After the old man said this, Ren Yonggang nodded solemnly and was lost in thought for a while.
After a while, he actually stood up and bowed to the old man.
The old man didn't see it.
At this time, he had turned around, put the pole on his shoulders with a smile, and walked towards the rising sun that filled the sky.
Capital.
This day is also sunny.
Zhu Yijun, who was also heading toward the rising sun, was looking at the majestic Daming Palace under the golden sunshine as he headed towards the Imperial Palace.
The imperial palace was already magnificent, and it became even more splendid when the sun shone in.
After Zhu Yijun came here, he couldn't help but stop and take a look. Then he sat on his imperial throne and looked at Wang Xijue and other ruling ministers while wearing golden light.
Wang Xijue, Li Chengliang and other ruling ministers all stood up after Zhu Yijun came to the Imperial Palace.
It has been a tradition of the Wanli Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty to sit down and discuss politics, so when Zhu Yijun came, he didn't need to ask for a seat. The ruling ministers sat down and began to wait for the emperor to speak.
Although Zhu Yijun was already forty years old, for an emperor, it was the prime time of the Spring and Autumn Period.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun also had the calmness of an emperor in every move he made, and when he started discussing politics, he asked calmly:
"Should the Ming Dynasty increase its debts and eat grain appropriately? Do you have anything else to say about this point of view proposed by Yuan Fu?"
turn out to be.
As the Ming Dynasty deepened its economic research and no longer adhered to traditional ideas of governing the country, and it was generally believed that the idea of should be based on actual conditions became the guiding principle of governing the country, many bureaucrats specializing in finance began to take the initiative to propose many new ideas. In view of financial management, some bureaucrats began to advocate that the court should allow the appropriate Yin to eat Mao Liang, which is what later generations called an appropriate increase in the deficit rate.
These bureaucrats believe that this can stimulate consumption and help increase wealth, thereby achieving the goal of further benefiting the people.
in other words.
These bureaucrats hope that the Ming Dynasty's treasury should not only have no surplus, but should be appropriately insolvent and be able to eat and eat food appropriately.
This is undoubtedly very different from the traditional concept of governing the country.
It should be noted that in ancient times, an important criterion for whether a dynasty was in its prime was the amount of savings in the treasury.
According to the traditional view of scholar-bureaucrats, this is just like a family. As long as you have extra money and savings, you will not worry about being unable to cope with natural disasters and man-made disasters. Therefore, you should pay special attention to frugality in good years and save more money and food to prepare for the famine years. Disaster year.
Especially in China, a land where various disasters often occur, individuals, families, and the entire country are accustomed to saving more to prepare for unexpected events.
Even if someone eats too much food and spends tomorrow's money today, he will be regarded as a prodigal and a sign of failure. He will be regarded as unfilial to the children of ordinary people. If he is an emperor, he will be regarded as a coward.
But now, because of the economic growth brought about by the Ming Dynasty's thirty-year reform, many officials have begun to change their attitudes, especially high-level bureaucrats. Since they are exposed to more information, they have begun to go against the traditional thinking and begin to think In the current environment, we should eat our food appropriately.
Among them, the bureaucrats represented by Wang Xijue, the first assistant, particularly advocated this point of view and hoped that the court would expand its debt.
According to Wang Xijue's point of view, the current debts of the Ming Dynasty are still not worth their income, and the revenue of the treasury continues to increase every year. Therefore, in order to prevent officials involved in managing the treasury from stealing and misappropriating, a lot of expenditures have been increased and a lot of fiscal revenue has been wasted. .
After all, these expenses do little to increase productivity.
In Wang Xijue's view, instead of doing this, it is better to be properly insolvent. This way, the people of the world can still make the world owe money to them because the court owes them money, and because they see that the court does not have enough savings, they are also afraid that the court's income will not increase and they will not be able to repay. own debts, and have to take the initiative to think more about the country.
"Your Majesty, I object!"
"It has always been difficult for people to control themselves, and the same is true for countries. Once they eat their food, it will be difficult to control it."
"If you dare to spend next year's money today, you may dare to spend ten years' money next year. If this continues, I really don't know what money I, the Ming Dynasty, will have to spend in fifty or even a hundred years."
"What's more, all the benefits in the world are obtained from the people, and if the people's benefits are not exhausted, they must rest with the people!"
Guo Zhengyu, the Minister of Rites, stood up first and expressed his opinion.
Yang Junmin, the censor of Zuodu, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, Uncle Zong's concerns are reasonable, but this does not mean that Yin cannot eat Maoliang. What Yuan Fu advocates is that Yin eats Maoliang appropriately, but it does not mean that we really cannot achieve anything. restraint."
Guo Zhengyu retorted: "Although what he said is appropriate, once this hole is opened and eating Yinmao grain is regarded as a feasible strategy to a certain extent, it will be like opening a hole in the flood control embankment, which will inevitably increase people's greed unstoppably. , If this continues, I fear that in the future the Ming Dynasty will not only have no pay to support its troops, no grain to provide disaster relief, and no salary to support its scholars, but it will also cut off its descendants. The trend of infanticide will reappear, leading to the destruction of human relations and the corruption of rituals and music!"
"But now the growth rate of national wealth and people's interests has slowed down. The price of subscription tickets is the most obvious evidence. Its growth rate is no longer as good as before. It can be seen that the momentum of growth in the world's national wealth has almost dried up."
