Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 224: My Family Has a Younger Brother

"It's good that Liao's salary is abolished, but it's true that there is no need to collect it now."

"Jianlu has already retreated to Beishan and Haixi, and it would be mean to the people to collect Liao's salary."

"It's fine if it's abolished, but King Qi did something good..."

On September [-]th, as Zhu Youjian's memorial was seen by the cabinet and then publicized, everyone knew that His Royal Highness King Qi, who was "good at making money", took the initiative to ask the emperor to abolish the Liao pay.

Once such things start to ferment, even if the court dislikes Zhu Youjian's Qi Chu Zhe Xuan Kun, Dong Lin and other parties, he will have to say that he has done something to benefit the people.

As for the Eunuch Party and the King Qi Party...

"His Royal Highness King Qi is a sage born thousands of years ago! If His Royal Highness hadn't calculated the family fortune and clarified the guards, I am afraid that the court would still be in arrears for many years."

"Eternal ages is a bit exaggerated, but it is not an exaggeration to say that it will not come out in a thousand years..."

"If you want me to say, His Royal Highness still relied on His Royal Highness to strategize and draw the old slave into the encirclement step by step. In the end, he beheaded more than [-] people in one fell swoop, far away from the former Song Dynasty."

"Who in the former Song Dynasty is qualified to compare with my Royal Highness Daming King Qi? My Royal Highness Daming Qi King commanded troops at the age of eleven, and dared to face Bo Yunai's [-] cavalry, commanded Mangui to attack nine hundred miles, and wiped out Bayue in one fell swoop." At the age of fourteen, he started the battle to restore the Liao Dynasty, even Tang Taizong Li Shimin is far inferior to His Highness at this age!"

In the Huangji Hall, many eunuch officials and Qi royal party officials began to praise Zhu Youjian one after another. The degree of boasting almost put Zhu Youjian side by side with the saint.

While they were saying these words, officials from other parties looked at them impatiently.

Of course, the ones they care about the most are the leader of the King Qi Party, Gu Bingqian, Minister of Rites, and Cui Chengxiu, the leader of the Eunuch Party.

Gu Bingqian was originally an official of the Kunming Party in Suzhou area, but he heard that he was going to be replaced a few days ago, so Dang even abandoned the Kunming Party and planned to turn to other parties.

At this time, Zhu Youjian won a complete victory in the battle of recovering Liao. Compared with the Xiayi Party, he was just a small guy, so he did not go to Wei Zhongxian as in history, but directly found Cao Huachun.

After Cao Huachun asked Zhu Youjian for his opinion, he suggested to Zhu Youxiao that Gu Bingqian was a good person, and when Zhu Youxiao heard that he was recommended by his younger brother, he decided not to choose the new Minister of Rites.

In this way, Gu Bingqian's position is stable, and his greatest advantage is obedience.

Every day after the discussion in the Wenhua Palace, he would always go to the East Palace to ask if there were any instructions from Zhu Youjian. If there were, he would deal with them non-stop.

No, like this time when Zhu Youjian proposed to cancel the Liao pay, Gu Bingqian also led hundreds of Beijing officials to fight for the injustice of the people.

As for the eunuchs, Wei Zhongxian saw that the emperor did not refute King Qi's memorial, and immediately understood what the emperor meant, so he also beat the drums and waved the flag.

In this way, no matter how you look at it, Qi Chuzhe Xuankun and Donglin Party officials who are still hesitant, are more like the eunuchs they say are harming the country and the people.

Not only they think so, even the people in the capital think so.

Three days had passed since Zhu Youjian's memorandum was published, and His Royal Highness King Qi's abolishment of Liao's salary began to spread around the capital with the help of the Yumajian Huangdian.

Not only is it that simple, it can even be said that Cao Huachun's methods are somewhat well-known to later generations.

He posted the list of officials who proposed to abolish the Liao pay on the promotional wooden signs at the entrances and inside the stores of various imperial stores. Under Zhu Youjian were Gu Bingqian and other Qi royal party officials.

In this way, the people who buy rice, oil and salt every day can only see the names of these people and remember them in disguise.

If only these people are remembered, or only the names of these people appear, does that mean that everyone else is against it?This kind of doubt will suddenly arise in the hearts of the people.

The most embarrassing thing is that the Huangdian also follows up the progress of canceling the Liao pay every day, which makes the people in the five northern provinces itch to see it.

