Cannon Fodder Is King [Transmigration]

Meng Zezhi got a lot of news from the outside world from Lu Li.

For example, what happened that day in Song Guogong Mansion.

For example, the current situation in the courtroom.

...

Another example is the great **** Tao An who is his uncle.

Thanks to these news, Meng Ze knows that the number of times he has eaten meat in the past month is close to the total of the whole year of last year.

It was early August in a blink of an eye.

In the afternoon of that day, Meng Zezhi went to the Qianqing Palace as usual to greet Emperor Guangde.

As soon as I arrived at the gate of the palace, I heard the ministers shouting, "The ministers are guilty."

"His Royal Highness."

Seeing Meng Zezhi coming over, the servant waiting outside the hall immediately bowed and saluted.

"Forget it." Meng Zezhi asked: "Why, the father is still receiving the minister at this time?"

Seeing that there was no one on the left or right, the attendant moved forward and whispered: "If you return to your Highness, the news that has just arrived is that the Yellow River has expedited, and the treasury has no money to provide relief."

Meng Zezhi's expression was serious, and there have always been countless casualties when the Yellow River bursts its dyke.

"No matter, disaster relief is the most important thing. Since the national treasury has no money, then 1.22 million liang of silver was allocated from the internal funds to settle the refugees and repair the river embankment."

"Long live Xie Wuhuang, long live long live!"

"But my ugly words are ahead. If there is any mistake in this disaster relief, I will never be merciless." Emperor Guangde was murderous and slapped him on the table.

"The officials dare not wait." Baiguan shouted again.

Emperor Guangde took a rough breath and said, "In this case, I don't know who Aiqing is willing to go to Henan to preside over this disaster relief."

"Long live the enlightenment, the Weichen is willing to go." It is the second prince's right-hand man who is on the job, Lou Shuxun, the current servant of the household department.

The eighth prince (originally the seventh prince) frowned slightly.

Since the birth of Meng Zezhi, the attitude of the officials who supported Lidi who originally stood on the side of the second prince has begun to waver. It can be said that it is the time when the second prince party is in a precarious manner. At this point, the second prince wants to send Lou Shuxun to the disaster relief. Isn’t this too messy about the capital?

Either the second prince wanted to rebel, so he sent Lou Shuxun to a dark place to contact officials; or, it was the Yellow River bursting that was another strange thing.

The eighth prince had a scrupulous heart.

Seeing that no one else stood up in the court hall, Emperor Guangde nodded: "Well, it's hard work for Lou Aiqing to take a trip."

"Weichen leads the order."

When the ministers dispersed, Meng Zezhi then entered the Palace of the Qing Dynasty under the guidance of the servant.

"Erchen please peace with the emperor." Meng Zezhi kneeled and bowed.

"Yunzhong is here." Emperor Guangde put down his hand rubbing his temples, and grudgingly pulled out a smile: "My father is busy with government affairs today, so I won't leave you to eat."

After finishing speaking, he ordered: "Tao An, order the Imperial Dining Room to make an extra piece of roasted venison for the fifth prince, and take it from my case."

"Thanks Father Emperor."

Meng Zezhi lifted his robe and stood up. He paused and said, "I wonder if the sons and ministers can solve problems for the father and the emperor?"

Tao An's heart tightened, he knew the thoughts of Emperor Guangde best.

He didn't want Meng Zezhi to get involved in the controversy, otherwise he would not hold Meng Zezhi to stay in Duanben Palace for two months.

Under such circumstances, Meng Zezhi suddenly said such words and fell in the ears of Emperor Guangde, fearing that it would be no different from reaching out for power.

Even if Emperor Guangde didn't pursue it, his affection for Meng Zezhi would drop by two points.

Sure enough, Emperor Guangde frowned inadvertently, but he still said in a good voice, "It's not a big deal, it's just that the treasury is empty and can't get any money."

He originally wanted to use these words to prevaricate Meng Zezhi, after all, the treasury had no money, and Meng Zezhi couldn't change it.

