Zhu Si dragged his "sick body" to attend the court meeting. He coughed from time to time while sitting on the dragon chair. He showed little interest in what the ministers discussed. The court meeting, which was supposed to last about an hour, did not last even half an hour, so he hastily announced it was over.
During this court meeting, no one mentioned the matter of mining.
Lin Jun, as the "thorn in the side" during the court meeting two days ago, was not allowed to express his opinions under Yang Tinghe's instructions this time. Even the thorn in the side was suppressed, so naturally no one came out to make trouble again.
At the end of the court meeting, Zhang Zuo sent a message, asking Yang Tinghe, Jiang Mian, Sun Jiao, the Minister of Household Affairs, and Zhao Huang, the Minister of Works, to come to Qianqing Palace to discuss matters.
Anyone with a discerning eye could tell at a glance what was being discussed that it was related to the mining matter. Each of the two factions was looking for two people. Strictly speaking, Zhao Huang was not Sun Jiao and others, but it was rare that Zhao Huang was a neutral faction among the civil servants in the court. As for Yang Tinghe, he called on the Bachelor of Second Fu.
However, Lin Jun, who had provoked the trouble before, was not invited to participate in the discussion, which was considered a punishment for him.
Qianqing Palace.
Zhu Si expressed his meaning clearly and unmistakably in front of Sun Jiao and Yang Tinghe.
"...I agree to let the prefect of Yongping Prefecture take care of the local iron mines, but the premise is that the prefect of Yongping Prefecture, Zhu Hao, must be directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs. The Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works will each send a director to take charge. For specific mining matters, the Ministry of Accounts supervises the accounts, while the Ministry of Works supervises the project."
Zhu Si did not speak quickly, but he spoke calmly and forcefully.
Jiang Mian knew that this was an agreement reached between Yang Tinghe, Sun Jiao and the emperor. He originally had many opinions to raise, but at this time he could only hold back.
Sun Jiao asked for instructions: "I have requested that after Zhu Hao, the prefect of Yongping Prefecture, ends his term, he will be transferred to the Ministry of Household Affairs and appointed with a matching official position."
As soon as these words came out, the three ministers looked at Sun Jiao with strange eyes.
Not only did you openly recruit Zhu Hao into your ranks and become your party member, but you also directly asked the emperor for orders to allow Zhu Hao to join the Ministry of Household Affairs in the future and get a guarantee for his official career?
You, Sun Zhitong, keep saying that you don’t want to be involved in court disputes. You are really duplicitous!
Zhu Sidao said: "Since the Sun Qing family has made such a request, I have to agree. If Zhu Hao resigns as the prefect of Yongping Prefecture, I will at least give him a job as a household doctor when he returns to the court."
Is it really good for the emperor to discuss personnel changes directly with ministers without going through the staff, treating the first and second assistant academicians in front of him as transparent people?
"What is Mr. Yang Ge's opinion on this?"
Zhu Si asked Yang Tinghe decently.
Yang Tinghe said: "Old minister has no objection."
I mean, even if this thing is a bit unreasonable, I can accept it.
Sun Jiao said: "Your Majesty, if two heads from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works go to manage the mine, but I don't know whose opinion should take priority? I'm afraid... there will be disputes over the division of labor."
It is easy to say that six officials go to the local area to take care of a certain matter, and they also work with the local magistrate to divide and coordinate the work... It is easy to say, but in practice, it will lead to differences in opinions or leading opinions.
Zhu Sidao: "With the local magistrate as the leader, the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry even send officials, they only go to supervise occasionally, and there is no need to stay at the mine all the time."
The emperor's words were tantamount to highlighting Zhu Hao's dominance in the matter of mining.
Zhao Huang, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, suddenly interrupted and asked: "Now that the iron ore mine in Yongping Prefecture has been decided, what about the Xishan Coal Mine?"
The atmosphere in Qianqing Palace suddenly became tense.
Fortunately, even Yang Tinghe and Jiang Mian didn't mention it. Zhao Huang, who has never been close to Yang Tinghe, actually asked a fatal question at the critical moment. Do you want to get involved in the dispute between the two factions?
Even Sun Jiao felt that Zhao Huang's question was a bit inappropriate.
Zhu Si seemed to have expected this scene to happen.
What we talked about before was just an iron mine. Now we are talking about the Xishan Coal Mine. Should we also talk about what other mines the emperor will open in the future?
Zhu Sidao: "My people have always managed the Xishan Coal Mine well. I was not the first to do this. There were many coal mines in Xishan before, and most of the coal produced was used in the capital and beyond.
and the people in surrounding prefectures and counties for heating and cooking. I have spent a lot of effort and money on the Xishan coal kiln. I am afraid it would be inappropriate if I were to transfer it directly to the Ministry of Household Affairs?"
The meaning revealed in the words is that this matter can still be discussed, but there must be a condition that satisfies me.
Jiang Mian cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, mining wastes people and money, and can easily endanger local stability. I ask your Majesty to put an end to the use of Zhongguan and Jinyiwei to mine, and strictly prevent the government offices at all levels from participating in specific matters."
Zhu Sidao: "That means that if mineral veins with huge reserves are discovered in the future, they will not be mined, right? How many mines there are now will remain fixed, and none will be added in the future?"
Jiang Mian answered without even thinking: "Yes."
This sounded extremely unreasonable to Zhu Si, but in the eyes of civil servants, it seemed reasonable.
This has been the case for civil servants in government since ancient times. They adhere to an established principle, are conservative and do not know how to adapt, and pay attention to everything by following the rules...
