It was the end of September in Beijing. In previous years, one would still be able to feel the lingering effects of the autumn tiger. Everyone would have to contribute some sweat to the hot and humid weather. But in recent years, starting from mid-September, the cold wind began to blow. When one woke up in the morning and opened the door, a gust of cold wind blew in, enough to cause the men who opened the door to sneeze and fall to the ground.
"What the hell, why did the weather turn cold so quickly?"
It wasn't just a Beijing resident who complained. In fact, many of the officials living in Beijing also sighed and worried. Some time ago, an official had raised the issue of the autumn harvest being affected by the weather turning cold too quickly. The cabinet struggled for a few days but couldn't come up with a solution. They could only let their subordinates think of other methods. The weather turning cold too quickly was definitely not a good thing for the agricultural harvest. In the worst-case scenario, there would be another crop failure in a batch of places.
A crop failure was a disaster for any dynasty in the Central Plains. A crop failure meant famine, refugees, and the most terrifying of all, rebellions.
There had been more and more rebellions in recent years, mostly in the north. Once the weather turned cold, the grain production in these places would be greatly reduced. Originally, the crops were harvested once a year. Now that there was a drop in production, wouldn't that be killing people? The key was that taxes had to be collected as usual and money had to be paid as usual. If they couldn't pay, they would still be punished and their land confiscated. The officials didn't have much to say. They also had to report to their superiors, didn't they?
But once there were more rebellions, the local Imperial Guards couldn't keep them under control. Then, the court had to deal with them. Since the beginning of the year, more than 30 small-scale refugee rebellions had made Wang Xijue dizzy and at a loss. He was already mentally and physically exhausted because of the Emperor's coup. Now that the Emperor had settled down, the world was starting to become restless again.
If the Emperor was restless, it was easy to deal with it. They could just ask the Empress Dowager to step in. But if the world was restless, could they ask the Emperor to step in? Feeling the slight chill in the weather, Wang Xijue sighed and frowned. He walked back to his duty room. Inside, the other two ministers and the six ministers were waiting.
"Pavilion Elder Wang, please give me an idea! The weather is abnormally cold. I received a message this morning saying that in some places in the Guanzhong area, there was already frost on the ground in the morning. What should we do? It's not even October and there's already frost. If it's November or December, won't the capital be flooded with snow? Just as the crops were about to be harvested, there was a frost. Fortunately, there was no frost before, and the crops are almost ready. If the weather continues to get colder, won't the harvest fail? "
Zhang Wei looked at Wang Xijue and bluntly threw out the question.
His dissatisfaction with Wang Xijue was not for a day or two. Ever since Wang Xijue used the excuse of attending to his mother's illness to go home to avoid the political storm, Wang Xijue's political prestige was no longer what it used to be. Now that the Emperor had admitted defeat and the officials had achieved victory, Wang Xijue actually still held his position without doing anything. Not only did he not do anything, he actually set up obstacles and underhanded tricks for them everywhere. He even demoted a few imperial censors who wanted to take advantage of the victory and ask the Emperor to immediately appoint a crown prince.
Although there was the Empress Dowager to mediate, Wang Xijue's political life had come to an end. Since Zhang Wei had entered the Cabinet, he would strive for the position of Grand Secretary. In the Daming Dynasty, the only person who could change the world was the Grand Secretary. Even the Emperor didn't have this power.
As for Zhao Zhigao, to put it bluntly, Zhang Wei didn't care about him. He was a muddle-headed man and was old. He was purely experienced and had no real achievements. He had only been a mainstay for a period of time in the war to aid Korea and played a little role. That was why he became the acting Grand Secretary. When Wang Xijue came back, he would be the second Grand Secretary. It could be imagined that after Wang Xijue retired, he would be the Grand Secretary. However, it was still a question of how long this muddle-headed man could be the Grand Secretary.
The most energetic person in the Cabinet was Zhang Wei himself. Zhang Wei was very confident in winning the position of Grand Secretary. He also had his own political ambitions. In order to realize this political ambition, he had to actively get close to the power of the ministers in the court. He couldn't learn from Wang Xijue and Zhao Zhigao and get close to the Emperor.
The era of the Emperor deciding life and death with a word had passed.
