After Zhang Juzheng asked this question, Yang Zhao was speechless for a moment and didn't know how to refute.
Even the other ministers present could not say anything.
How to deal with Qi Jiguang is indeed a difficult problem for Zhu Yijun and his important ministers.
The reason is that although Qi Jiguang was born as a hereditary guard officer, he relied on the recruitment system to become the head coach of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, Qi Jiguang's old troops were basically his own people trained by him. Unlike Li Chengliang and other generals in the guard system, most of the officers and generals under Li Chengliang were filled by the children of other generals in Jiubian. Only his own The servants are led by his own descendants of the Li family.
And in this case, it was inevitable that the imperial court would have to guard against Qi Jiguang's old troops, who only knew how to listen to Qi Jiguang, not the imperial court.
However, the problem is not that serious.
After all, there are not many southern troops now, and most of Qi Jiguang's old troops have not yet reached the point of commanding the army.
But the problem is that if the imperial court wants to continue to use Qi Jiguang's old troops, it must take precautions before they happen. Otherwise, it can only disband these Qi troops on the spot and use them again during the war.
Zhang Juzheng made this suggestion at this time. In addition to strengthening the imperial power, on the one hand, after all, since the Ming Dynasty began the global age of navigation, the local gentry who had risen through sea trade had begun to challenge the imperial power. On the other hand, it was because he did not want the imperial court to give up in the future. Qi Jiajun doesn't need it.
At this time, when Fang met, he stood up and said: "Your Majesty, I agree with Yuan Fu's proposal! Since the consorts chosen by this dynasty were only civilians, there will be many idle people, and after they suddenly become rich, they will easily break the rules of the court. Not to mention losing the face of the Tian family, it also makes the princess feel wronged;"
"Therefore, the system of selecting consorts and guests should be restored to the old system established by Taizu at the beginning of the country, with the emperor's family matching military honors, such as the case of Princess Ning marrying the nephew of Mei Sizu, the Hou of Runan;"
"In addition, in the future, even if the Qi marquis has made great contributions to the country, his retirement as a relative of the country will be regarded as an honorable retirement. It will not chill the meritorious officials. He can also use the example of a distinguished relative to serve as the governor of the five armies, and discuss military plans in the Privy Council, but it is not necessary. Just lead more troops, so that the old troops can also be used."
Zhu Yijun said: "That being the case, it's settled. We've issued an edict that the children of the Qi family will go to Beijing to be selected! In addition, the Privy Council issued an edict asking Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou and others how they are preparing for the conquest of Japan and when will they send out troops?"
"Start your Majesty!"
At this time, Pan Sheng, the Minister of Rites, stood up and said: "The three Japanese chieftains, Shimazu, Otomo, and Ryuzouji, all sent tribute envoys and sent notes, urging our court to give up the intention of conquering the Japanese, saying that they have The guardian of the divine wind also said that if we insist on marching, they will unite the three families and do whatever it takes to destroy the king's division I have entered and hold this court accountable, which will cause unrest in the southeastern provinces!"
The so-called divine wind by the Japanese is the typhoon that the Yuan Dynasty encountered when they were conquering Japan. Because this typhoon forced the Yuan Dynasty to give up destroying the sun, the Japanese called this typhoon the divine wind.
Nowadays, in the Kyushu area adjacent to the Ming Dynasty, the three daimyo are the strongest, namely Shimazu, Otomo and Ryuzoji Temple.
These three famous families were originally fighting each other to dominate the Kyushu, but in the ninth year of Wanli, the three parties entered a brief truce period that had appeared in history. At this time, the Ming Dynasty also began to prepare for the conquest of Japan, and the three of them simply could not They made a temporary peace and prepared to deal with the outside world unanimously, and sent a note to Ming Dynasty.
