Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

Xiyuan, Yangxin Hall.

After having breakfast at the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youtang took a jade chariot to this place where government affairs were handled. Now life has become fixed, and the most important task of the day is to deal with the affairs of the two capitals and thirteen provinces.

Liu Jin had already lit sandalwood here, and the clerk's office had already classified the memorials that needed to be processed into categories and placed them in fixed locations in order of priority.

After Zhu Youtang sat down in front of the treasure case, he started today's government affairs and was at the helm of the imperial aircraft carrier.

"Many counties in Guide Prefecture, Henan Province have suffered from locust plagues and reduced production. Please ask the court to reduce the tax on this summer's grain by half!"

"In Kuizhou Prefecture, Shaanxi Province, the number of deceased and disciples is increasing day by day. Please ask the court to reduce the tax on this year's summer grain by half!"

"Many counties in Yanzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province are affected by drought and locust plagues. Please ask the court to reduce or exempt all taxes on summer grain this year!"

"Caozhou Prefecture in Shandong Province was hit by floods and countless people's houses were destroyed. Please ask the court to exempt all taxes on summer grain this year!"

…

As the summer grain harvest is around the corner, some local officials have petitioned for summer tax exemptions, mainly due to natural disasters such as drought, floods, and locusts.

Although officials in the Ming Dynasty received salaries from the imperial court, there were not many officials who were concerned about the imperial court's decree to reduce or reduce grain taxes.

Once a local official successfully petitions for tax exemption on behalf of the local people, he will definitely be praised by the local people. Even the officials and gentry who own a large number of acres of land will give them umbrellas, etc., thus gaining a good political reputation.

For example, Li Ang, the governor of Jiangxi and the magistrate of Qingzhou, Shandong at that time, sent tens of millions of stones from the official warehouse to feed the hungry people of Qingzhou to survive the famine. The local people built a shrine for Yuan Hai Pavilion in Qingzhou to express their gratitude.

Obviously these are generous favors from the imperial court, but in the end all the credit goes to local officials, which also makes local officials happy to exaggerate natural disasters.

Of course, as long as the court agrees to reduce or reduce local taxes, there will be a lot of room for rent-seeking, and it may even happen that the court exempts taxes while local governments tax taxes as usual.

Especially in some areas where land annexation was serious, the court usually reduced or exempted local taxes to restore production. In fact, the people who benefited the most were the wealthy gentry.

For this reason, under the dual temptation of fame and profit, local officials are always willing to ask for food tax reductions and exemptions, and there have even been cases of fake disasters.

In the original history, the tax revenue in the first year of Hongzhi suddenly dropped from 26 million dan to more than 19 million dan. This was precisely because Hongzhi followed the instructions of local officials and imposed tax exemptions.

Zhu Youtang was naturally able to sympathize with the people at the bottom, but he knew that good people could not do this. Not to mention that the exempted taxes would hardly fall into the hands of disadvantaged groups, and the Ming Dynasty needed agricultural taxes to maintain the normal operation of the court.

If we agree to reduce taxes with just a casual slogan, then Ming Dynasty's finances will only get worse and worse, and in the end nothing will be done.

The current suppression of bandits in southern Jiangxi actually requires financial support, so money cannot be changed out of thin air, so the most important grain tax cannot be lost.

Fortunately, Wan An and Liu Ji were very familiar with the tricks of local officials, so if these memorials were handed over to them for drafting, there would not be too many mistakes.

In addition, the candidate for the right minister of Tobe has been pending.

Since Liu Zhong, the former right minister of the household department, had gone to the local area to serve as the governor of Huguang, the position of the right minister of the household department was planned to be filled by the thirteen doctors of the household department, but there was no candidate among the thirteen doctors who could make him shine.

But there is no need to be too anxious. You have good meat in hand, and you don't need to worry about the appearance of people who have not worked hard.

Zhu Youtang knew that he still had to pay attention to the local disaster situation, so he told Liu Jin: "Pass on my oral instructions. The Ministry of Household Affairs will make statistics on the reduction of disasters in various places over the years, and submit the report to me in a book!"

"According to the order!" Liu Jin immediately accepted the order and said.

In the afternoon, a memorial from southern Gansu was placed on the desk.

Zhu Youtang saw the memorial from Wang Hua and had a more detailed understanding of the process of the southern Jiangxi bandits. It was undoubtedly very easy to protect Wang Hua with this victory.

Even if Wang Yue cannot clear Wang Hua of the charge of withholding military pay, with Wang Hua's record this time, he only needs to find a name to help Wang Hua wipe it away.

What only slightly surprised him was that the hero of the suppression of the bandits turned out to be Wang Shouren.

