Beijing Baoquan Bureau made new money, and the copper material was landed in Tianjin by sea.

Since the opening of the sea in Hangzhou, Tianjin has followed the smuggling boom. It was mainly the merchant ships of Japan and North Korea who quietly went to Tianjin to buy cotton cloth, and after the Tianjin health officials were bought, they turned a blind eye to this.

Beijing was a great success in making money, and Wang Yuan asked the Institute of Physics to build a machinery manufacturing factory. Specializing in the manufacture of coinage machines for the imperial court, one to expand the scale of the Beijing Baoquan Bureau, the other to promote to the Nanjing Baoquan Bureau, and then Kunming and Xi'an, intending to engage in China's four major minting bases.

At this time, Zhu Houzhao urgently summoned Wang Yuan to discuss state affairs in the cabinet as a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy.

Disaster relief!

The climate in the past two years has been very strange, Taihu Lake has actually frozen, and it has snowed heavily in Guangdong, and the Han River has been directly frozen in the whole line.

As we said, the climate in the Zhengde period was far worse than that of Jiajing and Wanli, and the average temperature was close to the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Not only that, but droughts also often come, and the drought records in the Zhengde years are far greater than the number of floods.

The winters were cold, the summers were dry, and the people were miserable.

Last winter, there was a large area of snow in the south, and this year many provinces have suffered severe drought, and floods have occurred in the Jianghuai River basin. The word "cannibalism" has already appeared in the performance of the local chief officials in Jianghuai, and the cabinet and the officials of the six ministries have been made into a big fight.

Zhu Houzhao's plan for the Northern Expedition was delayed again, not to mention sending troops to fight, there was not enough food for disaster relief!

At today's cabinet meeting, not only the cabinet ministers arrived, but even the six Shangshu came.

The disaster is too serious for the cabinet to bear, and it needs six books to share the pressure.

Mao Cheng, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, took the lead in speaking: "Since His Majesty ascended the throne, disasters in the world have frequently fallen, which is a warning from heaven. In the fourth winter of Zhengde, it snowed heavily in Chaozhou, Guangdong, and the snow was thick. In the winter of the eighth year of Zhengde, Taihu Lake and Dongting Lake were frozen, and Yingchun Township was frozen for more than ten miles from Guzhudu to Puxi Port. Some people walked and were frozen into ice sculptures, and the ...... began to be solved in July of the following year."

Zhu Houzhao listened impatiently and interrupted: "What do you want to say?" ”

Mao Cheng knelt down and bowed: "Please Your Majesty issue an edict for your sin, sacrifice to the mountains and rivers, and pray for forgiveness from the sky!" ”

Zhu Houzhao didn't get angry on the spot, and said in a calm tone: "If you just want to say this, then you can get out today, I am here to invite you to discuss disaster relief today." ”

Liang Chu knelt down and said: "What Mao Shangshu said is reasonable, this spring, His Majesty did not return from his southern tour, nor did he preside over the sacrificial ceremony. Fear of angering the heavens, will floods and droughts come to the north and south of the river together, even if Your Majesty does not issue an edict, you should also sacrifice to the mountains and rivers, reflect on your own body, and diligently cultivate government affairs. ”

Wang Qiong suddenly said: "In the past few decades, the coldest should be the sixth year of Hongzhi, when the sea water at the mouth of the Yangtze River was frozen into ice. If it was the emperor's fault that the weather turned cold, could it be that the emperor also made some big mistake? ”

Yang Tinghe, who had been silent, suddenly glared at Wang Qiong, what he hated the most was Lu Wan, but what he wanted to kill the most was Wang Qiong. Because Lu Wan is just bad, Wang Qiong is both capable and contradictory, and has disrupted Yang Tinghe's various plans many times.

The goal of the Qingliu is obviously not to provide disaster relief, but to take advantage of disasters in various places to force the emperor to stop running around and sit honestly in the Forbidden City and be obedient!

Zhu Houzhao was very satisfied with Wang Qiong's performance, and asked Huang Ke and Li Qi: "Huang Shangshu, Li Shangshu, how much grain can the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Industry come up with?" ”

Huang Ke said: "The money and grain in Taicang are not enough, please allocate the newly minted money from the Inner Carrier Treasury and the Tiancai Treasury." ”

The new money made by Wang Yuan was nominally given to the household department, but in fact, it was all in the emperor's inner mansion, and it was managed by the inner transport treasury and the heavenly treasury respectively.

