Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 265 Let's write a title. (Happy New Year)

Although Zhu Cilang did not know Ruan Dacheng's thoughts clearly, it was not difficult for him to guess roughly.

To put it bluntly, he could offend a few people for revenge, or a group of people for titles and salaries, but if he really had to offend them all, no matter how tempting it was, he would have to think carefully.

But once you’re on a pirate ship, how can you get off so easily?

In the past year or so, Ruan Dacheng has not only avenged his past crimes, but also won the favor of the new emperor with the lives of several families. Even if the two are combined, even if he is not yet enemies of the whole world, without the protection of the emperor, how long can he survive?

I'm still a little confused.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang put on a smile again. When Ruan Dacheng was a little uneasy about this smile, he said in a very amiable manner: "Well, it is possible."

After hearing this, Ruan Dacheng felt relieved immediately, but when he was about to say something like "Your Majesty is wise", another voice came over.

"Let your Excellency investigate the matter."

"Your Majesty, take the order."

As he spoke, Ruan Dacheng bowed to the ground, and then, seeing that His Majesty seemed to have nothing else to do, he took his leave and left.

During this period of time, he went over the matter again in his mind. After figuring out some of the key points, he was not as nervous as before.

After all, forcing the common people to sell their land under various pretexts has been a common tactic used by the big families for many years. Although the situation in Huating may not be prevalent in all the counties in the south of the Yangtze River, 80 to 90 percent of them have no problem at all.

Fortunately, His Majesty was wise and knew that the matter involved a wide range of people and should not be expanded, so he finally just asked him to "investigate".

In this way, he only needs to make an example of one or two families to scare the monkeys and curb the trend a little, which will be fair to the people and the emperor.

As for the county magistrate.
Let's wait and see who is behind him.

The thoughts in his mind would not affect Ruan Dacheng's pace. Just when he came up with the plan, he had already arrived at the door of the warm room on the west side of the Qianqing Palace.

"Everyone, I will take my leave now."

Following Ruan Dacheng's greeting, the officials from various departments waiting in the warm room turned their eyes over, but when they saw who it was, their reactions were quite different.

Although people like Zhang Guowei, Yang Tinglin, Li Yongmao and Xu Yu also looked down on his character, they still maintained superficial harmony while serving in the same court.

But Liu Zongzhou, Huang Daozhou and Zhu Datian already disliked him, so when they saw him, they just pretended not to see him.

In response, Ruan Dacheng did not react. He just said a few words to the people who greeted him and then left the warm room and went straight out of the palace.

"Your Majesty has ordered that Minister of Works Li Yongmao come to see you~~!"

"Everyone, I'll go over first then."

As a burst of cheers came, Li Yongmao stood up, greeted everyone present and prepared to turn around and leave. However, unlike before, this time not only did everyone stand up to see him off, but Zhu Datian even made a joke.

Honestly speaking, in the eyes of some people, Li Yongmao is also a member of the eunuch party. If he gets into trouble, he will be punished without mercy.

But when he greeted them, everyone responded, but their attitude towards Ruan Dacheng was completely different. Such a situation made people sigh at Ruan Butang's ability to offend people.

However, all the people present were considered to be the top officials of the Ming Dynasty. It would be really embarrassing if they were too lazy to even maintain superficial harmony.

Therefore, after thinking for a while, Zhang Guowei couldn't help but say: "It's not that I'm nosy, but we are officials in the same court. Even if it's just for the sake of the court's dignity, we have to maintain our face."

The so-called money bag and seal.

Zhang Guowei was the Minister of Revenue and the most senior of all the ministers in the Jingwu period.

Under such circumstances, even though his words contained some preaching tone, no one objected and everyone nodded in agreement.

After a while, Li Yongmao returned to the West Warm Pavilion, said goodbye to everyone and left. Later, Yang Tinglin from the Ministry of Personnel and Zhu Dadian from the Ministry of War were summoned one after another. It was more than an hour later that it was Zhang Guowei's turn.

"This does waste some time."

With the departure of Zhang Guowei, only Liu, Huang and Xu were left in the West Warm Pavilion. At this moment, Liu Zongzhou, who had not spoken a word since arriving here, said something casually.

Needless to say, his relationship with Huang Daozhou was known as the Two Zhous. Not only did they admire each other's scholarship, but they could also trust each other with government affairs. Not to mention complaining to each other in person, even if they said something else, no one would expect him to be involved.

