What happened on New Year's Eve inevitably spread.
Suddenly, the palace was shaken and the capital was shaken.
For most of the maids and chamberlains in the palace, they were shocked that there were going to be layoffs in the palace, and for a while, people were panicked.
The palace maid is a little better, she has a home to return to, and her family conditions are acceptable, but that's not much of a problem.
But for the eunuchs, it was as if the sky had fallen and they couldn't go back! Therefore, they all tried their best to prove to the master they served that they were more capable than others, hoping to stay in the palace.
As for the capital, there is nothing worse than the fact that the prince was reprimanded by the emperor. You know, in the past, Emperor Chongzhen doted on his eldest son. This can be seen from the fact that he was directly established as the prince shortly after he was born.
Therefore, those with interests related to the prince, such as relatives and officials in the East Palace, could not help but be a little worried. They speculated that the emperor was dissatisfied with the prince and wanted to change something?
Of course, more people are paying attention to the event itself. Many people did not expect that the emperor treated textile work equally, and the prince was reprimanded by the emperor for looking down upon him.
For ordinary people, this kind of thing immediately gave them a close sense of identification with the emperor. At the same time, they were even more sympathetic. The emperor really had no money, so he had to let the queen go to weaving to make money to support the family!
Naturally, Emperor Chongzhen had expected these reactions inside and outside the palace. He watched with cold eyes, sitting back and watching what happened next.
After the news came out, many ministers wrote memorials about it.
Some memorials speak for the prince, saying that the prince is young and filial, which is an honest mistake. The Ming Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety. I hope the emperor will reward the prince! In the meantime, no matter what the purpose was, Emperor Chongzhen kept the name of the memorial in mind, and then left the memorial unpublished.
Some memorials said that the queen took the lead in doing the rough work of weaving, which was not in line with the royal dignity, and hoped that the emperor would consider it carefully. Regarding these memorials, Emperor Chongzhen made only one comment on them and sent them back!
No money, lack of money, do you understand? Use this to deepen this impression!
After such a fuss, everyone in the world will probably know about this. Everyone knew that the emperor had no money, so he had to reduce the number of people in the palace and cut back on food and clothing. The queen had to rely on textiles to subsidize palace expenses. The Emperor of Ming Dynasty was really poor!
By the way, Emperor Chongzhen's words of scolding the prince inevitably spread.
Of course, the palace's downsizing will certainly cause concern. On the afternoon of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Emperor Chongzhen made everyone worry for a while before summoning the twelve eunuchs in the palace and the eunuchs in charge of the twenty-four yamen.
Everyone arrived early, and everyone looked a little solemn. The emperor summoned them all, the palm eunuchs, obviously because it was related to the announcement on New Year's Eve that the palace employees would be abolished. No one wanted their yamen to be laid off, and they were very worried about how many people the emperor would lay off.
At this time, they no longer had the habit of saying hello to each other when they met, regardless of whether they were in harmony or not. Each of them lowered his head and said nothing, thinking in his heart, if the emperor asked later, how many people should be laid off? , and those people who were dismissed must give an explanation to the emperor. Most people are thinking in their hearts that they must complain later and try to keep more people in their yamen.
After Emperor Chongzhen arrived, he had an understanding of the mentality of these eunuchs just by looking at their words and deeds.
After receiving the gift, he said straight to the point: "Now that the world is in turmoil, bandits are everywhere, the Manchu army is raging, there are also floods in the south and drought in the north, and the people are in dire straits, I am very worried..."
The emperor's opening remarks made everyone's hearts skip a beat. It was so serious that the emperor's determination seemed to be difficult to shake. After all, no matter how hard the palace office is, can it survive the turmoil in the world and the safety of the country?
"... Money is urgently needed everywhere, but the national treasury is empty and the internal treasury has no money available. I am also forced to have no choice but to think of ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. I won't be able to say for a while, but the palace In this regard, we can still take action right away. Save money if you can, and a little money saved is a little money. You should be able to understand my feelings. If it were possible, I would be shameless, don't you think?"
The emperor was worried about the humiliation of his ministers. When the emperor said this, these eunuchs with palm prints could not stand and knelt down one after another to apologize. For a moment, the complaints planned in my heart could not be expressed.
Emperor Chongzhen let them kneel and said with emotion: "When the court gets through the difficulties and I think of ways to make money, but I don't compete with the people for profit, in the future the palace will have money, and I won't have to be so frugal in food and clothing." Now that the people in the world are suffering, and the palace has tightened its belt for a while, no matter what, I and my people share the joys and sorrows. Do you understand what I mean?"
In this case, who dares to object? These eunuchs below are all landowners who know what they say. How can they feel when they see the emperor who is nominally wealthy speaking so sadly?
As a result, many eunuchs began to express their opinions, saying that they were useless, embarrassing the emperor, and even started to cry.
Emperor Chongzhen did not stop him. After letting them cry for a while, he said: "Make a list of the manpower in each prison and yamen. All non-essential manpower will be reduced. I want to see the specific details." ,understand?"
He has made it very clear. If someone still complains that the list submitted fails to eliminate a few people, then it means that they are not considerate of the Sacred Heart. You can only imagine what impression it will have on the emperor's mind later!
These palm eunuchs all know this, and at this time, they can only express their stance and will definitely carry out the order.
In later generations, some people once said that during the Chongzhen Dynasty, there were one hundred thousand maids in the palace to attack Emperor Chongzhen.
No matter what, if 100,000 people are in the Forbidden City, can they still fit in it?
Now that Emperor Chongzhen has made this abolition move and given details, looking back can somewhat prevent rumors in this regard.
"Your Majesty, I wonder what the arrangements for the abolished palace maids and chamberlains are like?" Wang Dehua, as the first eunuch in the palace, also the eunuch in charge of etiquette, had to ask.
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he immediately said calmly: "Just follow the regulations of the palace. Those who can go home will go home, and those who cannot go home will arrange to do some work in the village outside the palace to support themselves. As for those who go home, Some of the money from the silver reward and the work in the Imperial Manor can still be squeezed out after the inspection by the Jin Yiwei is completed."
The search by the former Jinyiwei officials has not yet yielded results, but no matter what, there must be a sum of cash, which should be enough to arrange the manpower laid off in the palace.
There is a trick here, which is to announce bad news through informal channels first, and then give them good news in time when everyone is pessimistic. It is better than announcing bad news and good news at the same time, which can attract more gratitude.
Just like this, even if these eunuchs were listening, they couldn't help but show gratitude and praise the emperor's kindness in unison!
