Early the next morning, Hongzhi and Zhu Houzhao both went to the court meeting with bloodshot eyes. Both of them walked out of the study room, which shows that they didn't sleep all night. The last one to come out was Zhu Houwei, and it was the same, but he went directly to a guest bedroom to sleep in addition to the study.

In fact, the court meeting is not held every day, generally speaking, it is decided according to the degree of diligence of the emperor, Hongzhi is a very diligent emperor, and the court meeting is basically once every 3 days. But successive pilgrimage meetings are not uncommon.

The venue of the court meeting was in the Mukden Temple, the predecessor of the Taihe Hall (Jinluan Palace). The width is 95 meters, and the depth is 47 meters. Fengtian Hall and its northern Huagai Hall (now Zhonghe Palace), Jinshen Hall (now Baohe Palace) together form the "three halls" building complex, is the core of the Forbidden City complex in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, is located in the three-layer stone platform that is all wrapped with white marble, each layer of the platform is surrounded by beautifully carved stone railings, the total height of the stone platform is 8.12 meters, the edge is 7.12 meters high, covers an area of 25,000 square meters.

It is a pity that such a huge wooden building that has no ancients before and after has no comers, only existed for three months in history, Fengtian Temple was announced to be put into use on the first day of the first month of the 19th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1421), and it was thundered on the eighth day of the first month of April, "Fengtian, Huacani, Jinshen three halls disaster", the three major halls were all destroyed by fire, Ming Chengzu regarded this as the anger of God and his ancestors on his "Jingyan" to seize the throne, forcibly move the capital, and build a large number of buildings, and was frightened, changed Beijing to "Xing in", and still respected Nanjing as the capital, Changed to listen to the government in Fengtianmen (now Taihemen), no longer rebuild the three major halls, after Hongxi, Xuande two emperors, all have the idea of moving the capital to Nanjing, and did not rebuild.

After the orthodox emperor succeeded to the throne, the idea of moving south has been extinct, orthodox five years (1440) to rebuild the three major halls, to September of the sixth year, "Fengtian, Huagai, Jinshen three halls, Qianqing, Kunning two palaces into the city". Although it was built with the help of the experience and ability of some old people left behind in Yongle, it was not exactly the same as the original, or compared with the original "gorgeous and rich", it was actually much simpler.

In the Jiajing Dynasty, there was also a fire in the imperial palace, Zhu Houwei knew that this was due to the lack of lightning rods or the effect of lightning rods was not good, and the military factory was already developing the lightning rods painted by Zhu Houwei, and I believe that it would not be long before the palace would use them. After all, the surroundings of these halls are very empty, and they are all wooden structures, and once it thunders and rains, you won't split anyone.

Hongzhi is different from Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Houzhao enters from the gate of Fengtian Temple, while Hongzhi has to come out of the apse, and this passage can only be walked by him.

Zhu Houzhao came in first, the civil and military officials had already arrived, standing in their positions, as soon as they saw the prince enter the gate, everyone bowed, and Zhu Houzhao bowed his hands and bowed, which was considered to have been saluted.

In the main hall, the civil and military officials are divided into left and right sides to stand, the ancients respected the left, Zhu Houzhao, the second person of the Ming Dynasty, is standing at the front of the left side of the team, and there are several pavilion elders behind. The people who can go to the court are all big officials, basically speaking, except for some special positions, there is no such court if they are not satisfied with the five products, so as far as the eye can see, there are a lot of birds and beasts.

Zhu Houzhao had just arrived at the front of the team and greeted several pavilion elders, and then turned around and waited for Hongzhi to arrive, and the Fengtian Hall was also quiet. After a while, only a voice was heard, and the voice of a man or a woman sounded, "Your Majesty has arrived." ”

The great eunuch He Ding led the way, Hongzhi was dressed in a bright yellow dragon robe, walked slowly, walked up the steps, and when he came to the dragon chair and sat down, the ministers of civil and military affairs all knelt down and shouted three times, "Long live my emperor, long live, long live." Hongzhi put his hands on the throne and said calmly, "Zhongqing is flat." Then the people stood up.

