It is said that this time the dynasty is over, and since then the Chinese Dynasty has one more official who has not been promoted according to the routine. But before the matter was over, a eunuch came out and swept the air with a whisk, and said calmly: "All the elders, the scholars, the prince, the young guard, and the young guard of the Academy of Sciences, Lord Langzhong Jiang are discussing in the study, and the rest of the people have nothing to do in the morning to retreat from the court!" ”

Jiang Tian has evolved from Jiang Xiucai, Jiang Xianggong, Jiang Gongzi, and Mr. Jiang from the beginning, and finally evolved into Master Jiang. However, I am still a little unaccustomed to this title, so I hesitated after hearing this order, was that Lord Jiang talking about himself just now? Or is there an official with the same surname as himself? When I think of titles such as Prince Shaobao and Academy of Sciences, it seems that I am talking about myself. It was only when he was stunned that he realized that all the officials were staring at him. In fact, he didn't know that most of the emperors in most dynasties went through the motions when they went to the great dynasty, and the real national affairs were generally so many senior leaders who got together to hold a meeting to study. If you are lazy, just delegate it directly to a few powerful ministers. This Emperor of Heaven adheres to the industrious tradition of the founding monarch, so the real court meeting is that the leaders of a few departments go to the study to open, and the first day of the new year is over. But except for the war period and when he was not the emperor, no Lang Zhong could get close to this decision-making circle, even Song Yingxing was in charge of the yamen of the first courtyard, and he rarely had the opportunity to enter the center, why was this fortunate Xiucai so appreciated by the emperor? It's just that the relationship between brothers and sisters shouldn't be like this, right? Jiang Tian couldn't figure out this question, so he secretly decided to deal with it carefully today no matter what, and if possible, try to be Xu Shu who entered Cao Ying, and never open his mouth if he can. Who knows what issues they are usually discussing, and whether they should talk too much.

So then after the ministers knelt down to worship the Son of Heaven, he could only follow the big guys and rubbed into the study with a stern expression, in fact, the so-called study is the Qianqing Palace behind the three major halls, at this time, there is no upper study and south study of the Qing Dynasty, and there is no imperial study, our crossing emperor is in the living office of the Son of Heaven Qianqing Palace to find a place as a study, and then the back is not the place where they should go, but fortunately, there is no other hostess except for a queen in the whole **, But no one cares about problems like trouble.

Seeing that the time was already more than seven o'clock in the morning, the emperor returned to his bedroom and changed into civilian clothes, and appeared in front of everyone again, and those bigwigs were not so restrained in the Fengtian Palace, and after bowing, they sat behind a row of tables, and then a few little eunuchs brought porridge and side dishes and a few snacks like water.

"You don't know, do you?" The emperor first picked up a piece of dim sum and took a bite: "I don't have the rules of the previous dynasty here, everyone eats breakfast first, and then works." ”

I really haven't heard of any emperor who cares about breakfast, Jiang Tian saw that all the adults were eating with peace of mind, and he was hungry anyway, so he was not welcome. While eating, I thought to myself, this is what the traverser can do, looking at the casual appearance of these old guys, it is estimated that it has been practiced for a long time, otherwise let these people accept the treatment of eating with the king, and they will not be excited to turn their backs. No wonder so many people stared at themselves just now, and the feeling was that they envied me for being able to eat early in vain.

Breakfast, eat quickly, in fact, regardless of whether you are full or not, as long as you see the emperor stop, everyone must quickly put down the food and pretend to be full, the key is that the emperor was born in the army, and eating is called a fast, usually those officials who chew slowly have not tasted the taste, the emperor has already picked up the teacup and rinsed his mouth, so over time, these officials will eat some of the bottom on the way to the court. At this time, it was seen that Jiang Tian, who was a newcomer in the officialdom, didn't understand the rules, and it was obvious that everyone had stopped their chopsticks, so they saw that he was still eating Haisai there alone.

It's not that Jiang Tian is unproductive, it's just that he got up too early and didn't eat, plus he was young when he had a lot of food, and he didn't know the tricks of eating half full in advance, so now he is polite when he takes the opportunity to fill his stomach. first drank a bowl of japonica rice porridge on his stomach, then picked up the dim sum and ate it in three bites, and finally picked up the tea bowl and sent the dim sum down, only to find that the whole room even the emperor, officials, all kinds of palace maids, and eunuchs did not look at him, and there were not many who endured it without laughing.

