Chapter 14: Wenyuan Pavilion

The Forbidden City is shrouded in a boundless and deep night sky. Under the long corridor of the temple, two young eunuchs lit lanterns.

A eunuch put his toes on his toes and wiped off the velvet, but it did not burn. The eunuch rubbed his numb hands, took several breaths into his palms, and continued to wipe the velvet several times, and finally wiped the velvet.

"Holy God, this snow doesn't stop for half a month! The thief is cold, the thief is cold! After lighting the lantern, the eunuch complained.

"Shut your stinky mouth, these emperors are angry, let people hear it, and they can't be beaten!" The eunuch below handed the red gauze to the eunuch standing on the chair complaining, and the eunuch standing on the chair took the red gauze and muttered to put the lampshade on.

"What are you two slaves muttering here!" Under the eaves of a big red lantern, a big eunuch appeared at some point, and two small eunuchs carried lanterns and waited behind the big eunuch.

The two eunuchs who lit the lamp were shocked into a cold sweat, and the eunuch standing on the chair did not stand firmly, fell down from the chair, and did not care about the pain, so he climbed in front of the big eunuch and kept kowtowing, "Huang Gonggong forgives the sin, Huang Gonggong forgives the sin." ”

Gonggong Huang didn't look at the two eunuchs, and lowered his face, "The emperor wants to recruit cabinet members to Wenyuan Pavilion tonight, and you haven't lit half of the lamp on this road and are here to be verbose, begging for a beating?!" ”

As soon as they heard the beating, the pleading voices of the two little eunuchs became very miserable, and they wept and kowtowed to forgiveness. Huang Zheng, the father-in-law of Huang, is the big eunuch of the Crime Factory, and he is usually ruthless and makes people retreat. He wanted to beat two little eunuchs, and even if he was lucky not to be killed, he would have to shed three layers of skin.

"What are you talking about?" It happened that at this time, another group of eunuchs passed by the corridor, and the eunuch led by him frowned and asked.

With the red light emitted by the lantern, Huang Zheng saw the face of the chief eunuch clearly, and immediately said, "It turned out to be Zhao Gonggong, the slave and maid should be damned, these two slaves and maids who don't know whether they are alive or dead are not good to light the lamp and make noise here, the slave and maid are about to teach them a lesson, I don't want to disturb Zhao Gonggong, the slave and maid should be damned, really damn." ”

Gong Zhao was lean, his eyes were blazing, and he glanced at Huang Zheng and the little eunuch who was kneeling on the ground to ask for mercy, "These two children are still young and ignorant, just reprimand them a few words and let them know the rules in the palace." With that, Gonggong Zhao walked in the direction of Wenyuan Pavilion. The two eunuchs were busy kowtowing and thanking him.

"This corridor is really long, this person can't accept the old man, the old man is an old bone, he can't walk quickly." Five or six pedestrians passed through the corridor, and all the lights in the corridor were lit up, reflecting their path. This corridor is not an ordinary corridor, this corridor is called the Thousand Steps Corridor, named because it is a thousand steps long, and the Thousand Steps Corridor is the only way for the outer courtyard to lead to Wenyuan Pavilion.

"There are not many people in the world who are qualified to walk this path." A pedestrian laughed and quickened his pace. There are 80,000 officials in the Great Zhao Empire, including 4,000 Beijing officials, and only a few officials are qualified to walk up the Thousand Steps Corridor and enter the Wenyuan Pavilion. Being able to walk on the thousand-step corridor is a great honor for the officials of Da Zhao.

"They're coming, let's go up and meet them." Under the eaves in front of Wenyuan Pavilion, Zhao Gonggong vaguely saw five or six figures walking down the thousand-step corridor towards Wenyuan Pavilion. Zhao Gonggong took the lead, and several eunuchs behind him followed and walked forward.

Several pedestrians exchanged their hands and greeted Zhao Gonggong for a while. Shake off the fur to warm your ears and the snow on your winter hat, and untie your cloak to reveal a crimson court dress, which is the color of clothing that only first- and second-class officials in the imperial court are qualified to wear. These people are all members of Da Zhao's cabinet, and only they are qualified to walk through the thousand-step corridor and enter Wenyuan Pavilion.

The group tidied up their clothes and walked up the steps and then stopped talking. The plaque above the middle of the gate is impressively engraved with three gilt characters of Wenyuan Pavilion.

Zhao Gonggong slowly swept towards the cabinet members with a solemn expression, and said softly, "The war in Liaodong is tight, and the imperial court has fallen into a huge deficit this year, and the emperor is worried about this matter. ”

As he spoke, the two eunuchs in the hall lifted the door with both hands and slowly moved the door of the hall, which was like a curtain that slowly unfolded, without making a sound. Gonggong Zhao and five or six cabinet members gently walked into the hall.

