Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 318 The Number of People in the Palace
Yuan Shu smiled and said, "With the support of the Marshal, why would I not dare?"

After a pause, Yuan Shu continued: "However, there are too many members of the royal clan, and most of them don't have much land, and some of them are not even enough to make ends meet. How should these people be settled?"

Li Jingjing nodded: "You're right. Although these people are relatives of the emperor, many of them have already fallen into poverty and cannot earn a living. These people are also the people of our Daming, and we must let them live in a secure way.

In the past, the royal family had too many restrictions on them. From now on, all the restrictions on the royal relatives and relatives will be lifted. Those who are capable of being officials will come out to be officials, and those who are capable of leading troops will come out to lead troops and fight. Those who are capable of doing business Just let them do business. In short, they can do whatever others can do. "

Yuan Shu cupped his fists and said: "Commander, with this one, I promise to handle this matter beautifully."

Li Jing waved his hand, then looked at Zhang Li and said, "You will be the Governor of Shuntian Mansion from now on, so I don't need to tell you what to do?"

Zhang Li cupped his hands and said: "All subordinates follow the rules of Pingyang Mansion."

Li Jingjing nodded, looked at Wang Chengen and said, "My lord, I will give you two choices, one is to come out to do things, and the other is to continue to serve the emperor, which one do you choose?"

Wang Chengen hesitated for a while, and finally said: "I am a useless person, I am afraid of losing the dignity of the commander when I go out to do things, I should continue to serve the emperor."

Li Jing nodded silently, turned to Zhu Youjian and said, "Your Majesty, I will send 100 million taels of silver to the palace every year for flowers in the palace. In addition, the former Huangzhuang is still under the name of the emperor. I don’t know the exact amount of land in Huangzhuang, let’s say [-] mu (the area of ​​Huangzhuang’s land is at least [-] hectares, and one hectare is equal to [-] mu), the income from this [-] mu of land is regarded as the emperor’s private house money. If it is not enough, the emperor will ask Wang Chengen to come to me, and I will personally help the emperor to subsidize it."

Zhu Youjian looked at Li Jing with a wry smile in his heart. Li Jing said that he didn't know the specific amount of land in Huangzhuang, but Zhu Youjian didn't believe it at all.When Li Jing said this, he obviously pretended to be ignorant and deliberately cut down the land in Huangzhuang.

But Zhu Youjian would not care about this with Li Jing at this time.

To be honest, after seeing Li Jing's series of arrangements just now, Zhu Youjian really admires Li Jing's ability to handle government affairs.

Li Jing's decisiveness in doing things is quite different from his previous handling of government affairs.

In the past, when he dealt with government affairs, he had to discuss and discuss with his courtiers, but in the end he might not be able to implement the order.

But Li Jing ordered casually, none of his subordinates dared to have any objections, at most they just offered suggestions.

Moreover, the tasks assigned by Li Jing are only general ideas, and how to implement them is all in the charge of the courtiers. As for the performance of the courtiers, I think Li Jing has his own criteria for judging.

Seeing that Zhu Youjian had no objection, Li Jing said to Wang Cheng'en: "From now on, you will be the chief of the imperial palace, and you will be in charge of all affairs in the palace.

There is only 100 million taels of silver a year in the palace, and these silvers are not only used for the daily expenses of the emperor and the princes and concubines, but also for the monthly distribution of eunuchs and maids, which may not be enough.

In this way, the salaries of the eunuchs and maids in the palace will be paid by the household department. I will give you the salary of a second-rank official, and your subordinates will decrease in turn. You will also be rewarded for serving the emperor well. I estimate that you will come down for a year. There are thousands of taels of silver, and it must be enough for the family. "

Wang Chengen nodded slightly upon hearing this.

After pondering for a while, Li Jing continued: "In the future, you should count the number of people in the palace and report it to Mr. Zhou. In detail, you should count the number of people in each position and department, including the number of concubines in the harem. "

Wang Chengen didn't understand Li Jing's purpose in counting the number of concubines in the harem, but he still nodded.

Wang Chengen didn't understand Li Jing's intentions, but Shen Zheng and others understood that Li Jing wanted these materials because he was going to clean up the palace.

In fact, when they heard that the salary of the palace personnel was borne by the household department, they knew that Li Jing was going to reduce the number of people in the palace.

After following Li Jing for so many years, they all know that Li Jing is very careful about his property. The number of eunuchs and maids in the palace is not a small number, there are eight thousand if not ten thousand.The annual expenditure of so many people is not a small number. Now that the country is in dire straits, how can Li Jing spend his money on supporting these idlers?

(The actual number has not been found. It is said that Kangxi once asked the eunuchs of the old Ming Dynasty. The eunuch said: There are 1 eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty palace, and 10 palace ladies. Because of the large number of people, there is no food supply, and some people often starve to death. .

This figure is obviously not credible.Not to mention that the palace can't accommodate so many people, even judging by Zhu Youjian's frugality, there shouldn't be so many people.In order to save money, Zhu Youjian even abolished the post station. How could he allow the palace to support so many people?
Therefore, after the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty voted for the new master, it was very likely that they would belittle the old master, so they exaggerated this number, and Kangxi should be able to see this point with the wisdom.

