Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 36

"You mean, His Highness Fifth wants Wei Zhongxian, that bastard, to take over?"

In the side hall of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, Wang An sat behind the desk, with thick memorials on the table.

These memorials are all memorials handed over by the cabinet to the ceremonial supervisor for approval, and Cao Huachun is sitting on the left side of the front of the case.

Cao Huachun looked at his godfather Wang An's face, so he could only remind him:

"What Your Highness means is equivalent to asking your godfather to go to Nanjing to rest for a while, to make Wei Zhongxian and Keshi proud for a while, and then proceed to deal with them."

"Currently Keshi is favored by Long Live, it is not a good choice to fight against Keshi."

"Hmm..." Wang An frowned and responded, but he kept thinking.

To be honest, if Zhu Youxiao was impartial and had a single round of scheming, he could easily kill Wei Zhongxian and Keshi.

But what is embarrassing right now is that he belonged to the former emperor, and the former emperor died without securing his throne.

This made his situation a little awkward.

As a person selected by Neishutang, who could be valued by the famous eunuchs Feng Bao and Chen Ju during the Wanli period, Wang An knew how dangerous his current situation was.

Such a situation occurred most often in the Tang Dynasty.

In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, most eunuchs who held military power dared not deal with their masters.

But the embarrassing thing is that due to the short lifespan of the emperor in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, he often died within a few years after succeeding to the throne.

After the emperor died, the eunuchs had no backing, so they had no choice but to take risks and use military power to coerce them to establish an emperor they could control.

Of course, such a thing was impossible in the Ming Dynasty, Wang An knew it very well.

First of all, the combat power of the inner court's clean army is basically not good, and at most they can clean up some court ladies.

As the twenty-four yamen of eunuchs, only the Yumajian has military power.

Previously, the Yumajian was still under Wang An's control. Even if there were only a few thousand capable soldiers among the more than [-] soldiers, it was enough to intimidate Zhu Youxiao.

But right now, Zhu Youjian took the lead. On the first day of Zhu Youxiao's ascension to the throne, he robbed the military power of the Yumajian, leaving him no one to use.

In this way, he became a chess player without chess pieces.

Thinking of this, the expression on Wang An's face is constantly changing, either gloomy or hesitant, but in the end he dare not seek rebellion because he was influenced by Nei Shutang's loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, as well as the stories of Yue Fei and Yu Qian since he was a child.

"Ugh……"

After a long time, Wang An sighed, and could only say to Cao Huachun:

"Go back and tell His Highness the Fifth Prince that I know. When His Highness Fifth speaks, I will go down the slope to Nanjing."

"If His Highness the Fifth Highness is useful to me, tell him to speak up."

"Godfather..." Cao Huachun couldn't bear it. After all, Wang An had taken care of him for more than ten years, and he couldn't do Wei Zhongxian's kind of revenge.

In fact, when Zhu Youjian asked him to tell Wang An about this, he was quite resistant.

But he is Zhu Youjian's slave after all, and it is impossible to go against Zhu Youjian's ideas.

As for Wang An, he also saw Cao Huachun's intolerance, so he could only comfort him:

"Don't feel bad. Right now, our family has served His Highness the Fifth Highness. With your help in the capital, even if we go to Nanjing, we won't be bullied."

Wang An's words are true, as long as Zhu Youjian wants to protect him, he is also willing to go to Nanjing, so he is a veritable first eunuch in the Nanjing Palace.

Moreover, the eunuchs over there would not dare to compete with him for power and profit, and their lives would definitely be more comfortable than those in the capital.

"I've saved a lot of savings over the years. You go to Fu'an and ask him to take half of the silver for you, and take it to the East Palace for His Highness Fifth."

"Take it as... I have followed His Highness Fifth's will."

"Yes..." Cao Huachun tilted his head unbearably, and Wang An also raised his hand and waved it:

"You go back, our grandfather's days in the capital are numbered, and I don't know if I can survive until I come back."

"Godfather, don't worry, as long as the child is still there, he will definitely take care of his safety in the capital!" Cao Huachun brushed off his robe, knelt on the ground and kowtowed heavily to Wang An three times.

Afterwards, he got up, saluted and walked out of the Supervisor of Ceremonies.

The huge side hall of the Sili Supervisor gradually became silent, and Cao Huachun, under Wang An's arrangement, went to his house in the capital and pulled out cartloads of silver.

When he returned to Xuqin Palace with the silver, the palace gate had just been closed in the imperial city, and he handed the gift list to Zhu Youjian.

"Your Highness, this is a gift list from my godfather to you, totaling [-] taels, plus two boxes of jewelry and jade."

Cao Huachun handed over the gift list, and Zhu Youjian took it over, glanced at it and said:

"Accordingly, I shouldn't ask for your money."

"However, I am really short of money right now. When you are free, tell your godfather to work hard in Nanjing. It is best to find out some eunuchs in the Nanjing Palace and various forces in Jiangnan."

"The clearer he gets, the better the chances of coming back in the future."

"Yes!" Cao Huachun nodded in salute, and obediently stood on the first floor of Zhu Youjian's couch.

On the contrary, Zhu Youjian, holding this gift list, was thinking about the situation in Jiangnan.

There are many reasons for the Ming Dynasty's demise, natural disasters, man-made disasters, official corruption, gentry resistance to taxes, and a backlog of people.

Among them, the most important one is tax collection, and tax collection is naturally the tax of squires and merchants.

Commercial tax and tariff, as long as one of these two types can be received, it is enough to alleviate Ming's financial crisis.

But at the same time, these two taxes mainly exist in the Jiangnan area of ​​Nanzhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi.

Apart from other things, even if the three places do not pay business taxes, resist resistance taxes, and resist salt and iron taxes, they still support about [-]% of the tax money of the Ming Dynasty.

Once business taxes can be collected in these three places, Zhu Youjian himself will not have to be reduced to hang on to the southeast branch.

But the problem is that the gentry officials in Jiangnan are not easy to get along with.

Throughout the Ming Dynasty's two hundred years of history, officials from these three places have always been in control of the court.

Even during the Hongwu period, they dared to create a north-south imperial examination case before Zhu Yuanzhang's death, thinking to test whether Zhu Yuanzhang was really dying, so let alone now.

Zhu Youjian doesn't have too many cards to play now. Even if he masters the army of Yumajian in the future, it is impossible to wipe out Jiangnan with [-] people.

But he has a very useful knife in his hand, and that is the Six Gentlemen of Donglin headed by Yang Lian.

It is better to push the Donglin Party to fight against the Zhejiang Party, Qi Party, and Chu Party than to tear his face with civil servants himself.

However, from a historical point of view, Yang Lian and others of the Donglin Party were idealists after all, and they were finally defeated by the major township parties behind Wei Zhongxian.

Even if Wei Zhongxian was killed by Chongzhen in history, if you look closely, all the dead are small shrimps, and the strength of the township party is still intact.

Therefore, it is not a simple path to collect taxes and business taxes.

At least, he needs to understand the situation in Jiangnan first, so that he can know which faction he can win over and which faction he can attack.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian lowered his head and continued to read the military book, and at the same time, a distinctive force also slowly moved north from the south...

(End of this chapter)