As for Xu Yu
"I think your majesty wants to ask more details, and is afraid that we old men can't wait any longer, so we have to stay in this warm room."

"What the Censor said is absolutely right. It is indeed my fault."

"Mr. Jishan, you are too kind. Your Majesty has always been considerate of his subjects. You probably didn't expect it would take so much time."

After listening to Xu Yu's words, Liu Zongzhou admitted his mistake without any argument. After that, the two of them talked for a few more words, and the pavilion became quiet again.

To others, this conversation seemed normal, just a complaint from an unfamiliar minister of the emperor, while another more senior minister offered some words of comfort.

But when the two men turned their attention to the tea bowls in front of them again, Huang Daozhou couldn't help but look at Liu Zongzhou a few more times.

He knew very well that his good friend was not a reckless person, and he would never complain like this even when chatting with him.

But now he not only questioned His Majesty's arrangements, but also did so in front of Xu Yu. This was indeed a bit unusual.

just
What exactly was he drawing?

After thinking for a while, Huang Daozhou had some guesses, but before talking with Liu Zongzhou, he could not determine which of these guesses were true.

"Everyone, His Majesty has summoned you."

Just as Huang Daozhou was thinking about it, a voice pulled him out of his thoughts. When he looked towards the door, he saw Zhang Guowei standing there with a serious look on his face.

"Yuxi, what's wrong?"

"Ah~~, let's talk about it later. You guys go first."

"Together we will?"

"Ah."

After talking for a few words, Liu, Huang and Xu went to the East Warm Pavilion with some doubts, while the remaining Zhang Guowei slowly walked out of the Qianqing Palace after sighing.

Anyone seeing him like this would think that he was being flattered by His Majesty, but this old minister not only had been among the six ministries during the Chongzhen period, but was also highly valued by the late emperor.

Facing such a loyal and experienced minister, even if Zhu Cilang was really dissatisfied, how could he get angry directly? But speaking of it, Zhang Guowei was also prepared to be scolded this time. Who told him, a poor minister of the Ministry of Revenue, to set his sights on the proceeds from the confiscation of property?

But who would have thought that after he tremblingly expressed his idea, His Majesty not only agreed immediately, but also increased the ratio from 40% to 60%.

Under such circumstances, Zhang Guowei was naturally overjoyed.

You know, although it is the end of the year and the harvest season has ended everywhere, Jiangnan has just suffered from war after all, so it goes without saying that the harvest has been affected, and even the local government has not yet fully recovered.

Under such circumstances, if he, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, planned to wait for the local tax silver to arrive, not to mention whether the court could survive, even the ministers of the other five ministries would tear him to pieces.

Honestly speaking, Zhang Guowei actually positioned himself as a vanguard, and he never thought that he could deduct money from His Majesty so smoothly.

However, since His Majesty was so reasonable, he would not refuse. But how could Zhu Cilang be easy to get along with? So when Zhang Guowei heard his next words, he froze.

"I want to build a salt pond in Qiongzhou. Why don't you go back and discuss it with them to see if it is feasible?"

These are Zhu Cilang’s original words.

In fact, from Zhang Guowei's personal point of view, it was just a salt field, so it didn't matter if it was opened. However, the salt tax accounted for the bulk of the court's revenue and had always been an extremely sensitive issue. So he was a little worried that someone in the court would disrupt the share of the revenue that he had finally agreed with the emperor.

Zhu Cilang didn't care much about Zhang Guowei's worries.

After all, almost all of the salt in the Ming Dynasty came from Lianghuai, and this place was in the hands of the Tartars.

As a result, the influence of salt merchants on the imperial court has reached its lowest point in history. How could he miss such a good opportunity to rectify the salt industry?
As for whether a salt field can achieve this effect
In any case, Zhu Cilang finally found another channel to interfere with the economy.

After Zhang Guowei left, he scribbled on the paper with a pen. When he heard the greetings from Liu, Huang and Xu, he turned around and took a look.

"Please take a seat, my three lords. I will be there soon."

After the words fell, the three of them sat down separately. When they saw Zhu Cilang writing furiously, four words came to their mind at the same time.

The king of revival.

Earlier, Zhu Cilang had demonstrated his ability in military strategy through a series of victories, but since the beginning of records, it seems that those monarchs who are good at this are not very patient to spend time on the tedious affairs of state.

