"Shangshu, you're back......"

"Hmmm......"

In mid-May, when the people in the northeast of the Ming Dynasty were migrating on their own, and the southwest was preparing for war, and the country was in full swing because of the preparation of the vassal kingdom by the King of Qi, Bi Ziyan also returned to the mansion with a day of exhaustion.

His mansion is not big, it is only considered middle and lower in Nanxunfang, only less than a quarter of land (245 square meters), but there are eight people of all sizes.

Two maidservants, a cook, a groom, and a steward, plus his wife and six-year-old child.

In addition to this, the stable in the backyard also has a carriage for him to go to court.

In terms of his identity as a scholar of the second grade household department and a scholar of Wuyingdian, such a courtyard is very incompatible with his identity.

"What about the lady and the young master?"

Bi Ziyan returned home, and when he didn't hear the voice of his family, he glanced at the palm of the matter curiously, and the head of the matter hurriedly responded when he heard the words: "Madame took the young master out to play, and I may not come back until dinner." ”

"Hmm......" Bi Ziyan took off his black gauze hat, revealing a head full of gray hair and fine sweat under the net.

He walked back to the bedroom in the backyard, and the two maidservants followed him to change into a robe, and served him to wash his face before leaving, while he walked to the main seat of the hall and sat down, holding a copy of "The Mean" in his hand, but his mind was not on the book.

The person in charge looked at the "The Mean" in his hand, and couldn't help asking: "Shangshu, you seem to have been reading this "The Mean" for half a month, right?" Why don't you change it? ”

"Huh?" Bi Ziyan glanced up at the man who had been in charge of his affairs since he was young, and then looked down at the "Mean" in his hand, and then said: "This "The Mean" can't be finished. ”

"The Four Books and Five Classics, starting with the Mean, all because of the familiarity with "The Mean", you know the foundation of being a person and doing things."

"Although the spirit of Confucianism is to join the WTO, this "The Mean" has a bit of Taoist spirit."

"It is easy to join the WTO, but it is very difficult to do things."

"If you work hard, even if you do everything, it's hard to say what the result will be."

"Therefore, if you have a little bit of the spirit of Taoism, you can aim high and achieve great things with an open mind."

When Bi Ziyan said this, his eyes were vain and absent-minded, and the person who had served him for more than 30 years could naturally see it, so he couldn't help but wonder:

"None of what you're saying seems to be what you're doing."

"Yes......" Bi Ziyan leaned on the handrail: "Because of this, I admire the kind of person who is not rigid in the face of small things, is as stable as Mount Tai in the face of big things, and is open-minded to people." ”

"......" listened to Bi Ziyan's words, and the head was silent for a moment.

Bi Ziyan's words are outside the words, and the person he said is actually only one person in the entire Ming Dynasty.

He didn't understand why his own Shangshu wanted to mention that person, maybe he had worked together for too long a long time, and after listening to the recent news in the capital, he felt it?

"Daddy!!"

As soon as Bi Ziyan finished sighing, a child's voice came from behind the shadow wall in the courtyard, and then a child wearing a tiger head hat and wearing a red coat ran out from behind the shadow wall.

He ran towards Bi Ziyan, and when he saw him, Bi Ziyan barely had a tired smile on his face.

"Daddy!"

"Eh......"

The child hugged Bi Ziyan's leg, and Bi Ziyan also nodded and responded with a smile.

This is his middle son Bi Jiwen, born in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, and is six years old this year.

Bi Ziyan is not childless, but the eldest son died young, and coupled with his busy official duties, he has never had time to ask for a second one.

is Bi Jiwen, and in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youzhen gave him half a month of vacation before he had it by mistake, so he can be regarded as an old man.

For Bi Jiwen, Bi Ziyan has no high hopes, he just hopes that he will grow up healthy.

"Where's my mother?"

"My mother and Chef Li went to the backyard to prepare today's meal."

Bi Ziyan asked, Bi Jiwen replied, the communication between the two was simple and straightforward, and Bi Ziyan also hugged him in his arms when he heard this: "When I go out today, what do you see?" ”

"Yes! Today, the royal store is crowded with people, and many people are buying bicycles, Dad, when will our family buy bicycles? There were also clocks and thermometers, which I see in other uncles' houses. ”

As soon as Bi Jiwen heard his father's inquiry, he immediately began to talk endlessly.

