(Thank you for the four monthly passes of "Integrity Management to Win the World"!) ）

Ma Mingyuan listened to Zhang Jiayu's words and summed it up in his heart, if he followed what Zhang Jiayu said, it would be a bit operational. His eldest brother Ma Jiyuan has a good relationship with the Donglin Party, and if he starts financially, he has some hope of bringing down Ma Jiyuan.

Ma Mingyuan thought for a while and said, "Okay, then tomorrow's court meeting will have you to bother!" "Ma Mingyuan is now a cloth cloth and is not qualified to participate in the court meeting, so the first shot can only be sent by Guangdong.

However, Ma Mingyuan knew that people would have to give benefits, so he continued: "Yuanzi, the old man promised you that Feng Ziyong can enter the cabinet after the matter is completed!" ”

Ma Mingyuan is still a little wary of the Guangdong faction, although Feng Ziyong has a good relationship with the Guangdong faction, but Feng Ziyong is fundamentally still the Huguang faction. Zhang Jiayu was very dissatisfied when he heard that his Guangdong faction had abolished such a big effort to give a cabinet seat, and he was not a Cantonese person.

"Yuanfu, we have made a great comeback for Shoufu this time, can we give another Shangshu?"

Ma Mingyuan thought about it for a while! People have contributed and given a little less themselves.

"Good! Wang Xian, the governor of Jiangxi, is a forty-four year jinshi of Wanli, and his qualifications and identity are enough, so let's do it! There is a vacancy in the Ministry of Taxation, let him go! ”

Hearing Ma Mingyuan say this, Zhang Jiayu was satisfied and bowed down to leave the Ma Mansion.

Seeing Zhang Jiayu leaving, Ma Mingyuan sent people from the palace to gather his henchmen and prepare for tomorrow.

Early the next morning, the six elders of the cabinet and all the officials above the seventh rank in Beijing went to Fengtianmen for the early court. After all, the emperor has been away for three years, and this is the first large-scale court meeting in three years. In the past, when the emperor was not there, the big court meeting had stopped, and there was only a small court meeting on the fifteenth day of the first month, and it was the prince who was in charge in the first half of the year, and then the prince made a mistake and replaced the first assistant Ma Jiyuan.

Zhu Hongsan, the emperor, is still diligent, and may not be as good as the ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang and the unlucky emperor Chongzhen, but he is much stronger than emperors such as Jiajing and Wanli, probably about the same as Zhu Di.

As soon as the sun jumped out of the horizon, Zhu Hongsan appeared at Fengtianmen, sitting on the dragon chair and waiting for the courtiers to pay their respects. It's already October, and although it's less than freezing, it's already very cold in Nanjing. Zhu Hongsan didn't plan to ask anything, because this kind of court meeting is only ceremonial, probably similar to the news broadcast in later generations, so that the courtiers who can't see the emperor can see, your emperor is alive and well, you have to work hard, the emperor is not blind, your efforts are in the eyes of the emperor, and you will definitely be rewarded in the future.

Of course, it's okay to deceive low-level officials, as long as you become an official with an official position above the squire, that is not an old fritter, knowing that promotion has nothing to do with working hard, and no one in the court, you are tired and tired, and it is just the life of a small official. Of course, the emperor's reception is still somewhat useful to the majority of low-level officials, and some newly promoted officials who have just been admitted to the Jinshi have seen the emperor's amiable greetings to them and let them serve the country more, and their faces are flushed with excitement.

Zhu Hongsan waved his hand after saying his insincere words, and Li Chengen beside him shouted: "Nothing to retreat!" ”

The emperor has already decided to have a small court meeting in the Wenhua Palace, and no one in the court wants to stand here in Fengtianmen in this climate to be frozen, so everyone has no objection, so the early dynasty will end.

After the end of the morning court, it was about seven o'clock, Zhu Hongsan returned to the harem to drink some water, ate breakfast, and then returned to the Wenhua Hall to start the official court meeting.

Because of the emperor's order, there are many people who come to the court today, including the thirteen Shangshu Shilang, Jiuqing Kedao, the Imperial History Yanguan, etc., which will fill the Wenhua Palace.

There are seven chairs at the front, but only six pavilion elders are seated, Zhu Dadian is too old, and he has already resigned and returned to his hometown last year, so the position of pavilion elder is vacant. All the officials who were hoping to enter the cabinet saw the empty chair with burning eyes, and they all knew that today must be the decision to enter the cabinet, so they had already been connected yesterday, and they were waiting for the court to push it today.

After all the officials stood up, the emperor Zhu Hongsan turned out of the apse in the singing harmony of the eunuchs, and all the officials in the hall saluted like a ceremony.

Zhu Hongsan waved his hand and sat down and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have been away for three years, and everything in Beijing depends on you!" Since Chongzhen lost his morality and was occupied by the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the Central Plains for more than seven years, the people of the Central Plains have suffered for many years. In the past, because Guiwang Zhu Youlang went against the central government, I never came to the Northern Expedition. Now that I have swept away Yungui, Zhu Youlang has fled to Burma, and he will be captured soon! That's why I decided to send troops to the Northern Expedition in March of the sixth year of Shenwu! ”

The Northern Expedition is an established national policy, and no one comes out to oppose it at this time, after all, from the country to the individual, the Northern Expedition is beneficial. The country has been in turmoil for more than 20 years, and the Central Plains is withering, and it is time to end the troubled times. For individuals, the Northern Expedition is a good opportunity to make contributions, and when the time comes, why not be promoted to become rich? All the ministers in the hall sang praises one after another, and compared Zhu Hongsan's merits to the three emperors and five emperors, which was really angry with the Qin Emperor and Han Wu, and shamefully killed the Tang Dynasty and Song Zu.

