February 17 of the ninth year of Jiajing.!

A piece of good news arrived in Quanzhou.

Xu Qian, the governor of Zhejiang, who had been here for seven months, received the good news and was immediately relieved.

The Spanish army was defeated and annihilated.

The results are still gratifying, but Xu Qian is not surprised, on the one hand, the intelligence collection of Jinyiwei is very the other hand, it is the sea route pacification envoy who was underestimated by the Spanish Yan zhòng's strength, in fact, the pacification envoy fleet composed of nearly 300 warships encountered the Spanish fleet in the Penghu area, and then, gave the Spaniards a fatal blow, although in practice, perhaps the pacification envoy fleet is not as good as the Spaniards, but in absolute strength and technology, it has far surpassed their opponents.

Subsequently, the New Army landed in Taiwan, captured Puerto Marie, named it Taipei, and routed all the Spaniards on the island.

Putting down the good news, Xu Qian put his hand behind his back, and then picked up a book.

There is only one thing in the book.

When Emperor Jiajing was sleeping in the Great Gaoxuan Palace, a palace maid suddenly made a disturbance and almost strangled Emperor Jiajing to death.

After this incident, the government and the opposition have been shaken, and Jiajing suddenly became moody, all the people involved in this matter have been executed, and then, some ministers have also suffered, the reason why these people have suffered is very simple, because they went to the recital, bluntly said that the reason why this incident happened was not because someone was plotting, but because His Majesty was addicted to pills, and he abused many maids in the palace, so that the hearts of the people in the palace were lost.

When Xu Qian saw this, he couldn't help sighing, although these ministers told the truth, but unfortunately, they offended the Son of Heaven, so they ...... Must die.

And what made Xu Qian even more speechless was that Liang Teng, the head of the household department, actually participated in this incident, and then the court staff, in the court staff, the staff died.

Xu Qian didn't actually have much friendship with Liang Teng, he only knew that he and he were in the same party, and they usually took some care of each other, but Xu Qian never expected that Liang Teng would die like this, and he would die horizontally.

His heart twitched.

He didn't know much about Liang Teng, at least in his impression, he didn't expect Liang Teng to do such a thing, and even Liang Teng's behavior made him very puzzled, you are your official, why do you have to offend the rebellion of the Son of Heaven, what is the point of doing this?

"What else is there ・・・・・・ news from Jingshi?" Xu Qian asked slowly.

Zhou Tai on the side said: "It is reported that before Lord Liang wrote the book, he was heartbroken and said to his family that if he can't let the Son of Heaven learn from the pain, then there is no point in admonishing him, only by letting the Son of Heaven feel the pain, can he expect the Son of Heaven to know his mistakes and change them, so he is ready for the worst, his son Liang Hong has been imprisoned and now his life and death are unknown." ”

Xu Qian sighed and said, "Find a way to rescue it." ”

Zhou Tai couldn't help but say: "My lord... This...... His Majesty was furious, and at this time he tried to rescue, but he was afraid of ・・・・・・"

Xu Qian took a deep breath, and he said slowly: "That's why we need to find a way, try our best to rescue him, and immediately arrange for him to go to sea, at that time, in each vassal country, appease the envoys to station the army, give him a sum of silver, let him live there, live well." ”

Zhou Tai was stunned for a moment, nodded, and then had a hint of suspicion, and said, "To appease the envoy to station military horses in various places?" ”

Xu Qian said: "The Francois are defeated, but who can guarantee that they will not come back, when the time comes, we don't have to take the initiative, the countries will also want to pacify the garrison of the envoys, and when the time comes, let them each take out a piece of land and hand it over to the pacification envoys to take care of."

Zhou Tai was very puzzled: "But there are two questions about the lowly, one of them, where is there so many military horses in the pacification envoy?" Second, they had just driven out the Francos, so were they willing to give us the land? ”

Xu Qian finally relaxed a little, and said with a smile: "The pacification envoy does not need so many military horses, as long as a symbolic stationing of hundreds of officers and soldiers is enough, the feudal kingdoms do not want the Ming to be stationed too many officers and soldiers, what they want is a promise, as long as there is a Ming army there, once they encounter danger, they can get the help of the local Ming army, and once these Ming troops also attract the attack of others, then the Ming will definitely not sit idly by, do you understand what this means?" It means that they may not need tens of thousands of people to really protect them, but what they need is a promise from the Ming Dynasty. As for the land, of course they were willing, because the nature of the Ming and the Franco-Mechanics was different, and the Franco-Mechanics built a fortress on their land with the aim of encroaching on them. And Da Ming will not, compared to the Franco, their trust in Da Ming is much higher. Land is both important and unimportant to them, even if they cut out a tenth of the land, in fact, it doesn't hurt for them, the most important thing is their status, if the Ming can ensure the safety of the royal family, they will gladly do the same

