Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 31 Cabinet Discussions
Xu Jing smiled awkwardly. It was after he started managing the treasury for Zhu Houzhao that he began to realize that the previous treasury of the Ming Emperor was less than the silver in his own treasury.

Fortunately, Zhu Houzhao is not as embarrassed as before. With the income from his previous soap business and the Royal Exposition, he has more than 300,000 taels of royal private wealth. Together with the treasury returned by the Ministry of Revenue, although he does not have much savings, it can still add up to 400,000 taels.

Moreover, Zhu Houzhao now has three institutions that make money, one is the Royal Industrial Company, one is the Royal Taxation Bureau, and one is the Royal Bank.

Needless to say, the Royal Industrial Company produces industrial products and then sells them to make money.

The Royal Taxation Bureau and the Royal Bank are what Zhu Houzhao wants to take over now.

The Xu Jing family, Wang Hua family, and the other eight tigers including Liu Jin all became major shareholders of the Royal Bank besides the Royal Family.

What Zhu Houzhao did not expect was that the family of Minister of Revenue Wang Hua would be so far-sighted, but in fact this was thanks to Wang Yangming.

This also laid the foundation for the prototype of several wealthy families formed after the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty.

Now Zhu Houzhao also had to arrange for Xu Jing and the "Eight Tigers" to collect taxes at the Royal Taxation Administration.

"You know, the main job of the Royal Tax Bureau is to collect taxes for me. The more taxes we collect, the more gold and silver we can store in the Royal Bank.

Moreover, we collect commercial taxes, customs duties and mining taxes, so in the future, the Royal Taxation Bureau will collect taxes mostly from wealthy merchants, who either have gentry backgrounds or are court officials, nobles or even royal family members.

Therefore, I decided to set up a taxation corps under the Royal Taxation Bureau to maintain the order of tax collection.

Before rectifying the commercial and mining taxes, Xu Jing, you will first use 10% of my tax money to recruit people of good character to form a taxation team. Then, we will branch out to each province, and each province will have a royal taxation bureau and taxation team, each prefecture will have a royal taxation branch and taxation flag, and each county will have a royal taxation office and taxation flag!"

Xu Jing was quite surprised. He did not expect that His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao would equip the Royal Bank with officers and soldiers. This would undoubtedly provide the Royal Bank with military support for collecting taxes. Naturally, he was quite delighted and said he would obey the order.

Zhu Houzhao appointed Ma Yongcheng as the first captain of the General Taxation Corps, and asked Ma Yongcheng to assist Xu Jing in recruiting. After all, Ma Yongcheng was the eunuch who was most familiar with the market around Zhu Houzhao, and could help Xu Jing set up the General Taxation Corps in the shortest time.

As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao's main task was to control the government power. After arranging the next tasks of the Royal Bank, Zhu Houzhao continued to ask Gu Dayong, Zhang Yong and others about the progress of the plan to overthrow the eunuch Zhang Zhao of the Imperial Stables.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. The eunuchs have already found a death warrior named Wu Cha. His wife was killed by Zhang Zhao, so he is willing to work for the court," Gu Dayong reported at this time.

"Under the instigation of the eunuchs, the officers and soldiers of the imperial guards and the regiment camp are becoming more and more resentful about the lack of rice for their salary. Some have even proposed causing trouble," Zhang Yong also reported.

Zhu Houzhao smiled after hearing this: "The day of the late emperor's funeral is approaching. The Imperial Household Department, the Imperial Horse Department, the Cabinet, and the Ministry of Rites are all busy arranging the funeral ceremony for the late emperor. These few days are a perfect opportunity. I will go to the Tuanying the day after tomorrow. Gao Feng, you will be responsible for bringing the imperial guards to the Tuanying. When the time comes, I, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, will give them all silver!"

……

Zhu Houzhao began to prepare 300,000 taels of silver in cash, while the cabinet also began to discuss matters, mainly discussing the issue of rice salaries for the regiments and the imperial guards.

Zhu Houzhao often referred matters directly to the cabinet for discussion, which showed that he was not interested in politics, and the cabinet was naturally happy with it. Now, the issue of the regiment camp and the imperial soldiers' salary was naturally referred to the cabinet for discussion, that is, the cabinet organized several departments responsible for the matter to discuss the matter and then draft a proposal to submit to the emperor Zhu Houzhao.

