Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 416 Difference with Zhang Juzheng

Listening to Li Jing's instructions on the work of his subordinates, Zhu Youjian suddenly smiled and said: "Mr. Xingguo, please stop instructing your subordinates in front of me. I have something to discuss with you."

Li Jing smiled and said: "Hehe, Li Jing is rude, the emperor is not to blame."

Zhu Youjian smiled, waved his hands and said: "Don't be polite to me, we don't need to fix those fake things. Let me ask you, it will be February soon, when will the factory you promised to get me be ready?" Can work?"

Hearing that Zhu Youjian called himself Zhen for a while, and me for a while, Li Jing couldn't help laughing: "Your Majesty, can you also relax, we have been in touch for so long, I ask myself that I have always respected you, can you stop being so nervous? "

Zhu Youjian smiled embarrassedly, knowing that although he spoke affectionately, he still didn't dare to put on the emperor's airs in front of Li Jing.

Gently patted Zhu Youjian's hand, Li Jing continued: "Although the emperor's power is not as good as in the past, all the ministers have all the etiquette that the emperor should have, and the majesty of the royal family has never lost a bit. A few days ago , I have clarified the marriage between our two families, what else do you have to worry about?"

"I understand, I understand." Zhu Youjian nodded repeatedly.

"That's right, you are the emperor of our Ming Dynasty, you can't lose your dignity in front of your courtiers." Li Jing smiled lightly.

After laughing for a while, Li Jing continued: "You just asked me when the factory will start, but I want to ask you, is your factory ready? Is the labor ready, is the capital ready? Don't tell me, Just prepare the money, and I will prepare the rest for you."

"Ah? Do I need to prepare all these? But I don't understand either!" Zhu Youjian said with his mouth wide open.

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "You don't understand, why don't you send someone to ask? I told you to ask Cheng En to help you with these things, but you are good. Let Cheng En do all the New Year's matters and Lantern Festival matters. Cheng En is not an iron man, he has done all these things well, but now it is good, the factory business has been left behind."

Seeing that Wang Chengen was a little embarrassed, Li Jing smiled and said to Zhu Youjian: "Don't arrange for Chengen to do those small things in the future, just let him help you manage the general manager."

Zhu Youjian nodded quickly.

Turning his head to look at Wang Chengen, Li Jing smiled and said, "Go to Fang Fang later and ask him to send some people to help you plan the construction of the factory."

Wang Chengen knew that Li Jing was promoting himself in front of Zhu Youjian, so he nodded hurriedly.

……

In February of the tenth year of Chongzhen, after leaving Fan Wencheng out for more than a month, under Fan Wencheng's constant urging, Lin Yuji asked Li Jing again, and Li Jing calculated the time and thought it was almost time, so he took the time to meet Fan Wencheng , After reiterating Daming's position, Li Jing knew that Fan Wencheng could not make the decision, and immediately asked Fan Wencheng to return to Liaodong to ask Huang Taiji for instructions.

Due to the unsatisfactory progress of the Korean War, Huang Taiji urgently needed to buy time for Dorgon, so after some consideration, Huang Taiji backed down a step, and was willing to treat Daming as a nephew and pay tribute every year, but he did not agree to cancel the country's title Emperor number.

After getting Lin Yuji's reward, Li Jing smiled and told Lin Yuji to continue wrangling with Fan Wencheng.Secretly ordered Shen Zheng to hurry up and prepare supplies, and at the same time ordered Cao Wenzhao to start preparing for the battle.

Cao Wenzhao received the order, and immediately ordered Zhuzi to lead his troops to secretly march towards Jinzhou, while he still confuses Huang Taiji by pretending that the main force is still in Shanhaiguan.

Dongnuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace.

One day, Li Jing was in a good mood after reviewing the reports sent from various places, turned his head to look at Zhang Tong and said with a smile: "During this period, the government orders of various provinces have been implemented well, especially the collection of taxes has been smooth.

Chen Dahu from Nanjing wrote in a letter saying that more than 200 million taels of tax silver will be collected after the year, and will be sent to the capital soon.Liu Erleng also collected more than 100 million taels of tax silver.

In Huguang, Wu Sheng's errands were also doing well, and many gentry, landlords and merchants had already started to pay taxes.

Wu Tong said that according to this posture, there will be no problem with the Huguang Chief Commissioner paying 200 million taels of tax and silver this year. As for the grain, he promises to hand over 200 million shi.

Nanjing, Jiangxi, Huguang, plus Beizhili and Pingyang Prefecture, and the salt tax of Lianghuai, I estimate that this year's tax can reach more than 1000 million taels, and this year's life seems to be much better. "

Hearing this, Zhang Tongchang laughed and said, "That's because the government's government order is appropriate, and the people below work hard, so they can receive so much tax."

Seeing Li Jing smiling and nodding, Zhang Tongchang pondered for a while and said: "However, a large part of the taxes collected by these places was in arrears or concealed in previous years. Excluding this part, Wansheng feels that the taxes of the provinces should be collected in the same year. In fact, it is not as optimistic as the Duke of the Kingdom imagined."

Li Jing nodded silently when he heard the words, and sighed softly: "Yes, Daming's taxes mainly depend on land and grain. If you really have to calculate it carefully, the annual tax money is not much, which is why I want to vigorously open factories. The reason is that only when industry and commerce is developed can the country receive more taxes.”

Zhang Tongchang heard Hao Ran, smiled and said: "It turns out that the Duke of the country has long understood the truth, but he was too late to worry about it."