When Bi Ziyan heard him say this, he also looked at the master, and the director bowed and responded:

"In the middle of today's month, it's time for the emperor store to put new products on the shelves, but there are only 1,000 bicycles on the shelves today, and they have been sold out early."

"Hundreds of officials and the people competed, but many people did not grab it."

"In that case, let's not fight for it for the time being, this object is only a pastime in our hands, and it is indeed a life for the people." Bi Ziyan shook his head when he heard this, and looked down at Bi Jiwen:

"You can't ride it right now, I'll buy it for you when you're a foot taller than the bike."

"Mm-hmm......" Bi Jiwen is used to his father's style of thinking about the people, and he really can't ride a bike now, he wants to let his father ride a bicycle and take him out, just like other children, sitting in the back seat, and being taken out by his father to ride a bicycle to blow the wind.

It's just that he also knows that his father is very busy, and he is busy until late at night every day......

Bi Jiwen thought so, but a footstep sounded, and the groom in charge of guarding the door walked to the courtyard to make a move:

"Shangshu, Dong Shilang asks to see."

"Bring it in......" Hearing that it was Dong Yingju who asked to see him, Bi Ziyan hugged Bi Jiwen back to the ground on his lap, which made Bi Jiwen feel disappointed.

"Let's go play, Dad and Dong Shilang have something to talk about."

"Hmmm......"

Bi Ziyan explained, Bi Jiwen also left sensibly, and the person in charge had already gone to prepare tea for hospitality with the maidservant.

Similarly, as the groom left, Dong Yingju, who was soon wearing a Taoist robe, also walked into the courtyard of Bifu, followed the groom into the hall, sat in the first place on the left, and took out a booklet to say:

"Shangshu, this is the estimated tax book of the various departments of the Ministry of Household this year, according to this booklet, after the tax revenue of the country is taken in the autumn, it should be able to balance 12 million taels of silver."

Dong Yingju didn't call Bi Ziyan directly, because he was twelve years older than Bi Ziyan, and if he called Bi Ziyan's cousin, it would be tantamount to letting Bi Ziyan call him brother.

However, Bi Ziyan didn't think there was anything, after the groom took the book, Bi Ziyan took a look at it, and as the master brought the maid to the table with tea, he closed the book and said:

"Although there is a balance, Brother Long also knows that the household department currently owes 14 million taels of silver to the Financial Department."

The silver owed by the Ministry of Household to the Financial Division, to put it bluntly, is the reward of the Galactic Pension Silver and the Pension Field of the War between the Northern Sweep and the Feudal Domains.

Originally, the household department had a surplus of 10 million taels of silver last year, but with the end of the war, the household department owed more than 14 million taels of silver to the financial department.

Most of this year's bounty was distributed in overseas gold and silver, and although the silver would not cause inflation, Bi Ziyan was still ready to pay it back just in case.

Therefore, I am afraid that the household department will have to live a tight life for two years.

Hearing this, Dong Yingju also nodded slightly, and said with a heavy face: "I heard that Banzai and His Highness are preparing to open three more railways for the three provinces outside the Guanxi recently. ”

"With the addition of these railways in the three provinces outside the Guanwai, I am afraid that the household department will have to increase the budget by millions of taels of silver."

"I came here this time to discuss with Lord Shangshu whether to dissuade His Highness and ask His Highness and Banzai to postpone the construction of these three railways."

"Alas......" Bi Ziyan sighed, put the paperwork on the table aside, and said sadly: "I'm afraid that the things decided by His Highness can't be stopped." ”

"Instead of blocking it, it is better to ask His Highness if the gold and silver of the Financial Department can be opened to the market."

The Financial Department has tens of millions of taels of silver, and the whole capital knows about it, but with Zhu Youzhen's explanation, everyone also knows that the silver of the Financial Department cannot be used casually, otherwise it will definitely make Daming fall into inflation.

When the people's income has not increased, they wantonly release water and release a large amount of silver taels, which can be said to indirectly force the people to go into debt.

