The eunuchs in the palace finally came to the official post.

Su Tiancheng has been waiting at the official post for five days, he is almost losing confidence, when he followed Fan Jingwen and Wang Daozhi to the capital, he originally guessed that this was approved by the emperor, and he might summon himself, and after coming to the capital, he immediately played an excerpt to the court, asking to see the emperor, watching the time pass day by day, this speculation began to have loopholes.

Fortunately, the eunuch finally came.

Su Tiancheng was very happy and gave the eunuch ten taels of gold.

Maybe it's the effect of these ten taels of gold, along the way, the eunuch's face has always had a smile, although there are few words, but the key point is said, it turns out that he went to the Forbidden City to meet the emperor in the Palace of Nourishing Heart.

This is an unusual arrangement, to be able to be summoned in the Palace of Heart Cultivation, it is generally a high-ranking official of the third rank or above in the imperial court, so there is such a glory, and talking in the Palace of Heart Cultivation, the atmosphere seems to be more easy-going.

The early dynasty was over, Su Tiancheng followed the eunuch and directly poured the Heart Cultivation Palace, and no one stopped him along the way.

Outside the Heart Cultivation Palace, I waited for about half a quarter of an hour.

When Wen Tiren and other cabinet ministers came out of the Heart Cultivation Palace, they saw Su Tiancheng.

Wen Tiren's face was greeted with a kind smile.

"Master Su, I'm here in the capital."

"Your Excellency, the lower officials came to the capital to express their condolences to Elder Xu Ge, thinking that it was a rare opportunity to meet the emperor, and thank you for your success."

Wen Tiren's smile froze for a moment, this cohesive expression flashed by, and if he didn't pay attention to it, it was impossible to know the Tao at all, but this coagulation expression had already reminded Su Tiancheng.

"Hehe, okay. When I came to the capital, I really wanted to meet the emperor, but the emperor's affairs were complicated, and it was rare for Lord Su to have such an opportunity, which also reflected the emperor's importance to Lord Su. ”

"Xia Guan understands. I will do my best by all means. ”

Zhu Youzhen's face was a little red, it seemed that he had encountered some kind of controversy, it was not a simple matter to be able to make Zhu Youzhen have such an expression, thinking of Wen Tiren who had just come out, he suddenly felt that the court had been troubled since then.

"Su Tiancheng, the magistrate of Jiangning County, meet the emperor."

When he saw Zhu Youzhen, he naturally wanted to kneel. Heaven and Earth Monarch Teacher, in this regard, Su Tiancheng has nothing to adapt to, just say that hundreds of years later, he saw the leader above, although he said that he did not kneel and kowtow, but the groveling attitude in his heart was even more powerful than kneeling. Now I saw Zhu Youzhen, although he knelt down. But the inner feeling is completely different.

This is the first time to have such close contact with Zhu Youzhen.

According to the records of the official history, Zhu Youzhen was very unbearable, and he was ambitious and rejoicing. Eager for quick success, suspicious by nature, and his own character flaws, he led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and it seems that the ministers below. All of them are loyal, especially the ministers of the Donglin Party and the Fushe Society, because they have been suppressed, they are unable to display their talents and have no power to return to heaven.

The funny thing is that the leader of the Donglin Party, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, surrendered to the Manchus as quickly as possible.

It is the remnants of the Ming Dynasty who narrate history, and these people, in order to support the Donglin Party and the Restoration Society, in order to relieve themselves of their own guilt, how can they describe history, this is not much to guess.

rarely stayed by Zhu Youzhen's side, and never gave direct advice, the last time he killed Zijin Liang and his subordinates, it was just a word that came out of excitement, so Su Tiancheng didn't know Zhu Youzhen very well.

However, with his own personal experience, seeing the situation in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, and having close contact with Zhang Pu, Qian Qianyi, Huang Daozhou, Sun Chuanting and others, Su Tiancheng believes that Zhu Youzhen is by no means as unbearable as recorded in some official histories.

When Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, he was only sixteen years old, at such an age, he could know how many things he could do, and what kind of wise decisions he could make, and he didn't have to rely on the ministers below.

"Flat, this is not above the main hall, there is no need to have so many etiquette, princess, hand Su Aiqing a stool."

"It's better for the minister to stand and talk."

"Hehe, Su Aiqing don't shirk, if you want to talk about your character, I also know a little bit about it, unruly, think that Nan Zhili, Ying Tianfu, many officials, no one dares to make such a big move, but you did it, and you insist on your own opinions, and you don't give in at all, just this is not simple."

Su Tiancheng quickly sat down, Zhu Youzhen said so, there was no need for him to be polite.

"Su Aiqing, I know what happened in Jiangning County, you want to come to the capital, you must have a lot to say, when you get here, don't hide it, just say whatever you think, I won't blame, you won't be guilty of your words."

"The minister was able to see the emperor this time, and he also wanted to clarify many views and ideas, the emperor just didn't say that, and the minister had to say it thoroughly, otherwise, the minister would be a bully."

"Su Aiqing, what's the matter, it's so serious."

