The struggle for the throne during the Jiajing reign

Chapter 157 Convention

The father and son ate the glutinous rice balls in silence, celebrating the festival together. Jiajing ate nine glutinous rice balls, while Zhu Zaizhen ate five, as he had already eaten quite a few in his bedchamber. They were delicious, but a bit too greasy.

You can eat the rest.

After expressing their gratitude, Huang Jin and Ma Dezhao went to the next room.

Jiajing's voice regained its usual unfathomable quality; it was difficult for ordinary people to discern whether he was happy, angry, or sarcastic from his tone.

"You've already dismissed everyone; you're quite decisive."

The father-son relationship ended temporarily after the Lantern Festival. Now it was the emperor and father who were speaking. Zhu Zaizhen would not admit it, but said: "Zhang Juzheng has great talent. It would be a pity to keep him by your side as a lecturer. Let him go to a poor county to experience a few years, see the hardships of the people and the advantages and disadvantages of the border towns, and get rid of his bookishness. Only then will he be a pillar that the emperor can trust in the future."

As for Xu Wei, he was indeed concerned about having offspring, and with the Emperor's appreciation and the bestowal of silver, he returned home in glory. Your son did not deliberately dismiss anyone.

Upon hearing this, Jiajing did not delve into whether it was to avoid disaster, since it was hard to say where the disaster would come from.

He thought for a moment and then said, "His original memorial was quite substantial. Where did he arrange for the person to be sent?"

"I forgot, I only remember that it was a fortified village right next to the Xuanda border, with many refugees, chaotic military settlements, and complicated border affairs, making it a good place to train people."

square. "

Emperor Jiajing was somewhat surprised: "You've put your lecturer in a place like this? Aren't you afraid of being laughed at?"

"The deeper the love, the greater the responsibility. I have high expectations for him and will not let him live too comfortably. As the saying goes, a sharp sword is forged through tempering and plum blossoms bloom in bitter cold."

This is an interesting remark. Jiajing repeated it to himself: "If one can achieve great things in such a place, one can indeed be called a pillar of the state. The court still has too few capable people."

Towards the end of the conversation, Jiajing's tone became somewhat off.

Zhu Zaizhen naturally sensed his father's dissatisfaction. It seemed that the finances were tight again this year, and they might not even be able to supply his father's cultivation expenses.

Jiajing suddenly asked, "What are your plans for the Gubeikou matter?"

Zhu Zaizhen said helplessly, "Your Majesty, I can only do my best and leave the rest to fate. I have sent people to urge the Ministry of Revenue several times, but they all make excuses that they have no money or grain. I can't force the Ministry of Revenue to conjure up silver and grain out of thin air. There is really no other way."

As he spoke, a hint of helplessness and dejection lingered in his eyes; he was truly worried about the money and provisions.

Jiajing glanced at him: "Even a prince who has had his property confiscated is so helpless."

"When it comes to disaster relief, it all comes down to the Emperor's decree. Otherwise, who would care about me? Not to mention that now that my household is deserted and carriages are few and far between, my words are not even as good as those of a minor official in the Ministry of Revenue."

Zhu Zaizhen's words were both true and false. Without an imperial decree, it would indeed be difficult for him to exert the same influence as he did during the disaster relief efforts. However, as long as the Yan faction remained in power, he still had influence, and if things got really urgent, he could still get the Ministry of Revenue to allocate some funds and grain.

But he can't do that. He can't bring benefits to the group. If he just keeps exploiting them, it's destined to be short-lived.

Moreover, he couldn't let his father find out. Even if he wasn't given power, he would still find ways to do things.

Hearing Zhu Zaizhen say this, Jiajing felt a little better, knowing that everything came from him.

"You only need to think about repairing Gubeikou, but I need to think about repairing the ancestral land and state."

I thought you were only concerned about building the Great Gao Xuan Hall.

