Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The capital city, Han Mansion, is now also known as the Prime Minister's Mansion.

After experiencing the glory of being appointed prime minister on the platform, Han Yu soon felt tremendous pressure.

As the second Prime Minister of the Chongzhen Dynasty, he was not like his predecessor Huang Liji, who was almost a clay doll, but a Prime Minister with real power and high hopes from the emperor and his ministers.

In particular, the establishment of the Finance and Economics Committee allowed him to directly interfere with the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Works and other government offices with financial power. His current power is the highest among the prime ministers since Zhang Juzheng.

With such great power comes great responsibility, especially the division of responsibilities promoted by the emperor, which left him no room to shirk his responsibilities.

If he did not do a good job in financial matters, not only would the emperor be disappointed, but the ministers would also think that he was useless and unable to gain more power for the officials in front of the emperor.

Therefore, when it comes to solving the financial difficulties, it can be said that Han Yu can only win and not lose.

If he fails, he will surely be disgraced in the future!

It was also because of this that, although Han Yu guessed that the emperor intended to rectify the Shanxi shopping mall, he had no intention of stopping it except to remind his in-laws.

He also needs to consider the confiscation of Shanxi shopping malls as a backup option. When taxation cannot solve the financial difficulties, he can use violence to confiscate the money of these people.

As a native of Shanxi, he knew much more about the ways in which Shanxi merchants made their fortunes than the emperor did. As long as he wanted to find a crime, more than 90% of those famous big merchants would be confiscated and executed.

Of course, he personally didn't want to go this far. After all, this would also damage his reputation in his hometown.

Even if he could just leave and go to his fiefdom, someone from the Han family would stay in Shanxi.

Therefore, he also set his sights on the equally wealthy Huizhou merchants, intending to confiscate their property as a backup option.

He regarded the "Private Occupation of Huangshan Trees Case" that he had seen during the trial of the rebellion case as a breakthrough point, which he could use to make use of in the future.

He instructed the newly appointed Censor-in-Chief Cheng Zhu to reinstate Zhang Shenyan, a member of the Donglin Party who was also from Shanxi, and asked him to go to Huizhou as a censor to investigate and find out the details of Huizhou merchants.

Jiang Yunyi, the former censor of Shaanxi Province, was also reinstated. He went to Shaanxi to investigate Shaanxi merchants on the pretext of investigating the disaster in Shaanxi.

It can be said that he cooperated with the emperor's approach and listed more options.

But what he hoped more was to solve the financial difficulties through taxation.

Because of this, just a few days after becoming the Prime Minister, Han Yu convened the first meeting of the Finance and Economics Committee in a small hall south of Chengtian Gate.

The Grand Secretary Xu Guangqi, the Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Works Shang Zhouzuo, the Minister of Agriculture Zhai Fengchong, the Minister of the Imperial Household Dong Yingju, the Minister of the Imperial Household Chen Qiyu, the Minister of the Imperial Household Zhang Wenyu, the Minister of the Imperial Household Fan Jingwen, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel Li Ruoxing...

The heads of the Salt Administration under the Ministry of Revenue, the Agricultural Administration under the Ministry of Agriculture, the Taxation Administration under the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Revenue Bank and other government offices also attended the meeting.

Looking at so many capable officials, each doing their own job, sitting together in a meeting, Han Yu couldn't help but sigh in his heart:

The current emperor is truly amazing in his methods. In just two years, he has put the court in order and no longer in the chaos of the past.

Moreover, except for Zhang Wenyu, a remnant of the eunuch party, most of these people were officials from the Donglin Party or those inclined towards the Donglin Party. It could be said that the court was full of righteous people, which made him very excited.

This gave him more confidence in using taxation as a means to solve the financial difficulties, and he said seriously:

"In compliance with the order of His Majesty, Han is honored to be the Director of the Finance and Economics Committee and to preside over the first meeting."

"Li Mengchen, editor of the Imperial Academy and editor of the Imperial Daily, has been ordered to take minutes of the meeting."

"Your Majesty will see everything you said today."

"I hope you all will speak with substance and not speak empty words!"

After introducing last year's Jinshi Li Mengchen to everyone, Han Yu warned them all to be honest and not to fool themselves in such a meeting.

When the ministers heard this, they were all shocked.

The first institution reformed by the current emperor after he ascended the throne was the Qijuzhu, which was ranked first among the civil servants.