Because of the white paper pasted on the wooden sign, it was either a minister who said that it was not good to abolish Liao pay, or a nonsense that suggested that only half of it should be abolished.

These words were posted up by the Huangdian, and in the end, the bad guys were all done by other people, and Zhu Youjian became a white lotus.

This matter made the officials itch with hatred, but they had no choice but to wait for the day of the tenth day to slack off the emperor and abolish the Liao pay.

However, things backfired. When they were all about to compromise with the emperor, and finally changed the reputation of abolishing Liao pay pushers, Wei Zhongxian came out...

In front of the ministers, Wei Zhongxian walked grandly under the high platform where he usually stood, and then said triumphantly:

"Long live, there is an order. After one day, Gu Bingqian, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, will be transferred as the minister of the Ministry of household affairs, Li Zongyan, the minister of the Ministry of household affairs, will be the minister of the Ministry of Rites. Gu Bingqian, the minister of the Ministry of household affairs, will start to abolish the land tax and customs duties in the Liao Dynasty."

"..." Wei Zhongxian's words instantly made Zhu Guozuo and the others look ugly.

They had thought about why the emperor's abolition of Liao's salary had to be known to everyone, but now it seems that this is completely letting them take the blame.

At the beginning, in the Wenhua Palace, Zhu Guozuo and others discussed the matter with the idea of ​​canceling miscellaneous items, salt tax, and customs duties, and then only collecting [-]% of the land tax, which is equivalent to reducing the land tax by [-]%.

If they operate in this way, the merchants, salt merchants, and gentry behind them will all benefit, and compared with the common people who still collect Liao pay, they will be able to show a sense of gap and superiority.

But things backfired, and now the emperor clearly meant to use them as guns.

Using the ambiguous words of the Royal Horse Supervisor Huangdian, they only proposed to reduce the Liao pay by half, and then suddenly threw out the land tax, the full reduction of tariffs, and the retention of miscellaneous and salt taxes.

In this way, wouldn't it be that they proposed to reduce all land taxes and tariffs, and then retain the salt tax and miscellaneous items?

The former is a tax levied on thousands of households in Daming, while the latter is a tax levied on "small groups" such as salt merchants and merchants.

Even if the free land tax can satisfy some gentry and big landlords, they can't explain to the salt merchants and big merchants...

After they figured everything out, Zhu Guozuo, Shen Yun, Gu Tianjun, Tang Binyin and the others looked ugly.

Although they can explain, and the explanation is flawless, it becomes a problem whether those people will believe them.

From their point of view, they have undoubtedly offended this group of people, and from the emperor's point of view, the taxes that were supposed to be collected from tens of millions of households now only need to be collected from tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. The difficulty of tax collection has been reduced a lot in an instant.

From Zhu Youjian's point of view, the emperor's operation basically put a hat on his younger brother as "loving the people and being lenient to the people".

In this way, wouldn't Zhu Guozuo and the others become idiots?
Therefore, they subconsciously looked at Qi Shijiao, Guan Yingzhen, Liu Yixiu and other Qi Party, Chu Party, and Donglin Party officials.

It's just that for these parties, Tian Fu is the big head they want to reduce.

Not every party has the support of so many big businessmen like Jiangnan.

Not to mention Zhu Youjian's imperial store, which has already squeezed the big businessmen in Shandong out of the market.

For these three parties, what is the relationship between merchants and them?No embellishment was given to them.

Land tax reduction is what they want most, because it can benefit the big landlords and small and medium landlords behind them.

Zhu Guozuo and others need contrast and a sense of gap, and Qi Shi teaches them to also need it.

Pointing to the big landlords and squires here and saying that the land tax has been reduced, and then pointing to Jiangnan and saying that the Liao pay in Jiangnan is still being collected, a contrasting sense of vanity appears instantly.

Since the goal can be achieved, why bother to resist the emperor's will and go to help the three parties of Zhejiang, Xuankun and Zhejiang?
Thinking of this, the officials of Qi, Chu, Donglin and the three parties all relaxed, while Zhu Guozuo and others watched this scene clenching their teeth and gripping the wat board tightly.

This is the sorrow of the party struggle in the late Ming Dynasty. The sudden rise of the southeast to change rice into mulberry was destined to embark on the road of merchants.

Once the interests are separated, it will be difficult to unite again.

The demands of each party are different, so it is naturally easier to defeat them one by one.

Zhu Youxiao played this hand, and this hand was really beautiful.

"Retire..."

