Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 232 Take the lead in ZTE's Ming Finance

"Come, take a look at the new bed that Dad made for you siblings..."

On February [-]th of the fourth year of the Apocalypse, when the guards were being reformed and the soldiers and horses were being adjusted, Zhu Youxiao, who was the emperor, was coaxing two children in the imperial garden.

It was the season of warm spring and flowers blooming. In the flower pavilion of the Imperial Garden, Zhu Youxiao was sitting beside Zhang Yan and Concubine Hui.

In front of the three of them were two cribs, with two babies, a man and a woman, lying in the beds.

Next to the crib, there are two new, slightly larger beds.

The shaker made of huanghuali wood, I have to say, except for Zhu Youxiao, no one in the inner court has such courage.

However, even the huanghuali, which is hard to buy, is just an ordinary wood for him to restore his craftsmanship in his spare time.

Shaking the rattle in his hand, Zhu Youxiao said with a smile:
"It's a pity that my younger brother is busy with work, and there is some chaos in the capital. Otherwise, I think my younger brother will be very happy to see Ran'er and Shu'e."

Zhu Youxiao was talking, but no one dared to answer, and he didn't care, he just looked at his own flesh and blood, Zhu Ciran and Zhu Shu'e.

After a long time, a person came from the corner at the end of the long road in the flower pavilion of the Imperial Garden, and this person was Wei Zhongxian who was currently stirring up the wind and rain in the capital.

Behind him, followed by the graceful Ke family, the two walked towards the flower pavilion one after the other, and then saluted one after another:

"Long live, Your Highness, Concubine Hui..."

"Huh? Ke Baba and the big companion are here? Come in." Zhu Youxiao glanced at him and continued to tease Zhu Ciran, while Ke Shi and Wei Zhongxian also went to the flower pavilion.

It's just that when they arrived, Queen Zhang Yan's face flashed a trace of displeasure, as if she didn't like Zhu Youxiao's approaching these two people very much.

Naturally, this look couldn't escape the attention of Keshi and Wei Zhongxian, but the two of them hid it very well, and Zhu Youxiao didn't notice it.

"What's going on in Beijing? Was the Prince Qi Mansion built according to my drawings?"

While shaking the rattle, Zhu Youxiao questioned Wei Zhongxian, but Wei Zhongxian said with a mournful face:

"Long live, the construction of King Qi's Mansion was blocked by the Ministry of Industry. The Ministry of Industry said that the King's Mansion of Qi drawn by Long Live is too big, and the regulations have exceeded."

Wei Zhongxian's words made Zhu Youxiao frown slightly.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations, the circumference of the Prince's Mansion in the Ming Dynasty was three miles, three hundred and nine steps and five minutes.

The city is two feet nine feet high, six feet wide at the bottom, two feet wide at the top, one hundred and fifty two inches wide from east to west, and one hundred and ninety-seven feet two inches long from north to south.

However, Zhu Youxiao felt that such regulations were obviously not worthy of his younger brother, and with the increase in the population of the capital, Zhu Youxiao specially ordered Wei Zhongxian to build a new city in the north of Dongbianmen.

The regulations of Prince Qi's Mansion are that the city is three feet high, seven feet wide at the bottom, and three feet wide at the top, with a circumference of six miles, nearly eight hundred acres.

In addition to Prince Qi's Mansion, the new city can accommodate more than [-] people, so the construction of the new city is the place Zhu Youxiao will see this year and ask for completion.

However, what Wei Zhongxian said immediately made Zhu Youxiao feel unhappy.

"The Yellow River breached several times, let Wang Shun Ding go south to control the Yellow River."

As soon as Zhu Youxiao spoke, Wang Shunding, the minister of the Ministry of Industry who had just taken office for three months, was transferred from the capital, and Zhu Youxiao did not say who the new minister of the Ministry of Industry belonged to, which made Wei Zhongxian's eyes shine.

"Slaves lead the order..." Wei Zhongxian responded first, and then said:
"Long live, many officials in the court have recently impeached King Qi. The scale is so large that it is definitely not the power of Donglin's party. Look..."

