Since the court meeting was changed to the State Council, whether or not they could participate in the State Council has become a sign of whether Ming officials can enter the decision-making level. Originally, most of the low-ranking gossip officials have now been excluded from the decision-making level, and can only learn about the court's decisions from the meeting documents, but can no longer influence the court's decisions.

This new way of making national policy was not accepted by most officials at first, but as the officials on the list found that their status had been virtually improved, they began to defend the new Council of State. Although it is difficult to find small people to come out and ask for directions at such meetings, there are also many fewer obstacles for them to turn their ideas into national policies through meetings.

The number of state councillors has not exceeded 100 so far, and half of them are still in charge of the local government, so the number of people participating in each meeting is about 40 to 60. Compared with the past when hundreds of people were at every turn, it is obviously much more concise and efficient to unify the opinions of these dozens of people.

Therefore, since the convening of the State Council, there has never been a meeting that has lasted more than half a day. But today's meeting is obviously a bit abnormal, it was supposed to discuss a special topic, but it has not ended for more than half a day, and the emperor has made such remarks in advance at this moment, which makes many officials secretly cry in their hearts, obviously the next proposal put forward by the emperor must be extremely controversial, so now give them a small warning.

While these officials were thinking in their hearts, Zhu Youzhen finally introduced the topic to the topic, "... I think that everything is foreseen, and if it is not, it will be wasted. Now that the weather stations have reported the results of the forecast for the next few months, it is time for us to make a decision.

According to these predictions, the result is nothing more than two, accurate and inaccurate. Your ministers have just expressed their opinions on this, and I believe that if you prepare for this prediction, the worst result will be to cause a rush of local people to buy food, or to cause profiteers to hoard and plan to hoard.

Can such an outcome be overcome? I believe that as long as we strengthen public opinion propaganda and use judicial means to crack down forcefully, we will still be able to overcome these troubles.

But if we think that this prediction is not accurate, we do nothing but sit back and wait for a miracle from heaven. Once the prediction comes true, tens of millions of people in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Hebei will face a serious shortage of food, and if millions of hungry people take risks, then the areas north of the Yangtze River will be full of beacon fires.

Therefore, I believe that it is extremely necessary to make a drought relief plan in advance, and as for whether the plan we have formulated today is effective or not, that is another matter, and it will not be discussed in today's meeting.

Now, let's vote one by one, and stand on my left hand for supporting the imperial court's advance plan for drought relief and disaster relief, and stand on my right hand for those who oppose it. ”

Wen Tiren didn't think about it, he walked to Chongzhen's left hand side, Qian Qianyi hesitated slightly, and followed. Liu Zongzhou, Zuo Guangxian and the others hesitated, although they had just supported the preparation in advance, but it was mainly to make trouble for Qian Qian, not to really have the intention to do anything to prepare.

It's just that the two of them have already expressed their attitudes just now, and now they will change their attitudes a little like villains in the morning and evening, so after hesitating for a moment, they finally stood on Chongzhen's left hand.

These court leaders chose to support the pre-planned response to this year's drought relief problem, and the others quickly followed. After a while, there was no one left on Chongzhen's right hand.

Zhu Youzhen's gaze glanced at the ministers on his left before he nodded and said, "Very good, since everyone's opinions are the same as mine, then the first resolution of today's meeting will be passed." The clerk can record that the attendees of this state council unanimously agreed that the forecasts made by the local meteorological stations should be taken seriously, and that the imperial court should draw up a plan for drought relief this year in advance.

Next, let's not talk about the specific content of the plan, or what is the goal that the plan should achieve, and only after the goal is determined first, can we formulate the specific content of the plan?

I think this goal should be divided into two steps, one is the highest goal and the other is the lowest goal. In fact, we don't need to set the highest goal, to save all the victims of the disaster, maintain the stability of the country, and spend the thirteen years of Chongzhen safely, I don't think everyone should oppose it. ”

Zhu Youzhen paused for a moment when he said this, as if waiting for everyone's reaction. But none of the ministers, including Wen Tiren, said anything, because everyone believed that if the weather forecast really happened, this maximum goal would obviously not be completed, so it was important to see what the minimum goal that the emperor was going to talk about.

“… Is this the minimum goal, I think, just follow the three non-chaos that Wen Shangshu just said as the bottom line. Gyeonggi must not be chaotic, the army cannot be chaotic, and the Henan and Jiangnan regions cannot be chaotic. Do you have any opinions? ”

Liu Zongzhou opened his mouth slightly, but he didn't make any sound. Zuo Guangxian, who was standing beside him, was a little unbearable and said: "Your Majesty, the people of Shandong, Shaanxi and other places are also Your Majesty's people, why can Your Majesty bear to abandon them?" The court always needs a bowl of water to be even, right? ”

Chongzhen glanced at the other officials and found that they were all silent with their heads bowed one by one, obviously not wanting to argue with Zuo Guang about this issue first. Because this issue can't be fought at all, as long as you open your mouth, you lose morality, and those people outside won't think that they should be given up, isn't this unprovoked confirmation of their villain's identity.

