On 5 December, Zhu Youzhen summoned Huang Liji, Li Chunye, and Bi Ziyan at the Qianqing Palace.

"The ministers knock to see His Majesty." Huang Liji and the others didn't know why Zhu Youzhen summoned them, so they first respectfully gave Zhu Youzhen a big salute.

"The three lovers are exempt." Zhu Youzhen turned to Cao Huachun again, "Purify, sit and serve tea." ”

The three of them glanced at each other, but they still sat down opposite Zhu Youzhen.

"Three Aiqing, do you know what I have called you?"

"The ministers don't know, please make it clear." The three of them knelt down again to listen to the training.

Zhu Youzhen waved his hand to stop them: "The three Aiqing are important ministers in the court, that is, the ministers of my humerus, so there is no need for these false rites - don't do these false gifts in the future." ”

Zhu Youzhen didn't care if the three of them were still speculating, "It's nothing-I just want to ask the three Aiqing, how will they govern in the future?" ”

Huang Liji and Li Chunye hadn't moved yet, but Bi Ziyan bowed to Zhu Youzhen: "Your Majesty, the minister will definitely be honest and self-controlled, and will never do that greedy thing." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded slowly, Bi Ziyan is a rare neutral faction in the DPRK, and the relationship with the Eunuch Party and the Donglin Party is not deep, but they also have dealings, this time the two parties are in a big showdown, he is the only important minister who is not on the impeachment list, but he took the initiative to hand over 50,000 taels of silver, and signed his name on the clean government document.

"I believe that Bi Aiqing will be as strict with himself as his name." Before Bi Ziyan could be happy, Zhu Youzhen changed his words: "Do you know why I chose you to be the secretary?" ”

The three of them were stunned, now there is no cabinet in the imperial court, and the six Shangshu are the highest civil officials, especially Huang Liji, who is the head of the six Shangshu appointed by Zhu Youzhen, and the second person in the Ming Dynasty under the emperor and above the hundred officials and the people.

"The ministers are stupid, ask Your Majesty to make it clear."

"Haha," Zhu Youzhen relaxed the atmosphere first, and then said with a straight face: "Huang Liji, the former cabinet first assistant, Wu Yingdian University Scholar, Prince Taibao, and the Ministry of Rites; Li Chunye, the former prince and the prince, and the secretary of the military department. Both of them were supported by Wei Eunuch. ”

Huang Liji and Li Chunye were both so frightened that they were soaked in cold sweat, and even Bi Ziyan was uneasy.

Zhu Youzhen continued: "When the fifth middle school was serving as the second assistant of the cabinet, it coincided with Wei Eunuch's election of ministers to go out of the town, and the fifth middle school was relieved to advise and maintain the law and discipline of the Ming Dynasty; When Wei Eunuch imprisoned the public who advised him privately, Zhongwu once said, "The establishment of the three law divisions by the state is nothing more than a desire for auspicious punishment and clear punishment...... It is advisable to still make a law, in order to see the peace of the imperial court', and it is also to maintain the law of the Ming Dynasty; when Wei Gelding wanted to kill the imperial historian Fang Zhenru and others, the middle five were even more clearly opposed, and actively rescued, and finally Fang Zhenru and others were pardoned. ”

Huang Liji's face gradually returned to normal, and Li Chunye faintly felt something.

"Compared with the middle five, Hou Zhen has done more resolutely. In the third year of the Apocalypse, Hou Zhen was appointed to the Ministry of Officials, when Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou impeached Wei Zhongxian and were persecuted. Hou Zhen also investigated the embezzlement of military salaries and silver relief by Tao Langxian, the governor of Denglai, the patrol of Youshiren, and the deputy envoy Liu Guojin, and recovered hundreds of thousands of money for the imperial court; From the beginning of his position as the ministry of work, he continued to enrich the treasury, train soldiers, eliminate the old and weak, and step up the defense of the capital, all of which were adopted by the first emperor. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Li Chunye and said in his heart that there is a tacit understanding with me.

