Except for Wang Cheng, Shu Liang, Zhang Yong, and Wang Qin, they are undoubtedly Zhu Qiyu's people. The positions of the remaining seven eunuchs changed back and forth.
Even Empress Dowager Sun, who has been in charge of the harem for many years, cannot understand. Among these seven eunuchs, who is neutral, who is loyal to the Supreme Emperor, who has surrendered to the new emperor, and who is still swinging?
It's hard to tell clearly. Even those who were loyal to the Supreme Emperor in the past may have secretly submitted their names and quietly changed their families.
Then Queen Mother Sun suddenly discovered that no one in the entire harem could be trusted.
This is so ironic. Originally, the harem was the territory of the Empress Dowager Sun, so the emperor was so frightened that he did not dare to set foot in the Forbidden City.
Now that she's fine, Queen Mother Sun is starting to feel suspicious and restless.
This turns into fighting a wolf with a stick, and both sides are afraid.
But the problem is that Zhu Qiyu is afraid of returning, but he doesn't have to live in the Forbidden City.
The Empress Dowager Sun was different. If she couldn't trust the eunuchs and maids in the harem and felt that everyone might have defected to the emperor, then how could she do anything? Wouldn't the manpower she had cultivated for decades be completely useless?
And the most important thing is that a fire burned down all the belongings. Now Queen Mother Sun has no gold and silver to win people's hearts.
In the inner court, a place full of reality, even a chicken cannot be coaxed without rice.
…
At noon the next day, the twenty-third of the first lunar month.
Zhu Qiyu convened the court meeting again.
In order to retire in time after being emperor for more than 20 years, Zhu Qiyu is still very concerned about reform.
During this court meeting, Zhu Qiyu was concerned about one issue: coinage.
Now the shameless money-grabbing method of Ming Baochao has been forcibly stopped by Zhu Qiyu.
This led to a sharp increase in the financial pressure on the imperial court.
In the past, 60 to 70% of the salaries of court officials were paid with treasure notes.
For example, if a minister has an annual salary of 100 dan, he only needs to pay 40 dan in real money, and the remaining 60 dan can be paid with waste paper, which is equivalent to no payment.
Well now, starting from the first year of Jingtai, not only will all be paid in full, but their salaries will also be increased by 20%.
The same minister with an annual salary of 100 dan will receive an actual salary of 120 dan this year.
In other words, the total salary paid out today would be about three times that of last year.
After calculating this score, Zhu Qiyu himself was scratching his head.
Zhu Qiyu came up with two solutions: One is to completely wipe out the collusive Shanxi smuggling group raised by Xuanzong and Sanyang.
The other is coinage.
Jingtai Tongbao is cast on a large scale. As long as there are copper mines, copper coins can be continuously produced to exchange for food. Or just use copper coins to pay salaries to hundreds of officials.
In the eyes of the officials, emperors like Zhu Qiyu were a bit cutesy and cute. He could print treasure banknotes for easy robberies, but he was there to cast copper coins in a down-to-earth manner.
However, the officials will never oppose the emperor because of this. After all, the salary received by everyone has actually doubled and skyrocketed.
As the saying goes, cutting off someone's wealth is like killing one's parents.
Now Zhu Qiyu, in turn, has doubled the income of all officials, and has truly become the food and clothing parent of all civil and military officials.
Zhu Qiyu was not satisfied with this. Emperor Jingtai, who was determined to revive the Ming Dynasty, would also be the food, clothing and parents of all the people in Shuntian Mansion. So Zhu Qiyu asked everyone:
"Jingtai Tongbao has begun to be cast. I plan to distribute it to the army in Beizhili and the people of Shuntian Prefecture first, as a reward to all the soldiers and people who contributed in the defense of the capital.
Just tell me, how can we actually distribute these copper coins to the people?
I want to make sure that all people get their money smoothly and that no one lines their pockets. "
Chen Xun heard the words and replied: "Your Majesty, it is your Majesty's holy virtue to distribute money to the people and benefit all people. But this has never happened before, and there is no precedent. How about we distribute the money according to the household registration registered in Shuntian Mansion?"
