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

Chapter 448 The visitor is evil

Brother Wang must be so upset now.

You must know that a few years later, after Zhu Houzhao's childless crisis intensified, most of the court voted for Prince Ning.

The honest man Fei Hong resisted for a while, but felt that he couldn't afford to offend the enemy, so he just picked up the bucket and ran away.

It was Brother Wang Qiong who became the backbone of the Ming Dynasty at the critical moment.

As a result, such a loyal minister was betrayed by Zhu Houzhao.

Pei Yuan was also speechless. Zhu Houzhao must have thought that he was a stand-alone player and that he could use him as he pleased as long as it was beneficial to him.

Pei Yuan thought for a while, but had no idea.

Historically, Wang Qiong did travel to various places to provide relief around this time.

But at that time, the fact that there was a large backlog of food and fodder on the front line and the huge losses had not yet been fully exposed.

By the time Zhu Houzhao figured out the situation and was furious, Yang Tan, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue who was directly in charge of military supplies, was in trouble, and Sun Jiao, the minister of the Ministry of Revenue who was in charge of the overall situation, was also forced to retire. Wang Qiong, a street urchin who was struggling to provide relief outside, became the best candidate to deal with the aftermath of the incident.

So Wang Qiong rushed to Huguang and sold the grain and grass that had been rotting there for more than a year for 260,000 taels of silver. Then Wang Jie returned to the capital and took the throne of the Minister of Revenue...

Thinking of this, Pei Yuan was numb.

It seemed, it seemed, that he had already discovered in advance the issue of food backlog at the front line.

If there had not been this year's decay and loss, it would mean that the guilt of Sun Jiao and Yang Tan would have been greatly reduced.

Yang Tan might feel a little uncomfortable for his mistake in allocating food and fodder, but Sun Jiao would not just leave.

This also means that the two major incentives for Wang Qiong to return to the court, "the dismissal of all leaders ahead of him" and "emergency rescue from nearby support", are all gone!

In addition, in order to balance the court situation, Pei Yuan wanted to let Wang Qiong and Yang Tinghe confront each other before Wang Hua entered the capital, and recommended him to the emperor as Yang Tinghe's opponent, deliberately tricking Brother Wang.

All these things combined have almost completely changed the direction of Wang Qiong's history.

Wang Qiong's becoming one of the Seven Great Ministers by becoming the Minister of Revenue and then transferring to the Minister of War was an important prerequisite for Wang Shouren to gain full authority and to pursue Prince Ning.

Whether Prince Ning can successfully go south to the old district of Nanjing is a major variable in whether Prince Ning's Rebellion can succeed.

Damn it...

There won't be any trouble this time.

Just when Pei Yuan was in a very bad mood, the person Chen Xinjian sent to deliver the invitation came back, and he hurriedly reported back.

"Captain, Minister Wang wants to see you now."

Pei Yuan no longer had the same hatred and indignation as before, and said awkwardly, "Can I not meet you?"

Chen Xinjian, "???"

——Boss, think about what you are saying.

Of course he couldn't not meet him. Now that Brother Wang was in a state of confusion, how could Captain Pei be absent?
Pei Yuan said, "Let's go and meet the prince."

Pei Yuan took his men out and went directly to Wang Qiong's residence to pay a visit.

Wang Qiong's residence had already received Chen Xinjian's visiting card and knew that Pei Yuan was coming, so a housekeeper was waiting there early.

As soon as Pei Yuan arrived, he was led into the study room he had visited last time.

When Pei Yuan entered, he saw Wang Qiong writing something behind the table with a serious expression.

When Pei Yuan saw this familiar scene, his heart skipped a beat. This old guy seemed to be ill-intentioned.

It was during their last meeting in the study that Pei Yuan hurriedly glanced at the table, which resulted in a drastic change in Wang Qiong's fate.

Not only did Wang Qiong fail to gain the opportunity to be promoted to the position of Left Vice Minister due to his merits, he was also directly exiled.

If you think about it carefully, isn’t it sad?

Pei Yuan became even more uneasy when he thought of this.

This old guy must have thought it over carefully and found that the key to the problem lies with someone, and then he got ready to wait for me.

Pei Yuan smiled dryly and said hello, "I greet you, Your Excellency."

Wang Qiong looked up and saw Pei Yuan standing far away. He couldn't help but said warmly, "Why are you standing so far away? Come here."

"This..." Pei Yuan hesitated.

Move forward a few steps.

Wang Qiong was a little unhappy, "Friend Pei is alienated."

Pei Yuan felt that the atmosphere in the study was quite peaceful, and said quickly, "It's not strange, it's not strange."

