Before the carriage arrived at Deshengmen, Huang Liji picked out the most important affairs that had happened in the capital in the past two months, and made a brief report to Chongzhen.

Although Chongzhen's departure from the capital made the nobles and officials in the city a little panicked, and even some of the faint nobles ran to make friends with Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu, and Zhu Changhao, the king of Rui, who stayed in the capital, and wanted to take precautions.

Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu, who had fought countless times with the Donglin party, knew what was wrong, and since Chongzhen left the capital, he closed his door and only drank and had fun in the mansion. After all, if Chongzhen really had an accident, as long as he stayed in the capital as the head of the clan, no one would be able to bypass him and play any conspiracy.

But if he meets privately with those nobles at this time, not to mention whether Chongzhen will have doubts about him after returning to the capital. In case Chongzhen can't come back, those Donglin party members will also use his private collusion with Xungui to exclude him from the discussion of the right to inherit the throne.

Compared with King Fu's caution, King Rui Zhu Changhao couldn't see the situation clearly. He was not a favored prince himself, and he only went to the feudal Hanzhong in the seventh year of the Apocalypse. Before he stayed in Hanzhong for two years, he was brought back to the capital by Chongzhen. The capital is not Hanzhong, Zhu Changhao can show off his power in Hanzhong and accumulate wealth, but in the capital he is just an idle clan.

Although Zhu Changhao doesn't love women, it doesn't mean that he doesn't like to enjoy. Although the entertainment industry in the capital has been hit by Chongzhen many times, all kinds of newly invented daily necessities have emerged one after another. New things such as four-wheeled carriages, glassware, various leather fur suits, and wooden furniture sucked Zhu Changhao's silver deposit into it like countless black holes.

The output of the fiefdom in Hanzhong was not enough for Zhu Changhao's expenses in the capital for a year. In fact, he is planning to transform his mansion into a new building that is now the most popular in the capital, with water and water pipes and a separate bathroom, and by the way, the furniture in the room will also be changed.

Although Zhu Changhao still has a lot of stocks in his hands, he is reluctant to sell them, and always wants to find another way to get rich. The initiative of these nobles to come to the door has become his new source of wealth. Zhu Changhao's fanfare in receiving the visiting dignitaries made everyone in the cabinet very vigilant. Huang Liji not only personally came forward to warn those nobles who went to visit Zhu Changhao, but also ordered Jinyi Wei to protect Zhu Changhao's mansion.

Seeing that Chongzhen didn't care about the actions of the two clans, Huang Liji immediately said again: "King Gui Chang Chan wrote in the middle of the year, saying that the apse of King Gui's mansion, which was built only the year before last, collapsed for the first time on the eighth day of September last year, and when the beam fell, it grazed King Gui's right arm and almost stoned King Gui to death.

King Gui couldn't stand the pleading of the eunuch Huang Yong and Gao Daosu, the director of the Ministry of Works, and accepted six thousand taels of silver from the two of them. But on the third day of March this year, after several days of heavy rain, the main hall of the palace also collapsed, and the six palace maids who were serving in the palace were crushed to death.

King Gui was very angry at that time, and he wrote to impeach Huang Yong, the eunuch who supervised the construction of the palace, and Gao Daosu, the director of the Ministry of Industry and Camp Division, who presided over the construction of the palace, and asked His Majesty for justice. His Majesty instructed his ministers to send someone to investigate, and now there is a reply. The collapse of King Gui's Mansion is indeed not a natural disaster but **. The eunuch Huang Yong and the principal Gao Daosu not only chose the site unwell, but also secretly changed the materials, and there were not only patchwork wood in the beams and columns used in the palace, but also rotten wood.

Now King Gui asks His Majesty to allocate funds again for the construction of King Gui's Mansion, or..."

"Or what?" Zhu Youzhen raised his eyebrows and asked.

Huang Li carefully observed Chongzhen's face and said, "King Gui requested, or according to the practice of King Fu and King Rui, that he be allowed to return to the capital to live. ”

Zhu Youzhen pursed his lips and said: "The treasury is empty, where will the silver come from to repair the Guiwang Mansion." Having said that, how much did it cost to repair this Guiwang Mansion? ”

Huang Liji replied casually: "Back to Your Majesty, since the second year of the Apocalypse, a total of 500,000 taels have been spent one after another. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said: "First take Huang Yong and Gao Daosu into custody, seize their family property, and then let them return the silver taels." If you get 500,000 taels, you will be given a light sentence, and if you can't even make up half of them, you will be convicted of corruption. As for King Gui's request, he was allowed to return to Beijing to live, and King Gui's fief was managed by the Ministry of Households. ”

Huang Liji suddenly said a little anxiously: "Your Majesty, now there are two vassal kings in the capital, plus the King of Shu and King Gui who are still staying in Suzhou, there will be four vassal kings in the capital in the future." According to the ancestral system, although the vassal kings could enter the capital, they could not live in the capital for a long time, nor could they meet each other, which was a big taboo. ”

Zhu Youzhen said with disdain: "Just them and those guards around them? What else can they do but oppress the good and amass money?

