Zhao Defang's road to the virtuous king

Zhenzong nodded, "Alright, the gold belt produced by the emperor's supervision must be of the best quality. In addition... I also want to ask the emperor to check the left and inner storages again."

"Do you want to check the inner storage as well?"

"Yes, most of the property in the inner treasury now comes from the original sealed pile treasury. Recently, I read the excerpt written by the third minister, and after reading it, I was very impressed. Only then did I know the foresight of the Taizu emperor and the late emperor."

"Your Majesty" Defang asked, "What did the Third Division play that made Your Majesty sigh so much?"

"Brother Huang should be most aware of this matter. Since the first year of Emperor Taizu Qiande, all money for war, relief, or festival rewards has been counted by each department and withdrawn from the internal treasury. Return the withdrawn property from the surplus." Zhenzong took a sip of tea and said, "By the Chunhua period of the first emperor, the property withdrawn from the inner treasury to various ministries exceeded 100 million a year, and some ministries even reached 300 million. After 30 years of accumulation, most of them could not To return the internal treasury, in order to prevent the ministries from placing burdens on the people, because the decree was issued to cancel the property owed by the ministries."

After hearing this, Defang said, "Your Majesty, this is indeed the case. The inner treasury was originally used to store property for the Ministry of Finance. The ancestors saw that once the Ministry of Finance was short of money, the ministries would definitely ask the people for it, and the burden on the people would increase. If it becomes a catastrophe, it will be irreversible, and even if the man-made disaster is quelled, it may lose the hearts of the people."

"Yes, if the ancestors hadn't stored so much property in the inner treasury at the beginning of the founding of the country, how could we reduce the burden on the people now? I have ordered Chen Pengnian to write "Records of the Nei Zang Treasury". Write it down in detail, and let all officials pass it on. I inherit the foundation of my ancestors, and I am diligent in the affairs of my family and country every day. I am always concerned about the sufferings of the people. Now I will do more to do state affairs and benefit the Song Dynasty."

Defang, Wang Dan and Wang Qinruo bowed their hands, and Zhenzong picked up an imperial decree, "Brother Huang, Brother Lao, please read this decree on your behalf."

Defang took the imperial decree, "Your Majesty, this is?"

"This is the will of Qian Weijun, the general of the gate guard of Youjian, as the general of Youwuwei."

"Qian Weijun? I heard that he was ill. I sent someone to visit him a while ago, but I didn't see him."

"That's right, he has signed up for the booklet, praying to take care of his illness in the government. I have already granted it, and asked the third division to distribute 100 million yuan in silver for him." Zhenzong sighed and said, "The generations of the Qian family have treated me dearly." Song Zhongshun, but in recent years, the life of his descendants has become worse and worse. The money in the family is scarce. I heard that Qian Weijun's life is even poorer. A few days ago, Wei Jun’s younger brother, the servant Shaoqing, Qian Weiyan presented to me "On the Holy Virtue", and the prime minister and I admired it very much after reading it. Qian Weiyan is quite accomplished in learning. It is indeed commendable. I have written down his name and collected it together with "On the Holy Virtue" in the History Museum. At that time, the father of the two of them, King Zhongyi, Qian Chu, dedicated his land so that the people of the Central Plains did not suffer from the war. I will forget, so when I issued this imperial decree, I originally asked the prime minister to announce the decree, but since the imperial brother is here, it is most appropriate for the imperial edict to be carried out by the imperial brother."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I may not have met Wei Jun for a long time, so let's visit the mansion in the name of the imperial decree today."

"Okay," Shinzong said with a smile, "There is one more thing to be happy about. The Ministry of Household Affairs issued a memorial this morning, saying that the harvest of soybeans and wheat in various places is almost double that of previous years, and the counties in the south of the Yangtze River have more than doubled their income. , the third division also reported that this year there will be more tax collection.”