My father is Jiajing

Chapter 200 Financial Expert Yan Maoqing

Yanfu.

Yan Shifan held a jar of sweet Yiran candy in his chubby little hand, and in the other hand he held a small silver spoon with exquisite patterns. He scooped the Yiran candy from the jar spoonful by spoonful and ate it.

He seemed to like this sweet and sticky feeling very much. He never added any other ingredients and just ate it plain.

If Zhu Zaigui knew about this way of eating, he would definitely give Yan Shifan a thumbs up in admiration!
Aren’t you afraid of getting the three highs by eating so much sugar?
Yan Shifan's life trajectory is much happier than that of his hard-working father Yan Song.

In the tenth year of the Jiajing reign, Yan Shifan entered the Imperial Academy with the help of his father's influence and obtained a status of a student comparable to that of a juren. Later, because of his rapid promotion, he also received additional favors to varying degrees.

He was granted the titles of Chief of the Left Army Military Governor's Office and Experiencer of the Rear Army Military Governor's Office, and later became the Governor of Shuntian Prefecture in the capital.

In the 22nd year of Jiajing's reign, he was promoted to Shaoqing of Shangbaosi, and in the 24th year, he was promoted to Shaoqing of Taichangsi.

Now, because his father is the Prime Minister, Emperor Jiajing has favored him and appointed him as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, in charge of some engineering affairs in the palace and local areas. It is also a very lucrative position!

But these are not what he is most proud of.

What Yan Shifan was most proud of was his title of "Little Cabinet Minister".

In the 27th year of Jiajing, Yan Song once again defeated his political enemies and became the chief minister of the cabinet, surpassing Xia Yan, with the help of Yan Shifan.

Yan Song was nearly seventy years old at that time. He was old and weak, mentally exhausted, and had to serve the emperor day and night, so he no longer had enough energy to handle government affairs.

Therefore, in many cases, when some matters needed to be decided, Yan Song would rely on the ability of Yan Shifan and often said: "Let me discuss it with the boy in the East Tower before making a decision."

From then on, Yan Shifan became Yan Song's strongest assistant. Yan Song often brought Yan Shifan to the cabinet in private, allowing him to participate in the drafting of important state affairs, making him a cabinet minister who was not a cabinet minister.

Also, because most of the proposals made by Yan Shifan catered to the wishes of Emperor Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing acquiesced in Yan Shifan's presence in the cabinet and even rewarded him many times.

As a result, Yan Shifan was given the title of "Little Cabinet Minister" and became an "informal member" of the cabinet, second only to his father.

After the victory of the defense battle in the suburbs of Beijing, Yan Shifan's thoughts became active.

Although he was a little embarrassed about recommending Qiu Luan, he was not aware of the bad things Qiu Luan had done. Therefore, when he was investigating Qiu Luan, Yan Shifan was not involved.

So now Yan Shifan is thinking about how to show off and make up for his previous sin of "not knowing people well".

Yan Shifan thought about the popularity of Yiran Hall and Shunyi Industrial Park. Although he was very jealous, he was also very clear that if he could no longer demonstrate his excellent financial management skills.

Over time, if the emperor only relies on Yiran Hall and Shunyi Industrial Park, which are nominally owned by Prince Yu but actually operated from the palace, to make money, his importance will be greatly reduced.

Therefore, the clever Yan Shifan also had to think of his own way to come up with some new ideas for His Majesty the Emperor, to make a great effort to the increasingly congested and dilapidated capital, and to let His Majesty the Emperor see that he was still a very capable talent!
Therefore, during this period, Yan Shifan spared no effort in lobbying and submitting memorials to make Emperor Jiajing pay attention to the importance of expanding the capital, thereby highlighting his own importance.

Now that Emperor Jiajing had finally decided to renovate the outer city of the capital, Yan Shifan would naturally not miss the opportunity to demonstrate his ability. So at the imperial meeting the day before, Yan Shifan excitedly proposed his own plan, requesting the emperor to allow Prince Jing Zhu Zaizhen to supervise the construction of the outer city of the capital in name only, while the Ministry of Works actually took charge of the strategy, and to make suggestions for the planned outer city of the capital.

At that time, Emperor Jiajing was about to ask Yan Shifan how he planned to build the outer city of the capital. After all, if the outer city was really to be built, the silver that would be needed would definitely be tens of millions of taels. It was definitely not a simple project that could be completed by just building an outer wall.

Because after the outer wall is completed, it will have to be filled with a lot of ancillary buildings and new regional functional divisions. These are the real big expenses and I dare not calculate them in detail. Once I calculate them in detail, God knows how much money it will cost.

With the current annual treasury revenue of the Ming Dynasty of seven or eight million, it is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket to support such a huge project. It may not be completed even after ten or twenty years.

Moreover, the treasury revenue of seven or eight million taels had to be spent on countless areas, such as the more obvious official salaries, the canal that had to be repaired every year, the Yellow River that was never at peace, and the royal family, a group of relatives whose number could not be counted and who were living off the wealth.

In addition, after disasters such as droughts and floods occur in various places every year, the court will allocate silver for disaster relief. For example, this year, Emperor Jiajing has issued an edict to exempt the grain taxes in the two capitals, Henan, Jiangxi, Liaodong, Guizhou, Shandong, and Shanxi.

Relying on the annual treasury income of seven or eight million taels and still wanting to accomplish big things would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Moreover, Emperor Jiajing himself was a big spender. He also wanted to practice Taoism. The daily consumption of alchemy materials in the palace and various supplies for routine fasting and prayers was a huge expense that was difficult to calculate.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing was also hesitant and did not dare to make such a decision easily.

However, Yan Shifan was very sensible and put forward his own ideas. He recommended a financial expert - Yan Maoqing!

Yan Shifan praised Yan Maoqing to the highest level, saying that he was extremely good at managing finances. If he were made the chief executive of the four salt transport offices in Liangzhe, Lianghuai, Changlu and Hedong, he would surely be able to increase the salt tax from 600,000 taels in previous years to more than one million taels.

In this way, the imperial court will have more treasury revenue to support the expansion of the outer city of the capital.

When Emperor Jiajing heard that there was such a great financial expert, he immediately became interested. It was always a good thing to get more silver for the national treasury.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing also affirmed Yan Shifan's suggestion and asked the cabinet to examine Yan Maoqing's ability again. If he is really capable, it is not impossible to let him be the prime minister of the salt administration of the four salt transport offices of Liangzhe, Lianghuai, Changlu and Hedong.

Anyway, what the court lacks is money.

Next, Yan Maoqing's inspection and appointment was just a formality. He soon passed the inspection and review of the cabinet and the Ministry of Personnel, and was appointed as the Minister of Salt Administration of the Four Salt Transport Offices of Liangzhe, Lianghuai, Changlu and Hedong.

Before Yan Maoqing took office, he came to Yan Shifan's house again, and with tears in his eyes he bowed to Yan Shifan again to express his gratitude for his rebirth.

Yan Shifan looked at the sensible Yan Maoqing and said, "Salt administration is of vital importance. This is our chance to show our face in front of the emperor. We have done what those Qingliu could not do. This shows that we are more loyal and more capable than those so-called Qingliu. In the future, the emperor will rely on us more."

"So, this time you are in charge of the salt administration of Liangzhe, Lianghuai, Changlu, and Hedong Salt Transport Offices. This is also my high hopes for you. I hope you will not let me down."

Yan Maoqing said: "Don't worry, young minister, even if I have to go through fire and water, I will definitely live up to your high expectations. I will definitely sacrifice my life for you and do a good job in the salt administration!"

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Asking for a monthly ticket~~
(End of this chapter)