In the main study room of the Rixin Building in Shangshu Gaofu, Liu Xin took a look at Gao Pingshi, who had just come in, and said half inquiringly and half teasingly: "Your Majesty, you seem to be under a lot of work pressure, why do you look like this?
Are you going back home seriously and with a deep frown on your face?"
Gao pragmatic didn't reply immediately. He walked to his desk, picked up a cup of cold tea that the maids had been brewing for a long time as usual, and drank it down in one gulp. Then he sat down on the Taishi chair, leaned back, and put his head
Leaning on the pillow, he sighed.
"Zhuozhou was plagued by an insect infestation, and almost no crops were harvested from the fields. Although the fight was relatively timely due to its proximity to the capital, dozens of villagers left their homes and came to the capital in droves to beg."
"Oh, what happens next?" Liu Xin raised her eyebrows slightly: "Someone stopped them from entering the city?"
"That's not true. Although it is true that according to regulations, large numbers of refugees cannot be allowed to enter the capital at will, my third uncle had such a thing happen at that time. He approved the release of refugees into the city, so later this rule almost became
changed."
Gao pragmatic sighed and said: "But this is not a matter of my household department. When the refugees enter the city, the ones who are nervous are the Jinyi Guards and the Jingjun (eunuch soldiers) in the imperial city, and the Han generals and other garrison troops in the capital camp."
"Then why are you looking so sad?" Liu Xin was a little confused: "Did something go wrong and they came to you for help?"
"No, there are more palace guards and purge troops than refugees. The trouble lies in the fact that the Ministry of Works used to handle the resettlement of these refugees, including relief and porridge.
But unexpectedly, none of the eight porridge factories in Beijing under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry were offering porridge this time. A dark crowd of beggars were sitting in front of the porridge factories, including men and women, old and young, all skinny and skinny.
I haven’t had a bite of food for three days, and I will soon be starving in the streets.”
Liu Xin finally frowned this time and said dissatisfiedly: "Although Shi Xing, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, has taken over Yang Zhao not too long ago, can he not be unable to handle even this small matter?"
"It's not that he can't do it. I think he probably did it on purpose to cause me a little trouble." Gao Pragmatic snorted softly: "You must want to ask for the reason. The reason is very simple: the Ministry of Industry now only has money within the budget.
It was allocated in advance by the Ministry of Household Affairs. For this kind of extra-budgetary relief, he can deny that the responsibility lies with him and blame it on me - because now all the money and power in the world are in my hands, and if I don't take out the money, he can
Said he couldn't do anything."
"Then you can just take the money?" Liu Xin spread his hands and asked: "You can tell last time that Shi Xing is not a student of yours. It is almost reasonable for him to cause trouble for you, but like this
For this kind of thing, wouldn’t it be better if your Ministry of Accounts directly paid you?”
"That's right, just give the money." Gao Pragmatic nodded, but said: "But you have to know that any unit... I mean the yamen, there are procedures for handling things, and direct matters like the household department
This is especially true for the yamen that deal with money. The Ministry of Accounts did not say that money would not be given, but even if it is normal, the process is not that simple.
First of all, how much money should be given, at least have an estimate, right? You need to estimate, at least you need to know the number of refugees entering the city, right? Then, how long will these refugees need to stay in the city?
Estimate?
But how to predict this? If they remain indifferent as before, no one can predict how long they will stay. But because the court had previously divided the disaster relief into two parts at my suggestion, one was relief and the other was disaster relief.
Placement, so that there is a direction that can be basically estimated.
This direction is that the Ministry of Household Affairs is responsible for providing financial relief, and the Ministry of Works is responsible for resettlement. Let’s not talk about the Ministry of Household Affairs for the moment, let’s talk about the resettlement of the Ministry of Works: they first need to build temporary shanties for the refugees near the soup kitchen.
Then we need to find ways to carry out 'relief for work' as soon as possible, that is, arrange temporary work.
This work-for-relief program also needs to be considered according to gender, age and even type of work. It is definitely best for strong men, but the resettlement of women is more troublesome. It is okay to centrally arrange them to work as nuns, starch clothes, etc., but other things are also different.
