Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 716 New Cabinet

At the beginning of the 16th year of Chongzhen, the cabinet ministers Shen Zheng and Zhou Hengchen wrote a letter requesting to take office, which was approved by Li Jing. As soon as the news came out, there was a great uproar in the government and the opposition.

Although everyone knew that Li Jing started to implement the retirement system after the year, no one thought that these two people would be the first to retire.

You must know that these two are Li Jing's most capable ministers, one is in charge of the official department, and the other is in charge of the household department. These two people can be said to have made great contributions to the implementation of Ming's government orders and the weathering of natural disasters.

If it is said that Shen Zheng retired because of poor health, and his age has passed the retirement age stipulated by Li Jing, it is understandable to retire, then Zhou Hengchen's retirement is confusing, because Zhou Hengchen is still two years away from the retirement age.

Just when everyone was speculating whether Zhou Hengchen had disobeyed Li Jing, caused Li Jing's dissatisfaction and dismissed him, Emperor Zhu Youjian of the Ming Dynasty ordered Shen Zheng and Zhou Hengchen to be canonized as first-class earls.

This move undoubtedly aroused more suspicion from everyone, and everyone thought that the two of them used the title of title as a condition for retirement.

At this time, Li Jing announced that he would personally fund the establishment of the Daming Noble School, and announced that Zhou Hengchen and Shen Zheng would be the left and right priests of the Noble School.Afterwards, Zhou Hengchen and Shen Zheng explained in detail the purpose of the establishment of the school, and told everyone the conditions for the school to enroll students, and then told everyone that officials who had reached the retirement age could send their children and grandchildren to the school if they retired voluntarily.

At this time, everyone finally understood that all Li Jing did was to implement the retirement system.

But everyone also knows that Li Jing will never use so many tricks in order to promote a system. You have already learned how powerful Li Jing is, and he doesn't need to use tricks at all to do what he wants to do.

Then Li Jing has only one purpose for doing this, that is, Li Jing really wants to cultivate talents for Daming.

In order to allow future generations to enter noble schools, those officials who have reached the retirement age have written to request retirement, and even those officials who have not yet reached the retirement age also wrote to request retirement, hoping that their children can enter noble schools.

It is a pity that it is not so easy to enter a noble school. Li Jing clearly told everyone that this time it is an exception to recruit the children of officials who have reached the retirement age.

Then Li Jing issued a series of appointments, Yuan Shu took over as Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and Yang Liufeng took over as Minister of the Ministry of Households. Huang Daozhou took over the post of Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, Li Jing resigned from the post of Shangshu of the Ministry of War, and was replaced by Gao Qi, together with Fang Fang, the Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, to form a new cabinet.

Among these people, except Zodiac Zhou who is the oldest at 58 years old, the rest are all in their forties and under fifty.

In fact, when Li Jing was appointed Minister of Rites, Li Jing originally wanted Ni Yuanlu to be Minister of Rites, because Ni Yuanlu was younger than Huang Daozhou, but Ni Yuanlu's performance in Henan has been getting better and better in the past two years. Jing couldn't find a candidate to succeed Henan's chief envoy for a while, Li Jing thought again and again, and decided to let Huang Daozhou be the minister of the Ministry of Rites.

In the meeting room of the cabinet yamen, Li Jing called the newly promoted cabinet members together for discussion.

Looking at Gao Qi who had just returned to Beijing, Li Jing smiled and said, "Brother Gao, you must have broadened your horizons when you have been fighting outside these years. Why don't you first talk about your views on Ming's future strategy?"

Gao Qi shook his head and sighed: "Commander, brothers have fought in southern Xinjiang for these years, and finally realized the commander's far-reaching vision and unique layout."

Turning his head to look at everyone present, Gao Qi continued: "You have never been to southern Xinjiang, and you may not know the situation in southern Xinjiang. I think you all think that southern Xinjiang is a land of barbarians, with high mountains and dense forests, and snakes and insects everywhere. Miasma and plague are rampant.

In fact, this is not the case at all. After I conquered Burma, I discovered that Burma is rich in rice, and the rice produced every year is more than that of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces combined. After occupying Burma, my Ming no longer has to worry about food.

In addition, Myanmar is rich in jade. You must have seen the jade I sent back. If we can mine these jade mines, it will bring countless wealth to Daming. "

Yang Liufeng smiled and said, "Master Gao, we all know what you said. The food you brought back from Burma these years is at least enough for Ming's army for three years. However, the domestic grain harvest in these two years is not enough. Very good, you brought back so much grain, which has caused a great impact on the domestic grain price. Now the grain price in Daming is at least [-]% lower than before. My headache now is how to raise the grain price, otherwise, ordinary people There is a bumper harvest of food, but income does not increase.”

Gao Qi said with a smile: "It seems that there will be troubles if there is too much food. If I had known, I would not have brought so much food back."

Li Jing waved his hands and said with a smile: "It still needs to be transported. Although food cannot be stored for a long time, we can store it in other ways."

"Other ways?" Everyone was startled when they heard this.

