Xie Ming

Chapter 409: Palace Discussion (I)

Outside the Wuying Hall, the two cabinet ministers, Qiu and Ni, who were not related to each other, also had a chat.

Wang Zhixin, the eunuch in charge of imperial ceremonies, saw that all the officials had arrived, so he hurriedly stopped them from talking and led the cabinet members into the palace to meet the emperor.

Li Shichun of the Ministry of Rites and Li Erhe were both hot-tempered. When they passed by Qiu Weizheng, they even glanced at him coldly, secretly competing with him and not being polite to him.

At the beginning of the Wei hour, officials from the six ministries entered the Wuying Hall and stood still.

Later, Wang Zhixin walked lightly to the back of the hall and carefully helped the Venerable Zhu Cilang to come out.

At this moment, Zhu Cilang, who had just ascended the throne, was wearing a red robe, his hair was a little disheveled, his arms were hunched, he looked obviously ill, and his face looked pale and weak!
"cough cough"

"cough cough cough cough"

A few moments!

Zhu Cilang moved to the couch in the middle and leaned his body to relieve his breath.

The frequent coughing is difficult to stop. Even if I take a breath, I still cough up phlegm.

He glanced sideways and saw Wang Zhixin, who was standing nearby, following his expression. He hurriedly walked over to get some tea!

Zhu Cilang took two sips, rinsed his mouth, and spat into the spittoon!

After a series of regulations were drawn up, not a single noise was heard in the hall during the entire process.

All cabinet members stood solemnly with their hands lowered, awaiting His Majesty's orders!
"cough cough"

"kindness?!"

"The King's Heart!"

"Mr. Qiu has a cold in his legs, why didn't he bring a stool over beforehand?!"

After taking a deep breath, Zhu Cilang looked around before he spoke and said this to Gu Nian.

"Uh, yes!"

Upon hearing this, the king agreed in his heart and said nothing more. He turned around and took the cushion from the eunuch next to him and put it down near the head of the cabinet.

"Oh, oh!"

"Thank you very much, Your Majesty, for your concern!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!"

Zhu Cilang was in no hurry to talk about the matter, but tried to show some kindness first. Qiu Weizheng also came up with an expression of fear and gratitude, trembling, supporting himself with difficulty on crutches, and was about to bow to express his gratitude!

"Eh?!"

"That's all!"

"Sit down and talk!"

Half crouching, Zhu Cilang followed up with a remark to avoid empty formalities. Wang Zhixin was close to him and now he was also smiling restrainedly. He stepped forward to support this Hongguang, the head of the cabinet, and sat him down on the pier.

Qiu Weizheng was grateful for the look and tilted his head to show his gratitude, expressing his gratitude in the king's heart.

"kindness!"

"Cough cough."

"Well, I urgently summoned you guys here this noon despite the wind and rain because I do have two things to discuss!" Zhu Yan continued.

"I haven't been feeling well these days, you all can see it!"

"Let's stop talking nonsense and get straight to the point!"

"I'll give you a start, and then you can come up with some ideas, and then we'll make the final decision!"

Zhu Cilang tried his best to hold up his voice and get straight to the point.

"Yes!" All the cabinet members bowed and responded.

"kindness"

"This one!"

"It's old news!"

"Even though the war in the north is raging, the military rations in the south are often insufficient!"

"Ugh"

"You should know that since ancient times, whenever there is a war, money and food are always the most important things!"

"Let's not talk about the distant past! Let's just talk about the years when the late emperor was alive."

"Whenever we go to this prefecture to suppress a rebellion, or when we use our troops on the northwest and Liaodong fronts, the food and salary supplies in the rear are always tight!"

"It is precisely because of this that the imperial court could not allocate funds to support the war, allowing Li Zicheng to become more powerful!"

"Until it causes the city of Beijing to collapse!"

"Cough cough."

"so!"

"Today, you are discussing the issue of military rations. You must pay close attention to it so that we can solve the urgent problem!"

