Once the decision was made, Hong Chengchou quickly entered the role and immediately planned for Zhu Youzhen.

"Your Majesty, the establishment of a village cannot be completed in a moment, and a certain amount of strength must be accumulated first. The so-called king is not secret, he will lose his ministers, try not to spread this matter, and never spread it to the court, so that the courtiers can find out.

Therefore, it is better to set up villages only in northern Shaanxi or even Yan'an, and it is not appropriate to expand them. Let's take Yan'an as a pilot first, and we can use the reason of civil unrest to change Yan'an Mansion to Yan'an Town, and use the Janissary Army Town to change civilian households into military households, and no longer send rogue officials to hide people's eyes and ears. ”

The establishment of the head of the township and the change of the status quo of the imperial power not going to the countryside greatly shook the interests of the gentry, and rashly promoted the world before a certain strength was not established, which would inevitably cause a strong backlash from the gentry, and even cause chaos in the world. Hong Chengchou's idea was to use the military to cover people's eyes and ears, first develop obscenely, and wait until he accumulated enough strength before making trouble.

After thinking about it, Zhu Youzhen felt very safe, so he nodded and said:

"Very good. Even if it is the establishment of a military town, I am afraid that there will still be some trouble. ”

Hong Chengchou said: "As long as Your Majesty insists, the cabinet has no choice." It's a big deal that His Majesty directly issued a decree to appoint military town officials. ”

If the emperor is not satisfied with the emperor's decree, the cabinet has the right to refuse, and the six departments also have the right to refute it, but at present, several cabinet elders are from the eunuch party, and only by relying on the emperor can they maintain their status. If they are disobedient, Zhu Youzhen will have a big deal to temporarily unite with the Donglin Party, oust them from power, and replace them with some obedient people. Or simply ignore the cabinet and directly issue a decree to appoint military officials, and the military town will not appoint civilian officials, and they are not afraid of civilian officials resisting the decree.

"Since Your Majesty wants to set up a second-level official system in the countryside, these grassroots officials need too much, and the minister suggests that from now on, we should start training. In the name of martial arts, a special school of officials can be set up in Yan'an Mansion, which can recruit low-level scholars, or start recruiting from children, without learning the Four Books and Five Classics, just need to understand the text, know arithmetic, and then know the laws and taxes, you can be officials. Admission to the school was free of charge at the beginning, in order to reflect the emperor's grace, with a period of three to five years, students can first join the army as grass-roots officers after graduation, and when the time is ripe, they will be sent to the township officials. ”

Hong Chengchou's words made Zhu Youzhen's eyes light up, and he couldn't help but praise: "Aiqing's words are very good, but I don't know how to think of setting up martial arts to train officials?" ”

Hong Chengchou said with a smile: "Your Majesty wants to set up a village, the number of officials required is very large, although the head of the township is small, but he directly manages the people, needs to count the population, needs to collect taxes, etc., and it will be very troublesome to use non-human words." The minister thought of the imperial examination election system, and the imperial court held an examination every three years to select hundreds of jinshi as officials. By extension, is it also possible to select township officials through examinations? But Xiangzheng is just an eight-grade petty official, don't be so troublesome, as long as you have a little knowledge, you can be competent, in this case, why not follow the example of Taixue Guozijian and set up a special school to cultivate? ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "Very good." ”

According to Zhu Youzhen's initial idea, it was to select officers from the Praetorian Guard to serve as township leaders, and then retired soldiers would serve as village chiefs and township leaders. However, this method is very flawed, for example, in the current Qingjian County, more than 600 officers and soldiers will be transferred from the army, and if the entire Yan'an Mansion completes the restructuring, tens of thousands of people will be needed, which will greatly affect the combat effectiveness of the Praetorian Guard. Can you do a good job of Xiangzheng? Although the official position of the township chief is small, he is also an official who manages thousands or even tens of thousands of people, can he really be competent just by knowing a few words?

According to Hong Chengchou's suggestion, the establishment of a school of officials to train township officials, there is no need to study the Four Books and Five Classics, as long as they learn professional knowledge such as laws, regulations, arithmetic, taxation, etc., only a few years of training are enough. Once the school is established, it can recruit students on a large scale and continuously train candidates for township officials.

"But what about the Praetorian Guards? Sooner or later they will retire and go home, how to place them? Zhu Youzhen frowned.

Hong Chengchou said with a smile: "It's easy to do, all retired soldiers and officers can enter the school for free, and after a few years of study, they can return to their hometowns to become the head of the township or serve in the village." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded again and again: "Very good, very good." Aiqing has any other ideas, you can say them together. ”

Hong Chengchou was encouraged and continued: "Your Majesty has ordered Shaanxi to be tax-free for three years, and it is necessary to set up village officials and recruit troops in northern Shaanxi, all of which require a lot of money to support. Although His Majesty was able to obtain a batch of money and food by raiding the officials and gentry, it was far from enough for this huge expenditure. If you want to do great things, you can't do it without money and food, and the minister wants to ask Your Majesty what you think about the money and food you need in the future? ”

Zhu Youzhen said: "Some time ago, I copied the eunuch party, cut the Fu Domain, and got a lot of money and food, which is why we have 20,000 Praetorian Guards today. I also decreed the reform of the clan system, so that in the future, I could save a sum of money from the clan, plus the mines, banknotes, workshops, and weaving yamen belonging to the inner treasury, and I could buy one or two million silver a year, which was almost enough. ”

Hong Chengchou said: "Under normal circumstances, this silver is enough, enough to support tens of thousands of troops. However, now the Ming Dynasty is worried about internal and external troubles, and there are too many places where money is needed, and there are too many places to count on the silver of His Majesty's inner treasury. ”

Zhu You sighed: "Yes, those officials of the six ministries, all with red eyes, are staring at my inner treasury silver. ”

Hong Chengchou said: "So we must continue to open up financial resources." ”

Zhu Youzhen sighed: "I don't know, but how easy it is to open up financial resources, those gentry and officials shouted one by one that the Son of Heaven would not compete with the people for profit, and they couldn't wait for me to remove all the Huangzhuang Huangdian Mine Supervisors, even if taxes were levied, the silver levied would go to the ......treasury of the Ministry of Households."

Hong Chengchou smiled and said: "It's not easy to get money, hasn't Your Majesty already done it, just continue." ”

"The most important thing in this world is silver, not in the hands of His Majesty, but in the hands of others, whether Your Majesty wants to suppress corruption or rectify the rule of officials, it is not too easy to get silver. Dongchang Jinyi Wei has tens of thousands of fans, how can he always eat idle meals? They have so much privacy in the gentry and wealthy families, why not use it to turn it into silver and use it for His Majesty's great cause. ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly realized, and looked Hong Chengchou up and down.

"Aiqing's behavior doesn't match the self-proclaimed upright Confucian disciples. If Aiqing's words and deeds spread today, I don't know how much infamy it will cause. ”

Hong Chengchou smiled and said: "For the sake of Your Majesty's great cause, the minister is fearless even if he bears some infamy. ”

"Hahaha"

Zhu Youzhen laughed: "Aiqing is not afraid of ruining her reputation, and she is also a true countryman." ”

Hong Chengchou smiled silently, knowing that after today, he would be in the emperor's heart, if there is no accident, becoming the first auxiliary supreme minister is just around the corner!