Zhu Youzhen looked very serious, looking at Su Tiancheng, as if he had thought of something.

"The things that the minister wants to report, Qu Qingze's recital, are very clear, the minister must first ask for guilt, between the minister and Qu Qingze, mutual trust, all for the prosperity of my Ming Dynasty, do your best, the minister has received a lot of help from Qu Qingze, especially this time, the entanglement between the minister and Donglin Academy and the Restoration Society, Qu Qingze is fully supportive of the minister, and the minister implores the emperor not to punish Qu Qingze."

Zhu Youzhen nodded, with a smile on his face.

"Su Aiqing rest assured, who is loyal and treacherous, I still know."

"What the minister wants to say today, I'm afraid it will offend the emperor, if the minister says something wrong, I implore the emperor to atone for his sins."

Zhu Youzhen nodded again, but did not speak, he specifically talked about this aspect before, but Su Tiancheng still brought it up, you can see that the words that Su Tiancheng wants to say must not be simple.

"The specific matter, the minister will not be verbose, the emperor already knows, the minister wants to talk about his feelings today, and the minister will put forward a suggestion, and I implore the emperor for permission."

"The minister thinks that there are three major misunderstandings among the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty, which caused the emperor to feel that it was difficult to realize the dream of Zhongxing, which led to the wanton plundering of my Ming Dynasty and the harassment of the Later Jin."

"First, the emperor's prestige has been shaken, and the key point is that Yuan Chonghuan is good at killing Mao Wenlong."

"According to the regulations of my Ming Dynasty, during the war, although the military generals were controlled by Wenchen, Wenchen was holding the Shang Fang sword, and if he wanted to kill the senior military generals, he had to go through the emperor's permission, so that the military generals could have a minimum sense of security, but Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong, a military attache who also held the Shang Fang sword, so that everyone in the military generals was in danger, Yuan Chonghuan's rank was only the second grade, and he was able to kill the first-grade generals, not to mention other generals."

"I am a Ming Dynasty with internal and external troubles, harassment by rogues, and the invasion of Houjin, and I urgently need the civil and military generals to work together to protect my Ming Dynasty, but the current situation is extremely difficult to do, and the civil and military generals are suspicious of each other, intriguing, and in the long run, the consequences are unimaginable."

"Second, Wenchen is arbitrary, and when he makes decisions, he thinks about his own interests."

"The emperor exterminated Wei Zhongxian, and he was very happy, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the ministers who are in charge of the government should be loyal at this time, do their best for the emperor, and govern the country well, but their approach is really cold."

"The minister has no intention of defending Wei Zhongxian, but there is one thing, the minister still has the courage to say, Wei Zhongxian was born as a peasant, he knows the suffering of the peasants, so when collecting taxes, he will never increase the burden on the peasants, mainly for the bureaucrats and gentry, so that the treasury is still basically full, Henan suffered a disaster, can be exempted from the field tax, the inner treasury allocated funds for disaster relief, and also repaired the Yellow River."

"Look at what Wenchen has done, since the first year of Chongzhen, they have implemented a policy of banning the sea, not collecting sea taxes, removing salt taxes and cloth taxes, making the treasury very empty, they protect the interests of the gentry and wealthy households, but increase the taxes of the peasants, the most important thing is that no matter whether there are disasters in various places, the peasants' taxes are still the same, a lot of money and silver, the ministers originally thought that the land tax could not be regarded as very high, and the people could bear it, but the officials in various places never thought of taking out the silver, repairing the rivers and treating the ditches, All I thought of was to take it, which made the life of the peasants even worse. ”

"Third, the military generals, including the gentry and wealthy households, blindly pay attention to taking and do not think about dedication."

"The minister has calculated the taxes of the Ming Dynasty, and the total annual tax is 37 million taels, among which the total amount of money tariffs, commercial taxes, lottery points, real estate deed tax, bamboo and wood taxation, mineral silver, and fishing taxes from commerce and trade is less than 950,000 taels, accounting for 2.55% of the total taxes, of which the large merchants and maritime merchants who travel long distances pay only 410,000 taels of banknote tariffs and lottery tariffs, accounting for 1.1% of the taxes. Who doesn't know that these two major items are rich industries. ”

"Those who operate long-distance trafficking and maritime trade are the wealthy gentry, who enjoy the gifts given by the emperor on the one hand, and on the other hand, do everything for their own interests, and do not care about the emptiness of the treasury."

"The minister arranged officials in the Jiangning County City Ship Division, and collected banknote tariffs and fan ship points, no matter what his identity was, they were all collected in accordance with the requirements of the City Ship Division, and after half a year, the taxes collected amounted to 1.2 million taels of silver, just in Jiangning County, this is the case, it can be seen what kind of situation will be in the rest of my Ming Dynasty."

"Everything the minister did in Jiangning County was to suppress the interests of the gentry and wealthy households, and to balance the wealth to the greatest extent, the minister thought that the peasants could have something to eat, and no one would think of rebellion, and sometimes, because of the oppression of the government, the peasants had to embark on the road of no return to rebellion." (To be continued.) )