Rule over Ming Dynasty

Chapter 23 Wynn seems loyal, the Ministry of Rites asks for grace
The date of the early court was set on September [-]th, but that day was regarded as the day when the monarch and his ministers formally confronted each other, but the warm-up work between the two sides had already started quietly.

The civil servants group was the first to move. After Wan An, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Liu Ji, the second assistant, submitted their resignations, important officials such as the Sixth Ministry immediately followed up.

Naturally, this move is not really a group resignation. They have studied hard for ten years and worked hard to get their current high positions. How can they give up easily?

The strength of the civil servant group is that they are united enough. They are obviously a group of people who are greedy for power, but they can always put on a high profile for the country and the people.

According to the usual practice, whenever a new emperor ascends the throne, the important ministers and local governors in the court will find excuses such as lack of ability to hand in their resignations to show the world that they are not greedy and powerful people, which can be regarded as handing over the decision of whether to stay or stay to the emperor. His Majesty.

Of course, this is actually a game directed and played by the Civil Service Group.

Not to mention that it is impossible for the newly succeeded emperor to accept the resignations of all officials. Doing so will cause the court to fail to operate, and it will damage the interests of his own dynasty.

If the new king agrees to the resignation of a certain leader of the civil official group, then countless younger brothers of this leader will go crazy to persuade him to stay, and even directly criticize the new king.

This is exactly the case, although the important ministers of the Manchu Dynasty all resigned due to their lack of ability and other reasons, but if you can really take their life and death from them, then you will really lose.

Zhu Youtang saw officials such as Li Yu, Minister of Officials, Li Min, Minister of Household Affairs, Zhou Hongmo, Minister of Rites, Yu Zijun, Minister of War, Du Ming, Minister of Punishment, Jia Jun, Minister of Industry, and Liu Fu, Youdu Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. None of the officials of the second rank was bad, and all of them submitted their resignations to themselves.

It's just that I know the virtues of these officials clearly, and I can actually take the opportunity to take down a few officials, but it doesn't make much sense to do so.

Zhu Youtang did not have a specific implementation plan for the purge of the officials of the six ministries, and there was no suitable replacement, so he firmly replied: "When I first inherit the throne, I will employ people to divide the general affairs, and I will not allow my speech."

I thought this would be considered complete, but Li Min, Minister of Household Affairs, Zhou Hongmo, Minister of Rites, Yu Zijun, Minister of Military Affairs, and Liu Fu, Youdu Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, actually made a second round of resignations. It seems that I really expected that the emperor would not dare Agree in general.

Facing the important ministers who resigned for the second time, Zhu Youtang also chose to endure, even if he tried to persuade him to stay again, he said: "You are the pillar of the country, so I will not allow you."

If it is dismissed in the third round, it proves that the official has a strong intention to leave. At this time, his request can be granted, and it is not easy for other officials to be retained.

It's just that these court officials are all veterans, so it is naturally impossible to present the third memorial.

Zhu Youtang actually hoped that some court officials would resign for three consecutive rounds and "send them to death", but by the third round, they all turned into shrinking turtles, and could not help but curse secretly: "A bunch of hypocrites!"

In the blink of an eye, it was already the thirteenth day, and tomorrow was the first morning morning.

"Your Majesty, this is the memorial to discuss matters in the various yamen tomorrow morning. Please read it!" Wynn, the supervisor of ceremonies, personally sent the memorial, appearing respectful and authentic.

The early days of the Ming Dynasty were not like those shown in TV dramas. An official in the Jinluan Hall suddenly came out and raised an issue, and then all the officials in the hall expressed their opinions and finally reached a conclusion.

The real early dynasty was far more "boring" than everyone thought. Since the eight-year-old Yingzong came to the throne, the early Ming Dynasty had turned to "copyrightism".

At that time, the cabinet minister Yang Rong and others "concerned about the holy body and easy to get tired", simplified the early court procedures, and stipulated that "every morning court, stop eight things to say, and the day before, he will be appointed as the vice-president, and Chen Shang will be punished for various matters."

The officials of each yamen sent a copy of the memorandum to be discussed tomorrow to the cabinet one day in advance, and the cabinet drafted it, and then His Majesty's commander, chief inspector of ceremonies approved it, and "responses" in the early court.

Just like this, the early court has actually lost the meaning of dealing with political affairs, because the matter has been dealt with the day before, and then it is read in the early court.

"Let's put it aside for now!" Zhu Youtang ordered Huai En, who was appointed as the chief of ceremonies, out of sight, without raising his head.

Wynn saw that Zhu Youtang was drawing strange paintings like well fields on paper, and was about to go up to see what happened, but a young eunuch stood in front of him.

"Eunuch Huai, let me put it aside, just give me the memorial!" Liu Jin knew that Huai'en was the supervisor of the palace, but she still firmly stood by Zhu Youtang's side.

Wynn was very displeased with this little eunuch who appeared out of nowhere, but he coughed lightly and said, "Your Majesty, if you want to practice Danqing Wuxia Royal Reading right now, you should first be approved by the supervisor of ceremonies before sending it over, how about that?" ?”

