In ancient times, it was a big deal for an emperor to leave the palace privately, and the Qingliu people would definitely cause an uproar when they learned the news.
Emperor Deqing was actually afraid of the Qingliu people nagging in his ears, so he went out of the palace in private this time in a very low-key manner. He only took Zhao Junchen and the eunuch Zhang De with him on the surface, and secretly there were only a few Jinyi guards at a distance.
Attached to the back to protect the driver.
After Zhao Junchen and Zhang De both put on ordinary folk clothes - the clothes prepared by Emperor Deqing for Zhao Junchen were common clothes worn by young men from wealthy families, and their style was quite dandy, while Zhang De
They were all dressed as servants and looked very low-key. The three of them quietly left from the side gate of the Forbidden City. A carriage had been prepared there in advance, but no groom was prepared. This task was still given to Zhang De.
Obviously, Emperor Deqing's private visit incognito was to keep a low profile and did not want more people to know the news.
When Emperor Deqing and Zhao Junchen entered the carriage, as Zhang De drove the carriage slowly, Zhao Junchen asked knowingly: "Your Majesty, where are we going to visit privately incognito today?"
Emperor Deqing glanced at Zhao Junchen, his eyes were very gentle, and he said with a smile: "My private visit in private this time is just a temporary one, and I haven't made up my mind about where to go yet. We, the emperor and my minister, will just watch as we go!"
Seeing that Emperor Deqing kept the goal of his private visit secretive, Zhao Junchen was slightly stunned, but soon he suddenly understood.
After all, in Emperor Deqing's impression, Zhao Junchen had a clear attitude of resistance to Emperor Deqing's search for immortals and Taoism. He always believed that Emperor Deqing should not spend too much energy on such illusory matters.
, so at this time Emperor Deqing probably felt that if he revealed his target in advance, Zhao Junchen would definitely oppose the dissuasion, so he deliberately hid it from Zhao Junchen, thinking of waiting until they arrived at the "Tongji Temple" before revealing his true intention.
After thinking about this, Zhao Junchen looked unsuspecting and nodded: "In that case, let's take a casual stroll in the capital. I heard that there is a new antique shop opened in Hat Hutong.
There are quite a few authentic works by famous artists, how about we go there?"
Emperor Deqing pretended to think for a moment, then shook his head and said: "Whether it's Hat Alley or an antique shop, most of the people who go there are rich or noble. If we, the monarch and his ministers, go there, we might be recognized.
I'm afraid Shi Qingliu won't let me go, so let's forget it... Besides, I also want to experience the people's sentiments and see the living conditions of the people during this private visit in private, or go to the place where ordinary people usually gather.
alright."
Zhao Junchen quickly praised: "Your majesty is wise, you still care about the lives of the people at this time. You are truly a wise king like never before! In comparison, my thoughts are too superficial. I am both admired and ashamed."
After a pause, Zhao Junchen turned his eyes and suggested again: "In that case, how about we go to the East Street for a stroll? There are many small vendors there, and there are many ordinary people coming and going... The most important thing is that in the capital,
The largest food stores are all located there. Eating is the most important thing for the people. It is also a good time to find out the recent changes in food prices in person! Moreover, the meeting ended early today, so we went there.
You can also fill your stomach there!”
Emperor Deqing obviously didn't want to go to Dongda Street, but he had just said something nice, and it was difficult to refute it at this time. Considering that it was still early, he nodded and agreed to Zhao Junchen's proposal, still smiling and saying:
"Junchen's idea makes sense. Let's go to East Street for a stroll! By the way, since it's a private visit incognito, you can't call me your majesty. Just call me uncle."
After hearing what Emperor Deqing said, Zhao Junchen agreed with a smile and informed Zhang De, who was driving the carriage outside the carriage, about the next destination.
In this way, both Emperor Deqing and Zhao Junchen pretended to be dumbfounded. There was not a single word of truth in the seemingly ordinary question-and-answer dialogue.
