Zhu Yijun also learned from the information obtained by the Jin Yiwei undercover that this time Jin Xuezeng, Sun Bin, Shen Yourong and others did not dare to be too greedy after robbing the Xiyi merchant ship and obtaining a large amount of thief capital. Sixty percent of the actual stolen money was given to the emperor.
Even if Zhu Yijun, as the emperor of the empire, would give up another 10% to them in the form of rewards, he would be convinced that these people really made meritorious service in suppressing the bandits.
That's also 50/50.
This is 10% more than the 40% the Wanli eunuchs received from mining taxes in history.
Compared with the later period when the emperor could only get 20% from the mining tax because the civil servants had to get involved because of their resignation, now Zhu Yijun can get 50% by just nodding his head in the Forbidden City.
The civil servants, military generals and eunuchs below only shared the remaining 50%.
It can be said that Zhu Yijun now gets more respect than Wanli in history.
Of course, this is also because he, the emperor, has his own military power, so he has considerable real power.
After all, in this life, Zhu Yijun did not cut off his arm. He first whipped Zhang Juzheng's corpse, then drove Qi Jiguang to Guangdong, and even sat back and watched as the elite southern soldiers were falsely accused of treason and massacred.
Therefore, no matter how greedy the civil servants, generals and eunuchs below are, they still have to consider whether the emperor will be unwilling to allow them to do this because the money they pay is too small, so he will have to pay more in order to continue to work part-time as a pirate in the future. I'd rather pay less now.
Zhu Yijun admitted that doing so was also a kind of depravity.
But he also had to admit that improving the level of science and technology and then profiting from normal trade would be too slow to help increase wealth, compared to using the improvement of technology to directly plunder.
There is no way, the former requires the market to mature and a transaction process.
At present, in order to accumulate a large amount of wealth as soon as possible, Zhu Yijun can only use some low-level primitive methods, or secretly acquiesce in the contradictions within the domestic ruling class that have not been eliminated because of the New Deal reforms. means.
In short, Zhu Yijun either abolished the New Deal and continued to suffer the people of his country to stabilize his personal imperial rule, or he did not abolish the New Deal and consolidated his rule through external plunder.
Zhu Yijun chose the latter.
However, if technological improvements can achieve a major breakthrough or even set off a revolution, it may make this method more civilized.
But if there is no major breakthrough in technological improvement, or even reaches the bottleneck stage, I am afraid that this method will become even more barbaric and primitive.
This cannot be based on Zhu Yijun's personal will.
As the emperor, the only choice Zhu Yijun could make was to choose to suffer the common people or to choose to suffer the foreigners.
Even according to the original trajectory of this land, Zhu Yijun's choice of the latter was a choice made against inertia. It can only be said to be an attempt by the emperor of his generation.
Zhu Yijun didn't know whether his attempt would succeed.
But Zhu Yijun still finds it very satisfying to earn a lot of money after falling down.
What's more, he has no sympathy for the foreign barbarians of this era. After all, these foreign merchants are also pirates, and their work is not much cleaner than the navy of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, Zhu Yijun still intends to pretend to be civilized on the surface, in order to establish a trade order in the future, improve the level of civilization in the entire era of human exploration, and by the way, weld the car doors that can be primitively and crudely accumulated!
That is, except for the Ming Dynasty, which could do this in the initial stage of transforming from an agricultural empire to an industrial empire, it was illegal for other regimes to do so, and they could only maintain their rule within the rules set by the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yijun could resolve the inner court's dissatisfaction over the inability to repeal the New Deal by issuing "private plundering licenses," but it would not be easy to resolve the dissatisfaction of the world's big bureaucrats and landowners over the non-abolishing of the New Deal.
It can be said that because Zhu Yijun did not abolish the New Deal, the big bureaucrats and big landowners could only watch the country's large number of hard-working, docile and good at production people living an increasingly peaceful and prosperous life, and they could not be arbitrarily exploited. , for big bureaucrats and big landowners, it is like making a glutton unable to eat a table of delicious food, which makes them feel uncomfortable.
Therefore, even if they know that Zhu Yijun is the emperor, and he is the emperor with military power, and he is also the father who they have to enshrine as the master of the world for their own interests, there are still most of them who cannot restrain their desires and instinctively Continue to find ways to work hard to abolish the New Deal and liquidate Zhang Juzheng.
First of all, because Zhang Siwei was not firm enough to abolish the New Deal and liquidate Zhang Juzheng, it even led to the arrest of the first batch of officials who tried to prevent Pan Cheng from joining the cabinet in order to abolish the New Deal, and also used the birth of the emperor's eldest son to hope that the emperor would recognize the New Deal as a harsh government. To execute him, the civil servants on the road attacked Zhang Siwei first.