"That's what it's all about!" Emperor Zhang had no choice but to stand up and give this fellow a round game: "I invite you to breakfast, as if you are not full, or my junior brother is happy." ”

Jiang Tian also knew that he was timid, grinning and trying to squeeze out a smile but didn't do it, and said that my eating appearance shouldn't be ugly, and I have the Sven look that I should have, why do I still make people see jokes? Could it be that this royal meal is different from ordinary people?

Ignoring his cranky thoughts, the food just now has been withdrawn, and the tea has been replaced in front of you, this is about to start the office, Jiang Tian pondered to see what is the difference between his Chinese dynasty and others, whether it is on TV or in film and television novels, there are many descriptions of this scene, in fact, those are just speculations of later generations, and no one has seen what it really looks like. Anyway, it is nothing more than the cabinet to put the things that they can't do on the table, let everyone discuss a charter, and finally the emperor makes a decision to hand over the palm seal to the eunuch to stamp and issue, which is the basic process of the Ming Dynasty. But the Chinese Dynasty is different, first of all, although the celebrant still has zài, he no longer has the right to approve the folds, at most he is in charge of the jade seal. Secondly, this emperor is not the kind of young master who grew up in the deep palace, and he knows more clearly than some officials about various problems and public opinion among the people, so it is absolutely not easy to fool, and the most important point is that most of the twists and turns in many times are handed over to the cabinet after the emperor reads it first, and this order is the opposite of the Ming Dynasty, and the power of the cabinet is also not as good as before.

Working under such an emperor, many officials remembered Zhu Hongwu in the early Ming Dynasty, who was also the founding emperor of the country, and he was also a pro-man, but the one in front of him was quite kind, and there were not so many bad things that were mean and unkind, but this was only just the founding of the country, who knew that after more than ten years, the world would be stable, and this Emperor Zhang would follow the great deeds of Emperor Zhu? The emperor was very pragmatic, and he thought that it would be a waste to brutally kill the prisoners, and that it would be better to put the prisoners into never-ending labor in order to extract the last bit of surplus value.

"Cao Mo, the autumn harvest has passed, have you counted the output and storage of this year's grain?" After having eaten enough, the emperor went straight to work.

The named Hubu Shangshu hurriedly got up and replied: "Your Majesty, this year is still a continuous natural disaster, although the promotion of cold-tolerant new crops has begun, but the yield has not yet recovered, fortunately, this year's disaster area is still reduced, the problem of wintering should not be big, but the grain stored by the central government and the ration of the local army may have a big gap." ”

This problem is a dead knot, in history China survived the Xiaoice era one is to rely on corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and other foreign crops, and the second is because the Manchu Qing Dynasty carried out massacres throughout the country, the total population fell below 100 million, many large landowners in Jiangnan were slaughtered as fat sheep to eat meat, disguised guidance zhì land redistribution, the north was influenced by the northeast Han people on the cultivation technology of cold areas. Under the interaction of various conditions, this is the so-called prosperous era of Kangqian, in fact, that kind of prosperous era can not even compare with the output value of the ordinary years of the Ming Dynasty. Jiang Tian knew that he couldn't take care of this problem, so others talked about it for a long time, and he remained silent. In the end, it was decided to scavenge as much autumn grain as possible from Southeast Asia, and even if the import price has risen a little recently, it is necessary to ensure a stable supply throughout the country.

When it comes to money, this Cao Shangshu still has a bitter stomach: "Your Majesty, although Dagu has been opened for trade and tariffs have begun to be levied, the whole country is spending money like water, and there will probably be more than three million taels of vacancies this year!" ”

As soon as this matter was mentioned, all the officials were silent, they were saint disciples who were ashamed to talk about money, even if they wanted to talk, they didn't know how to solve it, according to Confucius's theory of governing the country, it was best that the people were self-sufficient and didn't need to do business at all, even if the hard-nosed Taoist Mr. knew that without the merchants, he would have to drink the northwest wind, but he couldn't seem to be full of copper smell, so he simply shut up about this matter.

Seeing that it was cold, Tian Xuhai's father, Shangshu Tian Yue glanced at Jiang Tian, and then turned his head as if nothing had happened, "Lord Jiang doesn't know what to say?" ”

Jiang Tian didn't know Tian Yu, but he could see that this old man was not at ease, a newcomer to officialdom like him didn't know all kinds of inside information, how could he give a suitable solution, this was obviously a dismount!