However, out of political considerations, Kangxi did not expose it, but directly quoted this figure, and even exaggerated it on this basis.

But no matter what, there must be a lot of people in the palace. It is estimated that there should be three to two thousand eunuchs, and there should be several thousand palace ladies. )
Shen Zheng and the others guessed right. Li Jing was indeed planning to lay off the personnel in the palace and reduce the number of people in the palace, but he was not ready to act immediately.Because doing so may cause fierce opposition from Zhu Youjian.

Li Jing now needs the cooperation of Zhu Youjian to implement many things smoothly. If Zhu Youjian's resistance is aroused, then Li Jing's desire to change the Ming system will be affected.

In addition, Li Jing did not intend to abolish the personnel in the palace immediately because there were still some special people in the palace, and these special people were the wives of the former emperor.

Empress Yi'an, Zhang Yan, and other concubines of Emperor Tianqi now live in the Palace of Compassion.

As the former mother of the country, they must be treated accordingly.

Zhu Youjian did a good job on this point. In the end of Zhu Youjian's life, no matter how frugal he was, he never lost Zhang Yan's expenses.And Zhang Yan is indeed virtuous, and when the country is in trouble, she actively asks for a reduction in expenses.

Even if Zhu Youjian can respect the former emperor's concubines, Li Jing will not short their needs and expenses.What's more, Li Jing admired and respected Zhang Yan from the bottom of his heart.

And to be honest, Li Jing is very sympathetic to Zhu Youjian. Although Zhu Youjian is not a wise monarch, as an emperor, Zhu Youjian is undoubtedly qualified. It can even be said that Zhu Youjian is a rare good in history. emperor.

Zhu Youjian was frugal all his life, and the cost of food and clothing may not be as good as that of his courtiers.

According to reports, Zhu Youjian's monthly food expenses are only more than 1000 taels.In the 15th year of Chongzhen, Guanglu Temple, which was in charge of meals in the palace, reported to the Ministry of Households that: Zhu Youjian’s monthly meal expenses were 46 taels, the queen’s expenses were 330 taels, and the imperial concubine’s was 160 taels. The crown prince was 120 taels, which was cut in half the following year.

Of course, this standard is not low, but compared with the emperors of previous dynasties, it is extremely low, with an average of only 30 taels a day. (Some people may list many frugal emperors, but in fact, most of those people were just trying to gain fame, and they were not frugal. For example, Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty, Daoguang spent about 800 taels per meal. 70 taels of silver. Of course, this price is mainly a false report, but the people in charge of the emperor’s meals in the Ming Dynasty didn’t make a false report?)
On the one hand, Zhu Youjian is frugal because the country has no money, and the most important thing is that he personally advocates frugality.

For such a person, Li Jing couldn't bear to be harsh on him.

Li Jing planned to wait for Zhu Youjian's death before drastically reducing the number of people in the palace. Li Jing planned to control the number of people in the palace to less than 500, and at the same time no longer recruit eunuchs in the palace.

Moreover, Li Jing planned to end the Chongzhen Dynasty, and the number of concubines would not change, and the next emperor would strictly control the number of concubines.

Li Jing intends to formulate a new concubine system for the emperor, that is, the emperor only allows one empress, two concubines and two concubines at most, that is to say, the emperor has a maximum of five wives and concubines.In the future, only reduction is allowed, no increase is allowed.

Although Li Jing will not cut down the personnel and expenditure in the palace immediately, but Li Jing still has to do the preparation work, because during this period, the personnel in the palace will definitely change. After all, there are many old eunuchs and eunuchs in the palace. maid of honor.After these people left the palace or died, Li Jing would naturally not agree to add more people to the palace.

If it is necessary to increase the population, the number should also be controlled, so that the population in the palace will gradually decrease.

After explaining everything, Li Jing told everyone: "The things you are dealing with now are different from those in Pingyang Mansion. Pingyang Mansion has a small population and simple things. Therefore, we must be cautious when dealing with problems, some things can be rushed, and some things need to be slowed down, and we must not rush for success."

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "The junior officials we trained may still lack some experience in handling government affairs. We need to give them more time and don't be too harsh. There are also grassroots officials from various ministries. Many of these people People are good at handling government affairs, and they should be used well.”

Shen Zheng and others hurriedly said: "I would like to follow the command of the commander in chief."

Li Jingjing nodded, and said to the crowd: "In two days, I will go to war with the emperor, and I will leave the family affairs to you. Go back and prepare."

Shen Zheng and the others hurriedly stood up and said goodbye.

Coming out of the palace, Shen Zheng and others immediately started to act.

Among them, Yang Liufeng and Shen Zheng moved the fastest.

You must know that there are still a large number of officials in custody inside and outside the Golden Luan Hall. If these people are detained for too long, the capital will inevitably be in chaos.

Although Li Jing did not explain how to deal with these officials, Yang Liufeng and Shen Zheng knew that the top priority was to deal with this matter immediately.

Therefore, Yang Liufeng and Shen Zheng found Ma Wu as soon as they left the palace, and then worked with Ma Wu.

Since the evidence is already conclusive, it is relatively simple to do such things as ransacking the house and taking people.

(End of this chapter)