The next day, before dawn, Zhang Yan sent a palace maid to invite Zhu Cixiang to court, but she was naturally driven back.
The habit he developed in his previous life was that Zhu Cihong would never get up without sleeping until midnight. Even if he woke up, he would have to stay in bed and check his mobile phone. Although he no longer has his mobile phone, the habit cannot be changed.
Zhang Yan had no choice but to go to court by herself, but all the civil servants were very surprised and disappointed when they saw that His Majesty did not come to court.
After all, the entire Jiangnan scholar community was waiting for them to find out about the emperor's attitude. The emperor didn't show up on the first day, so how could anyone else find out?
"Your Majesty has been tired from traveling all the way and is not in good health. Today's court meeting will still be hosted by the Ai family."
Zhang Yan had no choice but to explain, but no one had any doubts about it.
"On the matter of the salt industry, Your Majesty has read all the memorials submitted by your dear ministers and from various places, and has determined the general strategy for the reform of the salt policy. From now on, there is no need for your ministers to submit any further memorials regarding the salt industry."
Zhang Yan said directly, and then gave them a general explanation of the new salt policy that would be implemented.
After listening to this, everyone's expressions were slightly moved. They didn't know that His Majesty already had a plan in mind. Not to mention adopting their suggestions on the salt industry, I'm afraid it would be better if they could just read the memorials.
The salt industry has been the fattest piece of meat in all dynasties. After those salt merchants were eradicated, almost all the rich people in Jiangnan were eyeing this piece of business and wanted to take over.
Now, His Majesty once again swallowed it in one gulp without even leaving any soup. It was really shameless and hateful.
However, His Majesty's attitude towards the large gentry in the south of the Yangtze River is unclear, and no official in the court dared to stand up and raise objections at this moment.
Everyone did not believe that His Majesty came to Jiangnan in person just to rectify the salt industry, but after the Empress Dowager talked about the salt industry, there was nothing more to say, so they all made insinuations to get more information.
However, Zhang Yan is not stupid. The salt industry has been actually controlled by the imperial court. Xun'er already has a detailed implementation plan in mind and will announce it in the court so that various places can be prepared.
But in other respects, Xun'er himself hadn't figured out how to implement it yet, so naturally he wouldn't reveal it now and just announced the disbandment of the dynasty in a perfunctory manner.
Back in the palace, it was already past time and Zhu Cixiang finally got up and was having dinner with Princess Kunxing.
"Mother, you haven't had breakfast yet, sit down quickly..."
Seeing Zhang Yan coming back, Zhu Cixiang greeted her quickly.
Princess Kunxing even put down her bowls and chopsticks, stood up and went to greet her, helped her sit down, and then started busying again.
As for the serving maids and eunuchs, there were none. Firstly, Zhu Cihong was not used to being served while eating, and secondly, he was worried that the palace maids and eunuchs would secretly take the opportunity to poison him.
"娖儿, is there any discomfort in your body?" Zhang Yan looked at Princess Kunxing and said softly.
"Thank you for your concern, Madam Huang. Nao'er is fine now. Today I plan to find a bank location and recruit people. We will try to open three branches in Nanjing within half a month. Within half a year, we will open branches all over South Zhili. Within a year, we will open three branches in Nanjing.
Open all over the southern provinces."
Princess Kunxing clenched her little fists, as if she wished she could go to work immediately without even eating.
"You, my mother-in-law don't know what to say about you, your royal brother is really..."
Zhang Yan was dumbfounded by her appearance and could only glare at Zhu Cixiang.
"Royal sister, there is no need to be in such a hurry. You have finally come to Jiangnan. I will ask Xu Lan to accompany you and my aunt to walk around."
Zhu Cixi also waved his hands and smiled.
"Brother Imperial, aren't you going?"
After all, Princess Kunxing was only fifteen years old. When she heard that she could go for a walk and look around, her eyes suddenly lit up, and then she looked at Zhu Cihong again.
Zhang Yan also looked over, obviously a little moved, and wanted Zhu Cixiang to accompany her.
After all, she had been in Jiangnan for more than a year, and she had never left the palace. During this period, she wanted to go around and look around, but in the end she endured it. Now that Xun'er had spoken, she no longer had any worries.
"I'm afraid I don't have time to go shopping with my uncle and the emperor's sister for the time being. You should go and have a look around Nanjing City by yourself first. After I finish handling the matter, I will go shopping with you."
Seeing both of them looking forward to it, Zhu Cixi had no choice but to say helplessly.
It has been nearly two years since he traveled back in time and he has been staying in the capital. He also wants to see the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan in ancient times.
Especially the West Lake in Hangzhou. Unfortunately, he had too many things to do and had no time to visit the mountains and rivers.
"Then I don't want to go either. If I stay in the palace, I might be able to help Xun'er a little. Let's go on some fun together in the future."
"Well, the emperor doesn't want to go, and I don't want to go either. I'd better open all the banks as soon as possible to help the emperor make more money."
"Okay, then after I finish my busy work for a while, I will accompany you to take a good tour of the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River and get a feel for the people's sentiments."
Zhu Cixiang nodded.
