Wanli 1592

Chapter 374 Emperor Zhu's blame is wronged!
It was the end of September, and in the city of Beijing, if in previous years, you can still feel the power of the autumn tiger at this time, everyone has to contribute a little sweat to the sweltering weather, but in recent years, starting from mid-September, this day has begun The cold wind was blowing, and when I opened the door early in the morning, a gust of cold wind came, enough to make the old man who opened the door sneeze and sneezed to the ground.

"Damn it, why is it so cold today?"

It’s not just a Beijing resident who has such complaints. In fact, many officials and gentlemen living in Beijing have such sighs and worries. Some time ago, some officials raised the issue of worrying about the cold weather affecting the autumn harvest to the cabinet. After a few days of tossing about the cabinet, there was nothing they could do, so they had to let the officials at the bottom think of other tricks. The weather is too cold this time, which is definitely not a good thing for the agricultural harvest.

Absence of land harvest is a disaster for the Central Plains dynasty in any period. Absence of harvest means famine, starvation, refugees, and the most terrible rebellion.

There have been more and more incidents of rebellion, large and small, in recent years, mostly in places near the north. When the weather gets cold, the grain production in these places will drop a lot. Isn't it killing people?The key is that taxes must be collected as usual, and money must be paid as usual. If the payment is not paid, the land will be confiscated.

But when there are many rebellions, and those crooked guards in the local area can't hold back, it needs to be resolved by the court. Since the beginning of this year, more than 30 small-scale refugee rebellions have made Wang Xijue dizzy Zhang was at a loss as to what to do. He was exhausted physically and mentally because of the emperor's coup.

The emperor is restless and easy to clean up, just ask the queen mother to come forward, but the world is restless, can you still invite the king of heaven and Lao Tzu to come forward?Feeling the slight chill of the weather, Wang Xijue sighed, frowned, and walked back to his duty room, where the other two elders and six ministers were waiting.

"Old Wang Ge, please give me an idea! The weather is so cold this morning, I received a letter from my subordinates this morning, saying that some places in the Guanzhong area have seen frost on the ground in the morning, what should I do? It’s not even October yet, so there will be frost. If it’s November and December, why don’t heavy snows flood the capital? The grain is just about to be harvested, but there’s frost. Fortunately, there’s no frost before, and the grain grows It's almost there, so if the weather gets colder, don't you want to stop harvesting?"

Zhang Wei looked at Wang Xijue, and asked a question very bluntly.

His dissatisfaction with Wang Xijue is not a day or two. Ever since Wang Xijue went home to avoid the political turmoil by taking care of his mother, Wang Xijue's political prestige is no longer what it was before. They are still eating vegetarian food in the stately position of the corpse, and it’s fine if they don’t do practical things, but they still set up their shady hands everywhere, and demoted several officials who planned to write letters to chase after the victory and ask the emperor to appoint a prince immediately.

Although the empress dowager mediates in the middle, Wang Xijue's political life has come to an end. Now that Zhang Wei has entered the cabinet, he must aspire to the position of chief assistant. In the Ming Dynasty, the only person who can change the world is the chief assistant, not even the emperor. this power.

As for Zhao Zhigao, to put it bluntly, Zhang Wei doesn't take Zhao Zhigao seriously. Mr. Confused, he is also very old. The mainstay has played a role to some extent, so he served as the acting first assistant. After Wang Xijue came back, he retired to the second assistant. It is conceivable that after Wang Xijue retires, he will be the first assistant, but how long can this confused man be the first assistant? Still a problem.

The youngest and most powerful person in the cabinet is Zhang Wei himself. Zhang Wei is very confident in aspiring to the position of chief assistant, and he also has his own political ambitions. Learn from Wang Xijue and Zhao Zhigao, and move closer to the emperor.

Gone are the days when the emperor decided life and death with one word.

Wang Xijue didn't know what Zhang Wei meant, but he was powerless to stop him. He had long ago decided to end his political career before the winter in November, and go home to truly serve his mother and take care of his life, waiting for the end of his fate, but He never thought that he would encounter a natural disaster before he left, and this would most likely be used by his political opponents as an excuse to attack him. This was unacceptable to Wang Xijue.