Jiajing slowly rose, his Taoist robe fluttering as he said, "Laozi said, 'He who bears the nation's shame is called the master of the state; he who bears the nation's misfortune is called the king of the world.' I inherited the great lineage of my ancestors and bear this burden without complaint. But what can I do about the people of the world?"

"Father, you bear the fate of the nation on your own, which is a blessing for all people and the country." Zhu Zaizhen stood up and said with a pained expression, "But you are exhausted every day, and you also have to take care of your cultivation. If this continues, your body will be damaged. I am uneasy about it."

He pinched himself under his sleeve to make sure his expression wasn't too devout, so as not to appear unsteady on the steps and make it difficult for his father to descend.

In fact, as soon as he heard the summons, he roughly guessed why he was being called. It was simply because he was short of money. The imperial court needed money everywhere, and alchemy and Taoist cultivation also required money everywhere.

The two or three hundred thousand taels he gave as filial piety was not small, but it was almost all spent over the New Year. A few days ago, Lu Bing's mother went to the palace for a short stay. Before she left, her father bestowed upon her a lot of gifts. In addition, there were the New Year's gifts and jewelry from the concubines and the offerings from the Taoist priests. Only a few tens of thousands of taels were left.

That's not even enough to properly hold two grand vegetarian rituals, let alone anything else.

Although the Yan faction would still offer tributes, the amount would never be too large. Everyone, from top to bottom, would have to take it. You can't expect officials to desperately amass wealth and then hand over every last penny to the emperor.

Only Zhu Zaizhen, his own son, could have done that.

Jiajing's face gradually showed anger: "I am practicing Taoism and it costs me my own private funds, but there are always people who want to blame me for the mess in the national treasury."

Zhu Zaizhen angrily said, "This is outrageous! Who dares to spout such nonsense? I beg Your Majesty to issue an edict allowing me to lead the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest and bring them to justice!"

Upon hearing this, Jiajing waved his hand, his tone somewhat cold: "Arrest them? There are countless opinions in the world, can you arrest them all?"

They are nothing but incompetent officials who cannot fill the hole in the national treasury themselves, so they think of pouring dirty water into the inner court, as if I used their money to cultivate Taoism.

Zhu Zaizhen's anger intensified: "Emperor Taizu decreed that the inner court and the national treasury should be separate entities, independent of each other. The inner treasury's income comes from gold and silver, and tributes from imperial estates. It is all spent on the Emperor's own money, without touching a single penny of the national treasury's grain and salary."

Unfortunately, this group of people are bad at managing their finances and have been losing money year after year; their actions are truly heinous.

The emperor hated nothing more than others interfering with his Taoist practice, and he hated even more the court officials who blamed the national treasury deficit on the rituals, which not only questioned his hobby, but also his virtue as a ruler.

Standing up for the Emperor at this moment is more effective than saying ten flattering words on a normal day.

Sure enough, Jiajing slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, looked at his indignant son and said, "Gubeikou needs to be repaired, but we can't neglect the other places either. We can't rely on them all."

"Your Majesty, I am willing to share your burdens." Zhu Zaizhen said with difficulty, "But the nobles have just made donations, and the merchants have not yet recovered. I cannot think of a solution for the time being."

First, state your position, then play dumb to give your father a sense of control.

Just then, Huang Jin came to report: "Your Majesty, Grand Secretary Yan and the others have come to apologize."

With such huge deficits every year, they still come to apologize every year; this has become a traditional characteristic of our dynasty.

Jiajing's expression remained calm: "Good, let them come."

From the study to the main hall, Jiajing sat on the throne, while Zhu Zaizhen stood to the side, both father and son looking towards the entrance.

Soon, the courtiers arrived, their faces filled with sorrow.

They were all taken aback when they saw King Jing, but they couldn't care less about him.

Grand Secretary Yan Song had graying temples and bloodshot eyes, looking utterly exhausted.

"Your Majesty, we respectfully wish you good health."

Yan Song led the way by kneeling down, followed by Xu Jie, the Minister of Revenue, and others who all bowed. "On this Lantern Festival, we should not have disturbed Your Majesty, but the affairs of state are urgent, and we have no choice but to come to the palace tonight to plead guilty."

