Daming: Brother, there is no future for monks, let's rebel

"This..." Liu Ji suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

Some things are really easy to say but not easy to hear.

In the past, when I was in Yingtian Mansion, officials like them had to get up almost at the fourth watch once the court had a meeting.

Then go to the palace and prepare to start the morning court.

Although it was a little early, the officials did not dare to complain too much when they arrived.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang worked much harder than them.

They could go to bed earlier at night, but Zhu Yuanzhang often had to review memorials until late at night.

Finally, we arrived at Yingtian Mansion.

Things have completely changed.

Imagining Zhu Yuanzhang's diligence, Liu Ji was a little embarrassed for a moment to say when they would click Mao.

"Say!" Zhu Yuanzhang said sharply.

Paper cannot contain the fire, and it will have to be said sooner or later anyway.

Liu Ji didn't hesitate too much and said honestly: "Return to Your Majesty, according to the rules set by His Royal Highness."

"The time for our Yanjing officials to do nine o'clock in the morning is... the hour of the day!"

"What did you say?" Although Zhu Yuanzhang was prepared, he was still furious when he heard the time.

The hour is exactly [-] hour, converted to the current time, which is eight o'clock.

He went to work at this time. In Lao Zhu's opinion, he was living like a pig.

Although Lao Zhu also knew that since Zhu Han stipulated this, he must have his reason.

However, Lao Zhu really couldn't accept it.

This group of officials, with the salary of their old Zhu family, ended up going up to three poles a day, and the sun was already shining on their buttocks before they started to work.

"You are really our good ministers." Zhu Yuanzhang almost said this through gritted teeth.

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered at this and said: "I work at all hours. Looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, there are not many officials. It is so easy for you."

It was okay if Zhu Yuanzhang didn't say this, but when he said this, Liu Ji became even more embarrassed.

"Um...Your Majesty. You are not working all the time."

"Chenshi is just a time for officials to come and do their homework. Then officials from various departments have to hold morning meetings to arrange the work tasks for the day."

"Or summarize any mistakes and omissions in previous work."

"It's already the beginning of the year when we officially start work."

"You..." Zhu Yuanzhang even felt that he had no strength to be angry. "

Liu Ji personally made tea for Zhu Yuanzhang: "Your Majesty, there is a reason why His Royal Highness the King of England requires us to be on duty at midnight and at midnight."

"In the past, when we were in Yingtian, Weichen and others were dealing with major world affairs."

"After the court meeting, the yamen at all levels will have to go back and deal with their own affairs. If it is too late, the official affairs in the yamen will be delayed."

"But we at Yanjing currently only need to deal with local issues in Yanjing."

"Most ordinary people get up and go to work around midnight."

"It's not necessary for officials to get up so early, so we set such a time."

As he said that, Liu Ji suddenly said: "But please rest assured, Your Majesty, even if it is exactly the same hour, you will start to handle official business."

"But I can guarantee that our officials in Yanjing are definitely the best in the Ming Dynasty in handling official affairs."

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered at Liu Ji's words.

Although he admitted that since Zhu Han came to Yanjing, it has brought him a lot of shock.

However, their efficiency in handling official affairs is the fastest in Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang had 1 people who didn’t believe it.

Lao Zhu didn't understand how many new things Zhu Han had come up with in Yanjing.

But he understands human nature. Ninety-nine percent of those officials put their own little thoughts first.

As for other things, put them all in the back.

Doing things for the court and doing things for the people basically come last in their hearts.

Officials all over the world are like this, so why are the officials in Yanjing different?
Although Liu Ji wanted to explain, he didn't know how to speak for a while.

At this time, it has already arrived.

Outside the office building, many buses and carriages stopped at the door. After getting off the carriages, many officials rushed to their yamen to order something.

Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely disgusted with such frivolous officials.

At that moment, he sarcastically said: "I'm going to be on duty soon, so I hurriedly went to the Yamen at midnight."

"Such an official doesn't even want to come in advance to prepare when he's on duty. How attentive can he be in government affairs?"

Liu Ji was indeed Liu Ji. While chatting with Zhu Yuanzhang, he had even prepared the documents needed for the morning meeting.

