Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 338 Family and Country Harmony
"Since the Jiajing period, hundreds of officials have complained about the lack of salaries, but government officials in various prefectures and counties have embezzled taxes privately, and Emperor Xuanzongzhang and Emperor Xiaozong Jing have added various government funds several times. It is true..."

On September [-]th, when the urgent documents were delivered to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Zhu Youjiao leaned back on a chair and closed his eyes to rest his mind. In the Hall of Mental Cultivation stood Wang An, Wang Tiqian, Liu Ruoyu, and Wei Zhongxian.

Wang An read Zhu Youjian's handwriting, while Zhu Youxiao was meditating and dozing off.

The contents of this memorandum made Wei Zhongxian and others feel more and more wrong the more they listened, and the more they listened, the more afraid they became. Finally, when Wang An read out to completely abolish the system of embellishing pens, they were all sweating.

Everyone knows that if His Royal Highness Qi Wang said so, then the system of embellishing pens is probably really going to be abolished.

In addition, Bi Ziyan mentioned in the memorandum should thoroughly summarize the various benefits of officials and calculate the salaries of officials at all levels. This will cause fluctuations, and there is no need to abolish the pen system.

Officials crying for being poor seems to have become a politically correct slogan in the late Ming Dynasty. Everyone calls themselves poor and creates a clean character, but in fact, they may not even know how much property they have.

The king of Qi wants to abolish the "Runbi" and recalculate the salaries of officials of all prefectures, counties and counties.

People who don't understand the tricks in it, after hearing it, think that the latter is a policy issued to increase salaries after the former is abolished.

But those who know tricks will know that once all the benefits have been checked, the officials' salaries will be put on the desk, and except for the clerks and subordinates at the grassroots level, officials from the ninth rank to the first rank will be full of fat. .

All the officials complained to Hai Rui, but like Jin Xuan, he was a seventh-rank official in the early stage, with a salary of more than fifty taels of silver a year, he would not be able to afford meat if he didn't exist.

The so-called Hai Rui was so poor that he couldn't afford meat, it was just because Hai Rui married three wives and two concubines. After all, the price of marriage in Ming Dynasty was not cheap.

Zhu Youjian's policy is to completely tear off the fig leaf of the officials of the Ming Dynasty, and take away their only remaining underpants.

Once the salary is calculated, the imperial court may maintain it and appropriately increase the salary of some officials, but the path of corruption and bribery will also be cut off.

If this path is cut off, it will affect the "living path" of all officials except the two brothers Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao.

Zhu Youxiao naturally knew the seriousness of this matter, and also knew the benefits of abolishing the Runbiyin, so after Wang An finished reading, he did not directly agree as usual, but continued to close his eyes and rest on the chair in his middle coat.

Next to the dragon case was a piece of wood being processed, and Zhu Youxiao's uniform also showed that he was doing the carpentry work he often did just now.

Facing Zhu Youxiao's silence, no one in the Hall of Mental Cultivation dared to speak.

They are eunuchs, civil servants and military generals are not afraid of the emperor, but the king of Qi, because they know that Zhu Youjian can deal with them.

The eunuchs were afraid of King Qi, but even more afraid of the emperor, because the emperor could deal with them immediately.

The four eunuchs were all waiting, but Zhu Youxiao didn't say a word. After sitting for a while, he finally got up, but walked to the wood and continued to deal with the wood.

The sound of planes echoed continuously in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, but the rhythmic sound of planing wood made many people relax.

The sound of planing wood was heard, and when Wei Zhongxian and the others thought that Zhu Youxiao was going to shelve the memorial, he suddenly asked, "Where is Bi Ziyan now?"

"Long live back..." Wei Zhongxian was in charge of Dongchang, and the news was not bad, so he said:
"It's slower than the five-hundred-mile express. I've just entered the territory of Taiyuan Prefecture. It's estimated that I won't be able to return to the capital until September 27."