Next, on the way to East Street, not only Zhao Junchen deliberately catered to him, but Emperor Deqing also deliberately said nice things. It can be said that the emperor and his ministers got along harmoniously and the atmosphere was harmonious, which can be regarded as an example.
However, Emperor Deqing always asked Zhao Junchen intentionally or unintentionally for various details about the "Three Saints of the South China Sea", such as the deity's words, deeds, appearance, etc., obviously in order to secretly worship him with the "Tongji Temple" later.
The statues of the gods verified each other, but Zhao Junchen still looked as if he was not aware of it. He just regarded it as a casual conversation between the monarch and his minister, and introduced it in detail without any concealment.
Soon, the carriage slowly stopped and arrived at Jingcheng East Street.
Zhao Junchen jumped out of the carriage first, and then he and Zhang De helped Emperor Deqing also get out of the carriage, and then they wandered casually on the East Street.
In recent times, with the uncontrollable rise in food prices, all industries have gradually withered, and people's livelihood has gradually declined. East Street, as the most lively business district in the capital, still seems to be busy with people coming and going, but it is relatively busy.
Compared with previous years, it is obviously much deserted, and most people have worried faces while they are busy.
Emperor Deqing did not notice these situations quickly. Instead, he hung out with Zhao Junchen with great interest. During this period, he also tasted a few folk snacks. However, Emperor Deqing only ate fresh food. These folk snacks were not as popular as those in the palace.
Chinese food is usually made very carefully, so Emperor Deqing only tasted it for a few bites and then stopped.
Zhao Junchen brought Emperor Deqing to Dongdajie for an obvious purpose, which was to make Emperor Deqing pay more attention to the imperial court's concern about insufficient food reserves - some things were only done by Zhao Junchen alone, and it was too much to do.
We need to gain stronger support from Emperor Deqing.
So, when the monarch and his ministers were sitting at a stall tasting soybean milk and bean buns, Zhao Junchen waited until the old man setting up the stall was free and suddenly asked: "Old man, I see that your business here is good, and you can make a lot of money every day."
Don’t you have enough money?”
On the other side, Emperor Deqing also nodded and said: "If we can have so many guests every day, at least we will have enough food and clothing. It seems that the common people have lived a good life under the governance of the imperial court in recent years."
As he spoke, Emperor Deqing's expression turned slightly erotic.
Who would have thought that after hearing the inquiry, the old man running the stall showed pain on his face, shook his head with a wry smile and said: "The two guests were joking. In this world, it is considered good to have two meals a day. How can I do that?"
How much money can you save, how can you say that your life is good?"
Emperor Deqing couldn't help but was stunned and asked: "Your business is so good here, but your life is not easy?"
The old man setting up the stall shook his head again and said: "Sir, you see my business is good here. That's because this stall is located on the most lively East Street in the capital. The crowds here are dense, so business is always good. But now that food prices are soaring,
The common people are doing their best just for breakfast and dinner every day, and naturally they have no spare money. If this stall were placed elsewhere, the business would be quite different...
But the stalls on East Street are very popular, and Lao Cao is able to set up a stall here because he has a good job. Every month, just the rent, taxes, and maintenance expenses consume more than 70% of his daily profit.
How much money is left?
What's more, food is the most important thing for the people. When the price of food rises, the prices of all commodities will also rise. The cost of grinding soy milk and making bean buns will be higher, but the people have no spare money, so I don't dare to increase the selling price.
If there are too many, I am afraid that it will scare away new and old customers, which will result in much lower profits...
Alas, if you can live a day, then it is a day. People should be content. Compared to old age, they are not bad at all. At least they can barely fill their stomachs... Spring has just begun, so it stands to reason that the people still have food in their hands.
Yes, but I heard that some people in Henan and Shandong are already preparing to flee!"
This old man who runs a stall has lived in the capital for a long time and is greeted and dropped off every day. He can be said to be well-informed. Now he has also shown quite good insights and eloquence. He clearly explained the plight of the common people and made virtue
Emperor Qing's face quickly darkened, and he felt his face was dull. He turned around and glared at Zhao Junchen, as if all this was Zhao Junchen's fault.