"Leave them alone for now..." Zhu Youxiao answered absent-mindedly, and Wei Zhongxian was somewhat disappointed by such an answer.

Since Zuo Guangdou and Yang Lian inspected the Yellow River in the first month of this year and punished hundreds of officials and returned to Beijing, Yang Lian has followed Wei Zhongxian like a mad dog.

Regarding Wei Zhongxian, Yang Lian wrote the "Twenty-Four Books of Wei's Adversity and Disaster for the Country" as soon as he started his pen, openly impeaching the rising eunuch party, which made Wei Zhongxian's teeth itch with hatred.

He wanted to deal with Yang Lian, but the relationship between King Qi and Yang Lian was unclear, and no one knew whether Yang Lian was helping King Qi with Donglin's signboard.

If he really punished Yang Lian and offended King Qi, it would be a bit of a waste.

Therefore, Wei Zhongxian still hopes to use the majesty of the emperor to make Yang Lian be more honest.

However, from Yang Lian's return to Beijing in the first month to now, Zhu Youxiao has turned a blind eye to the impeachment of Donglin Party. Not only that, Donglin has not lost power at all.

On the contrary, Zhu Guozuo, Shen Yu, Qi Shijiao, Tang Binyin, Gu Tianjun and other party leaders lived very uncomfortable.

Zhu Xieyuan was directly promoted by Zhu Youxiao to Minister of the Ministry of War because of his rebellion against the She'an Rebellion, and Wang Xiangqian, the original Minister of the Ministry of War, took the initiative to resign in the twelfth lunar month of last year and was approved by Zhu Youxiao.

Not only that, Bi Ziyan from Shanxi was transferred back to the capital by Zhu Youxiao to serve as the Minister of the Household Department, and Li Zongyan was transferred to Guangxi as the Chief Political Envoy by him.

In addition, there are hundreds of Beijing officials, large and small, who have been transferred out or left out in the cold.

Among them, the Donglin party members who were the speech officials suffered the most. Although Zhu Youxiao did not let Yang Lian enter the core position of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, he dismissed Zou Yuanbiao, one of the backbone of Donglin.

The current Metropolitan Procuratorate is headed by Zuo Guangdou of Donglin and Li Kuilong of the Eunuch Party.

As for the inside of the official department, Cui Chengxiu was transferred by Zhu Youxiao to the official department as the left servant, and fought against Zhao Nanxing in disguise.

Even so, apart from the loss of a large number of officials and censors, Donglin's real power has not suffered any substantial blows.

But if you look carefully, Zhu Youxiao has successively installed eunuch officials in Donglin's powerful official department and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the way of checks and balances is very obvious.

This method, for Zhao Nanxing, who had faced off against Shen Shixing and Shen Yiguan, could be seen clearly at a glance.

In the final analysis, Zhu Youxiao was still unwilling to abolish civil servants of all parties. After all, he needed civil servants to govern the government.

He has Zhu Youjian in the side affairs, but once the foreign court drives away the civil servants of all parties, the central turmoil will be absolute.

He also knew what Wei Zhongxian was thinking, but he didn't expose it, because although he couldn't get rid of the officials of the party, it was necessary to beat them.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao shook the rattle in his hand, and said to Wei Zhongxian without raising his head:

"Big Companion, at Prince Qi's Mansion and the Ministry of Household Affairs, as long as my younger brother distributes money and food, you can do so."

"The maidservant takes orders..." Wei Zhongxian responded, and Zhu Youjian continued to ask:
"How about the memorials of the Yumajian and the Six Departments and Five Temples last year? Have you sorted it out?"

"Long live back..." Wei Zhongxian said as he turned around to signal the eunuchs outside the pavilion to bring up the tray full of memoirs, took it himself, knelt down in front of Zhu Youxiao, and flattered him:
"Already here."

"Hmm..." Zhu Youxiao nodded slightly, and then picked up the top volume of memorials.

[This year, the household registration in Tianxia is [-], and the population is [-]...]

"Heh..." Zhu Youxiao suddenly sneered as he watched the performance of the sixth part, and then raised his head and said to Wei Zhongxian:
"How many households and mouths were there in the imperial court last year?"