Xu Qian sighed: "From now on, Nanyang will all fall into the private pocket of Daming." ”

"As for the Spanish Francs? It is said that their strength is still strong, and the adults are not afraid that they will make a comeback? ”

Xu Qian smiled: "Don't be afraid, Spain is defeated this time, and the balance of power of the entire Francophone will be completely broken, and at that time, the Francophone will inevitably usher in a protracted war, and even the big cannibals will participate in it. ”

Xu Qian's guess is correct, Spain used to be a dominant country, at least in an aggressive situation before, and now its strength has been greatly damaged, the Portuguese will definitely covet it, and the French, who have always coveted Spain's huge wealth, are also very likely to want to take a piece of the pie in this turbulent situation, as for the big food, Spain has been competing for its North African region, and this time, I am afraid that it will not hesitate to liquidate.

Xu Qian didn't care about the matter of the Franco, but once the war began, the spring of the Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau would come.

Xu Qian sighed and said, "The most important thing at the moment is who will take over the Hubu Shangshu, which is the question that this official is most worried about." ”

Zhou Taidao: "It is reported that the Hubu Shangshu seems to have a candidate, and most likely Yang Yiqing will be concurrently served." ”

Cabinet ministers concurrently serve as scholars, which is the tradition of the Ming Dynasty, such as Yang Tinghe concurrently serves as the secretary of the ministry, and it stands to reason that the household department is the second largest ministry in the world, and there is nothing wrong with this household department letting Yang Yiqing concurrently serve as the secretary.

It's just that Xu Qian smiled and said: "Yang Yiqing hasn't been in office for long, the situation has changed, Yang Yiqing is certainly a genius, but if he wants to manage the household department well, it is a fool's dream, not to mention that the matter of urging the payment of official food has not yet been settled, just to say that the current household department is much more complicated than before." I heard that in order to support the war in the border towns, the household department issued another debt a few months ago, amounting to four million taels, do you know how much the household department has raised this year? A full 10 million taels of silver, this 10 million taels of silver, the annual interest alone is 500,000, and the imperial court's previous annual consumption of 3 million is already stretched, not to mention, the principal will have to be repaid in the future, and it is an official who offends the world to call for official food, but if he can't pay off this account, he will offend the nobles of the world. You can offend the Son of Heaven, but once you offend these people and offend such a wide range of interests, let alone Yang Yiqing, it is Yang Tinghe, and it will inevitably fall. ”

Zhou Tai frowned, he obviously couldn't understand that the household department at this time was just a microcosm of the imperial court's transformation from a small government to a large government.

In fact, the reason is very simple, the new economic form has changed, and it has begun to involve the imperial court, and the imperial court, as in the past, still only hopes to make a living by repairing the county school and providing disaster relief, which is obviously impossible. Just talking about raising soldiers, in the past, the cost of raising soldiers in the imperial court was almost negligible, why? It's nothing more than because of the guard's system, once the war comes, the court allocates some food, and then allocates a little silver and two rewards. But this is no longer the case, and the cost of moving troops is much higher now than it used to be. And as the local agricultural economy gradually becomes difficult to support, the power of the county court has become more and more subtle to control the local government, in the past the governance of the local government relied on the squire, but now the landlords are bankrupt one after another, so what should be done?

Another example is the problem of public security, because the population is concentrated in the city in large numbers, it is impossible to maintain urban law and order by relying on those errand servants in the past, so full-time patrols will inevitably appear, and government affairs will be subdivided, many responsibilities are more and more, and the more responsibilities there are, it means that there will be more and more officials, and this large amount of support alone is no longer something that the imperial court can afford.

Coupled with the decline of the rural population, a large number of people have moved into the cities, which makes most people more and more dependent on transportation, and the places of the New Deal have begun to build rivers and roads, and some people in other provinces have begun to follow suit, but where does the money come from?

The beginning of three million taels of silver a year is almost not enough to mention, and even the annual expenditure of the Money and Grain Bureau has exceeded 10 million, this is only Zhejiang Province, and there will be more and more in the future, and the treasury of the imperial court, relying on these poor silver, what can it do?

So, in order to keep going, they began to borrow, and after borrowing for the first time, they felt terrible, but they were very happy when they spent the money, and after the time passed, they found that the money was gone again. So what to do? Is it to cut back and go back to the past, even worse than in the past, or to drink to quench your thirst?

Xu Qian asserted: "Therefore, it won't take long for Yang Yiqing to resign, although Yang Yiqing has been in charge of Ma Zheng and even cabinet ministers, but looking at this court, no one is qualified for the post of household secretary." ”

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