Wang Xijue looked up at these people and said with a smile:
"What do you mean by refusing to leave even half of it to benefit the people?"
"The imperial court has issued all the dividends from the entire country's future wealth income in the form of subscription coupons!"
"It can be said that your Majesty has distributed all the official power in the world to everyone who is willing to believe that the imperial court is loyal to the imperial court."
"If this means refusing to give even half a cent to the benefit of the people, then it is obvious that you are telling lies."
"It is clear that His Majesty is eager to give all the benefits to the loyal and patriotic people in the world!"
"Exactly this!"
"Tell yourselves, which family is not growing in wealth now?"
"Even the relief funds for odd households are increasing!"
Yang Junmin, the Minister of Household Affairs, started talking and asked Qiao Yun and others: "So, what do you want from the court?"
"But!"
Qiao Yun subconsciously replied "but", and then argued forcefully: "But the imperial court should not do business on its own. It should stop all imperial shops and official merchants and give the people the opportunity to get rich through trade. Only in this way can business be more prosperous and the world can be prosperous." More prosperous.”
"right!"
"If you come to the official business, it will inevitably waste costs, affect the convenience of the people all over the world, and ruin the business world!"
"Not only will the business world be ruined, but the officialdom will also become more degenerate, and corruption will become more serious. The entire court will only focus on profit over virtue. As long as those who can benefit the officials, even if they are greedy, they will be regarded as capable. Officials!"
Wang Jiao and others also started talking.
Then, Qiao Yun cupped his hands and said, "Please Yuan Fu think twice!"
"Please Yuansuke think twice!"
Other officials chimed in.
Wang Xijue just smiled slightly, and then looked at Li Chengliang:
"Prime Minister, what do you think?"
"How can I feel?"
"I will only ask Yuan Fu to think twice. If you really persuade your Majesty to stop government and business affairs, be careful that there will be a military revolt tonight!"
"It should be noted that everyone in the world is waiting for the imperial court to cash in the subscription coupons. At this time, the government, merchants and imperial stores are closed. How can we cash in the subscription coupons? Do we need to increase taxes and add back all the taxes that the emperor has exempted?"
Li Chengliang asked as he spoke.
Qiao Yun replied at this time: "It's not impossible. Nowadays, the world is still based on agriculture, and farmers are still the majority. It is absolutely possible to increase the land tax. Anyway, now there is no need for corvee, and those who have land to farm will work harder." , and they are all very wealthy, and the common people who cannot afford to farm even if they add one or two cents."
Li Chengliang couldn't help but sneered: "Qiao Jiejian, do you have a grudge against the farmers in the world?"
"The peasants and common people of this tribe have supported the country, served as nobles, ministers, ministers, and scholar-bureaucrats for more than two hundred years. Now they can finally take a breather, and you are targeting them again!"
"Do you think farmers in this dynasty won't learn from Huang Chao?"
"Or are you saying that you have a grudge against the country, so you have to come up with this idea of subjugating the country? Or, why have the farmers in the world offended you, and you have to prevent them from living a good life for a day?"
Qiao Yun was immediately speechless.
"Why fight over these!"
"Even if the agricultural tax is increased so that the people do not have any food rations, and even if the food for two generations of their children and grandchildren is added to the tax, it will not be able to satisfy the profit of the subscription coupons that need to be cashed in now."
"And you should understand this."
"At this time, it is too naive to expect that only by cutting off farmers can the country's fortunes be maintained!"
Wang Xijue continued talking and left.
Li Chengliang and others also followed.
Qiao Yun and others stood there and looked at Li Chengliang and others with disappointment.
"They are right. In this land, the days when benefits belong to the people and power belongs to the officials are gone forever."
Wang Jiao sighed at this time, lamenting that it was no longer possible for most of the business profits to return to the local area.
Of course, the people mentioned by Wang Jiao refer to the gentry class, not really that in the past, all the interests were really in the hands of the people.
In fact, Qiao Yun and others are still fighting for the interests of the entire gentry class. The so-called hope that the court will implement a free economy, reduce interference and manipulation of the market, and even go into business personally is not for the bottom of the people, but for the gentry class itself.
Because in this era, the private merchants who really ran business among the people were all members of the gentry class. Ordinary people could not keep up with them in terms of capital and information, and naturally they could not personally feel the pain caused by the official merchants and imperial stores.
Geng Suilong also said: "Yes, Wang Taicang himself is also a wealthy businessman, so he is not ignorant of the dangers of official merchants and imperial stores. Now he is striving for profits for the court, and he must be helpless and has to follow the general trend!"
Qiao Yun said nothing and just went to various places to drink to relieve his worries.
But on the second day, Qiao Yun just came out of a high-end restaurant, and someone followed him.
This man was tall and straight, with a serious expression and a wound on his face. After Qiao Yun fell to the ground and came out, and when he was about to get into his carriage, he took out the gun in his hand and pointed it at Qiao Yun.
boom!
Suddenly, Qiao Yun felt a sharp pain in his back. He couldn't help but look back and saw the scarred face facing him, taking another shot, looking very calm.
"you!"
Qiao Yun immediately woke up and asked, "Who sent you?"
"To kill thieves for the country, no one is needed!"