As soon as he wanted to shirk a few words, he heard Emperor Zhang coax there: "Brother Xian, but it doesn't hurt to say, I have always encouraged speeches here." ”

Do you think this is an intra-party democratic meeting? Jiang Tian slandered this senior, what encouragement did he have to speak, should I shout two slogans? In fact, he and Liu Baokai once discussed this issue, although the pervert knows nothing about the economy, and when he talks about this, he also talks about it as government lace news, but it reveals a lot of useful details, such as last year, the treasury was unable to make ends meet, and the emperor took money from the inner treasury to make up for it, but how much private money does the emperor have? No one knows this, but in today's dynasty, all taxes go to the public, and the emperor's inner treasury has no salt tax subsidy, so what does the emperor rely on to make money? So there was folk speculation that before Li Zicheng and the Manchus could take away the silver they had scavenged, they were led by the king of Ji of the dynasty to break through the city of Beijing, and the legendary huge amount of tens of millions of taels disappeared.

Seeing that everyone was staring at him with a good look, Jiang Tian knew that today's level was passed, but he had to pass! So he also learned to stand up when others spoke: "Your Majesty, my lords. This treasury can't collect money...... It can also be regarded as the old drawbacks of the previous dynasty, and various methods are endless, but they can be classified as nothing more than opening up sources and reducing expenditure. This throttle is very easy to understand, don't spend the money you can not spend, don't spend more if you can spend less, I think you must have a clear account. ”

Several bigwigs all showed a vague smile, whether this kid is fame or cautious, it seems that at least he doesn't have to worry about affecting himself in political affairs.

Jiang Tian glanced at them, and then changed his words: "However, throttling is not a good policy after all, the imperial court still has to think more about how to open source, Zhang Taiyue of the previous dynasty...... You must be familiar with it, right? ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone's eyes became fierce, who is Zhang Taiyue? The famous Zhang Juzheng! If Wang Yangming is the first in the Ming ideological circle, then in the political reform circle, it is Zhang Juzheng who has been shining for 500 years! Without this god, the Ming Dynasty would have perished long ago, and there would have been no reforms of Yongzheng later. But few civil officials worship him, the reason is very simple, that is, this real reformer put a knife on the neck of the civil official group, and wanted to cut this group of moths for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, but he didn't expect that history was so helpless, and this knife failed to cut to the end after all.

Although the emperor is also a traverser, after all, he has been in the Ming Dynasty longer than Jiang Tian, who is Zhang Taiyue in the way of nature, and he also understands why the civil officials look solemn as if they are facing a great enemy, he saw that Jiang Tian seemed to have signs of pause, so he shouted in a deep voice: "Go on!" ”

In fact, Jiang Tian doesn't want to say it anymore, speaking of which, it has been very clear to give these bigwigs a signal, although I am a novice in officialdom, but I am not an idiot who doesn't understand anything, you are most afraid of everyone knows, don't mess with me, otherwise you will break up!

"Minister...... Yes, sir! "The emperor has spoken, you can't say it, fortunately, Jiang Tian once studied this problem: "Zhang Juzheng once implemented a whip law to unify the national tax burden at a silver discount, which was a good policy for the benefit of the country and the people at that time, but unfortunately the old gentleman was short-sighted after all, and also laid the groundwork for the financial collapse of the Ming court." ”

When he said this, he thought that the emperor who was going to be angry about the land and the test score was stuck, didn't he want to implement land reform? Let's listen to what he has to say. As for those civil officials, they secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and it seemed that they had not yet torn their faces. It's no wonder that these people are so timid, fools know that the emperor has always wanted to attack the landlords, and they know better than anyone how strict the civil land annexation is, because few of those high-ranking officials in the former Ming Dynasty were not super big landlords. It's just that in order to maintain the basic stability of the country, the emperor has never found an excuse to start, which is also the unanimous consensus of the entire civil and official group, that is, never to discuss the issue of land ownership with his boss. Since everyone is relieved, let's continue to listen to Jiang Tianshenkan, whether it is useful or not, anyway, I will praise two sentences, which can be regarded as a temporary reconciliation between the two sides.

“…… During the Wanli period, a whip law stipulates that thousands of copper are exchanged for silver taels, and the people's taxes are calculated in silver, but since the Longqing switch, Western merchant ships from South America carry silver to our country to replace porcelain, silk, tea and spices in the South Seas, and then transfer back to Europe, resulting in a large amount of silver in our country every year, according to ...... According to the teacher's estimates, one-third of the world's silver production has been sucked into this bottomless pit, and the domestic silver price has plummeted to the price of 500 wen for one tael in the last years of Chongzhen! If the tax is still paid according to the silver taels, the state tax has been reduced by half due to the exchange rate change! In addition, the merchants who held a large amount of cash had almost no need to pay taxes, although the various apportionments and extortions of the former Ming officials did not benefit the small people, but the money was only transferred from the merchants to the officials, and the imperial court did not benefit from it...... If the commercial tax is reformulated, the relationship between the commercial management organization and taxation is clarified, the taxes payable are stipulated, the local apportionment is abolished, and the silver that flows into the pockets of corrupt officials and corrupt officials is recharged into the state treasury, even if the agricultural tax is exempted for a few years, the silver can still be exhausted! ”