The minister of Honglu Temple struck the bell to announce the dispersal of the court, and after hundreds of officials shouted long live, they withdrew from the court one after another with different expressions.

King Qi, Eunuch Dang, Qi Chu Donglin and other party officials all smiled happily, but Zhe Xuankun and the Fujian Party were so gloomy that they could drop water...

But when they were about to think about how to explain to the people below, Gu Bingqian, the leader of King Qi's party, went to the Xuqin Palace in the East Palace as usual, and Cui Chengxiu also went to the Supervisor of Rites.

The members of the Donglin Party looked at their leaving backs, and Dang even began to mock, but the two remained unmoved.

A quarter of an hour later, Gu Bingqian came to Xuqin Palace first, and met Cao Huachun who was summarizing with a book.

"Cao Bingbi, today's court meeting..."

Seeing Cao Huachun, Gu Bingqian saluted respectfully, and then began to ask cautiously.

But before he finished speaking, Cao Huachun opened his mouth and said:

"I just found out about this matter. Long live these few days in the closed Kunning Palace, even Wei Zhongxian and I can only see each other occasionally."

"Thinking about it, Her Royal Highness has already started preparing for the childbirth."

"The process of abolishing Liao's salary..." Gu Bingqian wanted to ask whether he should make the decision himself or wait for the King of Qi to make the decision, but he dared not make it too obvious.

Regarding this, Cao Huachun said frankly: "The summary of the Yumajian has also been made, and they will be sent to Shenyang together. Let's ask His Highness what he thinks."

"Okay, if that's the case, then I'll retire..." Hearing what Cao Huachun said, Gu Bingqian heaved a sigh of relief, then bowed and retreated.

After he retreated, Wang Chengen, who was in the study beside him, also came out, holding some documents that had just been sorted out.

He looked at Gu Bingqian's back, frowned and said:

"Students from Yanshan can become officials in only two years, and I don't know why His Highness wants to take these people in."

"After all, Yanshan students are young, and they are destined to be too young to sit in some seats. Presumably His Highness has his own considerations." Cao Huachun replied, and then said with a headache:
"It's just that what these students have learned is too different from the current imperial examinations, and the reform imperial examinations are too involved. I'm afraid they can only be Jia Enke."

"If you want Ganke, it will take a few months to sing with the parties."

"Anyway, His Highness is confident, we just need to do well what His Highness has arranged." Wang Chengen was very optimistic.

"I hope..." Cao Huachun let out a long sigh, then called Ti Qi and sent all the documents to Shenyang.

At the same time, Cui Chengxiu also came to the Supervisor of Ceremonies, and in the courtyard of the Supervisor of Ceremonies Wei Zhongxian, he saw Wei Zhongxian who was lying on a chair, enjoying the maid pressing his legs and tapping his shoulders.

"Mr. Factory, if the Liao pay only abolished the land tax, then some days ago there were some people's moistening pens..."

Squatting down next to Wei Zhongxian, Cui Chengxiu asked flatteringly, and Wei Zhongxian said lazily:
"Let them rest easy, at least with our family here, His Royal Highness King Qi will spare them some trouble in the future."

"If we also tear ourselves apart, we don't know who His Highness will be the first to take the knife at that time..."

Under his lazy demeanor, there was a glance in his eyes, and this glance also made Cui Chengxiu repeatedly say:
"The lesson from the factory owner is that this group of people always pushes an inch, and it's good to beat and beat."

"After that, when Gu Bingqian cancels Liao's salary, shouldn't we be in charge?"

"Well...it depends..." Wei Zhongxian replied, and then he chatted with Cui Chengxiu about filial piety in various places, and talked about who can be promoted.

Although Cui Chengxiu did not surpass Zhao Nanxing's ability to be the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, with the help of Wei Zhongxian, he still took the position of the left servant of the Ministry of Officials.

Therefore, he has some power in the selection of some officials, and he is even more favored in front of Wei Zhongxian.

But this kind of power actually comes from the imperial power, and the imperial power...

"Cough cough..."

In Kunning Palace, Zhu Youxiao's cough attracted the attention of Zhang Yan who was lying on the bed. She sat up on the bed, looked at Zhu Youxiao who was processing the memorial, and said with concern:

"Long live, let's add a piece of clothing. The weather is really changing fast, so as not to catch the wind and cold."

"Well, that's okay..." Zhu Youxiao did feel a little cold, and then ordered someone to bring a big fur coat and put it on his shoulders, before he lowered his head and continued to deal with the memorial.

