Chapter 338 Harmony between family and country

"Since the Jiajing period, hundreds of officials have complained that their salaries are insufficient. However, officials in various prefectures and counties have secretly misappropriated taxes. Emperors Xuanzongzhang and Xiaozongjing have added various government funds several times. In fact..."

On September 16th, when the urgent documents were delivered to the Yangxin Hall of the Imperial Palace, Zhu Youzheng leaned on his chair and closed his eyes to rest. In the Yangxin Hall were Wang An, Wang Tiqian, Liu Ruoyu and Wei Zhongxian.

Wang An was reading Zhu Youjian's handwriting, while Zhu Youxiao was taking a nap in deep thought.

The content of this memorial made Wei Zhongxian and others feel more and more strange and frightened the more they heard it. Finally, when Wang An read that he wanted to completely abolish the retouching system, they all became sweaty.

Everyone knows that if His Highness King Qi says so, then the pen-polishing system will probably be abolished.

Moreover, Bi Ziyan mentioned in the memorial should thoroughly summarize the various benefits of officials and calculate the salaries of officials at all levels. The fluctuations caused by this matter should not be eliminated if the system is abolished.

Officials crying about poverty seems to have become a slogan of political correctness in the late Ming Dynasty. Everyone shouts that they are poor to create a clean persona, but in fact, maybe even they themselves don't know how much property they have.

The King of Qi wanted to abolish the "moistening of pens" and recalculate the salaries of various states, prefectures, county offices, and officials of all sizes.

People who didn't understand the trick, after hearing it, thought that the latter was a policy that was only issued to increase salaries after the former was abolished.

But those who know Mao Ni will know that once all the benefits are checked clearly, and the official's salary is put on the desk, then except for the grassroots scribes and subordinate officials, all the officials from the ninth grade to the first grade will be full of fat. .

The officials cried out to Hai Rui, but he, like Jin Xuan, was a seventh-rank official in the early stage. With a salary of more than fifty taels a year, there was no way he could not afford to eat meat.

The so-called Hai Rui was too poor to eat meat was simply because Hai Rui married three wives and two concubines. After all, marriage prices in the Ming Dynasty were not cheap.

Zhu Youjian's policy was to completely tear off the fig leaf of Ming Dynasty officials and take away their remaining trousers.

Once the salaries are calculated, the court may maintain and appropriately increase the salaries of some officials, but the path to corruption and bribery will also be cut off.

If this path is cut off, it will affect the livelihood of all officials except for the two brothers Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao.

Zhu Youxiao naturally knew the seriousness of this matter and the benefits of abolishing the silver brush. Therefore, after Wang An finished reading, he did not directly agree as usual. Instead, he continued to close his eyes and meditate on the chair while wearing his middle coat.

Next to the dragon case is a piece of wood that is being processed, and the way Zhu You is wearing a school uniform also shows that he was just doing the carpentry work that he often does.

Facing Zhu Youxiao's silence, no one in the Yangxin Hall dared to speak.

They were eunuchs. The civil servants and generals were not afraid of the emperor or the King of Qi, because they knew that Zhu Youjian could deal with them.

The eunuchs were afraid of King Qi, but they were even more afraid of the emperor, because the emperor could deal with them immediately.

The four eunuchs were all waiting, but Zhu Youxiao didn't say a word. After sitting for a while, he finally got up, walked to the wood, and continued to deal with the wood.

The sound of the plane continued to echo in the Yangxin Hall, but the rhythmic sound of wood planing allowed many people to relax.

The sound of wood planing was heard, and when Wei Zhongxian and others thought that Zhu Youxiao was going to put the memorial on hold, he suddenly said, "Where is Bi Ziyan now?"

"Long live Hui..." Wei Zhongxian was in charge of Dongchang, and the news was not bad, so he said:

"It's slower than the five-hundred-mile express. We've just entered Taiyuan Prefecture. We estimate we won't be able to return to the capital until September 27."

"September twenty-seventh..." Zhu Youxiao murmured, and among the four eunuchs, only Wang An and Wang Tiqian realized the reason why he murmured this date.

A thorough investigation into this mess of official salaries would surely shake up the entire Ming Dynasty.

More than 20,000 civil servants will lose face because of this, and what is even more terrible is the abolition of the "pen polishing" silver.

Once "Renbiyin" is abolished, they will have no good excuse for corruption.

It is true that they can also use merchants to build roads, repair city walls and other so-called "good deeds" to get money, but the amount of money they can get is definitely not as good as before, when they could easily get "pen money".

Moreover, this kind of corruption is also illegal, and according to the "Ming Dynasty Law", exile and distribution are waiting for them.

People say that "it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality", and the same is true in officialdom.

They are used to taking legal and reasonable polishing silver, and suddenly they are asked to take dirty silver that requires their lives to be staked. This will inevitably cause a backlash from the officials.

The ministers in the court will be the first group of people to know about this matter, and it is only September 16th, and there are still eleven days until September 27th.

Eleven days is already a long time, and using the 800-mile express Tangqi to deliver the news can even make several trips back and forth from Beijing to Nanjing.

What this much time represents is a long enough manipulation space.

What actions will the officials take if they learn this news? No one knows...

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao stopped his carpentry work and then said:

"The memorial is temporarily suppressed, and it can be suppressed for as long as it takes, until Bi Ziyan comes back."

Zhu Youxiao said this, but everyone knows that this thing cannot be suppressed. Just like Zhu Youjian's imperial guards are all over the world, civil servants also have their own channels for information.