After the ministers finished touting, Zhu Hongsan continued: "Now let's talk about it, what about this Northern Expedition?" Tong Yangjia, you are in charge of the military, you say it first! ”

After being named by the emperor, Tong Yangjia stood up and said: "Back to Your Majesty, at the beginning of the year, the minister received a message from the Military Aircraft Department, and he has begun to prepare the materials used in the Northern Expedition, and the arsenals in Xuanwu Lake, Nanchang, and Guangzhou are also in full production, and now they have produced 100,000 muskets and 1,500 artillery, and at the same time, the navy has also launched six warships!" ”

Zhu Hongsan was very happy when he heard Tong Yangjia finish speaking: "Okay, let the four newly established divisions outside the city go to get equipment tomorrow, and now there is still some time before March, let them strengthen their training, and don't embarrass me when the time comes!" ”

Tong Yangjia bowed down to accept the order, but then said: "Your Majesty, do you have a sentence that I don't know whether to say or not?" ”

"Huh? If you have something to say, if you have any difficulties, let's solve them together! ”

"Yes! The arsenal is in full production, but there was an explosion at the Xuanwu Lake Arsenal last month, which was caused by the fatigue of the workers! ”

Zhu Hongsan was very unhappy when he heard it, he knew that the arsenal was either gunpowder or steel, how could this kind of thing not be done well in safe production?

"I remember that the safety production system was already specified in detail, why did this kind of incident still happen? Was it the foreman's negligence? Pass the decree and order the Jinyi guard to investigate strictly to see what the reason is! ”

"Your Majesty, the reason is that the Ministry of Finance has been in arrears and has not paid the funds, the factories have no extra money to hire more workers, and the existing craftsmen have not received their salaries for three months."

Out of money? How can it be? In the past three years since Zhu Hongsan left, he has looked at the budget every year, and the taxes collected last year reached more than 30 million silver dollars, and he absolutely cannot be without money.

"Chen Zilong, you are the secretary of the Ministry of Finance, tell me why the allocation of the arsenal has not been allocated?"

Chen Zilong heard that the emperor's tone was not good, he stood up expressionlessly, bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, the minister is incompetent, and he has the great trust of His Majesty, please resign from the post of Shangshu!" ”

The resignation was somewhat beyond Zhu Hongsan's expectations, he originally thought that there might be some difficulties for the Ministry of Finance, but he didn't expect Chen Zilong to resign.

"What is the difficulty among men? Say it and solve it together, don't resign at every turn! Zhu Hongsan has a very good impression of Chen Zilong, not to mention that he still had a friendship before, so naturally he can't watch him resign.

"Your Majesty, thank you for your kindness! But it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and the minister, the secretary of the Ministry of Finance, really can't do it! ”

"Among people, why is that?" Zhu Hongsan saw that Chen Zilong didn't say anything, and said to Wang Yunchang, the cabinet elder in charge of finance: "Wang Yunchang, you are in charge of finance and taxation, what do you say?" ”

Wang Yunchang stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the taxes of the imperial court are divided into three major parts, one is the agricultural tax, the other is the customs tariff, and the other is the domestic commercial tax!" Last year's fiscal and tax revenue was 36.5 million silver dollars, of which agricultural taxes accounted for only 10 percent, four became tariffs, and five layers were commercial taxes! ”

Zhu Hongsan frowned when he heard Wang Yunchang say this, the tax revenue reached 30 million yuan in the third year of Shenwu, why hasn't he made any progress in the past few years?

"Don't talk about the rest, I only ask you, why is the country running out of money now?"

"Your Majesty, last year, the 36.5 million taxes paid by Guangdong accounted for 80 percent, and the other provinces only accounted for 20 percent! In Guangdong, because of the serious blood pumping in recent years, many factories have gone bankrupt, so the summer tax in July this year is only 5 million yuan, and the winter tax in December is estimated to be only 3 million yuan! ”

Zhu Hongsan was angry when he heard this, is this still necessary? Eight million* taxes a year, what is enough? It takes one million silver dollars to form a division, and eight million silver dollars are not enough for the army to train for a year.

Zhu Hongsan stood up and said angrily: "What's the matter? Why does Guangdong Province pay eighty percent of taxes? Ma Jiyuan, you are the first assistant, why do you say? ”

Ma Jiyuan, as a member of the family, couldn't stand up at this time, he stood up and said: "Back to Your Majesty, Your Majesty has gone to Yunnan and Guizhou to quell the rebellion in the past few years, and he needs five million silver dollars a year, plus the officials' salaries, the production of the arsenal, and the need for infrastructure construction in various places, the treasury is really out of silver!" ”

"I didn't ask you how to spend your money, I asked you why Guangdong Province has to pay eighty percent of the tax, and Nanzhili does? What about Zhejiang? What about Jiangxi? What about Fujian? Where are the taxes in these provinces? ”

"Your Majesty, the imperial court has a law, and people are exempt from taxation and forced labor, and the number of scholars in other provinces is large, and it is really impossible to collect taxes, and in order to ensure Your Majesty's counterinsurgency operations, the minister can only adjust the taxes in Guangdong, from twenty taxes to ten taxes, which will be used by Your Majesty!"

Zhu Hongsan was so angry when he heard Ma Jiyuan say this, Ma Jiyuan promised His Majesty that it would be used, could it be that Lao Tzu spent all this money by himself? In the first year of Shenwu, when he was the emperor, there was only one province in Guangdong, and the tax was more than 15 million, and now Ma Jiyuan changed the tax rate in Guangdong from 20 taxes to 10 taxes, so isn't it that the other provinces only pay more than 6 million silver dollars a year?