The capital of the country has fallen, and the world is in chaos.

Perhaps, such a Ming Dynasty also made the bureaucrats and gentry realize the seriousness of the problem.

Let them realize that they must give up some of their own interests in order to return to the peaceful and prosperous times of the past.

In addition, people are greedy for profits, after all, they also have the most basic conscience.

Therefore, it is only in the empire of this civilized society.

These feudal scholars also began to think about their own problems, and began to hope that the Ming Dynasty would change.

This also led to the fact that none of the cabinet members were perfunctory at today's court meeting.

Only four members of the Cabinet have spoken, but the topic raised is already extremely sharp.

The treatment of the common people and the gentry, as well as the collection of commercial taxes, were problems that the officials had not been willing to face.

But now they have all been raised by the cabinet scholars.

The officials of the six ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Hanlin Academy, and the officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology couldn't help but want to speak.

However, Zhu Youzhen frowned and shrank back.

Wu Xian, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, belonged to a relatively slow half-beat person, and he was preempted by Ma Shiying before he reacted for a while.

At this time, he had to stand up quite awkwardly:

"Your Majesty, Weichen followed the prince from Tianjin Wei to Hangzhou by sea this time, and found that there were many merchant ships in Ningbo, and Zheng Zhilong's treasure ships were countless, and Weichen had learned from a micro-service visit that Zhengjia Haimao made a profit of 10 million taels, and the annual profits of tea merchants and porcelain merchants and silk merchants in Ningbo, Hangzhou, Quanzhou and other places who cooperated with it were not less than 1 million taels!"

"But although I have been in the Ming Dynasty since the Longwan switch, there are cities and ships to raise the division to trade in the sea, but the weaving place is only 100,000 silver, the world's benefits are all in the sea, the Southern Song Dynasty in the past because of this to raise the people for a hundred years, and my Ming sea area far exceeds the Southern Song Dynasty, why not the benefits of the four seas to the imperial court, so that you can solve the problem of Li Ge Lao said that the Ming million elite soldiers are raised by whom."

Who said that the ancients were short-sighted, and Zhu Youzhen never thought that Wu Zhu, who had only stayed in the Hanlin Academy and the Ministry of Rites in the past, would also discover the huge profits of maritime trade after experiencing a sea trip.

"Li Ruolian, after the meeting is dispersed, send ten capable Jinyi Guard captains to the old mansion of Wu Ge!"

Seeing that these ministers could talk about the key points, Zhu Youzhen was in a very good mood, so he couldn't help but make a joke, slapped the table, and called Li Ruolian, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, to the hall.

Wu Xian, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, was originally timid, a person who was preempted by Ma Shiying and did not dare to get angry.

Now seeing that His Majesty Zhu Youzhen was going to send Jinyi Wei to his mansion, Wu Xian was so frightened that he knelt directly on the ground:

"Your Majesty, did Wei Chen say something wrong, Your Majesty spares your life!"

The other high-ranking officials in the court also looked at Zhu Youzhen in amazement, wondering if what everyone said just now was too much and made His Majesty angry.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Youzhen changed his words:

"You Wu Ge Lao wants to use the benefits of the pirates and the coastal gentry, how can the people of the Zheng family and the princes in the court spare you, I sent a few brocade guards to your mansion to protect you from being assassinated."

Zhu Youzhen said and looked at the civil and military ministers in the court.

These civil and military ministers didn't know the meaning of Zhu Youzhen's words, and hurriedly replied in unison: "The ministers don't dare!" ”

"It's good if you don't dare, you are all full of sage books, and you can't be equated with a businessman who only values fame and fortune, you should be as selfless as Wu Gelao."

As he spoke, Zhu Youzhen let Wu Zhu, who was already frightened into a cold sweat, retreat.

At this time, Zhang Shenyan, a scholar of Dongge University, also stood up: "All the elders of the cabinet said that the fatigue of the world is caused by the rich businessmen of the official gentry, and the ministers dare not agree, the reason why the people in the south are still there, and there is no great chaos, is because of the reason why the officials and rich businessmen support the people for the imperial court, if Your Majesty collects the business of the world and benefits the court, it is bound to compete with the people of the south; ”

"According to Weichen's view, the court instead of competing for the benefit of the world, it is better to make profits with the people of the world, the reason why the profit of the city is not as good as that of the maritime merchants, is because the ministers are greedy and do not understand the rules and regulations, Your Majesty should remove the eunuchs in various places, choose civil officials to supervise the benefits of the inner government, and manage the trade of the court, so that the court and the people can be rich together, and they can raise millions of elite soldiers without deviating from the hearts of the people."