"September 27..." Zhu Youxiao murmured, and the reason why he murmured this date was that among the four eunuchs, only Wang An and Wang Tiqian noticed it.

A thorough investigation of the messy account of the officials' salaries, this move will inevitably shake the whole country of the Ming Dynasty.

More than [-] civil servants will lose face because of this, and what is even more terrible is the abolition of "running pen" silver.

Once the "moist pen silver" is abolished, then they will have no good excuse for corruption.

It is true that they can also use the so-called "good deeds" of merchants to build roads, repair city walls, etc. to greed for money, but the amount of money that can be greedy for money must not be as good as before, when they could easily get "moisturizing money".

Moreover, this kind of corruption is also illegal, and they are all waiting for them to be exiled and assigned according to the "Law of the Ming Dynasty".

People have tasted that "it is easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal", and the same is true in officialdom.

They are used to taking legal and reasonable moistening pen silver, and suddenly they are asked to take dirty silver that requires their lives to bet, which will inevitably cause a reaction from the officials.

The ministers in the court will be the first group of people to know about this matter, and it is only September 27th, and there are still eleven days before September [-]th.

Eleven days is already a long time, and it is even possible to travel from Beijing to Nanjing several times back and forth by using the express Tangqi of [-] miles to deliver the news.

So much time represents a long enough space for manipulation.

What will the officials do if they hear the news?no one knows...

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao stopped the carpentry in his hands, and then said:
"Temporarily suppress the memorial, as long as you can suppress it, until Bi Ziyan returns."

Zhu Youxiao said so, but everyone knows that this thing can't be suppressed, and Zhu Youjian's brocade guards are all over the world at a glance, and civil servants also have their own news channels.

So since Zhu Youxiao knew that the matter could not be suppressed, why did he deliberately say it to let them suppress it?

The things in it are worthy of scrutiny.

Wang An thought for a while, then immediately squinted his eyes, and glanced at Wei Zhongxian and Wang Tigan secretly, and Wang Tiqian noticed Wang An's gaze, and his heart tightened for a second.

The emperor's words are not for them to simply listen to and suppress the news, but to see if anyone has informed the civil servants...

It is true that civil servants have channels and means to obtain information, but that also takes time. This time may be one day, two days, or three days.

But no matter how many days, you can always hide it for a while.

But if someone informs, it means that there is a ghost inside the Sili Supervisor.

Did the emperor suspect the four of them?

Thinking of this, Wang Tiqian subconsciously thought of Wei Zhongxian, wondering if Wei Zhongxian said something to Cui Chengxiu that shouldn't be said at some point.

Similarly, Wang An also thought so.

The two of them, as two smart people in the prison of ceremonies, didn't think that it was the other party who leaked the secret, but suspected Wei Zhongxian.

No one doubts Liu Ruoyu, because he has little power and spends little time with the emperor, so it is impossible to get in touch with too many things.

Therefore, after the two of them came to their senses, they both turned their attention to Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian was thinking about what to do about what Zhu Youxiao said. After all, it is not so easy to suppress the news.

"Long live, Princess Ningde, Princess Suining, and Princess Le'an came here for dinner, do you want to meet?"

The four eunuchs were still suspicious of each other, but at this time the eunuch Li Chaoqin came in to ask, and Zhu Youxiao nodded slightly when he saw this:

"Let Huiyan and the others come in..."

"The maidservant leads the order..." Li Chaoqin turned and left when he saw this, and went to summon the three princesses, and Zhu Youxiao also raised his hands.

Wang An and Wei Zhongxian immediately stepped forward to put on the common clothes for him, and when he was wearing the common clothes, three young girls of seventeen or eighteen years old also came in.

After all, it was Daming who improved the blood for more than 200 years. The three girls are all very beautiful, and Zhu Youxiao also said to the three younger sisters with a smile:

"What delicious food did you make?"

Unlike Zhu Youjian, Zhu Youxiao cherished the time with all his family members and cared about them very much, so when he motioned for the three of them to take a seat, he also sat on the chair next to him.