He Ding was next to him with another voice, "If there is something to do, play early, and retreat if there is nothing." As soon as the words fell, the left waiter of the household department walked out of the team, stood in the middle of the aisle, bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, Fengyang, Zhongjing, the slaughter suffered heavy snow, and countless houses were damaged, please give your Majesty an order for relief." ”

Hongji nodded expressionlessly, "That's right." Then Tobe Samurai returned to the group. Then an imperial historian walked out of the team and bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, Dengzhou, Cangzhou, and Daizhou have insufficient food in the treasury, and the prefect has neglected his duties and filled his private pockets, and the ministers ask Your Majesty to investigate thoroughly." Hongji was still expressionless, "Yes." ”

Bingbu Langzhong stood up again, "Your Majesty, due to the lack of boats along the canal this year, there is no long-term work to do, and the people's hearts are now unstable, and I hope Your Majesty will be cautious." Koji nodded. Hongzhi is actually very angry in his heart, before the abolition of the Huangzhuang, the Ming Dynasty was peaceful and peaceful, everything was fine, and now he wants to ask for the abolition of the Huangzhuang, the Ming Dynasty is short of food here, so it is necessary to give relief, the people's hearts are unstable, the intention is too obvious, do you play with the emperor? Zhu Houzhao, who was standing below, also showed an angry expression uncontrollably, but he stood at the front, and the minister didn't see it. However, Hongji looked at the faces of several pavilion elders and found that they were also angry, and he knew that these people were playing, and they didn't know either, so he felt a little better.

After several officials played, there seemed to be no movement, and the entire Fengtian Hall became silent and depressed. Hongji spoke, "A few elders, don't you have anything to play?" ”

The main topic came, and the civil and military officials were in high spirits. At this time, Liu Daxia slowly walked out of the queue, bowed down and said, "Qiqi Sheng, the old minister has something to play." Hongzhi has always admired Liu Daxia's character, so he smiled and said gently, "Liu Aiqing, please speak." ”

Liu Daxia bowed and said in a neutral voice: "Old minister, please abolish the Imperial Mansion." Now His Majesty's Imperial Village occupies a very large area, but there are still many people in the Ming Dynasty who have insufficient acres of land at home, and life is difficult, the old minister asks His Majesty to dismantle the Imperial Village and return it to the people, so that the people can cultivate their fields, and the court collects their taxes. ”

The ministers thought that Hongji would be angry, and no matter how bad it was, he should be expressionless, but Hongji smiled and said, "Liu Aiqing is reasonable, but the Huangzhuang around Gyeonggi was built by me with the money and grain of the inner treasury, and it has been more than 3 years now, and the cost of silver taels is no less than 10 million taels, and the monthly money of the 150,000 long-term workers is tens of millions of taels, and now the inner treasury has dried up, and now I have no money to repair a pavilion." If the imperial village is returned to the people, it is not indispensable, but what should be the silver taels sent by the treasury to the inner treasury every year? ”

Liu Daxia only frowned when he heard this, and said, "Your Majesty has invested a lot, if it is returned to the people, it should be compensated from the treasury, but the treasury should not compensate too much at one time, it is best to pay it in several years, every year." ”

As soon as the words fell, the other civil and military officials couldn't help but start whispering, this is unbelievable, the annual income of the treasury is so much, unless it is levied violently, otherwise it will not rise too much at once. Listening to His Majesty's wishes, 20 million taels will be allocated from the treasury to the inner treasury, and even if it is paid off in 10 years, it will be 2 million taels per year, and the annual revenue of the treasury will only be 2 million taels. Another point, Huangzhuang looks very big, but those who have been to see it know that only a large village can have value, and it is not much worse than dozens of acres of farmland than one ordinary one. This is another problem, there are only a few villages in Huangzhuang, but there are many officials to be divided, and many officials are not from the capital, and there is no land around the capital, even if 1,200 acres of land are divided, there is not much money at all. And so many people up and down the Ming Dynasty watched, it is impossible to distribute it to the families of officials, or the big family has no key to do this, the civil and military officials present are about to "leave a name in history", so many people unite together to pit the emperor, it is the following offense, Tian property is taken into his family's pocket is to fill his own pocket, throughout the history of China, I have never seen any dynasty official do this.