Wang Qiong asked, "Since we are not strangers, why don't you take a look at what I wrote?"

Pei Yuan continued to be uneasy, what the hell, Lao Deng is pointing at me.

Pei Yuan gritted his teeth and glanced at the table, and saw the words "irreconcilable" written on the paper.

The pen strokes are as sharp as a knife or a halberd!

Wow! Great word!
Pei Yuan quickly persuaded Wang Qiong, "Don't do that. He is the emperor after all..."

Wang Qiong was stunned.

Then he slammed the table with his beard trembling, and shouted angrily, "Pei Yuan! How dare you plot against me?!"

Pei Yuan saw that he couldn't fool anyone anymore, so he said helplessly, "I can't do anything about this matter. I introduced you to the emperor with good intentions. I never thought that guy was so useless."

Wang Qiong looked at Pei Yuan with suspicion, "You really didn't plot against me."

Pei Yuan wanted to swear, but he didn't dare. He could only blush and say, "How is it possible? How is it possible!"

He said some strange words, some of which I didn't understand.

Wang Qiong felt a little relieved when she saw this.

Pei Yuan’s previous image in front of Wang Qiong was that of a sunny and cheerful man, a righteous man in fine clothes who served his country and his people.

Seeing that Pei Yuan's face turned red with anxiety, it was not a good idea to keep harping on the matter.

He rolled up the paper on the table and sighed, "Alas, you have good intentions, but perhaps I am just unlucky and don't have the life of an official."

Wang Qiong also understood that Pei Yuan had at most shown his article to the emperor, and then if the emperor wanted to challenge him to a contest, that would be the emperor's own business.

With the emperor's noble status, who can make him do something he is unwilling to do?

It is really unreasonable for Pei Yuan to be criticized for this.

Pei Yuan didn't want Wang Qiong to dwell on these things, so he took the initiative to enlighten him, "It's meaningless to dwell on the past. You should look forward."

Wang Qiong sighed and didn't respond. Look forward?

How can I look forward? It's nothing more than going back and forth from one prefecture to another, living in a place for five or six years, and when things have changed and people have changed, it's time to send myself back home to retire.

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and said to Wang Qiong, "I sincerely want to help you, Your Excellency. Please don't hide it. If we are honest with each other, maybe we can find a way out."

Wang Qiong was upset at the moment and really wanted to find someone to talk to.

Now he has enemies everywhere in the court, and this matter involves the emperor being an inhuman being, so he really cannot talk about it with anyone.

Seeing Pei Yuanken's kind words of comfort, he felt a little warm in his heart and said, "You and I are close friends regardless of age difference, there is nothing wrong with speaking out."

"Now think about it carefully. When I asked you to help submit the article to the emperor, I did have the intention of getting promoted. Now that you have been criticized by the whole court, it is your own fault."

This is the general social opinion today. The default attitude is to put the imperial power in a position of supervision, and the ministers should work together to limit the imperial power.

Of course, the imperial power can be willful, or in other words, let alone the emperor, even ordinary people have the qualifications to be willful.

Even with the high positions and power of Yang Tinghe and Yang Yiqing, if their coachman used a black tiger to dig out their heart, they would still fall to the ground.

The premise is that you must be able to bear the consequences.

If he could afford the consequences, even if he slapped Yang Ting in the face during the court session, it would be just a small act of power.

If you can't bear the consequences...

In the numerous emperors recorded in history, how many were able to maintain both “long-term stability” and “long-term peace”?

Wang Qiong had a moment's thought and was discovered to be having an affair with the emperor, so he was naturally regarded as a traitor like Jiao Fang.

Pei Yuan said to Wang Qiong, "Let's not talk about that. Do you know why the Prime Minister wants to expel you from the court immediately?"

Now that things have come to this, Wang Qiong has nothing to hide.

"It's nothing more than being afraid that I, in this position, will work together with the emperor, allowing the emperor's orders to bypass the supervision of the cabinet and the six departments and be implemented."

The Ministry of Revenue controls the national treasury, and Wang Qiong, as the right vice minister, can still mobilize a large amount of resources.

Once a loophole is revealed here, giving Zhu Houzhao's order a chance to be implemented, it will easily cause a lot of trouble.

Wang Qiong looked at Pei Yuan and asked, "You are a Jinyiwei, you should also know the dangers of the imperial edict."

Pei Yuan was not sure what to say.

The will of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty can be divided into two categories according to their nature: one is the imperial edict, and the other is the imperial edict.

The imperial edict is an order issued by the emperor in his capacity as the legal representative of the Ming Empire and approved by the court.

