A coquettish cry woke up Wang Zhi in thought, he looked at the coquettish face in front of him, and muttered: "Wan Ting, if you know that there is a mountain of swords and a sea of fire in front of you, but there is a voice in your heart that keeps urging me to move forward, should I move forward?" ”

What Zhang Ru has to do is destined to be full of difficulties and challenges, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a sea of swords and fires. I don't know why, there is a voice in my heart that has been urging: promise him, promise him!

For the first time in his life, Wang Zhi encountered something uncertain.

"If Childe wants to do it, do it, no matter whether it is a sword mountain and a sea of fire or a tiger's den in Longtan, Wan Ting will accompany Childe." Wan Ting snuggled her head into Wang Zhi's arms, and said in a low but firm voice.

Xu is beauty in his arms made Wang Zhi make up his mind, he squeezed his fists hard: "Okay, just promise him once, great is a dead word, a man is alive, he died for the great cause, so what does it matter if he dies." ”

reputation, Wang Zhi really doesn't care, at least during the Chenghua years, he was already notorious enough. If helping Zhang Ru will make him do it again in the year of Hongzhi, he doesn't care.

What he cares about is whether the cake painted by Zhang Ru can make the decaying Ming Dynasty really rise.

The next day, Wang Zhi took the initiative to **** and agreed to Zhang Ru's request, and then the two talked secretly in the study of the Dingbian Hou Mansion for a whole day, until the third watch in the middle of the night, the once powerful eunuch left the Dingbian Hou Mansion with a smile on the corner of his mouth.

Including several of Zhang Ru's henchmen, no one knew what they talked about.

However, on the third day, under the joint recommendation of Zhang Ru and Qin Ji, Wang Zhi, who had been dormant in Nanjing for several years, returned to the celebrant again. The second eunuch of Bingbi, the commander of the East Factory.

Above the court, because of the uproar caused by Wang Zhi's return, dozens of officials wrote a song overnight to accuse the emperor and impeach Zhang Ru and Qin Ji as the first traitors in the ages.

However, after these twists and turns were handed over to the celebrant by the cabinet, they all fell into the sea, and the emperor did not react at all.

The last great court meeting in the first year of Chenghua, it has been a month since Wang Zhi returned to Beijing, and Tu Tu, the right capital of the Imperial Procuratorate, took the lead in impeaching Wang Zhi for spending state funds and rebuilding the East Factory.

Zhu Youzhu couldn't help but be nervous, and looked at several scholars in the cabinet for help, this time, the scholars in the cabinet surprisingly did not stand up to speak for the emperor, but became silent.

In the end, Zhu Youzhu had no choice but to look at Zhang Ru.

Zhang Ru nodded knowingly, and stood still: "The minister has a play." ”

Zhu Youzhu grabbed the last straw like a person in the water, and said in a hurried tone: "Come on." ”

Zhang Ru said unhurriedly: "In the first year of Hongzhi, there was a great drought in the three provinces, and Your Majesty was benevolent and exempted the three provinces from paying taxes, so that the household department could not make ends meet. This year, there were three mutinies in the Liaodong border army, together with the Datong border army, and five mutinies in the Ningxia border army. I respectfully ask Your Majesty to charge the Ministry of Household Affairs to allocate military salaries so as not to cause a catastrophe. ”

Li Min, the secretary of the household department, hurriedly went out to explain: "The minister is wronged, Your Majesty, Huguang, Sichuan, and Shandong are all important grain-producing areas, and the drought in the three provinces is not big, but the taxes in the three provinces are quite large. The old minister did not dare to waste the state funds, and every tael of silver was recorded in the account books of the household department, and His Majesty was asked to check it. The border army spends a lot of money, millions of taels of silver every year, and the old minister is really powerless. ”

Li Min was very frightened, the Dingbian Marquis rarely dealt with these civil officials, and this time he suddenly appeared and caught him off guard.

Zhang Ru said coldly: "I'm afraid that what Master Li said is biased!" Although the three provinces are large production provinces, they pay a lot of taxes, but the new commercial taxes in the first year of Hongzhi are also a lot. Not to mention that it can completely make up for the taxes of the three provinces, it can make up for at least seventy percent. The Ming Border Army has a lot of military salaries every year, but if there is no them, it is difficult to let an old man like Master Li go to the battlefield to kill the enemy! ”

Li Min was speechless, and said in his heart, my lord, why do you want to get along with me so much!

Seeing that the topic was temporarily shifted, Zhu Youzhu immediately jumped out to be a peacemaker: "The two Aiqing are both Daming humerus, Li Aiqing is in charge of the household department, conscientious, and naturally you can't be blamed for the tax." Wen Xuan is in charge of the power of the Nine Frontiers and Horses, and it is not wrong to plan for the border army and the Daming Society. ”

The emperor's peace did not seem to satisfy Zhang Ru, and he waited for Zhu Youzhu to finish speaking before saying: "Your Majesty, the minister proposed the mutiny of the border army today, not to hold the lords of the household department accountable, but to ask the Manchu Dynasty if there are reliable countermeasures. ”

Zhu Youjiao's eyelids jumped slightly: It's coming!

He knew that Zhang Ru must have something to do, otherwise he would not suddenly offend Li Min, the head of the household department, like a mad dog. When Zhang Ru said the word countermeasures, Zhu Youzhang, who had already passed through the air, immediately thought of the word sea ban.

Qiu Jun didn't speak, and it was difficult to tell who was right and who was wrong in the previous dispute, but after Zhang Ru mentioned that he wanted to ask the Manchu Dynasty for advice, he was a little unbreathable.