Initially, the civil officials were excited about this, believing that a complete set of daily records would provide more constraints on the emperor.

Who wants to implement it? The daily records became the main institution for recording the words and deeds of the ministers. When the emperor summoned the ministers to a meeting, he would ask the daily records to record it.

This forced the officials to be more cautious when meeting the emperor, so as to avoid being dragged by the emperor for their past words and deeds and being embarrassed in front of the officials. Liu Hongxun was not cautious in front of the emperor and even said in private that "the master is the master after all". As a result, he was removed from the position of the prime minister in the Honglu Temple by the emperor and was directly demoted to a commoner.

When the officials thought of this, they secretly took it as a warning. After all, no one wanted to be the next Liu Hongxun.

Everyone sat down at the large oval conference table. Han Yu said to the Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan:
"Yesterday, Eunuch Gao asked me about the situation of the Ministry of Revenue's summer tax revenue and when the funds assigned to the inner treasury could be transferred to it."

"Could you please give me an answer, Minister Bi? We can't just keep dragging it out, right?"

"If the money that should be given to the inner treasury is not given, Eunuch Gao, who is in charge of the Second Department of Households and Works, might become the head of the Second Department of Households and Works again."

"Tu Wenfu has been reinstated and is eyeing this position."

Yesterday, Tu Wenfu slandered Gao Shiming in front of the emperor, trying to put the blame on Gao Shiming for the Ministry of Revenue's failure to disburse funds.

Gao Shiming knew this very well, and he specifically mentioned this point when communicating with Han Yu, Bi Ziyan and others.

What he meant was that if you don't follow the rules, don't blame the emperor for removing him from office and promoting Tu Wenfu, who doesn't follow the rules.

When Bi Ziyan thought of this, he couldn't help but frown. He thought of the past when Tu Wenfu bought the house of Li Chengen, a relative of his, and registered it as "Hugong Headquarters".

That was an experience that they could hardly bear to recall for the Second Household Workers Department.

However, if the funds in the inner treasury are not allocated, the emperor may really promote Tu Wenfu.

This forced him to cheer up and said:
"The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Agriculture are already urging us to pay this year's summer taxes."

"But there have been many disasters in various places in recent years, and last year, the people lost a lot of money because of the collection of arrears."

"Bi is worried that if the collection continues, there might be chaos in the area."

In the past two years, the Ming Dynasty suffered quite a few disasters. Not to mention the severe droughts in Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Shuntian Prefecture last year, this year droughts occurred again in northern Shaanxi and Shuntian Prefecture, and even in the Wuhan area of ​​Huguang.

Severe flooding occurred in western Shandong, Bi Ziyan's hometown, and along the Grand Canal in northern Nanzhili.

This made Bi Ziyan deeply feel that what the emperor mentioned before, "There is too much killing in the world, and it is difficult for the gods to take their place," might be true.

In the next ten years or so, there will be disasters all over the world.

So he slowed down the tax collection a little to give the people some breathing space.

But Han Yu didn't care about this, because suppressing the rebellion and providing disaster relief was mainly Yuan Keli's responsibility. He said to Bi Ziyan:
"It is precisely because of the disasters in various places that the court needs to collect taxes even more."

"Please ask Xu Xueshi to have the Anti-Rebellion and Disaster Relief Committee list the situation in various places and reduce or exempt taxes where they should be reduced or exempted."

"But all other places must be handed over."

"After the tax-sharing system is implemented, 60% of the money should be transferred to the imperial court, not a cent less!"

After issuing this strict order, Han Yu said to Li Ruoxing:
"Your Majesty ordered that the provincial grain and household registration offices be changed to the provincial government offices."

"This government office will be responsible for taxation and transportation."

"The Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue must complete the establishment of household registration offices in all regions, assign tasks to local governments, and clearly identify the responsible persons."

"If the tax is not paid this year, the first person to be held responsible is the Household Registration Office, followed by the Governor. I will propose to Your Majesty that a capable official be replaced."

"This must be clearly written as the first order of the Finance and Economics Committee."

Giving orders to his ministers, Han Yu truly felt the joy of holding great power.

Although the Grand Secretary was in a high position, he did not have the power to issue orders to other government offices. He could only wait for officials from those government offices to submit memorials before he could use means such as the draft.

However, after the establishment of the Finance and Economics Committee, he was able to give direct orders to the government offices that made up the Committee in his capacity as the committee's director.

This made him truly feel what power belongs to the prime minister. (End of this chapter)