In the Qinzheng Hall, Chen Xinjia, Hong Chengchou, Ma Shaoyu, and Zhang Ruoqi prostrated themselves on the ground, none of them dared to raise their heads.
In the main hall, Emperor Chongzhen was breathing heavily, and the four of them could hear the deep anger in their voices.
"Did Liu Yan really say that?"
"yes."
The four of them did not dare to conceal anything, so they told the story in detail. Finally, Chen Xinjia took the courage to say: "Your Majesty, I have already said that the soldiers of the army must not be underestimated and must be rewarded heavily according to the laws of the court. But they must be rewarded heavily according to the laws of the court." Nowadays, the officers and soldiers in every town are treated harshly, especially the new army under Liu Yan. Those arrogant and brave generals have resentment in their hearts, which is why they did such a heinous and unethical thing!"
Emperor Chongzhen asked Ma Shaoyu and Zhang Ruoqi: "You two, tell me, what happened to Liu Yan and the generals of the towns? Did they get angry because they resented the lack of rewards for this incident, or are they just ruthless people? This time It’s just an excuse to use the topic, and it’s only for the harm to the country!”
Ma Shaoyu and Zhang Ruoqi had already figured it out on the way here. After the Battle of Jinzhou, the two of them had become one with the soldiers and horses of the towns. If the towns were designated as rebels against the party, they would not get any good results.
So Ma Shaoyu gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, the soldiers from all the towns fought bloody battles in the Battle of Jinzhou. They were willing to die for the sake of the country and for your majesty. There is no question of loyalty. This time, it was only because there were traitors in the court who treated the meritorious soldiers harshly. There will be something like this!"
Zhang Ruoqi also said loudly: "Your Majesty, the soldiers in each town are already in poverty. Without rewards now, their determination to serve the country will definitely be dampened. I hope your Majesty will think twice!"
Emperor Chongzhen frowned and pondered for a while, then asked Wang Chengen
He said: "Find Zhou Yanru and Li Daiwen."
It was already nightfall. Wang Chengen was stunned for a moment and asked: "Now? Your Majesty, why not tomorrow morning..."
"Now! Go!"
Wang Chengen was immediately startled and hurriedly went to convey the order.
Not long after, Zhou Yanru and Li Daiwen were brought by Wang Chengen. They were surprised to see Hong Chengchou, Ma Shaoyu, and Zhang Ruoqi also there. When they saw Chen Xinjia looking at them angrily, their hearts sank.
When the two of them saw Emperor Chongzhen looking at them angrily, their hearts became even colder.
"My lord, pay homage to Your Majesty!"
After the two people kowtowed, they didn't hear the word "Ping Shen" for a long time, and suddenly broke into a cold sweat.
"Chen Aiqing, please inform Mr. Ge and Li Shangshu."
"yes."
Chen Xinjia then explained the situation outside the city. Zhou Yanru was dumbfounded. He didn't expect that the soldiers and horses outside the city were so bold. He didn't know how to answer for a moment.
Li Daiwen frowned, lowering his head and thinking about something.
"Mr. Zhou Ge, I followed your advice and treated the meritorious soldiers harshly. Now more than 200,000 troops have blocked the Desheng Gate. How will this matter end? Please give me an explanation!"
"This, I, I thought..."
Zhou Yanru felt that his mind went blank at this time. He had calculated everything, but he did not expect that Liu Yan would immediately fall out. He also did not expect that Liu Yan's prestige among the towns was so high. The town's chief military officers all followed suit and started making trouble.
"Liu Yan!"
Zhou Yanru roared in his heart, but he couldn't say a single sentence. He was so anxious that he was sweating profusely. Emperor Chongzhen was extremely disappointed when he saw him.
"Li Shangshu, what can you do!
"
Li Daiwen cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I believe that the top priority is to pacify the troops in each town within two days, especially Liu Yan, the chief military officer of Qinglai Town. Even if all the troops and horses rebel, as long as Liu Yan If we don’t fight back, the situation will not collapse!”
"Then how to appease the armies in each town?"
Li Daiwen said: "I think that your majesty can issue an edict and order all officials and merchants in the capital to pay donations immediately. The amount of donations should be limited according to the size of the official position and the amount of family wealth, and the deadline should be completed within one day."