In the first half of the year, it was Zhang Ru's proposal to increase the commercial tax that barely made the tax more abundant, and before the proposal was put forward, the Manchu civil and military forces thought of breaking their heads and didn't think of a countermeasure.

Almost subconsciously, Qiu Jun asked: "Since Hou Ye has proposed it, dare to ask Hou Ye what good countermeasures he has?" ”

Zhang Ru swept around with cold eyes, and the officials who were projected by his gaze lowered their heads one after another, and no one dared to jump out and say that I had a good idea.

Seeing that everyone didn't speak, Zhang Ru said: "Zhang Mou is not talented, but he has a good idea, but I don't know if you agree with it." ”

As soon as he heard that the other party had such a good idea, Qiu Jun no longer put his qualifications on the table, and took the initiative to arch his hand and said, "I would like to hear about it." ”

"Sea Ban!"

Two words popped out from between Zhang Ru's teeth, and immediately shocked the audience.

"Taizu has an order, the piece is not allowed to go to the sea, does Lord Zhang want His Majesty to become a disobedient and unfilial king?"

"It's not proper, the sea ban can't be opened lightly, otherwise the day of the Ming Dynasty's demise is not far away."

Immediately, there were many civil officials kneeling on the ground and crying and grabbing the ground, saying that the opening of the sea ban would mislead the country and the people, and that Zhang Ru harbored evil intentions.

However, several ministers of the cabinet and the scholars of the six ministries did not kneel down for the first time, but boldly raised their heads to look at Zhu Youjiao. After seeing the emperor's face clearly, several people basically knew it in their hearts.

Feelings This is not a proposal of Dingbian Hou alone, there is His Majesty behind it.

"Enough, roaring Golden Palace, what kind of system." Qiu Jun said dissatisfiedly.

Instead of wailing, the officials became louder. After a year of getting along, they can be regarded as figuring out the emperor's temper, not to mention wailing, or scolding, and the emperor on the dragon chair is afraid that he will not ask them for blame.

What's more, after Qiu Jun finished scolding, he jumped out and pointed at Zhang Ru's nose and scolded: "The surname Zhang, you ****, you know that the ban on opening the sea violates the ancestral system, and you still ask Your Majesty to open the sea ban, what do you want!" ”

Zhang Ru raised his hand and unceremoniously grabbed the other party's fingers and twisted them hard, and the Yanguan immediately knelt on one knee in pain.

After the wailing of this official completely covered the voices of those civil officials who pretended to beat their chests, Zhang Ru said unhurriedly: "Is it against the ancestral system? Are you talking ill of Emperor Chengzu? Or are you accusing someone? If you really want to calculate it according to the ancestral system, Emperor Taizu also determined that those who are greedy for ink and silver reach a certain amount of skin and grass. Does this adult want Jinyiwei to go to your house for a cup of tea, or do you want to see how powerful Zhao Prison is? ”

The official was so painful that he even changed his shape, and he scolded angrily: "The surname is Zhang, you dare to threaten me!" ”

Zhang Ru snorted coldly: "Threat, what kind of thing are you, and you are also worthy of this threat!" Ben Hou is just putting forward opinions today, you are like a mourner, could it be that once this sea ban is opened, it will make your whole family die without a corpse? ”

Now, the speaker didn't dare to speak.

No one dares to disagree anymore, Zhang Ruyu said to himself: "Every year's ice respect, carbon respect, you don't have to take it less!" According to the ancestral system, none of you people will be alive. Ben Hou just put forward an opinion, you can object, pointing at Ben Hou's nose and scolding his mother, but it is unacceptable. Thinking of your first offense, Ben Hou can ignore it, if there is a next time, Ben Hou will be the first to participate in your crime of disrespecting the official. ”

Tu Yun's expression was complicated, and it stands to reason that he should stand up and oppose it at this time. But as soon as the protégé Guo Feng was released from Jinyiwei, he openly became an enemy of Zhang Ru, and he didn't know where to put his old face when he said it.

But so many people under his command are competing against each other, but he, the right capital Yushi, doesn't say anything, and it seems that there are some unpleasant words.

was about to go out of class to speak, and a thin and old figure had already taken the first step out of class: "What Dingbian Hou said is the words of the old man to seek the country, minister, second." ”

can grasp the direction of the wind in this way, except for Liu Ji, the former head of the papier-mâché three pavilions, there is no second person in the entire court.

There are supporters and opponents, and Liu Jian, who has never dealt with Liu Ji much, also came out and said: "Your Majesty, what Dingbian Hou said is really child's play, please Your Majesty will be aware of it." ”

Zhang Ru said coldly: "If you oppose it, you will oppose it, but you will say that you are ugly." ”

Others are afraid of Zhang Ru, but Liu Jian is not afraid, he stiffened his neck and said: "Not to mention the ancestral system that the piece board cannot go to the sea, Emperor Chengzu sent Zheng He to the West seven times." If the sea ban is opened without permission, there will inevitably be spies from various countries along the coast who will go to Daming with sea ships, which is also a disadvantage; Once the sea ban is lifted, shipbuilding is another problem, and this disadvantage is two; As soon as the sea ban is opened, it is bound to need the escort of sailors, and it is not enough to take the people and money, and this disadvantage is three. With these three drawbacks, the old minister did not dare to agree with the proposal of the Dingbian Marquis. ”

Liu Jian had never been involved in maritime affairs, so the few questions he said were fair.

This is not the case with those officials who cry and grab the land, and some of them are more or less related to those maritime merchants who secretly go to sea, and a large part of their annual income comes from maritime merchants.

The sea ban can't be opened, they can make a lot of money in a muffled voice, and as soon as the sea ban is opened, someone will grab silver from their pockets, so it's no wonder that Zhang Ru's proposal can be agreed to.