[Jie Xuelong from the Criminal Division said: The salary should be checked, the soldiers should be cleared, the military supplies should be paid, the cavalry should be judged, and the redundant generals should be dismissed. 】

[During the Hongwu period, there were more than [-] civil servants and more than [-] military officers.During the Wanli period, the number of civil servants increased to more than [-], and the number of military personnel increased to more than [-].I don't know how many times it has increased today.Anyone who can be cut can save hundreds of thousands of taels of salary every year.Long live your permission. 】

In addition, what Zhu Youxiao said was strange happened that some officials took the initiative to abolish civil and military officials to solve the problem of redundant staff.

Zhu Youjian told him about the three redundant things, and he has been paying attention, but what he didn't expect was that this kind of thing was actually suggested by an official of the Ministry of Punishment.

"Xie Xuelong...Xie Xuelong..."

Zhu Youxiao murmured, but suddenly frowned after a while.

If he remembers correctly, this Xie Xuelong is a member of the Donglin party, and the other party is Shangshu, could it be for party struggle?

Thinking about it, Zhu Youxiao took another look at the memorial. After a while, he didn't find any traps before he sighed and said:
"My younger brother said in the past that there are many capable ministers and officials in Donglin. I was still a little reluctant to believe it."

"At present, it seems that there are indeed capable officials among them. It's a pity that such people are not reused in the interior. It is really a pity for the court."

"If I can recommend capable officials from all parties like other parties, I don't need to..."

Zhu Youxiao didn't say the following words, but just glanced at Xie Xuelong's memorial, and then closed the memorial.

Even though he did this, he also knew that there was a high probability that this memorial would be rejected by the cabinet, the six departments, and the six departments.

He continued to look down, and then saw something he didn't want to see.

[Scholar Liu Yixiu from the Zhongji Palace said: I am old and dizzy, it is difficult to deal with the imperial court...]

This memorial is Liu Yixiu's resignation letter, and the reason why Zhu Youxiao didn't want to see it was because it was Liu Yixiu's twelfth request for resignation from the above table after the end of the first battle against Liao Dynasty.

"It seems that he really wants to leave..." Zhu Youxiao sighed helplessly, just because Liu Yixiu was, after all, a rare capable official in Donglin.

Not to mention anything else, in the past few years, Liu Yixiu has not specifically targeted Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao, which is enough to make Zhu Youxiao feel sorry for him.

Just looking at the appearance in front of him, it is obvious that Liu Yixiu saw that the conflict between the imperial power and the officials of various parties was about to erupt, and he did not want to betray many colleagues behind him, nor did he want to fight against the imperial power, so after Zhu Youjian recommended Sun Chengzong to join the cabinet , he chose to go to the dictionary silently.

Zhu Youxiao could understand Liu Yixiu's difficulties, so after taking a last look at the content of the memorial, he sighed and picked up his pen, and agreed to Liu Yixiu's memorial to resign from office and return to his hometown.

For Zhu Youxiao, Liu Yixiu left and Sun Chengzong joined the cabinet. Based on his relationship with Sun Chengzong, Sun Chengzong would continue Liu Yixiu's way.

In this way, Donglin's influence will not increase, and the imperial power will not be restricted, so it can be said that it is a win-win move.

But after agreeing with the pen, a flash of inspiration flashed in Zhu Youxiao's mind, and then a smile was drawn on the corner of his mouth, but the smile was a bit bitter.

"So my younger brother knew that Liu Yixiu would submit his resignation, so he recommended Mr. Sun..."

Things are linked one after another, and I have to say that Zhu Youjian's growth rate is so fast that even Zhu Youxiao can't help but sigh.

Thinking back three years ago, my younger brother was just a child who proposed "ideal means". Two years ago, he hoped to take advantage of the Huaibei famine to rectify the officialdom. A year ago, when Xu Hongru rebelled, he didn't say anything. Now, he is even more taciturn. Silently made a move.

Zhu Youjian's official methods became more and more proficient, but such proficiency made Zhu Youxiao feel empty.

Maybe it's because his younger brother is too good, which caused him to worry about gains and losses.

In the past, he could use his younger brother's soft-hearted and weak-hearted ideals to help the other party use the means to rectify the officialdom.

But at present, his younger brother has grown up, and it seems that he no longer needs him, but he has become a person who enjoys blessings.