Holding the tray, the three princesses put the things they made on the table next to Zhu Youxiao one by one, saying:

"Abalone Stewed Sea Cucumber..."

“Stir-fried Porcini Mushrooms…”

“Seafood stew…”

The three of them reported the name of the dish while putting the dishes on, but Zhu Youxiao sniffed at the words and said with a smile:

"You guys are getting better at cooking."

"It's not that Fifth Sister is getting married and pulls us to cook together every day..."

Princess Suining Zhu Huijing joked, and Zhu Huiyan next to her also gave her a blank look, but said:

"After getting married, I seldom see Brother Huang, so I used this time to do my best."

"Hehe...then Liu Youfu is not bad. I've seen it. Although he doesn't have any great talents, he is better than being considerate to others." Zhu Youxiao said to Zhu Huiyan with a smile.

The son-in-law he found for Zhu Huiyan was a student of Yanshan Medical College.

"Brother Xie Huang..." Zhu Huiyan saluted to express her gratitude, but Zhu Youxiao also looked at Zhu Huijing and said, "You are going to get married next year."

"I'm not in a hurry, I can wait another two years." Zhu Huijing joked with a smile, and finally looked at Zhu Huiti next to her and said:

"But Huiti, I heard that she has been doing embroidery recently, so she probably wants to get married."

As soon as these words came out, the topic immediately turned to Zhu Huiti who was blushing next to her. She was so blushing that she didn't know how to speak, and Zhu Youxiao also smiled when she saw this:
"Does Huiti have someone he likes? Or a specific character?"

"It's all arranged by the emperor's brother..." Zhu Huiti was very beautiful, with very attractive eyes, but she was very weak.

When seeing Zhu Huiti, Zhu Youxiao always felt that he owed her a little, and her appearance also made Zhu Youxiao feel that he was even more at a loss, so he waved his hands and said:
"Then I will arrange it. If there is nothing else, the three of you should go back to the palace first. Brother Huang still has some government affairs to deal with."

"Yes..." The three of them saluted immediately after hearing the words, and then exited the Hall of Mental Cultivation one by one.

After they withdrew, Zhu Youxiao slowly withdrew his expression. At this time, Li Ruolian, who was commanded by the Fusi of Beizhen, asked to see him, and Zhu Youxiao also waved his hand to declare.

After a few breaths, Li Ruolian walked into the Hall of Mental Cultivation with a copy of the military newspaper. After bowing to each other, he presented the military newspaper with both hands, and said:
"Long live, there is news from Jingcheng about Jianlu."

"Huh?" Upon hearing that the news came from Jianlu, Zhu Youxiao cheered up, and Wang An also took over the military newspaper and handed it to Zhu Youxiao.

After Zhu Youxiao took over, he glanced at ten lines, and frowned when he saw that Jianlu was actually planting sweet potatoes in Xingjing City, and nodded slightly at his indirect actions against Liu Xingzuo.

"Has the military newspaper been sent to my brother?"

"I already sent it to Prince Qi's Mansion as soon as I received it." Li Ruolian responded with her head down, and Zhu Youxiao also nodded and said:

"The severe drought saved the old slave's life. When the drought subsides, he must first plow the courtyard and sweep the caves to destroy his race and exterminate his descendants!"

"Long live Shengming..." Everyone who heard the words echoed, and Zhu Youxiao was also very useful, waving his hands and saying:
"Okay, don't be a sycophant, let's all step down, just stay as you are."

"The maidservant resigns..." Upon hearing this, Wang An, Wei Zhongxian and others resigned one after another, leaving only Liu Ruoyu in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

However, as soon as everyone left the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Wang Tiqian pulled Wei Zhongxian aside, while Wang An squinted his eyes at this, and finally said: "Let's go" and left the inner court with Li Ruolian.

"Long live what you said just now, do you understand what it means?"

"Of course I heard it, isn't it just to stop the news..."

