@@The huge waves caused by the mining and selling of mines in the DPRK and China have come to an end for the time being.
Tang Yin is still responsible for the mining of Xishan Coal Mine, and the use of private capital has shifted from overt to covert. In any case, private merchants understand that the court wants to make some changes in mining, and not many people are afraid that they will be taxed more, and everything will be fine.
The new mining tax method proposed by Yu Zhuhao is very "clever".
If you don't buy the imperial mines, there will be no tax issues. The efficiency of the imperial mines is still unknown, and others regard the Huizhou merchants who invested in the imperial mines as fools.
You dare to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy a newly opened mine. You are really burning your money.
After this incident.
Yang Tinghe's reputation in the court was seriously damaged. Zhu Si emerged from the gloom, and the monarch and his ministers entered a period of relative harmony. This was also because Zhu Hao warned Zhu Si not to fight with Yang Tinghe for the time being. Even if he wanted to be a wise king and a holy lord, he could not
We have to wait until Yang Tinghe retreats.
Zhu Si heard this and took it to heart.
Being threatened by Yang Tinghe in the court left a huge psychological shadow on Zhu Si. Even if he didn't tell outsiders, he was actually afraid that if he made too many changes, he would annoy the civil servants.
If he were deposed from the throne or tried to kill him, the gain would outweigh the loss.
Now that both sides have their own way, it is better to live a stable life first. As long as they don't provoke Yang Tinghe, it is expected that Yang Tinghe will not violate his emperor's dignity.
March has entered in a blink of an eye.
For those in the south of the Yangtze River, March is already full of green willows and fireworks everywhere, but in the capital, March is still a bit cold, but it's also warm and cold at first. The temperature in the morning is just above freezing, and it can reach more than ten degrees at noon.
It can go back to below zero at night, and occasionally there will be sleet.
Zhu Hao works in the Hanlin Academy and has a lot of leisure time, but he will indeed be busier after the new year than before.
The main issues that Zhu Si is worried about recently are: First, the Tatars are still harassing the northwest border. Fortunately, Dayan Khan is dead and the grassland forces themselves are no longer in power, so large-scale wars will not break out. This is very important to the Ming Dynasty.
That's good news.
Then there is the issue of southeastern coastal defense.
The Japanese pirates attacked one after another, causing several major casualties in the local area. The imperial court wanted to send troops to suppress it, but it suffered from the lax defense of the southeast coast and the fatigue of the soldiers, making it difficult to fight...
In the past few decades, although the coastal defense problem in the southeast has always been there, it was during the Zhengde period that the Buddhists and Japanese began to gradually harass, which caused a major safety hazard. Before that, the coastal defense was not in trouble for many years, so that some guards in the southeast
There has long been a shortage of soldiers and food, and the soldiers have difficulty raising even basic armaments. In addition, the senior officials of the Central Guard Institute wantonly embezzled land and exploited it to such an extent that the situation of military households fleeing became increasingly serious.
Suddenly the coastal defense was tightened, and the various guard posts could not mobilize troops to fight the bandits. Even if they gathered the strength of several guard posts, they would not be able to fight against the bandits due to the lax training of the soldiers and inadequate armament.
Moreover, since the Ming Dynasty has been at peace for a long time, the garrison basically no longer has warships. Even if the land combat officers and soldiers can rely on their numerical superiority to defeat the bandits, as long as they retreat to the seaside, they can return directly to the island by boat.
, the officers and soldiers had nothing to do with them.
…
…
On this day, Zhu Si was very troubled in the court because of the southeast coastal defense issue.
Coastal defense has never been properly resolved. When Yang Tinghe prevented Zhu Si from opening the mine, he took out food and military equipment equivalent to fifty thousand taels of silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs and allocated them to the Southeast Coast Guard Station.
But it’s obviously a drop in the bucket.
It would be good if it could only maintain the normal operation of various guard posts. If you want to use this to reorganize armaments or even achieve results, even Yang Ting and himself may not have confidence.
In the past few decades, the Ming Dynasty's strategy towards Japanese pirates was more akin to "using barbarians to control barbarians." It roughly meant strengthening coastal guards and county defenses, and letting Japanese pirates fight among themselves for territory. Even if a big force emerged, it would drag them down for several years.
Years ago, pirates always died due to uneven distribution of stolen goods, or the rise of another major force that attacked each other.
So this time Yang Tinghe adopted the same strategy.
The Southeast Coast Defense is short of troops and food. If you want to ensure the stability of the garrison and ensure that the interests of the military and civilians are not harmed, you must spend at least two hundred thousand taels of silver.
Currently, only 50,000 taels of money, food, ordnance have been allocated, which does not help the overall situation.
However, Zhu Si was a serious person. Regarding this matter, Zhu Si even asked the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs and Governor Cangchang to find ways to raise funds.
"Zhu Hao, you don't know, they are really good at making jokes. The Mandarin at the court meeting is one thing after another. I asked them what they could do, and they said they would try their best, and they said they should wait for the salt class and the summer grain harvest to prepare.
, and he said that the Southern Ministry of Household Affairs has been ordered to allocate money and food... Isn't this nonsense? You are clearly trying to give me a thumbs-up."
When emperors, including those praised by the world such as Hongzhi Emperor Zhu Youtang, faced chaos in the court, they often turned a blind eye.