This passage is not a lot of words, the amount of information is huge, and Rao is old fritter who is up and down in the sea is a little unable to keep up with the rhythm. But the basic meaning is that they understand it, that is, if anyone stands in the way of reforming the commercial tax, it is a heinous traitor who will bring disaster to the country and the people, they know that although this emperor has created a rebellion in the Ming Dynasty, but Emperor Zhang is still full of feelings for the cheap old man Zhu Youzhen, and always intentionally or unintentionally said two good words for this dead king. As for topics such as what is exempt from agricultural tax, the country can still collect money normally, these people automatically ignore it, the three emperors and five emperors to this day, without agricultural tax, the country can still save zài, not a single one! This is a question of historical limitations.

Ning Jiao, the head of the cabinet, who had never spoken, stroked his white goatee and asked calmly: "Jiang Shaobao has a good plan in his chest?" ”

Jiang Tian nodded, then shook his head again. Others thought he was playing tricks, but Emperor Zhang saw it.

"In that case, let the queen go on alone!"

The officials are even more bottomless in their hearts, the two brothers and sisters really have a tacit understanding when they sing and harmonize, no wonder the emperor values his junior brother so much, just a few simple words can make his people go up and down, and think about the analysis just now, the economic problems that no one is aware of can be interpreted as the conditions for the fall of the Ming Dynasty. As for terms such as the exchange rate and the super, even if you don't understand it, you're embarrassed to ask. It seems that no one should be bored on the topic of silver, but the master of other people has been adrift for half his life in business with the barbarians overseas, and when it comes to the circulation of silver, these people are not opponents when it comes to the circulation of silver.

Hu Jingyi had already suffered a dumb loss just now, and gave the red mansion to Jiang Tian, in fact, he had always wanted to see the joke in his heart, but it turned out to be a joke, at this time, he was a little embarrassed to see all the gentlemen, so he wanted to change the atmosphere and also gloated a little, although the petty officials outside didn't know the scene in the study, but he didn't mind spreading it out by himself, so that he could also dilute a lot of his own chicken stealing rice and rice.

"There is one more thing about the minister, a few years ago, His Majesty ordered the re-publication of the official printing of the Four Books and the Five Classics, but so far the printing plate has been slow to engrave, and it may be difficult to complete all the books this year!"

This thing is not big, it is not small, it seems to be very appropriate to use it to diverge the conversation, the change of a dynasty, the most important code name is the book with the text, the car with the track, cancel some taboos of the previous dynasty and rearrange the four books and five classics is also reasonable, but the problem is obvious, even if it is just a small repair, the engraving printing still has to be re-stereotyped piece by piece, not that your emperor can be fast when he says a word.

"Didn't I order the use of movable copper type printing? Why did you get back to engraving? ”

Hu Jing knew that there would be such a question early on, so he replied calmly: "Your Majesty, the number of copper movable characters is limited, it is difficult to use at the same time, and most of the copper materials are used in the army to supplement slowly, so in order to ensure the progress, I have to re-engrave the plate." ”

The emperor is also a little embarrassed, copper is the main raw material for casting cannons, and China has always lacked super-large-scale copper mines, and it will be really difficult to solve this problem for a while. But when the emperor caught a glimpse of Jiang Tian's equally thoughtful expression, he was a little angry. How can you, an expert, be speechless on this issue? Just now I was counting on you to put the land issue on the table, why did you forget the tried-and-true land reform in your hometown? I have to talk about some business tax.

"Senior brother, you are also a member of the Academy of Sciences, do you have a good plan?"

"Copper movable type is scarce, so use lead movable type?" Jiang Tian couldn't understand how such a simple question could stump this senior.

As a result, the whole room was happy, and the emperor just smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Do you think I can't think of it?" Back then, I tried to produce a batch of lead movable type, but the ink was difficult to color, and after changing the ink, it would be completely blurred if it could not be printed a few times, and a movable type would have to be recast if it could not be used ten times, which was very troublesome! ”

Jiang Tian was dumbfounded this time, he hadn't heard that the life span of the lead characters in the future generations was so short!

Hu Jingyi came to the spirit at this time, he didn't expect that Jiang Tian, who had advanced with science and technology, would capsize on technical issues, so he hurriedly played: "Chen Bao raised Lord Jiang to make a new movable type, I think he must be able to catch it!" ”