As he spoke, Zhu Cilang took over and served the warm tea, taking two sips to calm his throat.

"Second!"

"I'm sure you all know about the civil uprising in Zhenjiang Prefecture a few days ago!"

"Although this riot has been quelled and suppressed!"

"But in the past two days, floods have occurred in Changzhou and Danyang counties again!" "Huh——" a long sigh.

"I saw yesterday a letter from Lord Qiu asking for his opinion. He said that in order to raise military supplies, he wanted to add a tax on new soldiers on top of the existing taxes!"

"Ugh"

"If I have to, I'll do this!"

"By then, I wonder how many more prefectures and counties will be hit by riots like Changzhou and Danyang!"

"Heaven is angry and people are angry, Hongguang is angry, he is selling his own children to raise money for the army!"

"Popular proverbs are to be feared, and public opinion must not be lost!" Zhu You's expression changed.

"Haha, you guys are deliberately hiding this from me, do you think I can't hear this bullshit?!"

"It's the people who are scolding me!"

"Everyone is guilty, but I am the only one guilty!"

"cough cough"

"Ahem." Zhu Cilang was heartbroken and made fun of himself.

Upon hearing the emperor's words, all the cabinet members in front of the couch in the Wuying Hall hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed.

"Minister, minister!"

"I am guilty of a thousand deaths!" the official replied.

"cough cough"

"Okay, okay!"

"Get up, everyone get up first!"

"There's one more thing!" Zhu Cilang frowned due to coughing and gradually sat up straight.

"Ahem, amidst all my sorrows, there is finally something to celebrate!"

"Last night, you handed me the victory report from the northern front. I read it!"

"I am very relieved, very relieved!"

"It seems that Xiao Jingchuan who came with me from the north is still very capable!"

"Field ambush, ha ha ha, it's only because he dared to do it!"

The emperor was very interested and slapped his thigh. Thinking of this, the young emperor rarely showed some new ambition.

"Xiao Jingchuan! We defeated the Jiannu cavalry and annihilated more than 2,000 enemies!"

"Okay, it's satisfying!"

"I summoned you here today, so you can all give me some advice in the end!"

"The soldiers who fought bravely on the front lines have sent us petitions for merit. We in the court cannot remain silent!"

"Let's discuss this later. How should we reward this merit appropriately?"

"cough cough"

"cough cough cough cough"

After another round of coughing, Zhu Cilang seemed to have finished what he was saying.

While he was coughing and wheezing, in order not to delay the discussion, he simply turned sideways and waved his hand, signaling the cabinet members to speak.

Qiu Weizhen, the chief minister of the cabinet, saw that it was the emperor who expressed his intention. He turned around and glanced at the other officials. Because it was the emperor who first discussed the issue of grain collection, and he was also the Minister of Revenue, so it was difficult for him to just be perfunctory. He had no choice but to take the lead in speaking after a short pause to set the tone for the discussion in the hall behind!
"cough"

"Yeah" he cleared his throat.

"Your Majesty just mentioned a few things!"

"The first and foremost problem is the shortage of military rations and poor fundraising!"

"Uh"

"Well, this is going to be a long story."

"It's all old things that need to be sorted out first!"

"Let's not talk about anything further away, let's just say it's around February after the Nanting New Year!"

"The late emperor was still alive at that time!"

"Due to the current situation of suppressing rebellion, there are many places in the north where troops are deployed!"

"So in February before the Lunar New Year, the taxes, money and grains that were paid almost emptied the treasury and granaries of Yingtian!"

"Later, everyone knew about this."

"The northern capital suddenly collapsed!"

"After the new year, it will be the next June!"

"I, along with Ma Shiying, Shi Kefa and others, received the news from Ni Laoti that he was going to support the emperor in Nanjing!"

"I was ordered to send troops north to protect the king!"

"At that time, in fact, Nan Tingye had already run out of money and food!"

"To make this military expedition a success!"

"All the scattered revenues that were set aside for settlement of expenses by various state governments in the first half of this year have been put into this!"

(End of this chapter)