Under the promotion and publicity of the imperial court, after the Lantern Festival, the people of Yingtian Mansion were discussing and cheering the emperor's decree never to increase taxes, as if another New Year had passed.
While Zhu Youzheng was arranging this year's plans and deployments in the palace, he received a secret report from Tian Ergen.
The content is also very concise. The edict has been completely delivered to Nanjing. Li Zhicai and Zhang Shize have already acted according to his arrangements. There is no abnormal movement in Nanjing.
Zhu Youxiao breathed a sigh of relief. Now that the order has been issued, it depends on how they carry out the operation.
The move of collecting taxes was really a move he had to make because he was too poor and needed money for too many things, and they were all major expenses.
Not to mention anything else, the expenses for this New Year and Lantern Festival alone have reached a million taels.
Why is the expenditure so high? The bulk of it is naturally the army. It is a festival, and it is impossible for you, the emperor, not to express it.
There are 120,000 people in the Yulin Army. The food, wine and new military uniforms made during this period alone cost more than 100,000 taels of silver. There are also silver rewards to be distributed, so each person still needs five taels of silver.
Not counting Li Rusong's Zuowei Army Town, there are more than 10,000 sergeants there. Although they are not rewarded with food and wine, the new cotton clothes and silver rewards are naturally indispensable.
Xiong Tingbi's Liao army and Mao Wenlong's thousands of troops also felt that he could favor his cronies.
But if these frontline soldiers are simply ignored, what is the prestige of his emperor? How can he gather military morale? Who else is willing to sacrifice his life for his emperor?
As for Qin Liangyu's Sichuan Town and Youwei Army Town, he has already implemented rewards and silver rewards in the southwest, and the generals' promotions and appointments have also been communicated, so there is no need to worry about them for the time being.
What he is most worried about now is Nanjing. Can Zhang Shize, a young man, withstand the pressure of those noble and civil servants? Can Li Zhicai, the chief military officer, be able to convince people and complete the mission?
Before he had to worry for a few days, the joint memorial of the two was hurriedly submitted to his imperial record in Qianqing Palace.
After Zhu Youxiao read the content, he also frowned. This matter was really difficult. Even he couldn't think of a way to deal with it.
If he asked Li Zhicai to use force to seize it, it would definitely arouse the strong resistance of these landlords. In order to protect their own interests, money and food, they would definitely risk their lives.
Now Liaodong is carrying out a strategic blockade against Laonu, and the navy is making every effort to build and train them.
As for the northern provinces, disasters occur frequently. Shaanxi is full of refugees and refugees, Shanxi is also unstable, and the situation in Shandong is also full of confusion and bad debts. The southwest is also implementing the policy of reforming the land and returning it to the people.
It can be said that in the entire Ming Dynasty, except for the three provinces of Jiangnan and Guangdong and Guangxi, no place in the Ming Dynasty is stable.
After Zhu Youxiao thought about it for two hours and weighed the pros and cons, he finally decided to take a step back and give in.
He really does not have the courage and strength to put a country that has been rotten to the core back on track.
He has no need. According to the current situation, even if he does not carry out reforms, does not rectify the country, or even dies directly and replaces Zhu Youjian, the Han people will not repeat the tragedy of serving as foreign slaves.
The focus now should be on the north. The first thing is to do our best to deal with the catastrophe of the Little Ice Age.
The people are the foundation of the country, and the people's support is its foundation. No mistakes or troubles are allowed.
After Zhu Youxiao sighed, he decided to let Wang Chaofu take care of the pen and ink, and personally write the edict to be passed down to Li Zhicai and Zhang Shize.
In order to prevent the powerful officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River from taking advantage of the situation, Zhu Youxiao dispatched 10,000 troops from the Yulin Army southward, led by Li Zhilong, to garrison Yangzhou City.
The courtiers and officials would inevitably object, but with both the cabinet and the Ministry of War siding with the emperor, such resistance was very weak.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao did not have to worry about accidents and the fact that the army would not be able to move south.
As long as Li Zhilong's 10,000 troops can enter Yangzhou, the three important cities of Nanjing, Yangzhou, and Huai'an will be connected in a line to completely control water transportation and prevent them from secretly doing this.
Moreover, this arrangement can also allow his most important and relied-on military power to radiate to the entire South Zhili. If these people really want to take any risky and bold actions, they have to think carefully.
Those officials from the Six Ministries of Nanjing who were arrested and imprisoned were all dismissed from their posts and escorted back to the capital for interrogation by the three divisions.
Those scholars and students who went to make trouble in the military camps and government offices were all stripped of their honors and qualifications to take the examination. Starting from himself, his sons and grandsons were also not qualified to take the examination.
Zhu Youxiao didn't kill these people because they were unworthy and there was no need to do so. This punishment method of directly removing them from their academic titles and blocking their qualifications to take the exam was even more uncomfortable than killing them.
Moreover, this can also prevent the spread of unhealthy tendencies, attack the foundation of their power, reduce their influence locally and among the government and the public, and strengthen his authority as an emperor.
As for the vacant positions, under the current situation, Zhu Youxiao did not want to fill them, but the two positions of Minister of the Ministry of War and Minister of the Ministry of Revenue were very important.
Therefore, he still appointed two officials to take office in Nanjing. One was Cui Chengxiu, the current Shandong Governor, to take over the post of Minister of War.
Cui Chengxiu can be described as a ruthless person. He was the leader of the Five Tigers in history and was Wei Zhongxian's number one confidant and vanguard.
In the political struggle between the Eunuch Party and the Donglin Party, it can be said that it was painstaking. He also took great pains to divide the personnel in the officialdom.
After the division, two books were also written, namely "Records of Comrades" and "Records of Tianjian", for Donglin Party officials and non-Donglin Party officials respectively. They were dedicated to Wei Zhongxian to show loyalty and win trust.
Wei Zhongxian also relied on these two books to completely open up his vision of the situation between the DPRK and China, accurately suppressed the Donglin Party members, and promoted non-Donglin Party members, especially among the three former Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang parties, those who were related to Donglin Officials who are at odds with each other.
For the sake of fame and fortune, Cui Chengxiu even did not hesitate to worship Wei Zhongxian as his father and call himself his son. It can be said that there is no bottom line and no shame at all.
To deal with those so-called clean and gentleman officials, scoundrels like Cui Chengxiu have to take action.
His military proficiency has not been reflected in history, and Zhu Youxiao did not know much about his abilities. However, because he was an expert in internal fighting, he was the only one to be appointed as Nanjing's own soldier.
Because most of the military power now is in the hands of Li Zhicai and Zhang Shize, Zhu Youxiao does not need him to take charge of the military power.
Instead, he was asked to cooperate and use more powerful and ruthless means to show off these self-proclaimed officials and gentry.
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