"At the same time, the imperial court will also withhold this month's salary from all officials in the court, as well as this month's support from the lord of the capital."
"In addition, I thought that Your Majesty would also use money from the internal funds as a supplement. In this way, money would be raised from three sources. First, the reward money and pension money for the soldiers in each town would be sufficient, and the army in each town would be pacified first."
"As for the promotion of the chief military officers in each town..."
Li Daiwen looked at Chen Xinjia and Hong Chengchou and said, "I don't know about this."
Emperor Chongzhen looked at Li Daiwen with approval. Finally, someone said something reliable, so with Li Daiwen as the leader, Ma Shaoyu and Zhang Ruoqi, as representatives of the Ministry of War, and as Li Daiwen's deputies, the three of them went to the officials. To collect donations from merchants, the Ministry of Household Affairs must immediately withhold the salaries of hundreds of officials and provide support to the vassal king. Sufficient silver must be raised within one day.
Ma Shaoyu and Zhang Ruoqi glared angrily at Li Daiwen. They raised millions of taels of silver in one day. Even if the King of Heaven came, they couldn't do it. Li Daiwen was dragging the two of them to die together!
Even if this matter is done, the three people will become a thorn in the eyes and flesh of the civil and military officials and the lord of the capital. In the future, there will be more people in the court.
A place to stay?
The two of them wanted to eat Li Daiwen alive, but they were helpless.
Li Daiwen accepted the order calmly, and then said: "Please ask your Majesty to issue an edict. I will accept donations and intercept them according to the emperor's order. Only then can I raise the money within one day. Otherwise, please ask your majesty to directly imprison the ministers." .”
Ma Shaoyu and Zhang Ruoqi's eyes suddenly lit up, and they secretly said: "You are so calculating, and you are pushing Your Majesty to become a villain!"
Emperor Chongzhen's face also froze. He was forced by Li Daiwen and had to immediately order Wang Chengen to draft the edict and use the seal, and then handed it over to Li Daiwen and the others with a dark face.
The salary standard for officials in the Ming Dynasty was ridiculously low. In the Tang Dynasty, the monthly salary for one rank was 8,000 hectares, and there was also a job land of 60 hectares per rank, and a personal salary of 2 million (2,000 guan) per rank. The salary in the Song Dynasty was higher than that in the Tang Dynasty. is higher.
The first-class monthly salary in the Ming Dynasty was only eighty-seven dan, which was not even a fraction of what it was in the Tang and Song dynasties. Therefore, "History of the Ming Dynasty" says: "Since ancient times, the official salary system has been thin, and there has never been anything like this."
Therefore, although there are more than 3,700 civil servants and generals, large and small, in the capital, their salary this month converted into silver is only over 300,000 taels of silver.
As for the vassal kings, in fact, according to Ming law, vassal kings could not live in the capital. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, many vassal kings purchased houses in the capital and lived in the bustling capital for a long time without any prohibition from the court. .
At this time, there were dozens of vassal kings, generals and other royal relatives in the capital, and the court had to pay money and food every month, about hundreds of thousands taels of silver.
The two items added together only amount to more than 500,000 taels, which is simply not enough.
As for Emperor Chongzhen’s internal funds,
At this time, he could only come up with one hundred thousand taels of silver. Wang Chengen took Li Daiwen and three others to collect it, and the rest had to be obtained from merchants in the capital.
Then Emperor Chongzhen looked at Chen Xinjia and asked, "The silver issue has been settled for the time being. How will the promotion of the chief military officers of each town be handled?"
Chen Xinjia had already made plans on the way here, and immediately said: "Your Majesty, I think the first thing is to give Liu Yan a rank and title. The general officers of the other towns have already been sealed as generals and earls. Although they are all titles and counts temporarily added by the elders, they are not even counted as generals with other titles, but they can still be counted as number one. Therefore, as long as Liu Yan does not continue to cause trouble, the chief military officers of the other towns, and the ministers are all It can be comforted."