To put them in the feudal country is to harm the local people. If you get them all to the capital, they will be in awe and dare not do anything wrong. Besides, after leaving the feudal country, where do they still raise guards, and now it is not the year of Jingjing, why should Mr. be so worried. ”

Huang Liji looked at Chongzhen and said: "But these vassal kings are all elders of His Majesty except for the King of Shu, if they join forces to put pressure on Your Majesty, I am afraid that there will be many twists and turns in this matter of taking over the palace Zhuangtian." The city thought it was better to say that they were well isolated. ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said: "I summoned them into the capital to let my uncles enjoy a good time in the capital, and now I have summoned them to the capital to isolate them, isn't it a statement to the people of the world that I am not only untrustworthy, but also mean and unkind."

Even if they are contacted in the capital, it will be nothing, and then the world will know that I have done my duty, and I will not complain about my disrespect to my three uncles. What's more, they are all connected under our noses, can't Mr. and I find some clues?

Let him come and see what waves they can make in the capital. As far as I am concerned, if there is really a person in the clan who is as majestic as Emperor Chengzu, I am very willing to abdicate and make way for the virtuous and live the life of a rich idler. ”

Although Zhu Youzhen said very high-mindedly in front of Huang Liji, he knew very well in his heart that it was impossible for such a clan to exist in the late Ming Dynasty, otherwise the Han people would not have a 300-year history of darkness and decline.

Without waiting for Huang Liji to react, Zhu Youzhen had already changed the topic, "In this way, in the more than 2 months since I left the capital, Beijing has been very stable, and there is no big news."

Well, then I would like to discuss with Mr. I, I said to Mr. before I left Beijing that after the establishment of the Grain Bureau under the name of the Ministry of Households, the next step should be to prepare for how to control the flow of grain output in various places. ”

Huang Liji suddenly let go of his previous entanglement with the clan issue, as the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty, after getting Chongzhen's authorization, he basically had obtained part of the power. And after having power, the ensuing responsibility also weighed on him.

For Huang Liji, the number one problem he faces is the problem of transporting grain from the south to the north. The northern provinces, which already have low grain production, have become more dependent on food production in the south under the influence of climate and disasters in recent years.

Failure to bring enough food from the south, or to solve the problem of food production in the north, would lead to instability in the northern provinces. As the head of the cabinet representing the northern gentry, it is natural that he will lose the support of the northern gentry bureaucracy, and eventually let officials who can solve the food problem come to power.

With Huang Liji's current status, he naturally does not dare to retreat, otherwise there is a political risk of being liquidated. Therefore, on the issue of grain, he still chose to support the emperor and control the inter-provincial trade of grain.

However, after a few months of trial operation of the Grain Bureau, Huang Liji found that the control of grain inter-provincial transactions could not solve the grain problem in the north, and he said to Chongzhen: "The minister has investigated the grain bureau and local officials in the past few months, and the minister thinks that the establishment of the grain bureau can only let the imperial court understand the scale of grain trade in various places, but it is difficult to control the price of grain."

In the northern provinces, except for Henan, the other provinces are unable to meet self-sufficiency in grain, and Shaanxi and Beizhili have the largest shortage.

The largest grain production in the south is Huguang, Anhui, and Jiangxi, but most of the grain in these places is transported to the Jiangnan region, which is controlled by Taihu Lake and Jiangxi rice merchants.

These rice merchants had close ties with the landlords in the grain-producing areas, and they had the support of the Jiangnan gentry behind them, so they often hoarded the grain they bought until it was green and scarce. If it wanted to get food from them, the imperial court simply did not have so much financial resources.

The Grain Bureau also hoped to deal directly with those landlords and let them sell a part of their grain to the imperial court every year, but these landlords either demanded exorbitant prices or were suspicious of the imperial court, fearing that this was a means for the imperial court to thoroughly investigate their fields.

What the Food Bureau can do now is to change the southern tax grain of the democratic movement in previous years into official transportation, so as to reduce some of the burden on the local people, but with the disaster situation in the northern provinces, this grain can only meet the needs of the border army and a part of the people.

The minister also consulted with the officials of all sides that under the present situation, we should not take drastic measures against these landlords in the south, so as to prevent these southern gentry from protesting, cutting off the transportation of water, and finally causing a situation of food shortages in the north..."

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a long time before he said quietly: "What the ancients said is still good, the mountains and mountains will fall, and the sea and the sea will be done."

As long as the land is not in the hands of the state, then the court will never want to guarantee the supply of grain in the market, and then the court will be subject to those landlords.

If we want to solve the food problem, we still have to solve the land problem first, and if we do not fundamentally solve this problem, the people in the north will not be able to survive sooner or later. ”

Huang Liji subconsciously asked Chongzhen: "What does it mean to dare to ask Your Majesty about the land problem to be solved?" ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Huang Liji, who looked cautious, smiled and said: "The land output in the north is insufficient, mainly due to water conservancy problems, although there is still a lot of undeveloped land in the northern provinces, but these lands cannot be cultivated because there is no water source.

The land in the south is highly productive, but it needs fertilizer and water to drain the water. Another is that most of the land in the south is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, who rely on the preferential treatment given by the imperial court, and even exempt the taxes and grains paid to the state, and some people even put their own taxes and grains on the heads of others.

For example, in the Susong area, most of the arrears are not ordinary people, but local gentry and landlords. These people hold the party of unity in the local area, and even ordinary county orders dare not offend them, how dare the tax collectors come to the door to collect the arrears?

In order to build water conservancy in the north, the land must be redistributed so that most people can benefit from it. In order for the South to break the unspoken rule of the gentry to control the localities and embezzle state taxes, it is necessary to break their monopoly on land..."