Therefore, people like Huang Daozhou and Xu Yu were quite worried that Zhu Cilang would only focus on fighting and ignore domestic affairs.

Maybe it is God's blessing on the Ming Dynasty.

His Majesty has already focused on government affairs on the second day after he ascended the throne, and judging by the way he is writing furiously, it is obvious that he has put a lot of thought into it and is not just doing it casually.

In this situation, how could they not have such thoughts in their minds?
After about an incense stick of time, Zhu Cilang finally put the pen aside. Then he said to the three people waiting on the side with a little apology: "Thank you for waiting for a long time."

"Your Majesty is diligent in government affairs, which is a blessing for the Ming Dynasty."

Faced with the praises from the three old ministers, Zhu Cilang did not seem very complacent. He rubbed his wrist, which seemed to prefer holding the knife, and began to speak.

"I have never been familiar with domestic affairs, so I can only sharpen my sword before the battle and learn more from you gentlemen."

After the words fell, the three of them were thinking about what to say next, but before they could open their mouths, Zhu Cilang went straight to the point.

"The reason why I invited the three of you here today is because the six departments are giving (ji) the matter."

Six Departments Censor?
When they heard the name, Liu and Huang were just a little surprised, but Xu Yu, who had spent half his life in the Imperial Academy, immediately became a little nervous.

These six departments of the Imperial Censorate were divided into six ministries, and their responsibilities were to give advice and supervise. They were a very special existence in the Ming Dynasty official system.

The six seal-holding officials, "Du Jieshi Zhong", were only of the seventh rank, and the left and right Jieshi Zhong under them were of the seventh rank. There were also several Jieshi Zhong of the seventh rank. It seemed that it was just an idle department composed of a bunch of insignificant people.

But Zhu Yuanzhang separated it from the six ministries and made it an independent organization, and gave it the power to "seal and refute", "copy reports", "compare reports" and "cancel reports".

In this way, the six departments became a department with great power.

Of course, if that were all, it would just be a supervisory department and it would not be surprising. However, during the Ming Dynasty, whenever the emperor was weak, these six departments would be assigned to the cabinet, and when they encountered a strong emperor, they would be singled out.

Therefore, this group of small fry became the weather vane of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Xu Yu, who knew a little about these things, naturally realized Zhu Cilang's thoughts.

just
"At this time, the foreign enemies are about to retreat and everything is in ruins. The cabinet can't take care of these things, so I want to single them out. However." Zhu Cilang said with a long tone, and then continued: "I am still undecided about where to put them, so I want to discuss it with the three of you first."

Ok?
Where to go?

What does this mean?

As soon as Zhu Cilang finished speaking, Xu Yu immediately realized that something was wrong.

He thought clearly that if His Majesty wanted to supervise all officials, then he should separate the six departments of the Censorate and ensure that these minor officials were not constrained like the Inspectorate.

But now from what His Majesty said, it seems that he has no intention of restricting us. In this case, what's the point of going through all this trouble?
Thinking of this, Xu Yu's doubts showed on his face. Liu and Huang kept silent because they didn't know the trick, but just frowned in thought.

Under such circumstances, none of the three court officials responded to Zhu Cilang's questions.

"It's okay. I'm just going to let you three know first. You can talk to me later when you have some ideas."

Seeing that the three people were silent, Zhu Cilang was not in a hurry. He then talked to everyone about the Inspection Office and the Ministry of Rites, and the meeting came to an end.

"Your Majesty, do you want to transfer the Six Departments of the Imperial Secretariat to the Ministry of Rites?"

Just when Zhu Cilang was about to end the meeting, Liu Zongzhou seemed to have figured something out. After asking this question, he looked over with a burning gaze.

"Well, I have this idea. After all, the Ministry of Rites... Haha," he covered up his embarrassment with a dry laugh, and then Zhu Cilang explained again without making any sense: "Mr. Jishan, you know, there are many vacancies in various places now, and the powers and responsibilities of the Supervisory Office are somewhat overlapping."

"Your Majesty, I am willing to help the court."

"Mr. Jishan, there is no need to force yourself. It is indeed not good for a noble government office like the Ministry of Rites to be tainted by evil spirits."

"Your Majesty, as an official, you are here to benefit the country and the people. Now that the court needs it, how can the Ministry of Rites be picky?"

"Well, in that case, then Mr. Jishan should draft a topic."

(End of this chapter)