The Donglin Party's tail has been cocked recently, mainly because Zhu Youxiao basically has no opinions in government affairs, and Zhu Youxiao does whatever the Donglin Party says.

Today's Zhu Youxiao is nominally the emperor, but he did not show the slightest personal will, and the Donglin Party felt that the emperor was being played by them between applause, and they suddenly felt proud.

Zhu Youxiao also said that he had no interest in court politics, and on weekdays, the government was basically lost to the cabinet and the celebrant supervisor. Ye Xianggao, the first assistant of the cabinet, is from the Donglin Party, and Wang An, the eunuch in charge of the seal, is also from the Donglin Party. Li Jinzhong, the eunuch of the celebrant and the pen, rarely went to the celebrant on duty.

Zhu Youxiao's attitude and expression also made the Donglin Party begin to be paralyzed, thinking that the will of the new monarch had been controlled by them.

Although Wang An's minions in the palace were cut off by Zhu Youxiao, for the Donglin Party, their interests were not shaken. At the same time, Zhu Youxiao was also famous, and he relied on the name of anti-corruption to cut off Wang An's minions, which did not arouse the vigilance of Donglin Party officials.

The Donglin Party didn't know that the emperor was planning to rectify the forbidden army.

On this day, Zhu moved back to the palace from the school, and the Donglin Party immediately built a new enke. After the emperors ascended the throne, they all had to open a branch to recruit scholars. Not surprisingly, Zhu Youxiao not only agreed to Kaienke, but also put Donglin Party officials in charge of the supervision of the imperial examination.

The Donglin Party won another phased victory, and the bigwigs were suddenly overjoyed. This means that they can manipulate this imperial examination.

Whoever can be promoted and promoted will not be up to them in the Donglin Party at that time. There are so many businessmen in Jiangnan who want to gain fame, so the money is coming.

Especially during the palace examination, champions, lists, and the like can be sold for money.

The big guys are happy, and the younger brothers naturally have a piece of the pie. So the officials of the Donglin Party happily went to prepare Enke.

Zhu Youxiao is like the Gou Jian of the Spring and Autumn Period, continuing to cultivate obscurity, lying on the salary and tasting courage, and first controlling the interior of the palace where he has absolute power.

On this day, Zhu Youxiao was reading a book in the Palace of Nourishing the Heart, Yang Guang walked in, and whispered in Zhu Youxiao's ear: "Your Majesty, Zhang Yan is back." ”

"He's back, let him come and see him." Zhu Youxiao was immediately overjoyed and hurriedly stood up. After a while, Zhang Yan entered the Heart Cultivation Palace.

"Slave Zhang Yan, knock on the emperor. Your Majesty, the minion is back. Zhang Yan shouted excitedly, Zhu Youxiao hurriedly helped Zhang Yan up, and asked eagerly, "Have you bought the horse?" ”

"Your Majesty, I bought it. and two hundred thousand taels of silver, and bought thirteen thousand horses, of which a thousand were on horses, nine thousand on horses, and three thousand foals. Zhang Yan replied.

"So smooth?" While Zhu Youxiao was overjoyed, he was also a little surprised.

"The slave went to Zhangjiakou, it wasn't very smooth, but the slave met a horse merchant, and when he heard that the slave was buying a horse for the emperor, he tried his best to help, not only contacted the war horse, but also the price was relatively favorable." Zhang Yan told Zhu Youxiao about his experience of going to Zhangjiakou.

"Did the horse merchant bring it?" Zhu Youxiao asked.

"Come, and drive the horses to the capital together." Zhang Yan replied, Zhu Youxiao couldn't sit still, and hurriedly said, "Take me to see the war horse, and by the way, go and meet the horse merchant." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Zhang Yan obeyed the order, Yang Guang hurriedly went to the transmission department to set up a supervising driver, and soon Zhu Youxiao got in the car and went to the Caoli Fence Factory under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Horse Prison.

When Zhu Youxiao arrived, he saw that the Caoli Fence Factory was crowded with horses.

Finally there is a horse, Zhu Youxiao laughed happily. A middle-aged man dressed in silk was brought to Zhu Youxiao at this time.