But Zhu Si was an idealistic and ambitious emperor who wanted to achieve great results. In addition, Zhu Hao was around him, which gave him a sense of responsibility and wanted to lead the Ming Dynasty to prosperity. Therefore, he couldn't listen to those official clichés. He wanted to
Those officials have made achievements, but officials are all political. If they can do something at ordinary times, it is considered good. Bureaucrats are never born to solve problems.
Zhu Hao said: "It is their duty to deal with the problem, or to deal with His Majesty. What achievements can Your Majesty expect them to make?"
Zhu Si asked in confusion: "Shouldn't they devote themselves to the Ming Dynasty?"
"hehe."
Zhu Hao smiled and said, "That's what I said, but your Majesty puts himself in his shoes and thinks about it. If the imperial treasury really can't come up with that much money, what would your Majesty do if he was pressed by the superiors?"
Zhu Si said angrily: "You can't think of a solution and just think about how to deal with it, right?"
Zhu Hao nodded with a narrow smile.
"How could this happen?"
Zhu Si still didn't understand.
Young people have a pure ideal and always feel that everything should be solved in the most correct way, instead of thinking about perfunctory and prevarication.
Zhu Haodao said: "The problem arises at the local level. The local officials cannot think of a solution on their own, so they throw the problem to the court. That is where your Majesty comes. If your Majesty wants to find a solution, he will entrust the ministers of the DPRK and the Central Government to do anything. The ministers will do nothing.
To perfunctory Your Majesty...in fact, it is often these ministers who care the least about the success or failure of things."
"What's the explanation?"
Zhu Si asked.
Zhu Hao sighed: "For the people below, local troubles will directly threaten their vital interests, so they will try their best to solve it but there is no way. In order to stabilize the country, Your Majesty will also start to solve the problem... Only those officials who are neither up nor down will have problems.
Whether it is resolved or not has nothing to do with their interests..."
"People are selfish. If all the ministers in the DPRK and the Central Government had their own fields on the southeast coast, then their work efficiency would be much higher than it is now... It's just that when things happen, they all think about how to deal with them hastily.
"
Zhu Si was taught another vivid lesson.
Zhang Zuo came over and asked, "Mr. Zhu, is there no way to solve it?"
Zhu Hao said: "It will be difficult to make progress within one or two years. In order to ensure the stability of the court, Mr. Yang Ge even directly vetoed us when we raised hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. This is enough to show that civil servants do not care about solving the problem."
, but to maintain the so-called balance. Under this premise, it would be good if we can ensure that no major incident occurs in the southeastern coastal defense..."
"well!"
Zhu Si sighed, "That means that if Yang is here, I won't be able to do anything, right?"
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, it's good if you can maintain the stability of the court. Think about it from another angle... This way, Your Majesty will save more worry and effort. In fact, we have been able to raise some money and food for this mining operation, but we can't get any publicity.
Go...my idea is, firstly, to increase mines, especially iron ore mines, and secondly, to go to the excellent natural harbors along the Bohai Sea and build shipyards, so as to build warships that can enhance coastal defense."
"Isn't it... expensive?" Zhu Sida said.
"Um."
Zhu Hao nodded, "I have calculated that the initial investment in the shipyard will be more than one hundred thousand taels. In the future, each qualified warship will need about one thousand taels of silver. Building small ships will not be able to cope with large-scale naval battles.
…Anyway, it still takes time.”
Zhu Si's eyes were firm: "Then hurry up, if you wait until later, it will still be
It takes the same amount of time, and starting from now, it is not certain that all the warships will be sailing on the sea by then. Is Mr. Tang still responsible for this matter...?"
"yes."
Zhu Hao is very direct.
This matter must be done by Tang Yin. Tang Yin does not need to go there in person, but Tang Yin must be responsible for coordinating everything. Tang Yin is equivalent to the deputy commander-in-chief of this matter.
After all, Tang Yin received permission from the imperial court to take charge of mining matters as a member of the Ministry of Industry, which was equivalent to going to dispatch the matter by imperial order.
…
…
In the Hanlin Academy.
On this day, Yang Shen came to look for Zhu Hao. This was the only time in more than a month that Yang Shen talked about business with Zhu Hao. Apparently, Yang Tinghe and his son had a grudge against Zhu Hao because of the mining incident. Even if they did not express their anger directly, they would give him a cold shoulder.
time.
This is exactly what Zhu Hao wants.
As long as he is still in the capital, it is not a bad thing to be able to stay far away from Yang and his son.
"...The Ministry of Household Affairs is responsible for operating the official land. It was originally said to be abolished, but later it was discussed at court that it should be retained. My father asked if there was anyone around him who was suitable for this job. I recommended you to him. I wonder if you have any
What do you think?"
This position has been vacant since Tang Yin resigned from the position of head of the Household Management Department at the beginning of the year.
Yang Tinghe originally wanted to eliminate this position directly and then sell off Huangzhuang, or divide it and divide it.
But as Empress Dowager Zhang stepped forward to mediate, Yang Tinghe did not want to have another conflict with the emperor. For the next month, the matter remained unresolved.
But with the end of spring plowing, and in more than a month to less than two months, it will be the summer grain harvest season again, Yang Tinghe wants to completely control this position under the civil service system.
Zhu Hao was a little surprised, and then said: "I have no objection. It doesn't matter if you don't go, and it doesn't matter if you go. Anyway... I don't have the right to choose, do I?"