Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 635 Zhu Youjian's emotion

The leading businessman cupped his hands and said: "However, we have heard what Lord Li and Lord Wang said just now. Now Shandong and Henan are suffering from locust plagues, the treasury is struggling, and the construction in the city is stagnant. It is all because of lack of money for construction. We Those taxes and fees paid don’t need to be refunded, just treat grassroots people as doing their part for the country.”

Li Jing smiled and shook his head: "It's good if you have this kind of heart. Even if the treasury has no money, it's not bad for the tax you paid. What should be refunded to you must be refunded to you."

"This... If your lord thinks it's too little, I can donate some more money later." The businessman hurriedly said.

Li Jing looked at the businessman, smiled and said: "It seems that you don't understand what I mean. The purpose of Master Zeng and the others to charge these fees is to stimulate businessmen to buy shops in the city, but due to improper practices, even Did not meet expectations.

I am now making them fill in the gaps by asking them to return the money to you.You don't want to return the money, so my thoughts are not in vain?

If you really think about the country, help spread the word. As long as all the shops in the city are sold, the money for the construction will naturally be settled. "

"My lord is wise!" said the businessman.

Li Jing smiled and waved his hands, "However, I really want to ask you for help."

"Please tell me, my lord, as long as I can do it, I will do my best." The businessman hurriedly said.

Li Jing smiled: "It's not a big deal, you don't have to be nervous."

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "Master Wang just told me that all the workers at the docks have joined the Cao Gang. I want to know who organized this Cao Gang."

"This..." The businessman hesitated for a moment and said: "To tell you the truth, this Cao Gang was raised and organized by several big grain merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the Caomin are also members of the Cao Gang."

Li Jing smiled: "I reckon that you guys are also members of the Cao Gang. If this is the case, then it will be easy to handle. After you return to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, send a message to those people for me, saying that I don't want Daming to be like this." The organization appeared, let them go to Chen Dahu, and hand over the people from the Cao Gang to Chen Dahu, do you understand?"

"Listen, I understand." The businessman wiped his sweat and said.

Li Jing smiled and said: "As for the members of the Cao Gang in Tianjin, leave it to Mr. Wang Jingtang. You are the one who decides here, right?"

"Yes! Caomin will hand over the people here to Mr. Wang as soon as he returns." The businessman hurriedly said.

"You don't have to worry about cargo transportation and loading and unloading. These people will continue to work in this job. I just changed their names and handed them over to the government." Li Jing laughed.

Speaking of which, Li Jing turned around and said to Wen Qing: "Write a letter to Chen Dahu and ask him to set up a water transportation promotion department under the governor's office, which is responsible for water transportation matters. People from the Cao Gang will be under the jurisdiction of the promotion department. This department will let Chen Dahu Take care of it yourself.

In addition, ask Chen Dahu if he, the governor, knows that there is an organization like the Cao Gang in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and ask him how the governor does it.In that sense, you choose your words carefully. "

"Yes!" Wen Qing hurriedly said.

Smiling, Li Jing got up and said, "Okay, let's leave."

"Respectfully send off the emperor and Lord Li." Everyone hurriedly got up and shouted after hearing the words.

Waving to everyone, Li Jing gestured to Zhu Youjian and said, "Your Majesty, you've been bored for a long time, shall I go out for a walk with you?"

Zhu Youjian shook his head and said with a smile: "Forget it, you are tired after working for a long time, so you don't want to go out, let's go have a cup of tea."

Li Jing smiled and said: "Since the emperor wants to drink tea, then I will have a drink with the emperor."

While joking, the two came to the backyard.

Sitting down in the pavilion, he took the teacup from the young eunuch and handed it to Zhu Youjian. Li Jing smiled and said, "Your Majesty, please drink tea."

Zhu Youjian took the teacup, lifted the lid, blew on the floating tea on it, took a sip, and then gently placed it on the stone table in the pavilion.

After pondering for a while, Zhu Youjian suddenly said, "Brother Li, I want to take a look around by myself."

Li Jing was taken aback when he heard the words, looked at Zhu Youjian, thought for a moment, thought for a while, Li Jing said: "It's my fault, I just ignored the emperor's feelings in front of the hall."

Zhu Youjian shook his head: "Brother Li, I didn't think much about it. In fact, I really like to watch you handle these things. Really, every time I see you handle official business, I think it's a kind of enjoyment. All the emperors are in vain.

do you know?In the past, the ministers in the DPRK and China had two attitudes towards me.One is fear, they are afraid that I will dismiss their officials, remove them from their posts, or even cut off their heads.Another mentality is to fool me, to find all kinds of reasons to fool me, but I have no way to deal with them.

In the court, I have no confidant, no courtier speaks for me, and all the people I value have failed me. I, the emperor, am truly a loner.