"Since I have the trust of His Majesty and all the officials, and I have been appointed as Yuan Fu, I have to take precautions to avoid that in the future, the growth of the country's wealth and people's interests will stop and only decline."
"Once the panic caused by this spreads, it will likely affect the destiny of the country."
"That's why I think it's appropriate to spend all your time eating grain, so that our Ming Dynasty's silver dollar coupons can become the unified currency of the world as soon as possible."
"This way, even if there are financial flash floods, there will still be a large enough place to discharge the floods."
After Wang Xijue said this, Guo Zhengyu said: "Growth is slowing down, so we need to increase efforts to transform the country into a king. But it doesn't have to be a waste of food. After all, the country cannot run out of reserves, otherwise it will not be able to cope with disasters."
"When there is a disaster, you can borrow money again. In times of famine, ordinary people still know how to borrow money to temporarily survive the famine. Why doesn't the country know this?"
"What's more, if you don't eat your grain, you will have a desire to maintain success and be content with the status quo."
"Even if we intensify our efforts to transform ourselves into kings, sooner or later we will take the initiative to reduce expenditures because our income and expenditures cannot be balanced, and we will stop making progress and just want to maintain our status. We would rather cut off land and abandon it than work hard to solve the problems that have accumulated. "
"It's like treating a disease. You would rather cut off the rotten flesh with one knife than use the root cause to save this piece of meat and prevent the rotten flesh from appearing in other places."
"The same goes for a country. If it doesn't owe debts, it's easy to be content and forget about danger."
"Moreover, if your savings are not used up now, they will be used up in the future, and it is worse to use them up now than to use them up in the future."
"In the future, when it is exhausted, the country will not be able to revive again because its spirit of security has become too strong, and there will even be many evils."
"Now that we are exhausted, we can continue to improve the royal industry because everyone in the country is enterprising. In this way, in the future, even if the descendants are unworthy, they will still breed idleness and just want to maintain the status quo, even willing to abandon the land and the people. If you indulge in pleasure, you will at least have enough room to give up."
"So, Your Majesty, I think we can't just sit back and watch the convenience brought by the steam engine without making use of it, and just follow the steps step by step. We can build a steamer and a steam train with just one penny, and we still need a steamer. It was created only when the time comes. In this case, sooner or later it will stagnate due to the nature of people's indolence in work, so that thousands of years later, people in the world will still use steam engines!"
"Just like the animal-drawn carts that appeared during the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period, because the ancients did not dare to eat the grain, they have been using animal-drawn carts for thousands of years. It was not until recent years that the current dynasty began to eat the grain from the Shi Temple and continued to cause serious problems. There were constant calls for reform, so much so that His Majesty was deeply affected by it, and then he made great efforts to make steam-powered cars appear. Finally, the predicament of three thousand years of stasis was changed, and the unification of the world was no longer limited to the Qin and Han Dynasties. Kyushu, but all over the world!"
Wang Xijue's words silenced all the ministers.
Zhu Yijun also began to nod frequently, admitting that what Wang Xijue said was very reasonable. The current trend of reform was indeed due to the Jiajing Dynasty's fiscal deficit every year, which led to more and more scholar-bureaucrats having to take the initiative to think about reform.
Zhang Juzheng is just a typical representative among them.
Zhu Yijun knew that he needed to make his own judgment at this time and should not hesitate, so he said:
"I use Yuan Fu because I also believe that the unification of the world's currency is crucial. As the saying goes, the foundation of the world lies in the people, and the foundation of the people lies in wealth. Without wealth, it will be difficult for the people to live and the country will be difficult to establish; and the country will be in an appropriate deficit, which is conducive to the unification of currency. , then it should be implemented.”
After Zhu Yijun said this, all the officials were silent.
after awhile.
Guo Zhengyu stood up and said: "Your Majesty! In my opinion, Yuan Fu's words are not for the future of the country, but for personal achievements! I don't want to lose to the former Grand Master and Shen Taifu in terms of achievements, so I insist on it." Support Yin and eat maoliang, so that more national funds can be used to do more good and great things!"
Officials didn't want to put in the hard work. Now, with great difficulty, the world has prospered to the point where the treasury is growing year by year, and they can live a peaceful life with nothing to worry about. Therefore, Wang Xijue's suggestion is indeed very unpopular, and it is inevitable that some ministers will continue to oppose it.
Guo Zhengyu is just one of the representatives, one who dares to speak out.
"Why don't you just say it's my great success?"
Zhu Yijun asked him a question at this time.
"minister!"
Guo Zhengyu was speechless for a moment.
Zhu Yijun said: "This decision has been decided and there is no need to discuss it further. If you really don't agree with it, please resign and return home to avoid being impeached in the future and saying that you are suspected of doing evil secretly."
Guo Zhengyu couldn't help but be startled after hearing this, and then silently said yes.
Next, Guo Zhengyu actually wrote his resignation, and Xie Jie, the Minister of Academic Affairs, found him and asked, "Gongzhen, do you want to resign?"
"Your Majesty has said so. If I stay here with shameless face, won't I become someone who loves power and position?"
Guo Zhengyu asked with a wry smile.
Xie Jie sighed and said, "But the Duke has always been upright, and he was supposed to be a minister of the court. It is a pity that he left the court early now!"
"How could His Majesty pursue meritorious officials just because his views are not in line with his wishes?"
Then, Xie Jie said something more, and said to Guo Zhengyu:
"I would like to petition you to stay, but please don't submit your resignation letter first." (End of this chapter)
