Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 446 Fighting
Li Shishi knew that after this court meeting, he would inevitably face questioning from the cabinet, the seven ministers and others.

I decided to go all out and report the matter of cutting redundant officials later to avoid having to continue playing cozy with these guys.

He may be able to launch a surprise attack this time, but that may not be the case next time.

Afterwards, the court officials headed by Yang Tinghe would certainly set up heavy defenses against him and launch an offensive.

Just when Li Shishi was about to yell at these guys, "I'm sorry, I'm the Left Censor-in-Chief!", the important officials of the court who had been silent started to attack first.

However, their target was not Li Shishi, who had defected politically, but Zhu Houzhao, who had just enjoyed showing off.

Then the Minister of Revenue Sun Jiao stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, the bandits in Bazhou have wreaked havoc in all directions, leaving no crops in the fields and the people in dire straits."

"Fortunately, Your Majesty has a benevolent heart and gentle thoughts. You may as well issue an order to reduce taxes in Shandong, Hebei, Henan and other places so that the people can rest and recuperate."

"Tax cuts?" Zhu Houzhao, who had just been secretly happy in the palace, was immediately confused.

So sudden?!
Yesterday he was still troubled by the issue of money and grain, but today the Ministry of Revenue actually took the initiative to come out and call for tax cuts.

Could it be that Sun Jiao, seeing that Li Shishi had gained such a great reputation, wanted to use the court's tax revenue as a favor?

Zhu Houzhao looked at his ministers suspiciously.

At this moment, he suddenly noticed the eagerness in the eyes of the Minister of War He Jian.

Zhu Houzhao, such a smart man, reacted immediately.

This is not only a black punch to yourself, but also a series of punches.

Any tax cut will inevitably lead to fiscal tension.

Then his work of training the new army in Beijing would definitely be affected.

The Ministry of War even had an excuse to refuse to pay the corresponding money and grain.

Zhu Houzhao did not want to train a group of soldiers of only three to five hundred men for show, but he really hoped to have a group of soldiers loyal to him, and with them as the core, he could leverage more soldiers to serve him.

In this case, the expenditure of money and food is definitely not a small amount.

Zhu Houzhao immediately questioned, "Didn't the Ministry of Revenue always say that it was short of money? How come it still has the energy to cut taxes now?"

Sun Jiao heard this and said calmly, "It is better to make the court suffer than to make the people suffer. Although the annual revenue of the Ministry of Revenue is tight, as long as we save money, it will not be a problem to survive until next year."

Zhu Houzhao was no novice. In order to implement the new policy, he had studied all the affairs of the court carefully.

He immediately asked, "If the money and food are insufficient, what should we do if there is an emergency in the border town or a disaster in the surrounding areas?"

As an old official from the Ministry of Revenue, Sun Jiao could readily come up with countermeasures.

"Not to mention that there is nothing to worry about now, even if there is something to worry about, we can follow the precedent of the horse donation of the Imperial Household Department and let the rich households donate money and grain to help the court."

Zhu Houzhao laughed when he heard this, and bluntly pointed out the key point, "Is that to relieve the worries of the court?"

"Let the court exempt their taxes first, and when the court needs money and food, use your official position to exchange money and food from them."

"They can be exempted from corvée labor if they obtain official status."

"I am going to give up my official position and exemption from military service for nothing, and take back what is rightfully mine."

Sun Jiao heard this but disagreed, "Your Majesty, your words are not wrong, but the ones who benefit from this are not just a few rich families. Your Majesty, can't you see the millions of people who are crying for food?"

"When King Gong of Chu went out hunting, he accidentally lost the bow he was carrying. His attendants asked to look for it, but King Gong of Chu said that a bow lost by a Chu person was picked up by another Chu person, so why bother looking for it again?"

"Whether they are rich or poor, they are all citizens of the Ming Dynasty and your Majesty's children. Your Majesty's office is to serve the people of the Ming Dynasty. As long as it is beneficial to the country, it doesn't matter whether this generation or that generation gets the office."

"With your majesty's broad mind, is it possible that you are not as magnanimous as the King of Chu?"

"Besides, the purpose of the imperial court to collect taxes is to take from the people and use them for the people. If there is no urgency, why should we collect all the money in the granary?"

"If the court is too concerned with small gains, it may harm the emperor's benevolence."

Zhu Houzhao suddenly felt bad.

The benevolent personality he had just established suddenly became a boomerang.

No matter how shameless Zhu Houzhao was, he couldn't destroy his character in the blink of an eye.

Just when Zhu Houzhao felt speechless, he suddenly remembered the article that Pei Yuan had handed to him.

The article was written by Wang Qiong, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Although it mainly focused on the military analysis of the rebellion, it also touched upon some civil affairs issues related to his job.

It seems that we can use it...

So, Zhu Houzhao changed his mind and blurted out, "Sun Qing, I'm afraid you are just taking it for granted, right?"

Sun Jiao was stunned and asked immediately, "Why does your Majesty say that?"

