In the Xinuan Pavilion of Wuying Palace in the Forbidden City, there are still small meetings of the Cabinet, the Supervisor of Ceremonies, and the Household Department.
After the Grand Parade in Beijing, Zhu Yijun became more actively involved in government affairs. The method of intervention is to use the "meetings" that future generations will find annoying to death. Whenever there is an important matter, a small meeting will be held with the cabinet, the Supervisor of Ceremonies and relevant ministries; if there is a major matter, it will be discussed in court with all ministers.
Therefore, since the second year of Wanli, courtiers have obviously felt that the morning court time every three days has become longer and the ceremonial nature has become less and less obvious. There are many places to study a major event until noon.
This was after Zhu Yijun and Zhang Juzheng held a small meeting first to unify the thoughts of the important ministers. If there is no prior meeting, it will take longer.
After two months, Zhang Juzheng couldn't stand it anymore. He has a lot of things to do. Within two or three days, he will spend half a day with the emperor for a meeting. In order not to lose track before the meeting, he will also hold a small meeting with his ministers before the emperor's meeting. In addition, Zhang Juzheng also has to attend ceremonial events such as Buddhist feasts, so his office hours are getting shorter and shorter, and his overtime hours are getting longer and longer.
Therefore, he has written to the emperor and suggested increasing the number of cabinet members. Zhu Yijun expressed his willingness to see the success and expressed his approval to Ting.
In this small meeting, Zhu Yijun listened to a report on the salt policy from the Minister of Household Affairs, Wang Guoguang.
It originated from the inspection of the Zhili Censor's Six Matters on the Salt Law. The memorial talked about several serious issues in the salt law at this time:
First, a large number of cooks in the salt field have escaped, and salt production has been declining year after year;
Second, the Ministry of Household Affairs distributes salt coins indiscriminately, resulting in some salt coins being unable to be withdrawn and having to wait in line, which seriously affects the enthusiasm of salt merchants to open new businesses;
Third, the management of the official salt market is out of control, and salt merchants are selling randomly everywhere to impact the market;
Fourth, the Ministry of Household Affairs has issued salt quotas, but the imperial court and the inner court still set up salt customs to collect taxes, and the standards are different, resulting in increased costs for salt merchants and lower enthusiasm for buying and selling salt;
Fifth, official salt cannot sell to private salt at all, and official salt is unsaleable in many places;
Sixth, the crackdown on illegal salt sales was ineffective, resulting in a sharp drop in official salt sales.
After Zhang Juzheng saw the memorial, he expected that Zhu Yijun's temper would lead to a meeting, so he notified the Ministry of Revenue early to make preparations. Sure enough, it was ordered that on the second day of March, there would be a meeting in Wuying Hall to discuss the salt ritual.
Wang Guangguang, the Minister of Household Affairs, was named Ruguan and his name was Shu'an. This man was extremely smart, and he was the editor-in-chief of the "Wanli Accounting Records" published by the Ministry of Finance in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
This guy was a strange person in the political circles of Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli dynasties. Although he has outstanding abilities, he has no personal ethics and a lust for sex. He is a bohemian and free-spirited person. He has been repeatedly impeached for half his life on charges of nepotism, corrupting officials, enriching private interests, and failing to cultivate personal ethics. From a moral point of view, he looks like a scum. But because of his outstanding abilities, he could always resume his official position within a short period of time.
At this time, he reported to Zhu Yijun the situation of salt administration across the country and explained the reasons for the indiscriminate distribution of salt by the Ministry of Household Affairs. He said that the main reason was that there was insufficient silver in Taicang, so he had to send an extra 100,000 yuan to make up for the shortfall, and then the censor grabbed his pigtails. In other cases, what the censor said was correct, but the shortcomings had been long-standing. The Ministry of Household Affairs could only focus on the management of salt rituals, crackdown on illegal salt, etc., and also asked the emperor to abolish the middle-ranking officials sent to collect salt taxes.
Zhu Yijun didn't know about this. Hearing this, he asked Zhang Hong, the chief official of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, "How much was the salt tax collected by the Zhongguan last year?" Zhang Hong replied, "Back to the emperor, it totaled more than 86,000 taels." Zhu Yijun sneered after hearing this. Zhang Hong felt sweat on his forehead.
Zhu Yijun said: "When you go back, you can make a list of all the taxes that are still being collected outside - not just the salt tax, and report them to me. When I am done with it, let the salt tax collectors come back!"
Then he turned to Chen Ju and said, "Do you know about this?" Seeing Chen Ju nodding in agreement, Zhu Yijun said, "Find out all the ways in which these middle-ranking officials enriched their own pockets during tax collection. If there are those who are honest and honest, I will personally commend them." !”
He said he wanted to praise someone, but the tone of his voice and the look on his face didn't mean he meant to praise anyone. Chen Ju knew what he was saying and agreed loudly.
When Zhang Juzheng saw the emperor's behavior, he knew that he was going to kill again. This emperor worked hard to govern, correcting himself before correcting others, and acted vigorously and resolutely.