But the money in the treasury is different, through the "intermediate link", basically every official can be distributed, proper, but increase the expenditure of the treasury, the treasury section through the "intermediate link" of the money will be less, after all, the money sent into the treasury, but there is no "intermediate link" that is not long-sighted. This will inevitably lead to a decrease in the "circulable" money in the treasury, so their income will also decrease, and the Ming Dynasty's Yulu is notoriously low, and the family size is so large that it can't be raised.

The ministers whispered there, but Koji looked at it with a smile and did not reprimand. Liu Daxia frowned and thought secretly. Suddenly, a reprimand came, "The monarch and the minister replied, and the rest of the people whispered, what kind of system it became, and it was not fast and quiet." When everyone looked at it, it turned out to be Liu Jian, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Liu Ge, so Fengtian Hall was quiet.

Speaking of Liu Gelao, the entire government and the opposition were a little scared, even Hongzhi was half respectful and half afraid. Because Liu Jian was Hongzhi's teacher when he was still the prince, he was taciturn, but his words were amazing, often a few words, and he hit the nail on the head. Liu Ge has a bad temper, which is also known to everyone. When I was a teacher in the East Palace, I was a teacher in the East Palace for Hongzhi, who was holding the prince as an improper cadre, should I scold or scold, and I didn't care about it, the homework left by other teachers, the more hard-working Hongzhi sometimes "forgot to do it", but this Teacher Liu's homework must be completed on time and in quantity, not for anything else, it is just a "service" word, other teachers chattered for a long time, Hongzhi is still difficult to understand, Liu Ge said a few words, and let Hongzhi suddenly open, so Hongzhi knew that this teacher with a bad temper had real skills.

Another point is that from the first year of Hongzhi to the twenty-first year of Hongzhi now, the old gentleman has been a cabinet elder for 21 years, including the first assistant for 10 years, and he is 74 years old this year. As soon as the old gentleman spoke, the scene suddenly quieted down, and Zhu Houzhao stood in front of the old gentleman, and was also startled by his neutral voice.

When everyone was quiet, Hongji said again, "In addition to what I said earlier, I have another idea, let's discuss it. The Imperial Village was originally used to make up for the inner treasury, after all, the imperial palace costs a lot, and the allocation from the treasury is also slightly insufficient, I think it is better than this, the imperial village, if it is not abolished, the treasury will not need to allocate money and grain to the inner treasury in the future, and even the royal family's preferential funds will be allocated by the imperial treasury in the future, and all the revenue of the treasury will be used for the benefit of the people. The output of the imperial estate may also be insufficient, so one of the royal family will choose one of them and set up a business, and from now on, the royal family will be self-sufficient and will no longer take a penny from the treasury. ”

The ministers were taken aback, what does the emperor mean by this, at this time to be financially independent, in the past, the treasury appropriation was to be approved by the household department, and to build pavilions and pavilions, the household department generally had to give money. The most important thing is that the royal family wants to do business, which is a sign of the death of the country.

Sure enough, most of the ministers knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, think twice." Liu Daxia said urgently, "Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, a merchant and a restaurant in the palace, lingered here all day long, abandoned state affairs, the Han Dynasty was soon full of hungry people, the Yellow Turban uprising, and the world was shaken, Your Majesty must not ignore it." ”

Hongji looked around the ministers and found that there were still some people standing still, as if they were thinking about something. So he said calmly: "Don't worry, everyone, Aiqing, this time the royal family's business is different from that of the Han Dynasty. First of all, let's talk about Huangzhuang, all Aiqing has a lot of complaints about Huangzhuang, mainly because Huangzhuang occupies farmland and is suspected of competing for profits among the people, so in the future, Huangzhuang will no longer buy the owner's land, even if it is expanded, it is also a choice of wasteland, borderless land, and I, the emperor, should still have the right to expropriate these lands, right. Let's talk about business, this business is different from the past, the goods sold are not there before the Ming Dynasty, in my Ming Dynasty, will not involve all the existing goods, of course, with the state of trade is not included. Not only that, the Chamber of Commerce will also build bridges and pave roads, one will be repaired from Beijing to Guangzhou, one from Beijing to Xi'an, and then from Xi'an to Chengdu, and promises that there will be no checkpoints on the road, and business travelers will come and go freely. ”

The ministers were stunned for a moment, this is really a wave of unsettled waves.