"Long live, last year, the household registration in the world was [-], and the population was [-]."

Wei Zhongxian responded honestly, and Zhu Youxiao also said in a teasing tone:
"One guard was reformed, even if the reform was not complete, there were nearly four million households in the world, and more than [-] million people."

"I don't know how many household registrations there are in this world..."

After all, Zhu Youxiao didn't wait for Wei Zhongxian to say anything, he lowered his head and continued to look at the memorial:
[Field [-] hectares, and the remaining [-] acres are amazing...]

"What is the number of acres in the previous year?" Zhu You asked without raising his head, but Wei Zhongxian was prepared, and quickly replied:
"It should be more than [-] million hectares. Last year was about [-] more than the previous year."

One hectare is [-] mu, and [-] hectares is [-] million mu. That is to say, the number of acres in Ming Dynasty in the third year of Tianqi is [-] million mu more than that in the second year of Tianqi.

Why can there be so many more acres?It was not because of the reform of the guards in Henan, Shandong and other places in the north, and the recovery of lost land in Liaodong.

According to the number of acres of land garrisoned by the army during the Hongwu period, the number of acres of land in the Ming Dynasty will reach more than [-] million, or even more, when the Qi Wang Mansion renovates the land in the world.

Zhu Youxiao still kept his expression on his face, and continued to check the memorials of the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the Six Departments and Five Temples.

[Last year, the harvested rice was [-] stones, and the wheat was more than [-] million, [-] stones, and the six buckets were strange. More than [-] stones...]

Six ministries and five temples, together with Yumajian and Tianqi, invested a total of more than [-] million stones of rice and wheat in three years.

This is the pinnacle that Daming has not reached since the Orthodox Year, and it is worth at least [-] million taels of silver.

Zhu Youxiao continued to look down, and the six ministries and five temples actually only collected more than six million taels of silver for other miscellaneous taxes such as salt tax, Qisi cotton folding silk, and tea tax.

Zhu Youxiao looked at the Yumajian. The Yumajian in the third year of Tianqi, the Huangdian alone received more than [-] million taels of silver and [-] million guan, which totaled nearly [-] million taels.

That is to say, in the three years of the apocalypse, the Ming Dynasty had a total annual income of more than [-] million taels, and more than [-] million shimimai.

This is not counting Zhu Youxiao's internal funds. If the internal funds are included, the annual income of silver can be increased to more than [-] million taels.

It's just a pity...

"Currently, how much food do Jingtong Ercang, Taicang, and Neijin each have?"

Zhu Youxiao asked Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian also replied:
"There are more than [-] million taels of rice and wheat stored in the second warehouse of Jingtong, more than [-] million taels of silver in the six departments and five temples, and more than [-] million taels of internal money."

"As for the Yumajian, I heard that the Battle of Liao Dynasty wiped out the wealth accumulated by the Yumajian for three years. I'm afraid there will not be much left..."

Wei Zhongxian understands that the emperor is going to allocate money to the King of Qi. After all, at present, the Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies controls internal and external affairs. In the world, nearly one million troops are under the control of the Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Army. .

Now the six ministries and five monasteries do not need to pay military salaries, but spent tens of millions of shimimai and more than two million taels of silver in a few months. How could the emperor give them money and food without worry.

"Two million taels of silver from Tiao Nei, three million taels of silver from the six ministries and five temples were escorted to the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and eight million taels of grain from Jingtong Ercang were escorted together."

With a wave of Zhu Youxiao's hand, [-]% of the Ming Dynasty's money and food was transferred to the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies. If the officials of the Six Ministries and Five Temples knew about this move, I'm afraid...

"From now on, the Taipu Temple is under the control of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies."

Zhu Youxiao's words were astonishing, and he directly transferred the Taipu Temple, one of the six temples and five temples, to the control of the Dudufu of the Five Armies.

Taipusi has more than [-] million acres of land and pastures in its hands. Losing this source of income, civil servants would react very strongly.

"Yes..." Wei Zhongxian responded to the emperor's order on the surface, but he was thinking in his mind whether he could use this opportunity to do something.