Li Qi said: "The Ministry of Industry cannot call the shots in the treasury of the Ministry of Industry, and the ministers have not been allowed to check the accounts in the past two years. Minister, I really don't know how much silver the Ministry of Industry has. ”

The Ministry of Industry has its own small treasury, but the embezzlement by the internal government is becoming more and more serious, and the Ministry of Industry has actually lost the power to audit accounts, let alone use the silver in the small treasury. For example, the eunuch Zhang Yong once moved the silver taels of the Ministry of Industry directly to his home.

Zhu Houzhao scratched his head and asked Wang Yuan again: "What does Erlang propose?" ”

Wang Yuan suddenly said: "The minister asks to set up a new treasury, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Industry, and the treasury and silver are used for the construction of various projects, including the repair of river embankments in the event of floods. In the future, only a part of the income of the Ministry of Industry can be paid into the E-word library, the Guangji library, and the Guangying library. ”

The three warehouses of E-word warehouse, Guangji warehouse and Guangying warehouse are nominally subordinate to the Ministry of Industry, and the input of the Ministry of Industry must be handed over to the three warehouses for safekeeping. In fact, the eunuchs are operating, the household department is responsible for bookkeeping, and the Ministry of Industry is responsible for inspection.

As soon as Wang Yuan said this, Li Qi immediately cast a grateful look, and the rest of the ministers looked at Wang Yuan in surprise.

Yang Tinghe took the lead in supporting and said: "The minister thinks what Wang Shilang said is reasonable!" ”

"The minister seconded the proposal!"

"The minister seconded the proposal!"

The cabinet and the six ministries all agreed, and they all wanted to take back some of the financial power from the eunuchs.

No matter how fierce they are with each other, civil officials are still civil officials, and they are very united at this time. Well, this is because during the Zhengde period, there was no real party struggle, so I would oppose it if I didn't get your approval.

Zhu Houzhao stared at Wang Yuan for a while with strange eyes, and suddenly smiled: "Accurate!" ”

If Zhang Yong knew the truth, he would probably be angry. He befriended Wang Yuan many times, and took the initiative to show favor many times, but he actually got such a reward. It is estimated that Zhang Yong will beat Wang Yuan's small report in the future, and he must take a bad breath anyway.

As for Zhu Houzhao's thoughts?

Zhang Yong and Wang Yuan teamed up to kill Xu Tai, don't you know that you are the emperor? Zhu Houzhao was actually very clear in his heart, thinking that Zhang Yong and Wang Yuan had colluded.

Now that Wang Yuan took the initiative to draw a clear line with Zhang Yong, Zhu Houzhao was surprised and felt a little relieved, what he wanted was Wang Yuan to be a lonely minister!

Wang Yuan's words made the civil officials unite.

But this atmosphere of unity was instantly broken by Liang Chu. The old guy said: "Your Majesty, since the opening of the sea in Hangzhou, the land of Lianghuai and Jiangnan has been prosperous in pursuit of profit. The fertile land did not grow grain, and they switched to cotton, resulting in a shortage of grain in the paste-rich land. The Jianghuai catastrophe was not caused by 'cannibalism', but was caused by the lack of food in several provinces. Please advocate the sea ban again, destroy the cotton fields and plant rice! ”

Wang Yuan was stupid, Lao Tzu just threw out an olive branch, and your backhand is a knife!

Yang Tinghe was also a little speechless, and he discussed it with Liang Chu. Taking advantage of this multi-provincial catastrophe, one must tie the emperor to prevent him from running around, and the other is to stir up Wang Yuan's opening of the sea, and any goal achieved is a victory.

But you also have to be a little more flexible, Wang Yuan has just taken back the financial power for the Ministry of Industry, and now it's shameless to do things.

Yang Tinghe likes to be kind as an official, and if he doesn't cooperate, he will be excluded, and if he can cooperate, he will accept it. He was about to accept Wang Yuan, and even wanted to pull Wang Yuan into the clear stream, and was completely bad by Prince Liang!

Wang Yuan didn't bother to argue and refute, who dared to talk about the sea ban again, it should be Huang Ke, the head of the household.