Emperor Chongzhen nodded in agreement, but he did not expect Zhou Yanru to say: "Your Majesty, you can't! That Liu Yan used a heavy army to threaten the Holy One is a crime of great disrespect. The court did not punish him, but promoted him to a higher position. Everyone will follow Liu Yan's example in the future. If there is no expansion, the country will no longer be a country, who will bear this responsibility!"
Chen Xinjia retorted: "Liu Yan has meritorious service, why can't he be promoted? Who caused the current situation? Liu Yan, or you, Mr. Ge!"
"Shameless talk!"
Zhou Yanru also yelled loudly at this time. The situation at this time was very unfavorable to him. If Liu Yan was allowed to be promoted smoothly, he would no longer have a status in Emperor Chongzhen's heart, and the position of chief minister would also be handed over to others.
"Liu Yan is extremely arrogant. What he did today is no different from Dong Zhuo of the Han Dynasty or Zhu Wen of the Tang Dynasty. He must be severely punished!"
The two immediately started quarreling. If Wang Chengen hadn't called two young eunuchs to hold them back, Chen Xinjia and Zhou Yanru would have fought each other.
Together.
Emperor Chongzhen was so angry that he wanted to pull Chen Xinjia and Zhou Yanru out and kill them with sticks. Then he shouted loudly: "This is the palace, not the streets. You are ministers of the court, not women of the village. Give them all to me." Shut up!"
Chen Xinjia and Zhou Yanru immediately stopped, but they both looked at each other angrily, and neither of them would give in today.
"Hong Aiqing, what do you think?"
Hong Chengchou remained silent until he was asked by Emperor Chongzhen, and then he raised his hand and said: "Your Majesty, I think that since Mr. Zhou Ge does not agree to promote Liu Yan to an official position, it is okay. After all, what Liu Yan did this time is indeed excessive. Promoting him to an official position will indeed make people all over the world follow his example."
Chen Xinjia stared at Hong Chengchou in surprise, while Zhou Yanru breathed a sigh of relief.
"However, Liu Yan made great military exploits in the Battle of Jinzhou and the Battle of Kaifeng. If the imperial court did not express his views, it would still neglect the soldiers' desire to serve the country, and the gain would not be worth the loss."
Emperor Chongzhen said impatiently: "What should we do? Hong Aiqing, please tell me, don't beat around the bush!"
Hong Chengchou said: "I think that Liu Yan's official position will not be promoted for the time being, but to increase his authority, Qinglai Town only has Qingzhou Prefecture and Laizhou Prefecture. Your Majesty can issue an edict to merge Dengzhou Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture. After entering Qinglai Town, he doubled the jurisdiction of Qinglai Town to appease Liu Yan. At the same time, he also exempted the four states of Qinglai Town from taxes for five years and three rates. In this way, Liu Yan Yan must be satisfied."
Chen Xinjia suddenly laughed and said immediately: "Your Majesty, Governor Hong's proposal is very appropriate. I second it!"
Zhou Yanru objected again and said loudly
: "Your Majesty, you must not do it. Liu Yan only has the land of two palaces, and he has trained more than 80,000 elite troops, and he dares to commit lawlessness. If he has the land of four palaces, he doesn't know how far his power will expand. Your Majesty. Must..."
Emperor Chongzhen looked at Zhou Yanru who acted loyal to the country. As long as he had different political views, he would stand up to oppose him regardless of whether the matter was right or wrong. However, he could not come up with his own countermeasures and opposed just for the sake of opposition. Chongzhen The emperor couldn't bear it any longer, and immediately stood up with a slap on the table: "Since this won't work, then that won't work either. What can Mr. Zhou Ge do to deal with it?"
Zhou Yanru held it in for a long time, but finally he handed over his hand and said: "At this time, a court meeting still needs to be held, and the ministers of the court will discuss it together. The old minister has nothing to do at this time."
"Nothing to do? Then what use do I need from you!"
After Emperor Chongzhen scolded him angrily, he ordered people to drive Zhou Yanru out of the hall. Zhou Yanru's face was ashen at this time, and he was taken out by two Han generals in a state of despair.
Immediately, Emperor Chongzhen approved Hong Chengchou's strategy and ordered people to draft the edict overnight. He also ordered Chen Xinjia and Hong Chengchou to take the imperial edict and rush back to Desheng Gate overnight to deliver the edict.