Zhu Houzhao said proudly, "As far as I know, when the Bazhou bandits started the rebellion, the crops were abundant, and only Hejian Prefecture had a reduced harvest due to floods. After the banditry, although the rich people were harmed by the bandits, they were able to pay taxes, but the poor had no land, so the court's favors were difficult to spread."

"After the uprising of the Bazhou bandits, as their scale grew, they turned to attacking large cities. However, the citizens had no land, while the villagers had land. In the later period, the citizens were the ones who suffered the most. Exempting the land tax would benefit the villagers, but not the citizens."

"All these things, according to Sun Qing's theory, the poor and the citizens who suffered the most in the Bazhou Rebellion and suffered heavy losses will gain nothing. On the contrary, the local nobles who own a large amount of rural land and have not suffered much will become richer and stronger because of the court's tax exemption."

"They can even use the tax cuts from the court to make more poor people and citizens dependent on them."

Zhu Houzhao said this, looking at Sun Jiao with a smile and asked, "Sun Qing, is that so?"

When the important officials heard this, their pupils shrank.

Appeared!
In the emperor's cognition, there appeared knowledge that they had never taught!

Many people cast their sharp eyes towards the Hanlin scholars who were teaching the emperor.

Those Hanlin scholars also frowned and looked solemn.

Hanlin scholar Jin Gui shook his head slightly with a gloomy face.

Yang Tinghe, the chief minister of the cabinet, glanced at Sun Jiao and motioned him to leave. He then asked first, "Whether Sun Jiao's strategy is feasible is still worth discussing. But Your Majesty is in the deep palace, how can you know such details? Could it be that the factory guards deliberately deceived you?"

Zhu Houzhao was about to boast that he had come up with this idea himself.

Suddenly, he had an idea, looked at someone, and said with a smile, "This is what Wang Qiong, the Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, said. I think it is very appropriate."

Wang Qiong was standing among the court officials.

Just now, when he heard the emperor quoting some of his opinions to refute Sun Jiao, he was very surprised.

First of all, this shows that Brother Pei did not lie to me, he really did it.

He actually handed his article to the emperor.

Moreover, the emperor not only read it, but also really paid attention to it. Some of my thoughts on suppressing the rebellion could also be easily quoted by the emperor.

This shows that there is something in common between him and the emperor!

Wang Qiong was imagining entering the cabinet as prime minister, getting along well with the emperor, marrying Xiaomei, and reaching the peak of his life.

Then Zhu Houzhao suddenly @ed him. Wang Qiong was stunned.

No, brother, is this how you behave?

Faced with the sharp gazes from the ministers, even though Wang Qiong was calm in the face of emergencies, his mind went blank for a moment.

Yang Tinghe looked at Wang Qiong sternly and asked solemnly, "Since the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue had submitted a letter to the emperor, why didn't the cabinet remember it?"

"This..." Wang Qiong suddenly realized that there was trouble.

Although he and Pei Yuan had a good relationship and he approved of Pei Yuan's character, this could not change the fact that Pei Yuan was a Jinyiwei.

So the essence of this matter is that he, Wang Qiong, a right vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue and an important official among the civil servants, did not submit a memorial through the formal court channels when he had something going on. Instead, he secretly asked a Jinyiwei to pass on a message to the emperor!

What is this behavior?
Traitors like Jiao Fang and Zhang Cai are nothing more than this, right?

Wang Qiong's forehead was covered with sweat and he was speechless for a moment.

Yang Tinghe was a prime minister, so he certainly couldn't be aggressive, so he turned to Lin Tingyu, the right minister of the Ministry of Public Administration, and asked, "Mr. Lin, is it possible that the cabinet was negligent in this matter? Does the Ministry of Public Administration have any memorials from Minister Wang?"

When Yang Tinghe spoke just now, Lin Tingyu was already thinking quickly.

Upon hearing this, he immediately stepped out and said without hesitation, "It's not that the cabinet missed it. The Ministry of Public Administration has not received the memorial from Minister Wang before."

The smile on Yang Tinghe's face slowly faded, and he asked Wang Qiong again, "That's strange, how did Dehua's memorial reach the emperor's hands?"

Yes, that’s right. Minister Wang Qiong’s name is Dehua.

Wang Dehua opened his mouth weakly and said, "I, I..."

Wang Qiong was weak in political struggles, and now he didn't know what the emperor would say next, so how could he dare to talk nonsense?

Yang Tinghe still did not continue to ask questions, but instead glanced at the six departments.

A vicious dog that had been impatient for a long time immediately stepped out and said to the emperor, "Your Majesty, the ancient sages of the Han Dynasty once said that public affairs should be discussed publicly. As for private affairs, the king should not be private."

"I would like to know whether Wang Qiong's private memorial to Your Majesty was about public affairs or private matters?"

Everyone looked and saw that it was Li Guan, the Left Censor of the Ministry of Revenue.

Zhu Houzhao also realized at this time that things were getting a little out of hand and seemed to be out of his control.

