Sun Jiao's initial understanding of Tang Yin was that he was a poor scholar who rose to power in the prince's palace by fawning over him, and he probably didn't have much ability.
Now he feels that this Tang Yin is not simple.
Among the officials of the Xingwang Mansion brought by the new emperor, there are only a handful of officials who can influence the civil service forces in the court, and Tang Yin is definitely the best among them.
When Tang Yin left, Sun Jiao personally escorted him out. On the way, Sun Jiao suddenly thought of something and asked: "Your Majesty is raising money and food from the people. Is it you, Bohu, who is responsible for this matter?"
"no."
Tang Yin shook his head.
"Who did that?"
Sun Jiao also wanted to know, what other capable people around the emperor could actually produce hundreds of thousands of taels of silver at a time?
Tang Yin kept it secret and smiled apologetically: "Mr. Sun will know about it in the future. Oh, by the way, I heard that your daughter and Zhu Hao's wedding is approaching, so I would like to say congratulations first."
At first he thought Tang Yin was quite good, but as soon as he turned around, Sun Jiao felt that this guy was ignorant of current affairs.
Don't you know that I don't like this marriage very much?
But what did Tang Yin mean when he suddenly mentioned Zhu Hao? Sun Jiao couldn't help but wonder carefully, could the matter of raising money and food have something to do with Zhu Hao?
He then dismissed the thought.
Even if Zhu Hao was really capable of doing things for the new emperor, he would not be able to produce hundreds of thousands of taels of silver at a time. He was just a young man with some strategy or social skills, but he would never be able to produce so much money!
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cabinet.
Jiang Mian handed Yang Tinghe a memorial from Shanxi Province.
After Yang Tinghe read it, a black line seemed to be pressed on his face, and a gloomy air came over his face.
Jiang Miandao: "Your Majesty has bypassed the Ministry of Revenue and the court and sent people to transport money and grain to the northwest. Some people say that your Majesty has a precedent of reopening the grain industry in the northwest... Now some merchants are asking the Ministry of Revenue how salt will be distributed in the coming year.
.”
Yang Tinghe remained silent.
At the same time, Mao Ji came over: "There is also news that His Majesty sent people to collect money and food from the people, especially from merchants in Huizhou and other places. This move is tantamount to exploiting the people. Or someone secretly promised these merchants some benefits.
, putting the imperial court in an unkind and unjust situation."
Su Xigui took the lead in finding merchants to transport grain to the northwest. Even if Zhu Si didn't mention it in court, the local government would be aware of it.
After all, official documents, road references, etc. are all available, as well as dispatch documents from the Ministry of Household Affairs. It is clear that the emperor bypassed many officials in the court to do things.
Originally, the civil servant group wanted to give the little emperor a blow over the issue of money and food, but in the end, the little emperor taught them a good lesson.
Without you, I can still make up for the money and food hole.
The cabinet could not think of any way the emperor could solve such a huge shortage of money and food. Thinking of the emperor's intention to restore the old salt production system in the northwest, the cabinet people would naturally assume that the emperor had used a "trick" to deceive those merchants and defraud them.
If you get money and food to make up for the holes, it will be returned by the Ministry of Household Affairs in the end.
The emperor is responsible for borrowing, and the court is responsible for returning.
Jiang Mian said cautiously: "We cannot let this situation continue... His Majesty has no court in his eyes, and naturally he will not have ministers like me in his eyes in the future. The court cannot let your Majesty do whatever he wants..."...
The emperor indulged in pleasure, and the ministers opposed it verbally, but in fact they were very happy. In this way, everything can be decided by us.
Once the emperor is diligent and always skips the ministers to do things, even if everything is done in the end, the ministers will be like a thorn in their backs.
Yang Tinghe finally spoke: "Inform the Ministry of Household Affairs about the situation. The Ministry of Household Affairs will report the matter tomorrow and the court will explain the matter clearly!"
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…
Yang Tinghe couldn't just sit back and watch the little emperor mess around, but even Yang Tinghe himself didn't have a clear idea of how to solve this sudden problem.
Now we must first ensure that the emperor cannot make arbitrary promises.
But the problem is that it is not clear who is specifically responsible for this matter, how the money was gathered, and how much food was raised. This means that the civil servants are passive in this matter.
Just before the incident was about to break out in the court, Zhu Si had already noticed the hidden dangers. Unfortunately, he was unable to leave the palace recently because the Empress Dowager Jiang strictly restricted his son from leaving the palace to prevent him from encountering accidents and at the same time prevent his son from indulging in pleasures outside the palace.
thing.
Therefore, Zhu Si could only ask Zhang Zuo to go out of the palace to ask Zhu Hao for countermeasures.
Zhang Zuodao: "At present, including the money and food promised by the imperial court, it is worth about 400,000 taels of silver. But if someone secretly works later and says that this number is not enough... I am afraid that Mr. Yang Ge will still control everything. I don't know what they will do now.
What tricks can you use?"
Zhang Zuo was a little anxious.
Everything was fine, so he secretly transferred the money and grain to the northwest. After the transfer was basically completed, Zhu Si talked to the ministers in the court. He not only got the thing done, but also taught the group of civil servants who thought they had a plan, which was very relieved.
a feeling of.
Now there are twists and turns. The local government has learned the news and reported everything.
If civil servants know in advance, they will make contingency plans.
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "Don't worry, Eunuch Zhang. I think Mr. Yang Ge and the others will be more obsessed with the source of the money rather than the specific numbers."