Huang Ke really spoke up: "Old Liang Ge, the household department is already short of money, and you will make up the silver for Taicang after the sea ban?" ”

Liang Chu asked rhetorically: "Is silver important or is the people important?" ”

Huang Ke sneered: "Then this disaster relief, don't ask the household department for Taicang silver!" ”

Wang Yuan suddenly said: "Your Majesty, when the minister opened the sea in Hangzhou, he expected that cotton would encroach on fertile land. Therefore, there is a stipulation that when the merchant ships of various countries replace the maritime introduction documents, they must bring enough grain, which can be called the 'sea opening system'. Nowadays, Hangzhou has a permanent position and a large number of grain reserves, which can be transferred to Jianghuai for disaster relief nearby. In addition, the Daming Sailor has just come to report that he has obtained three large islands overseas. The fertile land on all three islands allowed them to transport the affected people to overseas to reclaim the land, giving them food and seeds. First, it can solve the problem of displaced people, and second, it can grow grain overseas on a large scale to make up for the fertile land encroached upon by cotton in Jianghuai and Jiangnan. ”

Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "This discussion is very good, Erlang will talk about it again." ”

Wang Yuan said: "Please expand the strategy of opening the sea, and then open the sea of Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Tianjin!" ”

"No!" Liang Chu strongly objected.

Yang Tinghe frowned, neither opposing nor supporting.

Liang Chu strongly opposed the opening of the sea because his Liang family was in Guangzhou, and the ban on the sea was for the Liang family's smuggling profits. And this is about Yang Ting, a Sichuan person, and the? Yang Tinghe can't get any benefits from banning the sea, but opening the sea can increase the central government's financial revenue, Yang Tinghe doesn't say anything, it is purely to give his political ally Liang Chu a few thin faces.

The greatest power-giver in opening the sea was the emperor, and the customs revenue had to be distributed to the inner treasury and the Ministry of Industry, and these factors had previously gone into the inner treasury. Zhu Houzhao couldn't wait to open the sea in an all-round way, and suddenly smiled: "According to what Erlang said, open a few more ports." ”

Mao Ji, who had already entered the cabinet as an auxiliary minister, immediately advised: "Your Majesty, please think twice, opening the sea will do all kinds of harm and no benefit......

"Shut up!" Zhu Houzhao scolded sharply.

Opponents of the opening of the sea were silenced and pondered how to sabotage the matter. Every time several ports are opened, there are always all kinds of mistakes, and then they will jump out to stop them.

The next step is to recommend candidates for disaster relief, and several provinces have been hit by disasters, and a few competent ministers must be sent to preside.

Yang Tinghe is responsible for recommending candidates for disaster relief in the Jianghuai region. Wang Yuan didn't fight, but recommended candidates for disaster relief (drought) in Shaanxi.

Xi Shu was promoted in Guizhou because of his merits, and at this time he was already the imperial history of the right capital, and he was patrolling Huguang. If this disaster relief is effective, coupled with Wang Yuan's operation, most likely he will be promoted to the imperial history of Zuo Yudu.

Wang Yuan didn't know that Xishu, who had the grace to support him, was also very famous in history.

If it weren't for Wang Yuan's butterfly wings, Xi Shu would have been able to soar to the Ministry of Rites in another four or five years, and add the title of prince and princess. Jiajing also planned to make Xi Shu a cabinet minister, which had already been approved by the court, but Xi Shu suddenly died of illness before receiving the appointment.

If Xi Shu didn't die early, what would happen to Xia Yan?

In Jiajing's heart, Xia Yan is a substitute for Xi Shu. If Xia Yan can't get on the throne, how can Yan Song in history get on the throne?

It can be said that Xi Shu's accidental death created the traitor Yan Song.

In any case, Wang Yuan took advantage of the catastrophe in various provinces to directly achieve three goals. First, draw a clear line with Zhang Yong, help the Ministry of Labor to get back the financial power, and ease the relationship with the civil official group; Second, expand the opening of the sea, transfer displaced people overseas, and speed up the pace of overseas colonization; Third, take the opportunity to promote your mentor and strengthen your faction.

Yang Tinghe did not suffer a loss, although the emperor did not issue an edict, it seems that he will not go out of Beijing again in the near future. In addition, in the Jianghuai region, where the disaster was most severe, the person in charge of disaster relief was Yang Tinghe's confidant, and he could promote a cronie after the matter was completed.

It was Jin Gui and Yang Yiqing, who each sent their henchmen to provide disaster relief, and everyone just shared the cake.

The calamity that caused the people to suffer greatly became a political transaction in the court.