When Shen Shixing heard the Japanese threatening to invade the southeast as revenge, he couldn't help but widen his eyes and said bluntly: "Your Majesty, there are many giant households in the southeast trading with the Japanese. I'm afraid the Japanese will know about our dynasty's plan to conquer the Japanese because of this." , and this may really lead to the situation where giant households collude with Japanese pirates to disturb the southeast again. Now the threat of the three chiefs of the Japanese country is probably no joke, and the country should also be prepared for this!"
Zhu Yijun sneered after hearing this: "The small country of Zuer dares to threaten this dynasty? It's like if this dynasty did not conquer them, they would not disturb the peace of my southeast!"
"In my opinion, this kind of peace cannot be obtained by relying on charity from others. You have to fight for it yourself to have peace."
"The Japanese troubles in Shimiao are now eliminated because our soldiers sacrificed their lives, our righteous people dared to die, and our bureaucrats dared to do something. It is not because the Japanese slaves suddenly had a conscience and knew that bandits were plundering and blaspheming."
As he said that, Zhu Yijun said with a solemn expression: "Besides, if he comes, does it mean that I really can't go? We are afraid of him coming, but are they really not afraid of us?"
"I believe that no one in me or the people of the Southeast wants to live in fear, fearing that the Japanese pirates will come and rob them every day. Instead of doing this, it is better to hurt him once and make the Japanese slaves become terrified and afraid that we will ask for punishment!"
"What's more, these Japanese slave chiefs only attack excessively and do not know how to be benevolent. They have bankrupted a large number of Japanese people and then fled to our Ming Dynasty as thieves. This can be said to be harmful to the world! If I don't ask them for their crimes and ask them for their excessive attacks, I can't do it. For this crime of benevolence, I am afraid that the world will become more and more chaotic by these local chiefs!"
"Your Majesty said so."
Shen Shixing replied.
Zhu Yijun continued: "However, what Shen Qing said is right. Make preparations early in the morning, so that everyone in the southeast must be cautious and send more navy patrols to monitor the ships coming to our Ming Dynasty."
Then, Zhu Yijun stood up and stretched out his sleeves: "In addition, tell the envoys that if they commit the crime of invading our southeast again, I will not only hold them accountable, but directly massacre their country!"
After hearing this, Pan Sheng raised his hands and said yes.
While Zhu Yijun and his ministers in power were carrying out the New Deal internally, in which officials and gentry would pay food and serve as errands together, military preparations for the conquest of the Japanese country had also been intensive.
To this end, the Zhijiang Shipyard was reopened specifically as a new base for building warships and training sailors.
At the same time, politically, Zhu Yijun also specially sent Nanhe Bo Fangye to Xiaoling Mausoleum in Nanjing on his behalf, and read and burned the book written by the number one scholar Sun Jigao in the name of Emperor Zhu Yijun in the name of Emperor Taizu to conquer the Japanese. Zu knew it and wrote in the book why he wanted to conquer the Japanese country, and listed dozens of major crimes caused by the Japanese invasion to the country.
"The so-called New Deal is nothing more than showing favor to the officials and gentry, especially if we seize the benefits of Nanzhi!"
"That's all. Gentlemen should not value profits over righteousness. The imperial court wants to eliminate the problem that preferential exemptions for gentry will deplete tax sources. Expropriation is beneficial to officials and gentry, and it is acceptable for lower officials to do so."
"But as a result, the wealth accumulated was used to wage war against foreign countries instead of being thrifty to extend the country's fortunes!"
"Others are okay, Mr. Ge is from Wu, why haven't you argued about it yet?!"
Although the conquest of the Japanese was initiated by the Privy Councilor Fang Fengshi on the grounds that the Japanese would not conquer the world, and Zhang Juzheng did not stop it, so that preparations for the war had been made seriously, there were still many opponents, even the majority, just because the empire Only when there are many people in the upper echelons of power who are in favor will it seem that there are not many people who are against it.
Hu Ke was informed of the matter by Ye Shixin, so he specifically asked to see Shen Shixing, questioned Shen Shixing, and after questioning, he said:
"It stands to reason that now is the time to reduce the number of soldiers to save people's money!"
