Zhu Qiyu stood up and summarized his thoughts:
“To restart Western trade, we need to seize silver mines, so that at least five million taels of silver can flow into the hands of the imperial court from overseas every year.
The imperial court then obtained the silver, minted it into silver coins, and issued them throughout the country.
In this way, the imperial court had a reasonable right to mint coins, unlike the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, which were directly snatched openly, and there was no need to stare blankly without a mint system.
Then these silver coins came into the hands of wealthy merchants and gentry, and most of them were buried in cellars. If silver coins are not circulated, they are minted in vain.
Therefore, domestic commercial taxes must be reduced to allow goods to circulate across the country. Let everyone have cheap goods to buy, so that silver and copper coins will circulate instead of being buried in the cellar to rust.
Well, after all is said and done, Annan still has to be defeated first.
To attack Annan, Wang Ao, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, must be transferred back to Nanjing to find someone who can fight.
Who would it be better to replace? Now the imperial court is seriously short of important ministers. Xu Qi and Liu Zhongfu are both old and about to die. Maybe there will be two less people next year.
He has no talent, just stare, this emperor is so damn ridiculous.
It's ridiculous and sad. Emperor Gongrang and I are really a pair of wretches: one accidentally fell down on the ground while wiping Emperor Xuanmiao's butt, and the other almost fainted from the smoke while wiping Emperor Xuanmiao's butt.
Oh, I also forgot that I have to make a batch of firearms and armors and give them to the Champa Kingdom and Lancang Kingdom for free. This is still a lot of money. Later I have to have a good chat with the Ministers and Ministers of the Ministry of Industry. "
The beloved concubines just stared at Zhu Qiyu and muttered to themselves for a long time.
Zhu Qiyu felt embarrassed and had to wave his hands: "Let's break up. I'm going out to find someone to play chess. In addition, you can urge me to let the officials come up with their opinions on the selection, capital inspection, and planning as soon as possible. Come."
But before noon, the officials received the emperor's approval.
The censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and those in charge of the Sixth Section took action one after another.
However, the concerns of the officials are all focused on matters involving the interests of all officials, such as selection, inspection of the capital, and general planning.
As for the emperor's intention to abolish the seven banknote gates on the Grand Canal, how can I say that from the founding of Taizu to four years before Xuande, there were no banknote gates on the Grand Canal, and the Ming Dynasty was still living well.
So whether or not there are these seven banknote levels is really not particularly important.
Moreover, southern officials accounted for the majority in the imperial court. These southern officials had inextricable connections with local wealthy merchants, and many of them even had families in business.
The emperor abolished banknotes and reduced business taxes. This was a move that benefited the entire merchant class. If southern officials even object to this, it can only be said that there must be something seriously wrong in everyone's minds.
As for the excessively high commercial taxes in Beijing, it was purely because Jin Lian, the former Minister of Household Affairs, was deliberately trying to trick the emperor. Jin Lian applied to the emperor for additional commercial taxes on the grounds that the country was troubled after Tumubao.
Then in actual implementation, the Ministry of Revenue and the Shuntian Prefecture joined forces to set business taxes far beyond the orthodox period, almost five times as high as before.
Jin Lian was a close confidant of Emperor Gongrang. He looked at the new emperor and didn't understand, so he deliberately made a stumbling block.
Jin Lian thought that the emperor was weak and could be bullied. In fact, for Zhu Qiyu, killing one chicken was killing, and killing two chickens was also killing. Although Jin Lian has died of illness, there are many ways to settle accounts after the fall.
If the loyal ministers who respect the emperor always jump out next to each other, then it is no wonder that the emperor is cruel.
But these are all small details. The selection, inspection and planning are the interests of all civil and military officials.
For civil servants of third rank and above in Beijing, they are definitely not willing to restore the civil service election and replace the recommendation system.
For middle and lower-level civil servants, they do not want Beijing inspections and big plans.
For a whole day, civil and military officials were discussing this matter in panic.
Towards evening, all the officials began to write memorials and express their opinions. After writing the memorial, hand it over, and then go home.
Early the next morning, when Zhu Qiyu got up, he saw that there was no memorial in the room today.