After the man said this, he pulled out a knife and stabbed himself in the chest, then fell to the ground. Blood quickly came out of his chest, but his expression was very peaceful.
Qiao Yun also fell to the ground, with his mouth open and eyes open, looking at the sky.
At that time.
People in the downtown area were so frightened that they fled one after another, and some women fainted or screamed on the spot.
Being shot and killed in a busy city during the incident was undoubtedly a shocking thing in the Ming Dynasty, which had been in peace for a long time, especially at the feet of the emperor.
Although Zhu Yijun also knew what the reason might be, in order to show that he did not agree with this terrorist method of revenge, he still ordered a strict investigation and demanded that the Jin Yiwei who was responsible for public security that day be severely punished.
"Jin Yiwei hasn't found it yet?"
Even a few days later, Zhu Yijun specifically asked about Zhang Jingxiu.
Zhang Jingxiu replied: "Not yet!"
After hearing this, Zhu Yijun asked: "Why is it so difficult to check?"
"Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, firstly, it is difficult to trace the origin of this murder because he committed suicide first. Secondly, this may be the internal involvement of our Jinyiwei. Our Jinyiwei and people in the army have great opinions on Qiao Gei's remonstrance. Qiao Gei The day before he was killed, Jian intercepted Yuan Fu outside the palace gate, and said a lot of things that the Jin Yi guards on duty could not accept. A man could show up with a government-made blunderbuss to cause trouble and kill people, without the Jin Yi guards secretly helping him. , and it is impossible to achieve this goal.”
Zhang Jingxiu replied.
Zhu Yijun nodded: "I know this, but no matter what, I can't retaliate in this way!"
"We still have to check. No matter whether we can't find it or not, we have to make those who do it feel scared and know that they won't dare to use this method in the future to find out which battalion soldiers and auxiliary soldiers are missing, including those who have retired!"
"yes!"
Zhu Yijun didn't say anything else. He just looked at the setting sun and began to think deeply.
Under his single-handed control, the Ming Dynasty has developed to the present and has formed a huge military aristocratic group that advocates external expansion.
Although these people were required not to participate in business after Qi Jiguang became the first minister, the proportion of those who participated in the court's dividends became larger. Whether it was newly acquired land or profit dividends from major government-run industries, a large number of them fell into their hands. fanny pack.
Therefore, they look down on the benefits gained from domestic business, and are less resistant to banning them from doing business. They also look down upon the benefits gained from squeezing the people inside. They are not so resistant to high military discipline requirements, and only hope to gain external benefits. If you want more land and become a local emperor, you don't want the court to change its national policy, from external expansion to internal expansion, from military expansion to internal economic reform, especially reforms such as the conversion of some highly profitable internal industries from government-run to private-run.
If they do not want it, they will naturally oppose this kind of reform. Especially some radicals among them will take more extreme measures of revenge against those who hold such reform opinions.
and.
It is easy for these radicals to find reasons to convince themselves when they adopt such extreme measures. After all, it can be said that they are killing thieves for the country because they do not want the national interests to be divided among the gentry and private profiteers.
Although Zhu Yijun couldn't support this method, he had already guessed that this situation would happen, so he didn't feel so resistant.
Even Zhu Yijun felt a little relieved, because it meant that the scholar-bureaucrats had encountered a very powerful check and balance, and they did not dare to do anything to him as the emperor.
After all, what they should be worried about now is how to deal with this huge military aristocratic group.
"This is so terrible!"
"Hurry up and send someone to get the article I submitted for "Wei Gongbao". Don't submit it!"
"Burn all the notes and articles in the study that criticize the court and the people's struggle for profit! Burn them quickly!"
After Wang Jiao, the official of the Ministry of official affairs, learned about Qiao Yun, he said something in fear, and then immediately gave instructions to his son Wang Fu.
Wang Fu said: "Sir, Your Majesty is not very strict about political speech. He also said that there are no restrictions on research. I just said that in my opinion, researchers can't do it. Why should I burn it?"
Wang Jiao said: "What do you know? Your Majesty doesn't care. It doesn't mean that those vulgar warriors who regard life as child's play don't care!"
"We can't learn from them. It's unfilial to let our parents take care of our body and skin and easily kill ourselves!"
"So we have to prevent some warriors who are not afraid of human life from shooting me on the street after knowing that I read these articles and even agree with some views on converting officials into civilians."
"I see!"
"Son, let's burn it now!"
Wang Jiao sat slumped on the chair and sighed: "I'd better resign, the court can't wait any longer!"
Qiao Yun's fate made many bureaucrats increasingly frustrated who hoped that the government would stop the government-run economy, reduce market intervention, and only develop a free economy, allowing the private sector to expand externally.
Wang Jiao is just one example.
Not only officials like Wang Jiao who held such hopes, but also officials who had advocated using state power to increase foreign exploitation were also shocked by this incident.
After Wang Xijue learned from Zhang Jiayin, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, that the real identity of the assassin who assassinated Qiao Yun was Wu Bingguo, a retired officer from the Beijing camp and a decorated military medalist, he sweated and said: "Fortunately, I didn't listen to them, otherwise I might have died in the busy city." Get killed!"
"You're right, sir, they originally wanted to kill you!"
"What?!"
Wang Xijue stood up immediately with a look of astonishment on his face. (End of chapter)