After all, he got a lot of benefits from copying the house from Yang Huan, and the benefits of copying the house were so many that Wei Zhongxian became a little addicted.

But if you want to raid the house, you have to come up with some crimes.

"Long live must be made impatient with these guys..." Wei Zhongxian narrowed his eyes slightly, and Zhu Youxiao also waved his hand and said:

"Okay, you can step back, it's fine for Ke Baba to stay, you should pay more attention to the affairs of the chief of ceremonies."

"Yes..." Wei Zhongxian immediately knelt down to thank him, and then left the imperial garden with the eunuch who was in charge of rituals.

After he left, Ke Shi also began to smile at Zhu Youxiao:
"Long live, this baby is delicate and needs to be rested in the palace. It's too early to go out for a walk."

"Well... yes." Zhu Youxiao also has weaknesses, and he listens to the opinions of his wet nurse, Ke Shi, who took care of him since he was a child.

"Long live, the care of the prince and princess should be taken care of by the concubine himself."

Seeing that Ke Shi wanted to take care of her own flesh and blood, Zhang Yan immediately put forward different suggestions to Zhu Youxiao. Although Concubine Hui next to her did not dare to offend Ke Shi, she also looked reluctant.

Seeing this, Mrs. Ke felt a little displeased, but she still smiled kindly at Zhu Youxiao and said:
"Long live, the slaves have taken care of you to grow up, and you know the skills best. Although His Highness and Concubine Hui are mothers, they may not be as proficient as slaves."

"It's true..." Zhu Youxiao thought for a while, and it was true that Keshi was more proficient in taking care of children than Zhang Yan, who had never taken care of children, so he persuaded Zhang Yan:
"Bao Zhu, Lu Luo, you and Ke Baba can take care of Ran'er and Shu'e together, just in time to learn how to take care of children."

"This..." Zhang Yan frowned slightly, a little reluctantly, but she still nodded because of Zhu Youxiao's face. As for Concubine Fan Hui who was next to her, she didn't dare to say anything.

"..." Seeing their devastated appearance, Keshi sneered in his heart, but then laughed and chatted with Zhu Youxiao about other things in the next second.

It's just that when they were chatting about things, the atmosphere in the Wenhua Hall of the Outer Court was dead silent.

In a small Wenhua Palace, there were actually nine teams divided into opposing camps.

Donglin, King Qi, Eunuch, and the former Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuankun...

When these cronies and township parties, each attached to different figures, gather together, it often takes half a day of talking and talking for several days to implement one thing.

Such a situation of party struggle seriously slowed down the administrative speed of Ming Dynasty.

As the chief assistant of the cabinet, Ye Xianggao only felt that the current situation was more troublesome than the party struggle that Zhao Nanxing had against the three parties of Zhejiang, Qi, Chu and Jingcha.

Once a tripartite situation is formed, neither side can overwhelm the other.

But the current situation is much more troublesome than the three-legged confrontation. Qi, Chu, Zhe, Xuankun are barely one faction, and the loosely organized Donglin is barely one faction, while the Qi Royal Party and the Eunuch Party that flirt with it appear to be one faction, but in fact they are two factions.

The pattern of four-party competition has to be added to other large and small township parties, as well as a large number of non-party officials.

In such a situation, not to mention Ye Xianggao, even if Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, and Yan Song were called, these three people would probably be blind at first glance.

Daming's officialdom has never been so chaotic.

"Shangshu Li Changgeng, Minister of the Household Department of Nanzhili, on the [-]th day of February, the dragon turned over in Yangzhou, and the dragon turned over in Su, Song, Feng, Si, Huai, Yang, Chuzhou, etc. in Nanzhi Yingtianfu on the same day, and Yangzhou dumped the city wall. More than [-] stacks, more than [-] city shops, and more than [-] people were killed or injured."

In the apse of the Wenhua Palace and the main hall of worship, Ye Xianggao talked about the earthquake in Nanzhili with a headache, but none of the cabinet ministers who heard the words spoke.

The only one who hesitated to speak was Sun Chengzong.

But for some reason, when the words came to his lips, he held back.