How could Wang Xijue not know what Zhang Wei meant? It was just that he was powerless to stop it. He had long decided to end his political career before winter came in November. He wanted to go home and serve his mother for the rest of his life, waiting for the end of his fate. However, he didn't expect to encounter a natural disaster before he left. This was very likely to be used by his political enemies as a weapon to attack him. This was unacceptable to Wang Xijue.
What he wanted was to retreat with dignity, not helplessly retreat after being attacked.
This was the last bit of dignity he had left.
"No one could have expected such a thing to happen. This year has been dealt with, but what about next year? The year after that? There are refugees and famine in Guanzhong. If we don't come up with a reliable plan and don't have enough food for disaster relief, what's the use? There will be a rebellion soon! You want me to make a decision? Fine. Minister Yang, does your Ministry of Revenue have no good ideas? What about the silver and food in the national treasury? What about the ten million taels of silver that Xiao Ruxun just brought back from Wei Nation? "
Wang Xijue pointed the spearhead at Minister Yang Junmin of the Ministry of Revenue. Yang Junmin's expression froze, and he said, "Minister, you know that Daming's national treasury has been living beyond its means for a long time. Xiao Ruxun did bring back a lot of silver, but he didn't do it all at once. He shipped it over time from Wei Nation. The Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War have already reserved a large amount of silver for the previous batch of silver. Right now, there really isn't much silver in the national treasury that can be used."
Shi Xing immediately retorted, "I say, Minister Yang, please don't blame all the problems on the Ministry of War. The expeditions to the northwest, Korea, Japan, and now Dongwu are all wars that require money. Look at the expenditure of the Ministry of War. Which one of them isn't clean?"
Minister Zhong Zhenji of the Ministry of Works immediately retorted, "Minister Yang, don't blame the Ministry of War. Over the years, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Rites have been the first to use silver. We have never had enough silver! Now that we finally have a sum of silver, you don't let me use it. If the Yellow River's embankment is closed, will you be responsible for the lives of so many people? You can't stop me from repairing the Yellow River's embankment, can you? "
Everyone had their reasons. In short, Yang Junmin was being unreasonable.
Yang Junmin was now suffering. As the leader of the Jin Faction, he was the first faction under the Emperor to be viewed as an enemy by the officials. Previously, when the Emperor was at the forefront, Yang Junmin could still fish in troubled waters. But now that the Emperor had withered, he was the one who stood out. The Daming Imperial Censor, who was full of fighting power, had to have a window to vent. If it wasn't the Emperor, then it was those in power, or anyone who wanted to harm their interests.
Looking at Yang Junmin's bitter expression, Zhao Zhigao couldn't stand it anymore. He said, "You can't say that this matter is entirely the Ministry of Revenue's fault. Back then, everyone was blinded by the large sum of silver. Thinking that the world was at peace, they began to use the silver recklessly. Right now, there are still two months before the next batch of silver arrives, but the national treasury is already empty. Who else can we blame? We can only blame the Ministry of Revenue, right? "
"Then what should we do? All the counties in Guanzhong are clamoring for disaster relief silver and food. We can't just watch as the refugees rebel, can we? "
Zhang Wei immediately opened fire. He didn't want to let Yang Junmin have an easy time.
Minister of Rites Luo Wanhua rolled his eyes and came up with a bad idea.
"I remember that when Xiao Ruxun returned victorious from his campaign against the Wei Nation, he presented a sum of silver to the Emperor. Right now, the Emperor's internal funds should be plentiful, and he also has the income from the mines. Why don't we submit a memorial and ask the Emperor to use internal funds to help the victims?"
Zhao Zhigao was taken aback. He quickly said, "That's not right, that's not right. It's already too much to ask internal funds to pay for several wars. Now that we have such a large sum of silver, we still have to pay from internal funds. Even if the Emperor is willing, we have to be careful of the people's mouths. Since ancient times, the Emperor has to pay from his own pocket to make up for the deficit. This is truly a Daming precedent. We can't do this!"
Wang Xijue also said, "I also don't think it's right. Last year and the year before, we had asked the internal funds to pay. The internal funds have already paid no less than a million taels of silver. If we ask the internal funds to pay again, how angry will the Emperor be? It's hard for us to deal with that!"
Luo Wanhua said indifferently, "You can't say that. The world is a Daming world, and the Emperor is a Daming Emperor. If the Emperor doesn't even care about his own world, then what should we, as his subjects, do?"
The other ministers also nodded. In short, it was best if they didn't have to think of ways to get money. As for whether the Emperor would be angry … So what if he was angry? Who cares!
