The Spring Festival in the thirteenth year of Wanli was even more prosperous than in previous years. The city was filled with the sound of fireworks and firecrackers, and golden flowers kept blooming.
Everyone looked up at the rouge-red sky with a smile and chattered.
Hai Rui also looked at the golden plaque in the main hall with a smile for a while, then looked north and kowtowed, and suddenly choked up.
"Master, what's going on?"
Mrs. Lu, who was being helped up by Hai Rui, came over with Hai Rui's son in her arms and asked Hai Rui.
Hai Rui wiped the corners of his eyes, looked up to the sky and sighed, saying:
"The Emperor's grace is so great! His Majesty knew that I, Hai Rui, had not bought the subscription tickets, so he gave me some, so that I could use them to show my kindness to my clansmen, to make family affairs harmonious, and to avoid being unable to get close to my clansmen because of the pursuit of the country. This is truly a way of nourishing things. Silent!"
After hearing this, Mrs. Lu also laughed and said: "What I said is very true! Your Majesty is really kind now! In this case, at least the tombs of the grandfather and the old lady will not have to worry about being ignored by the clan."
Hai Rui smiled and nodded, then took his child and told Mrs. Lu, "Call all the family members."
Lu nodded and retreated.
Hai Rui himself was holding his child in the courtyard and took out the fireworks he bought to play with him.
Not long after, all the clan members who were staying at Hai Rui's residence came over.
Hai Rui handed over the subscription coupons and told his nephew, who was the oldest in the clan, "Ming'er, you can share it, one for each house, and use it as public money for each house."
"Why!"
Hai Rui's nephew smiled and agreed.
Other tribesmen also laughed, and the atmosphere became much better than before.
In short, because foreign mining profits began to be divided, many people enjoyed the benefits of a bigger cake, especially those at the top of the empire's politics and their relatives.
After the mining profits were divided, Wang Xijue decisively increased the monthly wages of the servants at home, so that the resentment of the servants who were restrained from bullying others was reduced a lot, and they all gave up the idea of redeeming themselves and leaving the house.
And Yu Shenxing also began to be encouraged by his family to actively strive for the position of Minister of Rites, strive to enter the ruling class, participate in restructuring, and strive to participate in more external profits.
But some families are happy and some are sad. None of the Chen Jingbang clan is in the mood to celebrate the New Year now, and they all have some complaints against Chen Jingbang. Although they dare not show it openly, they still can't help but complain behind their backs, and even participate in the affairs of the clan. At that time, he also deliberately didn't pay much attention to Chen Jingbang's instructions.
The servants and maids of the Zhao Nanxing Clan were not in a better mood, especially after it turned out that the subscription coupons were indeed a money tree that could produce many silver coins at any time. They all complained about his refusal to let the servants of the family buy the subscription coupons in the past. Complaining that Zhao Nanxing is short-sighted.
This devastated officials such as Chen Jingbang and Zhao Nanxing who did not receive the first batch of Manulife subscription coupons.
"I really didn't expect that Xu Zhenming and others are really serious about mining. Your Majesty and Shenwu County and others really want to benefit the people; instead of just talking about it and actually making money from the people, after all, there is no way to directly make money by mining outside the Great Wall. Is it easy to serve the people? Especially when His Majesty already has six personal guards."
Therefore, Chen Jingbang invited Zhao Nanxing out to drink wine instead of staying at home. Seeing the disappointment and ridicule in his family's eyes, Chen Jingbang expressed his inner feelings while drinking with Zhao Nanxing.
"This is such a surprise!"
"But what makes me even more angry is that there are so many hypocritical and cunning people!"
"People like Yu Dong'a and Shi Dongming actually bought so many subscription tickets behind our backs. Don't they also advocate restoring the old system and governing the country with virtue, so as to prevent the common people from becoming too rich and becoming unruly and affecting the world?"
"Don't they also advocate light corvees and low taxes, reduce redundant troops, and then use the emperor's internal funds to provide disaster relief and reduce the world's corvee, while Taicang and other national treasury reserves are reserved for the cost of raising troops?"
"Why, they actually bought subscription coupons?!"
When Zhao Nanxing said this, he slapped the table gum, stood up, and looked at Chen Jingbang drunkenly.
