prosperous age

After confirming that Wei Guangde still recommended Qi Jiguang to go north for military training, Chen Yiqin didn't say anything more, but put away the box and planned to send it to the palace tomorrow.

He took out a memorial from the desk and handed it to Wei Guangde, "You should read this first."

About Wei Guangde, Emperor Longqing had discussed with Chen Yiqin before, intending to transfer him to the cabinet in the next year, so that he could be summoned frequently.

The biggest difference between cabinet ministers and ministers is here.

Ministers generally would not enter the palace to see the emperor unless they were summoned by the emperor or had important matters to report.

It would be a different matter if the daily court meetings were still carried out in accordance with the "Ming Hui Code".

The current Emperor Longqing, after working diligently for half a year, started to be lazy. Every month, he participated in the first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year's Day, and the three major court meetings. He is much more diligent than his father. .

Emperor Jiajing was the one who didn't even get promoted to the palace of the three courts. It can be seen how much he disliked the courts and the officials.

The emperor wanted to bring Wei Guang into the cabinet, and Chen Yiqin also hoped to have a few more helpers, so naturally he did not object.

As a preparation, Chen Yiqin also began to hand over the affairs handled by the cabinet to Wei Guangde, so that he could familiarize himself with it earlier, so that he would not be in a hurry when he joined the cabinet in the next year.

"what is this?"

While Wei Guangde was talking, he stretched out his hand to take it, and opened it to look.

"Mason?"

Immediately, Wei Guangde whispered, then looked down.

It turned out that this was a memorandum played by Ma Sen, who had just taken over the position of Minister of the Ministry of Accounting after cleaning up the warehouse of the Ministry of Accounting. Wei Guangde was quite excited at first, because the money and food mentioned in the memorandum
many.

Really much.

Who said Daming was poor, with so much money and granaries.

But when he saw the back, Wei Guangde was slightly surprised. According to the memorial, it seemed that it was not enough.

"Ma Senzuo, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs: The annual income of the Taicang Bank is only 130, the annual salary in Beijing is 230, and the border salary is 390. This year, half of the imperial edicts are issued, and it is strange to say that the country has no three-year savings, and the country is not its own country.

Today, there are more than 400 million shi of millet in the second storehouse of Jingtong. Calculated by the monthly rations of the guards and troops, it is only used for two years, and the yearly water is 340 million shi. In addition, Huguang and Xianling two guards were exchanged, and more than [-] stones were actually put into the second warehouse, and the burden of drifting years was no less than [-] million. Years of savings are not available, let alone six or nine years!
And now the four directions are exhausted, the people are impoverished, and the frontier salaries have increased, so there was no quota group.

As if the way of fortune is blocked, I fear that the worries are not limited to all sides, because the article states that the urgent matter for the aftermath is that it is advisable for each province to send Nanjing warehouse rice to change the color of [-] stones and collect eight coins for each stone."

Wei Guangde was still reading the memorial, and he heard Chen Yiqin's words in his ears.

"After Ma Shangshu cleaned up Taicang, he found that there were 130 taels of silver deposits, but the annual income was only 560 million taels. The yearly payment of government and military silver, border salaries, and annual regulations for reissues, totaled more than 200 taels of silver. Two, if we arrive at the Jiji this year, we can see that the silver deposit is only enough for three months."

Wei Guangde nodded slightly. It is true that there is a gap of 350 million taels of silver. The deposit seems to be a lot, but if you calculate it carefully, it will be three months, and the fourth month will not be enough.

"Jing Cang sees 670 stones of grain in storage, 150 stones of monthly grain for the officers and soldiers of the year, and an additional 260 stones in case of Runyue, so the grain that arrives in the Beijing warehouse this year is only enough for more than two years. .”

Chen Yiqin continued, obviously, the two-year grain storage is at a very low level in Beijing, and it has reached a level that makes the Ministry of Finance and the cabinet nervous.

The most important reason, Wei Guangde also knew, was that the flood of the Yellow River in the past two years caused poor water transportation, and Zoushuli Masen also mentioned this point.

The main reason why there is so little grain stored in Beijing warehouses is that water transport cannot bring grain from the south to the north.

"Zhu Shangshu will leave Beijing in a few days."

Wei Guangde said suddenly.

"The dredging of the new river channel has been completed, and we hope that the water transportation can be restored as soon as possible."

Chen Yiqin thought he understood the meaning of Wei Guangde's words. Zhu Heng got more support for the dispute between the government and the opposition last year about opening a new river and dredging an old river.

Originally, this matter had little to do with him, but who asked Zhu Heng to recruit Wei Guangde from his hometown, Chen Yiqin also helped Zhu Heng stand in the cabinet, and only then overwhelmed Pan Jixun's words of dredging the old river.