Zhu Youzhen has always been worried about this, and he is worried that counterfeit money dealers are rampant in the market, so he has not released the Apocalypse Tongbao.

In the financial sector, Zhu Youzhen knows Daming better than Bi Ziyan, so Bi Ziyan and they only hope that the current Daming has reached the standard that Zhu Youzhen can release silver in his heart.

Once this standard is reached, the tens of millions of taels of overseas gold and silver will be enough for the household to eat for ten years.

So Bi Ziyan and they were all wondering, when is the standard in Zhu Youzhen's mouth......

If it is according to the population, then the Ming Dynasty will not want to release these tens of millions of taels of silver, because since the success of the feudal domains, the Ming Dynasty has moved nearly 400,000 people.

Although these people were divided into the feudal kingdoms of the vassal kings, and each country did not exceed 10,000 people, for the Ming Dynasty, this was just the beginning.

As the feudal domains grew stronger and their needs became more and more, the number of people they migrated would also increase, and among them, the demand of Qi was the largest.

Bi Ziyan and they don't know when the Qi State will start to move the people, but it is foreseeable that once Zhu Youzhen, who has the most wealth and the most power, starts to invest resources in the Qi State, the development speed of the Qi State will be very terrifying.

For the Ming Dynasty, population migration not only lost the population, but also lost the salt tax, tea tax, wine tax and various direct taxes and indirect taxes associated with these populations.

In the long run, it is difficult to say that the days of the Ming Dynasty will become very good.

I didn't think it was natural and man-made disasters before, after all, the Ming Dynasty was facing hungry people at that time, but most of the people who moved from the vassal domains were people in the hinterland of the Central Plains and coastal areas, and these were real tax contributors.

Although the ten taels of silver handed over by the vassal king to the household department were enough to cover the taxes of this group of immigrants for several years, in the long run, the Ming Dynasty still lost money.

It is impossible for Bi Ziyan and them to foresee a more serious drought in a few years, and tens of millions of mouths waiting to be fed, like Zhu Youzhen, can foresee.

"When His Highness returns to Beijing, I will ask His Highness."

After being silent for a long time, Bi Ziyan picked up the teacup and said this, and Dong Yingju watched him serve tea to the guests, and consciously got up to make a move, and then left the courtyard.

Looking at Dong Yingju's back, Bi Ziyan couldn't help but sigh: "Although Brother Long is seventy and three, this body is much better than me, a person with two out of sixty......

His sigh blew to the Beijing officials' workshop with the warm summer wind, and at this moment, Chengde was also meeting Li Demao, Zhang Maocai, Xiao Daogui and others in the officials' workshop.

In the hall of the ordinary mansion of the ordinary, even somewhat small official workshop, there are the four principals of Yanshan sitting, which is really unimaginable.

The four of them sat in their seats, and the tea on the table had cooled, but none of them drank it.

After a long time, Li Demao's face was ugly and said: "This matter was not done by us at all, Your Highness knows it, but why does he want to use such means to retaliate against us?" ”

Li Demao's words spoke the hearts of the other three, and as for the revenge in their mouths, I am afraid that it is the matter of Zhu Youzhen's advancement.

Zhu Youzhen knew very well what the Yanshan faction wanted, either to be the emperor, or to sit in this position in the palace of the king of Qi in the capital, and not move his nest for the rest of his life.

Zhu Youzhen is here, that is destined to be the emperor is a mascot, but Zhu Youzhen is gone, the first thing he has to do is definitely to consolidate the imperial power, and then return the government to the emperor.

Returning the government to the emperor is something that all the students of the Yanshan faction do not recognize.

For most of the Yanshan students who can lead troops to fight and govern the country with dismounts, it is difficult for them to tolerate an "incompetent" emperor sitting on it.

This is naturally not to belittle Zhu Youxiao, but Zhu Youxiao's ability is indeed not worthy of the emperor in their hearts.

If Zhu Youxiao has Zhu Youjian, it will not ...... Even if he had Zhu Jianshen's means, the Yanshan officials would not be so uncomfortable.

"Jin Xuan has been sent to the Qi country, with his temperament, I am afraid that he will manage the Qi country very well."

