Since Zhu Youxiao returned to the palace, the entire capital has not been peaceful for a day. The three government agencies, Jinyiwei, Dongchang, and Punishment Department, are either arresting people or ransacking homes.
The honors of the capital include Duke Yingying, Marquis Wuding, Uncle Zhangwu, Uncle Xuancheng, Uncle Pingjiang and Uncle Hui'an.
Everyone's family was confiscated and their clans were exterminated. This has never happened before, even when dynasties change.
What's more, the nobles and nobles of this dynasty were ruthlessly slaughtered by the emperor, which can be said to be unprecedented.
The officials in the court and the civil servants in Beizhili also did not have a good life, and they were also subject to large-scale liquidation.
The emperor personally drafted an edict that anyone who had irresistible friendship with the traitors and the so-called teacher-student relationship would be imprisoned.
People in the Gyeonggi area were panicked for a while. When officials saw officials and government officials from the Ministry of Punishment, as well as Dongchang Fanzi and Jinyiwei, it was like meeting the Lord of Hell.
Fortunately, as soon as Zhu Youxiao came back, the Yulin Army took over the capital. Although it was bloody and chaotic, there were no major problems.
The emperor's move naturally aroused strong opposition from the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty, and even the emperor's closest officials, such as Song Yingxing and Cheng Guoxiang, began to desperately try to dissuade him.
"These traitors who conspire to commit regicide naturally deserve to be killed individually. I also support Your Majesty."
"But why does Your Majesty want to kill all the innocent people who were not involved in this matter?"
"Even though those distinguished nobles are committing lawlessness, occupying acres of land from the common people, and doing whatever they want, their crimes will not lead to the annihilation of the nine tribes. Your Majesty is right to punish them."
"But the method is too extreme. The nobles and officials are the foundation of the country. Your Majesty, in the name of treason, kills them all, and you will lose the hearts of the world."
"Furthermore, the nobles all hold the iron certificates given by the late emperor to avoid death. If your majesty acts like this, where is the face of our ancestors, and where is the prestige and credibility of the imperial court?"
"Looking through the history books, even in the chaotic late Tang Dynasty, including when the Meng Yuan Dynasty took control of the Central Plains, they always treated the scholar-bureaucrats, nobles and gentry kindly."
"Your Majesty did this today. It may be a moment of pleasure, but it will lay the seeds of trouble for our great Ming Dynasty and cause a catastrophe."
Seeing the two ministers who were admonishing him so hard, Zhu Youxiao also communicated well with them.
Thoughts are something that cannot be changed overnight.
Especially Chinese literati and doctors, they are very traditional. Most of them accept death and are pretentious. There are really only a few who can be flexible.
For example, in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, advanced Western cultural ideas flowed in, and the resistance and suppression they encountered was truly unprecedented.
And they are the initiators. They are unwilling to change because they will lose their vested interests.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao was not angry or upset after being repeatedly admonished and questioned.
It would be best if he could convince them. If that didn't work, he wouldn't force it.
He is the emperor, and he can do whatever he wants as long as it is beneficial to the country.
As long as the army is firmly in his hands and the political group formed by civil servants and landlords and gentry, he has no fear or worry at all.
At best, these people are just joining together to stage a so-called popular uprising. They are just rebelling. It’s no big deal. It’s better to smash them to pieces. They occupy moral righteousness and can deal with them better.
As he expected, Cheng Guoxiang was an extremely stubborn old man. No matter how Zhu Youxiao tried to explain to him, he just believed that the emperor was too cruel and should be restrained.
"As for the hearts of those traitors and traitors, what use do I need from them?"
"Our emperor has tens of millions of people. What do they think? They can represent the people of the world?"
"Cheng Qing, just take a look at the things in the book. Don't take things too seriously. You should develop and change in response to the times, rather than sticking to the same rules."
"Today they dare to unite and gather together to commit regicide and rebellion. If my methods are not tougher, won't they be marching to the palace tomorrow?"
"Even so, in my opinion, His Majesty's move is still not the work of the Holy Lord Mingjun. Blindly killing people will not solve the problem."
"Your Majesty, together with his ministers, should work hard to govern, treat civil and military officials well and use them well, so as to revive the Ming Dynasty and create a prosperous and glorious future."
"I have never heard that this peaceful and prosperous age was created by killing people. I hope your Majesty will listen to my words and stop quickly. It's still too late to turn back now."
Seeing him, he still expressed his opinion, and Zhu Youxiao was too lazy to talk to him.
"Cheng Qing is the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and he knows the most about the taxes, money, food, income and expenditures of the Ming Dynasty. I will start with this matter and ask you a simple question."
"I am all ears!"
Zhu Youxiao thought for a moment and asked:
"In the forty-eighth year of Wanli, what were the national reserves of silver and grain in Taicang, as well as the income and expenses of the Ming Dynasty?"
He didn't expect that the emperor would ask him such a question, but now that he had spoken, he had to answer, not to mention that he was already familiar with these questions.
"After the forty-eighth year of Wanli, there are still 583,400 taels of silver in the national inventory. The grain reserves in Taicang are more than 2.2 million shi of rice and 340,000 shi of wheat."
"The tax revenue for the whole year, including Bao Chao, Tong Bao, various miscellaneous colors and silver, was 4,635,800 taels."
"If the more than four million taels of silver collected by Liao Xiang are added, the actual income should be more than nine million taels."
Cheng Guoxiang may not be good at anything else, but he is very good at settling accounts.
Moreover, he was notoriously poor, otherwise Zhu Youxiao would not have let him be the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
"Cheng Qing is worthy of being my minister of the Ming Dynasty. Let's talk about last year's tax revenue and expenditure, as well as the balance."
Cheng Guoxiang was about to answer, but when he was about to speak, he suddenly felt something was wrong. As soon as his mind turned around, he understood why the emperor asked such a question.
The emperor was comparing last year with the year before.
Although the growth in income last year was limited, there was still a lot of extra income, and the expenses were indeed greatly reduced.
For example, for the distribution of military pay and grain in border towns, especially in the Liaodong region, expenditures have been reduced by at least 30%.
There is also money that the Ministry of Industry asks for every year, such as building ordnance and weapons, river management and road construction, and the repair and strengthening of the Great Wall, but most of it is less than half.
And this extra income was naturally obtained from the emperor's extensive confiscation of homes last year.
Although most of it went into the emperor's private treasury, Hubu still drank a lot of soup.
There are many other miscellaneous expenses, which are also much reduced. By increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, the Ministry of Household Affairs will become rich in an instant.
