Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 570 Zhu Youjian Can't Understand Ming Officials
Chen Zilong stood up at this time and expressed his opinion to Zhu Youjian.

When Li Mingrui and Li Banghua were vying to express their desire to be the chief assistant.

He was still thinking about why His Majesty said that only continuous external expansion can make the empire stronger, and he was also thinking about how a war that was obviously a waste of money to go out and conquer became a profitable war, not to mention that the regions that were conquered were all bitter cold places. .

But Chen Zilong immediately figured it out. He had close contacts with Song Yingxing and others from the Daming Ordnance Institute in Nanjing. He knew that Daming’s demand for coal mines, oil mines, and iron ore mines was rising sharply. Find new ore sources.

Most of the mines are located in the north, or even outside the customs. Only then did Chen Zilong realize that today's Daming's demand for territorial functions is no longer just simple farming and animal husbandry, but also mining needs and even the construction of large-scale factories that discharge waste and poison gas. land needs.

The population inside the pass is densely populated, and over-exploitation of minerals will more or less affect the Fengshui of the dragon veins and the lives of the people, but it is different outside the pass. It is all the territory of the former Tartars, and the random mining of the Ming Dynasty will not affect the land veins and the lives of the people.

Therefore, as soon as Chen Zilong thought of the key point, he expressed to Zhu Youjian his thoughts on how to expand externally.

Zhu Youjian is very pleased that Chen Zilong can think of this, because it can at least prove that there are still people in Daming who can improve their thinking.

"That's right, we still use the method of the Northern Expedition, but this time we want to involve the private business groups. The future foreign operations will be a road to digging for gold with the participation of all the people of the Ming Dynasty, not just military, political and economic Expansion and cultural expansion, only by domesticating the barbarians outside the pass to become Han people like us can completely eliminate the invasion of the northern Tartars.”

Zhu Youjian affirmed Chen Zilong and confirmed with Li Yan and others on the spot the next step of the guards' combat plan.

First of all.

Zhu Youjian issued a decree, in order to chase the remaining brave bandits, not to be known as the overlord, expressing the meaning of eradicating the remnants of the remnants of the captives, and formally ordered the Generalissimo's Office to organize the East Route Army to go out and destroy the captives.

At the same time, the cabinet was ordered to raise money and food.

then.

Zhu Youjian officially confirmed the appointment of Qin Zuoming as the general who conquered the captives, and commanded the battle to destroy the captives. Yan Yingyuan was transferred to the First Corps of the Second Army as the deputy commander, and conquered the Hetuala tribe.

then.

Not long after, the Household Department announced that it would stop selling Northern Expedition coupons and start selling Mielu coupons. People who hold Northern Expedition coupons can exchange Northern Expedition coupons with the value of Northern Expedition coupons on February 24, 25 Chongzhen as the standard.

At the beginning, the public didn't believe in the Mielu coupons, and felt that it would be more reassuring to get the cash, and most of them exchanged the Northern Expedition coupons for cash.

Later, under the control of the Ministry of Households, Mielu coupons continued to rise, while Northern Expedition coupons continued to fall, making it less and less cost-effective to exchange Northern Expedition coupons for cash. added value.

As a result, the people began to exchange a large number of extermination coupons.

The Ministry of Household Affairs successfully transferred the funds collected by selling the Northern Expedition vouchers to the war against captives. At the same time, because a lot of wealth was recovered from the hands of Shanxi merchants, northern gentry, and nobles of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial finances were still sufficient. state of surplus.

On February 24th, the [-]th year of Chongzhen, the Second Corps of the Second Guards Army joined forces with Li Dingguo's Ministry in Jizhou and then left Gubeikou and headed towards Horqin's Ministry.

Gao Hongtu, the chief assistant of the cabinet, is still very dedicated to this war.

The election of the new cabinet chief and assistant in March has begun.

As the chief assistant of the cabinet, Gao Hongtu is also one of the candidates. In order to be re-elected, he does not dare to disappoint Zhu Youjian now, and is also very conscientious in preparing war money and food.

At this time, the officials of the ministries, the governors of the provinces, and even the governor and other officials did not have any objections or even expressed their support for the war, so as to show Zhu Youjian that they were in line with His Majesty, but the main reason was to be able to become His Majesty. Before serving as the chief minister of the cabinet, he left a good impression on Emperor Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian successively found memorials from many ministers about their hope to become the next chief minister of the cabinet.

A soldier who doesn't want to be a marshal is not a good soldier, and an officer who doesn't want to be a chief assistant is naturally not an officer who wants to do great things.

In order to understand how these ministers expressed that they are suitable for the current cabinet chief assistant, Zhu Youjian did not let these memorials go to the cabinet and the supervisor of rituals, but asked the Secretary of General Administration to submit them directly to him.

Zhu Youjian very much hoped that Ming officials could have their own independent political thinking and clear political thinking, instead of blindly following the way of self-cultivation provided by Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism to govern the country.

Therefore, he particularly expects these officials to actively express their political views, even if it is absurd or even empty talk, it doesn't matter, as long as they don't follow the rules, Zhu Youjian can accept it.

However, it was already about mid-March, and Zhu Youjian had not received any self-recommended memorials from the Secretary of General Administration for the election of officials to be the chief assistant of the cabinet.

"Xu Zhaohua, go to the Secretary of General Administration and ask if there are any officials who have recommended themselves for the cabinet chief assistant?"

Zhu Youjian couldn't help wondering whether he had misunderstood the officialdom of Daming. Could it be that the officials of Daming are all Buddhist officials, and they have no desire for official positions. Sheng, don't want to be the chief assistant directly, and be the No. 1 foreign court with less than one person and more than ten thousand people?
Xu Zhaohua came back with a receipt from the Secretary of General Affairs: "Your Majesty, the Secretary of General Administration has not received a letter of self-recommendation for an official to run for the cabinet chief."

"How is this possible! Keep waiting. After all, Daming has a vast territory, and the official memorials are not delivered urgently. Wait and see." Zhu Youjian waited for another half a month, and by April, there were still no officials to recommend themselves.

Zhu Youjian once wondered whether Gao Hongtu was interfering with it and used various means to prevent officials from running for election.

But Zhu Youjian quickly denied his doubts. After all, Gao Hongtu, no matter how he was the chief minister of the dynasty, could not cover the sky with one hand and make all the senior officials listen to him and not participate in the election.

Zhu Youjian had no choice but to go to the Secretary of General Administration to read it in person. When he saw a book that read "Governor Ding Chukui of Jiangxi went to Baihe Xiangrui to visit Ganjiang Shu", he couldn't help being furious:
"Gao Hongtu said that this person is quite astute and has practical talents. Now that he is running for the cabinet chief assistant, he doesn't appear in the memorial to recommend himself, but he submits this sensational memorial. What kind of practical talent!"

Secretary of the General Administration Zuo Tongzheng Wu Zhenyu himself is also a candidate for the cabinet's first assistant, so naturally he can't forget to stab Gao Hongtu at this time:

"After Mr. Gaoge presided over the cabinet, most of the ministers he chose were incompetent, and they only sang praises. Your Majesty, please take a look. These are all the memoirs of the governors of various provinces that have been sent in droves recently. They are all white deer, one-foot-long wheat Spike appears and waits."

Zhu Youjian heard what Wu Zhenyu said, but he didn't say anything, but opened the memorial of Ding Chukui and read it carefully.

At this point, Zhu Youjian understood everything!
(End of this chapter)