The meeting begins.
The most important content of the day's meeting must be the battle report of the Ming Dynasty's surprise attack on Weininghai. The battle report jointly signed by Dai Yi generals Zhang Zhou and Wang Shouren was read out in public.
Even though most people present already knew the outcome of this battle, when they heard the specific battle report and the fighting process, they could still understand that the battle was brutal.
Especially when it is mentioned that Wang Shouren went against all opinions and almost escorted more than 16,000 prisoners and nearly 100,000 livestock to the Ming Dynasty. He was trapped in the Tushan Mountain north of Maoerzhuang and experienced the "Battle of Tushan". After fighting against a powerful enemy and winning two thousand heads, the ministers present were also thinking about it secretly.
Is this definitely what happened on the battlefield and not someone else making fun of them?
In the end, Wang Shouren reported it personally, and Zhang Zhou led his troops to kill, causing the Huo Si tribe to retreat without fighting. From then on, the war sank into calmness, and they all retreated southward.
"...It is expected that on the night of the twelfth day, the soldiers and horses conquering the grassland will enter Yanghekou. Please use Yanghe Guards as the axis to mobilize all the troops to resist the barbarian invasion..."
Dai Yi finished reading the battle report and respectfully stepped back.
The ministers present remained silent because they knew that the main event would come next, and they would have to discuss their merits and receive rewards.
Zhu Youtang took the words and said: "My lords, such a miraculous achievement has not been seen in recent decades. The only thing that can compare with it is that Marquis Weining repeatedly marched into the grassland during the reign of the late emperor, and he made up his mind with strange plans. "
Zhang Mao came out and said: "Your Majesty, the achievements of Marquis Weining cannot be compared with this."
Zhu Youtang looked pleased, but sighed and said: "But the battle of Weining Hou in Pianguan and the battle of Liaodong Ningyuan can always be compared with them, right?"
These words were actually a reminder to the ministers present.
Since the Tumubao Incident and the defense of the capital, the Ming Dynasty has never had a great victory like today. Even if it can be slightly comparable, it may be due to Wang Yue's contribution to the grassland during the Chenghua period, but the person who killed the prisoners was this A fraction of a battle is still two zeros.
Another thing that can be mentioned briefly is this year's battles at Pianguan and Ningyuan, and these two battles were also planned by Zhang Zhou.
Don’t compare yourself, anyway, it’s not Bingkuan but Bingkuan.
Three merits become one merit. Isn’t it too much to give him a prince?
But Zhu Youtang didn't seem to be in a hurry to mention it to Zhang Zhou and his soldiers. He said: "Since I came to Dabao, every time I read history and appreciate the style of famous generals from ancient times, I hope that when the Ming Dynasty will also have such ability. The man who has accomplished extraordinary feats, now God has pity on him, and finally bestowed upon Ming Dynasty such a famous person, I should cherish it. Members of your family should not have any grudge against him."
When you are an emperor, you still know your courtiers better.
The greater Zhang Zhou's contribution, the greater the resistance he will encounter. It does not mean that Zhang Zhou will be valued just because he has the ability.
Since ancient times, those who have contributed to the country may not be tolerated by the king and the ministers of the court. If the rabbit dies and the dog is cooked, it is because of the fear of the king, while if the party is the same and the opposite is the criticism of colleagues, three people become tigers.
Just like the reformers since ancient times, they all worked for the stability of the court, but almost none of them had a good ending. After a certain period of time, they would be impeached and exiled by their colleagues, or even end up ruined and die without a burial place. But history But these people will always be rectified.
Among the ministers present, no matter whether they were civil servants, military officials, cabinet elders or ministers, no one came out to refute.
Even Liu Jian and the others were waiting for the emperor to give Zhang Zhou's credit.
It doesn’t focus on Zhang Zhou as a person, but on what Zhang Zhou did. If we can’t focus on what he did, we can only focus on the credit afterwards. There is always a breakthrough.
Zhu Youtang said: "Now that the Tatar forces are divided and the war has begun, Bingkuan means to wait and see the changes and seek development. More importantly, it is necessary to mine and smelt iron and cast cannons to appease the people. The Ming Dynasty Salt Policy has been There have been changes, Bingkuan and I have proposed to restore the grain distribution method in several places in the northwest, so as to alleviate the shortage of grain and silver in the northwest and encourage mulberry farming. I wonder what your opinions are?"
They were all waiting for the emperor to ask Zhang Zhou for a reward for his merits.
As a result, the emperor found another way, or asked Zhang Zhou to "take advantage of the situation", and brought up the issue of grain harvesting again at this time.
what is this?