Watching this scene, Yang Lian snorted coldly, and immediately fell into his old habit again, impeaching him:
"When the earth dragon turned around, the local officials should transfer Changping warehouses to provide disaster relief instead of asking the imperial court to allocate money and food."

"Nanzhili is also in trouble. First, we helped Shandong, and then..." Xuandang Tang Binyin tried to say something nice, but Yang Lian angrily said:

"Difficult? Since the autumn harvest, how much grain and fodder has been intercepted in several prefectures in Nanzhili? With so much grain and fodder intercepted, can't you still support yourself?"

"Ahem..." Suddenly, Cui Chengxiu coughed and said:
"Officials in Nanzhili naturally have food and fodder, but the court is now rich, so it is not difficult to allocate money and food. Besides, Nanzhili encounters dragon hanging every year, and officials are also preparing for dragon hanging."

"If it's like this, it's better!" Yang Lian not only yelled at Tang Binyin, but also immediately yelled at Cui Chengxiu, the leader of the eunuch party.

Everyone knows that since Cui Chengxiu went to Nanzhili to implement the so-called "clarifying salt lesson" in Wei Zhongxian's mouth, a large number of officials in Nanzhili have defected to the eunuch party.

Among the officials who were unwilling to allocate Changping’s granary this time, in addition to the Xuan Party and the Kun Party, there were also the Eunuch Party.

This is also why the three parties, who usually choke to death, exonerate the officials of Nanzhili together at this moment.

"you……"

Yang Lian wanted to say something else, but at this moment, there were footsteps outside the main worship hall.

Many civil servants looked out of the hall, and then saw Wei Zhongxian holding the imperial decree, leading Wang Tiqian and more than ten eunuchs in charge of ceremonies into the main hall of worship:
"Long live's decree, two million taels of silver will be transferred, three million taels of silver for six ministries and five temples, and eight million taels of grain will be transferred from the second warehouse of Jingtong to escort the five armies' governor's mansion together."

"Ridiculous!" Tang Binyin, Gu Tianjun and the others immediately stood up when they heard this, and said sternly:
"At present, Nanzhili has suffered an overthrow by the earth dragon, and the governor's office of the five armies has the supply of the imperial horse supervisor. Why do the six ministries and five temples need to distribute silver taels?"

"This is Long Live's will..." Wei Zhongxian said lazily, and bowed to Ye Xianggao after speaking;

"Elder Yege, pass on the decree of Long Live that the Taipu Temple will be under the control of the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion from now on, and all the fields and grasslands will be allocated to the Five Armies Commander's Mansion."

"..."

For a while, no one made a sound.

This is not because of the fear of Zhu Youjian or Zhu Youxiao's revenge, but because the ministers are speechless about this matter.

They knew that the emperor was going to deal with civil servants, but they didn't expect to be so anxious to deal with them. Did they think that with military power, they could do whatever they wanted?
It's just that at this time, no one is thinking about how to fight against the imperial power, but they are all looking at the expressions of the leaders of the surrounding parties.

Needless to say, Gu Bingqian, the leader of the Qi Party, and Cui Chengxiu, the leader of the Eunuch Party, have long been regarded by them as eagle dogs of the imperial power, running dogs who are greedy for life and afraid of death.

Therefore, what they are looking at is nothing more than the leaders and ministers of Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuankun, Donglin and other parties.

Although the party disputes in the late Ming Dynasty did not allow the Donglin Party to express its political viewpoints in advance because of Zhu Youjian's intrusion, but in terms of political affairs, the six party leaders now have one thing in mind...

"Governing the country with these insects is tantamount to a sheep entering the tiger's mouth. We must preemptively defeat this group of insects in order to restore the grand occasion of civil servants governing the country."

Thinking of this, the faces of the leaders of the six parties were uncertain, and Yang Lian, who was in the crowd, didn't know what to say.

He believed that Zhu Youjian could rejuvenate Ming Dynasty, but following Zhu Youjian's innovation, he suddenly discovered that the innovation Zhu Youjian thought of and the innovation he thought of were two different things.

The innovation Yang Lian wanted was to return to the scene of Renxuan Zhizhi and Hongzhi Zhongxing's civil servants uniting to govern the country.