In the middle of the main hall is a dragon chair, the armrests on both sides are carved with delicate dragon heads, and a middle-aged man sits on the dragon chair - Song Yuren, Emperor Zhenyuan of the Great Zhao. In the middle of each of the four large pillars on both sides is a long case, which is full of volumes and documents, and neatly placed pen, ink, paper, inkstone, but no seat.

Behind the four pillars are four copper furnaces, in which charcoal is burned. The heat emitted by the coals is as warm as spring in the main hall.

The cabinet members respectfully stepped forward and knelt down and kowtowed to the middle-aged man on the dragon chair. The middle-aged man raised his hand and motioned for them to stand in their respective positions.

"Elder Xu Ge, let's start." Song Woo-in ordered the meeting to begin.

Xu Hongqian, the first assistant who stood at the head of the left case, cleared his throat and said in a respectful tone, "In June this year, there was a great flood in Jiufu in the south of the Yangtze River, a great drought in Shaanxi in August, and the displaced people in Shaanxi in September, and at the end of the year, there was a war in Liaodong. ”

Xu Hongqian said in an official tone, and no word was important. Song Yuren didn't speak, his eyes stayed on the account book in front of the case.

"The floods in the southeast, the great drought in Shaanxi, the rebellion in Fujian, Guangzhou, and the war in eastern Liaoning, combined with the military expenditures for the war in eastern Liaoning, this year alone, the deficit has reached 7.4 million taels, and in addition to the deficit in previous years, the deficit in our Dazhao has reached 240,000 taels of silver." Lu Zongcheng, the second assistant of the head of the right case, took over Xu Hongqian's words, "It's still too early to say that we can get through the difficulties, Shaanxi has risen again, seven county towns have been lost, and there is a great tendency to burn the plains, and Governor Peng has been transferred to Liaodong, and the situation in Shaanxi is really worrying." ”

The transfer of Peng Chaodong as the governor of Shaanxi Province is Xu Hongqian's recital, seeing that Lu Zongcheng pointed the finger at himself, Xu Hongqian immediately counterattacked, "This year, the imperial court has a deficit of 7.4 million, and the military expenditure of the Liaodong town army accounts for 3.2 million. As for the chaos of the gangsters in Shaanxi, it is just a disease of scabies, how can it become a prairie fire, is this a fear that the world will not be chaotic? There is no defeat of Gao Guang this year, where are there so many losses! ”

Hearing the name Gao Guang, Song Yuren frowned, picked up the red pen and wrote on the paper that Gao Guang was arrested and returned to Beijing to ask for the crime.

Song Yuren raised his head after writing, and his eyes fell on Su Ke, the head of the household department, "Su Aiqing is in charge of the household department, Su Aiqing, you can talk about it." ”

"This year, the taxes of the nine prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River cannot be collected, and now the border army has been in arrears for nearly ten years, the army is disheartened, and the pseudo-Liao is eyeing it. In his humble opinion, it is better to make up for some arrears of the border army first to calm the morale of the army. Su Ke nervously glanced at Song Yuren out of the corner of his eye, saw Song Yuren nodding, and continued to speak, "It's just that the tax can't come up right now, and the deficit can't be made up." The emperor was kind, thinking of the difficulties of the people's livelihood, and he could not bear to increase taxes, so the only way to make up for the deficit was to increase the commercial tax. ”

"That's a good idea." Song Yuren agreed with Su Ke's idea.

Speaking of apportioning commercial taxes, Lu Zongcheng stood up against it, "This matter must not be allowed, Taizu established the country and the ancestral teachings, and the imperial court cannot compete with the people for profit......"

"Alright." Song Yuren impatiently interrupted Lu Zongcheng's words. But when I heard the word ancestral system, I hesitated.

"Your Majesty." Seeing Song Yuren hesitating, Xu Hongqian stood up, "Do extraordinary things at extraordinary times, Emperor Taizu has the ancestral precept that you must not compete with the people for profit, but the emperor also sent commercial taxes to protect my Great Zhao's rivers and mountains. Isn't the emperor's food and clothing for the sake of the ancestors and the people of the world? For the time being, the people of the world have been living for a year, and the people of the world can also understand the emperor's difficulties. The minister thought that it was feasible to increase the commercial tax, although the nine provinces in the south of the Yangtze River were flooded, but the businessmen were not to the point where they could not survive, and the minister had also heard that the huge businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River were rich and rich, and they lived extravagantly, and they spent a lot of money at every turn. ”

"What Aiqing said is very good." Song Yuren nodded approvingly. I agree with Xu Hongqian's words very much.