Brother Li, let me tell you the truth, I know exactly what state Daming is in, and it’s not an exaggeration to describe it as riddled with holes, but I can’t do anything about it. Daming's condition.

I know that the officials below are corrupt, but I have dismissed a group of officials, and the officials I hired are still corrupt. I don’t understand why officials are corrupt, and I don’t know how to solve the problem of officials’ corruption.

Donglu is pressing every step of the way, but Daming Kong has millions of troops, but they are retreating steadily, and they can't even counterattack. I don't know what happened to the once extremely powerful Daming army, why hundreds of thousands or even millions of troops fought But the Jurchens who don't even have a hundred thousand troops.

Over the years, there have been natural disasters every year, the common people have begun to rebel, and the bandits have become more and more powerful. I am tired of coping with it.

I don't know why the common people rebelled. I think I am lenient towards the common people. The rogues surrendered. I didn't drive out all the rebels, but after a while, these people started to rebel again.

Really, I really have nothing to do. After you entered the main center, I really felt a sense of relief, and I felt relaxed all over.At that time, even if you imprison me, I don't care.

But you didn't do that, you still treat me like an emperor, and you're not pretending, you really don't have the intention of being an emperor, your thoughts are all on saving Daming.

But to be honest, I was going to see your jokes at the time, Daming is already rotten, and unless Emperor Taizu reincarnates, no one can save Daming.

However, Brother Li's methods really surprised me. The first thing you did after you came to the center was not to control the military power in various places, but to rectify the administration of officials. From the top to the cabinet ministers, to the local management, you straightened it out from the beginning to the end. A large number of corrupt officials have been taken down by you.

Then, you used the money confiscated from corrupt officials' homes to make up for the military pay that was in arrears over the years, and quickly attracted troops from all over the world.At that time, I was thinking that even if Taizu was alive, it was just such a means.

But I know how bad Ming's situation is. The household department only has an income of 200 million taels a year, which is far from enough to support expenses. If you can't solve the tax problem, you still can't save this mess.

And you obviously understood this a long time ago, and then you started to reform the taxation system and the land system. You limited the amount of land owned by princes and nobles, and then distributed the recovered land to the common people.

After a few measures, the hearts of the people were quickly gathered again, and the rioting bandits almost dispersed without suppressing them.

Suddenly, I discovered that Daming's original illness was mostly cured.Next, you conquered Liaodong in the first battle and solved Daming’s greatest enemy. So far, Daming’s illness was almost cured. At that time, I really admired Brother Li. "

Li Jing smiled and said: "Why did the emperor suddenly feel emotional today, I am a minister of Daming, these things are exactly what a minister should do."

Zhu Youjian shook his head: "Da Ming has a lot of courtiers, but how many of them can focus on the country of Daming like Brother Li? You have lived in the palace for nearly a year, and I have witnessed with my own eyes how you are doing every day. Take the trouble."

Li Jing smiled and shook his head.

Sighing lightly, Zhu Youjian continued: "Seeing that Daming's condition is getting better and better, while Brother Li's health is getting worse and worse, I am really conflicted.

Brother Li, let me tell you the truth, when Mr. Yuan passed away, you had a serious illness. I really didn't take it to heart that time, and even hoped that you would be better off sick.

But when you were sick last year when the Chinese New Year was approaching, I was really anxious.

Because I know that the decrees you promulgated were just implemented in Daming, and there are still many people who oppose these decrees. The reason why everyone dare not violate your orders is because they are afraid of your prestige and iron fist.Once you fall, the people who succeed you will not have your prestige and means, and all the decrees you made will be overturned by those who oppose you, and Ming will repeat the same mistakes.

Brother Li, do you still remember that when you returned to Beijing after recovering from illness, I brought all the officials to greet you outside the city, and I even called you long live with the emperor's etiquette? "

Li Jing nodded slightly.

Zhu Youjian sighed: "Actually, if Zhou Yanru's proposal didn't fit my mind, how could I have made such a big mistake?"

After a pause, Zhu Youjian continued: "Brother Li, you have done so many things for Daming all this time, but I, as the emperor of Daming, have not helped you much.

What you said to these local officials today reminded me that there are still so many places in Daming, and I don’t know how many problems there are in each place. I plan to look around, collect the problems I see, and then tell you, and you can arrange people to solve them. Solved, so you save a lot of effort. "

Li Jing nodded silently upon hearing this.

After a while, Li Jing smiled and said, "Your Majesty, I am very pleased that you think so. I told you before that I hope that our monarchs and ministers will join hands with Zhongxing Daming. In fact, I also want to look around to see what problems are there. But I have too many things to do. Your Majesty's ability to travel to various places on my behalf has really helped me solve a big problem.

In this way, let's discuss where we should go to investigate first, and after dealing with Kong Yanzhi's matter, you can follow the established route to investigate. "

(End of this chapter)