"Your Majesty!"

Wang Yangming, Wang Wei, Fei Hong, Liang Chu, Mao Ji, Jiang Mian, Jin Gui, Wang Zuo, Gui Cao, Hu Shining, Liu Yu, Yan Song, Gu Dayong, Shi Wenyi, Zhang Cai and others came to the leopard room one after another.

"Excuse me!"

"Throne!"

"Tea!"

Zhu Houzhao took his attention off the map and looked at everyone: "First Qi Kangping, then King Jingjiang, what do the secretaries think about this matter?" ”

The people present are all his ministers and confidants, so he won't hide it, and directly throw out the topic.

Everyone looked at each other, not understanding what Zhu Houzhao was thinking, and they didn't dare to speak rashly, so as not to anger Shengyan.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that although Qi Kangping's matter is deserved, there are many doubts in it, which is puzzling!"

Wang Yangming is Zhu Houzhao's most trusted person, he was the first to speak, and his words hit the nail on the head, hitting Zhu Houzhao's mind.

Qi Kangping's problem was not only noticed by him, but everyone else also knew it, but they didn't dare to say it!

Qi Kangping's hometown is in Shanxi, how did his hometown neighbors go to Jiangnan to find him for help? In this era, as long as it is not a famine, basically no one chooses to leave their hometown.

How was Qi Kangping pulled into the water?

Qi Kangping did a lot of illegal things during his tenure as governor of Yingtian, why did no one expose it in the past, but it broke out at this time?

The answer was that they all knew it in their hearts, and they roughly understood the purpose of Zhu Houzhao looking for them, and the emperor was completely enraged and was ready to make a big wave.

"Since there is a suspicion, then go to investigate, once the clues are found, we will not tolerate it."

Zhu Houzhao directly made it clear that he wanted to engage in the Jiangnan gentry group, "Send a decree to Gao Feng, strictly investigate Qi Kangping, but all personnel involved in eucalyptus, regardless of officials and gentlemen, princes and generals, will be dealt with strictly!" ”

He didn't plan to hand over the eucalyptus to the Criminal Department, or Dali Temple, three words: don't worry, there are too many people in the civil official group who are close to the Jiangnan gentry in the six ministries, let them investigate, and they may not be able to find out a fart after decades.

And he is going to carry out a purge this time, he doesn't really want the truth, since it is a purge anymore, then no matter whether he is innocent or not, he will not let it go, this kind of dirty thing is the most suitable for Gao Feng to do!

Gao Feng, one of the Eight Tigers, has a bad reputation, and it doesn't hurt to stink a little.

Regarding Zhu Houzhao's plan to purge Jiangnan, everyone was silent, neither opposed nor supported, and reserved all their opinions.

Except for Liu Jin, Gu Dayong, Shi Wenyi, Zhang Cai, including Wang Yangming, most of them are scholars who accept orthodox Confucianism, and it is really difficult for them to make up their minds if they want them to help Zhu Houzhao clean the Jiangnan where the literary style is flourishing.

If they don't go all out to stop Zhu Houzhao, it is already their biggest concession and loyalty, if it were Liu Jian Xie Qian in the past, they would have made trouble with Zhu Houzhao a long time ago!

They are also human beings, they have their own thoughts, they are not puppets in Zhu Houzhao's hands, what Zhu Houzhao says, they follow without their own thoughts.

No one objected to the plan to clean Jiangnan, and Zhu Houzhao took the hot iron and asked everyone: "What do the princes think of the vassal kings in various places?" ”

This question stopped everyone!

What kind of goods are the feudal kings in the public impression, fat pigs, moths, vampires, rice worms, waste, garbage...... Anyway, all bad nouns can be buckled on the head of the vassal king.

Collecting money and enclosing land, killing people and setting fires, harming one party, and even trafficking in human beings, there is nothing that the vassal king group does not dare to do.

The vassal king group, together with the civil official group and the Xungui group, can be ranked as the three major tumors of the Ming Dynasty, which is broken out by real skills, they don't do the same good things, and the bad things are innumerable.

Today's court about the charges of Zhu Youqi, the king of Jingjiang, is only a small part of his career as a vassal king, which can be called a drop in the bucket.

"What does Your Majesty mean?"

Wang Yangming asked tentatively, and everyone turned their eyes on Zhu Houzhao, although they all knew that the vassal group was not a good product, but it was better to remain silent before they figured out Zhu Houzhao's thoughts.

Talking about the royal family, the crime is not small!

"Since the founding of Emperor Taizu, the vassal princes of the Ming Dynasty have been enjoying the support of the imperial court, and with the increase in the number of people, the financial expenditure of the royal family has also increased."

"If I'm not mistaken, last year alone allocated millions of taels of silver to the vassal kings in various places."

"If this continues, there will be more and more members of the royal family, and the court will need to bear more and more money, until one day, it will definitely become a key part of dragging down the court's finances."

"Therefore, I have decided to cancel the support for the royal family personnel and let them go to their own ways to make a living, so that the children of the royal family can get a certain degree of training, and also ease the financial expenditure of the imperial court."

Zhu Houzhao looked at Wang Zuo, the head of the household department, and said: "Wang Aiqing, you are the head of the household department, and you know the most about the finances of the imperial court, I am right." ”

was regarded as a miser by Liu Jin, and Wang Zuo, who was upright in his life, smiled bitterly, which obviously offended the vassal king, and the work still fell on his head.

"What Your Majesty said is that with the increase in the number of members of the imperial family, it is indeed a huge burden on the finances of the imperial court, and the minister has roughly estimated that the money for supporting the royal family members every year is equivalent to one-third of all the annual income of the imperial court. ”

One-third of the total annual income of the imperial court is such a terrible number, but this is the harm of the vassal group!

Night and night, continuous birth, resulting in a substantial increase in the number of births of royal personnel every year, the birth of one, the court will have to pay an extra royal child of the maintenance silver, and then such an unrestrained raising, the Ming Dynasty finances will be dragged down sooner or later.

You must know that the finance of the Ming Dynasty is not equal to Zhu Houzhao's personal wealth, there are Gao Feng, Qiu Ju, Luo Xiang, Wei Bin and others who continue to squeeze rich businessmen from all over the world, and Zhu Houzhao is not short of money, and even Zhu Houzhao himself does not know how much wealth has been accumulated in the leopard house.

But Zhu Houzhao is rich, it does not mean that the Ming Dynasty is rich, under the heavy restrictions, the Ming Dynasty's annual financial income can be 20 million taels of silver, which is considered a bumper harvest.

And the 20 million taels of silver, the vassal group will take one-third, and the officials of the various ministries of the imperial court will ask for the treasury appropriation in various names, and then you take a little, I will take a little, and then go to one-third;

The remaining one-third is the salaries of the armies in various places, the salaries of officials at all levels, and all kinds of miscellaneous expenditures, all of which require money.

Rolling down in a circle, the imperial court does not have a few dollars left in a year, which is also the reason why Zhu Houzhao will move all the silver mined by Iwami Silver Mountain into the leopard house after he laid down Fusang, and not a cent will be put into the treasury.

If you really want to deposit a large amount of silver in the treasury, the vassal clique and the officials of the various ministries will empty the treasury in a short time, and they have the ability to do that.

At that point, Zhu Houzhao is afraid that he will be like Chongzhen, and go to the courtiers to raise donations in a low voice!

The problem of the vassal king is not only a problem of too many royal relatives, but also an out-and-out financial problem, which must be solved, otherwise Zhu Houzhao will not be upright, and Wang Zuo, who has never been treated by him, will also come to him.