The first minister Liu Jian, the second minister Li Dongyang, and the third minister Xie Qian sat in the center, while the Minister of Revenue Wang Hua and the Minister of War Xu Jin sat on both sides. The first to speak was the Minister of War Xu Jin: "Three elders, Lord Wang, the regiments and the imperial guards have been in arrears for a long time. Now that the end of the year is approaching, if the salary rice is not paid, it may cause a mutiny!"

"How much money and grain does the Ministry of Revenue have left to distribute?" asked Liu Jian, the chief minister of the cabinet, at this time.

"I just checked the accounts a few days ago. Most of the money and grain has been spent on the construction of the tomb and the burial of the late emperor. Now there is only about 200,000 taels of silver in the Taicang warehouse," replied the Minister of Revenue Wang Hua.

"That's perfect. It can also help pay for the rice that is owed, which can solve the urgent problem!"

Minister of War Xu Jin hurriedly said that he had just taken office as the Minister of War and was eager to make drastic changes to the military administration. Naturally, he was eager to replenish the rice salaries of the officers and soldiers in order to gain the prestige of reorganizing the military administration.

But the cabinet's deputy minister Li Dongyang said at this time: "This money cannot be used to distribute rice, it must be used to help the Ministry of Works repair the Palace of Heavenly Purity! Have you forgotten why your majesty moved to the Leopard House? The reason is that the Palace of Heavenly Purity is dilapidated and cannot be used to avoid the cold and heat. Now three months are coming. When the time comes, we will persuade your majesty to return to the palace. What if your majesty asks whether the Palace of Heavenly Purity has been repaired, and what if he finds excuses not to return to the palace?"

"That's right. Do you still want His Majesty to stay outside the palace and be led by Liu Jin and other eunuchs to do some inappropriate things? If His Majesty sells the royal property or even begs for alms, how will we officials cope with it? By then, more than one Minister of Revenue will resign!"

Xie Qian also started talking.

"In that case, let's use the money to repair the Qianqing Palace first, and have the Ministry of Works do it immediately!" This time, Liu Jian decided to repair the Qianqing Palace for Zhu Houzhao without hesitation.

Upon seeing this, the Minister of Revenue Wang Hua could only agree.

The Minister of War Xu Jin had just been promoted to the position of Minister of War, and was eager to revitalize the Ming Dynasty's military. Providing soldiers with sufficient rice salaries was his first step in doing so, but he did not expect that the cabinet would decide to use the money to repair the Qianqing Palace first. Although he did not object to repairing the Qianqing Palace for His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao, he believed that providing soldiers with rice salaries was the most important thing. After all, once the soldiers rioted, it would affect the safety of the Ming Dynasty's capital.

"My lords, a while ago the Ministry of War wanted to allocate 400,000 taels to Shaanxi Governor Yang Yiqing to repair the border wall, but you rejected it on the grounds that Suzhou needed relief for the flood. Now the regiment and the imperial soldiers have been owed rice for three months, but you still refuse to pay! How can you tolerate the Ming army's slackness to such an extent! If the border wall is not repaired, Xuanhua Zijing Pass and other strong cities can protect the capital from danger, but if the rice for the officers and soldiers in the capital is not paid, once an incident occurs, the safety of the capital will be affected!"

"And if the officers and soldiers knew that Your Majesty would rather use the money to repair the Qianqing Palace than to pay the officers and soldiers rice, what a trap this would put the emperor and father in!"

Minister of War Xu Jin argued vigorously.

"When two powers are in conflict, choose the lesser evil. Is the officers and soldiers more important or is His Majesty more important? Lord Xu, you must understand this clearly. As long as the Qianqing Palace is not repaired, His Majesty will have to live outside the palace. If the emperor does not sit in the center, the world will be unstable. The officers and soldiers' rice salaries have been delayed for three months, so what's the harm in delaying it for a few more months? Lord Xu, you should work harder to comfort the officers and soldiers and tell them that they will definitely be able to get the rice salaries before the New Year!"

After saying this, the Cabinet Chief Liu Jian ignored Xu Jin.

When the Minister of War Xu Jin saw this, he realized that the cabinet was unwilling to distribute the silver to the officers and soldiers. He was very angry and left the cabinet directly.

(End of this chapter)