Zhu Youtang and Xu Pu were both a little surprised when they heard the young eunuch announce his name "Li Guang". The difference was that Xu Pu thought of Li Guang, the flying general of the Western Han Dynasty, and Zhu Youtang did know Li Guang clearly. Guang this eunuch.
Historically, the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty was an era of relatively clear politics in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, which was called "Hongzhi Zhongxing" in old history. But even so, there are still cases where treacherous ministers are in power, and Li Guang's exclusive power is one of the prominent examples. Looking at the little eunuch kneeling on the ground in front of him, Zhu Youtang was filled with emotion. He was also named Li Guang. He fought against the Huns and his name went down in history. One of them was an eunuch, specializing in eunuchship and having a bad reputation for thousands of years. But after all, he was a time traveler from later generations and would not give this eunuch named Li Guang any chance to usurp power.
Zhu Youtang pretended to say "Hey": "Li Guang...what a good name, I will remember you."
After saying "I will remember you", Li Guang secretly rejoiced when he came out of the Qianqing Palace: "I have to seize the opportunity to show my face in front of the emperor. Maybe the emperor will be able to grant him an official position. Thinking of this, Li Guang hurriedly ran to deliver the message.
After a while, the six ministers of the central government and Liu Ji, the deputy minister of the cabinet, gathered in the Qianqing Palace. After Wan'an was laid off, Liu Ji should have the highest status. He sat on the left side of Zhu Youtang. Xu Pu originally sat on the right. When he saw the ministers arriving, he quickly got up to move his seat, but Zhu Youtang stopped him and signaled that he didn't need to move his seat. Continue to sit where you are. Below, on the left column are Huaien, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, He Ding, the eunuch in charge of the imperial horse eunuch, and some minor eunuchs, and in the right column are the remaining five ministers.
Long live the Lord suddenly asked himself to go to Qianqing Palace for a meeting, and all the ministers were as confused as Monk Zhang Er. At present, the position of Chief Assistant of the Cabinet is vacant, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that the candidate for the Chief Assistant of the Cabinet is chosen between Liu Ji and Xu Pu.
Huai'en stood up and counted everyone. When he saw that everyone was present, he reported to Zhu Youtang softly: "Your Majesty, everyone is here and we can discuss matters.
Zhu Youtang nodded and looked around and said loudly: "I read Yin Qian's memorial last night. Since the 21st year of Chenghua, the national treasury has been in deficit every year. Especially last year, it was in deficit in the 23rd year of Chenghua." Six million three hundred and twenty thousand taels of silver, what's going on? Please tell me, this is the first year of Hongzhi, and by the way, you should also calculate this year's budget expenditure clearly, so as not to lose money again at the end of this year!"
Liu Ji looked sideways and said: "His Majesty is personally presiding over today, so everyone can talk about it. Yin Qian's household department is under your control, so you can talk first."
Yin Qian paused and said: "According to your Majesty's order, our Ministry of Household Affairs has carefully checked the bills handed over to us by the cabinet in the past few days, and found that the annual tax bill for the two capitals and 13 provinces last year was 5,130. Sixty thousand taels. The budget for various expenditures at the beginning of last year was 45.42 million taels. However, in the past few days, the bills from various ministries have been delivered, and a total of 57.68 million taels of silver have been consumed. The income and expenditure have been balanced. Last year, there was a total deficit of 6.32 million taels of silver. Except for the 200,000 taels overrun by the Ministry of Punishments, the remaining overruns came from the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Personnel. Among them, the Ministry of Personnel exceeded the amount by 20,000 taels. One hundred and four hundred thousand taels of silver!"
Yin Qian, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, is a veteran and has been in office for more than ten years. In order not to offend his colleagues, he deliberately brought out the emperor Zhu Youtang before speaking, indicating that the emperor asked me to check this financial bill, and if he wanted to blame it, just blame the emperor.
Yin Yan, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, has now been sent by Zhu Youtang to deliver wages to the northwest. Now Xu Pu is in charge of all the duties of the Ministry of Personnel. Yin Qian specifically emphasized that it was the staff department that exceeded the most in order to give Xu Pu a show of strength. Aren't you in charge of the staff department? If Yin Yan is not here, I will explain it to you. If you don’t find out in advance, it’s better to stop doing this as soon as possible.
Seeing that Yin Qian's words pointed the finger at him, Xu Pu said calmly: "Previously, the power of appointment and dismissal of the Ministry of Personnel and financial expenditures were all in the hands of Yin Yan, and we were only responsible for assessment. But these days, I have taken over the duties of the Ministry of Personnel to find out Last year there were frequent appointments and removals of officials, and a lot of money was spent on them. However, the reward for each official was much more than before. After calculation, I found that each official was rewarded an extra twenty taels of silver on the original basis."
Xu Pu means that Yin Yan was in charge of the previous Ministry of Personnel. I, Xu Pu, have no rights, but I have been working hard these days when I temporarily acted as Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. I have found the root cause of the problem. There are too many rewards for each head. You paid twenty taels of silver. Why do you have to ask Yin Yan? "
Zhu Youtang felt quite satisfied after listening to Xu Pu's report. Everyone knew that on the surface, each official received an extra twenty taels of rewards, but in fact, the extra money probably went into Yin Yan's pocket.
"Let Yin Yan give you an explanation about the reward. As for the frequent personnel appointments and dismissals last year, I have sent Jin Yiwei to investigate, and the truth will be revealed soon." Zhu Youtang said.
Everyone was shocked when they heard that Jin Yiwei went to investigate. Last year, when Concubine Wan Gui died of illness and the late emperor Zhu Jianshen was seriously ill, there were many trivial matters in the court, and Zhu Jianshen was appointed and dismissed by the officials without asking too many details. Everyone has used their friendship with Yin Yan to secretly plant many of their own cronies. If the Jin Yiwei investigates this matter, many people will be involved.
