Yang Cong's words were like a morning bell at dusk, waking up Xu Jie, Zhang Bangqi and others, if the landlords and gentry and the official eunuchs continued to embezzle state taxes, the Ming Dynasty might really embark on the road of national destruction.

Of course, this result is what they don't want to see, and no one wants the Ming Dynasty to embark on the road to ruin.

Therefore, they expressed their full support for Zhang Juzheng's implementation of a whip law, and at the same time took this opportunity to crack down on those landlords and gentry and official eunuchs who hurt the public and private interests, so that they could spit out all the embezzled state taxes.

As soon as the new policy came out, the Ming dynasty and the opposition did set off a lot of storms, and many court officials and even local officials played one after another, criticizing Zhang Juzheng for various reasons, and imploring Yongqing to suspend the new policy.

It's a pity that Yongqing was unmoved at all, and Qingliu led by Zhang Bangqi, Xu Jie, and Mao Bowen also expressed their full support for Zhang Juzheng, and the new policy could not be shaken at all with the support of these people.

As for Zhang Juzheng himself, he did even more desperately, he soon played Yongqing, and asked Qian Hairui and Yang Jisheng to be the right deputy capital of the Imperial Palace, one is responsible for patrolling eight provinces in the southwest and southeast, and the other is responsible for patrolling eight provinces and one capital in the northwest and northeast, specifically inspecting the implementation of the new policy, but those who violate or even fail to act will be dismissed from their posts and investigated.

This time, it is even more incredible, the innovative forces headed by Zhang Juzheng and the conservative forces led by the official eunuch family are suddenly like fire and water, and the two sides come and go, and they are very happy.

Of course, with the support of Yongqing and Qingliu, the reform forces led by Zhang Juzheng had a clear upper hand from the beginning, and the conservative forces led by the official eunuch family could only be regarded as a dying struggle at best.

It was at this time that Yang Cong came to the Qianqing Palace again and officially asked to see Emperor Yongqing.

Yongqing really has nothing to say about this teacher, and it is never an exaggeration to describe it as obedient to words, if Yang Cong is willing, even if he comes to the Qianqing Palace every day, and asks Yongqing to do everything according to what he says, Yongqing probably will not have any opinions.

It's a pity that Yang Cong has rarely come to him since Yongqing became the emperor, and Yang Cong has not been to the Qianqing Palace a few times.

This teacher finally came to a trip, Yongqing was naturally overjoyed, he even dropped the brush in his hand, ran directly to the door of the imperial study to welcome Yang Cong in, and personally moved a chair for Yang Cong, asked the teacher to sit down, then climbed back to the dragon chair, and said excitedly: "Teacher, you can be regarded as free to teach students, these days, my head is big, senior brother, they are fighting fiercely with those corrupt officials and corrupt officials, I don't know what to do." ”

After that, he directly picked up a stack of folds and said as if offering a treasure: "Teacher, you see, these are all impeachment of senior brothers, you say, should I stay in the middle and not ask or directly reprimand them?" ”

Seeing this, Yang Cong couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly: "These twists and turns, Lord Zhang, Lord Xu and Master Mao have all written their votes, right?" Weichen thought that these adults were still quite fair, and the emperor would just deal with them directly according to their votes. Weichen didn't look for the emperor this time for this matter. ”

"Oh?"

When Yongqing heard this, he put down the fold in his hand stupidly, and then said curiously: "Teacher, then what are you coming to me for?" ”

Yang Cong pondered for a moment, and then asked seriously: "Your Majesty, have you ever thought about why there is so little silver found in Yan Song's mansion?" ”

The silver found in Yan Song's mansion is actually not small, millions of taels, at this time, the entire Ming Dynasty, can have millions of taels of assets, and they can be counted on one hand.

A few million taels is already a very terrifying thing, but compared to the total amount of Yan Song's corruption, a few million taels is indeed nothing, because other antiques, calligraphy and paintings and field shops are worth tens of millions of taels.

Yongqing really didn't think about this problem, just raiding Yan Song's mansion made him earn tens of millions of taels, he was so excited that he almost didn't go crazy, how could he think about whether it was silver, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, or field shops.

He was a little embarrassed and said, "I really didn't pay attention to this. ”

Yang Cong then asked: "Your Majesty, do you know how much arable land we have in the Ming Dynasty?" ”

When Yongqing heard this, he hurriedly said as if offering a treasure: "This I know that according to the latest inventory results of Senior Brother Taiyue, we have more than 9 million hectares of cultivated land in Daming. ”

Yang Cong nodded slightly, and then said solemnly: "More than 9 million hectares is more than 900 million mu, calculated according to the average annual output of two stone grains per mu, that is nearly 2 billion stones, and then calculated according to the average price of two stone grains and one tael of silver, that is nearly one billion taels, Your Majesty, do you know how much money we have in the Ming Dynasty and how much silver we have now?" ”

How can this Yongqing know, and not all the money in the world is in the hands of the imperial court, you must know that even after Zhang Juzheng implemented a whip law, the tax revenue of the imperial court is only more than four million taels a year.

He was a little embarrassed and said, "This, this, I don't know very well. ”

Yang Cong continued to say seriously: "It's normal for the emperor not to be clear, in fact, Wechen is not very clear, however, Wechen roughly estimated, at this time, the silver of the entire Ming Dynasty will never exceed 300 million taels, and as for the money, it will never exceed 100 million taels, that is to say, according to the calculation of one tael of silver, the money circulating in the market in the entire Ming Dynasty at this time is less than 400 million taels." ”

Four hundred million taels!

Yongqing couldn't help but exclaim: "We Daming have so much money? ”

When Yang Cong heard this, he couldn't help but shake his head and smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, do you think 400 million taels is a lot?" You must know that the grain produced by Daming alone is worth about one billion taels every year, as well as tea, porcelain, cloth, ironware, salt, etc., etc., all kinds of goods add up, at least worth 10 billion taels! If you count the value of fields, mines, shops, houses, cattle, sheep and horses, and even ships, dragon carts and other bulk items, it is estimated that tens of billions of taels cannot be stopped. ”

Tens of billions of taels!

Yongqing couldn't help but say: "Are we Daming so rich?" ”

Yang Cong nodded slowly and said: "If you have to calculate it seriously, our Daming is indeed so rich, but when it comes to this money, it is useless to pay lip service, there must be enough silver and money to circulate in the market to prove the value of these things." Otherwise, everyone just knows the price, but can't come up with so much money to buy it, which is also fake. It's like the antique calligraphy and paintings copied from Yan Song's mansion, the value is indeed more than 10 million taels, but it has to be sold for more than 10 million taels, if it is not sold, it is just a bunch of playthings and waste paper. ”

This one?

When Yongqing heard this, he frowned and pondered for a long time, but he still couldn't figure out what his mentor Yang Cong meant.

He was a little ashamed and said, "Teacher, the student is stupid, what do you mean by this?" The student doesn't understand. ”

I don't understand, it's normal, few people have been able to figure this problem out these days.

Yang Cong patiently explained: "The meaning of Weichen is actually very simple, we are short of money, quite short of money, think about it, if tens of billions of goods are circulated in the market, how much money is needed?" That's billions of taels! We don't have so much money at all, so this business is not easy to do, just like those antiques, calligraphy and paintings, there is no money, the goods are still goods, many times everyone can only barter, so the business is quite troublesome. ”

Does this mean that Daming is short of money?

Of course, this lack of money does not mean that the Ming Dynasty is poor and has nothing, but that the Ming Dynasty does not have enough silver and copper coins to circulate in the market.