Troublesome, and usually you can only contact the palace to see if the palace needs it...
As for the elderly and the weak, it is more complicated. The elderly depend on their age and their physical condition. Even if they are not very old, they do not look weak. However, considering our tradition of respecting the elderly, we can only give them
Arrange the easiest jobs. These jobs are difficult to find even among the many projects controlled by the Ministry of Works. Most of them can only be arranged in warehouses, night vigils at construction sites, and the like.
And children are not easy to deal with. Although there are almost no strict laws against child labor in the Ming Dynasty, what can you do with children? Most of them can only be raised. Some half-grown children are more troublesome to place, and they are particularly good at eating.
There’s not much you can do to eat..."
Liu Xin suddenly interjected: "That's not necessarily true. When my brother was thirteen years old, he had already served as a vanguard to break through the barbarian stronghold, killing the generals and seizing the flag."
"Uh..." Gao Pingshi couldn't help but choked, and coughed slightly: "Jiangmen Huzi, this situation is quite different. Although the world is big, how many Liu Wei are there?"
"That's not necessarily true. Ma Gui seems to have joined the army at the age of thirteen and went to the battlefield that year. There are also Ma Jiajun, Ma Jiajun's children... In short, there are many of your direct descendants from Xuanda. Are they?
They are all as powerful as my brother. I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, so I can’t say much, but at least when they were ‘half grown ups’, I’m afraid most of them have already seen blood.”
Gao Pingshi smiled bitterly and said: "I have already said that being a general is a different matter. When it comes to elite soldiers in the world, the Boy Scouts have always been one of them, because these half-grown boys don't even know what it means to be afraid of death. The bravery in them is
, many elite soldiers who have fought hundreds of battles are incomparable, but the resettlement of refugees cannot be considered based on this..."
"Okay, okay, I just said it casually, you continue."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! However, Gao Pragmatic forgot what he had just said, hesitated for a moment, and simply shook his head and said: "In short, clarifying these situations is equivalent to doing a refugee census first.
After the census, we still need to discuss arrangements, and finally the Ministry of Household Affairs can allocate funds based on these conditions - do you think this will take time?"
"It takes time, but the refugees cannot wait hungry while you go through the process. Shouldn't we solve the food problem for them first?"
"Yes, that's true, but originally the Ministry of Works should have advanced the payment first. After the Ministry of Household Affairs got the estimate, they would allocate money, and then they would make up for the advanced money back to the Ministry. But now Shi Xing is forcing it
They put off doing it and insisted that the Ministry of Works had no balance, saying that as long as the Ministry of Accounts did not pay for it for a day, the Ministry of Works would not be able to do anything about it."
"Shi Xing deserves to die!" Liu Xin raised her eyebrows: "I can understand the party struggle, but using so many lives as a bargaining chip for his party struggle, is this kind of person worthy of being an official?"
Gao Pragmatic was still calm, and he spread his hands and said: "There is no shortage of people like this in all dynasties. What can we do?"
Liu Xin was so angry that she slammed the table and said bitterly: "I really wish I could kill him with one knife." But of course she knew that this was impossible, so she had to sigh again and said with some annoyance: "Now I really feel that I am still in southern Xinjiang.
When I was leading the troops, I felt more comfortable. I could clearly distinguish myself from the enemy. As long as I won the battle, I could do whatever I wanted. It wouldn't be like this...
I always feel like staying in the capital now is like being stuck in a big muddy pond, feeling so dirty and uncomfortable but unable to escape. Speaking of which, I really don’t understand how you can still be content in such an environment."
Gao Pragmatic chuckled: "Perhaps I feel that if I can transform a rotten mud pond into a magnificent palace, it would be a very fulfilling thing."
"Oh, you are really an idealist." Liu Xin curled her lips and was too lazy to say any more, but turned the conversation back: "Then what are you going to do now?"