Tang Yin on the side asked: "Zhu Hao, I never asked you, how do you know that the northwest allocation of money and food worth 400,000 taels of silver is enough?"
The imperial court has not yet calculated a specific figure for the gap. The cost of northwest China has always been a hole. Who knows how much food is needed to fill the hole.
In other words, the size of this hole is variable. If it is larger, even ten million taels of silver will not be enough. Now we just need a number that can be accepted by the Northwest and can solve the urgent need.
However, Zhu Hao seemed to insist that 400,000 taels of silver would be enough to solve the problem, which Tang Yin and others did not understand.
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "It's calculated."
"What kind of accounting method?"
Tang Yin continued to ask.
Zhu Hao said: "Just add up the gaps from all parties, and you can get a rough figure, right?"
Tang Yin frowned.
Are you teaching me arithmetic?
If it were really that easy to calculate, the court wouldn't have to argue every time, just find a random accounting room and add one more, so why bother with all this?
Tang Yindao: "Speaking of which, I went to see Sun Budang the day before yesterday, and he mentioned this matter in front of me, as if... it would cost at least three hundred thousand taels of silver."
"Roughly the same."
Zhu Hao smiled and said, "What he said is the lowest figure that can be saved if possible, and the demand is often larger than this. If it is increased to 400,000 taels of silver, it should be no problem."...
"oh."
Tang Yin said nothing more.
Zhu Hao naturally has secrets in his heart.
Zhu Hao did not have to do the accounting for the shortage of money and food in the Northwest at all. He calculated it based on historical summaries, or in other words, the historian helped him calculate it before the spring of the first year of Jiajing.
Historically, at the beginning of the first year of Jiajing, the imperial court appointed Li Yue as the left minister of the Ministry of War and the censor of the right Qiandu. When he went to the northwest general system for military affairs on the three sides, the imperial court allocated 400,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury to him.
The invading Tatar army, which had gathered 100,000 men, was repulsed.
Of course, these 400,000 taels of silver, which were originally allocated to the inner government after the budget for the coming year, were directly transferred to the northwest in the name of the inner government.
It only helped the emperor earn a good reputation. In fact, none of the money entered the inner government treasury, and Yang Tinghe had no intention of letting the 400,000 taels of silver really be used by the new emperor.
As for Zhu Hao, you all have settled the accounts for me and I can just use them as ready-made. Since you think 400,000 taels of silver is enough in history, you can't say 400,000 taels of silver and you have to increase it to 600,000.
Two silver coins, right?
You can add as many as you want, and this will give me a chance to calculate. If you dare to ask for more, I will check, and finally slap you in the face with specific figures.
I know that 400,000 taels of silver is enough, but you insist on arbitrarily increasing the budget in the court to cause trouble for the emperor. Then you give me the opportunity to use evidence to fight back against you.
If Zhu Hao wanted to come, generally Yang Tinghe would not join.
If it is added, it will be solved. Now the emperor has raised money by himself to deal with the difficulties. The Ministry of Revenue does not need to allocate too much money. This is a good thing. As the chief steward of the imperial court, Yang Tinghe is also worried about the lack of money and food. Where can he give it to himself?
The reason for looking for trouble?
Doesn't Yang Tinghe know that the result of indiscriminately increasing money and food expenses is that the damage caused to the enemy is far less than the trouble it brings to himself?
"I will give your Majesty a warning here, so that you can deal with it accordingly when you return."
What Zhu Hao means is that there is no need for you Zhang Zuo to pass on the message. I will directly write a script for the new emperor. I estimate that this script will be closely related to what happened in the court in the future.
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Meeting at court the next day.
As Zhu Hao expected, people from the Yang Tinghe faction were only interested in the origin of this batch of money and food. They wanted to know what the emperor had done to obtain a huge amount of money and food at once.
The topic was raised by Qin Jin, the left minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Zhu Si explained his doubts: "Governor Changchang has reported many times that it is difficult for the imperial court to allocate more money and grain to the northwest, so I want to use the late emperor's connections to raise a batch of money and grain from some familiar merchants.
This is to solve the shortage of money and food expenses in the three countries and other places.
"Because this matter may not be successful, and the preparation will take a certain amount of time, I have not said it yet. I want to wait until the specific figures are reported on whether it is successful or not, and then I will mention it to you.
"But who would have thought that you are asking now, so let me tell you straight away... So far, including the money and food that the imperial court mentioned in the court meeting that it can allocate, the total value of money and food is more than 420,000 taels.
As it turned out, most of them were transported from the south of the Yangtze River to the north. Huang Shangshu of the Southern Household Department played the most important role in it, and a lot of money and food were obtained through his mediation."
After the emperor said this, the ministers present couldn't help but talk about it.
Originally they thought that what the emperor said was nonsense, but when the emperor brought out Huang Zan's name, many people felt that everything was reasonable.
When Emperor Zhengde made Xuanfu his home and the expenses in the northwest increased greatly, the imperial court relied on Huang Zan, the right minister of the Ministry of Revenue, to successfully solve the problem.
Later, when Emperor Zhengde went on an expedition to the south, the army was lingering in Nanjing and could not return. When military pay was lacking, it was Huang Zan who transferred the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing to solve the problem.
Huang Zan is simply a money-making machine.
It seems that wherever he is, there is no shortage of money. The emperor wants money, and Huang Zan is not capable of raising it.