What should I say?He also hopes that his younger brother can rely on him, but his younger brother...

"Huh... It's a good thing, at least my brother can protect himself and not be fooled by outsiders without me."

With a long sigh of relief, Zhu Youxiao didn't think about it anymore, anyway, that's fine.

He picked up his pen and continued to deal with the memorabilia, and at this time, Jin Yiwei's Ti Qi also stepped up his horse, sending the affairs of the capital and the income and expenditure documents of the Imperial Horse Supervisor to Shenyang at a speed of eight hundred miles.

For three days, the capital officials in the capital ran around, and Zhu Youjian also received the news and documents from the capital three days later.

After getting the file, he immediately opened the final summary.

[On the first day of October in the third year of Tianqi, a total of [-] stones were entered into the land, more than [-] taels of silver and more than [-] guan were deposited in the imperial store, and the Department of Shipbuilding was responsible for [-] More than [-] taels, more than [-] horses and more than [-] cattle entered the Yanshan Coal Yard...]

There are several transactions in the document book, and the final summary result is that there are more than [-] million stones in storage and more than [-] taels in debt.

"It's not as bad as I thought..."

Looking at the amount owed, Chief Inspector Zhu You, who was patrolling the defenses on the city wall of Shenyang, sighed, and then said to Lu Wenzhao and others beside him as he walked:

"Write a handwritten letter to Cheng En, saying that [-] million shi of grain will be transported to Shaanxi from the stored grain, so as to stabilize the local grain price."

"The remaining [-] million shi of northern grain will be distributed among the military rations of the troops and horses, and the remaining grain will be stored in the three major warehouses in Yanshan."

"The silver taels sold in Shaanxi to stabilize grain prices were used to repay the silver rewards owed to the Liao war."

"As for the more than [-] million Ishidafu grains in the south field of the Yumajian, they should be directly escorted to the Ryukyu Mansion."

Zhu Youjian's words directly emptied the bank and granary of the Yumajian, and this matter had long been expected by him.

This is the result of using the money and food from the Yumajian to fight the Liao Dynasty. As for why he didn't use the six departments, five temples and internal funds, it was also because it was unnecessary.

Let's not talk about whether these guys will trip him up, just talking about the gunpowder and rations they delivered to the front line, Zhu Youjian dare not use them with confidence.

Instead of being frightened, it is better to use the money and food from the Yumajian.

"Your Highness, are you gone?" When Zhu Youjian finished speaking, Lu Wenzhao asked, and Zhu Youjian recovered and continued:

"The matter of abolishing Liao's salary is the same as what my brother said. All land taxes and tariff increases will be exempted. Salt tax and miscellaneous items will continue to be collected. Let Gu Bingqian figure it out."

"By the way, where did Sun Chuanting and the others arrive?" Zhu Youjian asked belatedly, and Lu Wenzhao also said:

"According to your request, none of the civil and military ministers went to the capital, but directly led the troops south after issuing the imperial decree from the Ministry of Officials."

"Right now, many large armies have just passed through North Zhili. Sun Chuanting, Lu Qin and others are heading towards Shanxi and Shaanxi. Old General Qi and the three young generals are heading southeast."

"Governor Hong, Governor Yang, Governor Wu and others also led troops to the southwest, Guangdong, and Jiangxi."

"According to the current speed, roughly in the first month of next year, all the soldiers and horses mobilized will all arrive at the Tianxia garrison."

"Is it the first month of next year..." Hearing Lu Wenzhao's words, Zhu Youjian stopped in his tracks and turned his head to glance at the setting sun slanting to the west.

"If it is the first month of next year, the abolition of the guards will not affect the busy farming."

"Pass my military order!" Zhu Youjian suddenly turned his head to look at Lu Wenzhao, and Lu Wenzhao bowed immediately.

"Order Sun Yingyuan to transfer the three-step guard to the south of Huguang, and start the abolition of the Huguang Guard and the reform of the kings of Huguang."

"Order Lu Xian, Lu Jianxing, Lu Xiu, Shen Lian and others under your command to lead Jin Yiwei to propose innovations to the remaining kings."

"Yumajianhuangdian took over the Longjiang Shipyard in Yingtianfu's Nanjing City, took over the Shandong Denglai Shipyard, and built a shipyard in Lushun, Jinzhou."

"By the end of next year, my Ming will have six shipyards in Tianjin, Denglai, Lushun, Longjiang, Beigang, and Nangang!"

(End of this chapter)