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After hearing Zhang Jiayu's words, Ma Mingyuan thought about it. If he followed what Zhang Jiayu said, it would be somewhat operational. His elder brother Ma Jiyuan had a good relationship with the Donglin Party, but if he started from a financial perspective, he would have some hope to defeat Ma Jiyuan.

Ma Mingyuan thought for a while and said, "Okay, then you will have to worry about the tomorrow's dynasty meeting!" Ma Mingyuan is now a commoner and is not qualified to participate in the dynasty meeting, so the first shot can only be sent to Guangdong to fight.

However, Ma Mingyuan knew that people would benefit from doing things, so he continued: "Yuanzi, I promised that Feng Ziyong can enter the cabinet after the matter is completed!"

Ma Mingyuan was still a little cautious about the Guangdong faction. Although Feng Ziyong had a good relationship with the Guangdong faction, Feng Ziyong was basically the Huguang faction. Zhang Jiayu heard that his Guangdong faction had aborted so much, so he gave a cabinet quota. He was not from Guangdong, and was very dissatisfied.

"Yuan Fu, we have made great efforts for the chief minister this time. Can we give another Shangshu?"

Ma Mingyuan thought about it for a moment and it was right! He gave less effort.

"Okay! Wang Xian, the governor of Jiangxi, was a Jinshi in the 44th year of Wanli, and he had enough qualifications. Let's do this! The Minister of Taxation Department is vacant, let him go!"

After hearing what Ma Mingyuan said, Zhang Jiayu was satisfied and bowed to leave the Ma Mansion.

Seeing Zhang Jiayu leave, Ma Mingyuan sent his servants to gather his followers and prepare for tomorrow.

Early the next morning, six cabinet masters and all seventh rank and above officials in Beijing went to Fengtianmen to have a morning court. After all, the emperor left for three years, which was the first large-scale court meeting in three years. Before, when the emperor was not here, the grand court meeting had already stopped. Only the small court meeting on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month was the prince. Later, the prince made a mistake and changed the chief minister Ma Jiyuan.

The emperor Zhu Hongsan is quite diligent, and may not be as good as his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang and the unlucky emperor Chongzhen, but he is much stronger than emperors such as Jiajing and Wanli, probably similar to Zhu Di.

As the sun jumped out of the horizon, Zhu Hongsan appeared at Fengtian Gate, sitting on the dragon throne waiting for the court officials to worship. It is October now, and although it is less than zero degrees, Nanjing is already very cold. Zhu Hongsan did not intend to ask anything, because such a dynasty is just polite, probably similar to the news broadcast in later generations, so that the ministers who cannot see the emperor can see that your emperor is living a good life and in good health. You must work hard. The emperor is not blind. Your efforts are all in sight and will definitely be rewarded in the future.

Of course, these are okay to deceive low-level officials. As long as they become officials at the position of Minister or above, they are not old-fashioned. They know that promotion is not related to working hard. If there is no one in the court, you will be exhausted and just a minor official. Of course, the emperor's reception is still useful to the vast number of low-level officials. Some newly-entered officials who have just passed the Jinshi greeted them with amiable greetings and made them serve the country more, and their faces were flushed with excitement.

After saying the insincere words, Zhu Hongsan waved his hand, and Li Chengen beside him shouted: "Retreat the court without any trouble!"

The emperor has decided to meet in the Wenhua Hall, and no one in the court wants to stand at Fengtianmen in this climate, so no one has any objections, and the morning court will end like this.

It was about seven o'clock after the morning court. Zhu Hongsan returned to the harem to drink some water, and after breakfast, he returned to Wenhua Palace to start the formal court meeting.

Because of the emperor's order, there were a lot of people coming to the court today, including the Thirteen Ministers and Ministers, the Nine Ministers and the Censors, the Censors and Censors, etc., who stood up the Wenhua Palace.

There were seven chairs in front, but only six chairs were sitting. Zhu Dadian resigned and returned to his hometown last year because he was too old, so the post of the chair was empty. All the officials who had hoped to enter the cabinet saw the empty chair and their eyes were on fire. They all knew that they must have decided to enter the cabinet today, so they had already connected yesterday and were waiting for the court to be promoted today.

After all the officials stood up, Emperor Zhu Hongsan turned out from the back hall while the eunuchs sang and cheered. All the officials in the hall performed rituals.

Zhu Hongsan waved his hand and sat down and said, "Dear friends, I have been away for three years. Everything in the capital depends on you! Since Chongzhen lost his virtue and was occupied by the Qing Dynasty, he has been more than seven years since the Central Plains were suffering for many years. Since I inherited the will of Taizu, I will drive out the Tartars and restore the Ming Dynasty! In the past, because King Gui Zhu Youlang did a rebellious move and fought against the central government, I have never taken action to fight the Northern Expedition. Now that I have wiped out Yunnan and Guizhou, Zhu Youlang has fled to Myanmar and will be captured soon! So I decided to send troops to the Northern Expedition in March of the sixth year of Shenwu!"

The Northern Expedition is a established national policy. At this time, no one came out to sing the opposite tune. After all, the Northern Expedition is beneficial from the country to the individual. The country has been in chaos for more than 20 years, and the Central Plains has withered, and it should end the chaotic times. For individuals, the Northern Expedition is a good opportunity to make achievements. Why not do it if you are promoted or made money? All the ministers in the hall praised Zhu Hongsan and praised Zhu Hongsan for his merits and compared him with the Three Emperors and Five Emperors. He really angered the Qin Emperor and Han Wu to death, and was ashamed to kill Tang Zong and Song Zu.