Around this year, the eunuchs who were at the forefront of the inner court, such as Liang Yong and Zhang Zhong, eunuchs of the Royal Horse Eunuch, Mu Jinde, the eunuch of the Shangshi Eunuch, and Cui Min, the eunuch of the inner transport warehouse, were all found guilty of corruption and were fined and expelled. Leaving the palace shocked the palace.
People in the inner palace are best at watching the wind and knowing its direction. Zhu Yijun usually doesn't drink or play. He spends all his time studying, exercising and handling political affairs. All the eunuchs know that he is a rare wise king. Therefore, those who are lucky enough to advance stay away, and those who are righteous tend to follow him. This achievement of leading by example is worth the 10,000 words Zhu Yijun himself said.
Zhu Yijun was not blindly harsh. He often rewarded Chen Ju, Zhang Jing, Zhang Cheng and others who worked hard. As a rule, his nephews and relatives were admitted to the Imperial Academy or given political status such as Jinyi Baihu. In this way, for more than half a year, the inner court Gradually return to your heart.
Wang Guoguang is also a man of words and emotions. At this time, he saw Zhu Yijun deal with one of his own people. He immediately took out his old predecessor from a hundred years ago and said: "Your Majesty, in the fifth year of Hongzhi, when Ye Qi, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, canceled the payment of grain and went to the border to collect money, the salt policy of our dynasty completely collapsed. Even if we manage it for a while at this time, problems will still arise over time."
Because the emperor was young, Guo Chaobin, the right minister who had just been promoted by the Ministry of Revenue, explained to Zhu Yijun: "Your Majesty, in the early days of the imperial dynasty, the imperial court implemented the Kaizhong Law. Salt was all official property, and salt merchants had to pay grain and grass to the border troops in order to obtain salt. Only with leads can we go to the salt farm to support and sell salt.”
"This is a matter of three benefits. On the one hand, the border army is self-sufficient in food and grass without the need for the imperial court to collect and transship it; on the other hand, in order to save transshipment costs, merchants call vagrants to reclaim wasteland on the border. This is commercial reclamation. In addition, they also build their own piers and fortresses, and set up The alarm station and the patrol team are the eyes and ears of the government and the army; the three official salts of the imperial court are sold all over the world, and there is no worry of stagnation."
Chen Zan, the left minister of the Household Department who attended the meeting, heard this and said with emotion: "Your Majesty, Taizu went to the north eight times and Chengzu went to the north five times. There is no excitement in the country. Kaizhongfa deserves the most credit!"
Zhu Yijun knew about the Kaizhong method before. Hearing this, he asked: "How did such a good method collapse later?"
Wang Guoguang said bluntly: "Returning to the emperor, a relative of the Xun family invaded and supported the salt supply, causing the salt merchants in Kaizhong to wait for the salt. This was the defense support. In the second year of Hongzhi, some salt merchants actually came up with The Yan Yin Zhi Salt fifty years ago shows the suffering of the Shou Zhi Salt merchants waiting for salt!”
"Secondly, during the Chenghua and Hongzhi periods, the border was peaceful and there were few Kaizhongs, so the salt from the salt field was unsalable. At that time, the court changed the method of Kaizhong to buy surplus salt, and the salt merchants could use silver to directly buy the salt from the salt field. This was Ye Qi's change The First Cause of the Law of Salt.”
Zhang Juzheng interrupted Wang Guangguang's words and said: "Let me talk about the third point. Your Majesty, when Ye Qi used the method of inducing color with salt, the price of salt was high and the price of grain and grass was low. The interest rate difference was more than five times, and the salt merchants made profits. It is quite plentiful. Although the salt in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River accounts for half of the world, the salt industry is dominated by Shaanxi, Shanxi and other northerners, which is the envy of local officials and businessmen. Ye Qi, a native of Huai'an, advocates salt for coloring, but he does not know that the imperial court transfers grain and grass. Is the fee several times what you get from Yan Yin Zhe Se? I think his selfishness is very serious."
After listening to the two people talking about ancient times, Zhu Yijun basically understood the initial cause of the collapse of the salt policy. But he asked: "In your opinion, if the court wants to change the salt law at this time, how should it be done?" Wang Guangguang glanced at Zhang Juzheng and did not dare to speak out.
Zhang Juzheng Surong replied: "Your Majesty, in the two years since I have been in power, the imperial court has issued quotas every year based on the amount of salt produced by the salt farm. Because salt quotas can be bought and sold, and due to the accumulated abuses over the years, seven out of ten salt quotas have not been paid yet. They are rich and powerful, and the salt merchants can only be exploited by them or buy salt from the Ministry of Household Affairs, causing the salt to be overproduced, which is one of the major disadvantages."
"And the benefits of private salt also come from wealthy businessmen and wealthy families. They form cliques and friends, use sharp weapons, and compete for profits with lawsuits and arrests. It is difficult to control it locally. This is the second major disadvantage."
After finishing these two sentences, Zhu Yijun was already sweating on his forehead. At this time, Wang Guoguang suddenly knelt down and said: "I have checked that the Lianghuai Transportation Department paid more than one million yuan for salt diversion last year. The merchants paid less than two-tenths of the salt diversion, and the rest was occupied. If there is no revolution, The Ming Dynasty is in danger!"
