The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 451

The nineteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Court meeting.

Zhang Zhou was not there, but the things discussed that day were closely related to Zhang Zhou.

The first thing is that Huozhai lost the battle on the grassland, and retreated to the East Hetao area in desperation, and was given the back way by the Tumed Department. Huozhai had to go west when the entire army was almost wiped out. Withdrew, probably going to the area where the Oirats used to be active, and withdrew from the struggle for the territory of Monan Mongolia.

And Da Ming completely stood by in this battle, it was tantamount to treating Huo Si as a leader and being eaten by a group of hungry wolves in the grassland. For a while, the dispute between the court and China about why Da Ming did not send troops to help arose.

"...Your Majesty, since you use the barbarians to control the barbarians, but you don't pay any attention to the gathered Di barbarians, causing their ethnic group to be destroyed, it will definitely affect my Ming's prestige in the small foreign country. I have always put benevolence and justice first, and sent troops without warning. The three guards of Duoyan put Meng Guolejin's troops to death later, who will serve Ming Dynasty in the future?"

"How can the prestige of the celestial kingdom continue in the four seas of China? Even North Korea, which was loyal to the Ming Dynasty before, our dynasty will overthrow the prince and ascend the throne, causing civil strife. The foreign country has long complained..."

What Confucian officials emphasize is governing the country with ritual and music, and they should not talk about conspiracy and tricks with others.

Although it can be seen personally that in the past two years, Ming Dynasty has been in a position of absolute hegemony in foreign affairs, but this kind of hegemony has been regarded by those traditional Confucian officials as the turning point of "the prosperity and decline". Zhu Youtang was so shocked that he was about to leave the table with a brush of his sleeves.

Listen to this group of people... Are they speaking human words?
The barbarians are going to be used to control the barbarians, so benevolence and righteousness are still emphasized?Da Ming didn't slaughter all the Huo Sha tribe, that was a great mercy, now that they were defeated, why blame Da Ming for not sending troops to help them?

As for North Korea... that's the result of your internal struggle, what's the matter with Guan Daming?

And the three guards of Duoyan, if they had been loyal to Daming early in the morning and hadn't done that treacherous thing, why would Daming send troops to destroy you?
Just as he was talking, Yang Shousui, the newly-appointed Minister of Dali Temple, said: "Your Majesty, the little Tatar prince Batu Mengke made the report, falsely claiming that the land of Hetao should belong to him as a pasture. , stationed in the land of Hetao, in case the Tatars take advantage of the gap and enter."

This is about Batu Mengke. After uniting several tribes and crushing the fire, he directly proposed to Daming that he should give him the land of East and West Hetao as a pasture.

Zhu Youtang said: "As the co-lord of the grassland tribes, Batu Mengke never had a heart of loyalty to Ming Dynasty, but he invaded our borderlands of Ming Dynasty many times on the grounds that he paid tribute back then, such an ambitious man , doesn't he know that such a group will not be allowed by the court?"

Li Dongyang came out and said: "Your Majesty, perhaps because of the defeat in the previous battle of Guanshan, Batu Mengke urgently needs to establish a reputation on the grassland, so that he is eager to fight against the Huozhai troops, and after winning the victory, he will lodge a complaint with the imperial court." In exchange for the respect of the grassland ministries."

"Humph!"

Zhu Youtang snorted coldly, "Want to make excessive demands on the imperial court in exchange for the prestige on the grassland? Such delusion is really obvious!"

No matter how angry the emperor was, Zhu Youtang did not directly decide to send troops to fight Batu Mengke because of this.

They had already won on the battlefield before, but now it is the twelfth lunar month of winter, and the grassland is full of snow. After entering the grassland, it is very easy for Da Ming's army to find the north. Under this environment, even Da Ming's firearms are not enough lethal.

Besides, he had already discussed with Zhang Zhou that he was mainly in charge of preparing for the war in the past two years, and the war was about to start before it was ready?
"Repudiate Batu Mengke's memorial!" Zhu Youtang said, "Reprimand him for not obeying the minister's principles. If he dares to attack with troops, I will let him come and go!"

Yang Shou said: "Your Majesty, the grassland is weak now. If Daming doesn't take the opportunity to send troops to suppress its reputation and make several major tribes in the grassland unite and show signs of invading the Central Plains, it will be too late. Your Majesty, please send troops to the grassland!"

"Your Majesty, please send troops to the grassland!"

There were more than a dozen civil servants present, and they united to speak out and send troops to Zhu Youtang.