Then the three of them continued to eat breakfast.
After breakfast, Princess Kunxing left, but Zhu Cixiang and Zhang Yan came to the imperial study room again.
Zhang Yan first recounted what happened in the court today, and then said: "Hang'er, there shouldn't be any resistance to this salt administration matter, and it will be easy to handle..."
Having said this, he was also quite worried. After thinking for a while, he said: "Hong'er, why don't you let your mother-in-law preside over the reform? What if something goes wrong..."
"My aunt's kindness is appreciated by my son. He is not the kind of emperor who is irresponsible and will find someone to take the blame when something goes wrong. What's more, this reform can only succeed, not fail, and there is no room for repayment!"
Zhu Cihong waved his hand and understood that she was doing this for his own good. After all, in all the reforms in the past dynasties, the emperor always hid behind the scenes and let ministers preside over it.
If you succeed, you will become a famous minister. If you fail and cause public outrage, you will drag the minister out and kill him to calm the public anger. Even if you succeed in the end, you will have to kill the presiding minister to calm everyone's resentment.
In history, there was only one emperor who personally presided over the reform, and that was Wang Mang. His end was tragic, but Zhu Cixiang did not think that he would become the second Wang Mang.
Because what Wang Mang did was a bit radical in the Ming Dynasty, not to mention in the Han Dynasty when aristocratic families controlled everything.
"Then how do you plan to proceed?"
Zhang Yan looked at him nervously.
Obviously, in her opinion, such a radical reform is simply too difficult to achieve. There are so many things involved that most people have no idea how to start.
"Haier has already thought about implementing the New Deal in Nanzhili. We will start from three aspects. First, while improving the salt policy, we will open royal shops to various states and counties. This way, we will not be afraid of merchants going on strike.
Ensure the basic living needs of the people and avoid causing panic and chaos among the people.
Second, to improve local armaments, I plan to set up 100 households of officials in each county in southern Zhili and station one to 200 troops. Veterans in the army will serve as 100 households of officials. Each Zhili prefecture and prefecture will have 1,000 troops stationed.
Household officials stationed 500 to 1,000 soldiers and horses, and each province had a guard commander with 3 to 5,000 troops stationed. Only with the support of force can the smooth implementation of various new policies be ensured.
Third, send people everywhere to spread the word, so that all the people everywhere understand that the new policy implemented by the imperial court is beneficial to them, so that the gentry can be prevented from inciting the people to resist the new policy.
Once these three aspects are properly arranged and then the new policy is implemented, it will definitely achieve twice the result with half the effort!”
Zhang Yan also nodded repeatedly after hearing this. She didn't expect such a complicated and difficult thing to be done. Xun'er thought of a countermeasure so easily. In this way, the biggest trouble was indeed solved, at least it wouldn't cause any big problems again.
turmoil.
"This garrison is easy to handle. There are still 80,000 troops in the south of the Yangtze River. They are all newly recruited soldiers. Just assign some of them. The manpower to manage the salt industry and the shopkeepers of the imperial store. The children are also brought this time. It will last for a month at most.
It can be arranged properly, but the public opinion aspect is not easy to handle.
First, they must be able to speak eloquently and clearly explain the benefits of the New Deal to the people. Secondly, they must stand firmly on the side of the court. Finally, it is best to have some reputation among the people so that the people can believe what they say."
At the end of his speech, Zhu Cixi also rubbed his forehead.
This kind of propaganda work cannot be done by relying on government officials from various places. I am afraid that traditional literati are also unreliable. If you let ordinary soldiers do it, most of them will not be able to explain it clearly. It is even more nonsense to run a newspaper. If the people can't read a single Chinese character, who can you give your newspaper to?
look?
Zhang Yan's eyes lit up when she heard this, and she tried to say: "Xun'er, this aunt has a suitable candidate, and she can definitely complete the tasks assigned by Xun'er."
"Oh? Who is it? Auntie, this cannot be solved by one or two great scholars. It requires hundreds of thousands of eloquent people to go to various villages and spread the word. You can't have anything to do with those gentry and literati, otherwise
You will definitely have to change your tone when explaining it to the people.”
Zhu Cixiang looked at her in surprise. He was still having a headache, but she actually said there was a way.
"Xun'er didn't know something. A while ago, the gentry and literati from Jiangnan went around ruining Ying'er's reputation, to the point where they could stop her from crying at night. Later, when Ying'er left, she asked Chen Yuanyuan and other brothel girls to help her clarify.
Rumor has it that in the past two months, Chen Yuanyuan has led thousands of brothel girls to deliver cotton cloth and salt to people all over the Yangtze River to publicize Ying'er's good name. The results have been extraordinary. Now the children in the whole Jiangnan almost regard Ying'er as a rescuer.
The female Bodhisattva…”
When Zhang Yan said it at the end, she even blushed a little. She was using things to win over the people and coaxed the children to make them call her a female Bodhisattva. If the red lady didn't blush, she would blush for her.
"Oh, there is such a thing? If it is true, it would be a good idea to let them go to various places to publicize the New Deal to the people. At the worst, let them send some more cotton cloth to the people, and also publicize my benevolence.