Time goes back to before the war in southern Jiangxi. After Wang Hua realized that the matter of military pay was jointly set up by Jiangxi Governor Li Ang and Jiangxi Chief Envoy Xu Huai, he chose to believe that his son Wang Shouren would help him clear out the bandits in Tai Mao Shan.

In addition to the eight scribes transferred from the governor's yamen in southern Gansu, the other 12 were recruited by Wang Hua himself, and there were only four scribes who knew the core decisions.

On his way back to Ganzhou, Wang Shouren realized that there were insiders in the governor's office of southern Gansu, and every major move they made was known in advance.

In view of this, he deliberately took the four suspected scribes to draw a map in the area near Tai Mo Shan, and then Ganzhou pretended to be rogues to attack them.

As expected, the two spies fell into the trap. When faced with the "rogue bandits" and were about to kill them with a knife, Dangjie revealed his identity as the spies.

After Wang Shouren eliminated the secret spies in his team, he chose to pardon the two secret spies for their sins and asked them to go to Tai Mo Shan's lair to send false intelligence and find out the truth inside.

Tai Mo Shan is dangerous on all sides, but it is the only one that can be reached. Because the thieves set up stone and rolling logs to resist the attack, the bandits did not withdraw, and the officers and soldiers did not dare to approach. This was one of the reasons why they were unable to capture the bandits.

Because the two spies brought false information, they mistakenly believed that the Ganzhou New Army wanted to destroy their branch stronghold in Fairy Village, so they lured a team of troops to support them.

Wang Shouren had already personally led his troops to set up an ambush. After capturing this group of troops, he ordered a group of officers and soldiers to wear thieves' clothes. He went up the mountain at dusk and pretended to be a thief who had just returned from Fairy Village.

When the thieves guarding the mountain saw Wang Shouren and others going up the mountain, they did not suspect that they were officers and soldiers in disguise, and their historically accurate intelligence had already made them careless.

After the officers and soldiers crossed the danger, they removed the dangerous pass and allowed all the new Ganzhou troops behind to cross the danger safely.

Although the thieves soon knew that they were approaching the city, Ganzhou's new army was all selected and strong soldiers. Wang Hua and Wang Shouren personally led the army into the stronghold.

Facing the new Ganzhou army descending from the sky, only a few of the thieves fled through the narrow back mountain road. Five hundred people were killed, while nearly two thousand people cried and begged to surrender.

It was Wang Shouren's two-pronged strategy of counter-insurgency and concealment that led to the destruction of the most powerful bandit entrenched in Ganzhou and the first great victory of the Hongzhi Dynasty.

With the largest group of bandits being wiped out, the remaining small groups of bandits are no longer a concern. It is only a matter of time before the bandits in southern Gansu are wiped out.

Early the next morning, after a fire burned down the village in Tai Mo Shan, Wang Hua led his team back in triumph.

On the return trip, Wang Hua realized that the area to the south was too large. This place is far away from the county seat, which is indeed not conducive to the management of the imperial court. He can't help but show a pensive expression.

After all, he was an official from the Hanlin Academy, and he soon thought that he could add a county seat to strengthen governance and turn this place into a truly royal place.

"Dad, you have to show merit to His Majesty on behalf of the child this time!" Wang Shouren was very excited about this operation to suppress the bandits, his eyes were bright and pure.

Wang Hua was thinking about setting up a county. Hearing this, he casually asked: "Why is this?"

"I don't want to be a saint, I want to be a person like Wang Yue, who will lead troops out to conquer the Tatars in the future!" Wang Shouren set a new goal and seemed determined.

Wang Hua did not expect that his son would want to lead the army to fight again, so he glanced at his son and said: "Wang Yue is a man of great fame. If you really want to become Wang Yue, then stay at home and study for the exam!"

Although he is the number one scholar, he also knows how difficult it is to obtain the title.

If my son, who is only sixteen years old, wants to get a Jinshi, he will have to study hard for at least ten years before he has a chance, and that's just a chance.

"I can take the merit test, but now I have to get a military position, so you have to show your merit for me this time!" Wang Shouren said immediately and confidently, like a newborn calf not afraid of tigers.

After Wang Hua thought about it again and again, he decided to report the whole story to the emperor. As for whether the emperor wants to give extra rewards to his son and whether to grant him a military position, it all depends on the son's destiny.

In fact, after this battle, he also saw the military talent in his son.

But what they don't know is that the matter of Wang Hua's deduction of soldiers' pay is fermenting in the court. Now the court has entrusted Wang Yue to find out the ins and outs of Jiangxi's deduction of wages, and Wang Shouren will also meet his idol.

Time has quietly arrived in mid-May, and Xiyuan has become a lush royal garden scene.

In addition to occasionally riding horses in the northwest of Xiyuan, Zhu Youtang often came to this newly built Tingchao Pavilion and sat on the edge of the large liquid pond to fish.