……

……

This is not going to make Zhu Youtang whole.

and many more……

Am I dreaming?

In the past, every time I said that I would send troops to the grassland, a bunch of people jumped out to stop it, okay, now because of Batu Mengke's victory over the Huosai, he put forward an unreasonable idea, saying that the imperial court should give the land of Hetao to Him, are you so outraged?
Or do you see that I don't want to use soldiers anymore, and deliberately oppose me?
At this time, Zhu Youtang couldn't help but cast his eyes on "Xiong Da and Xiong Er", the left servants of the Ministry of War, and neither of them had any intention of speaking.

Then Zhu Youtang glanced at the three members of the cabinet first, and finally fixed his eyes on Ma Wensheng's head, and said: "Ma Qing's family, it is now the cold winter season, and the grassland is still not peaceful, do you think Daming should send troops at this time ?"

This hint is quite obvious.

I have already told you that there are many difficulties now, you, Ma Wensheng, should know what I mean, right?Others can be unprincipled people like Qin Muchu, but you, Ma Wensheng, shouldn't be messing around, right?
Ma Wensheng said: "Your Majesty, now the Tatars have not invaded our frontier land, and the winter is going on everywhere. The soldiers are going to send troops at this time. I am afraid that there is not enough winter clothes, and they are easily affected by the climate and terrain in the grassland. send troops."

When Zhu Youtang heard this, he was relieved.

Fortunately, you civil servants are not completely on the opposite side of me, otherwise I really only need Bingkuan.

"But the old minister thinks." Ma Wensheng said, "The little Tatar prince is not playing against the minister now, so he must fight back!"

Zhu Youtang frowned and said, "How to fight back?"

Ma Wensheng said: "When your majesty reprimands him, please ask him to withdraw from Guanshan, Weininghai and other places, and use it as the residence of Daming, and propose to build a fortress around this place. And you should issue an order to accommodate the victims on the grassland. The oppressed and desolate and wandering tribes went to Guanshan, Weininghai and other places to graze, so as to form a barrier against the Ming Dynasty frontier."

"Wow!"

After listening to Ma Wensheng's advice, many ministers present were deeply moved.

Many people said on the spot that this suggestion was very good, and they almost wanted to say that it was a retaliation for Batu Monk's shameless cheekiness.

Zhu Youtang said: "As far as I know, there have been no tribes grazing here in the area around Weining Haizi for more than a year. Maoerzhuang, which is only more than 100 miles away from Weining Haizi, is already building a city. As for Guanshan... That is the hinterland of Tatar, is such a decree useful?"

Ma Wensheng held up the wat board and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, this is to fight back against the little Tatar prince's lies, and to demonstrate the prestige of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Youtang asked: "Then if the Tatars are out of anger and take this opportunity to send troops to Weining Sea, will I attack with troops of the same level as Datong?"

A question, as if directly raising a slap to Ma Wensheng's face.

You old horse is very bad.

On the one hand, he said that he did not support Ming Dynasty’s sending troops, but on the other hand, he encouraged me to intensify the conflict with the Tatars, and made it clear to Batu Monk that I only wanted Guanshan and Weininghai. Wouldn’t Batu Monk directly “find the right place”? "The direction, the soldiers and horses went to these two places?
When the Tatars send troops to Weining Sea, will you let me send troops or not?
Liu Jian came out and said, "Your Majesty, it is also necessary to show the power of Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Youtang said with a stern expression: "Okay, since we want to show our prestige, we should be more direct. From now on, let Uncle Xinjian lead his troops to patrol Weining Sea frequently, and build a fortress in Weining Sea to echo Maoerzhuang. I also believe that with Uncle Xinjian in Datong, the Tatars would not dare to invade easily. Next thing!"

……

……

Zhu Youtang exposed the matter of Huoshai's defeat and Batu Mengke's request to seal the land of Hetao.

Although Zhu Youtang also felt that in the winter, don't care about the Tatars, but he also knew that even if the courtiers of the Ming Dynasty would agree to let the Ming Dynasty concentrate on preparing for war in the next few years, the Tatars would not sit still.

That being the case, there is no need to put Da Ming in a very low profile, and be tyrannical if he should.

Anyway, with Zhang Zhou supporting him, at worst the Tatars came and sent troops directly to attack, first let Wang Shouren go up... If Wang Shouren can't beat him, Zhang Zhou will lead the troops himself...

I don't believe that the Tatars can still benefit from the borderland under the siege of many artillery and firecrackers in Ming Dynasty?
Next, the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, Zhong Zhong, will play the role.