The censor Jiang Dongzhi first impeached Zhang Siwei, saying that his body was sitting on a plain diet, and he only knew how to flatter and did not know how to eliminate the long-standing disadvantages. However, Zhang Siwei did not choose to retaliate against Jiang Dongzhi, but took the initiative to resign.
When Zhang Siwei decided to resign on his own initiative, both Shen Shixing and Yu Youding had to go to court to persuade him to stay. Naturally, the reason was that they could not easily impeach the chief minister and remove the chief minister, thereby losing the prestige of the cabinet.
In order not to lose the prestige of the cabinet at this time, Zhu Yijun set the precedent of replacing the chief minister as soon as the official impeached him, so he followed the request of Shen Shixing and Yu Youding and issued an order to retain Zhang Siwei.
After Zhang Siwei was retained by Zhu Yijun, he quickly promoted Jiang Dongzhi to the position of Guanglu Temple Chancellor through a petition from the Ministry of Officials. The reason was that Jiang Dongzhi dared to speak upright, and as Yuanfu, he could not be blamed for this. An upright official who has personal grudges and revenge should practice a lenient policy.
"What a good person to repay evil with kindness!"
After Zhu Yijun received Zhang Siwei's memorial requesting Jiangdong be recommended as the Prime Minister of Guanglu Temple, he said with a sullen face: "Approval of the red is approved!"
Seeing this, Zhang Hong quickly raised his hands and said yes, and he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking: "The emperor is still sane after all."
However, Zhang Siwei's move increased the arrogance of the officials, which was equivalent to clearly telling the officials of Ke Dao:
Although I, Zhang Siwei, am a cowardly and shameless villain, I am not only cowardly in front of the imperial power, but also cowardly in front of the civil servants. So you can be gentle and clear, but I will not deal with you severely. I will indulge you in the name of preserving the sanctity of your father.
As a result, a large number of memorials fell on Zhu Yijun's bed like snowflakes on a snowy day, and soon they piled up like mountains, full of all kinds of advice.
Unless Zhu Yijun stayed up late to see it in person, he would not be able to understand it at all, so he could only go down to the cabinet and let the cabinet vote.
However, Zhang Siwei, as the chief assistant of the cabinet, dealt with these suggestions as if they were discussed by the six ministries, instead of refuting some absurd and unruly suggestions. As a result, the workload of the six ministries increased and he became even more dissatisfied with the existing examination system. .
Because according to Zhang Juzheng's new policy for examinations, government affairs cannot be delayed, and imperial edicts approved by the emperor must be answered within the specified time.
Even Zhu Yijun himself was very tired by Zhang Siwei's indulgent and crazy way of admonishing, because many of the admonitions involved the inner court and needed to be handled by him, the emperor, personally.
"The release of an older palace maid is obviously unrealistic. Those who make such suggestions are either stupid or bad! What can an older palace maid do if she is released from the palace? Will she be married to a decent family, or will her family be willing to support her for the rest of her life? Or should he be released and sold into slavery?"
"You are also talking about imitating the virtues of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Can the situation in our dynasty be the same today as it was then?! Is the world in short supply of women or land?"
On this day, Zhu Yijun questioned Zhang Siwei in the Imperial Palace about an official's advice to release older palace ladies out of the palace to reduce palace expenses, so that older palace ladies who could not give birth to heirs for the royal family could enjoy the happiness of human relations.
"Yuanfu actually presented such advice without refuting it. What is the meaning of it?"
Then, Zhu Yijun questioned Zhang Siwei again.
Zhang Siwei replied: "I also know that what he said is pedantic and unrealistic, but because it involves the inner court and His Majesty's sanctity, I dare not draft it without authorization, but can only send it directly to the imperial court. Please calm down, Your Majesty, don't be inconsistent with this." The little minister was so careless that he injured the dragon's body."
"Then I will directly vote to refute it now!"
Zhu Yijun glanced at Zhang Siwei deeply, and then said this.
"I obey the decree!"
Zhang Siwei didn't argue, he just bowed his head and obeyed his orders, with the intention of letting the emperor decide everything.
It was just because of this that Yan Guan, who had a keen sense of smell, became more certain that Zhang Siwei would not help the emperor do anything to them, and became more and more bold.
Soon, the imperial censor Sun Jixian impeached Zhang Xueyan for his misdeeds such as killing good people and taking merit, and repaying victory with defeat.
Zhang Siwei did not protect Zhang Xueyan, but planned to let Zhang Xueyan defend himself.
After Zhu Yijun learned about the results of Zhang Siwei's vote on the impeachment of Zhang Xueyan, he couldn't help but slandered: "It was you, Zhang Siwei, who sought your own death, but I didn't insist on killing you!"