Zhang Maocai said with a solemn face Zhu Youzhen's arrangement for Qi Guo, and Xiao Daogui also had a headache and said:

"I could have united with Huang Dudu, but with our identity, Huang Dudu is afraid that he will not receive him."

"Huang Dudu is loyal to His Royal Highness, in the past, when he was traveling thousands of miles of sea and frontier, every minister in the court and the central government suspected that he would be self-reliant, only His Highness believed that he would not, so trusted, Huang Dudu would not be willing to persecute His Highness with us." Li Demao analyzed, but he also noticed Chengde, who had not spoken.

"Brother Yuansheng, don't you have anything to say?"

"Me?" Chengde came back to his senses, and then sighed:

"What can I say, what Your Highness has decided, are you sure you have the ability to pull it back?"

"Then again, how do you pull it? Is it to convene the world's Yanshan officials to resign and threaten? Or is it a group bath? ”

"You're sure you can resign, but are you sure the people below can resign?"

"If he could, then Lu Wenzhao wouldn't have caught so many moths in my Yan Mountain!"

As he spoke, Chengde stretched out his hand and put his hand on a book on the tea table next to him.

"This booklet was handed over by the Ministry of Officials, and since the first month of last year, Lu Wenzhao has arrested a total of more than 34,000 officials, of which seventy percent are officials of Yanshan."

"How much assets have been confiscated by these seventy percent officials? Gold and silver, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, mansions and villas totaled only more than 4.6 million taels, and the confiscated acres were only 670,000 acres. ”

"These things are worth no more than 10 million taels, but they have caused more than 20,000 students to fall, and they are only 500 taels on them equally."

"Five hundred taels to buy the future of a Yanshan official, is it difficult for my Yanshan official to be so despicable?!"

Chengde gritted his teeth and said this sentence, and his words were full of hatred for iron and steel.

He is like this, and Li Demao and others are not the same.

It's a pity that most of the Yanshan students came from poor backgrounds, and for them, a few hundred taels of silver is already the silver that their parents and grandparents can earn for generations.

They all had a fluke mentality, thinking that they were just greedy a few times, and it was estimated that Jinyiwei would not be able to find out, but they just met Lu Wenzhao, who wanted to brush his performance in front of Zhu Youzhen.

Lu Wenzhao doesn't care how much you have embezzled, as long as you are corrupt, even if you are only a petty official from the ninth grade of sesame who is fifteen taels old, he will bring you to justice and let the person above see that he is doing something.

This kind of thing, can Chengde blame Lu Wenzhao?

Many officials in Beijing may blame, but they will not.

is also to arrest corruption, Sun Chuanting is different from Lu Wenzhao, Sun Chuanting advocates total killing or exile, while Lu Wenzhao advocates taking back peace and recalling him as a commoner.

The former wants human life, otherwise he must be kept away from his homeland, and the latter at least gives Yanshan dignity.

Then again, if the Yanshan officials were not corrupt, then Lu Wenzhao and Sun Chuanting would not be able to catch the Yanshan faction.

"How many students from Yanshan participated in this year's Enke?"

Chengde thought about the 20,000 officials who were arrested, and could only target Enke.

In this regard, Li Demao of the Ministry of Officials also responded: "About 260,000 people, but after the difficulty increases, it is estimated that there are less than 80,000 places." ”

"Judging from Yuan Keli's attitude, he is preparing to divide the officials who have passed into three, one part will be transferred to the three provinces outside the Guan, some will be enriched in the Guannei, and the last part will be transferred to the southwest, and Hong Chengchou will enter Myanmar after pacifying Myanmar."

Since Zhu Youzhen classified all officials as officials, for the Ming Dynasty, most of the people who graduated from Enke were officials, but they were of different grades.

And due to financial problems, even if it is an official of the ninth grade, admitting more than 80,000 people at one time will add more than 800,000 taels of expenditure, so Enke is destined to become more and more difficult.

Most of the students who did not pass Enke could only listen to the government's arrangement and go to the industrial area to become a skilled worker.

"How many students from outside Yanshan have signed up this year?" Cheng De asked calmly, and Li Demao also said with a sad face: "About 210,000 people." ”

"That is, 470,000 people choose 80,000 ......" Hearing this, Cheng De knew in his heart that this was his Royal Highness weakening the power of the Yanshan faction in the court.

