Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 590
When Yu Shiyue arrived at the Wuying Hall, the emperor had not yet arrived.

In the side hall, the elders gathered in twos and threes, discussing something.

The first ones were King Zhennan, Duke Feng, and Bo Jing'an. The three of them gathered together. It was obvious that King Zhennan was the main one.

In the back, Yu Qian, Chen Yi, and Xiao Yi stood together, their faces were more serious, their voices seemed to be deliberately lowered, and they all frowned. For some reason, Xiao Yi's expression was quite dissatisfied.

The last few are Wang Wen, Shen Yi and Jin Lian.

In fact, it stands to reason that Wang Wen should stand in Yu Qian's group no matter in terms of status or standpoint.

However, this Otsuka magistrate is capricious. Although he and Yu Qian are both members of the Tianzi Party, he and Yu Qian have never dealt with each other, especially the matter of the East Palace Beifu last time, which made Wang Wen quite dissatisfied with Qian.

Therefore, he would rather be with Shen Yi and Jin Lian, who have no deep friendship, than go there.

Compared with the excitement of the first two groups, this side was obviously deserted. With Wang Wen as a big killer who was always chilling, Shen Shangshu and Jin Shangshu could only stand beside them, with their sleeves wrapped around their eyes and their eyes closed.

Seeing this situation, Yu Shiyue and Wang Ao looked at each other, hesitated for a while.

Logically speaking, at this time, it is most appropriate to go to Yu Qian's side. After all, they all know in their hearts that the reason for the emperor's summoning this time is most likely because of the military settlement.

Then, it would be good to be able to inquire about some news from Yu Qian in advance, at least to be more confident when playing correctly.

However, before they could move forward, Xiao Yi in the distance left Yu Qian and Chen Yi and walked towards them.

"Scholar Xiao."

Everyone is here, so naturally they want to say hello.

During this period of time, Yu Shiyue had a lot of dealings with Xiao Yi because of the affairs of the East Palace, and it seemed that Xiao Yi came early, and he had obviously picked up some words from Yu Qian.

Therefore, Yu Shiyue smiled and cupped his hands.

Xiao Ying is 58 years old this year. He is not very old, but he is very elegant, and his long beard adds a bit of easy-going air.

Although he is now a Hanlin scholar, compared with the first and second in command of the cabinet, his status is still slightly inferior. Therefore, Xiao Ying's posture is also very low, and he bowed his hands politely, saying.

"I have met Mr. Chief Assistant, Mr. Second Assistant."

Xiao Ying took the initiative to come over, obviously he had something to say, and since Yu Shiyue and Yu Shiyue entered the palace, the servants at the side saw that everyone was present, so they silently retreated to report to the emperor.

In other words, there is obviously not much time left for them to talk.

So, after seeing the ceremony, Xiao Yi didn't talk nonsense, but just uttered two words in a low voice.

"Chunwei!"

Yu Shiyue and Wang Ao looked at each other, and they both saw the puzzlement in each other's eyes.

Isn't what we are going to discuss today about the military settlement? What does it have to do with Chunwei?
Just as he was about to ask in detail, footsteps came from outside the hall.

Then, the figure of the eunuch Huai En, the supervisor of ceremonies, appeared outside and cupped his hands.

"Everyone, His Majesty has summoned you, please come with us."

So, they could only suppress the doubts in their hearts, and stepped out of the side hall together.

"My ministers, see your Majesty."

In the Hall of Martial Heroes, the earth dragon has already risen up, the emperor is sitting on the throne, wearing a big red dragon woven gold robe, behind him stand the two big pengs, Cheng Jing and Huai En.

Seeing everyone coming in, the emperor raised his hand with a smile and said.

"Excuse me, gentlemen, sit down."

Seats had already been prepared in the hall, and when everyone was seated, Wynn took a stack of memorials from the case on the side and handed them to several small servants beside him, and then distributed them to the ministers one by one.

Afterwards, the emperor said: "It will be Zhengdan in two days. After the New Year's Eve, the top priority of the imperial court's opening of the seal is to organize the army. This matter, the Ministry of War has been busy for a long time, and finally drew up a rough charter yesterday. I called you gentlemen here today because I want to listen to your attitudes before the New Year's Day, and try to straighten out the regulations as much as possible, so that after the opening of the seal, the court meeting can be smoother."

Therefore, all the officials below nodded their heads one after another, and then opened the memorial in their hands.

Obviously, the memorial is not the original, but a transcription.

Under normal circumstances, in order to avoid wasting time, the internal servants would read the memorandum before the emperor, and then the ministers would directly discuss it.

But obviously, out of importance, the emperor gave everyone a copy so that they could check it at any time during the negotiation process.

Just when everyone was immersed in reading, Yu Qian stood up, and after getting the permission of the emperor, he turned to face the officials and said.

"The matter of the military colony is of great importance and complicated. This old man will briefly explain the content of this charter for you."

No matter what the rumors about Qian are outside these days, and no matter how hard Yu Shaobao is busy with his marriage, in the end, Yu Qian is still Yu Qian.

When it comes to government affairs, he is always meticulous and prudent.

"This border patrol, Yu went to various towns in person to investigate the situation of the various military settlements, and what he found was shocking. The detailed information has been clearly written in the memorabilia in your hands, so Yu will briefly explain it."

"Only taking the few military towns in this inventory as a reference, and taking the number of military settlements recorded by the Ministry of War in the first year of Xuande as a reference, the comparison of the number of military settlements in various places with the registered number is less than [-]%, and the remaining [-]% They were either hidden, or sold privately, or were invaded by the local area, or abandoned as barren fields, making it difficult to cultivate them, all of which were not kept by one general in one place, but were actually owned by the frontier army.”

"At the same time, during the investigation process, Yu discovered a large number of privately cultivated fields that have not been registered with the Ministry of War. The number of these fields is initially estimated to have exceeded the number of military fields that are still under cultivation."

"These privately reclaimed fields were either reclaimed by local generals and enlisted sergeants, and they were taken over for themselves, or they were concealed by the local yamen, and turned into private fields by the army, or reclaimed by sergeants to avoid court taxation. The situation varies. , but they are all farmed by soldiers and not paid taxes by the court.”

"Abandonment of military settlements and rampant private reclamation are parallel issues, and problems derived from this include concealing deserters, misappropriating sergeants, and neglecting drills."

"It can be said that in recent years, the frontier army's combat strength has declined, and it has repeatedly failed in the fight against foreign enemies. This is the source of this."

"Besides, the dismantling of the military settlements has brought enormous pressure to the imperial court. Over the past few years, the imperial court's military expenditure on the border has been increasing year by year."

"Taking the 12th year of Zhengtong as an example, the military expenditure for the frontier army accounted for [-]% of the tax revenue of that year. The expenditure on the frontier army has exhausted the accumulation of the national treasury in the past five years."

"It can be said that if the border troops are allowed to continue to behave like this, our Ming Dynasty's defense situation on the border will become worse and worse. It may even happen that last year, and the imperial court will become increasingly overwhelmed."

"Therefore, it is imperative to straighten out the military settlements!"

(End of this chapter)