Liu Ji handed the documents to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Your Majesty, please forgive me and temporarily pretend to be your secretary."

"No problem." Lao Zhu was actively cooperating with this.

He came today to see what the difference was between Yanjing's officialdom and Yingtian Mansion.

Conference room of Yanjing Yamen Office Building.

After Liu Ji came in, some of the buzz that was still there in the conference room disappeared in an instant.

Liu Ji cleared his throat and glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang intentionally or unintentionally before speaking.

Lao Zhu was expressionless and very conscientious, playing the role of a wooden stake.

Very few officials in Yanjing had ever met Zhu Yuanzhang.

After all, most of the previous six officials had been removed for the assassination of King Zhu Han of England.

The current six ministers were all temporarily promoted by Zhu Han.

It can be said that there are now core officials in Yanjing.

Almost all are acting positions.

These people are relatively young and have basically never met the famous Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.

Even if I have seen him before, it must have been during the palace examination stage of the imperial examination.

At most, they could only take a look at Zhu Yuanzhang from a distance. Moreover, they were in the most critical stage of their lives at that time, and most people would definitely not be in the mood to look around.

As for after the palace examination.

The top picks in the rankings were basically all admitted to the Hanlin Academy or directly served in the Sixth Department.

Those who will be assigned to serve in various places are basically second-level.

Those who can come to Yanjing are no different from being assigned, and naturally they are even less likely to have met Zhu Yuanzhang.

Moreover, even if you have seen Zhu Yuanzhang, it will be worth several years.

After so many years, Zhu Yuanzhang's appearance has also undergone considerable changes.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also put on makeup specially in order to be secretive.

Therefore, no one in the entire conference room recognized him, including officials from the six departments of Yanjing.

The Secretary Ling brought by Liu Ji turned out to be the current Emperor.

Of course, there is one exception.

This is naturally the most prominent figure in Yanjing today, Liu Song.At first, Liu Song didn't pay much attention.

Although it saw Zhu Yuanzhang yesterday, it never expected that Zhu Yuanzhang would appear here.

After spotting Lao Zhu following Liu Ji, Liu Song's eyes almost popped out of his head.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

Seeing that Liu Song was about to reveal his identity, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him with a cold look.

Even Liu Song felt chills running down his spine and shuddered uncontrollably.

The rest of the words were swallowed back.

It was Liu Ji who reacted quickly and laughed: "Mr. Liu, you are too polite. You are a superior officer. How can I ask you to stand up to greet me?"

It turns out that Liu Song was excited about Thailand just now and stood up directly.

"Oh... I was just thinking about one thing." Liu Song racked his brains and came up with a lame reason.

Fortunately, although Liu Song's reason was far-fetched, no one thought much about it.

I just thought that Liu Song might have thought of something.

After all, no one with a normal mind would be able to imagine it.

The people following Liu Ji will be today.

Because of Zhu Yuanzhang's arrival, a minor commotion occurred in the morning meeting of the six yamen in Yanjing.

And all this commotion was directly caused by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Simply speaking, dealing with this little trouble is something that both Liu Ji and Liu Song have to deal with.

It soon calmed down and the morning meeting began directly.

Different from the morning court, in the morning court, Zhu Yuanzhang waited for the ministers to report, and then dealt with the matter based on the ministers' reports.

Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang had actually read and processed many of the reports before.

In the morning, it's just a process.

However, the morning meeting here in Yanjing is different.

It was Liu Song who spoke first, giving an end to Yanjing's recent development, and then gave the next goal.

Then came Liu Ji. What he said was more specific, such as where the project had progressed and how long it would take to complete it.

If there is a problem somewhere, which department is responsible for handling it specifically.

Finally, there is the director of the Sixth Department of Yanjing.

They are responsible for asking questions, where are the difficulties, what help is needed from the superior department, etc.

There was a lot to talk about in the morning meeting, but in fact it only lasted for half an hour and the whole thing was basically covered.

Even the content they discussed, according to Zhu Yuanzhang's experience, would take almost three or four court meetings to complete.