Zhao Junchen is responsible for supervising the household department and being the Prime Minister of the world's money and food. It is natural that he cannot escape his responsibility at this time, but it is difficult for a clever woman to make a meal without rice. God knows how much effort Zhao Junchen has spent during this period, but there is really no more way.
On the other side, Zhao Junchen pretended not to notice Emperor Deqing's glare, and just sighed: "In the past, the people in the capital were relatively wealthy, just like the people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Huguang and other places, they all had three meals a day... In comparison,
It is said that two meals a day is a custom only found in the poorer places in Shaanxi and Gansu! If even the people in the capital are now reduced to two meals a day, the rest of the places will be even worse."
The old man setting up the stall also sighed and said: "The price of food is still too high, and I don't know how long it will continue to rise. People in the capital are indeed better off than in other places. If I bite the bullet, three meals a day will still be enough."
We can barely maintain it, but no one knows when the price of food will end. How can we dare to spend it randomly when we have so little spare money? Naturally, we should save what we can and be prepared... Alas, it was His Majesty's birthday a few days ago, and all the nations came to visit.
, the capital city has also been lively for a long time, the government said that it is a prosperous time now that the Holy King is on the throne, but it would be great if this prosperous time could have something to do with us ordinary people!"
Zhao Junchen did not expect that this old man would be so bold and suddenly got involved with the court and the emperor, and he couldn't help but be shocked.
On the other side, Emperor Deqing couldn't hold it in any longer. He got up with a cold snort and turned around to leave.
Zhao Junchen dropped a penny and hurriedly followed Emperor Deqing without waiting for the old man setting up the stall to change it.
After leaving the stall a little further, Emperor Deqing walked to a sparsely crowded place, suddenly turned around and cursed Zhao Junchen: "Zhao Junchen! What do you do for food! You brought me here to inquire about people's livelihood and food prices. I originally thought you were...
If you want to show off your political achievements, you must have stable food prices and ensure the people's well-being, but I didn't expect to hear countless complaints!... Are the food prices among the people really so high that the people can't bear it?"
Seeing that Emperor Deqing finally asked about business, Zhao Junchen ignored the previous reprimand and lowered his head and said: "What you are reprimanding is that I am incompetent! But I am indeed a clever woman who cannot make a meal without rice! Your Majesty, the price of food among the people
The high rise is due to the lack of grain reserves in the court. The shortage of grain reserves in the court is due to the unwillingness of Huguang, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to grow food. In recent years, the northern provinces have suffered from frequent natural disasters and repeated harvest failures. That’s why I risked the world’s disaster last year.
It is a pity that due to the great resistance, only half of my proposals were approved, and the other half were violated by various government offices during their implementation. I have told you these things in many memorials.
Pass……"
Emperor Deqing snorted again and asked: "Are you complaining that I didn't support you? Is it all my fault?"
Zhao Junchen lowered his head and said, "I don't dare!"
"You don't dare? What are you afraid of?"
During the reprimand, Emperor Deqing's voice became uncontrollably louder, attracting the attention of passers-by around him.
After discovering this situation, Emperor Deqing barely suppressed his anger and asked: "I remember... there are still a lot of grains in various warehouses of the treasury?"
Zhao Junchen was startled and said quickly: "Your Majesty, it is not a last resort now, but it is not the time to open warehouses to release grain. If we release grain now to calm the price of grain, the court will have no grain to use when there is a real food shortage! By then,
Once there is a refugee crisis, what should we do?"
Emperor Deqing was immediately startled when he heard the words "Refugee Rebellion".
For feudal rulers, refugee chaos is nothing more than a sign of the demise of a dynasty. Any dynasty, no matter how glorious and powerful it was in the past, will surely turn from prosperity to decline once it experiences large-scale refugee chaos.
Emperor Deqing asked in a deep voice: "Then do you have any way to calm down the repeated rise in private food prices?"
Zhao Junchen was also well prepared and replied: "I do have some ideas...but this method requires your Majesty's cooperation."
