quite similar to the promotion of civil officials, except that they have a very simple route to move up, and it all depends on the emperor's favor.

As long as it does not involve the stability of the succession to the throne, it will not arouse opposition from ministers.

To be honest, this is an even more unfamiliar "topic" for Zhu Changluo: he will have to come into contact with a real palace fighting drama next.

Where there are people, there is struggle, and Zhu Changluo has a clear understanding of this.

Since there will always be struggles, it is better to mix in some interests, so that Zhu Changluo will be more familiar with how to deal with it.

When he returned to the Qianqing Palace, he found that the list of beauties entering the palace and their related introductions were already prepared there: this was the main thing that Wang An, who had been with Zhu Changluo for many years, was responsible for during this period. Doing this job well was his greatest achievement, so how could he not be attentive?

But Zhu Changluo did not read it immediately. Instead, he first looked at the latest batch of memorials submitted by Liu Ruoyu.

The first one is the Ministry of Rites' memorial.

Zhu Changluo smiled as he looked at her: "The Ministry of Rites proposes that the imperial concubine be promoted to Empress Dowager, and that the titles of Grand Empress Dowager, Retired Emperor, and Empress Dowager be added. Please approve Zhu Ling's proposal for discussion."

The reason for delaying this matter until the first year of Taichang was, firstly, to give some face to Queen Mother Wang, and secondly, it also required a suitable reason.

Now that the reign has been changed to Taichang, the wedding will take place this year, so it is more appropriate to bring up this matter at this time.

In the context of the emperor's temporary suspension of court, there was also an intention to make the emperor happy.

The process would not be quick, and there were corresponding rituals. Zhu Changluo soon saw what was happening behind him, his eyes slightly narrowed.

The cabinet jointly submitted a memorial, reporting that the amount of gold and silver had increased to 1.2 million taels.

"Bring me this notebook."

Liu Ruoyu looked at the item the emperor pointed out and quickly brought out the corresponding cabinet memorial.

Zhu Changluo looked at it carefully.

The reasons given were: if the problems of abuse and occupation of the Beijing camp were solved, the food and wages of the Beijing camp soldiers could be reduced; the emperor abolished the comprador fees, and promised to borrow special funds from the treasury to meet the needs of the Beijing camp's military preparations, construction and training; if the policy of increasing revenue was successful, the annual revenue was expected to increase; this year there would be a grand wedding and three more relatives of the emperor, so the emperor would inevitably reward them; the Beijing camp was reorganized and the old meritorious officials might be uneasy, so the emperor also needed to appease them.

To sum up, the cabinet ministers could not bear to see the emperor suffer financial hardship, so they specially requested an increase of 200,000 taels of gold and silver to show their filial piety.

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Changluo understood their intention.

The training of the Beijing camp will not be stopped, but the problems of abuse and occupation must be greatly improved so that the court can save some food and wages for the soldiers in the Beijing camp.

The imperial court could not afford to bear any additional expenses for the Beijing Camp except for food and wages. After all, there was no end to the training of soldiers. Did the emperor want to equip everyone with the best equipment, and all this would be borne by the national treasury? The fixed part of the soldiers' food and wages was called monthly food or monthly silver; and when they were on duty, there was also additional food or silver. If the frequency of training was very high, the soldiers would not do it, after all, it was very hard and there would always be some extra expenses.

The cabinet also expressed its intention to implement the current policy of increasing revenue so as to increase annual revenue; it was also considerate of the fact that the emperor would spend a lot of money in the future.

But the most important exchange, Zhu Changluo realized, was to appease the dissatisfaction of important areas with the lack of exemptions by increasing the amount of gold and silver.

He thought about it and picked up the red pen to write on it: [How to distribute the orders? How to prevent the local government from levying additional land taxes? How to arrange the transportation involved? ]

Zhu Changluo knew that this would send a signal that he did not object to the proposal, but why not?
After writing, he said to Cheng Jing: "Tell Wang Zhizhen to arrange a general flag, who must be good at hiding his tracks, loyal and cautious. This year, he will be sent to various places in Jiangnan, with two to three people in each place."

"I obey your order." Cheng Jing was a little curious, but didn't ask.

Zhu Changluo knew that there were some things that the emperor and his subjects did not need to say: the three cabinet ministers all saw that the emperor wanted to take action against the officials and gentry, so the additional 200,000 taels of gold and silver were also bait.

