In the fourth year of Wanli, the golden osmanthus is fragrant.
Capital of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhao Zhenji and Hai Rui, the two officials in the north and south who oversaw the pilot program of clearing the land of the father-in-law, had both entered Beijing during this period.
"Start your Majesty!"
"Beizhi Qingzhang has added 3,625,500 acres of farmland."
"Nanzhi Qingzhang has added 5,788,900 acres of cultivated land."
"The total number of acres of cultivated land has increased by nearly 50%."
And because of this.
On this day, inside the Yuntai Gate of the Forbidden City.
Zhu Yijun drank tea while listening to the report by Wang Guoguang, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, on the results of the pilot clearing of the North and South Straits.
Gradually, when Zhu Yijun heard that there were more than nine million acres of cultivated land in the north and south alone, he and the ministers Zhang Juzheng, Lu Tiaoyang and other people present laughed.
You must know that the more than 9 million acres of cultivated land in the north and the south are already equivalent to nearly 60% of the total acres of farmland in the Ming Dynasty.
This means that a lot of land will be added.
"Very good, Qingzhang really works well!"
Zhu Yijun then nodded, said something, and then asked: "Presumably the increase of more than nine million acres of cultivated land and the increase in taxes will be enough to cover various expenditures this year, right?"
"Your Majesty, it will not only cover this year's expenses, but also save some money. It will save about three million taels of silver and more than one million stone grain."
Wang Guoguang, the Minister of Household Affairs, replied.
When Zhu Yijun heard what Wang Guoguang said, he read "Guo Feng" at this moment:
"Shuo Shuo Shuo,
No food for me!
A three-year-old girl,
I don't care. "
After thinking about it, Zhu Yijun asked: "Is there any new policy that benefits the people that needs to be implemented as soon as possible? Now that the state has abundant funds, it should be implemented as soon as possible."
"Lest these money and grains be stored in large quantities in the warehouse and be stolen by the corrupt officials in charge."
"So, it is better to use this money and food as soon as possible to benefit the country and the people. As the saying goes, take it from the people and use it to the people!"
Except for Zhang Juzheng, all the ministers were shocked when they heard what Zhu Yijun said. They thought that His Majesty was so unfavorable about the integrity of the officials in the world, instead of thinking that most of the officials in the world were honest and upright.
Zhang Siwei even glanced at Zhang Juzheng.
He hoped that Zhang Juzheng, the only person who could force the emperor to change his mind, could correct the emperor's inappropriate concept in time.
As the saying goes, if the ruler is not secretive, then he will lose his ministers;
The emperor now wants to use the saved national funds to benefit the people immediately, just because he is worried about the officials who take care of the money and food.
What does this sound like?
However, Zhang Juzheng stood up at this time and did not remonstrate like this. Instead, he bowed his hands and said:
"Your Majesty, the river has not been dredged for many years, and during the Nanzhi Qingzhang period, it was reported that many dams in Jiangxi were in disrepair. In addition, there was too much rain in Jiangxi this year, so many dams broke. As for a large number of civilian fields being flooded."
"Therefore, in my humble opinion, it is better to send officials to oversee the rivers, and first go to patrol Jiangxi to control floods and provide disaster relief, and use the part of the tax collected in the south that has not yet been transported to Beijing to use it for flood control and disaster relief in Jiangxi." It saves a lot of transportation costs on the road.”
"allow!"
Zhu Yijun replied.
Zhang Siwei looked at Zhang Juzheng in surprise.
He did not expect that Zhang Juzheng had already prepared to use the saved national funds to do something to benefit the people!
Zhang Siwei had reason to suspect that the emperor did not believe in the integrity of the officials in the world, and he was probably the one taught by Zhang Juzheng.
"This time the land in the north and south was cleared. The officials responsible for implementing this new policy have made great contributions and should be commended to encourage the officials who have not yet cleared the land."
At this time, Zhu Yijun brought up the idea of rewarding the reformist officials again, and issued an edict: "The officials who carry out the work will be rewarded with the rank of casual official, double salary for those below the prefecture and county, three salary for those above the Taoist platform, and three salaries for the governor and general soldier." Ten thousand taels of silver, and twenty thousand taels of silver from the governor and above."
Zhu Yijun's doing this is also equivalent to promoting honest money, and saves the officials who implement the reform from offending too many powerful people for the court. However, because they get too little in return, they are prone to psychological imbalance, and are more likely to be betrayed by powerful people. How right corrodes.
"His Majesty!"
Hai Rui stood up at this time and said: "In my humble opinion, the increased national funds should not be used to reward officials generously. Acting in compliance with the imperial decree is the duty of officials in the world. If the imperial court praises their political achievements , it’s enough to be promoted to an official position, why bother with generous rewards? Wouldn’t this be against the holy teachings? Who reads the books of sages and becomes an official, not for the common people of the country, but for wealth?"
Zhu Yijun smiled and said: "Not everyone is like you Haigangfeng. The generous rewards now are also so that whoever dares to plunder people's wealth in the name of the New Deal can be severely punished in the future. In this way, it is not considered to be punished without teaching."
"yes!"
Hai Rui happily responded inwardly without any effort.
He admitted that the emperor was right, not everyone could be an official like him and follow the requirements of the saint.
"In addition, next, in addition to carrying out the nationwide land clearing, there is also the matter of opening up the sea. Once the sea is opened, it will be necessary to train more naval forces. The cabinet should discuss with the Ministry of War to determine the number of naval forces that need to be trained. The size of the division, and who needs to be recommended as the commander of the navy training division! I have decided that all the new navy training divisions will be named the Brave Guard Battalion."
At this time, Zhu Yijun talked about the water trainer again, and the ministers quickly said, "I obey the order."
Then, Zhu Yijun added: "I recently ordered my chamberlain to conduct a survey and statistics on the place of origin and family background of those who passed the imperial examinations in the past dynasties."
"Thus, I discovered that the proportion of middle-ranking candidates from common people in the previous palace examinations has become smaller and smaller, and now an imbalance has begun to occur!"
"This is certainly because scholars from common people have less access to famous writers and famous works than those from bureaucratic gentry, so scholars from common people are more likely to fail."
"But if this situation is allowed to continue, it will not be conducive for me and the imperial court to know the sufferings of the people."
"Therefore, I have decided to add fifty more Jinshi places to the existing Jinshi quota as a special quota for admitting scholars from common people."
"By analogy, the number of such places should also be increased in the township examination and college examination."
"In this regard, we should set a standard for judging whether a scholar can be classified as a child of common people. For example, the acres of land in the family should not exceed one hundred acres, or there should be no one who is filial and honest within three generations."
"After the cabinet meeting with the Ministry of Rites, the matter was reported immediately."
After Zhu Yijun said that, he started to give orders.
Therefore, this time, not only the other ministers except Zhang Juzheng were surprised, but even Zhang Juzheng himself was quite surprised.
He had to admit that the emperor was really good at finding the right policies in all kinds of memorials and files, and he especially loved doing various surveys and statistics.
Zhang Juzheng was happy about this, but he actually neglected to teach the emperor to pay attention to arithmetic and statistics.
But governing the country is not only about finding current problems from history, but also about finding problems from various numbers.
But now that his emperor's student has taken the initiative to master this skill, he is naturally happy.
