In the past, there was no principle that the minority obeyed the majority, but the ministers put forward their opinions, and then the emperor made the decision. Of course, if some officials think that the emperor's ruling is not appropriate, then he can also confront the emperor to the death, even if the majority of the people at the court support the emperor.

After all, in the eyes of these officials, they are asking for the lives of the people, and they have the backing of hundreds of millions of people behind them, even if they do not get support at the court meeting, the truth is in their hands.

However, since the emperor abolished the power to dismiss the decree in the matter, this pattern of stalking has gradually fallen out of fashion. And at the Council of State. The emperor basically obeyed the principle of the minority obeying the majority, and except for a very few affairs, he would adopt the mode of dictatorship.

As a result of this change in the mode of deliberation, ministers attending the Council of State have basically ceased to regard their opinions as decorations, and they have become much more enthusiastic in speaking and voting than in the past. Of course, behind this change in decision-making methods, it means that the decision-making status of the State Council has been higher than that of the cabinet, and the State Council has become the highest decision-making body in the Ming Dynasty.

In the past, although the court meeting was a place for the ministers to discuss government affairs with the emperor, the decisions made by the court were not higher than the decisions of the cabinet, and even sometimes the emperor was forced to recognize the decisions of the court meeting, and often reversed them afterwards and revised them through the cabinet.

The institutionalization of the State Council not only helped the emperor to further centralize power, but in a certain way, it also allowed the officials of the Ming Dynasty to pass the decisions of the State Council without the approval of the emperor, so as to transform them into national guidelines and policies. Therefore, for Ming officials, the system of the State Council still has more advantages than disadvantages, even Liu Zongzhou, Zuo Guangxian, and other former Donglin Party members, can not challenge this emerging political decision-making system head-on, after all, this system protects the interests of most senior officials.

Therefore, after the vote, the majority of those who stood in opposition to the seigniorage bill, although dissatisfied with the result, could only claim that they would not change their position, rather than not let the meeting continue. Because that meant that the emperor did not need to continue to consult with them, but could issue orders directly through the cabinet.

Zhu Youzhen ignored the gloomy losers below, and continued to advance his will in an orderly manner, "Since the majority of people have chosen to support the passage of the coinage bill, then the cabinet, the household department, and the three banks will officially issue a report after they go back to study how the official text will be issued."

In addition to stepping up the formulation and implementation of this coinage bill, the Ministry of Households, together with the Prime Minister's Yamen managed by Feng Quan, will hold consultations with the current Ming overseas member countries and the member countries of the ASEAN Association, and discuss the opening of settlement accounts in the Daming Central Bank, so as to further simplify the settlement methods of trade between us and other countries.

The Ministry of Household Affairs and the Prime Minister's Yamen should assist Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam, and other countries in establishing central banks of various countries, and require these central banks to transport their gold and silver reserves to the treasury of the Daming Central Bank in Beijing. This is also the best way for overseas vassals to show goodwill and submission to the Ming Dynasty, and this matter will be hosted by the Prime Minister's Yamen, and the Ministry of Households and the Central Bank will each send people to co-organize..."

For the emperor's request, the officials present finally breathed a sigh of relief, and asked these overseas vassals to deposit money in the banks of the Ming Dynasty, which was a good thing, and also provided some guarantees for the previous coinage bill. Even if the emperor embezzled the deposits in the bank, there would always be deposits from these vassal states to fill the gap. Everyone expressed their approval of this article, and even Zuo Guangxian did not question it.

But after a period of relaxation, there are still a lot of doubts, under the emperor's repeated operations, the bank's reserves of gold and silver are sufficient, but if there is no source of food, the paper money printed with these gold and silver as the principal in addition to pushing up the price in the market, in fact, can not solve the dilemma of the large-scale disaster faced by the Ming Dynasty.

Many people have secretly speculated whether the emperor really intends to abandon the victims in other unimportant areas. Just when these officials were speculating, Zhu Youzhen continued: "The bank has enough gold and silver as capital, and what can be solved is only the shortage of money in the market, but it cannot solve the shortage of grain in the market.

But with enough money, at least we have more means to solve the problem. Judging from the results of last year's disaster response, there is still a lot of room for grain imports from overseas. Last year, we only used the maritime transportation capacity under the control of the imperial court, but the maritime transportation capacity of the private sector and the maritime transportation capacity of overseas countries were not fully mobilized.

The reason for this situation is that we have been controlling the price of grain in the country in order to balance the price of goods, and these foreign merchant ships and civilian merchant ships feel that it is unprofitable, so they would rather enter our Daming port empty-handed than sell grain from afar, because this may cause them to lose money.