However, for the sake of safety, the imperial court did not give up dredging the old river, but the key point was to choose Zhu Heng's new river channel, which can be said to be a two-pronged insurance approach.

Thinking about the floods of the Yangtze River in later generations, with the national power at that time, it could only barely maintain the safety of the river. One can imagine the current technical strength.

It's not that officials' corruption caused the flood control rivers to be turned into bean curd, which is the root cause of floods.

In order to keep the dykes and dams in later generations, flood discharge areas were specially designated in many dangerous areas, that is, to blow up the dams when things were too late to divert water to the designed flood discharge areas to solve the problem of insufficient flood discharge.

But that requires very sophisticated monitoring methods that can measure floods in real time and make correct decisions through precise calculations.

In the Ming Dynasty, none of these conditions were met.

In the final analysis, the floods caused by official corruption are actually small floods. If there is a major flood, it is the destiny, and the court has nothing to do except rescue.

Knowing this, Wei Guangde would not bet on water transportation.

After the baptism of later generations, he clearly understands that sea transportation is more economical than river transportation. The current financial difficulties of the Ming Dynasty, if water transportation is used to change the sea, although it cannot be said to fundamentally solve the deficit, it is still possible to relieve some pressure.

Yes, just as he was reading Masson's memorabilia, the thoughts from a few years ago re-emerged.

Shaking his head, under Chen Yiqin's surprised eyes, Wei Guangde said: "Is there any one who can really solve this problem in dealing with floods in all dynasties?"

Chen Yiqin thought about it after hearing the words, indeed, no matter how good the management is, it will only delay for some time, the river will eventually silt up, and it will just erupt in a big flood.

"You mean, water control is useless?"

Chen Yiqin naturally couldn't think of Wei Guangde's thoughts at this moment, but asked hesitantly.

"Water control is useful, but it cannot fundamentally solve the flood problem. Therefore, even if the new river is opened, it will only restore the water transport for a period of time, maybe a few years, maybe more than ten years, but in the end we will face it again."

Wei Guangde whispered.

"Shan Loan, listen to what you said, but what can you do to solve the flood once and for all?"

Chen Yiqin lifted his spirits and asked.

Wei Guangde shook his head, "The flood is intractable, but it is useful to control it. It can ensure that the people on both sides of the river can live and work in peace and contentment for several years. I just don't think we should bet on this."

Chen Yiqin frowned, lowered his head and thought for a moment, and suddenly understood what Wei Guangde meant.

"Change water transportation to sea?"

At the beginning, Prince Yu's Mansion promoted this policy. Although the final result was not satisfactory, the attempt was made after all.

When the grain arrived at Huaishui, it was diverted and shipped from Huai'an to Shandong by sea. After that, a strategy of shipping to Liao was launched, which was implemented for several years.

"Snapped."

Chen Yiqin punched the palm of his left hand with his right hand, and said fiercely: "Forget this festival, when the Yellow River floods, grain can be transported by sea."

"Changing grain from grain to sea can once and for all solve the problem of the flooding of the Yellow River blocking water transport. At the same time, it can save [-]% of the transportation capacity of the imperial court. Although it cannot solve the financial embarrassment of the imperial court, it can be more or less relaxed."

Wei Guangde spoke.

"Huh? It's hard to change everything to the sea."

It was only then that Chen Yiqin understood what Wei Guangde meant. This matter was initially passed because of the drought and the lack of water in the canals, which blocked water transportation.

In Chen Yiqin's view, the change of water transportation to sea is not a big problem for temporary use, but it is very difficult to implement it as a national policy.

Water Transport is too powerful. They have money and can dredge the relationship between North Korea and China, so many officials choose to stand by them.

"It's really inappropriate to talk about it right after the completion of Xinhe."

Wei Guangde nodded, "Oh, I was busy copying books before, but I forgot about this."

Wei Guangde couldn't help being secretly annoyed, he said it last year and put it into practice, and this year when Emperor Longqing ascended the throne, and when Vientiane is renewed, he will talk about this policy again, if not, it will become a national policy and be implemented for a long time.

If the opportunity is missed, you can only wait for the next time.

"Although I can't mention it now, but if I have a chance in the future, I can talk to Uncle."

Chen Yiqin nodded. He actually supported Cao Gaihai, but he didn't want to cause turmoil in the court.

But look at the current cabinet ministers, Xu Jie, Li Chunfang, Guo Pu, and him and Zhang Juzheng. According to his age, Xu Jie is a person who is about to retire, so he can hardly be considered.

Li Chunfang is reasonable, as long as he is reasonable, even if he does not support it, he will remain neutral.

This is already very rare for the people in the court.

As for Guo Pu, Chen Yiqin doesn't think he will continue to stand in the cabinet next year.

Previously because of the war, the officials suspended his impeachment. Although Wei Guangde transferred some people away, Chen Yiqin believes that a new impeachment storm will blow up again soon.