Thinking of this, Cheng De probably understood in his heart the means that His Highness was preparing to deal with Yan Shan, but he also knew how to crack it:

"Since someone wants them to take the position, then the students selected from these 210,000 people will be selected to stay in Beijing."

"Choosing the best to stay in Beijing? This is not a good thing, if they stay in Beijing and are promoted in the future, then would......n't we have the right to wait" Xiao Daogui stood up suddenly, but Chengde raised his hand to signal him not to be excited, but said to himself:

"Staying in the capital, it seems that you can control the power, but can you really control it? Let me ask you, what is Chapter 2 of the third chapter of "Yanshan Politics"? ”

Cheng De asked everyone rhetorically, and Li Deyu frowned when he heard this: "The upper power can determine the middle power, and the middle power can determine the lower power, but if there is no support from the lower power, the middle and upper forces will collapse......"

"Got it?" Chengde picked up the teacup and took a sip, and then said:

"If all the students outside Yanshan are meritorious, then the place where they work is the capital, the provincial government, and the county government, and where is the place where our people work?"

"It's the countryside, it's the market town......"

"How much did the country pay taxes last year? The township contributed more than 70% of the direct and indirect taxes to Tianfu and Huangdian. ”

"These places they don't look down on, but they are the places entrusted by Daming, and they are also the top priorities of Daming."

"The ruling power of successive dynasties often can only control the country, provinces, prefectures, and counties, and the control over market towns and villages is very weak."

"His Highness is the only one who notices this, so he appoints village officials, even if there are only two people in each village, but he can control the entire village in the name of the imperial court."

"Since the development of my Ming Dynasty, there are more than 30,000 market towns and villages, and about ninety percent of the people of the Ming Dynasty live."

"If we can control the townships, it will be stronger and stronger than the control of the government offices."

"What is the dismissal and resignation? How did the Zhejiang Party threaten the imperial court back then? It is nothing more than to let the southern grain delay to Beijing in one day. ”

"But what if we let more than ninety percent of the country's rural market towns postpone the payment of taxes and land taxes one day? What will happen to the imperial court? ”

Chengde's words were deafening, but Zhang Maocai questioned:

"It is true that what you said Yuan Sheng makes sense, but since Yuan Sheng you have said that His Highness was the first to discover and attempt to control the countryside, then His Highness will also be the first to detect our intentions."

"Yes, not to mention that if you delay the payment of taxes for one day, I am afraid that the foundation of the dynasty will be hurt." Xiao Daogui also hesitated.

In this regard, only Li Demao could understand Chengde, and he said with a smile: "I understand, Yuansheng, your move is a yang scheme!" ”

"Huh?" Zhang Maocai and Xiao Daogui looked at Li Demao in confusion, and Li Demao also explained:

"Historically, Jinyiwei will not check the villages, but at most they will check the market towns, because their strength is insufficient, and the villages can't embezzle too many things."

"Naturally, a place where there is not much corruption and the money is still very cheap is that even Yanshan students such as me avoid it, so will the people selected from the 210,000 students outside Yanshan be willing to be a township and village official?"

"Naturally I don't want to!" Li Demao said excitedly: "Since they are unwilling, then we can insert the officials of Yanshan into it." ”

"They don't know that we arranged for them to enter the township, so they will only complain about the imperial court, and the low cost of village officials is not a problem for us, but a place to take advantage of."

"As long as we propose to raise salaries for village officials, a large number of village officials from Yanshan will support us."

Li Demao looked at Chengde: "In this way, although we have lost the prefectures and counties that represent the middle-level power, we have gained the townships and towns of the lower-level power, and the middle-level and upper-level power are lifted by the lower-level power, so once the lower-level power goes on strike, the middle and upper levels ......."

After saying three points, Li Demao didn't say it anymore, but Zhang Maocai and Xiao Daogui had already understood Chengde's thoughts, and they looked at Chengde with hot eyes, but Chengde also put down the teacup, looked up at the ceiling, and sighed:

"I don't want to threaten His Highness, I just want His Highness to stay in Daming and take Daming to the ...... of the rich and poor that he wrote in the textbook."

The afternoon update is around half past five

(End of chapter)