The blue sky and white clouds are reflected on the mirror-like lake. The summer waves here are slightly rippling, and the fish in the water are swimming happily by the clear lake.

The fish resources in Taiye Pond are very rich, and the eunuchs feed them in fixed waters here every day, so it has become an excellent fishing spot.

Zhu Youtang became more and more adept at handling government affairs. After handling memorials every day, he would occasionally come to the fishing pavilion next to Tingchao Pavilion and sit on a soft couch to fish.

The wooden buoy sank, and as Zhu Youtang's wrist used force to lift the fishing rod, a three-fingered crucian carp jumped out of the water and landed in the open space next to it.

Chen Kun, who was wearing a third-grade official uniform, caught the lively crucian carp with quick eyes and quick hands, and said flatteringly: "Your Majesty, you are really good at fishing, this is your fifth fish!"

"It's not that my skills are great, it's that the resources here are good!" Zhu Youtang said lazily when he saw the fish he had just thrown off fished again.

The entire Taiye Pond is surrounded by Xiyuan, and this water area is a no-fishing area. It is very difficult for me to catch fish now. It is also for this reason that I am still interested in fishing.

"Weichen's home is on the side of the Pearl River, but if he can catch the target every time His Majesty moves, he is really an expert at fishing!" The middle-aged official wearing a fifth-grade official uniform next to him looked complimentary.

Zhu Youtang saw that the harvest was good, so he ordered Liu Jin next to him: "The attendant will take two back to Niu Mengmeng and let her use them to feed Xiaohua!"

"According to the order!" Liu Jin didn't know where Niu Mengmeng got his blessings. This favor made him feel a little jealous, and he said respectfully.

Zhu Youtang put away the fishing rod, took a sip of the tea that the palace maid next to him had just brewed, looked at the middle-aged official in the fifth-grade official uniform and said: "Wu Yu, the foreign minister of the Shandong Department of the Ministry of Revenue?"

"Wei Chen is here!" Wu Yu responded hurriedly.

Zhu Youtang carefully examined this enterprising member of the Ministry of Household Affairs, then put down his tea cup and asked calmly: "Do you really think there is something fishy about the disaster reported by Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong this year?"

"I have read the Yuze records of various prefectures and counties in Shandong over the years, and I think the drought in Yanzhou Prefecture this year may be untrue!" Wu Yu looked serious and authentic when facing the inquiry.

Zhu Youtang turned to look at Chen Kun and asked seriously: "Chen Qing, what do you think?"

"When I saw Wu Yuanwailang's summary, I also thought that there might be something fishy in Yanzhou, Shandong! There is a project supervision on the Yellow River. I thought that in the name of this, Wu Yu went to make an unannounced visit to find out the truth!" Chen Kun greeted Zhu Youtang's eyes immediately revealed his plan.

Zhu Youtang knew that he could indeed send someone to verify this matter, so he asked seriously: "What do you think of Qian Yue, the governor of Shandong?"

"Your Majesty, I have no acquaintance with this person, and I don't know what his moral character is?" Chen Kun couldn't help but say bitterly, knowing that he had little qualifications.

Zhu Youtang thought for a moment and then made a decision: "Qian Yue was promoted from Guizhou Inspector to Shandong Governor at the beginning of this year, but his moral character is unclear, so his actions are not known to anyone! You and the Ministry of Industry's Tuntian Secretary Lang We will secretly go to Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province with Liu Yu, your Majesty, and grant you two the right to act expeditiously to find out the true situation of the disaster in Yanzhou, Shandong Province!"

"I will live up to His Majesty's grace when I accept the decree!" Wu Yu, a member of the Shandong Department of the Ministry of Revenue, knew that this was his opportunity, and expressed his stance respectfully.

When Chen Kun saw that Zhu Youtang was still fishing here, he wisely took Wu Yu to say goodbye and left.

Zhu Youtang looked at the driftwood on the lake and began to think about Shandong, an important province.

There were many plagues in Shandong in the history of the Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, it suffered from the flooding of the Yellow River, and on the other hand, more people died of starvation. The main reason was that land annexation was more serious than in other areas.

In order to solve the problem in Shandong, in addition to regulating the Yellow River, it is more important to deal with the issue of land annexation.

Yanzhou Prefecture?

Isn’t that where the Kong family lived in Qufu?

It seems... a bit interesting!

Zhu Youtang suddenly thought of Qufu Kong in Shandong, and a smile appeared on his face.

But what was supposed to come finally came. A quick ride came from the northwest early the next morning. The Tang newspaper was quickly delivered to Xiyuan and handed over to Zhu Youtang.

When Zhu Youtang saw the newspaper from Datongtang, his face was full of melancholy.