Zhu Youzhen understood the meaning of this cautious statement, which was nothing more than that he did not want the imperial court to take away the benefits of sea trade controlled by the Jiangnan gentry dominated by the Donglin Party, but was only willing to accept that the imperial court and the Jiangnan gentry would jointly conduct sea trade. Even, he threw the pot with less profit of the imperial court to the ministers.

Zhu Youzhen also admitted that many eunuchs were not clean hands and feet, but this does not mean that letting civil officials manage the imperial court trade will necessarily be clean, and it may even make the imperial court lose money year after year, while the civil officials in charge of the imperial court trade continue to seek benefits under the guise of the imperial court like the eunuchs.

"This Zhang Shenyan has become this household secretary in vain!"

Zhu Youzhen scolded secretly in his heart, and then also knocked Zhang Shenyan: "Four months ago, Yushi Liu Yindong also used this to obstruct me, and I asked for his head on the spot, you Zhang Ge Lao has the guts, but I have already spoken in advance today, this court will not kill, I allow you to have your own opinions, but the increase in commercial taxes is a national policy set by me before, and it cannot be changed!" ”

"Weichen thank Your Majesty for not killing him!"

Zhang Shenyan retreated, feeling a little unhappy, but he also had to accept the fact that His Majesty was going to increase the commercial tax: "In this case, can Your Majesty not increase the tax on the gentry, but only collect the tax on the rich businessmen, the world's hundreds of officials are meager, if there is no benefit from business, I am afraid that they will use their own power to annex the land, and then the phenomenon of the people having no land to plant will be more serious, and there will be more and more displaced people, how can the world be safe." ”

Lu Zhenfei, a scholar from Dongge University, also stood up at this time:

Since the elder is afraid that the gentry will seize the people's land with their power, they are not afraid that the gentry will seize the people's interests with their power?

Only ten days after the arrival of the lower officials in Ying Tianfu, they received two pleadings:

One is that Zhang Shenming, the elder brother of Zhang Ge, the scholar of Dongge University, hoarded grain, causing the price of grain in Nanjing to soar, and some grain merchants from Huguang saw that they transported 200,000 stone grains to Nanjing to sell, but Zhang Shenming and the Xiaguan Inspection Department arrested the Huguang grain merchants and plundered the 200,000 stone grains, so that the grain prices in Nanjing continued to soar;

Unfortunately, this Huguang grain merchant is the nephew of Ying Tianfu, so Weichen ordered someone to take this Zhang Shenming and the Xiaguan Inspection Department to inspect it, and Zhang Ge Lao also wrote a letter to Xiaguan because of this, asking Xiaguan to release his brother and return his 200,000 stone grain. ”

As he spoke, Lu Zhenfei handed the letter to Zhu Youzhen.

Zhang Shenyan couldn't help but be stunned, staring at Lu Zhenfei: "Brother Lu, you!" ”

"Zhang Ge Lao is not angry, for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, the lower officials have to do this."

Saying that, Lu Zhenfei continued:

There is also a second pleading, Baoguo Gong's family recently found Weichen, saying that the 30,000 horses of silk he had hoarded in the area of Taipingmen in Nanjing needed to be rescued by the officers and soldiers of Tianfu, but unfortunately, it was the time when the officials were ordered to lead the officers and soldiers of Tianfu to repair the river embankment, so they did not respond to the order.

However, the Baoguo Gong therefore threatened to impeach the lower officials, and the lower officials asked, the people pay taxes to my Ying Tianfu, and how can the slaves of the Bao Guo Gong family pay taxes to my Ying Tianfu?

Should I be the officers and soldiers of Tianfu to build embankments for the people to protect autumn grain, or should I rescue the 30,000 horses of silk that took the water for the slaves of the prince of the country, and become the slaves of your Baoguo Gong's house! ”