Using merit to threaten government affairs? If we don't agree, do you still want to cause trouble?
Zhou Jing, the Minister of Household Affairs, came out and said: "Your Majesty, after the previous salt policy reform, the capital warehouse was relatively full, and there were no major mistakes in the allocation of grain and grass everywhere. Why should we restart the old system?"
Usually the officials of the Ming Dynasty were very opposed to reforms, but they were very supportive of the method of changing the color of grain and silver.
The reason is that after this change was made, the Ming court's control over the northwest was strengthened. Your frontier army finally no longer had to set up a small court in the northwest. The salt source was changed from the private use of the northwest small treasury to the public use of the Ming treasury. The improvement of Ming Dynasty's finances had an immediate effect.
Moreover, the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were paid out in a relatively timely manner. Even if there were still gaps in the discounted salary bills, the normal salary could be paid out in time, and supporting the family was no longer a big problem.
Zhu Youtang said: "I don't want to deny the method of using salt to induce color, but based on Bing Kuan's experience in the northwest, as well as the current tense wars in various parts of the northwest, the temporary changes made were only implemented in Datong. , Xuanfu and other places to encourage local mulberry farming and reclamation, and build water conservancy to protect the livelihood of the people in the northwest. I think Bingkuan’s proposal will help improve the use of money and grain in the northwest on the spot, and also save money and grain allocation during the Ming Dynasty. envy."
The ministers present were a little angry.
Zhang Zhou came to mention it at this time, leaving them wondering how to object.
Because Zhang Zhou is currently using troops in the northwest, it will cost the court a lot of money and food. If Zhang Zhou can raise it on his own, many problems can indeed be solved. Zhang Zhou probably also knows that with the current financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to support a military campaign in the northwest for several years. of preparation for war.
That's why Zhang Zhou made this suggestion.
However, Zhang Zhou did not deny Yanyin’s Zhese method, because Zhang Zhou also knew that there was no direct conflict between the Kaizhong method and the Zhese method. One was to protect the central government’s finances, and the other was to protect the northwest finances. From the perspective of using troops, It must be said that local finance in Jiubian is the most important thing.
But in terms of the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Dynasty, the Zhese method can bring huge financial resources to the Ming Dynasty court and solve many problems other than side affairs, such as disaster relief, river construction, etc., does it have to be wrong?
What Zhang Zhou means is that when I, Mr. Zhang, want to prepare for the use of troops in the northwest, I need to restore part of the grain supply so that I can guarantee the merchant villages in the northwest, and the merchant villages are the largest area besides the military villages. Supplement and protection, why not?
Do you expect me to ask the court for money every time and let you choke my neck?
Moreover, the time for the cancellation of the grain harvest is still short, and some of the land in the merchant villages still has room for recovery and operation. Even if I, Zhang, don't personally take charge of the northwest, my people will maintain my remaining power, and the Tatars will not dare to invade the territory easily. By providing security guarantee to those who organized commercial villages and increasing the number of tenants, wouldn't the finances of the northwest be greatly improved?
Otherwise, I would just fight and create a stable condition, but no one would come to farm the land...
In other words, businessmen feel that farming is meaningless, so these great victories cannot maximize profits.
Seeing that the ministers in front of him were silent, Zhu Youtang knew that these people were holding back their bad intentions again. He said: "Unless the imperial court can solve the expenses of the Northwest in the next few years, instead of having to deal with it every time the Northwest asks for money and food, it will be perfunctory." And shirk the blame. Dear nobles, please understand the current general situation in the northwest. If we do not take advantage of the internal disputes in the grassland to resolve the border troubles, we will never come again."
Liu Jian came out and said: "Your Majesty, it is inappropriate to raise this matter so hastily. Why not wait for the Ministry of Household Affairs to discuss it first and then make a decision?"
According to Liu Jian's meaning.
You, old man, believe what Zhang Bingkuan said. If you open your mouth, you must change the law and return the financial power to the northwest. But the problem is that the distribution of salt has become a fixed rule. If you change it easily, won't you be afraid of upsetting the court? Jingcang has returned to a state of being unable to make ends meet. Is this what you want to see?
Even if we understand that in order to pacify the grassland, you have to devote all the Ming Dynasty to make sacrifices for this matter, but should we consider the stability of the Ming Dynasty first?
"Yes." Zhu Youtang nodded. He was not in a hurry, because Zhang Zhou said that there was a back-up plan for this matter.