Even if the rules are very unreasonable, if they are not changed, whoever makes reforms will be a sinner, and the civil servants will swarm in and attack them. Even if they cannot be changed for a while, when the reformers lose power, they will attack them in groups, causing the people to collapse and the government to cease.
This is also an important reason why science and technology in Chinese society has stagnated for thousands of years.
Zhu Si smiled and said: "Okay, Mr. Yang Ge set a rule for me in the past that no new mining kilns can be opened. Now Jiang Ge has brought up the old matter again... The Ministry of Household Affairs has not allocated me one or two for mining in the past two years.
Money, right? If it harms the local area... The Xishan Coal Mine was originally there, but now the Yongping Prefecture Iron Mine has been handed over to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and the local government. I have not crossed the line, right?"
It's rare that the emperor can still laugh at this time.
This time Sun Jiao looked at the little emperor with admiration.
The young emperor has a good attitude.
Jiang Miandao: "Your Majesty should no longer take care of the Xishan Coal Kiln as a lieutenant and a royal guard."
Zhu Si smiled and shook his head: "I have said that the Xishan Coal Mine, from exploration to completion, and now to large-scale mining, is all done by my people. Let me directly hand it over to the Ministry of Household Affairs to take care of it. I will suffer too much loss."
.Unless... I have an idea. Didn't I say that I wanted to build a train before? Now the trains around Xishan are more than ten miles long. I am planning to build the train from Xishan to the capital, but I am still short of money..."
When Yang Tinghe and Jiang Mian heard this, they couldn't help but murmur in their hearts.
So what's waiting for us here?
Let's just say that you can't build the iron lump and railway with your own ability. How much manpower and material resources will it require? Now that we are short of money, we are thinking of handing over the coal mines in exchange for funding support from the Ministry of Household Affairs?
Beautiful thought!
Jiang Mian hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, this kind of thing wastes people and money..."
"Mr. Jiang Ge, please don't be anxious. Listen to me."
Zhu Sidao said, "I said I was short of money, but I didn't ask the court and local governments to allocate it. I wanted merchants to contribute money and efforts to help me complete the construction of the railway."
Jiang Mian smiled bitterly.
Let merchants pay again?
In the eyes of the emperor, are all those merchants fools?
When opening a mine, you look for some mines that have just been explored but have not yet been officially excavated, and directly ask merchants to participate in the auction. Now you want to build a railway and train that will not see any profit at all, and you still want merchants to pay?
Do you think that all the money from merchants' houses was blown by the strong wind?
Yang Tinghe finally spoke and asked: "Your Majesty, I wonder how much food your Majesty plans to raise regarding this matter?"
Zhu Si almost wanted to lick his fingers in front of several ministers, but finally gave up and said to Zhang Zuo beside him: "You tell me."
Zhang Zuo smiled and said: "Several ministers, someone has calculated for your majesty that it will cost eight hundred thousand taels of silver to complete all this. Now the steel and coal produced by your majesty through mining, as well as the manpower currently allocated, probably
It’s equivalent to 400,000 taels of silver, which is still short of...half."
Missing half?
Four hundred thousand taels?
Last year, when we were fighting in the northwest, we allocated more than 100,000 or 200,000 taels of silver, but the court was quarreling every day. Your emperor is really good at making nonsense of your feelings. Do you want to get 400,000 taels of silver?
Really
Can the introduction be obtained casually?
To say that the existing manpower and material resources are equivalent to half of 400,000 taels is bragging, right?
Zhu Sidao: "My idea is this. I only raise 400,000 taels, which can guarantee the construction of the railway, but cannot guarantee the construction of more trains, so I plan to raise 600,000 taels at a time...Currently, I can provide only 400,000 taels."
, but the design and operation are equivalent to 200,000 taels. I plan to hand over half of the operating rights of the railway to merchants in exchange for their support with money and effort."
Yang Tinghe was very angry after hearing this.
Although building railways and building trains sounds nonsense, the emperor has said that he will hand over this thing to merchants. Does this mean that in the future, in terms of railways and trains, do you plan to delegate power to those profit-seeking businessmen?
Jiang Mian stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is inappropriate?"
"Just wait until I finish speaking."
Zhu Si added, "As for the railway, this thing has no benefits. Not to mention you, even I think there is a high possibility of losing money. It is very likely that in a few years, this railway and train will be completely useless...
I just want to hand over the operating rights for ten years, and after ten years, all the profits will go to the court. If you agree, I will agree to hand over the Xishan Coal Kiln to the Ministry of Household Management."
After Jiang Mian heard this, he could only look at Yang Tinghe with a questioning look.
Now the little emperor has analyzed it himself. Trains and railways are inherently bizarre. If merchants are really willing to invest, then the court will not have to bear the cost of any trial and error.
After all, the imperial court had not contributed a penny to the railway from the very beginning, and now the emperor had used the operating rights of the Xishan Coal Mine in exchange for the support of several ministers present. It seemed that the emperor had not made much in this matter.
Then...you can consider accepting it.
Yang Tinghe was silent for a moment, then stepped forward and asked, "Your Majesty, I am afraid that merchants will not be willing to fund this kind of thing."
"hehe."
Zhu Si smiled and said, "You don't have to worry about the issue of funding or not. I plan to let Tang Yin go to the private sector to raise funds. He is close to Hui merchants, so it is most appropriate for him to come forward. And as long as you agree, I will
Immediately hand over the Xishan Coal Kiln to the Ministry of Household Affairs, your choice!"