After the ministers finished praising him, Zhu Hongsan continued: "Now everyone talk about it, what should I do about this Northern Expedition? Tong Yangjia, you are in charge of military affairs, you can talk first!"

After receiving the emperor's name, Tong Yangjia stood up and said, "Your Majesty, at the beginning of the year, I received a document from the Military Affairs Office and had begun to prepare the materials used for the Northern Expedition. The arsenals in the capital Xuanwu Lake, Nanchang and Guangzhou are also producing full production. Now, 100,000 muskets and 1,500 cannons have been produced, and six warships have been launched in the Navy!"

Zhu Hongsan was very happy after hearing Tong Yangjia's words: "Okay, let the four newly established divisions outside the city get equipment tomorrow. There is still some time before March. Let them strengthen their training. Don't embarrass me then!"

Tong Yangjia bowed to answer the order, but then said, "Your Majesty, I don't know if I should say it or not?"

"Well? Just say something, and if you have any difficulties, let's solve them together!"

"Yes! The arsenal is working hard, but an explosion occurred in the Xuanwu Lake arsenal last month, which was caused by the workers being too tired!"

Zhu Hongsanyi was very unhappy when he heard this. He knew that the arsenal was either gunpowder or steel. How could such a thing not do well in safe production?

"I remember that the safety production system was already stipulated in detail back then, why did such an incident still occur? Was the foreman negligent? Is the order sent out and ordered the Jinyiwei to investigate strictly to see what the reason is!"

"Your Majesty, the reason is that the Ministry of Finance has been owing funds to not pay, the factory has no extra money to hire more workers, and the existing craftsmen have not received their salaries for three months."

Is there no money? How is it possible? Zhu Hongsan has been looking at the fiscal budget every year for the past three years since he left. The taxes collected last year reached more than 30 million silver dollars, so he must not be without money.

"Chen Zilong, you are the Minister of Finance. Tell me why the arsenal has not been allocated?"

When Chen Zilong heard the emperor's tone of badness, he stood up expressionlessly and bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am an incompetent minister and have been entrusted with Your Majesty's heavy trust. Please resign from the position of Shangshu!"

The resignation was somewhat beyond Zhu Hongsan's expectations. He originally thought that the Ministry of Finance might have some difficulties, but he did not expect that Chen Zilong would resign.

"What are the difficulties among people? Let's talk about it and solve it together. Don't resign at any time!" Zhu Hongsan had a good impression of Chen Zilong, let alone had a friendship before, so he naturally could not watch him resign.

"Your Majesty, I thank Your Majesty for your kindness! But it is hard to cook without rice. I really can't continue to do this as the Minister of Finance!"

"Why is this among people?" Zhu Hongsan saw that Chen Zilong did not say anything, and said to Wang Yunchang, the cabinet master in charge of finance in the cabinet: "Wang Yunchang, you are in charge of finance and taxation, what's going on?"

Wang Yunchang stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the taxes of the court are divided into three major parts: one is agricultural tax, one is customs tariff, and the other is commercial tax collected in China! Last year's fiscal and tax revenue was 36.5 million silver dollars, of which agricultural tax only accounted for 10%, four became tariffs, and five floors were commercial taxes!"

Zhu Hongsan frowned when he heard Wang Yunchang say this. In the third year of Shenwu, the tax revenue reached 30 million yuan. Why hasn't it made any progress in the past few years?

"Stop talking about other things, I just ask you, why is the country running out of money now?"

"Your Majesty, last year, the 36.5 million tax was 80% , while other provinces accounted for only 20% ! Because Guangdong has severe blood draws in recent years, many factories have gone bankrupt, so the summer tax in July this year was only 5 million yuan, and the winter tax in December is estimated to be only 3 million yuan!"

Zhu Hongsan was furious when he heard this. What's the point? It's only eight million* tax per year. What's enough? It takes one million silver dollars to form a division, and eight million silver dollars is not enough for the army's training for a year.

Zhu Hongsan stood up and said angrily: "What's going on? Why does Guangdong Province pay 80% of the tax? Ma Jiyuan, you are the chief minister, why do you think?"

As the head of the family, Ma Jiyuan couldn't stand up at this time. He stood up and said, "Go back to Your Majesty, in recent years, your Majesty went to Yunnan and Guizhou to suppress the rebellion, and he needed five million silver dollars a year. In addition to the salary of officials, the production of arsenal, and various places also needed silver dollars to carry out infrastructure construction. The national treasury was really out of silver!"

"I'm not asking you how you spend money. I'm asking you why Guangdong Province has to bear 80% of the taxes. What about Nanzhili? What about Zhejiang? What about Jiangxi? What about Fujian? Where did these provinces go for the taxes?"

"Your Majesty, the court has laws and regulations that the juren are exempted from taxes and corvee service. There are many scholars in other provinces, and they really cannot collect taxes. In order to ensure that Your Majesty fights against rebellion, I can only adjust the taxes in Guangdong, from 20 taxes to 10 taxes, so that I can guarantee your Majesty's use!"

Zhu Hongsan was so angry that he heard Ma Jiyuan say this. Ma Jiyuan promised that His Majesty would use it. Did I spend the money alone? In addition, when he became emperor in the first year of Shenwu, there was only one province in Guangdong, and the tax was more than 15 million. Now Ma Jiyuan changed the Guangdong tax rate from 20 taxes to 10 taxes. Didn’t the other provinces pay more than 6 million silver dollars a year?
Chapter completed!