But he didn't want Meng Zezhi to say solemnly: "The treasury has no money, but the tax levied is too small, not enough for the daily expenses of a country."

Emperor Guangde frowned and couldn't help but follow Meng Zezhi's words: "You mean to increase taxes?"

"Yes or not. In the previous dynasties, the bad government harmed the people the most. What would be the case for the suppression of our Han people's uprising army to increase the army's salary, so that the people were robbed of the poor, and then the salary was added again, and then the various sides were trained, and then the salary These three rates are several times that of the righteous tax. It is painful and exhausting for the ordinary people, and the fat is removed and the marrow is scraped, causing popular complaints.

"Since the father and the emperor succeeded to the throne, benevolent governance and love for the people, first abolished the three payments, rested with the people, and punishable with the people, only then can there be peace in the world today.

Hearing this, Emperor Guangde's expression improved a lot.

After complimenting Emperor Guangde, Meng Zezhi's eyes were bright: "But father, the amount of money and grain collected by the court is really the amount paid by the people?"

Emperor Guangde's expression sank.

Meng Zezhi did not hesitate: "Take Zhejiang Caoliang as an example. The imperial court is 4 million shi in Zhejiang, while Zhejiang yields 10 million shi. Four million shi is not necessarily returned to the court, and 6 million shi is often used for officials , Shang and various color beetles."

The Dayang dynasty implemented the "one whip method", where both taxes and silver were collected and handed over to the treasury. However, when the government levies the grain, it will inevitably be lost due to the drying, hoisting, and transportation of the grain. The government is unwilling to bear these additional losses, so it is transferred to the people, which is the so-called envy.

In this way, there is no supervision of extra-legal taxes, and officials are naturally at their disposal, and corruption is rife.

"Father, knows that the sons and ministers had been in the Ministry of Households for half a year, and how much did they receive?"

Meng Zezhi asked and answered: "Four thousand taels."

A small official from the fourth grade, with an annual salary of only one hundred and fifty-two, but can receive eight thousand liang of envy a year.

Emperor Guangde did not speak.

Did Emperor Guangde really not know these things? he knows.

Why can he tolerate the expropriation of local officials?

The first is that officials’ salaries are low. In addition to supporting their families, they have to hire friends and servants. Otherwise, no one will be responsible for office work and chores. The imperial court does not care about these additional expenditures, and the officials are all paid out of their pockets. During the festival, you have to pay tribute to the bosses at all levels. Often the officials' salary for a year is not enough for them to spend a month.

On the other hand, Emperor Guangde has been struggling with Tatar all his life.

——In Meng Zezhi's view, Emperor Guangde was a diligent emperor, but not a good emperor.

His throne comes with lightness.

Among the eight sons of Emperor Taizu, Emperor Guangde was the youngest and the most mediocre, but he couldn't stand his luck.

The world hadn't been settled yet, and his seven brothers died in the battle. When the Great Yang Dynasty established the country, his fifth and seventh elder brothers tried to emulate the changes in the Xuanwu Sect and got rid of his second elder brother in order to fight for the throne, but they were finally killed.

His victorious second brother laughed halfway through, not knowing where a stream of arrows flew out of him killed him, and took away the distraught Emperor Taizu by the way.

In this way, in the dream of a free king, Emperor Guangde, who had never received a day of orthodox emperor education, was hurriedly pushed onto the dragon chair by a hundred civil and military officials.

The result was that in Guangde three years, the Tatars committed the side.

The dignified prince of a country was driven by Hulu to abandon the capital, fled from the north to the south, and from the south back to the north. In the end, although he saved his life, he ended up with the death of his wife and son. It was a shame!

To this end, Emperor Guangde endured the humiliation and finally defeated Tatar in twenty years.

——This is also the only feat of Emperor Guangde for more than 20 years in power.

After the three years of Guangde incident, the Yanggu imperial family swept the people's hearts with dignity.

