Chongzhen, who was sleeping soundly, woke up from Lu Qi's soft call, he reached out and opened the bed tent that blocked the light, and the dim space on the bed suddenly brightened.

"What time is it?" Zhu Youzhen handed the towel that wiped his face to the eunuch who was waiting beside him, and asked Lu Qi casually.

Lu Qi took a cup of fragrant tea from the eunuch on the side and handed it to the emperor and said, "Back to Your Majesty, today is already the 12th." ”

After the hot tea entered his throat, Zhu Youzhen's still somewhat drowsy mind immediately sobered up, and after tasting the sweetness of the tea, he thought for a while and said: "Except for the two trips of the Cabinet and the Navy Staff Headquarters today, everything else will be canceled." In the afternoon, I will get ready to drive, and I will go out of the city to go around the New Army camp. ”

When Chongzhen arrived at the Wenhua Palace, Huang Liji and the cabinet ministers were accustomed to standing at the door of the hall and waiting for him. Zhu Youzhen subconsciously glanced at the pendulum clock placed at the entrance, and found that it was just a moment after nine o'clock, but looking at the spirit of these ministers, they had been doing things for a long time.

Regarding the persistence of these officials in working hours, Zhu Youzhen also felt a little helpless. The officials of the Ming Dynasty have a dispensable attitude towards the efficiency of doing things, but they always hold the time to work, and only when the rooster crows to start working is called diligence.

However, at his constant request, the officials in the capital finally postponed their work to eight o'clock, which was the result of the final compromise between the two sides. The postponement of the work time, for some officials, the cancellation of the court and the postponement of the work time allowed them to focus more on their own work, and let them applaud. But for other officials who are messing around, this is an out-and-out bad government.

Zhu Youzhen finally didn't say anything, and followed Huang Liji and the others into the conference room in the Wenhua Palace. Today was only a normal meeting between him and the Cabinet, and he had received the contents of the meeting the day before, so the process of the meeting went very smoothly.

However, when the normal items of the meeting were about to be discussed, Zhang Ruitu closed the folder in his hand, looked at Chongzhen and said seriously: "Your Majesty, I heard that you are going to Jizhou to preside over a military exercise in a few days?" ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at him and said calmly: "The news you received is correct, to be exact, the day of departure is three days later." ”

Zhang Ruitu frowned and said, "Your Majesty is in danger of the safety of the society, how can you leave the capital so rashly?" Now that Wang Shangshu and Chief Sun have gone to Guanwai, why doesn't Your Majesty sit in the capital to calm the hearts of the people in the world? ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled and said: "What Mr. Zhang said is not right, if my safety is related to the society, then I should go to Jizhou, what better than the officials and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty to protect my safety?" I am the Son of Heaven, not the Son of Heaven in the Forbidden City. ”

Zhang Ruitu tried to continue to say something, but Huang Liji stopped him and pulled the topic away, "Your Majesty is going to Jizhou to preside over this military exercise, and the minister has no opinion." However, the minister hoped that His Majesty would take care of his body and return to the capital at the appointed time. In addition, the ministers and the head of the household have one more thing to report to His Majesty, and ask His Majesty to make a decision. ”

After Zhu Youzhen looked around at the cabinet ministers at the table, he nodded and said, "Mr. Huang and Mr. Guo, please say, what makes you so cautious?" ”

Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou glanced at each other, and the two complemented each other to put forward the proposal of raising the annual salary of officials, and hoped to get some funds from the Prime Minister's Yamen.

Zhu Youzhen took the official annual salary adjustment form from Guo Yunhou's hand, read it carefully, and pondered with his chin on his back. Although the customs revenue this year has exceeded 5 million yuan, the operating expenses of the premier's yamen alone have reached almost 1.1 million yuan, and the subsidies for overseas inspection offices and town guard offices will also cost about 1.6 million yuan, and the remaining surplus is only 2 or 3 million yuan.

These surpluses not only have to subsidize primary school education, but also have to repay some debts for water conservancy and transportation construction, and the remaining funds are only a few hundred thousand. The plan proposed by the Ministry of Household Affairs is tantamount to transferring the remaining surplus, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will no longer benefit from customs and taxation. However, as the total volume of overseas trade continues to increase and the total revenue of customs revenue continues to rise, the current predicament will also be improved.

After thinking about it for a long time, Zhu Youzhen finally said to the long-awaited Guo Yunhou: "I agree in principle with the proposal of the Ministry of Household for the reform of the annual salary of officials. ”

Without waiting for Guo Yunhou and Huang Liji to relax, Zhu Youzhen continued: "However, I don't agree to reform the annual salaries of officials at one time. First, it has put pressure on the spending of the state treasury; Second, the level of economic development in the areas where local officials live is different, and all of them have been changed to monetary annual salaries, which may not be applauded by local officials. In a place like Shaanxi, can you buy food with money?

