Idle courtiers

Chapter 195 Xu Ge's old gamble

At this moment, in the Palace of Preserving Harmony.The wind suddenly picked up, causing the gauze to gather and spread out, spread out and gather again.

It was already winter, and the cold wind howled in the empty palace, and the sound of the wind was loud and sharp.Doors and windows slammed loudly, shocking to the ears.

Huang Jin, the eunuch who was in charge of the ceremony, hurriedly tied up the gauze with two young eunuchs, and was about to close the doors and windows again.

"Don't worry about it, don't mess around, don't be afraid, open the doors and windows so that I can see the situation outside more clearly..." A majestic voice came, and it was Jiajing standing in the hall who spoke.

Today's Da Mingzi wears a golden crown on his head, his hair is loose, and he only wears a thin skirt.

In the strong wind, his long black hair and undressed robe fluttered around, as if he was about to take off in the next moment, and there was an aura of detachment on his body.

Jiajing practiced inner alchemy all his life, and he didn't know how much lead and mercury he took on a daily basis. His internal fire was strong, and he no longer knew the cold or heat.In the cold weather, he only wore a single coat, but in the dog days, he had to wear a thick cotton jacket.The people in the palace didn't know that his poisoning was getting worse and worse, but they thought that the master's kung fu had already reached the level of heaven and man.

"Yes, Lord Long Live." Huang Jin hurriedly waved to the little eunuch, telling them to leave.

There were only three people left in the hall, and the other one was a thin old man.But I saw that he was wearing a second-rank court uniform, and he was Xu Jie, the second assistant of the cabinet.

Jiajing said slowly: "Xu Jie, even though you have entered the cabinet now, the affairs of the clan are left over from when you were the minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the incumbent cannot be investigated. Otherwise, how can people be convinced? Dian, you didn’t know how many times you came here when you were a minister, please answer.”

The function of the Hall of Preserving Harmony is for the emperor to change his clothes when participating in the national ceremony. The ceremonies for the establishment of the queen and the crown prince will also be held here, which belongs to the business scope of the Ministry of Rites.

Xu Jie: "This minister deserves to die. The clan is making a big fuss in the Ministry of Rites. I will investigate now."

Huang Jin interjected: "Xu Cifu, is there still a need to investigate? Today's turmoil in the Ministry of Rites is due to Zhu Congming, the general of Fengguo, acting on behalf of the palace, who is dissatisfied with Shenyang and Zhang Dazhong's arrest and investigation of the clan's concealment of the Gyeonggi imperial property, so he contacted the clans. Make trouble. The reason is that the Ministry of Rites owes too much salary to the clan, so that they are dissatisfied and take the opportunity to make trouble. It has been several years since the clan's salary has been owed, and the old man has not reported it to His Majesty?"

As he spoke, he glanced outside the hall.

But outside Baohe Hall, under the long white marble steps, more than 30 troubled clans knelt on the ground.Snowflakes fell one by one, falling on their heads and shoulders.

Hearing this accusation, Xu Jie's heart trembled.He knows the character of this Eunuch Huang best, he is a careful and kind person.He is experienced in doing things and does not want to offend people easily.

Talk to the ministers in a gentle and harmonious manner.It is not in line with his nature to challenge himself in front of the emperor today.

Could it be that Eunuch Huang wants to give the old man eye drops?
No to him, I don't have any conflict of interest with him.

Everyone is a top-notch person, and they always make decisions before acting, and they will never make enemies for nothing.

So, what exactly does he want to do?
Xu Jie said cautiously: "When I was in the Ministry of Rites, I didn't receive a report from the Rites and Clearance Department, and I ignored it. The court has its own difficulties, let alone the clan, and even the expenses of the ministries are not enough. To be able to barely maintain it is to borrow from here and there to barely maintain it. The clan's salary is just a delay, not not a non-payment, and in the end, isn't it all made up?"

Speaking of this, he became ruthless, and said: "Wang Shichuan, the minister of Yizhi Qingli, is not good at doing things, and he is lazy in governing. The minister immediately asked the cabinet to write a document to remove him from his official position and give an explanation to the clan."

"Well said, really well said! Something happened in the court, and the two officials were removed, only He Qinghaiyan, everything is safe, I don't want to agree to you." Jiajing's eyes fell on Xu Jie's face Come on, smiled: "Mr. Xu Ge, today the clan is asking for money to make a fuss. If you don't have money, it's useless to say a thousand dollars or ten thousand. Or, you can change the money for me. The clan's expenses are all from The cabinet is supported, and I entrust the cabinet to you to tell you to be a good country. A country, a country, there is a family and a country. The country is the court, and the family is my clan. Every time your cabinet shouts that there is no money, and it is in arrears As for the salary of the clan, I still have to use some of my internal funds to help the clansmen."

"It's all right now, the clan is making a big fuss with the Ministry of Rites, pointing swords at my Qingzhang's Gyeonggi imperial property, and accusing me of abusing the clan. Isn't I a little bit wronged? What do you think, Mr. Xu Ge, what do you want to do?" What? If you say you don't know anything about what happened today, I really don't believe it."

I won't carry this pot.

Although it is called trembling like walking on thin ice, what does it mean to be with the king like a tiger?

Xu Jie's vest broke out in a layer of cold sweat, and he suddenly realized: This is someone who wants to take the opportunity to punish him, so who is this person?