"...Your Majesty, after the fall of the Haining Wei Salt Field, millions of catties of salt have been produced, and a total of nearly [-] jins of salt have been sold. The salt produced has been sold in various places in the south of the Yangtze River. , Salt farms are under its jurisdiction, and use this as a model to promote to surrounding salt farms..."

Zhang Zhou's development of the salt field in Hainingwei has achieved results.

The efficiency of the beach drying method plus water trucks to deliver water is more than twice as efficient as those nearby salt farms that use firewood to fry salt?
The labor cost has been greatly reduced, and what's more, even the surrounding salt farms themselves have seen that this trick is simply too effective, and offered to improve and promote it.

Zhu Youtang frowned and said, "The salt field in Hainingwei was created by me alone for the purpose of producing salt and shipbuilding. If it is merged with the surrounding salt department, how will the remaining Taicang salt department's silver produced be dispatched? Could it be the Ministry of Household Affairs? Do you think that the cost of shipbuilding should be increased?"

Zhu Youtang was very vigilant.

He could see that it must be a bad thing for the Ministry of Households to take the initiative to promote and even propose to merge.

It seems to be promoting good experience and merging the salt farms of Zhejiang and Zhejiang into a whole, but in fact it is to plunder Zhang Zhou's achievements... Once merged, how much salt the salt farms of Hainingwei produce will be allocated a little quota at the end In the past, most of them still had to be transported to Sanbian and other places.

According to the rules of various salt fields in Ming Dynasty, the salt tax of Liangzhe Salt Fields is mainly used in Gansu, Ningxia, Yansui and Guyuan. Salt merchants extract salt in Liangzhe Saltworks.

However, after changing to Yinkaizhong, that is, after the folding method, the salt produced by each salt factory has actually been blurred in terms of marketing scope, but the salt produced is still trafficked to the three sides... ...and formed a statute based on this, the two Zhejiang provinces are the backyard of the salt tax on the three sides.

Now Zhang Zhou has set up a new stove in the backyard. During the salt production season in winter, the salt produced has made everyone envious.

Zhu Youtang saw that Zhong Zhong did not answer, and he added: "The salt tax in Zhejiang and Zhejiang is mostly used for border administration, but in the past few years, the grain has not been transported to the three sides and other places. I have made some calculations. If In the future, all the salt produced in the new salt field will be replaced by Xinyin, which is called Xinzheng Salt Yin, and can only be exchanged by salt merchants for grain. To enrich the military supplies of the Nine Frontiers."

He Zhong said: "Your Majesty, only one salt factory in Hainingwei is using the new method."

Zhu Youtang nodded and said, "As for the Yanyin produced by the Haining Wei Salt Farm, I don't plan to use it for frontier affairs. Whether it is the sale of the salt produced or the tax revenue from Yanyin, it will be used for shipbuilding. Before I proposed to build a ship, the money and food that the imperial court could transfer was less than 2 taels of silver. How could such a small amount be enough to build a few ships? If Tang Yin, the governor of the Bohai Sea, raised it all by himself, then I don’t know how much money will be raised. What year and month is it!"

Zhong Zhong looked sad and angry and said: "I don't understand why so much money and food are wasted on the matter of going to sea."

Zhu Youtang said: "Then I would like to ask, does it cost less to cast cannons in the north? Don't you think I am just wasting money and not doing anything practical? The southeast coast has always been involved in the preparation of Japanese Do it, take precautions in advance, shouldn't it?"

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there has been a saying of "preparing for the Japanese".

In fact, Japanese pirates and pirates have always existed, and they are also related to the maritime ban of Ming Dynasty, but it was not until the Jiajing period that they became a major event affecting the foundation of the Ming Dynasty.

Now the emperor uses "preparing for the Japanese" as an excuse to build a ship, and the ministers can't find too many faults.

After all, the emperor himself said that the total amount of money and food consumed by the household department was less than 2 taels, and the rest was raised by Zhang Zhou and Tang Yin themselves. It doesn't make sense anymore.

Now for the courtiers, the most regrettable thing is not how much it costs, but how much the "value" created by Zhang Zhou can be returned to the treasury. While they were unwilling to create wealth, they also thought about how to persuade the emperor to put "state affairs" as the most important thing. To put it bluntly, they put everything under the control of court ministers...

It would be strange for the emperor to hear it.

……

……

Originally, there was a third major event involving Zhang Zhou in the court meeting.