In the current cabinet, the relationship between Xu Jie and Guo Pu is not good at all.

This is also good, so that more of Xu Jie's hole cards will be exposed.

So after all, as long as Zhang Juzheng can be persuaded to support, when the water transportation is interrupted again due to the flood of the Yellow River, they will unite to persuade Li Chunfang, great things may be achieved.

Chen Yiqin didn't think there would be such an opportunity in the past two years, nor did he think that Xu Jie would continue to serve as the chief assistant three years later.

With Emperor Longqing's attitude, next year, Xu Jie might take the initiative to become an official.

"Are the other strategies proposed by Ma Shangshu feasible?"

After talking about water transport, Chen Yiqin brought the topic back to his original purpose, one was to let Wei Guangde understand what the cabinet was in contact with, and the other was to see Wei Guangde's opinion on Ma Sen's proposal.

"It's nothing new. Continue to increase the number of folds, and I'm not afraid that the upright officials below will not be able to survive and be forced to become a turbid stream."

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde pointed to the back of the memorial and said: "There is also a need to suspend the purchase of all kinds of jewelry and jade in the imperial prison and supply warehouse. No wonder His Majesty will be happy when he sees it."

"But His Majesty should agree."

"Of course you have to allow, otherwise, the censor will boldly say something about extravagance and desire, haha"

Wei Guangde smiled and chatted casually with Chen Yiqin.

"Increase the sitting faction. The squad army's salary should also increase the discount"

Wei Guangde frowned more and more on the following comments, and finally handed Ma Sen's memorandum back to Chen Yiqin, saying: "What is said in this memorandum is flashy, and many of the suggestions seem reasonable but are not feasible, and if they are implemented, they will easily cause chaos."

Wei Guangde did not dare to say a word, that is, according to his limited historical knowledge, Li Zicheng, the rebel leader who overthrew the Ming Dynasty, was forced to rebel by the imperial court's reform and saving expenditure.

If Emperor Chongzhen wanted to reduce and revoke the postmen if he didn't have a convulsion, maybe in the 17th year of Chongzhen, Li Hongji might still be sending mansion newspapers and documents to the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that Ma Sen's memorials seem to harm the interests of officials, but how many officials in the Ming Dynasty lived on the imperial salary.

There won't be many objections from the officials, and maybe the grassroots Beijing officials will make a fuss.

However, what Wei Guangde was most worried about was the soldiers and horses transferred from other places to Ji Town to assist in the defense. It is hard to say whether there will be troubles if their salaries are reduced.

With the end of the Shanxi war, as Chen Yiqin said, memorials to impeach Guo Pu began to appear again.

The war was tense before, and the censors also knew that there should be no chaos at that time, so they rested for a while. Now that the war is over, Shanxi's Altan Khan has withdrawn from the Great Wall, and the local barbarians of Ji Town also retreated after the soldiers attacked the Luanhe River. Stopped, plundered and backed away.

I don't know if Xu Jie is playing tricks behind the scenes, but more and more officials seem to be remembering the past, and they have started to impeach Guo Pu.

Some censors even brought up Guo Pu's filial piety due to his father's death in Jiajing 42 years. He also said: "Guo Pu's mother is old and sick, but he doesn't want to beg for her return, and he refuses to take care of his mother. It's really indecent and makes people feel cold."

All of a sudden, he brought out the reasons why Ge Shouli and others took office, saying that Guo Pu's mother was old, but he was greedy for power and position and refused to return to his hometown to take care of his biological mother.

Wei Guangde was dumbfounded when he saw Ling Ru's memorabilia, so he specially sent someone to find out his files and check to see if his parents were okay.

Yes, this mad dog can't stay, Wei Guangde made up his mind, wait a month and use this reason to let him retire and go home to serve his parents.

Finally, after facing these vicious slanders and shameless impeachments, Guo Pu couldn't bear the verbal insults from Ke Dao's officials, let alone the intrigue in the cabinet, and he wanted to quit.

After making up his mind, he went to the three memorials to beg for rest. Emperor Longqing also knew his difficulties, and naturally, according to the usual practice, after rejecting the two memorials for begging for rest, he approved the third memorial and agreed to his request for official appointment.

However, after Guo Pu left Beijing, Xu Jie soon discovered something was wrong.

Gao Gong has two faces on the top and the bottom, but Guo Pu is not. Perhaps because he started his business by offering Qingci to Emperor Jiajing, Guo Pu has always been low-key and kind to others in the court.

When he was in office, no one said anything, but after he left, everyone spoke highly of him, "Yan Guo Pu is upright and generous, fair in dealing with things, and has the style of an elder."

He was very popular, so after he was forced to resign from office, many Beijing officials complained about him in private.

This is Daming officialdom.