Under such circumstances, Emperor Guangde officially took charge of the government.

In order to increase the people’s confidence in the new dynasty and gain a reputation for benevolent governance and love for the people, Emperor Guangde had to cut taxes repeatedly. The effect was indeed good at the beginning. Even the prince mingled in.

In the eighteenth year of Guangde, in order to deal with the eldest prince, the second prince worked hard to make an imperial examination fraud case. After the incident, the eldest prince was detained and more than a dozen officials involved in the case were pushed out and beheaded at the Meridian Gate. There were as many as two or three hundred family members, either exiled or confiscated as prostitutes.

Afterwards, the unwilling big prince colluded with the remaining Tatar forces and assassinated Zhao Yijing who was about to return to Beijing.

After the grand prince was abolished, in order to prevent the two princes from dominating the court, Emperor Guangde had to support the seventh prince to fight against him.

Then in the 22nd year of Guangde, Qingzhou suffered a severe drought. In order to pull the second prince off the horse, the Seventh Prince did not hesitate to rob the relief money, which led to riots and starvation among the refugees in Qingzhou.

But what if Emperor Guangde knew it?

For the sake of the people and the royal majesty, he not only had to suppress these things, but also ordered people to help them clean up their little tails.

It is a failure to be an emperor to do this.

Didn't Emperor Guangde ever think about changing the status quo?

How could he have not thought about it.

It's just that freezing three feet is not a day's cold, and the matter of consuming envy is related to the interests of the officials of the Manchuria, which can be said to affect the whole body.

In the past ten years, he was busy dealing with Tatar, always thinking that he must settle the outside first. It is better to do more than less, so he turned a blind eye to official corruption.

When he finally finished fighting Tartar, his body was already much worse than before. Due to lack of energy, he really couldn't get up.

Now when he heard Meng Zezhi talk about this, he couldn't help but ask: "What do you think is the explanation for this?"

"One, the amount of consumption is clearly determined, and the consumption goes to the public, which is uniformly allocated by the court to the various prefectures and counties. Two, high salaries and cleanliness. Three, clear penalties." Meng Zezhi said sonorously and powerfully.

"Consumption of envy goes to the public, high salary and honesty..."

It was equivalent to a slap and then a sweet date, Emperor Guangde muttered to himself, this is indeed a good way.

The more he pondered, the brighter his eyes became, and then it seemed that he had thought of something, and the light in his eyes slowly dimmed.

Still the same sentence, his body can no longer withstand the toss.

If Meng Zezhi could do this--

Thinking of this, he suddenly raised his head, then his expression stagnated.

Just as Tao An thought, he really didn't want Meng Zezhi to get involved in the controversy.

Others may not know his physical condition, but he himself knows it better. The court was already dominated by the second prince and the eighth prince. He had this idea, and he couldn't pave a broad road for Meng Zezhi in a short time.

That being the case, it is better to let Meng Zezhi be an idle king from the beginning. With his status of six yuan and number one, I believe his successor will be very willing to raise Meng Zezhi's mascot.

But at this moment, Meng Zezhi’s performance was too dazzling. He couldn't help but think of the recommendations of Meng Zezhi on the South and North Rankings during the 21-year Palace Examination...

At this moment, he was shaken.

With a complicated face, he sighed and said, "Go down first and let me think about it."

"Yes, Erchen retired."

When Meng Zezhi left, Tao An also retired. He drew his confidant and said, "Go, talk to Master Liu and the others, let's put aside the matter of co-naming your five Highnesses to enter the court and observe politics."

"Yes."

After speaking, Tao An opened his eyebrows and opened his eyes.

His nephew is much better than he thought.

The author has something to say:

Consumption of envy to the public and high salaries to nourish integrity were important measures to increase the salary of local officials at all levels by setting fire consumption during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty.

Pertinent comments in the previous chapter

Not repairable: I feel like they beep as soon as they meet——

#No, no, don’t talk nonsense, people never go to bed at all. #