However, if Zuo Guangxian's questioning is not suppressed, today's meeting will not want to discuss effective countermeasures, Zhu Youzhen sighed in his heart, and then retorted arrogantly: "I just set a lower limit of the goal, when did I become the people in the disaster areas who gave up Shandong, Shaanxi and other places, Zuo Shilang's words are simply unreasonable."

Even a three-year-old child knows that the meal has to be eaten in one bite, and the road has to be walked step by step, how did you get here, and the matter is not even prioritized, is this the reason for doing things? Stand down, and don't mess around. ”

Zuo Guangxian straightened up and was about to defend himself, but two officials who were good friends with him took action and forcibly pulled him back to the prelude. One of them grabbed his arm and whispered in his ear: "It is useless to talk too much at this moment, if you can't think of a way to save the time, don't anger Your Majesty." We have annoyed Shousuke, and we must no longer confront Your Majesty for such empty words. ”

Zuo Guangxian replied quite unconvinced: "How is this empty talk, isn't it true that the people in Shandong, Shaanxi and other places are not killed?" ”

Qi Biaojia shook his head and said, "Could it be that Your Excellency can come up with any strategy to save the people in these places?" Not to mention that the people in these places are the lower limit of the goal set by His Majesty just now, what can Your Excellency think of to achieve it? ”

After repulsing Zuo Guangxian, Zhu Youzhen, who was sitting on the dragon chair on the high platform, did not speak out quickly, although since he received the forecast reports from the meteorological stations in various places, he knew that in some areas, the abandonment of some people had become inevitable, but when it really came to the moment of decision, he couldn't help but hesitate a little.

This is not a computer game after all, and with a click of the mouse, you can turn a page in history. He knew that every word he uttered next would mean that some people's lives would be saved, and others' lives would slide into hell.

He thought he was prepared enough, but the moment he was about to speak, he still had trouble opening his mouth to speak. He felt that the current situation required more courage than his face of Huang Taiji's army in the second year of Chongzhen.

It was at this time that he remembered a multiple-choice question he had seen in his previous life. A train full of passengers is heading ahead, and on the track in front of the train there are several children playing, and you, as a wrenchman, have a few seconds to make the train lead to another abandoned fork in the road, but that fork leads to a cliff.

Putting the passengers on the train at risk in order to save these children, or ignoring the lives of the children for the safety of the passengers on the train? At first, he chose to protect the safety of the train almost without thinking, because he felt that the mistakes of children could not put passengers who did not make mistakes at risk.

But now he knew he was wrong, not that he had made the wrong decision, but that he simply could not have made any decision in such a short period of time. After all, the hypothetical topic is not as good as a living human life, and it can affect his judgment more.

It was only at this moment that he truly realized that how much power means how much responsibility, what a correct sentence. This is really a desperate era, Zhu Youzhen thought in his heart.

But he finally spoke out, "If we want Gyeonggi to be in chaos, the first issue is to ensure the operating rate of the Gyeonggi workshops, and as long as these factories can still operate, the workers can survive." The surplus agricultural population in the vicinity of Gyeonggi was able to be absorbed into the workshops, thereby reducing the burden of disaster relief on the imperial court.

Previously, I had communicated with the Ministry of Households, local officials in Beijing and Tianjin, and had also sent people to communicate with some factory owners and business representatives in the Gyeonggi area.

At present, the problems faced by factories in the Gyeonggi area are mainly in two aspects: one is that last year's trade with the Manchu Qing Dynasty was cut off, and the drought in many parts of the north made some factories short of raw materials, resulting in a shortage of raw materials, resulting in a shortage of operations.

The other is that the depreciation of paper money is too fast, and the coins are stored in the market, which directly leads to the rise in raw material prices, the decline in market consumption capacity, and the unsalable products.

Therefore, in order to solve these two problems, first, we need to ease relations with the Manchus and resume the previous trade exchanges, so as to solve some of the sources of raw materials.

Second, in order to change the problem of excessive depreciation of paper money due to the storage of coins, I decided to pass the coinage bill proposed by the Central Bank. By minting coins of insufficient value to solve the problem of storage in the market, while fixing the price of gold and silver, the state credit guarantee unlimited exchange of banknotes, so as to stabilize the value of banknotes.

Finally, in order to prevent those with ulterior motives from disturbing the market, I decided to issue a decree that the legal tender allowed to circulate in the market was all kinds of gold, silver, copper coins and banknotes of various denominations made by the National Mint.

From now on, non-statutory currencies are not allowed to circulate in the market, and private reserves of gold and silver must be reported to the three major banks. It is forbidden for private individuals to hold more than 100 taels of gold and more than 1,000 taels of silver, and the gold and silver exceeding the limit must be deposited in the bank and exchanged for paper money. Anyone who conceals gold or silver without reporting it shall have his property confiscated and his family exiled abroad..."

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