Jiajing Chengming

"Your Majesty, I ask you, can you continue to govern like this?"

"Can you sustain the huge expenses of the inner court, support the royal family and the army, and at the same time increase the income of officials and reduce the tax burden on the people?"

"Can?!"

Fang Huai did not directly answer Zhu Houcong's question.

Because he couldn't admit openly that he, the scholar-officials, did not treat ordinary people as human beings.

Therefore, Fang Huai just asked Zhu Houcong other questions.

However, as Fang Huai asked, he became a little excited, and veins on his neck were bulging.

Because he really didn't believe that Zhu Houcong could keep winning like this.

"I can!"

Zhu Houcong replied coldly with these two words.

Fang Huai smiled, obviously unwilling to believe it.

"You may not know that after I reformed the royal family, some of them have already developed a four-wheeled carriage and have begun to study how to use the steam generated by boiling water to improve the corresponding machines."

"even!"

"I have also sent a fleet out to sea to search for new high-yield crops, and used the money earned from the supply and marketing shop to research new fertilizers and new crops that promote agricultural production."

"You may not know that my people have discovered a large amount of copper mines in Luzon."

"So, as long as I am willing to realize Datong and make the court and the people prosperous, it can really be achieved."

Zhu Houcong spoke in a deep voice at this time.

Undoubtedly, Zhu Houcong had too many cards up his sleeve.

After hearing this, Fang Huai fell silent and just pouted sadly.

Because he already understood the meaning behind Zhu Houcong's words, which was nothing more than promoting farming and innovating technology while plundering foreign wealth, so that the world would benefit greatly, especially the Ming Dynasty would benefit greatly.

In this way, the emperor can always do this. At least while the emperor is alive, he does not have to worry about insufficient financial resources to maintain these expenses. He can even use it to promote education, making the threshold for reading lower and lower, and improving people's intelligence.

By then, it will become increasingly difficult for these scholars to have "double standards", to be "hypocritical", and to seek special treatment. Even if they can maintain some privileges, they will have to give up many rights and interests.

Emperor Jiajing himself naturally did not need to worry about the fact that the awakening of the people in the future would increase the difficulty of ruling, because the emperor only lived in this life anyway.

While the emperor is alive, his reputation and authority can even be greater because of the great wealth of the world.

As for the future, for Emperor Jiajing himself, he would naturally rather the people of the world were forced to raise their bottom line so that his descendants would not suffer too tragic a fate due to the change of dynasties. He would also not allow the Ming Dynasty to evolve as it is now, ultimately leading to his descendants being slaughtered because they are the remnants of the previous dynasty.

But Fang Huai knew that this was undermining the foundation of the literati being the leaders of the four classes of people.

But Fang Huai could no longer stop it.

So, he just pouted sadly.

"Your Majesty! I was wrong. I shouldn't trample on the righteousness of the saints. I just want to ask Your Majesty, can you not pursue the improvement of strange skills, not expand abroad, not preach abroad, but just maintain the status quo?"

At this time, Xia Liangsheng, the former chief academician of the Imperial College, fell to the ground and cried and begged Zhu Houcong.

Zhu Houcong replied calmly: "Of course not! Because you can't guarantee that you won't deceive the emperor, the people, or annex other countries!"

"In addition, if the teachings of the saints are only kept in words but not put into practice, and not expanded to educate the barbarians, it is contrary to the teachings of the saints and is not the way of a gentleman!"

"You, Xia Liangsheng, are a Confucian official, so you should not ask me to be content with the status quo and not make progress, and then become a hypocritical and selfish emperor!"

Xia Liangsheng sobbed and replied, "I don't want Your Majesty to be a hypocritical and immoral king who doesn't want to make progress!"

"I just ask Your Majesty not to think too much about personal achievements, but also to understand the virtues of the previous emperors. If Your Majesty does too well, it will seem that the previous emperors were not so wise and sage!"