What Zhang Zhou wanted to do was to bring benefits to Jingcang and Northwest China at the same time through the reform of the salt method. In fact, he also used a method commonly used by travelers...that is, the salt field beach drying method. Once this method came out, all salt fields in the Ming Dynasty The output has increased, and the problem of people eating salt has been greatly improved. At the same time, salt tax revenue has increased... There are also enough salt sources in the capital to release, and there are also salt sources in the northwest to exchange grain from salt merchants...
Of course, it will also bring about the problem of too much salt and low salt prices, but salt merchants have been seeking huge profits since ancient times. Zhang Zhou has not yet cared about whether official salt will be hoarded by salt merchants.
Anyway, there will be plenty of official salt in the future. You can stock up if you want. If there is one less salt merchant, there will always be someone to take over.
"I will ask Bingkuan to make a detailed decision on this matter, and it should be gradually decided in the future." Zhu Youtang said, "There are other things... that will be gradually decided in the near future."
What happened, the emperor made a riddle.
…
…
The ministers had been waiting for the emperor to offer to reward Zhang Zhou for his merits, but until the meeting was about to end, the emperor did not mention a word about it.
Not to mention the civil servants and eunuchs who were present, Wu Xun did not expect this. Yesterday the emperor also said that he would give Zhang Zhou a gift of Lai Guogong. He said it with certainty. The possibility of His Majesty changing his mind is almost impossible. No, does it mean that the emperor is planning to mention it again after Zhang Zhou and Wang Shouren's withdrawal to the pass is confirmed?
But after the court meeting, Zhu Youtang immediately asked Xiao Jing to summon several important ministers into the inner court.
Before the ministers left, when they knew the list of those summoned by the inner court, they roughly knew that it was not that the emperor had forgotten or wanted to postpone the merit discussion, but that he did not want to argue with the ministers in the court, so he simply used the inner court discussion. way to solve big problems.
In the Qianqing Palace.
The four eunuchs and eunuchs of the Ministry of Rites were all present, and the people who were summoned were the three cabinet ministers, the Minister of War Ma Wensheng, the Minister of Household Zhou Jing, the Minister of Rites Xu Qiong, and the representative of the Governor's Office, the British Gong Zhang Mao.
Before these people came, they had plans in mind and thought about how to deal with the problems that the emperor might have.
But when they arrived at the Qianqing Palace, they saw a temporary table in the center of the palace with many books on it. They were all confused as to what kind of medicine the emperor was selling in his gourd.
An old Chinese doctor.
When taking medicine, you never follow the prescription. It comes out as soon as you think about it.
The three cabinet ministers were all the emperor's husbands when they were young. At this time, they were also thinking that the emperor had learned bad things from Zhang Zhou.
"Guys, I'm here to find you. You should also know what I'm going to say. Yes, it's to reward the northwest soldiers for their merits." Zhu Youtang said, "But what to say, I'm really anxious. It happens to be here. The "Daming Huidian" compiled by Bingkuan before he left contains many precedents related to military rewards in the Ming Dynasty in the past few decades. They are all reasonable and well-founded and not groundless."
"You just want to take a look and see if there are any mistakes or omissions."
After hearing this, Xie Qian had the biggest reaction. He seemed to be the most determined person to erase Zhang Zhou's contribution before the court meeting that day. He even contradicted the opinions of Liu Jian and Li Dongyang.
But now he couldn't help but look at Liu Jian and Li Dongyang.
Are you still saying that you want to follow Zhang Zhou’s hair?
I'm just afraid that if you keep trying, Zhang Zhou's donkey will jump up on his hind legs and kick you away before he can calm him down!
Look!
Now His Majesty wants to use the "Da Ming Hui Dian" compiled by that boy Zhang Zhou as a basis to reward him for his merits! Maybe that guy had this in mind when he compiled this book!
Are you in a hurry?
Liu Jiandao: "Your Majesty, I know all about the rewards for military merit. There is no need to consult the classics."
"Alas!" Zhu Youtang sighed, "Since you said you all know it, to be honest, you should also know the Ming Dynasty's first achievement, beheading a barbarian. How much reward should be given, right?"
As soon as these words came out, Liu Jian and Li Dongyang looked at each other first.
They all felt a sense of "shock" in their hearts. It seemed that they were calculating everything and always thinking about how to suppress Zhang Zhou's achievements, but they did not worry about a "big trouble", and it seemed that it was a "trouble" that could not be solved. ".
Even the emperor was more thoughtful than them.
That is the question of whether the imperial court can afford the burden of military rewards.