Huang Jin, it's impossible.The palm seal of the inspector of ceremonies is already an internal minister, and with his age, he has long been unwilling to participate in political disputes in the court.What he said just now seemed to be an attack, but he was actually reminding the old man to pay attention.

Yan Song and the other two elders in the cabinet... It's possible, no wonder there was an accident in the Ministry of Rites today.

In fact, these three people have already seen that this matter is actually a new policy aimed at the emperor's Qingzhang imperial property.

Our Long Live Lord, it's easy to talk about other things, but the money bag is his back, whoever touches it will be finished.

At this time, Xu Jie suddenly remembered that Zhou Nan came to the door to ask for help a few days ago, and talked about his Qingzhang Li Wei's manor, and asked him to help lock the hall to avoid disaster.

At that time, he felt that someone in Chaotang was going to target Yuwangfu.The water in this matter was too muddy, and I couldn't get involved easily, so I regretted it and decided to suppress it.

Unexpectedly, I wanted to stand on the sidelines, but things still happened to him.One mishandling, the old man's political life will be over.

If I knew this earlier, I should have looked into this matter in the first place.So, how could he be so passive now.

Xu Jie knelt down with a plop, took off the Jinde crown and put it on the ground.

He raised his head, his face was full of hot old tears: "How can the old minister let Jun father bear such a bad name, thousands of mistakes are all the fault of the minister, as long as you can clarify that your majesty is wise, the minister will be willing to be smashed to pieces. "

Jiajing suddenly had a sharp expression on his face: "Why, Mr. Ge wants to put down the pick? The matter is so big that he wants to ignore it? You have not yet understood the affairs of the clan, but you want to resign?"

If you haven't clarified the previous matter, you will resign from office and spread the word, which is a good idea.

Xu Jie shook his head, shed a few tears, picked up the petition letter written by Zhu Congchi that Jiajing had thrown on the ground without looking at it, and said loudly, long live, look at the petition letter of General Fengguo. "Xu Jie felt ruthless: I bet!"

He cleared his throat and began to read emotionally: "...the ministers are in a closed city, their movements are restricted, they have no property to hold, no one to rely on, and they have not been able to eat for a few days... the old and the young are wailing, and it is extremely difficult. .”

"...Some are over thirty and cannot get married, some have been exposed for ten years and cannot be buried, some go begging in the city, some serve as private servants, some migrate to other places, and some die of starvation. Although they belong to the clan, they are very poor. Looking up to the ground and looking up to the sky, there is no door to control..."

"My minister Zhu Cong's family has surplus wealth, court salary, and food and clothing. However, there are millions of clans in the world, how few are ministers like ministers? Just imagine that after three generations, the descendants of ministers will be in such a difficult situation. What kind of tragedy is it? Every time I read As for this situation and this scene, I am so worried that I cannot sleep at night..."

"The livelihood of the clan is already so miserable. The face of the Tian family is gone. The two thieves, Shen and Li, invaded the property of the ministers, mutilated the clan, and perverted. He is about to die, and his words are good, and now he can only risk his life to write a letter, please Your Majesty, please wait for justice."

Hearing the words Xu Jie read, Jiajing was shocked, stepped up suddenly, grabbed the letter of love, and read it carefully.

After reading, he snapped, "Is this true?"

Xu Jie: "Nature is true/"

"I'm not asking you." Jiajing's eyes fell on Huang Jin's face.

Huang Jin was speechless.

Jiajing shouted in shock: "How is this possible? Doesn't the imperial court distribute salaries to the clan members every year? Could it be that so much money has been corrupted by others? Xu Jie, you used to be in charge of the Ministry of Rites. Come and explain clearly to me. "

He realized the seriousness of the problem in an instant. Isn't it a joke that the royal family members are so poor that they work as farm laborers and go to the streets to beg for money?

What will others think when they see it?
Even the patriarch of an ordinary clan has the responsibility to take care of his clansmen when they see their lives are difficult, let alone the emperor who is the emperor of the ninth five?Let the people see it, how will they think of him as the emperor?

Looking at the emperor's fierce eyes, Xu Jie whispered: "Take the Daiwangfu in Shanxi as an example. In the year of Hongwu, there was only one person, with an annual salary of 850 shi. By last year, there were 87 people, with an annual salary of 400 shi. It was only a vassal for the king, but now the population of the imperial family has reached one million. Last year, the local government sent 850 million shi of grain to the capital, and the clan salary that should be distributed was [-] million [-] shi. If you can continue to default on your debts, you will be able to sustain yourself with enough grain.”

Although Xu Jie didn't take it seriously, he was also a top-notch talent to be able to hold the position of cabinet assistant.Especially good at financial management, he and Yan Song were rare technocrats in the Ming Dynasty.

These numbers are all in his heart, and he can say them casually.

"Long live, think about it, with a population of one million clans and a salary of 800 million shi. Spread out equally, each person only has [-] shi of food per year. Calculated by each person eating two catties of rice per day, [-] shi is only enough for half a year. Besides, The eight shi salary is not shared equally. For example, Zhu Congchi has six hundred shi every year, and the vassal princes above get more. There are probably not many children of the clan who have no titles deducted by the end of the year. Your Majesty will say The ministers below are greedy for ink, but they are wronged."

Boss Xu Ge pointed his finger at the elementary school students' practice questions for Emperor Jiajing.

(End of this chapter)