Two hundred thousand taels of gold and silver were equivalent to at least eight hundred thousand shi of grain in the local area.

There will always be places that cannot resist being greedy. Additional taxes cannot be prevented; they can only be imposed in different names.

Those old foxes should not be underestimated.

They had heard the emperor discuss the beauty of gold flowers and silver, so this became a tacit understanding between the monarch and his subjects.

This time, who in Jiangnan would be so betrayed by the three cabinet ministers that they would only be grateful for their "merits" first?
The emperor's red-ink approval was sent to the cabinet, which was a clear statement, meaning that it was acceptable in principle.

Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue were very excited.

"Go to the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Revenue, the Censorate... and the Ministry of Justice. Invite all the ministers and the chief censor to the Ministry of Revenue to discuss the matter." Shen Shixing told the secretary, "Say that you have received a handwritten order from your majesty to discuss the strategy for the individual distribution of gold and silver this year."

At the Shen family, Shen Yiguo’s “recovery” entered the second day, but he could only recover a little bit.

He took out an envelope and gave it to the housekeeper: "Arrange someone to go to Da Sikou's house and ask Xiao's housekeeper to deliver it to Da Sikou as soon as possible, and just say it's an urgent letter from my hometown."

The housekeeper left cautiously, and Shen Yiguan stood quietly in the room.

Shen and Wang are indeed experienced men, hot-tempered and ruthless.

In this matter, they did not let down the literati and officials of Jiangnan in moral terms.

The crime of eating in an ugly way is stupid. He forgot about the previous turmoil and just thought that the ministers in the court had regained the upper hand.

If the emperor is questioned at that time, and he is not implicated more, it will have nothing to do with them; if the emperor is implicated more, the ministers can still mediate and show favor to him.

On such an important matter, the emperor would always pretend to be ignorant as he said that day, right?
Although Shen Yikuan expected that the emperor would probably agree to this matter, he did not expect Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue to discuss it so quickly.

The things he gave were not delivered to Xiao Daheng immediately, but Xiao Daheng was not a stupid man.

In the Ministry of Revenue's office, Chen Qi remained silent after reading the questionnaire.

To put it bluntly, even if the original comprador fee of 200,000 taels still exists, it is not unacceptable.

"What we three think is that local governments should give priority to converting their outstanding debts into gold and silver." Shen Shixing hinted first.

There were no fools here, and everyone remembered the emperor's mastery of financial planning that day.

Li Dai has also been under a lot of pressure in the past two days. Now he has also seen an operational opportunity in this matter: "When assigning by list, we also need to consider whether the chief officials of the prefectures, states and counties are familiar with the transportation of gold and silver after the promotion after the performance evaluation. In the past, the list was only assigned to the provinces. This batch of new lists, since it is the first time, can be directly assigned to the prefectures, states and counties by the Ministry of Revenue."

Xiao Daheng glanced at him and knew that everyone was going to discuss together which people could be included in the scope of being deceived.

No, maybe it also includes those who are promoted.

Who says there can't be a plan within a plan?

There are some places in the newly issued list of 200,000 taels of gold and silver that do not harm the people at all. This must have been reminded by the nobles in the court.

If you encourage the selfish desires of some places that have a bad past, you will definitely be fooled.

Since the emperor was well aware of the benefits of gold flowers and silver, and since he approved the request, why wouldn't he send someone to secretly investigate the details of its implementation?

He said, "Should we invite the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Works, the Dali Temple, and the Ministry of Public Administration to come and discuss this?"

Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue only called them, but Xiao Daheng wanted to call others for Shen Yikuan and himself.

Naturally, everyone should have a part in such a major event.

Otherwise, if their students and old friends are implicated later, wouldn't it seem like everyone is plotting against them?
Wang Xijue looked at him, nodded and said, "Okay."

Shen Shixing sighed and said, "Your Majesty is worried about the additional taxes imposed by the local governments, but I hope that the local governments will understand your Majesty's concern for the people."

He thought about the letters from Jiangnan and wondered if this was finally an explanation.
It is still a one-time thing that becomes a custom every year.

If there are those who are not satisfied, he has done his best.

During this period, people from the Xiao family rushed from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Revenue, and Xiao Daheng read the "urgent letter from home" in a secluded place.

His face was calm: Shen Yiquan has a list, and he, Xiao Daheng, also has his own list!

Not being able to discuss the matter in person is the price Shen Yi has to pay.

(End of this chapter)