"Cao Jinyu, the grass people, knock on the emperor, long live my emperor, long live, long live." The middle-aged man hurriedly knelt down and bowed, Zhu Youxiao was in a very good mood, and said with a smile: "Flat." ”

"Your Majesty." Cao Jinyu got up and stood there a little stiffly, and Zhu Youxiao asked him, "Cao Jinyu, where are you a businessman?" Is it a horse trader on weekdays? ”

"Emperor Qiqi, the grass people are Shaanxi merchants, and they mainly sell grain to the border on weekdays, and after arriving at the border areas, they also do some horse trafficking business." Cao Jinyu replied.

"Then tell me about it, but there is any business that can only be done by collusion between officials and businessmen." Zhu Youxiao asked Cao Jinyu that at this time, Zhu Youxiao already had the idea of absorbing private businessmen and doing business with them.

"Emperor Qiqi, the grass people in other industries don't know much, but in this business that can be done by collusion between officials and businessmen, Tian Fu is definitely very profitable." Cao Jinyu thought for a while and replied. Tian Fu folded color, this is related to the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty! Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but be shocked and asked, "How does it work?" ”

"Since Zhang Juzheng changed the law, the land collected has changed from levying grain to levying silver taels. There is a saying that when the field is levied every year, the price of grain will inevitably fall sharply, and a stone of grain in the north will cost 1 tael of silver on weekdays, and when the field is levied, it is often only 5 yuan of silver, and the color of the discount is also 5 yuan, or even lower, and the benefits of this can be imagined. Cao Jinyu paused, saw that the emperor listened carefully, and continued: "And ordinary people are not stupid, they will try to keep the grain as much as possible, and wait until the price of grain rises before selling it. Therefore, at this time, the only grain that can be harvested at a low price is the grain that is folded into the field. But these discounted grains are converted by the government in person, and not everyone can buy them. Only those powerful people, or businessmen with access to the door, can buy these discounted grains at a low price. ”

"And when paying the field tax, the scales used are basically short of catties and taels, and the merchants eat the difference in the price of the discounted grain, while the officials eat the catties and taels on the scales, plus the bribes of the merchants." Cao Jinyu's words made Zhu Youxiao finally understand why the Ming Dynasty had as much as 21 million stone of land last year, but the grain that could really be used was not even half.

The Ming Dynasty requisitioned grain for silver, not for the peasants to sell their own grain for silver, and then directly pay the silver. Instead, the grain is sent to the place designated by the government for folding.

That is to say, for example, a landlord in Jiangnan has to pay 100 stone of grain according to the regulations. The price of grain in Jiangnan may only be 8 yuan, and when the field tax is paid, the price of grain may be reduced to 4 yuan. Then the landlord sent the 100 stone grain to the government for color and sold it to the grain merchant designated by the government, so the result of the color was 40 taels of silver. Then the normal price should be 80 taels of silver, and the other half went to the merchant's pocket.

If these folded silver were used in the north, the price of grain was 1 tael of silver and 1 stone of grain, then the imperial court actually only got 40 stone of grain.

And the landlord, because there is a problem with the government's scale, he may have to pay 120 stone grain, and the 20 stone grain goes into the official's pocket.

The burden on the peasants did not increase exponentially as people say, because the land endowment of the Ming Dynasty was relatively low, and it was completely acceptable to be eaten a little weigh. Therefore, there was no official coercion of the people, and the peasant army uprisings were generally natural disasters, and the Ming court did not provide timely relief, plus some forces bewitched and formed.

But the country is frantically digging into the wall, 20 million stone of land endowment, only half can really get it, and in the process of transporting grain from the south to the north, there is still a lot of loss, so the loss of food, the real grain that the imperial court can call, I am afraid that only one-third is left.

When Zhang Juzheng changed the law, it was to increase national taxes, but he didn't want this result. The current situation was created by the Donglin Party after Zhang Juzheng's death. Almost all of Zhang Juzheng's changes have been abolished, but they have retained the things that can collude with officials and businessmen to dig into the corners of the country.

"Cao Jinyu, are you willing to do business with my royal joint stock?" Zhu Youxiao decided to meddle in the grain business, and immediately asked Cao Jinyu.

"This, grass people......" Cao Jinyu's face was embarrassed, and he didn't look very excited.