Li Jing waved his hand: "Don't worry too much, I'm very relieved that you can see this. Some people only see how much taxes are collected now, but don't think about the source of these taxes. You can think of these, In my heart, I will worry about what to do in the future, and I will find a way to solve this problem, and I will gradually think that I should develop industry and commerce, which is the benefit of worrying more.”

Zhang Tongchang bowed and said, "Thank you, Lord Guo, for your praise and guidance."

Li Jing waved his hand, and suddenly said with a smile: "Tong Chang, how about the New Deal that I promote? How about Mr. Taiyue?"

Zhang Tongchang pondered for a while and said, "Master Guo, Wansheng, to be honest, don't take offense."

Li Jing smiled and said, "But it's okay to say."

Zhang Tongchang thought about his wording before he said: "From Wansheng's point of view, the government's decrees are actually in the same line as those of our ancestors, but the methods of the Duke are more drastic and tougher."

As he said that, Zhang Tongchang looked around the room, and then said with a smile: "Besides, the Duke has no constraints, and the people he uses are all the people he likes, which is beyond comparison with our ancestors. Therefore, when the Duke of the country implemented the administrative order, it was more smooth than the ancestors."

After a pause, Zhang Tongchang sighed and said, "However, the Duke must pay attention to one thing. Those who presided over the reform all the time did not end well, Shang Yang, Wang Anshi, including the ancestors.

Therefore, the successor needs to be carefully observed. If the ancestors had not chosen the wrong successor, I am afraid that the implementation of the decree would not have ended, and the fate of the Zhang family would not have been so miserable.

The Duke's method is far superior to that of his ancestors. If he chooses the wrong person, he will end up worse than the Zhang family. "

Li Jingwen nodded lightly: "That's right, but we need to be careful about this matter. In your opinion, how should we guard against it? After all, when looking at people, everyone has mistakes. Mr. Taiyue is like this, and I am no exception .”

Zhang Tongchang pondered for a moment, then looked around again.

Seeing this, Li Jing ordered everyone in the room to go out except Xiao Wu.

Waiting for the rest of the people to go out, Zhang Tongchang said: "Two ways, first, change the dynasty, and the Duke himself will be the emperor. In this way, the successor must be the descendant of the Duke, and naturally he will not overthrow the Duke. According to the decree promulgated by the Lord, this method is the safest."

Li Jingwen knew why Zhang Tongchang couldn't offer advice in front of others, and naturally wanted to avoid it when he tried to usurp the throne.

But Li Jing shook his head with a smile and said, "Tong Chang, do you think it would be difficult for me to become an emperor with my power today?"

Zhang Tongchang hurriedly said, "Of course not."

Li Jing continued with a smile: "The emperor governing the country mostly depends on whether the emperor is wise or not, otherwise the country will eventually decline. This has been the case in all dynasties. If I, Li Jing, become emperor, can I guarantee that my descendants will be wise? What if If an unworthy descendant is born, should he be allowed to torment the country? Let the country decline?

But right now, Daming can't live without an emperor, so what should we do?It can only make the emperor have no power to interfere in politics.

Don't think that I am taking the current emperor off the throne in order to gain power. In fact, I want to formulate a system where the emperor cannot interfere in politics. It's just that this system starts with the current emperor, so many people will inevitably misunderstand me.

Today I can tell you clearly that I will not be an emperor, and my descendants will not allow them to be emperors. I hope that everyone will stop mentioning me as an emperor in the future. "

Upon hearing this, Zhang Tongchang hurriedly got up, bowed and said, "The late student made a slip of the tongue, don't blame the Duke."

Li Jing waved his hands and said with a smile: "Those who don't know don't blame it, tell me what the second method is."

Zhang Tongchang said: "The second way is to revise the Daming Law."

Li Jingwen said in surprise: "I have already revised the law of the Ming Dynasty, what else needs to be revised?"

Zhang Tongchang shook his head: "The Lord of the State only revised the unreasonable laws, but did not include the enforced laws.

We must know that since ancient times, the emperors of all dynasties have called themselves Daitian Xunshou and the Son of Heaven. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu proposed the divine right of kings, which was more accepted by the emperors of all dynasties.If the Duke of the State wants to deprive the imperial power, it must be clearly stated in the law.

Otherwise, once someone uses the banner of the divine right of the king, it is easy to overthrow the system set by the Duke of the State, and also overturn the government orders of the Duke of the State. "

Li Jingjing nodded, and suddenly said: "I understand what you mean, you want me to formulate a constitution."

"Constitution? What does that mean?" Zhang Tongchang wondered.

Li Jing was startled, and then remembered that there was no term constitution at that time.At this time, constitution actually means law. It is no wonder that Zhang Tongchang didn't understand the meaning of combining two words with the same meaning into one word.

Smiling, Li Jing continued: "The constitution is the highest law of a country, and all laws and regulations are formulated under the framework of the constitution. The constitution must be obeyed by everyone, including the emperor."

Zhang Tongchang nodded repeatedly when he heard the words: "This is what Wansheng means. It is to clearly write the system implemented by the Duke...in this constitution. If future generations dare to violate it, it is a violation of the law. You can rely on this article to Arrest those who try to overturn the government's decree."

After a pause, Zhang Tongchang continued: "Back then, if the ancestors could have thought of this, how would Zhang Siwei and a group of villains dare to overthrow the new law formulated by the ancestors?"

Li Jing nodded slightly, knowing that Zhang Tongchang must have deeply regretted the premature death of Zhang Juzheng's reform, so he thought hard and came up with a way to keep the new law from being overthrown.

(End of this chapter)