Princess Fuyao

Chapter 195

If it weren't for Guo Chenghai and Hao Zhiqian's efforts to purge the bureaucracy and lay a good foundation in the past few years, the Yong Dynasty would not have the current stability and prosperity, and there would be no major disturbances in the court situation.

At this time, there are only three ways to become an official. Either you have your thighs in your hands, and in the future, relying on the hard work of supporting you, you will be bossy and high-spirited in the court, or you will be the object of cleaning in the future. Only a small number of people can be ten thousand Fighting back with strength, he let Er wind from east to west, north and south, and remained neutral with great difficulty. In the end, he was still accepted by the new emperor and became a tumbler standing in the two dynasties.Chinese people respect the doctrine of the mean, and most people want to remain neutral, including the Fuyao couple. Liang Mingrui is easy to handle. He took over the post of Marshal He. He only needs to be responsible to the emperor. Pulling and pulling, those caring people saw that his attitude was clear and his daily actions were impeccable, even if he had an idea, he couldn't do it.

Fuyao's fate was not so good. The emperor appointed her an official that had never been seen in the Yong Dynasty—three special inspectors, that is, temporary special commissioners, responsible for inspecting the accounts of the household department for the past two years, mainly salt tax.

In the past, the Yong Dynasty ate sea salt along the southeast coast, rock salt produced in Longxi Province in the north and west, and lake salt produced in the Central Plains in the central part. Sending it over, it stands to reason that the less salt tax collected by the Central Plains Province was made up in the Jiangnan tax, but now, the imperial salt tax has been greatly reduced.

The governor of Jiangnan reported that illegal salt was rampant, leading to a sharp drop in tax revenue. The emperor sent the cold-faced general Guo Bin to patrol the canal with his elite troops. The taxes that came still made the emperor very dissatisfied. Not only the taxes in Jiangnan, but also the taxes in all provinces have been reduced.

In the past few years, Guo Chenghai rectified the administration of officials, and every year, the New Year's Fu came in. The court even built a new large warehouse for this.

It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Emperor Jiaming immediately felt stretched and embarrassed everywhere. He believed that natural disasters and man-made disasters happen every year, and there has not been a particularly large natural disaster in the past two years. Is it for him to cry poorly?Now that he is crying poor, although the taxes in various provinces are not as good as before, they are still very impressive. Why is he suddenly so nervous?For this reason, Emperor Jiaming dismissed Yang Qianyi, Minister of the Household Department, and replaced him with a new official, Sun Jiayan, but the situation did not change much.

No, the emperor got angry and sent the second prince away.In the past three or four years, the second prince has become Emperor Jiaming's fire brigade, wherever there is trouble, he is there.

Otherwise, just relying on a third-rank title, Fuyao still wants to check the accounts of first-rank and second-rank officials, just dream.

Holding the imperial decree, Fuyao and Liang Mingrui were very pessimistic. All the officials in the court understood why the Ministry of Households had no money, but the emperor didn't know whether she would lift the cover or not?
"I've never seen a crown prince so worthless, he poached my father's corner, and I don't even think about it, this world will be his in the future." Fuyao said angrily.

"There's something tricky about it. The crown prince is useless, but those princes, all of them keep retainers and attract courtiers. Where does the money come from? This household department should not only be the crown prince's trouble, otherwise, there would have been The speaker is impeached."

"I also thought about it. If the princes who want to compete for the crown prince can catch the prince's pigtails, how can he be spared? The household department has been calm and calm, and there is no official speech. Everyone must be dirty. Fuyao sighed, "If I find out the problem, won't I offend a large group of people? But if I can't find out the problem, the emperor will not be able to pass this test. It's really a stab at the head, and a knife at the head. There is no way for me to survive."

In the court for more than ten years, Liang Mingrui has long since gained the notoriety of a "smiling tiger". He always smiles and keeps his composure, but the pests that endanger the court will be quickly wiped out. Can't sleep, but there is nothing to do with him.

Seeing that his wife was so worried, Liang Mingrui put his arm lightly on her shoulder: "Don't be afraid, at worst, the emperor will go west by crane, and we two will resign and live in seclusion." His ideal has not been realized for more than ten years. Now, he said Coming out is just to comfort Fuyao, which means, you just let go and do it, and I have a way to deal with the aftermath.

Fuyao leaned against his chest gratefully: "Hey, I'm worrying too much. The emperor asked the second prince to take full responsibility. I just need to clarify the accounts. He will decide whether to lift the cover or not."

"Yeah, the sky is falling, and the tall man is holding it up." He also smiled as he spoke.

It's not that he didn't think of this just now, but the second prince is also a prince, if Fuyao works under him this time, it is very likely that he will be assigned to this party, and it will be difficult for him to get out in the future.

However, the second prince is the most hopeless prince.

It's not that he is bad, but that the emperor has never considered him as an heir at all.