But the problem is that the united civil servants represent the suppressed imperial power.

Looking at Zhu Youjian's thoughts again, to put it bluntly, civil servants should manage internal affairs well, and don't interfere in border affairs, and don't take bribes.

Once he interferes in border affairs and breaks the law with corruption, Zhu Youjian will have no choice but to greet him with a big stick.

To put it bluntly, Zhu Youjian didn't regard the civil servants of the late Ming Dynasty as human beings at all. If it wasn't for the Yanshan students who hadn't left the mountain, he wouldn't bother to act with the civil servants.

Zhu Youjian now somewhat understands why Nanming fought so fiercely, and did not care about the reasons for the Qing army.

From the perspective of future generations and the perspective of God, Daming is almost doomed, and you are still fighting internally there, weakening the overall strength of the children of the Han family.

In the end, from the perspective of the person involved, Daming is almost finished, and you guys are still messing around. If I don't get rid of them, everyone will die.

Although Zhu Youjian knew the historical trend, but the current historical trend has changed, and he is not worried about the entry of foreigners at all.

What he has to do now is to help the people of Ming Dynasty survive the severe drought in the Little Ice River. However, in terms of the coquettish operations of the Chinese officials in the first battle of Liao Dynasty, he wants to help the people of Ming Dynasty survive the severe drought in the Little Ice River. What he has to do first-hand Just to get rid of this group of dragging guys.

Maybe he was hiding it very deeply, but when Yang Lian understood his thoughts, he fell into a contradiction.

Zhu Youjian has been crushing his so-called Donglin ruling and the illusion of peace in the world, but he has never given up on this illusion.

This is why the relationship between the two has gradually drifted away since the end of the First Battle of Liao Dynasty.

Maybe they will speak for each other, but the premise of speaking is for the development of Daming in a good direction, not for the so-called friendship.

"The matter of Taipu Temple..."

After a long silence, Ye Xianggao finally bit the bullet and said:

"Let's wait for the next Changchao to discuss..."

As soon as he opened his mouth, the tense strings in everyone's minds were loosened. After all, they had few cards to play, and the two brothers Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao were still fighting for cards.

The more cards they have, the fewer cards Wen Chen has.

Just like now, as the number of cards in his hand increases, even if Zhu Youjian does not speak, Zhu Youxiao's methods in the court will become more and more tough, while the civil servants in comparison will become more and more cowardly.

They also know that one step back, one step at a time, and finally they can only wait for Zhu Youxiao's hundred years before they can seek the next opportunity.

The biggest obstacle to the reform of the feudal dynasty was not the power of civil servants and gentry, but the demise of the people who represented the death of the emperor.

There are very few emperors who can implement the policies of the previous emperors throughout the ages, because when a person takes power, the new ruler will always think that his own policy is better.

Such as Emperor Xuan and Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wen and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Zhezong and Huizong of the Song Dynasty...

There are too many things that happen to people and governments. Those who can greatly inherit the policy, such as Li Zhi who inherited Li Shimin's policy, did a good job. As for Daming...

As far as policy is concerned, the Ming Dynasty was a real death of the people, and each generation of emperors seldom adhered to the practices of the previous generation of emperors, and they all tried to overthrow them.

It is precisely because of such overthrow that Wenchen became stronger step by step.

Now they don't have many cards to fight against the imperial power, and the internal division of the civil servants is too severe. Before the power is not integrated, the smart people can only choose to lie dormant.

Therefore, Zhu Guozuo and others could only watch Wei Zhongxian contemptuously glance at them, and then leave with the eunuch, the chief of ceremonies.

Looking at the back, some people began to realize that the Wenchen Group was about to collapse, and their positions began to waver, while others were preparing to go dormant.

Among them, Zhu Guozuo, Shen Yun, Zhao Nanxing and others were included.

Zhu Guozuo looked at Wei Zhongxian's back, his eyes flickered a few times, and then a smile suddenly appeared on the corner of his mouth:

"King Qi, if you are the first grader, don't blame me for being the fifteenth..."

(End of this chapter)