"Although the two of you supported Wei Gelding, you did not innocently kill the Donglin Party, and even dared to confront your master for the sake of justice; Although there are also illegal acts, there is not much property for greedy ink, and the confession is relatively thorough, and there is a basis and possibility for reform. ”

The three of them did not dare to speak, and the living room was quiet and a little scary.

"Bi Ziyan is one of the few people in the DPRK who can move between the eunuch party and the Donglin party.

"In the open environment of the imperial court's greed for ink, you are basically honest and self-disciplined, which is why I chose you - although Zhongwu and Hou Zhen have the merit of supporting me, they really value the latter more than your conduct."

The three of them hung in their throats, and then they completely let go.

"I'm young, I don't know how to do government - and because I don't know, I don't plan to run government in the usual way."

"Your Ministers Listen to the Divine Message."

"Listen? Good. Bi Aiqing said just now that honesty and self-discipline are very good, but I also want to add that not only you yourself, but also your subordinates - if anyone's subordinates are greedy for ink, the amount of ink they are greedy for will also be counted on the commander. Zhu Youzhen's tone softened, "Of course, if the powerful ministers obstruct or interfere with your normal work, you can come directly to me." Can you do it? ”

The three of them were silent, obviously thinking carefully, Zhu Youzhen proposed to be responsible for his subordinates, they had never thought about it, so they needed time to digest.

In the end, it was Li Chunye who stood up: "Your Majesty, the minister is in charge of the military department, and the number of troops he belongs to is too large, so I am afraid of ......"

"I'll talk about the army later, take care of your military department first, is there a problem?"

"Then there's no problem."

Li Chunye has already expressed his position, although Huang Liji and Bi Ziyan are not sure that they can absolutely control their subordinates, so they can only follow the statement: "There is no problem with the minister." ”

"If the subordinate commits a crime, he will be a commander. This is something that has never been done before. I also know that it will be very difficult, so I will give each of you three chances, and if any of your subordinates are found to be greedy for ink for the fourth time, then you will just wait for the Zhishi! ”

"The subordinates must strictly restrain their subordinates." With three bottoms, the confidence of the three has increased greatly.

"Not only you, but the other three as well, and soon I will sign them in writing."

The three of them all nodded, especially Li Chunye, whose eyes were not the pressure he was about to face, but full of expectations for Zhu Youzhen: Could it be that His Majesty really began to revitalize the Ming Dynasty as he said before?

Zhu Youzhen said to Huang Liji: "Huang Aiqing is also in charge of the six ministries, because the six ministries have Shangshu, you don't need to be responsible for the officials of the other ministries, but you have to supervise the hundred officials to perform their duties, and you must not shirk the blame." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, the minister understands." Huang Liji didn't think about the affairs of other ministries just now, and after being reminded by Zhu Youzhen, he was scared into a cold sweat again.

"Huang Aiqing is in charge of the Ministry of Rites, and the main direction of his current work is to collect and sort out the information of various ethnic groups, vassal states, neighboring countries, and Western countries."

"Your Majesty refers to ......" Huang Liji didn't understand, isn't the Ministry of Rites in charge of sacrifices and rituals? Although it was also in charge of the Gentile countries, it was only a small part of the work, and it was usually the Ministry of Rites that received foreign envoys when they visited.

"The more detailed the current profile of all countries, the better."

"The minister understood, and after the minister went back, he began to prepare."

Actually, Li Chunye understands better than Huang Liji, but in front of Zhu Youzhen, he is not good at reminding Huang Liji.

"Bi Aiqing is in charge of the household department, and now there is plenty of silver, but it has to be used on the blade - does Bi Aiqing know where the blade of the Ming Dynasty is?" Zhu Youzhen collected a total of more than 27 million taels this time, of which he directly incorporated 14 million taels into his inner treasury, and handed over the remaining 13 million taels to the state treasury, that is, the household department under Bi Ziyan's supervision.

"Listen to the oracle."