Song Yingchang, who was sitting at the end of the table, watched this shameless scene coldly and sneered secretly.
Xiao Ruxun's words were right. He asked him to get the position of Minister of the Ministry of Penalty so that he could stay in the central government and watch all this coldly. He didn't seek power or make trouble. He was amiable to everyone and got along well with everyone. Although the ministers in the Ministry of Penalty had their own immediate superiors, no one hated this amiable and nice person. Therefore, although Song Yingchang didn't do anything practical, his position was still quite stable.
During this time, the ministers were busy with the war and fighting against the Emperor and the Jin party. He was temporarily safe. Although he would be involved sooner or later, at least he was safe for now. Observing the situation in the capital city, he found that he understood a lot of things that he couldn't understand in the past.
Xiao Ruxun's foresight surprised him even more. Back in North Korea, Xiao Ruxun had mentioned it to him many times, but he had never paid much attention to it. But now that things had come to this, he could no longer ignore how much harm the cold weather would bring to the Great Ming Dynasty. The fact that the cold weather could cause the refugees to rebel was a very frightening thing in itself. It was laughable that these elites in the imperial court did not think about this problem, but were instead thinking about how to get money out of the Emperor's pocket.
The finances of the Daming court had always been bad. After Zhang Juzheng's death, things got out of hand. Not only did it become popular to borrow money from the national treasury and not pay it back, one tael today and two taels tomorrow. In a year, only a few hundred taels of silver would be gone. It wasn't just one person who borrowed it, but a group of people who borrowed it together. It was a favor that couldn't be rejected. Anyway, it wasn't their own silver. Who wouldn't want to get favors from them? One person borrowed it, two people borrowed it. Hundreds of thousands and millions of silver disappeared just like that. In the end, the law didn't punish the masses. Fine, it was good for you, good for me, and good for everyone. It was just that the country and the people weren't good.
Emperor Zhu was unjustly made a scapegoat!
But the officials all took pride in tricking the Emperor, and thought it was a shame to think for the Emperor. They opposed whatever the Emperor supported, and supported whatever the Emperor opposed. They treated the overall situation of the imperial court like child's play. They could really be said to be the elites among the people.
Song Yingchang smiled coldly. Thinking of the letter that Xiao Ruxun asked someone to bring to him from Myanmar, he had a plan in mind.
Xiao Ruxun said that he had basically settled the matter in Myanmar. In a few days, he would be able to report his success to the capital. He hoped that the imperial court could facilitate the establishment of a military garrison in Myanmar. More importantly, he hoped to obtain the right to permanently rule Myanmar.
Song Yingchang was quite shocked. He remembered that for so many years in the Daming, only the Mu Family of Yunnan was able to permanently rule Yunnan because of their relationship with Emperor Taizu. They had always been very content with their lot, they only had one branch, no other branch. Although you, Xiao Ruxun, have made great contributions to the country, you have not reached Mu Ying's level, much less Mu Ying's status as Emperor Taizu's godson. What right do you have to permanently rule Myanmar?
But thinking of the rumors and implementation of letting the Li Family permanently rule Liaodong in the imperial court, he felt that this matter might not be impossible. The reason why the Li Family of Liaodong did not succeed was because the interests in Liaodong were complicated. However, Myanmar did not have the interests of the Daming. Moreover, in the south of Yunnan, it was a remote and hot place. It was estimated that not many people were willing to become officials and establish political power.
The Daming implemented a military control system in the northwest and southwest border areas. In other words, there were no civil officials set up in the border areas. Instead, it was managed by the generals who led the troops, set up guards, and set up towns. In essence, it was military control. However, because the number was small and the area was remote, it was not a big deal. Myanmar was a place outside of China. To put it bluntly, the Daming could not stand the Burmese people's repeated provocations, so he wanted to get rid of them. He had no intention of controlling this land.
The Daming was very big and had a lot of land. They were not interested in a remote and remote place like Myanmar.
In their view, the south of Yunnan meant a barren land. If the Daming wanted to rule this kind of place, it would cost a lot of money, which was not cost-effective. These people sent Xiao Ruxun to fight the war with the intention of reaping benefits. They wanted to see if Xiao Ruxun could get some money back. Their original idea was to let Xiao Ruxun stay there and not come back. If they gave him the right to permanently rule Myanmar, wouldn't that be better?
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