But at this moment, all the ministers were looking at him with burning eyes.

Zhu Houzhao could only bite the bullet and say, "What Mr. Wang said is all official business."

Li Guan, the Left Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, said proudly, "Since this is all public affairs, even if I am a humble official and cannot be involved in the matter, how can I hide this public matter from the cabinet?"

"I ask Your Majesty to show Wang Qiong's memorial to the Cabinet and the Seven Ministers."

"The cabinet and the seven ministers will jointly review it, and then put it to public opinion to show that the emperor is impartial. Since there is no senior minister of the Ministry of Rites, Mao Ji, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Rites, can review it together."

"Moreover, Wang Qiong used public affairs to speak privately, undermining the court system, and should be severely punished."

Wang Qiong felt numb after hearing this.

At that time, he wrote with great pleasure, with bold and vigorous words, and criticized people. He knew that this was to be shown to the emperor, so he showed his knowledge to the utmost in the article.

In addition to discussing the military deployment and related civil affairs related to the suppression of the rebellion in Bazhou, the entire memorial is filled with one idea.

——These people are no good. They are not as good as me, Dehua.

If we take out the memorial and show it to the public now, wouldn't it only increase the hatred?

Although Wang Qiong played it safe in his memorial, he did not target the existing cabinet or the other seven ministers except Sun Jiao.

But the person he focused on criticizing, Qiu Yue, was now the military officer who made the greatest contribution to the suppression of the rebellion, and the person he criticized second was the Chief Censor Peng Ze, who was the second most meritorious civil official in suppressing the rebellion, and this person was also a disciple of Yang Tinghe.

There were only two words surging in Wang Qiong's mind at this moment.

Holy shit! !
He looked at Zhu Houzhao in the hall with an almost pleading look.

You can’t take it out!

If the emperor could take responsibility and take the blame at this time, then without any evidence, who could really convict him, Wang Qiong?

However, Zhu Houzhao was speechless for a moment when he looked at the aggressive ministers.

After a long while, he said, "I have nothing to hide from others."

As soon as these words were spoken, Wang Qiong's face immediately turned as pale as paper.

Yang Yiqing, who had been silent before, looked at Zhang Yong. Zhang Yong understood and immediately took advantage of Zhu Houzhao's relaxation to have someone look for Wang Qiong's memorial.

The emperor himself may not know where he puts the things he has read, but the secretariat must know.

Less than a cup of tea later, before Zhu Houzhao could change his mind, a young eunuch came in hurriedly and presented him with the stack of articles from Wang Qiong.

Zhu Houzhao took it and hesitated for a moment, but finally asked someone to pass it to Yang Tinghe.

Yang Tinghe quickly flipped through the book, then glanced at Wang Qiong and handed it to the deputy assistant Liang Chu.

Wang Qiong felt a black screen before her eyes, but she was speechless.

Wang Qiong's stack of manuscripts passed through the hands of the three cabinets and the gang leaders in turn. After reading it, Sun Jiao raised his mouth slightly, revealing a disdainful smile, and no one knew what he really thought.

The Ministry of Rites originally had a high position, but because it was the Left Vice Minister Mao Ji who took over, he was the last one.

Mao Ji read it carefully and asked Yang Tinghe, "Do you want to show it to the six departments?"

Yang Tinghe said calmly, "No need."

Then Yang Tinghe said to the emperor, "Although I have great faith in Wang Qiong's character, I have seen that his writing is flashy and contains many falsehoods. I am afraid that some of the things in his writing may be misleading."

After saying that, Yang Tinghe looked at Wang Qiong and asked, "What does Dehua think?"

Wang Qiong thought Yang Tinghe was giving him a way out, so he could only say, "I was reckless for a moment, and I am deeply ashamed."

Yang Tinghe nodded and said with a smile, "It's okay."

Then he said solemnly, "It's just that the affairs of the court concern the well-being of the people. Is it okay to make assumptions about whether something happened or not without seeing it with your own eyes or hearing it with your own ears?"

Wang Qiong remained silent.

Of course, he couldn't refute and slap Yang Tinghe in the face at this time.

Yang Tinghe pondered for a while and said to Zhu Houzhao, "Minister Wang's individual ideas seem to make some sense and should not be rejected rashly."

"I have heard that in Shuntian, Hejian, Baoding, Daming, Guangping and other prefectures, as well as Jinan, Qing, Yan, Denglai, Dongchang and other prefectures in Shandong, a total of 65,160 men and women were killed by the bandits. There were also 1,520 soldiers and civilians killed in the battle."

"Now that the imperial court has won, many civil and military officials have been rewarded. However, the people who have been ravaged in various places have no way to provide relief and relief."

"This is exactly what the Ministry of Revenue is responsible for. Why not let Wang Qiong, as the Minister of Revenue and the Chief Censor, go there on behalf of the emperor and the court to see what the local people are like. This way, we will have a better idea of ​​what to do when we provide relief later."

(End of this chapter)