Emperor Deqing took a deep look at Zhao Junchen, and already understood Zhao Junchen's true intention of bringing him to East Street today, and asked: "What are the methods? Please tell me in detail."
Zhao Junchen said softly: "First of all, I hope that your majesty will continue to support the implementation of my agricultural reforms. In the future, if there are any central or local government officials who violate the rules, I hope that your majesty will punish them severely and set an example. But
We can no longer let it go as easily as before! Spring has just begun, and if we have His Majesty’s full support, there is still a chance of partial success of the agricultural reform plan before this year’s autumn harvest.”
Emperor Deqing was thoughtful, but did not immediately respond to Zhao Junchen, but asked: "What else?"
Zhao Junchen replied: "The other thing is... to forcibly collect grain from those big households! It is true that the common people do not have much grain in stock, and there is not much grain in the state treasury warehouses, but there is still some surplus grain in the hands of big private households, but they
Seeing that the private food supply is insufficient, many people hide the food and refuse to sell it, waiting for the food price to rise further to make huge profits. However, this behavior further pushes up the food price rise, which can be described as a vicious circle.
"
Emperor Deqing retorted directly this time: "Forcibly recruit large private households? Do you want to force them to rebel? This is not possible!"
Throughout history, the so-called "Refugee Rebellion" was certainly a turning point in a dynasty's transition from prosperity to decline, but the real enemy that ended a dynasty was never the refugees, but the rebellion of the powerful families - at least that was the case before Li Zicheng destroyed the Ming Dynasty.
——But the Li Zicheng of this world did not succeed. He was killed by Emperor Chongzhen of this world as soon as he emerged. Therefore, after Emperor Deqing read the history books and summarized the rules, although he regarded the refugee rebellion as a major problem, he was more
Don't dare to push too hard on the wealthy and powerful families of the people.
From this point of view, in the historical time and space that Zhao Junchen is familiar with, Li Zicheng's deeds of destroying the Ming Dynasty are of great significance, because this incident made the rulers finally realize the terrible consequences of the government forcing the people to rebel, and finally realized the
The consequences of the common people's rebellion were no less serious than those of the powerful families. Therefore, during the subsequent rule of the Qing Dynasty - although this court was ruled by an alien race and was not liked by many people in later generations - it must be admitted that its early attitude towards ordinary people was worse.
It is slightly better, and the attitude towards the powerful families is more stringent, and there are many differences compared to the Ming Dynasty.
Zhao Junchen naturally understood Emperor Deqing's thoughts. In fact, he himself did not dare to offend the powerful people in general. But now that he dared to make such a suggestion, he was well prepared. He further explained: "To be precise, it is not
Instead of forcibly expropriating large households, we made a deal with large private households! The content of the transaction was food and land!
Your Majesty, according to His Highness the Crown Prince's plan, he will soon be able to collect conclusive evidence of the vassals' crimes. At that time, a large number of vassals will inevitably be stripped of their titles and their property will be confiscated by the court... At that time, the court will reward the vassals.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of our fields will also be taken over by the imperial court! But the imperial court has no spare capacity to organize people to cultivate these fields, so it might as well auction these fields among the people!
There are two conditions for this private auction. One is that large private households can only exchange grain for fields; second, after large private households purchase land, in addition to paying annual grain taxes, they must also pay the lowest price in the market every year.
, sell a certain amount of grain to the imperial court for ten years!
In this way, not only will the imperial court be able to receive a large amount of grain from large private households very quickly, but the grain collection in the next ten years will also increase significantly, and the problem of grain shortage will naturally be greatly alleviated!"
Emperor Deqing was thoughtful and felt that Zhao Junchen's suggestion was a feasible strategy, but he still did not agree immediately.
After all, Emperor Deqing had already made up his mind. After the imperial court took back the reward fields from the vassal, he would turn all these fields into royal estates and significantly increase the royal property. Although Zhao Junchen's proposal was made by Yu Guoyu
It is beneficial to the people, but it will obviously harm the interests of the royal family.
In the end, Emperor Deqing just walked forward in silence, and then entered a nearby grain store to inquire about the situation.