Liu Ji couldn't sit still at this time. He couldn't let Xu Pu say everything so that he could stand out. He quickly added: "About Zhou Hongmo of the Ministry of Rites, Zhou Shangshu, you can also tell me. A lot of silver was found from his home when the Li Zi Province case happened. I wonder if he showed any filial piety to you?" After that, Liu Ji gave it to the others. A few ministers and a wink.
The ministers were overjoyed when they saw the second assistant Liu Ji speaking. Yes, most of the personnel appointments and dismissals are from Li Zi Province. With Li Zi Province taking the big trouble, I can breathe a sigh of relief.
Zhou Hongmo felt uneasy and sweated nervously. He had always had a good relationship with his chief minister Wan'an and was not close to Liu Ji. Liu Ji saw that he had long been dissatisfied, so now he threw the burden on himself. He was the chief minister, and Li Zi Province was the deputy minister. He knew all his corruption, and now that something happened to Li Zi Province, he could not escape the blame.
At this time, everyone looked at Zhou Hongmo. In fact, everyone knew that Li Zisheng was close to the late emperor. On the surface, Zhou Hongmo was the minister, but in fact, Li Zisheng had the final say in the affairs of the Ministry of Rites.
Zhou Hongmo had no excuse. He knelt down and kowtowed: "I am guilty!"
Zhu Youtang also knew Zhou Hongmo's difficulties, but he was indeed old and did not like fighting with others. He no longer had the energy to contain the cabinet faction headed by Liu Ji. So he followed the trend and said: "Duke Zhou is already old. I want you to serve in the court. I don't blame you. You can go home and take care of yourself!"
Zhou Hongmo knew that Zhu Youtang was trying to protect himself, so he quickly kowtowed and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty. I will obey the imperial edict!"
Zhang Peng, Minister of the Ministry of War, saw that Liu Ji had achieved his goal and had eliminated Zhou Hongmo. He was furious and asked: "Elder Ge keeps asking if Li Zi Province has paid filial piety to Zhou Hongmo. Then I will also ask Elder Ge about your relationship with Li Zi Province." That's good, but does he respect you?"
As soon as Zhang Peng said this, Yin Qian was a little dumbfounded. Originally, he was the one who attacked the Ministry of War, but now Zhang Peng is the guest.
Liu Ji was also anxious, stood up and said angrily: "Zhang Peng, what do you mean by this? I am not the only one who has a good relationship with Li Zi Province, so does Li Zi Province give money to everyone in the court? You slander I am alone, but you are slandering all the officials of the imperial court! You have not given an explanation for the excessive spending of the Ministry of War’s silver tael, so can I also assume that all the excessive spending went into your pocket? "
"You are judging a gentleman's heart with a villain's heart! All the excessive expenditures of the Ministry of War were spent on the defense of the north. Last year, the Tatars invaded our border many times. Recruiting troops, armaments, and rebuilding the Great Wall all require money!" "Zhang Peng immediately retorted.
"Stop arguing, it all comes down to corruption by villains, right? In the inner palace, Liang Fang, the eunuch in charge of the royal horse, Li Zisheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, Wan An, the chief minister of the cabinet, and Yin Zhi, the second minister, what will happen to them? We all know it, and I hope you will take this as a warning. Everything will be established if it is forewarned, and it will be ruined if it is not forewarned. Let’s discuss this year’s fiscal budget. The past has passed away. Hongzhi has just begun. I don’t want to see it. The national treasury will be in deficit next year." Zhu Youtang said seriously.
"Zhang Peng." Zhu Youtang suddenly called Zhang Peng's name.
Zhang Peng immediately responded: "I'm here."
Zhu Youtang said: "You just said that the defense in the north is sparse and it is necessary to recruit troops and reorganize the armament. I ordered you to go down and prepare well. This year, your Ministry of War will increase the expenditure of two million taels in previous years for military expenses. The north Come on, I, the Ming Dynasty, must fight for every inch of territory, and we cannot let the Tatars get too arrogant!"
Zhang Peng said: "Your Majesty, the defense of the north is indeed the top priority. I must pay more attention to it."
"The cabinet cannot live without assistant ministers for a day. According to my oral instructions, Liu Ji was granted the title of Bachelor of Wuyingdian and promoted to the chief assistant of the cabinet. Xu Pu was appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. He was granted the title of Bachelor of Huagaidian to join the cabinet and participate in political affairs." Zhu You Zang said to Wynn in the left column.
When Liu Ji and Xu Pu heard this, they immediately came out and knelt down to express their gratitude. Compared with Liu Ji's beaming expression, Xu Pu was much calmer.
"Xu Pu, go down and count all the people in office in the capital, and unify the rewards for each official. Liu Jizhen has great hopes for you. Don't hang around in the court like Wan'an did before. "
Zhu Youtang's words hit Liu Ji hard. Liu Ji knew in his heart that he had been dawdling around all day as Wan An formed the cabinet, but now he knew that the boss in front of him was not easy to fool at all.
"Yes, what happened before is all my responsibility, and I will definitely correct it in the future." Now that Wan An was laid off and he became the new chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Ji had to take up the blame.
Zhu Youtang nodded and said: "Except for Mr. Liu Ge and Mr. Xu Ge, you can go down first.
Both groups of people kowtowed, stood up and ran away.
Only Liu Ji and Xu Pu were left in the hall. Zhu Youtang said: "You two can discuss the work here, and you can have dinner with me.
"Yes" they both answered together, this answer was full of excitement.