"This is not the way of loyalty and filial piety! Therefore, I, your Majesty, dare to beg you to consider the past emperors and just be a ruler who maintains the status quo, leaving some room for future generations!"

……

……

"The emperors of all previous dynasties were rulers who loved their people and hoped that the Ming Dynasty would last forever."

"So, only by doing these can I truly uphold loyalty and filial piety! Instead of disregarding the lives of the people and the prosperity and decline of the country for the sake of a superficial image of loyalty and filial piety!"

"What you said is that you don't want me to really treat the people of the world as human beings."

"I just don't understand why you are so afraid that the common people will be treated as human beings by the emperor?"

"Since you are afraid, why bother talking about the righteousness of saints or learning the righteousness of saints? Isn't it better to just respect the method of fooling the people and persecuting them?"

When Zhu Houcong said this, he looked at the ministers in the court and said, "Tell me, do you want to treat the people as human beings?"

"Your Majesty, the saints have never said that they don't treat the people as human beings, but have always advocated benevolent governance and loving the people!"

The Cabinet Chief Minister Yang Yiqing spoke first at this time.

Zhang Cong also followed suit and said, "I second your opinion! A truly benevolent and filial monarch should regard caring for the people as the right path, rather than seeing caring for the people as a daunting task! And he should not just do superficial work!"

Zhu Houcong nodded.

The rebel general Fang Liang also spoke up at this time: "Your Majesty, I know that you want to enrich the country and strengthen the army. We should not rebel, but we have no choice. You have made drastic reforms and eliminated corruption. Although you have enriched the country and strengthened the army, and greatly alleviated the people's suffering, you have used most of the increased financial resources to strengthen the army and save the people. Therefore, the lives of us wealthy families are really getting more and more difficult!"

Speaking of it.

Fang Liang started to cry: "Originally, because a large number of refugees no longer have to become slaves after you worked hard to govern the country, the price of buying new servants for us big families has become more and more expensive. In order to keep the original servants in the family, we have to raise the monthly salary frequently, which makes it even more difficult to maintain the expenses!"

"And a wealthy military household like me, who is guilty of this, has been able to take advantage of the difficulties faced by ordinary military households to get a large number of them to voluntarily join our family as slaves, thereby reducing the cost of employing servants. But if you want to reform the military households and let ordinary military households live like human beings, then the price of servants for a wealthy household like us will become higher, and we will have to cut our servants!"

……

……

"It's because you don't work hard."

"Have you been serious about running your business over the years? Have you been determined to make achievements?"

"You don't want to work hard, but you blame me for my efforts to govern the country so that you can't have a group of servants!"

Zhu Houcong spoke lightly at this time.

Fang Liang was instantly defeated when he heard what Zhu Houcong said. He suddenly struggled to rush towards Zhu Houcong, and shouted with a ferocious face:
"Zhu Houcong! Damn it, what are you saying? Who wants to work so hard to expand their family business? Who wants to be rich and powerful? They want to make the poorer people in the world more poor and the richer people less rich, so that they can increase their wealth just by forcing the poor to work harder. Do you want to have more people as rich as you in the world?!"

Zhu Houcong was not furious. Instead, he said calmly, "I am not saying this in a sarcastic way. This is the truth! Your family has not become richer after I ascended the throne because you did not work hard. Otherwise, you could have become richer like the Fei family, the Wuding family, and the Xinjian family because of my reforms and elimination of corruption!"

"You are a wealthy person who wants to be the best without working hard. You deserve to be cut into pieces now!"

"As a military official, being stupid is not a problem, but being afraid to go to the battlefield and make achievements is!"

Zhu Houcong then looked at Liao Daonan and said, "As for you civil officials, greed for money is not a problem, but your unwillingness to work for the people is!"

"Your Majesty is telling the truth, but why can't you admit that people in the world don't want to work hard and prefer comfort?"

Liao Daonan saw Zhu Houcong looking at him and took the initiative to ask about Zhu Houcong. (End of this chapter)