Pulling to the corner, Wang Tiqian hurriedly questioned Wei Zhongxian, but Wei Zhongxian didn't know what he meant, and simply said the superficial meaning of Zhu Youxiao's words, which made Wang Tigan very anxious:
"I'm asking, did you and Cui Chengxiu or others say anything that shouldn't be said?"

"What can our family say?" Wei Zhongxian was dissatisfied with Wang Tiqian's tone of questioning, but Wang Tiqian saw his expression and understood that his tone was a bit harsh, so he calmed down and said in a moderate tone:

"Long live, Wang An and the others may suspect that you and I have colluded with the foreign court and colluded with foreign ministers."

"Huh?" Wei Zhongxian's understanding of politics is superficial, but it doesn't mean he is a fool.

As an eunuch, colluding with foreign ministers is the emperor's most taboo, and it is also the most dangerous behavior of an eunuch.

Don't look at Wei Zhongxian and Wang Tigan's win over Cui Chengxiu, and even created a so-called eunuch party.

But all of this was actually carried out with Zhu Youxiao's acquiescence, and everything was on the verge of being acquiesced.

Walking on this road is like stepping on a tightrope in the air, and every step is startling.

If you accidentally cross the thunder pool, you will suffer the wrath of the emperor...

"Our family is loyal to Long live, how could we do something beyond that?"

Wei Zhongxian defended himself righteously, but Wang Tigan didn't look like he was lying, so he immediately suspected Wang An and Liu Ruoyu in his heart.

It's just that when they were suspicious, they saw a Jin Yiwei hurried into the Hall of Mental Cultivation...

"Long live, the memorandum sent by Minister Yang of North Korea..."

When Jin Yiwei's voice sounded, there was another important matter that Zhu Youxiao needed to deal with.

He took the memorial from the eunuch and opened it, then frowned, because Yang Gao's memorial was different from the previous reports, and this time he hoped that the imperial court would send someone to take his place.

"How old is Yang Hao?" Zhu Youxiao asked absently.

"Long live, 74..." Liu Ruoyu replied, and Zhu Youxiao also nodded when he heard the words:

"It's really difficult for him to be living overseas in his rare years."

"Send this memorial to my younger brother in Shaanxi, let him choose someone to replace Yang Gao."

"Your maidservant takes orders..." Liu Ruoyu responded, then took the memorial and handed it over to a young eunuch next to him to be sent to the Supervisor of Rituals.

This memorial needs to be copied and kept so that Zhu Youxiao can take it to watch at any time. The original is sent to Zhu Youjian.

The whole process is a bit cumbersome, in short, it is difficult to deal with it in less than ten days and half a month.

However, it seems that in order to retaliate against Zhu Youxiao's laziness these years, today's memorials seem to be extraordinarily large, and one by one was sent to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, including the summary of taxes submitted by the household department.

"This year, Taicang's annual land payment is more than 160 shi rice, 110 wheat, and the Royal Horse Supervisor has handed over 730 shi of seed grain to the army, totaling more than [-] rice and wheat. More than a thousand stones."

"Salt Department, Tea Department, and Wine Department received a total of more than 230 taels of cash, of which the annual income of the Wine Department was more than 420 taels."

"The annual income of the Shibo Department is more than 220 taels, the income of the Huangdian is more than 670 taels, and the Nanchang Weaving Bureau is more than 120 million and 3000 taels of silver."

"There are more than 160 taels of miscellaneous items in the household department, and the total of the above is 420 taels in cash."

Liu Ruoyu was thinking, but Zhu Youxiao's brows were furrowed all the time, the reason was that Tian Fu had dropped too much.

Last year there were nearly 6000 million stones, but this year it suddenly became 5000 million stones.

If it weren't for the enough money handed over by the Wine Department and the Nanchang Weaving Bureau, I am afraid that the court's expenditure this year will be stretched.

"More than 400 million taels of silver in ten months, that is to say, there should be 500 million taels of silver in a year?"

