After explaining the wool collection to Liu Dachang, Zhu Youjian called Zhou Yanru again. To open a mutual market and forex business, it involved state affairs, which could not bypass the six ministries and the cabinet.
"Grand Master, I have summoned you quite frequently in recent times, please don't be offended."
What is this? Zhou Yanru felt speechless at the emperor's false politeness. As the chief minister, it was strange not to be summoned by the emperor. After being a cabinet minister for so many years, he also found his feelings during this time. Matters in the outer court
, the emperor basically didn’t care about it. Although there was a lot of chaos involved, in general, the emperor’s arrangements were mainly to reduce the burden on the court. He did not ask the court for money, nor did he hold anyone accountable for the corrupt situation.
. He has basically never interfered in personnel affairs. That is, he summons himself, the chief minister of the cabinet, from time to time to do some innocuous things. This is what the real chief minister does. There is little pressure and he can arrange things according to his own ideas as much as possible.
Court affairs. Taking advantage of the good times this year, Comrade Zhou did a lot of personal things and arranged for many of his own people to enter important positions.
Under the current circumstances, he would still be a little panicked if he was not summoned by the emperor from time to time. Meeting the emperor from time to time is called the holy family. After all, the real master of the Ming Dynasty is Emperor Zhu of the Jinluan Palace, not Zhou Shoufu of the cabinet.
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"Old minister, working for Your Majesty is a matter of course. How dare you complain?"
"The Grand Master is still loyal to the country. There are two main reasons for summoning the Grand Master here today. One is that I am going to set up an attendant's room in the dormitory to help me organize all the important things inside and outside the palace. In this way, I
It would be easier to handle things, otherwise there will be a lot of chaos with hammers and sticks here and there. The Attendant’s Room is not considered a formal official office, and it mainly helps me with some secretarial duties. My idea is to recruit a few people from the Hanlin Academy, and from the ceremonial office
I will call a few supervisors, and then select a few from the supervisors to be responsible for specific tasks. Then I will supervise the Yamen, Jinyiwei, Sixth Department, Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Cabinet each to send a staff member to the Attendant's Office, who will be mainly responsible for handling matters that need me to handle.
When the report is reported, the feedback from my side is also sent back, which can be regarded as a task of communicating internally and externally. In addition to sending a staff member, the cabinet needs to arrange for a cabinet minister to be the leader of the attendant's room. He comes here for half a day every day.
It only takes five days to replace the staff. Staff sent by other departments should be rotated once a month to avoid being isolated from China and foreign countries by someone with exclusive authority."
The emperor wants to set up an attendant's room? What kind of organization is this? After listening to it for a long time, Zhou Yanru had no idea. He felt that this organization was a close official of the emperor. Would it divide some of the cabinet's powers? What if?
This is not okay! The cabinet can have such power now, but the achievements achieved by the hard work of generations of civil servants in the Ming Dynasty cannot be emptied by others in their own hands.
"Your Majesty, will the attendants participate in the discussion of politics?"
"The Attendant's Office only helps me take care of some daily general affairs and clerical matters. Except for the commander, it does not assist in military affairs. All personnel have no rank, and their salary is the same as that of a seventh-rank official. If they are sent to other places, they will start from the seventh rank, and they cannot be in the capital.
Those who hold the post of Supervisor of Ceremonies cannot be released outside."
"If that's the case, I think it's okay!"
"Okay, after the grand master returns, he can select eight or nine seventh-grade officials from the Hanlin Academy to serve in the central palace! The total number of personnel in the attendant's room shall not exceed thirty. Let's move on to the next thing. The palace has recently made a new move.
A method of weaving wool, and the wool cloth produced is also suitable. The visitor took out the coat made of wool cloth and showed it to the grand master."
After receiving the order, the young eunuch took out a woolen coat from the back of the palace. This was made by Zhu Youjian based on the appearance of woolen coats for officers in later generations. It was different from the one shown to Liu Dachang.
What Zhou Yanru saw was a dyed finished product. If he brought out a piece of white wool cloth, Zhu Youjian was afraid that this old guy's imagination was limited.
After receiving the woolen coat from the eunuch, Zhou Yanru was a little surprised. Why do you want to show someone a piece of clothing? The shape of this dress is also a bit strange. It is not like the wide robes and big sleeves worn by ordinary scholar-bureaucrats, and the cuffs are very narrow.
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"Your Majesty, this fabric is quite thick. If it is made into a winter coat, it should be good at keeping out the cold."
"This is the winter coat that I plan to let the officers and soldiers of the New Army wear. With such a coat, the officers and soldiers will suffer less when fighting in the cold winter months. When made into winter coats, they are tighter than cotton-padded jackets and are suitable for use in the army. However,
Making large quantities of this kind of clothing requires a large amount of wool. There are too few sheep in the pass, so I thought of opening a foraging field in Miyun so that I could easily collect the wool from the Tartars outside my country."
"Your Majesty wants to reopen the mutual market?"
"I think so too."
"It will indeed be easier to buy wool from the Tatars when the market opens. However, the Northern and Eastern captives are now on the same side. I am afraid that once the market opens, I will be in trouble with the enemy."
"Grand Master! Are you still worried about endangering the enemy? In the past few years, the imperial court has banned border markets, but what effect has it had? A lot of the materials that should flow into the Donglu have also arrived in Shenyang. Don't the important officials in the court know about this? Jin Province
Have any merchants in the country ever missed a trip outside the country because of the ban on the market? Which of the generals at the border has not resold military supplies to the Donglu. The forbidden border is in name only, and it is just for me to show off. The closed border will be closed until the end.
It just gives some profiteers and generals another way to make money, right?"
Facing Zhu Youjian's accusation, Zhou Yanru lowered his head in shame. As the chief minister of the cabinet, he certainly knew the dirty things of Shanxi merchants and border generals. Lao Zhou himself relied on this way of making money and collected a lot of bribes.
Which. However, in the past two years, the profits sent to the capital through this financial route have been significantly reduced. Whether it is Shanxi merchants or border generals, their attitudes towards important ministers in the capital have become more and more arrogant.
"Now that the interrogation field is open, there will be too many bandits coming and going, which will easily make the border uneasy. Please think twice, Your Majesty."
"The unrest at the border is a matter of the imperial generals and has nothing to do with the opening of the foraging market. If the imperial generals are strong, the Tatars will not have the courage to cause trouble in the forging market. If the military generals are powerless and the foraging market cannot be opened, the Eastern captives will also enter."
After the opening of the Guan Miyun Trial Field, I will let the newly built brigades of Yongwei Battalion go over to test their swords, and let the Tatars who come to cause trouble sharpen the swords of my Ming soldiers, which will also be used in the subsequent battle against the Tatars.
"Now that your Majesty has made up his mind, I will go back and draw up the votes with the cabinet ministers." The emperor said this, so let him deal with it. It doesn't matter if he opens a consultation forum, at least it can be used by Shanxi merchants.
The general will give them some eye drops to let them know that it is not that easy to bypass the courtiers and do business. Wait until they come to their senses and send Xiaojing to the capital.
"After the Miyun Foraging Market was opened, some people were transferred from Tianjin Customs. A customs was also set up at the Forging Market. Exported goods were subject to a 10% tariff. In addition to wool and fur, imported goods were levied on all other goods including gold and silver.
10% tax. Except for gold and silver, heavy goods such as wool and furs are exempt from tax."