The authority of this imperial edict is very high because it represents the collective will of the central court. To resist the imperial edict is equivalent to to resist the entire ruling class.

Some people may be confused. Isn’t it said that the Du Shizhong can refute the imperial edict?

There are generally two situations in which the Du Shizhong can successfully refute the imperial edict. The first is that the emperor is unwilling to undermine the authority of the system because he is the biggest beneficiary of the system.

The second possibility is that the imperial court and the Chief Secretary are playing a double game for the emperor, and the emperor does not want to and dares not to break this superficial harmony.

And what about the central idea?

That is, the emperor, in his capacity as the Son of Heaven, conveyed his personal ideas that were not approved by the court.

The nature of the imperial edict is roughly equivalent to, from a personal perspective, can you give me some face in this matter.

Because it involves the emperor's face, the authority of the edict is closely linked to the authority of the emperor himself.

For powerful men like Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Adi, the authority of their imperial edicts is infinitely close to the power they can mobilize.

If Zhu Houzhao's imperial edict is not taken seriously by others, all one can do is smile awkwardly and say: Forget it.

This emperor, who had been educated very well since childhood, was like a highly trained artificial intelligence. He probably had some subconscious instructions not to harm his teachers.

Pei Yuan had once told Zhu Houzhao that the good thing about the Jinyiwei was that they did not have to follow the rules.

They themselves are the extreme embodiment of the emperor's will, so of course they cannot have any objections to the emperor's edict.

Pei Yuan decided to change the angle and show Wang Qiong the matter. "That is to say, the court officials believe that if you stay in the capital, you will pose a great threat to them, so they must move you to a remote place to reduce such a threat. Is that right?"

Wang Qiong replied, "Yes, that's it."

Pei Yuan did not give Wang Qiong a chance to think, and continued, "If this conclusion is true, then if the threat you pose in the local area is greater than the threat you pose in the capital, then they will bring you back to the capital and put you under their noses, right?"

Wang Qiong was stunned for a moment. She didn't expect Pei Yuan to come to such a conclusion.

But if you think about it carefully, this logic seems to be correct?

Wang Qiong thought about this line of thought for a while, but couldn't figure it out.

He didn't hesitate and simply asked directly, "I am here to understand the people's sentiments and provide relief to the common people. How can I be a threat to them?"

Pei Yuan said firmly, "Yes."

Wang Qiong frowned, waiting for Pei Yuan to say the next words.

Pei Yuan then patiently said, "If the prince puts his mind on local affairs, it is just like using a good horse to do the work of a poor horse. Even if there are good results, no one will care. If you do a bad job, you will be ridiculed."

"But what if the prince puts his mind on some institutional things? What if the prince can think of some principles that are more suitable for Ming Dynasty and can change Ming Dynasty more deeply?"

"What if the prince comes up with something that can make the court officials tremble, and even beg you to come back, beg you to stop thinking about it?"

Wang Qiong's scalp tingled when he heard this, and he couldn't help but yell, "Pei Yuan, what nonsense are you talking about? How could I be a heretic?"

Pei Yuan stared at Wang Qiong and said, "I am not heretic. I have had some vague ideas before, but because of my low status, even if I put them forward, it would not attract any attention. It might even be deliberately distorted and used as a tool to harm the people, so I dare not speak out."

"But if this matter is pushed forward by the princes, it will surely shake the world and make the officials in the court tremble with fear."

Wang Qiong's attitude had become serious. He looked at Pei Yuan and asked seriously, "Tell me what you want to hear first."

Pei Yuan said, "The method I came up with is called the One Whip Method."

Wang Qiong asked puzzledly, "What is the One Whip Method?"

Pei Yuan replied, "The Single Whip System is to calculate the land tax, corvée and other miscellaneous taxes of each county, and then convert these money into silver to get a number. Then this number is apportioned according to the total amount of land."

"All the taxes and levies we collect come from the land, so we should tax the land, not the people. We tax whoever owns the land."

"In this way, those people who have no land and are already poor will no longer have to bear heavy taxes. And those who own land and have output will bear the expenses of the court accordingly."

"Moreover, simplifying the original tax and the discount tax into silver can greatly simplify the collection method, which can not only reduce the difficulty of collection by the government, but also make it more convenient for transportation and use."

Pei Yuan explained slowly while paying attention to Wang Qiong's expression.

Considering the difficulty of promoting this reform, Pei Yuan also deliberately proposed to use silver as the standard for collection, in order to attract the silver group to promote this one-whip system.

As Wang Qiong listened, her face turned red with excitement.

(End of this chapter)