Zhu Youxiao was calculating the tax of the wine department, but Liu Ruoyu said:
"Long live, the account can't be calculated like this. The stall of the wine department has not been paid. If it is paid, I am afraid that it is not surprising that the annual income is 700 million."

"Is the expenditure of the household department next year written in the memorial?" Zhu Youxiao asked slightly, and Liu Ruoyu looked down and said:

"I wrote it. The soldiers and horses, the yamen servants, the Dali Temple, and a group of scribes spent a total of more than 890 million taels of silver, and the salaries of hundreds of officials spent another 3207 million taels."

"The Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies needs to pay Jiaozhi and Old Port's beheading silver, pension silver, pension land, and the military pay of each government. The total is 670 taels of silver."

"The Ordnance Bureau needs 72 taels of silver, the Military Armament Institute 100 million taels, and each of the seven major shipyards needs 30 taels of silver to back it up."

"The local yamen, the two capitals, and the governor's office of the five armies need to intercept 700 million shimi and 100 million shimai."

"Based on this calculation, the imperial court needs to allocate 270 taels of silver, 200 million shimi, and 700 million shimai..."

"In terms of silver, there is still a lot of surplus in the national treasury and internal funds this year. It should be able to distribute the salary, and there is still more than [-] million shi left in food."

As soon as Liu Ruoyu said this, Zhu Youxiao's expression became uneasy:
"The land tax has been reduced, and the tax and silver have been increased. It is just a deficit every year, and anti-corruption is needed every year to maintain the national treasury."

"If things go on like this, if the anti-corruption campaign can't continue, or the money can't be copied, won't my Ming Dynasty have no money to use?"

"The national treasury is negatively charged every year, which is normal..." Liu Ruoyu comforted:
"Only in these years, since King Qi took charge of the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the Household Department, the country managed to be in surplus for a few years."

"There is a surplus of tens of millions of shi every year, which is a huge amount in any generation."

"It's true..." Zhu Youxiao showed a hint of relief on his face: "I have a younger brother who is good at managing money. This is the difference between me and my ancestors in the Ming Dynasty."

"If it wasn't for my younger brother's anti-corruption campaign to seize the house this year, the wine department and the weaving bureau in Nanchang have done a good job. I think it would take more than half of the rice and wheat to make up for this shortfall."

The huge organization consumes a lot of Daming's finances, but if they are not maintained, Daming will not be able to collect so much money.

After all the calculations, it is quite cost-effective to use more than 800 million taels of expenditure to maintain more than 400 million taels of tax money.

If there had been no Little Ice Age and so many severe droughts, then Daming would have had an annual income of about 8000 million shi this year, and with last year's balance added, it would have broken through [-] million shi.

It's just that after excluding the expenses right now, there are only 100 million shi left.

This land tax may also be used for possible disaster relief. If it is discounted according to the rice price in the capital, it will be more than 50 and [-] taels of silver.

To be able to save so much money, four years before the apocalypse, Zhu Youxiao would not have dared to think about it.

Not to mention him, even the officials dare not think about it. Daming's current financial revenue has reached more than 6000 million taels of silver. about.

The reason why it can have such a scale is the result of the monopoly of salt, wine and tea.

As long as the catastrophe passes, these taxes will increase based on population growth, and the land tax can be gradually reduced, and finally become a small part of fiscal revenue until the land tax is completely exempted.

However, this process will take dozens or even hundreds of years, and it is difficult for Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian to see it even in their lifetime.

Zhu Youxiao didn't understand financial matters, but Zhu Youjian told him that only by reducing the land tax can the rule of Ming Dynasty be maintained as much as possible.

As long as there is a full mouthful of food, the people will not rebel, because this is the result of controlling the people for more than 2000 years since the Great Unification.

Zhu Youzheng was at its peak, but he really hoped that Daming would create a prosperous age even stronger than Kaiyuan's prosperous age in the hands of his two brothers.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao also picked up the food made by Zhu Huiyan and the three of them, and ate it bit by bit, feeling warm in his heart...

(End of this chapter)