What he wanted was to retreat decently, not to retreat helplessly after being attacked.

This is his last dignity.

"No one would have imagined that this kind of thing happened. This year is considered to be over, but what about next year? What about the year after? There are refugees and famines in Guanzhong. If there is no reliable method and there is not enough food to prepare for disaster relief, then what's the matter? Use? There will be a rebellion soon! You want me to make up my mind, well, Yang Shangshu, your household department has no good way? What about the silver and grain in the treasury? What about the tens of millions of taels of silver that Xiao Ruxun just brought back from Japan? "

Wang Xijue pointed the finger at Yang Junmin, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Yang Junmin's expression froze, and he said, "Master Ge, it's not like you don't know that it's not a day or two for the treasury of the Ming Dynasty to spend money. Xiao Ruxun has indeed brought in a lot of money. But it was not obtained in one go, but shipped from Japan in time periods. The Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War had already reserved a large sum of money for the batch that was shipped in. At present, there is really no money in the treasury. How much silver is available."

Shi Xing immediately retorted: "I said Yang Shangshu, you must not put all the problems on the head of my military department. The conquest of Northwest Korea and Japan, and the conquest of Dongwu until now are all fighting, and they all want money. You Go and see which item of my Ministry of War’s expenditure is not clean?”

Zhong Zhenji, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, also immediately retorted: "Shangshu Yang, don't talk about my Ministry of Industry. For many things over the years, the Ministry of Military Affairs has always used money first. The silver of my Ministry of Industry has never been enough! Now it's better. It’s easy to get a sum of money and you still don’t let me use it. If the Yellow River embankment fails, will you be responsible for so many lives or I will be responsible? You can’t let me repair the Yellow River embankment, right?”

The public says that the public is reasonable, and the mother-in-law says that the mother-in-law is reasonable. In a word, Yang Junmin himself is unreasonable.

Yang Junmin is suffering now. As the leader of the Jin party, he is the first force under the emperor's power to be hostile by the officials. Before the emperor was at the forefront, Yang Junmin could still fish in troubled waters, but now that the emperor has withered, he He has become an early bird, and the powerful Da Mingyan officials always have a window to vent, either against the emperor or against those in power, or anyone who wants to harm their interests.

Looking at Yang Junmin's bitter expression, Zhao Zhigao couldn't take it anymore, and said, "You can't say that this matter is all the fault of the household department. Back then, such a large sum of money blindfolded the big guy. I thought that the world was peaceful, so I started to misuse the money, and now the next batch of money will not arrive in the account in two months, so the treasury is empty, who can blame this? Only blame the Ministry of Households, maybe something is wrong?"

"Then what should we do? All the counties in Guanzhong are clamoring for relief money and food, so we can't just watch the refugees revolt?"

Zhang Wei fired immediately, just because he didn't want to make it easier for Yang Junmin.

Luo Wanhua, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, rolled his eyes and came up with a bad idea.

"I remember that when Xiao Ruxun came back from the war against the Japanese kingdom, he gave a sum of money to the emperor. Now the emperor's internal funds should be abundant, and there is still such a mine income. Why don't we ask His Majesty the emperor to provide relief from the internal funds in our last memorial?" disaster victims?"

Zhao Zhigao was stunned for a moment, and quickly said: "No, no, it's too much to have to pay from internal funds for several wars. Now that you have obtained such a large amount of money, you still have to pay from internal funds. Even if Your Majesty is willing, I will wait." Pay attention to what the people of the world say, since ancient times the imperial court had no money and asked the emperor to pay for the shortfall by himself. It is really the only thing in the Ming Dynasty, we can't do this!"

Wang Xijue also said: "This old man also thinks it's inappropriate. Last year and the year before last, the nephew was asked to pay, and the nephew has paid out no less than one million taels of silver. If the nephew is repeatedly asked to contribute money, how angry His Majesty will be, I can't deal with it." ah!"

Luo Wanhua said nonchalantly: "You can't say that, this world belongs to Ming Dynasty, Your Majesty is the emperor of Ming Dynasty, if the emperor doesn't even care about his own world, then what should we do as ministers? "

The rest of the ministers also nodded repeatedly. In short, it would be best not to let them try to get money. As for whether the emperor will be angry... so what if he is angry?who cares!