It was about the elimination of the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled in the Beijing camp, but because Zhang Zhou was not there, Zhu Youtang didn't let Chen Kuan speak out... But in fact, Chen Kuan also came forward a lot at the implementation level, and Zhang Zhou acted On the contrary, the person who performed the knife was very low-key in this matter, as if even Zhang Zhou knew that this would offend a large number of people.

The meeting ended.

A bunch of ministers came out with mixed feelings, each lamenting "fate is unfair".

Why are we diligent and diligent, but we can only get a mediocre name, and Zhang Zhou went fishing every day and posted the net for two days, and he didn’t even have to come to the court meeting. He was able to accomplish so many things that we couldn’t even target him. ?
After the court meeting, Ma Wensheng, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, specially invited Li Dongyang, meaning to go to the Ministry of Officials to discuss the major plan assessment for the coming year, but in fact he wanted to talk to Li Dongyang about Zhang Zhou.

"You should find Yu Qiao..."

Li Dongyang was invited to the Ministry of Officials, but he still seemed reluctant. Most of the communication with Ma Wensheng was done by Xie Qian.

Ma Wensheng said: "Binzhi, there is something I still want to tell you. His Majesty recently asked for a list of officials above the prefect level in various places. He took it and said that he wanted to make some adjustments to the employment in the Northwest. I don't know if this is Zhang Bingkuan It means that, or His Majesty's impromptu intention, always thinks that His Majesty may want to support some rising stars to assist the north in preparing for war and other matters."

Li Dongyang looked cold.

The emperor is still not satisfied with the current employers in the Northwest.

The main reason is that there are too few people in the Zhang Zhou faction. What the emperor wants is that Zhang Zhou can respond to all calls in the northwest, and any government orders can be effectively conveyed, instead of only a very small number of officials belonging to Zhang Zhou. What Zhou Ti brought up... still seems to be in harmony.

Li Dongyang asked: "Could it be that His Majesty wants to use these people to enter the martial arts hall?"

Ma Wensheng shook his head and said: "At first, I also thought that if Zhang Bingkuan wanted to cultivate power, he must use the Yanwu Hall as an opportunity, but I saw that His Majesty didn't seem to have much expectations for the Yanwu Hall, and I don't know how he discussed it with Zhang Bingkuan. It was dispatched by local generals, and some of them seemed to have no military or political qualifications or experience, and His Majesty also designated a few people... It seems that there is no deep meaning."

Zhu Youtang chooses candidates.

Of course, it was chosen according to Zhang Zhou's opinion.

What is Zhang Zhou's biggest bargaining chip?Naturally, I know who are the people who are still mere petty officials in the court, but who may become a generation of famous officials in the future, and what are the specialties of these people, and whether they can help me...

Although this kind of insight in advance is likely to be only on paper, a person's ability is still reflected in his future career.

The few people drawn by the emperor at random, put Ma Wensheng to observe, and felt that the emperor's vision was very accurate. No matter how capable these people are now, at least in terms of future potential, they are full.

Only when Ma Wensheng felt a "crisis" would he tell Li Dongyang specifically.

If the emperor wanted to choose only some incompetent people, Ma Wensheng would naturally feel that the emperor was just making random decisions.

Li Dongyang said: "After Zhang Bingkuan entered the court, besides Wang Qiong, Lu Wan, and Wang Xian, the few people he supported were Zhu Feng and Wang Shouren. Except for Zhu Feng and Wang Shouren, the rest were not fledglings. What he saw, or someone who secretly gave advice, is unknown. But if he chooses from some local officials, he has not even seen most of them with his own eyes, and has no real contact...Ma Butang, are you worrying too much?"

The meaning of Li Dongyang.

No matter how awesome Zhang Zhou is, he is just a person, not a god.

He used Wang Qiong, Lu Wan, and Wang Xian to be very accurate. It doesn't mean that these people were all picked out by his insight. After all, these people have been in the officialdom for a long time, and their abilities have been demonstrated. Not a lot.

Even if it is Wang Shouren, it can only be said that Zhang Zhou and Wang Shouren were Jinshi in the same year, and they know each other well...

Now you think that Zhang Zhou can pick out the people who will influence the situation in the future from a group of local officials whom he has never seen before?

Worrying is not it?
Ma Wensheng sighed: "I hope I'm overthinking, but when your majesty selects candidates, he doesn't look at the evaluation, but only chooses by name and experience. I'm afraid that this will break the rules of the official department's plan and evaluation. As the official department Shang Shu, I have to take this as a warning, as long as you know it well."

(End of this chapter)