Although this place is only responsible for the government affairs of Yanjing.

But regardless of the economy, people's livelihood and all aspects, there are even more things to do than Yingying Tianfu's grand meeting.

Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang thought that after the court meeting, Liu Ji would stay in the Yamen to handle things like other officials.

As a result, Liu Ji just sat down and read two documents, then quickly changed to the official position and ordered the coachman to get ready to go out.

It was not unusual for officials to go out on business. Although Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little surprised, he didn't take it seriously and just followed quietly.

After arriving at the place, Zhu Yuanzhang was surprised to find that it turned out to be a workshop.

Although the area of ​​the workshop is not small, Liu Ji, the laborer, has to come in person.

You know, who is Liu Ji?

The generation of Ming ministers who assisted Zhu Yuanzhang in founding the Ming Dynasty are also important ministers in the current cabinet.

He even came to inspect a workshop in person.

Seeing Liu Ji chatting and laughing with the shopkeeper of the workshop, Zhu Yuanzhang began to feel unhappy.

After all, in Lao Zhu's view, neither businessmen nor officials are good things.

And the relationship between them seemed so close that it was inevitable that Lao Zhu would think of a word.

Collusion between officials and businessmen.

But after listening to the conversation between them for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang found that it didn't seem to be the case.

"Shop Manager Shen, how long will it take for your workshop to open?"

The shopkeeper's old face smiled like a chrysanthemum: "Sir, we can start work by the end of this month at the latest."

“How is the recruitment of workers going?”

The smile on Shopkeeper Shen's face suddenly turned bitter: "Sir, the wages of our Yanjing workers are too high now, so I am going to recruit a group from my hometown."

"There's nothing wrong with that, but you have to be careful. Even if you recruit workers from your hometown, their wages cannot be lower than our minimum wage standard in Yanjing. Otherwise, don't blame me for not giving Boss Shen face."

Shopkeeper Shen nodded and said: "Please rest assured, sir, I will definitely abide by this and will never cause any trouble to the court."

"It's just...the cement ration..."

Without the other party having to finish what he said, Liu Ji nodded and said, "Okay, I'll tell the people from the Ministry of Industry later..."

After that, the two people talked a lot, some of which Lao Zhu could understand, and some of which Lao Zhu couldn't understand at all.

Liu Ji didn't waste much time here, and left by car in less than half a quarter of an hour.

As soon as he got on the carriage, Zhu Yuanzhang's face darkened: "You are also a cabinet minister after all, and you are so close to a lowly businessman. Are you not afraid of being gossiped about?"

Although Zhu Yuanzhang looked down on businessmen, he was not so contemptuous.

It's just that Liu Ji, an important minister, is so close to those profit-seeking businessmen, so I can't help but take his words a bit seriously.

"This..." Liu Ji explained with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, you may not know that this businessman is extremely important to Yanjing now."

"Especially these businessmen who opened workshops in Yanjing are very important to the Yanjing Yamen and even the imperial court."

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered: "How important can a mere cheap businessman be, and can it affect the success of national affairs?"

Liu Ji was not surprised. In fact, in the past, his thoughts were not much different from Zhu Yuanzhang's.

Ever since Lu Buwei had a good fortune and bet on Ying Zheng as a businessman.

Businessmen have always been the targets of the court's precautions.

As for those small businessmen, they represent selling land at high prices to collect ill-gotten gains.

But after taking charge of Yanjing, Liu Ji gradually discovered.

The whole of Yanjing is completely inseparable from merchants.

If there were no businessmen, at least half of all the policies implemented by Yanjing would be stopped directly.

This is also the reason why ancient society has always emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce.

In this environment, if it is coerced by businessmen, it will only bring huge turmoil to the country.

In comparison, ordinary people farming are naturally much easier to control.

"Your Majesty, this shopkeeper Shen is a distant relative of Shen Wansan. He invested in building a workshop in Yanjing."

"First of all, during construction, we need to purchase cement and various construction materials and hire manpower. In this process, many people can have a way to live and have enough to eat."

"Huh?" Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly startled, and it seemed that what he said made sense.

(End of this chapter)