"You're right, these two
Nianpai is the most shameless! "
Chen Jingbang agreed and said: "When it comes to this mining profit dividend, the emperor will benefit the most. The people did not dare to buy a lot of subscription coupons. Even Shenwu County and others did not dare to buy a lot. Only the emperor thought that enough money could be raised as soon as possible. In the name of silver dollars, the subscription tickets that were not sold in time were bought with internal funds, and this resulted in His Majesty having more internal funds. In this way, the emperor not only had strong soldiers and horses, but also had sufficient money and food. Do you think this is terrible or not? "
"Very scary!"
Chen Jingbang began to ask and answer his own questions, and then said: "The power of scholars is completely unable to restrain the power of kings!"
"What I'm saying is that this is why I don't support using the people to gain foreign profits. It's because if this continues, everyone will become rich, and the dignity will be disordered, and the king will have no scruples!"
Zhao Nanxing echoed.
"I recently heard that His Majesty has issued a decree to give Uncle Wu Qing five thousand taels of silver as a sacrifice, and another two thousand taels of subscription coupons."
"Princess Ruichang is about to choose her consort. Your Majesty has decreed to allocate one hundred thousand taels of internal funds to build the princess's palace and purchase Dongzhu and other pearls."
"Although this is internal money to alleviate the dissatisfaction of the emperor's relatives with the New Deal, we can't reward him so excessively without knowing how to use internal funds to do frivolous things."
Chen Jingbang said.
"Remonstrate!"
"Your Majesty's wealth is also the wealth of the world. How can you waste it so extravagantly instead of being frugal?"
Zhao Nanxingli replied very passionately.
During this period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a group of civil servants who claimed to be upright. They advocated frivolous corvee and low taxes, required the royal family to be frugal, and used the royal family's internal funds to support the world's military expenditures.
This group of civil servants gradually became known as the Donglin Party in history because most of them taught at Donglin Academy.
Therefore, historically, when the Donglin Party took control of the government during the Taichang period and the early years of Tianqi's accession to the throne, the main reform it carried out was to allocate the emperor's internal funds to solve the problems of military arrears and disaster relief as well as the problem of heavy taxes.
There was nothing wrong with this idea originally. It was understandable that the royal family was frugal in spending and used more internal funds to solve internal and external troubles. After all, the country belonged to the emperor.
But the mistake of the Donglin Party was that while spending a lot of the emperor's money, the government, gentry and wealthy businessmen groups that they represented were reluctant to give up profits to solve financial problems. In the name of "thin tax", he cut non-agricultural taxes on silk and weaving industry to one-third of the original amount, and expanded the quota of exemptions to all gentry's land of less than 10,000 acres from corvee. The reformists were also squeezed out, which eventually resulted in the imperial tax revenue being reduced from more than six million taels to more than five million taels when the Donglin Party came to power, but more than four million taels of it were still agricultural taxes.
"Light corvee and low tax" did not reach the peasants in the end, which alleviated their loneliness and laid the foundation for the subsequent large-scale peasant uprising.
The key is to offend the emperor. After all, the emperor's money has been spent, but the emperor has not seen the problem of foreign invasion being solved, nor has he seen the number of refugees reduced.
Therefore, in history, Emperor Tianqi would rather use an eunuch than Donglin officials for both private and public purposes.
Zhao Nanxing also wanted to use the emperor's money to provide "light corvee and small gifts" to his own gentry and landlords, so when he heard that Zhu Yijun had spent money on his relatives and relatives, he was very excited, as if his own money had been robbed.
Zhao Nanxing only complained about it behind his back. In fact, Zhu Yijun's use of money to show his kindness to the emperor's relatives and foreign relatives had begun to be remonstrated by foreign ministers and civil servants.
Zhou Honglun, the general judge of Shuntian Prefecture, was jealous that the emperor had made the most money this time, but he only used it to reward his own relatives and not the civil servants. With the exception of Hai Rui, he first sent a memorial to accuse the emperor of excessive rewards and lack of thrift. , I don’t know how to benefit the people by frivolous corvee and poor taxation.
"How do I spend my money, do I need your permission?!"
Zhu Yijun was a little angry after seeing this memorial, so he slapped the table in front of the cabinet ministers.