In the silence, one could only hear their own heartbeat. Although His Majesty had not punished them in the past few years, if the matter were to be investigated, no one would be able to get away with it.

After a moment, Jiajing slowly spoke: "You apologize every year, I've almost lost count of how many times this has happened. Tell me, how much did you lose this year?"

"Reporting back to Your Majesty, after the accounting of the Taicang's revenue and expenditure last year, there was a total deficit of 1.16 million taels of silver and 1.67 million shi of grain. The Ministry of Revenue has just discovered that the whereabouts of an account of 120,000 taels from the Imperial Horse Administration are unknown and have not yet been written off."

"We, your humble servants, have failed in our duties in managing state affairs and finances, resulting in the near depletion of the imperial granary's reserves. We deserve death for this crime and earnestly request Your Majesty to severely punish us."

Emperor Jiajing laughed and said, "Incompetent in managing finances? I don't think so. Some of you are very good at managing money, but you just end up putting it into your own pockets."

Yan Song removed his official hat and said: "I failed to properly manage the funds and grain in the cabinet, which resulted in the annual income of the treasury not being enough to cover the annual expenditure. Over the past ten years, the treasury's savings have been completely depleted, the military pay for the nine border regions is in short supply, and there is no money to recruit soldiers for the Japanese pirates in the southeast. My guilt is heavy and all lies with me. I humbly request Your Majesty to punish me."

This was a common practice; whenever the imperial treasury was in deficit at the end of the year, he would take full responsibility, shoulder the pressure for the six ministries, and stabilize the court's political landscape.

A plea for forgiveness and a fine are all it takes to temporarily quell the turmoil.

But this year, Ouyang Bijin chimed in: "Your Majesty, given the state of the finances, we must implement measures to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, otherwise the court will be unable to continue next year."

The land registers had not been updated for decades, resulting in a sharp decline in land taxes in various regions. Private land was being merged, government land was being concealed, and gentry and members of the imperial family occupied most of the land without paying taxes.

The military settlements have collapsed. I recall that during the reign of my great-grandfather, he could support a million soldiers without costing the people a single grain of rice. Now, the nine border regions demand two million taels of silver from the court every year.

Another requirement was to reform the salt administration. During the Hongzhi era, Ye Qi's reforms changed the salt tax from grain to silver. Although this temporarily replenished the silver reserves in Taicang, it now appears to have completely ruined the strategy of using salt to support the border regions, leading to the disappearance of merchant settlements.

Now, the salt tax has been halved, leaving only a little over 500,000 taels, enriching only the salt merchants of Lianghuai.

Everyone was terrified by Ouyang Bijin. Did this man have a death wish, trying to offend everyone in one fell swoop?

Yan Song lowered his head and remained silent. Although they were in the same party, everyone had reached this position and had their own opinions and political views. No one could persuade anyone else, let alone completely control each other.

The Censor-in-Chief immediately seized the opportunity: "We agree with what Minister Ouyang said, that local powerful families are hiding land and officials are intercepting it."

Taxes are the root cause of the sharp decline in annual revenue. If local assessments are not strengthened, hidden land is not surveyed, corruption is not thoroughly investigated, and the national treasury deficit is not replenished, then major chaos is inevitable.

Zhu Zaizhen watched silently from the side. Even a broken ship has three thousand nails. If his father could pull himself together and continue the policies of his early years, and with his own efforts to carry them on, there was still a great chance for the revival of the dynasty.

But the hardest part is getting back on track, especially for a smart person.

To survey the land, one would offend the gentry and commoners of the land; to reorganize the military settlements, one would offend the border generals of the nine border regions; to revise the salt laws, one would offend the wealthy and powerful families of Lianghuai; and the imperial relatives and nobles were everywhere.

All this fussing and scheming only makes him enemies everywhere, and he's infamous all over the world. He might as well cultivate Taoism and enjoy life.

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