Zhu Qiyu shook his head: "The household registration is not accurate. There are hundreds of thousands of people in Shuntian Prefecture, and everything goes into chaos."
After saying that, Zhu Qiyu looked at Zhou Chen again.
Zhou Chen shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, our Ministry of Industry is in charge of coining money and managing various projects. We are already very busy. Don't let our Ministry of Industry figure out these things.
Your Majesty has formulated a strategy, and we at the Ministry of Industry only have to implement it. "
Zhu Qiyu also knew the difficulties of the Ministry of Industry, so he stopped pestering him. They looked at each other one by one, and found that Jiang Yuan, He Wenyuan, and Luo Tong all shook their heads.
When He Yi arrived, he still shook his head. He Yi had been dizzy recently while staring at the military newspapers in the south, and was unwilling to waste his brains thinking about things in the capital.
Finally, there was Huang Pu. Zhu Qiyu stressed helplessly: "Chengji, you are now also on the mission of patrolling Beizhili. Matters involving Shuntian Prefecture are also within the scope of your responsibilities. You can no longer shirk it."
Huang Pu heard this and replied: "Your Majesty, I think that we can mobilize the people of Shuntian Prefecture to participate in the construction of the outer city of Beijing.
Let’s make them work less and pay them more. And we will accept anyone who comes, even if they are beggars, as long as they come to participate in the construction of the city, we will pay them; even if they are frail women, they will help with cooking and cleaning, we will also pay them; even if they are farmers outside the city, they will provide Grains and vegetables were also distributed to Jingtai Tongbao.
If you just give your money to the people for free, they won't appreciate it. If the people are allowed to participate in the construction of the outer city, we will provide generous wages, which will make the people more grateful.
At the same time, the cast Jingtai Tongbao can also be actually distributed to the hands of the people.
Moreover, when people saw that Jingtai Tongbao could be used to pay wages and purchase supplies, they naturally developed trust in the newly made copper coins. It won't take long for Jingtai Tongbao to be completely circulated in the capital. "
Hearing this, Zhu Qiyu nodded repeatedly: "Work-for-relief is a good way to distribute Jingtai Tongbao. Let's use Shuntian Prefecture as a practice first. If the effect is good, we will extend it to the entire Beizhili."
Huang Pu continued to add: "Your Majesty's use of copper coins instead of treasure banknotes is a great good governance. We, the people of the Ming Dynasty, usually carry scales and scissors with us when we go out.
When buying and selling items, you have to cut off pieces of silver from the whole silver ingot and weigh it on a scale before completing the transaction. It is really inconvenient.
In order to promote treasure banknotes, the imperial court rarely minted copper coins.
The result was that copper coins could not be circulated, and treasure banknotes depreciated significantly. The court gained substantial benefits, but the people were overwhelmed.
Your Majesty harms your own interests in order to benefit the people. This is what a wise king and holy master does. "
Zhu Qiyu nodded: "Let us suffer ourselves first. This is the pain that reform must endure. In three to five years, when the world is calm and the government is on the right track, Ming's national power will soon flourish and become stronger again."
Then we won’t sit here worrying about money every day, and our descendants will not curse us. "
After hearing the emperor's last words, everyone present laughed tacitly.
Everyone knew that the emperor kept cursing his predecessor who had wronged the country and the people.
In fact, not only Zhu Qiyu cursed in his heart, but also the ministers present also dismissed the previous people in power.
Xuanzong and Sanyang, Zhengtong and Wang Zhen are all examples of harmonious monarchs and ministers who jointly harmed the country.
As for the kings and ministers of the Jingtai Dynasty who are here, they have to wipe their predecessor's butts endlessly, and they can't live in peace for a moment.
Sure enough, Zhu Qiyu just took a sip of tea and continued to ask: "What's going on over there in Wala? Can we send envoys to ask for peace first?"
What about the Miao rebellion in the south? Have the 100,000 new troops sent by the imperial court arrived? Is there any latest battle report from Uncle Jing Yuan? "
(End of chapter)