Zhu Youtang's complexion changed suddenly, but he never thought that this dead eunuch would dare to make such a mistake. Is it because he wants to be a puppet emperor himself?
Huai En has his own set of rhetoric, and seems to be thinking for Zhu Youtang: "Your Majesty, the court is full of loyal and upright veterans, and the slaves are also guarding for you, so there will be no mistakes! It is not too early to become a great treasure today. It is not beautiful to make a statement to avoid being corrected by Ke Dao and cause trouble!"

Liu Jin frowned slightly. Although listening to these words, she really seemed to be thinking of His Majesty, but in fact she wanted His Majesty to ignore things. This old eunuch is really not a good person.

"I know what to do. You can do your job well. Put aside the memorial and go down!" Zhu Youtang said, not good at forcibly dismissing Wynn now, so he suppressed the anger in his heart.

Wynn looked at Zhu Youtang, who still didn't look at him, and felt that the prince who had grown up had indeed become a little different, so he slightly cupped his hands and said, "Obey!"

Liu Jin took the memorial from Wynn, and when she saw Wynn leave, she couldn't help complaining: "Master, this old eunuch obviously has a sharp-mouthed monkey cheek face, but he is also a person who knows all day long. You hypocrite, you have disgraced us eunuchs!"

Zhu Youtang found that Wynn, who was praised by the civil service group, did have sharp-mouthed monkey cheeks, but he didn't answer the conversation, and was looking at the plan of the salt law that he had just completed with satisfaction.

If you want to govern this country well, you must first create a healthy financial system, so that you can have enough money to solve the problems encountered by the dynasty.

It is unrealistic to want to get more food taxes from the officials and gentry for a while now. The consequence of doing so is likely to be a fire in the Qianqing Palace or falling into the water, so solving the salt problem is the best policy.

Some people have speculated that the highest output of salt in the Qing Dynasty reached 20 billion kilograms, while the output in the last year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty was 3 million kilograms, so there is a lot of room for production here.

In the past few days, he has gradually perfected his plan to rectify the political affairs.Even if the salt tax revenue can't reach the 900 million taels in Xuantong's three years, it can't stay at the scale of 100 million taels. This salt tax revenue will become an important part of building a prosperous Ming Dynasty.

"Master, please read it!" Liu Jin said when Zhu Youtang glanced at him and sent the memorial to Zhu Youtang.

Zhu Youtang saw that there were only a dozen memorials, and the first one to open was the one sent by the Ministry of Rites, but he couldn't help laughing when he saw that he was going to present rewards to civil and military officials, soldiers and civilians.

"Public, marquis, son-in-law, uncle, people give 20 taels of silver; civil officials, first-rank and second-rank, silver 15 taels; third-rank, ten taels of silver; fourth-rank, eight taels of silver... Military officers, first-rank and second-rank, six taels of silver; third-rank For four taels of silver; for fourth and fifth ranks, three taels of silver; for sixth to ninth rank, two taels of silver; For those who have a mother or a wife, each of them will receive five taels of preferential food. Officials, supervisors, astronomy students, music and dance students, doctors, and Shuntianfu students will each receive a piece of silk; The elders and the craftsmen, cooks, and musicians each clothed one horse. This is the saying: Ascend to the throne, and it will be eternal!"

Zhu Youtang saw that these civil servants really had their wishful thinking, not to mention that there was a huge gap between the rewards of civil servants and military officials. Now that he was not satisfied with paying money from himself, he even wanted to "make it permanent" and ask his son They will be given money when their children and grandchildren succeed to the throne.

"Master, Zhang Shuzi has arrived!" Liang Fang walked over and reported to Zhu Youtang respectfully.

Zhu Youtang gently put down the memorial from the Ministry of Rites, but asked curiously: "Liang Fang, when my father ascended the throne, was there any entitlement gift?"

"My maidservant remembers that the first emperor did not have enthronement grace. In the Ming Dynasty, only when Taizong ascended the throne, the army and the people were granted the enthronement grace, but at that time the rewards were precious money!" Liang Fang answered seriously after thinking about it.

Zhu Youtang asked Liu Jin to bring Zhang Sheng in, but found that the civil official group really thought he was easy to bully, not only wanted to collect money from himself, but also wanted to formulate an "ancestral system" that was beneficial to the civil official group.

It has to be said that there may be various reasons for the demise of Ming Dynasty, but the biggest disadvantage is that this growing civil servant group sucked up the luck of Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Sheng came in from the outside, and after learning the whole story, he said bitterly: "Your Majesty, the news of your enthronement has already spread! If Your Majesty does not agree to the invitation of the Ministry of Rites, many low-level officials are afraid of resentment. I'm afraid it will be detrimental to His Majesty's reputation!"

"Hehe...the Ministry of Rites is trying to force me to reward you!" Zhu Youtang laughed out of anger when he learned that the news had spread in the capital.

(End of this chapter)