The second prince belongs to the hard-working type, and is the Shangfang sword in the hands of the emperor. Over the years, he has made great contributions to the court. The emperor's intention is to let him continue to assist the new emperor in the future.

Several princes vying for the heir, all tried their best to win over the second prince, and they all took precautions against him—the emperor knew that the second son was capable, what if one day, he suddenly figured it out and handed over the imperial power to him?
Fuyao went through the formalities at the Ministry of Officials, received his official uniform, and accepted several yamen servants and officials from the Ministry of Households, and immediately took office.

This task, no matter whether it is done well or not, may offend people, even some great figures, but if she refuses to try her best, the emperor will not be able to pass this test. It may not be easy to wade through this muddy water.

Sun Jiayan, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, quickly sent someone to deliver several large boxes of account books, which were piled up on the outside floor of Fuyao's official residence. When Fuyao saw the running account books written in Chinese characters, he felt his head was as big as a bucket—this depends on the year of the monkey and the month of the horse. Woolen cloth?The key to this kind of accounts seems to be too troublesome. The few officials under him are all old fritters who have worked in the household department for more than ten years. They may not be willing to try their best.

Fuyao thought of the modern accounting books, how about reforming these accounts with that method, although only he can understand, but the details of the entry and exit are clear at a glance, if you are cultivating a few cronies, you don't have to worry about being unclear.

Fuyao drew the appearance of a modern account book, asked the outside bookstore to help engrave the account book, and then asked a group of officials to help fill in the account numbers as required. This work took more than half a month, and several officials could do it Impatient.

"Master Ji, these account books are good, why do you need to redo them?" Zhang Mingji was the first to protest to Fuyao, relying on his sister-in-law's niece, who is the concubine of the second son of the official minister's servant. .

"Does Master Zhang think that my qualifications in the household department are shallow and I don't know how to do things?"

The officials of the household department all came from the imperial examination, and they understand everything, but they don't understand the account books very well, and they think it's what the lower Liba people do, and they don't bother to Focusing on this, on weekdays, matters related to accounts are all done by these small officials. Therefore, in the Ministry of Households, there is a strange phenomenon. say.

For example, right now, if someone bribes a small official who helps to check the accounts, if Fuyao doesn't understand, it will be as difficult as climbing the sky to figure out these accounts.

Some people may think that they spend money to hire an accountant to clean up these accounts.This is okay, but the final credibility is questionable. Did your own people tamper with it?Besides, the salaries of officials are only so low, and it is hard to say whether the hired accountant can resist the sugar-coated shells outside.

For example, the governor of Jiangnan built a section of the seawall, which took five years and cost more than 800 million taels of silver. With such a huge figure, 50 million of which was embezzled, isn't it easy?If he is willing to take out 80 taels for the officials who check the accounts, the few taels of monthly salary that officials pay out of their own pockets is not enough to look at.Few people can face such a huge temptation, and they can still face the collapse of Mount Tai without changing their expressions.

When Yang Chenguo, the chief assistant of the dynasty, Tan Hualang, who was a leader in the list, was good at general affairs and familiar with accounts, and caught up with Guo Chenghai's good days of clarifying the administration of officials. The treasury of the household department was full, and the emperor had a loose hand. In terms of the use of money, he was often able to come up with subtle insights that were in line with the emperor's wishes, and finally he stood out and became the chief assistant.

Seeing Fuyao's stance, these few officials were obviously a congregationalist, and they seemed to be more confident than Yang Chenguo, so they couldn't calm down.

As soon as he heard that the emperor asked to check the accounts, the Jiangnan governor's resident teacher in the capital quietly approached the person who checked the accounts. As for what promise he gave, he could figure it out with his toes.

But right now, Fuyao is not at all like other officials, asking them to take out their abacus to calculate accounts, but to re-copy the accounts according to her method.What is she going to do?
Fuyao's behavior quickly reached the emperor's ears, and the speaker obviously had ulterior motives: "Your Majesty, from the perspective of my ministers, Lord Ji is no longer the Lord Fu County who fought desperately on the battlefield and took the lead bravely. She actually Redoing the accounts is obviously a waste of time. In the blink of an eye, it will be a month, and it will be recalculated again. The part of the salt tax in Jiangnan Province should be almost completed, but what about Mrs. Ji? She just finished copying it. Waiting for her After doing the math again, Jiangnan is already well prepared to deal with it.”

This one seems to be wholeheartedly thinking about the emperor, the assistant minister Wang Zhengyan is the oldest in the cabinet, when Qian Zhongyong passed away, he still wanted to overwhelm Hao Zhiqian and become the second assistant minister after Guo Chenghai.In the past, no one could figure out why he was not very talented, so why did he stop at every step and soared all the way, and later found out that he was the cousin of the crown prince, and the emperor wanted to support the crown prince, so he treated the people around the crown prince too There is care.

(End of this chapter)