Ma Wensheng, as the Minister of the Ministry of War, was very familiar with this matter. Liu Jian did not answer. He stepped forward and replied: "According to the rules of rewarding soldiers who went on expeditions in Chenghua, a first-level officer should be rewarded with forty taels of silver."
"What about the prisoners?" Zhu Youtang continued to ask.
Ma Wensheng said: "Both calculations."
Xie Qian couldn't help but feel ashamed.
A head cost forty taels, and if there were more than three thousand heads, that would be more than 120,000 taels.
More than 16,000 people were captured...Xie Qian didn't dare to think about it anymore.
This damn thing is going to turn the Ming Dynasty Jingcang upside down in one battle.
From the Ming Dynasty to the Hongzhi period, the annual fiscal and tax revenue, measured in silver, was approximately between 2 million taels and 3 million taels.
But if a reward costs nearly one million taels, the whole court will be able to drink from the northwest wind. In the next three years, the ministers may not be able to pay their salaries.
Zhu Youtang said: "Even if the women and children are lost, but in addition to the livestock, surprise attacks and other contributions, and to raise the cost of troops for the northwest... I don't think this battle should be rewarded according to the rules of the past."
The emperor means.
If we can't afford the reward, we'll just default on it.
Ma Wensheng said: "Your Majesty, rewards are not necessarily based on first merit."
"Yes." Zhu Youtang nodded, "That makes sense."
Then the ministers present, as well as several ceremonial eunuchs and eunuchs discovered that it was actually easy for the monarch and his ministers to reach an agreement on certain aspects. For example... they all knew that such a great achievement would be achieved if the beheading and prisoners were executed according to the rules. If we calculate the merits of the government, then the court will easily go bankrupt, so let’s find another way.
Zhu Youtang said: "I didn't say it to the emperor before, because I had this idea, but since the Tumu Fort disaster, the Ming Dynasty has always judged merit by first merit. I think you should know the reason. We can’t be more clear that it’s not easy to change things rashly now.”
The military achievements of the Ming Dynasty are judged by the number of heads killed. It seems to have disadvantages, and it is easy to kill good people and take merit.
But the biggest advantage is that the first merit is relatively "fair".
At least the first meritorious service requires a head and exact parameters. If it is considered in terms of military merit, that is not the case.
In the early Ming Dynasty, military merit was judged not by first merit but by military merit.
It is divided into three levels: extraordinary power, first power and secondary power.
The most representative example of his extraordinary achievements is that after Chang Yuchun defected to Zhu Yuanzhang, when he became famous in the battle of Caishiji, he led an army to defeat the enemy with one person. From then on, he was known as "Chang Shiwan" and became a general under Zhu Yuanzhang.
But the problem is that it is difficult to determine whether it is a "wonderful merit", a first merit or a second merit.
"History of the Ming Dynasty" clearly records the shortcomings of judging by military merit: "...there were as many as three or four hundred people who were reported by the later military officers. They were not included in the list of beheadings. They were named separately, and they were called "carrying magic guns" and "carrying flags". , it is said to charge to defeat the enemy, it is said to take the lead three times, it is said to serve in front of the army. The disadvantages of indiscriminate use have reached its extreme."
This means that when it comes to military merit, it is all a matter of clever names and a mess. Even if the person is not on the battlefield, his merit will be determined.
Then everyone in the imperial court discovered that this method was not effective and could easily lead to corruption.
Then let's change it.
Just base it on the first merit.
You will get credit according to how many heads you kill, and prisoners will also be counted. Even if there are cases where good people are killed and credit is taken away, it would be better if we do more interrogations. It is better than random calculation of merit without standards.
Anyway, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were all too weak to kill a few at a time, and we were very strict in reviewing the first merit, and even stipulated that the head should be above the Adam's apple. If the head could not be judged as male and female, it should be thrown into the water, and the one facing up was a man. , the one with the back of her head pointing up is a woman...
This is why Xie Qian felt that there was a way to suppress Zhang Zhou's contribution.
Because in terms of Zhang Zhou's "first contribution", he did not personally participate in the battlefield. As long as we strictly implement it, we can give as much credit to Wang Shouren and Ma Yi as much as possible, and they will be rewarded for each merit. If others are high, Zhang Zhou's gong will be low.
Now Zhu Youtang has made it clear that it cannot be determined by the first merit.
The court cannot afford to pay compensation.
Now let's figure out how to minimize Daming's expenses during this reward process. We have to be frugal.
What if Zhang Zhou extinguishes the fire sieve in a few days and sends you tens of thousands of heads or tens of thousands of prisoners... Let us, the monarch and his ministers, drink the northwest wind together!
(End of chapter)