Zhu Youzhen knew that Bi Ziyan did not have the vision of future generations, "Sooner or later, the imperial court will send troops to Liaodong on a large scale to eliminate the troubles of Jiannu forever, so although Bi Aiqing is rich now, he still has to be frugal, and he will transport the grain and silver that may be collected to Liaodong as much as possible to prepare for the national war." ”

National War? Li Chunye's eyes lit up again, and he remembered the young King Xin who had looked forward to the future with him, could it be that His Majesty was going to go out to build slaves?

"Li Aiqing, I just talked about the army, I will talk about the army now."

The three of them all listened attentively, the national war, that is to use the power of the Ming Dynasty, no matter whether they win or lose, the impact on the Ming Dynasty is far-reaching. Li Chunye stared at Zhu Youzhen closely, for fear of missing a word.

"The Ming Dynasty includes more than 2 million soldiers from all over the country, and the imperial court is now unable to pay all the military salaries, but it is necessary to ensure the military salaries of the Liaodong, Jingshi and Shaanxi border armies."

"I'll talk about Shaanxi first. Tatar Mongolia outside the Great Wall submitted to the Ming Dynasty on the surface, but Monan was mostly a bitter cold place, and the food was scarce, so it was difficult to ensure that no tribe knocked on the Great Wall to enter the customs and rob the Ming Dynasty's property and women. No matter how much property they actually robbed, each time they robbed, the damage to the land and the harm caused to the people were profound, long, and long. ”

Therefore, I plan to wait for the completion of the reorganization of the army of the Beijing Division, and the next step will be to set up a firearms factory in Xi'an to produce firearms specifically for the Shaanxi border army, and at the same time, in accordance with the way of the Beijing Division, the border army of Shaanxi will be comprehensively reorganized."

"Your Majesty, there are 300,000 border troops in Shaanxi, is the number too much?" Li Chunye believes that Shaanxi is not dragged down by places outside the border like Liaodong, and can completely rely on the Great Wall to defend it, which can reduce the number of troops and save limited military salaries.

"Not much." Zhu Youzhen has his own game of chess, "There is no Great Wall in the Hetao area of Shaanxi, and the military town of Ningxia is the forefront of the direct confrontation between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia. ”

Li Chunye remembered that when Zhu Youzhen was looking forward to the Ming Dynasty, he was not ready to rule Mongolia in the north at all, but wanted to completely surrender to Mongolia. Now that Zhu Youzhen has become the emperor and has the opportunity to surrender to Mongolia, I don't know how likely this opportunity is to be realized.

"Let's talk about Liaodong, the sergeants are working hard day and night on the front line, they sweat and bleed, and even bury their bones in other places, military salaries and pensions must not be in arrears, and they must be provided in full and in time."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Li Chunye knows the position of Liaodong in Zhu Youzhen's heart, and Zhu Youzhen's vision for the future is based on Liaodong.

"Finally, let's talk about the Jingshi, the Royal First Army and the Royal Second Army are my pro-army, and I will personally be responsible for the military salary and training; The newly formed 1st to 6th armies, all of which are mainly based on firearms, will be the main force of the Northern Expedition in the future, and they must be given sufficient money, food, and ammunition; The Seventh and Eighth armies, pure cavalry, were basically not equipped with firearms, but they were to be equipped with the most elite horses and the sharpest sabers. Zhu Youzhen turned to Bi Ziyan, "Bi Aiqing, as the secretary of the household department, must fully cooperate with Li Aiqing, and must not make any difficulties." ”

Bi Ziyan nodded in acknowledgement, but he asked rhetorically: "Your Majesty, in the future Northern Expedition to Jiannu, is it not the Liaodong Army, but the Jingshi Army?" Liaodong is recognized as the most elite army of the Ming Dynasty! ”

(ps: Thank you for the reward of book friends 46, thank you Chen Yuan, Andong Ye, that touch, Hongchen's red ticket help, and thank you for the support of countless friends who left their names or did not leave their names)