"Your Majesty." With Xu Hongqian's help Su Ke to speak, he was a lot more confident, "Solving the deficit for many years is nothing more than open source and throttling, the emperor has advocated thrift and thrift since he ascended to the pole, reducing the expenditure in the palace, and the atmosphere in the palace is completely new, saving no less than 600,000 taels of expenditure for the household every year, which is throttling." The addition of the commercial tax in Jiangnan is for open source, and the minister thought that not only could the commercial tax in the Jiangnan area be increased, but the emperor could also reopen the city. ”

"Aiqing, let's talk about it." Song Yuren turned his gaze from Xu Hongqian's body to Su Ke.

Su Ke paused and continued, "Silk is abundant in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the silk in Jiangsu and Zhejiang can only be sold for four taels of silver locally at a cost of three taels per horse, and can be sold for six to seven taels of silver in the mainland, and silk can be sold for ten taels or even higher per day in Western countries. Ordinary tea in Fujian and Zhejiang, 50 catties can be sold for one tael of silver, and in other provinces, 50 catties of tea can be sold for two taels or even more, and sold to Western countries, 50 catties of tea can be sold for seven or eight taels of silver, and there is still no market. During the Shenzong Dynasty, my Great Zhao sold no less than 200,000 pieces of silk to Western countries every year, and silk alone could increase the income of the household department by more than 1.4 million. Every year, there are no less than 10 million catties of tea sold to foreign countries, and one tea can also earn about 1 million taels of silver for the household every year. It was only in the later period of the Shenzong Dynasty that the southeast sea was rampant, cutting off the route from Dazhao to the Western Ocean, and the number of silk tea exported each year decreased sharply. ”

If the sea trade routes can be reopened and trade with Western countries can be resumed, as long as the scale of trade during the Shenzong Dynasty can be restored, the scale of trade alone in silk alone can increase the financial revenue by about 1.4 million yuan per year, Song Yuren was very moved to listen. However, Song Yuren was also well aware of the need to reopen the maritime trade routes and resume maritime trade. The first premise is to eliminate the sea and pirates in the southeast.

"That's a good idea." Song Yuren first affirmed Su Ke's idea and said, "But it is imperative to sell silk to Western countries and eliminate the pirates and pirates on the sea." I instructed Xia Zhenxian, the governor of Jiangnan Province, and Shan Futian, the secretary of the Jinling Military Department, to supervise the elimination of the Haikou and Japanese invaders, and to restore trade with Western countries as soon as possible. ”

"Shengming has no way to pass the emperor." The ministers patted Song Yuren's ass. Song Yuren was very useful, and continued, "The arrears of the army in the border towns and the military expenses of Peng Chaodong will first allocate three million taels of silver from the inner court this year to solve the urgent need, and the New Year is about to begin, and it will also allow the soldiers to have a good New Year." I have approved the matter of increasing the commercial tax, as for how to do this, I will leave the details to Xu Ge Lao and Su Aiqing to handle, and I will make a ticket tomorrow to give me a red approval. ”

Song Yuren opened his mouth to use the money from the inner court to pay his military salary, and the courtiers praised and praised the beautiful words without hesitation.

It was late at night after the Wenyuan Pavilion meeting, and several cabinet ministers thanked them and left Wenyuan Pavilion.

Walking to the depths of the thousand-step corridor, Lu Zongcheng sighed, "This year's bad debts have been reported again, and the emperor is merciful, but how much of the silver allocated by the three million inner treasury can reach the hands of the frontier soldiers?" ”

At this time, there were only the second assistant Lu Zongcheng and Liang Bangjie of the left capital Yushi in the depths of the thousand-step corridor, Liang Bangjie saw that there was no one around, and sighed, "Collect business taxes and reopen the sea route, you can increase your income by ** million taels of silver every year on paper, but in the end, how much silver taels can be spent on people's mobile phones?" Doesn't the emperor understand this truth? "Liang Bangjie is a native of Shaoxing Mansion in Jiangnan and has a good understanding of the situation in Jiangnan.

"It's not that the emperor doesn't understand." Lu Zongcheng smiled bitterly and shook his head, "The emperor is in a hurry, in the thirteen years since the emperor ascended the throne, which year has my Da Zhao been peaceful, and the emperor is too eager to seek treatment." ”

"Guangsheng (Lu Zongcheng word Guangsheng), you didn't say a few words in front of the emperor just now?" Liang Bangjie asked, with a hint of blame in his tone.

"Since the defeat of Gao Guang, what I said has no weight in the DPRK." Lu Zongcheng was sad, "Next, we want to clean up the Southeast Sea Kou and the Japanese Bandits, but I'm very worried about Zhenxian." ”

While talking, the two unconsciously walked to the door of the noon gate, each of them pinned to their own frame, and disappeared into the vast night.