Song Yingchang, who accompanied him at the last table, watched this particularly shameless scene with cold eyes, and sneered secretly.

What Xiao Ruxun said was right, let him take the position of Minister of the Ministry of Justice, so that he can stay in the center and watch all this with a cold eye. Everyone has their own boss, but no one dislikes this kind old man, so although Song Yingchang doesn't do anything practical, his position is still quite stable.

During this period of time, the ministers were busy fighting against the emperor and the Jin Party. He is still stable here for the time being. Although he will be implicated sooner or later, at least he is still stable for now. Observing the various states of the capital, he found that he has understood everything. A lot of things that I couldn't understand in the past.

He was even more surprised by Xiao Ruxun's foresight. He said that Xiao Ruxun had told him many times in North Korea that he was worried about the cold weather. He couldn't ignore it. The colder weather can cause refugees to rebel. This is a very terrible thing. It's ridiculous that these court elites don't think about the problem, but here they are thinking about how to get money from the emperor's pocket.

The finances of the Ming Dynasty have always been very bad. After Zhang Juzheng’s death, it was out of control. Not only was it popular to borrow money from the treasury without repaying the money, borrowing one tael today and borrowing two taels tomorrow. It's not borrowing by one person, but a group of people borrowing together. It's all favors, and you can't push it away. It's not your own money anyway, and you can get favors. Who wouldn't?One person borrows and two people borrow, and hundreds of thousands and millions of silver are wiped out like this. In the end, there is a law that does not blame the public, okay, hello, hello, hello, everyone, but the country and the people are not good.

Emperor Zhu's blame is wronged!
However, all the ministers are proud of defrauding the emperor and ashamed of thinking of the emperor's sake. They oppose whoever the emperor supports and support whatever the emperor opposes. They regard the overall situation of the government as a joke.

Song Yingchang smiled coldly, thinking of the letter that Xiao Ruxun entrusted someone to bring him from Burma the day before yesterday, he had some calculations in his heart.

Xiao Ruxun said that he has basically settled the affairs of Burma, and he will be able to report to Beijing soon. He hopes that the imperial court can promote the establishment of the Burmese military town, and more importantly, he hopes to obtain the qualification of "Yongzhen Burma".

Song Yingchang was quite surprised, remembering that for so many years in the Ming Dynasty, only the Yunnan Mu family was able to live in Yunnan forever because of its relationship with the Emperor Taizu, and it has always been very peaceful. It's not at the level of Muying, let alone Muying's status as the godson of the emperor Taizu. Why do you want to stay in Myanmar forever?

However, thinking of the rumors and practices that had spread in the court a few years ago to let the Li family live forever in Liaodong, he felt that this matter may not be impossible. The reason why the Li family in Liaodong failed to succeed was because the interests of Liaodong were complicated, but Myanmar did not. The interests of the Ming Dynasty, and in the remote and hot place in the south of Yunnan, it is estimated that few people are willing to be officials and establish political power.

The Ming Dynasty had a system of military management in the northwest and southwest frontiers, that is, there were no civilian officials in the border areas, but the commanders led the troops and set up guards and towns to manage them. In essence, it was military management. , so it’s nothing, Myanmar is a place other than China. To put it bluntly, Daming just couldn’t stand the repeated provocations of the Burmese, so he wanted to fuck him, and had no idea of ​​controlling this land at all.

Daming is very big and has a lot of land. They are not interested in remote areas like Myanmar.

In their view, the south of Yunnan means a barren land. If Ming Dynasty wants to rule this kind of place, it will cost a lot of money. See if Xiao Ruxun can get some money back. The original idea was to let Xiao Ruxun stay there and not come back. Wouldn't it be better if he was given the qualification of Yongzhen Burma?

However, the Mu family of Yunnan was able to inherit the title of the duke of Qianguo, so should Xiao Ruxun also be given the title of duke?Although Daming's title is not that valuable, it is still a symbol of honor. It is already a grace for you, a 24-year-old brat, to get the title of Marquis. Do you still want to get the title of Duke?
(End of this chapter)