Therefore, I suggest that the household department readjust its opinions on the reform of the annual salary, first, to investigate and understand the situation in various places, especially to listen to the views of those grassroots officials; the second is to find a few regions for pilots, and then implement them to the whole country when there is no problem; The last point is that the annual salary of the reform should be adjusted to 75% of the opinions, and then increased by 5% every year until the adjustment is in place, so that everyone can have a little hope and less complaints. ”

Regarding the emperor's proposal for revision, the ministers present only felt that they were a little serious and did not feel that there was any problem. In addition to Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou, the other ministers heard about the reform of the New Year for the first time, and although they were a little uncomfortable, they did not have any objections to the reform of the New Year. This is probably the smoothest reform policy adopted by the imperial court since it promoted the reform of the imperial government.

was interrupted by Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou, and the ministers who were still entangled in the emperor leaving the capital again, and felt entangled in their hearts, suddenly ignored the issue of the emperor leaving Beijing, intentionally or unintentionally. After all, after last year's big victory, Chongzhen left the capital to inspect Gyeonggi more frequently, and the tricks used by civil officials to restrain the emperor's actions in the past no longer played a role in Chongzhen.

When the regular meeting ended and the emperor left in the direction of Wuying Hall with his attendants, Guo Yunhou, who had returned to the duty room, remembered the meaning of Chongzhen's words just now, "An increase of 5% every year... Let everyone complain less. Isn't this just the morning and evening? Your Majesty, is this treating officials as monkeys? ”

Guo Yunhou, who understood it, was dissatisfied in his heart, but he quickly suppressed this dissatisfaction, because after thinking for a while, he found that some officials were indeed no different from monkeys, as long as they were given a little sweetness, they would forget the righteousness. Guo Yunhou shook his head, put this unhappiness behind him, buried his head in his desk again, and began to work seriously.

At the second meeting of the Naval Staff Headquarters, the attitudes of Yu Zhigao, Zhang Xie, and other naval staff officers became more serious and serious. On behalf of the Naval Staff Headquarters, Zhang Xie personally explained to the emperor the long-term and short-term plans redrawn by the Naval Staff Headquarters, and made a relatively preliminary deduction on the establishment of the East Asian maritime order proposed by Chongzhen last time, which also included a plan for fighting against Japan.

Zhu Youzhen put down the naval planning documents in his hand and said to everyone: "This plan is not bad, although there are still some missing details, but it is already in line with my expectations for the navy."

However, I still think there are some problems with the war plan you have drawn up against Japan. It's not that this plan isn't detailed enough, it's not that the operational objectives of this plan are not clear, it's just that I read the entire battle plan, and I don't see where you plan to end this war, can anyone explain it to me? ”

Yu Zhigao turned his gaze to Zhang Xie, hoping that this knowledgeable colleague would stand up and answer the emperor's questions, because he really couldn't think of any way to end the war other than to kill or conquer the enemy.

Regarding the question raised by the emperor, Zhang Xie is actually not much better than Yu Zhigao, and he also doesn't know what the answer is, but years of reading and nourishing his qi make him more calm than Yu Zhigao.

Although he didn't know how to answer Chongzhen's question, he still calmly replied to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty once said last time that the highest goal of creating a navy is to establish a new world order, and the short-term goal is to establish a new order in East Asia.

At present, there are two most unstable factors in East Asia, one is the Houjin in Liaodong, and the other is the Japanese archipelago. As for Houjin, we should mainly rely on the army to solve the problem, but for an island country like Japan, which is surrounded by the sea, it is most suitable for our navy to carry out island landing operations.

In order to ensure the establishment of a new order in East Asia, Japan's complete submission to the Ming Dynasty is the most basic condition. Therefore, as for Japan's combat goal, it should be to make Japan lose its ability to fight, so that the Japanese archipelago can be completely controlled by our Ming Dynasty. ”

Zhu Youzhen clapped his hands lightly and said: "President Zhang's logic is still very clear, you are right, in order to establish a new order in East Asia, Japan must be subjugated to the Ming Dynasty."

However, for a country like Japan to submit to the Ming Dynasty, a war alone is not enough. Without political, economic, and cultural infiltration, it would be impossible for Japan to follow us in order to create a new order.

Therefore, when we make plans, we must not have the mentality of taking chances that we will be able to do everything in one go. We should divide a complete goal into small goals and then achieve them one by one.

For example, before Japan submits to Japan, we must first let Japan loosen its control over overseas trade and allow the circulation of Daming banknotes in its country, so as to create an environment for importing political, economic, and cultural influence into Japan..."

Qin Liangyu, the new governor of the Gyeonggi Prefecture, listened with great interest to the discussion between the emperor and the naval staff. It was the first time she had participated in this form of staff meeting, which made her feel very fresh.