Li Jing smiled and said: "You must have heard that I asked the emperor to open a winery? This storage method is to make wine. We can make all the extra grain into wine. You all know that wine is a storage thing. The longer it is kept, the more fragrant it is, and the longer it is stored, the more valuable it is, even if we don’t leave much wealth for future generations, but we can leave a large amount of wine for them, that is a lot of wealth.”

"Hehe, what the commander said is that back then, I bought a jar of hundred-year-old bamboo leaf green for him, and it cost me more than 200 taels of silver. If the bamboo leaf green just came out, it would not be worth even one tael of silver." Yang Liufeng laughed.

Everyone laughed when they heard the words, Li Jing smiled and pointed at Yang Liufeng and said, "I only now know that you bought that jar of wine with your own money. At first I thought it was given to you by the owner of the winery."

Yang Liufeng laughed and said: "The owner of the winery knows that the commander-in-chief likes to drink Zhuyeqing, and he also knows that I want the jar of wine as a gift to the commander-in-chief. He wants to give it to me for free, but how can I do such a thing? I want I took his wine for nothing, and he will come to me later, can I help him? Isn't that just asking for trouble for myself? "

Li Jingwen nodded again and again: "Shen Xing is right. There is a way to take advantage of people and eat people with a short mouth. In order to take advantage of that little advantage, you will suffer a big loss in the future."

"What the commander-in-chief said is true." Everyone hurriedly said.

Li Jing waved his hand: "Stop talking about this, let's talk about how Daming should go in the future."

Yang Liufeng smiled and said: "The commander-in-chief must have already thought about how to go about the future of the Ming Dynasty, so we just follow the commander-in-chief's instructions."

Li Jing looked at Yang Liufeng, sighed softly, and said, "Be careful, a wise man will make a mistake if he thinks about it, let alone me? I can't just rely on myself to govern the country, we need everyone's collective wisdom."

Seeing that everyone was silent, Li Jing shook his head: "Forget it, you just sat in the new position, and you may not get used to it for a while, so I will tell you some of my thoughts first, and if you haven't thought of anything, you can help me fill in the gaps .”

"Please give orders, Commander-in-Chief." Everyone hurriedly said.

Li Jing waved his hand, looked at Yuan Shu and said, "Brother Boying, many officials have retired this time, and many positions have become vacant. Immediately, according to the examination results of the Ministry of Officials last year, promote a group of grassroots officials to fill these positions, and then select another group. Officials are added to the grassroots. I have only one request for you, and that is to give full play to your talents."

Yuan Shu arched his hands and said, "Don't worry, Commander, I will definitely do my best."

Li Jingjing nodded: "You used to be in the Ministry of Rites, and you were responsible for the national examinations for the selection of scholars every year. You must have a good idea of ​​the abilities of the admitted preparatory officials. I believe you can do this."

After finishing speaking, Li Jing turned to Yang Liufeng and said, "Be careful, my request to the Ministry of Household Affairs is to continue to vigorously develop industry and commerce. You have also seen the benefits brought by industry and commerce in the past few years. Now [-]% of the country's taxes come from Industry and commerce. However, the development of industry and commerce is far from enough, and industry and commerce must account for at least [-]% of the national tax revenue.”

Yang Liufeng pondered and said: "Commander, I have an immature idea. I think the tax rate we have set up now is a bit unreasonable. I think the tax rate related to civilian industries is a bit high, such as the textile industry and the construction industry. Wait, these industries are closely related to the lives of ordinary people. If the tax rate is high, the burden on ordinary people will increase.

The tax rate for non-civilian industries is a bit low, such as casinos, brothels, jewelry stores, etc. These places cannot be afforded by ordinary people, and only rich people go there. These industries are profiteering, I think The tax rate should be higher.

If we reduce the tax rate for industries involved in civilian use, more people will definitely be willing to engage in civilian industries.Although lowering the tax rate will reduce part of the tax revenue, as long as more people can participate in business, the tax will not only not decrease, but will also increase significantly.

As for the non-civilian industries, because they are profiteering, some people are willing to do it no matter how high the tax rate is, so the tax rate of these industries can be greatly increased. "

Li Jingwen nodded again and again: "Your idea is right, but revising the tax rate is not a trivial matter, you must think it through as much as possible, so that you send people down to investigate all industries carefully, and list all industries that involve civilian use , and those non-civilian industries are also listed clearly.

Then you go to Shen Jixian, he is the president of the Daming Chamber of Commerce, and he knows exactly how much profit each industry makes. After you get the exact figure, you can work out a reasonable tax rate. "

"Yes! I'll have someone investigate right away." Yang Liufeng said.

Li Jing nodded with a smile, then looked at Yu Leting and said, "Junyang, Shenxing has been helping my father-in-law manage the household department all these years, and he doesn't pay much attention to the affairs of the criminal department. Now you take over the criminal department and I have a task for you. Investigate the unjust, false and wrongly decided cases of Daming over the years. Including the former eunuch case and the Donglin Party case, they must be re-investigated. Jun Yang, I hope you can be fair and impartial, and don't be mixed with selfish distractions, let alone be deceived by others. Think about it, can you do it?"

Yu Leting heard the words and said hurriedly: "Don't worry, Commander, Leting will fulfill his mission."

(End of this chapter)