After visiting this grain store, Emperor Deqing inquired in detail about the changes in grain prices in recent months, and then learned that grain stores in various places were seeing soaring grain prices, so they were stocking up on grain and restricting sales.
After the inquiry, Emperor Deqing quickly left this grain store, and then went to several other grain stores to inquire about the situation, and the information he received was the same.
During this period, Emperor Deqing also chatted with nearby people many times. He became more and more aware of the seriousness of the food shortage problem, and his expression became more and more gloomy.
So, after Emperor Deqing ended his actions, he finally spoke to Zhao Junchen again.
"Junchen, you also know that after the imperial court took back the fields awarded to the feudal lords, a large part of these fields will be transferred to internal funds and built into imperial mansions! If they are all sold to the private sector, I am afraid it will be against the rules!"
Emperor Deqing, who violated the rules and paid a private visit incognito, once again remembered the importance of court rules.
At the same time, Emperor Deqing also called Zhao Junchen "Junchen" again, with a much gentler tone.
Zhao Junchen knew Emperor Deqing's miserly character very well, so he still expected it and replied: "Your Majesty, although there is no surplus food in the national treasury, the surplus silver will gradually become abundant in the next few years. In the past, the problem was having money.
You can't buy food either! In the future, you might as well ask the treasury to exchange silver for the property of the Imperial Manor, so that the royal family won't suffer a loss... Of course, although the treasury is gradually getting more silver, it's not particularly abundant at the moment.
The money will be paid yearly for ten years, and a certain amount of interest will also be paid. What do you think?"
After Emperor Deqing pondered for a while, he finally relaxed and replied: "After you go back, write your suggestions in detail in a memorial and submit it to me, so that I can think about it seriously... and also discuss it with the other cabinet ministers.
one time."
Hearing Emperor Deqing's statement, Zhao Junchen was overjoyed and quickly agreed.
Once Emperor Deqing acted on Zhao Junchen's proposal, it would be a good thing for Zhao Junchen to kill three birds with one stone.
First of all, the national treasury's grain storage and grain collection can be increased to alleviate the food shortage crisis in the next few years; secondly, the national treasury will have one more expenditure in the next few years, and will still be unable to make ends meet. Under such circumstances, Zhao Junchen's temple
His status will continue to be stable; finally, when these properties are auctioned in the future, Zhao Junchen can also take the opportunity to make friends with the wealthy gentry among the people and further deepen his influence.
In this way, Zhao Junchen's goal of leading Emperor Deqing to East Street can be regarded as overachieved.
However, as the saying goes, opportunities are rare. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhao Junchen also wants to achieve more goals. It is not just about the food shortage problem, nor about the "Tongji Temple". Zhao Junchen is also secretly preparing for more.
This small move - Emperor Deqing did not notice that Zhao Junchen's eldest attendant Xu Qingyan was not following Zhao Junchen at this time.
*
Next, Emperor Deqing seemed a little less interested because of the experience of his private visit incognito on Dongda Street, unlike before.
When he and Zhao Junchen returned to the carriage again, he was not interested in going around in circles with Zhao Junchen anymore.
When Zhang De asked Emperor Deqing about the next destination of his private visit incognito, Emperor Deqing did not ask Zhao Junchen again, but directly replied: "The food shortage in the court in recent years is mainly due to the constant natural disasters in various places.
, the fields are not harvesting, I am very worried, and want to go to a temple to burn incense and pray for blessings... Zhang De, which temple has the most popular incense in the capital recently? "
As a person close to Emperor Deqing, Zhang De also understood it at this time and replied: "It seems to be a place called 'Tongji Temple'. I heard that the incense is very popular and it is also very effective."
Emperor Deqing nodded slightly, as if he had heard of the existence of "Tongji Temple" for the first time, and said softly: "The name of this temple is so strange, as long as it is effective, let's go there!"
As Emperor Deqing finished speaking, Zhang De was about to raise his whip to drive the carriage, but at this moment, Zhao Junchen's expression changed slightly, as if he suddenly thought of something, and then he stopped him with a serious expression: "Your Majesty, wait!