Daming Greedy Wolf Star

Chapter 66 The Internal Affairs of Ming Dynasty

The old man made Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu's brothers quite uncomfortable with one sentence. Zhu Zhanhe didn't know what happened to Zhu Gaochi's side, but he still knew about his father's side.

In the feudal era, whenever the issue of money was involved, there was a department that could not be avoided. This department was called the Ministry of Households.

During the Yongle period, the Minister of the household department was named Xia Yuanji.

But anyone who knows something about the history of the Yongle period, most of them will know Xia Yuanji.

Xia Yuanji, whose style name is Weizhe, became an official in the 23rd year of Hongwu's imperial examination and entered the Ministry of Education; in the first year of Jianwen, he moved to the right servant of the household department;

Xia Yuanji has experienced the five dynasties of Hongwu, Jianwen, Yongle, Hongxi, and Xuande in his life, and has made outstanding political achievements. Whether it is the prosperity of Yongle or the rule of Renxuan, he has played an extremely important role.

However, this is only for the history books.

For the officials of the Yongle Dynasty, Xia Yuanji had only one characteristic that was the biggest, the most prominent, and also the most troublesome.

buckle!
Even in later generations, Xia Yuanji is recognized as having outstanding political achievements and is extremely good at financial management. He was even hailed as an advocate of economic reform in the early Ming Dynasty.

However, generally speaking, those who are good at financial management have one characteristic that is particularly unpopular, and that is deductions.

For example, in many families in later generations, women manage the money. Whenever a man asks for money, most of them say: no.

Only when she clearly knows that a man has to do business and money must be spent, will a woman give money happily.

This is actually not a shortcoming. The existence of such a person can allow a person with poor self-control to save a lot of money, but they will not hesitate to spend it.

Xia Yuanji is such a person.

Whenever an official applied for money for a certain expenditure, Xia Yuanji's first sentence would always be no money!And no matter what you want to spend your money on, the first answer will never change.

If they couldn't get the money, the officials they hired would naturally not give up. They could only go to the court over and over again, looking for Xia Yuanji over and over again.

In this process, Xia Yuanji will first give you a number that you cannot accept, and then increase it bit by bit.

In the end, for example, if you applied for 100 million taels at the beginning, only 60 or even 50 taels were approved.

But the money has been given, so you have to do things, right?In this way, it took the least amount of money to get things done.

Let's put it this way, the Yongle period has caught up with the frontier of the Little Ice Age. Compared with the previous dynasties, there are already many natural disasters. Besides natural disasters, there are also many uprisings during the Yongle period. It can be said that every two or three years There will be one time.

Think about it, in such a big environment, disaster relief is often needed, and peasant uprisings must be suppressed, which costs a lot.

In addition, the revision of the "Yongle Canon", the relocation of the capital to Shuntian, and Zheng He's voyages to the West are even more gold-swallowing behemoths.

Under such circumstances, the Yongle dynasty can still be called a prosperous age. One can imagine how much effort Xia Yuanji, who is in charge of the household department, put in.

Even if all these are put aside, Zhu Di's last words before his death in history can prove how important Xia Yuanji is.

This sentence is: Xia Yuanji loves me.

However, Xia Yuanji's excellence is not a good thing for other officials, especially for the current Zhu Gaoxu.

I ran to the household department four times in two days, not to mention that Zhu Gaoxu would stop Xia Yuanji for a break every time after the morning court, which really made Zhu Gaoxu feel very irritable.

"Why are you angry?"

Zhu Zhanhe said with a smile while pouring tea for his father.

"For Xia Yuanji, it's just his job, and he's not just deducting money. He wants to spend the money where it really needs to be spent."

"What is the right place to spend? Isn't it the right place to give pensions to the fallen soldiers?"

Seeing that his son also helped Xia Yuanji speak, Zhu Gaoxu immediately exploded.

"Every soldier who died in battle was given five stones of rice and one horse of hemp. Is this a lot? This is the rule set by Emperor Taizu Gao when he founded the country!"

"I just listened to your opinion so I didn't go too far, and I didn't have the idea of ​​breaking up with Xia Yuanji, but if he didn't give it so little, who else would fight bravely for Daming in the future!?"

"What's the use of telling me..." Zhu Zhanhe smiled and pushed the teacup in front of his father.

"According to Hai'er's understanding of Xia Yuanji, he should not be such a talent. It must be that you have made excessive demands in other aspects?"

"Hmph! Don't look down on that old button!" Zhu Gaoxu snorted disdainfully upon hearing this.

"I didn't make any excessive demands. Every soldier who died in battle was given five stones of rice and one horse of hemp. This is the rule set by Emperor Gao in the first year of Hongwu. Your father and I didn't dare to increase it at all."

"Besides, if soldiers died in battle and their parents and wives cannot survive independently, the imperial court should take over the burden of raising them. This was the seventh year of Hongwu, and it was also a rule set by Emperor Gao himself."

"That's it, I haven't said what your grandfather said about distributing food to the youngest sons of the fallen soldiers every year. If I did, then Xia Yuanji wouldn't be able to deduct more?"

Zhu Zhanhe listened carefully to what his father said, and finally came to a conclusion: If his father didn't add oil and vinegar, it really wasn't too much.

As my father said, every one of the proposals is justified, and it is a rule set by Emperor Gao of Taizu early on.

Then it's strange, according to Xia Yuanji's character, deductions are normal, but where money should be spent, and the plan proposed is not too much, so it is not like Xia Yuanji.

"Wait a minute..." Zhu Zhanhe suddenly thought of a question.

"Father, what did he say after you asked Xia Yuanji for money?"

"Hmph! What else can I say?" Zhu Gaoxu was clearly at odds with Xia Yuanji, and his tone was full of deep dissatisfaction.

"What else can he say other than having no money? Can he also say flowers?"

"Uh..." Zhu Zhanhe said cautiously with a black line hanging down his forehead.

"Have you ever thought about the possibility that the household department really has no money?"

……

Zhu Gaoxu was at a loss for words for a moment, and he didn't know what to say.

He really hadn't thought about it.

"Think about it, the campaign against Annan has been going on for several years. Although it has been interrupted in the middle, it has been on and off since the fifth year of Yongle, and it can be said that it has not stopped."

"Then last year, my grandfather visited Yingtian in the north, which also cost some money, and King Shunning, King Taiping, and King Xianyi who conferred on Wala also gave Wala a lot of rewards, and go to you Qiu Fu to lead the army to the north... ..."

"Finally, there is another point. Ma Bao also started last year, right? This is also very expensive."

"So, the child thought, is there a possibility..."

"Of course, what the boy said is possible. Is it true that the household department is out of money?"

　My body temperature has started to drop, and today it is 38.6, but there is one thing, why is it running thin...

After running around for a day, I went to the toilet no less than fifty times...

　
(End of this chapter)