"After all, the wealth of wealthy and powerful families is not brought by strong winds, but also comes from the people!"
"As a result, not only are we not saving people's wealth, but we are also increasing our troops significantly. You can imagine what kind of chaos will happen when there are more and more of these arrogant soldiers in the future, and once the court has no money to support! Just these things now Bing, I, Nan Zhi, can hardly afford it anymore, Mr. Ge!"
"I don't understand why we don't reduce our troops and temper our military strength!"
After Ye Shixin said this, he clenched his fists tightly.
President Shen Shi breathed a sigh of relief: "You think I don't know that military expenditures are a heavy burden on Nanzhi? But if we don't punish the Japanese slaves once, who knows whether the Japanese slaves will repeat the large-scale banditry of the World Temple? "
After asking, Shen Shixing sighed and said: "You younger generation officials only saw that the court was seizing more benefits from Jiangnan in order to raise elite soldiers. You did not see the brutal scene of a large number of Japanese pirates going deep into the hinterland of the southeast during the Shimiao period, killing and raping everyone they saw." , do you think that Prime Minister Fang, who is also a civil servant with a Jinshi background, really doesn’t know the harm of militarism?”
"I made this decision because I saw with my own eyes the scenes of large numbers of ronin raiding the southeast due to the continuous war in Japan! Rather than trying to cater to the young and overly energetic emperor."
"The Privy Council's title book is very comprehensive in its analysis. If the Ming Dynasty does not fight Japan once now, it will have to fight Japan once in the future."
"Because according to the information brought back by the Jin Yiwei, there is an overlord in Japan named Hashiba Hideyoshi (Toyotomi Hideyoshi). He has a plan to 'enter the Tang Dynasty', which is a plan to destroy our Ming Dynasty. He has unified their China, and he wants to use it to Kyushu is the base for destroying our Ming Dynasty."
"It can be seen that even if we don't use troops to attack the Japanese country, this person will invade our Ming Dynasty again in the future!"
"The key is that if the Ming Dynasty wants to eliminate this serious problem, the price will undoubtedly become higher the later it goes! After all, he has not yet unified the Japanese lands."
"Otherwise, Yuan Fu, who had intended to reduce the troops, would have stopped it long ago!"
"It's all because we know that the Japanese country has not yet been unified and is in constant war. It is the most suitable time to divide and rule in order to achieve peace."
After Shen Shixing said this, Ye Shixin was quite horrified and asked, "I didn't know!"
Shen Shixing said: "After the restructuring and the establishment of a political affairs hall, and the officials do not have to participate in the decision-making, they will naturally not know this. What I am afraid of is that there are too many people participating, and many strategies will be easily leaked."
Ye Shixin nodded after hearing this, and cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, Mr. Ge, for your advice. Otherwise, I would only blame the central government for being militaristic."
Shen Shixing just smiled faintly and said: "If you are really worried that the Japanese will invade our southeast on a larger scale, why not go up to Shu and ask His Majesty to issue an edict that wherever the Japanese rebellion occurs in the future, you will be exempted from paying Dingyin tax for a year?" , lest the Japanese pirates go and the thieves start again!"
"Instead of going against the vigorous emperor at this time and forcing him to rebel."
"As a minister, you must be able to fill in the gaps and don't try to stop what the emperor and the ruling ministers have decided on your own, because you can't reverse it!"
"And if you want to forcefully stop it, it will intensify the conflict between the emperor and his ministers. As ministers, you and I should be able to discipline and admonish the emperor, but we should not go against the emperor."
As Shen Shixing spoke, he shook his head and sighed: "How to be a good person? Do you still want me to teach you? How to manage the relationship between the king and his ministers, and reconcile and weigh each other's positions. You should understand it yourself, otherwise you will go away." Not long-term!”
Ye Shixin immediately bowed his hands with admiration on his face and said, "Well, thanks to Mr. Ge for your advice, I know how to do it!"
(End of chapter)