Zhu Qiyu asked curiously: "Where is the memorial? What happened today?"
Qianxue smiled and said, "Go to Feng Pavilion and read it yourself. There are too many memorials and I can't take them back."
Zhu Qiyu had no choice but to have breakfast and come to Fengge.
As soon as he entered the door, he met He Yi's eyes full of resentment. Zhu Qiyu asked with some embarrassment: "Is it so serious? Have I stirred a hornet's nest?"
He Yi replied: "Because the Holy One has already let the wind go, he wants to resume the election, and carry out the capital inspection and the big plan this year. So the officials have been brewing for a long time. Yesterday, the Holy One formally raised this issue, can all the officials submit a letter? Have you given me some advice?"
"What did they say?"
He Yi replied: "The first is the election. Officials from the Ministry of Personnel naturally support the resumption of the election without exception. Others, most of them support the parallel selection and recommendation, and support the continued qualification of the recommendation for officials of third grade and above in Beijing."
Zhu Qiyu nodded: "This is normal and human nature. What about Jingcha and Daji?"
He Yi replied: "There are many people who oppose it, accounting for the majority. The reason for the opposition is that if the capital inspection and planning are concentrated, there will be thousands, even tens of thousands, of capital officials plus local officials.
Those officials in the Ministry of Personnel, facing thousands of people, might not even be able to recognize them. It is a bit childish to try to determine an official's political performance through a few documents.
Moreover, such assessment will only make officials more eager for quick success. For example, if more emphasis is placed on the amount of tax collected in the assessment, officials will focus on collecting taxes.
As for water control, river construction, flood control, and disaster relief, which the court did not attach much importance to, officials naturally had even less motivation to pay attention. "
Zhu Qiyu nodded: "Actually, what they said makes sense. To govern the local area, we still need to give local officials a relatively relaxed atmosphere and greater autonomy.
Anyone who knows how to collect taxes all day long is a cruel official. Those who don't care about anything but go about their lives are mediocre officials.
How to urge these thousands of local officials to not only serve the country but also seek benefits for the people is a big problem.
What do they say about commercial taxes and banknote customs? "
He Yi smiled and said: "No one cares about abolishing the banknote customs. As for the high commercial tax in the capital, the Ministry of Household Affairs has already given a reply. It was Xu Jing, the doctor in the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Liu Shi, the Zhizhong of Shuntian Prefecture. After receiving the order from the imperial court, Responsible for restating tax amounts.
At that time, these officials overestimated the price of goods, so the tax amount was too heavy.
Jin Lian, the former Minister of Household Affairs, ordered it to be carried out before he could consider it carefully.
The opinion of the Ministry of Household Affairs is that Xu Jing and Liu Shi should be punished. "
Zhu Qiyu snorted coldly: "If you put all the responsibility on a Shuntian government official, what about the governor? Where is the governor? Are you pretending not to know?
The Fuyin, Fucheng, and Zhizhong of Shuntian Prefecture, and Xu Jing, a doctor in the Ministry of Household Affairs, were dismissed from office for dereliction of duty.
The late Minister of Household Affairs Jin Lian was guilty of deceiving the emperor and neglecting his superiors. He should have been punished by his family. In order to think that he had contributed to the country, and he died, he pursued all the court grants, cut off his title, and demoted his son to the people. "
"Is this punishment a bit harsh?"
"No matter what, he has deceived the emperor. It's good if he didn't kill his whole family. The key point is that this is not the first time. I ordered tax reductions and exemptions in various provinces, but he actually obeyed and ignored me. I didn't know. I just ignored him before.
He obeys everything I say. Such a loyal minister is really beyond praise. "
…
However, it was said that Xu Youzhen came to the Ministry of Industry early in the morning. As soon as he arrived in the lobby and was about to have a sip of tea, he saw another minister of the Ministry of Industry, Zhou Chen, making an extremely rare appearance in the lobby of the Ministry of Industry.
Xu Youzhen asked curiously: "Duke Zhou, why are you here?"
Zhou Chen cheerfully fiddled with dozens of silver and copper coins on the table and said with a smile: "I am also the Minister of the Ministry of Industry. Shouldn't I appear in the lobby of the Ministry of Industry?"
(End of chapter)