Therefore, in order to mobilize this part of the transport capacity, I thought it was necessary to adjust the price of grain from now on, and only when the price of grain rose to the point of profitability, these merchants would not come empty. Therefore, I asked the grain bureau under the name of the household department to study the room for grain price rise and come up with a means to raise grain prices, is there a problem with Guo Shangshu? ”

Guo Yunhou naturally has no problem, but Qian Qianyi was a little worried, and he said to Chongzhen: "After such a disaster last year, this year's grain prices are not low, and now it is a time when there is a shortage of green and yellow, and if we continue to raise food prices, will it cause panic in the market in advance." When the wealthy families are reluctant to sell food, and if the people can't buy food, the minister is worried that this chaos will come early. ”

Zhu Youzhen replied expressionlessly: "What is the matter with the establishment of a judicial organ by the state? Isn't it used at this time? Hui Shangshu, you ordered the Criminal Department to send inspection officials to the provinces, and for those who are still trying to hoard at this time, no matter who is involved behind them, they will be arrested and investigated first.

In addition, in the past, we adopted a tax-free policy for grain ships, but now it seems that this preferential condition is still somewhat insufficient. This year, a certain subsidy should be given to the ships transporting grain to Daming, and the size of the subsidy and the length of time it will last will be investigated by the Ministry of Household and the Prime Minister's Yamen and reported to me for review. ”

Just when these officials were still shocked by the emperor's large amount of money, Zhu Youzhen continued at this time: "The grain bureau should set up transit warehouses at each port, so that after the big ships transport grain ashore, we can quickly transfer it through those small boats sailing near the shore, so as not to waste capacity..."

After Zhu Youzhen said several key points on how to transport and store grain in one breath, he suddenly mentioned Tian Yang's name, and the minister of postal transportation immediately walked out of the prelude. When he was thinking about what task he would be assigned, Zhu Youzhen had already asked him: "The optical telegraph from Yizhou to Beijing has been able to operate stably, so how long will it take to connect Nanjing-Beijing, Lanzhou-Xi'an-Luoyang-Beijing, Fengzhen-Datong-Beijing, Wuhan-Beijing?" ”

Tian Yang subconsciously replied: "Fengzhen-Datong-Beijing, Nanjing-Beijing, Luoyang-Beijing, these three lines have been almost completed, but the other lines are still only on the planning drawings?" ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said to him: "Before June, I will not only complete these three routes, but also the section of Xi'an-Luoyang. After June, the movements of these places could not be transmitted to the capital through optical telegraphs, so I will ask you, do you understand? ”

Tian Yang's heart suddenly became smart, and he hurriedly replied: "The minister will definitely personally supervise and ensure that His Majesty can receive information from these regions at any time after June." ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen call the names of Wu Chunfu, Li Banghua, and Fan Jingwen and said: "The cash-for-work affairs you handled last year were quite good, but this year it seems that this scale will continue to expand. If you want to calm the emotions of the victims, it is important to give them something to do, and I hope that when you go back, you will reorganize the various local projects to be built this year, and come up with a budget, so that the cabinet can readjust the scale of the projects and increase the allocation. What questions do you have? ”

The three ministers looked at each other, and had no opinion on the task assigned by the emperor, and they all agreed. It was only at this time that everyone truly confirmed that the emperor's previous act of confiscating the gold and silver of the people was indeed not to satisfy his own enjoyment, but to deal with the natural disasters that may arise at present.

With this realization, the officials who had previously resisted the coinage bill were much more relieved. Seeing the emperor's appearance as if he was facing a great enemy, they finally began to get nervous and completely focused on the task they were going to be responsible for.

And Chongzhen's confident roll call and assignment of tasks also made the situation that everyone thought was unimaginable just now, and gradually saw a glimmer of hope for a breakthrough. For example, Sun Chuanting, Zheng Zhilong and other officials who trust Chongzhen more feel that after such an arrangement, as long as they are implemented one by one, what the imperial court can do is probably more than a minimum goal.

Seeing that there was hope for the matter to be resolved, the voice of opposition was reduced, and there were even people who were able to supplement the emperor's proposal. At the end of the day's meeting, it was about two o'clock in the afternoon, and seeing that many of the older officials were already a little out of energy, Zhu Youzhen announced the end of the meeting.

However, he still ordered Wang Chengen to retain Sun Chuanting, Zheng Zhilong, Qian Qianyi, Wen Tiren, and Guo Yunhou, and ordered them to go to Xiyuan Jingshe to continue their deliberations.

Of course, after arriving at the Xiyuan Retreat, Zhu Youzhen still entertained these hungry ministers to eat a bowl of noodles, which was regarded as filling their stomachs.

After Chongzhen and these ministers finished eating the noodles and asked them to remove the utensils, they took a few sips of hot tea to moisten their throats, and then said to them bluntly: "I didn't mention the tasks to be undertaken by the army in the palace just now, because there were many people talking about it at that time, and some things should not be spread.

I believe that in this year's drought relief operation, the responsibility of the army is the most important and the key to not having problems. That's why I brought you to Xiyuan and talked about it privately..."

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