So since Zhu Youxiao knew that the matter could not be suppressed, why did he deliberately tell them to suppress it?

The things in this are worthy of scrutiny.

Wang An thought for a while, then squinted his eyes and glanced at Wei Zhongxian and Wang Tiqian vaguely. Wang Tigan noticed Wang An's gaze, and his heart tightened the next second.

The emperor's words were not just for them to simply listen and suppress the news, but to see if anyone could inform the civil servants...

It is true that civil servants have channels and means to obtain information, but it also takes time. This time may be one day, two days, or three days.

But no matter how many days it is, you can always hide it for a while.

But if someone snitches, it means there is a mole inside the Supervisor of Ceremonies.

Did the emperor suspect the four of them?

Thinking of this, Wang Tiqian subconsciously thought of Wei Zhongxian, wondering if Wei Zhongxian had said something to Cui Chengxiu that he shouldn't have said at any time.

Wang An thinks the same way.

As two smart men in the Supervisor of Ceremonies, neither of them believed that the other party had leaked the secret, but they suspected Wei Zhongxian.

No one doubted Liu Ruoyu, because he had little power and little time to accompany the emperor, so it was impossible for him to be exposed to too many things.

Therefore, after the two of them suddenly came to their senses, they both turned their attention to Wei Zhongxian, while Wei Zhongxian was thinking about what to do about what Zhu Youxiao said. After all, suppressing the news is not that easy.

"Long live Princess Ningde, Princess Suining, and Princess Le'an who have prepared meals and come here. Do you want to receive them?"

The four eunuchs were still suspicious of each other, but at this time the eunuch Li Chaoqin at the door came in to ask, and Zhu Youxiao nodded slightly when he saw this and said:

"Let Huiyan and the others come in..."

"This slave has an order..." Upon seeing this, Li Chaoqin turned and left, going to summon the three princesses, and Zhu Youxiao also raised his hands.

Wang An and Wei Zhongxian immediately stepped forward and put on his regular clothes. While they were putting on their regular clothes, three young girls of seventeen or eighteen years old also walked in.

After all, it is a bloodline that has been improved by the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years. The three girls are all very beautiful. Colonel Zhu You smiled at the three sisters and said:

"What delicious food did you make again?"

Unlike Zhu Youjian, Zhu Youxiao cherished the time spent with all his family members and cared about them very much. Therefore, when he motioned for the three of them to sit down, he also sat on the chair next to him.

The three princesses held the trays and placed the things they made on the table next to Zhu Youxiao one by one, and said respectively:

"Abalone stewed with sea cucumber..."

“Sauteed porcini mushrooms…”

“Seafood stew…”

The three of them announced the names of the dishes while placing the dishes. When Zhu Youxiao heard this, he sniffed and said with a smile:

"Your cooking skills are getting better and better."

"Isn't it that the fifth sister is getting married and drags us to cook together every day..."

Suining Princess Zhu Huijing joked, and Zhu Huiyan next to her also rolled her eyes, but still said:

"After I got married, I rarely saw my royal brother, so I took advantage of this time to devote myself to it."

"Haha... Then Liu Youfu is pretty good. I've seen him. Although he doesn't have any great talents, he is more considerate than others." Zhu Youxiao said to Zhu Huiyan with a smile.

The consort he found for Zhu Huiyan was a student at Yanshan Medical College. He was good-looking, kind and considerate. It would be much better for Zhu Huiyan to marry him than to marry a noble man.

"Thank you, Brother Huang..." Zhu Huiyan saluted to express her gratitude, but Zhu Youxiao also looked at Zhu Huijing and said, "Next year you will get married."

"I'm not in a hurry, I can wait for another two years." Zhu Huijing joked with a smile, and finally looked at Zhu Huiti next to her and said:

"On the other hand, Huiti, I heard that she has been doing embroidery recently. I'm afraid she wants to get married."

As soon as these words came out, the topic immediately turned to Zhu Huiti, who was blushing next to her. She was so blushing that she didn't know how to speak. When Zhu Youxiao saw this, he also smiled and said:

"Does Huiti have someone he likes? Or is it a specific personality?"

"It all depends on the arrangement of the emperor..." Zhu Huiti is very beautiful, with very attractive eyes, but has a very weak temperament.

When he saw Zhu Huiti, Zhu Youxiao always felt that he owed her a little, and her appearance made Zhu Youxiao feel even more at a loss, so he waved his hand and said:

"Then my arrangement is that if nothing happens, the three of you can go back to the palace first. Brother Huang still has some government affairs to deal with."

"Yes..." The three of them saluted immediately after hearing this, and then exited the Nourishing Heart Hall one after another.

After they withdrew, Zhu Youxiao slowly calmed down his expression. At this time, Li Ruolian, a fellow commander of the Fusi Command in Beizhen, asked for an audience, and Zhu Youxiao also waved his hand to declare his presence.

After a few breaths, Li Ruolian walked into the Yangxin Hall with a military newspaper. After bowing and saluting, he presented the military newspaper with both hands and said:

"Long live, there is news from Jingcheng, it's about Jianlu."

"Huh?" Upon hearing that the news came from Jianlu, Zhu Youxiao cheered up. Wang An also took the military report and handed it to Zhu Youxiao.

After Zhu Youxiao took it, he glanced at it. When he saw that Jianlu was actually planting sweet potatoes in Xingjing City, he frowned and nodded slightly at his incidental operation against Liu Xingzuo.

"Have the military reports been sent to my brother?"
To be continued...