"You gain wisdom from every experience, and take this as an opportunity to establish a... No, we can't set up more institutions. It should be said that we will make an additional temporary budget in the future as a backup. There is no need to worry about the name. Anyway, the purpose is
A disaster response budget for these sudden social events, especially those near Gyeonggi.”
After a pause, Gao Pragmatic continued: "As for the present, I have specially approved a sum of money today for temporary disposal. This money will wait until the Ministry of Industry's estimated expenditure schedule comes up and the Ministry of Household allocates funds.
Deduct today’s portion.”
Liu Xin thought about it and suddenly became surprised and asked: "Your method is appropriate, but it is not difficult. Could it be that Shi Xing couldn't guess that you would do this? I don't think he is so stupid. What about the problem?"
Here it comes: Since you can just approve a statement and it can be solved, what is the purpose of him coming to offend you this time?"
"What's the purpose? You actually said it just now, just to offend me." Gao Pragmatic spread his hands: "If you don't offend me a few times, how can the Xin School regard him as one of their own? Don't forget, he
His native place is Dongming County, and he is from Beizhili (but this place later belonged to Shandong), not from Jiangnan - not even from Nambang."
Liu Xin suddenly realized it and let out a long "Oh", then thought about it and said: "I understand, Shi Xing really has some brains. He used this matter to confront you, the Xinxue School
He will definitely feel that he can no longer look back, and as for you, he is actually not that angry - after all, it is just a 'little trouble' to deal with. In this way, he is a good boy in the heart school, but with you
Bian is not too harsh to offend...Humph, they are indeed politicians."
Gao pragmatically waved his hand, as if he was too lazy to continue the topic. Instead, he gently closed his eyes and leaned his head back, looking as if he was about to fall asleep.
However, Liu Xin knew that he would never go to bed so early. In her eyes, Gao Pragmatism was similar to Gao Gong back then. He was also a bit of a workaholic and would hardly sleep until midnight. However, the time to "go to work" in the morning of the Ming Dynasty was much earlier.
Unfortunately, at the time he was accustomed to getting up, it was still dark, so he developed some unique habits, such as closing his eyes and meditating when he had some free time.
But Liu Xin didn't seem to want to let him rest for a while today. She coughed lightly and said, "I think you have heard too much bad news. How about I give you some good news?"
Sure enough, Gao Pangshi opened his eyes slightly and asked: "What's the good news?" But before Liu Xin could answer, he continued: "Wait a minute, let me guess first - did the expedition fleet take Manila?"
"Oh, Gao Situ's calculation is really clever. Manila has indeed been obtained." Liu Xin said with a smile, but then blinked and said, "But Gao Situ still made a slight miscalculation."
This sentence aroused Gao Pragmatic's interest, and there was some concern on his face. He asked: "What's wrong in the calculation? Our army has suffered heavy losses?" But he himself didn't seem to believe it, and frowned: "
It shouldn't be... We have an absolute advantage in naval battles. Even if the Spaniards engage in a boarding battle, most of our ships have marine divisions on board, so there is no reason for heavy losses.
Could it be that the losses in the land battle were heavy? But that shouldn't be the case. The Spaniards only had 2,000 soldiers and almost no cavalry. Could Gao Yimin still make serious command errors in this situation? In other words, what we did before
The assessment of the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army is seriously distorted. Are they really particularly capable of fighting?"
"None of them." Liu Xin raised an eyebrow: "The fact is that the naval battle was completely won, while the land battle was just a show of force, and the Philippine Governor-General sued for peace obediently."
Gao Pragmatic said in astonishment: "Uh... is the news true?"
When Liu Xin saw this, she couldn't help but chuckle, stretched out her green and jade fingers, and tapped Gao Jingjing in the distance: "I thought you really calculated to 99% before every battle, so that you were completely sure.
You're going to start a war. I didn't expect you to be as confident as I thought you were."
Gao pragmatic glared at her: "What's the same thing? Fighting with the Mongols, fighting with the Jurchens, or even fighting with the Japanese in the future, all have historical results as a reference. Under my influence, the Ming Dynasty
How much the army has improved, and by comparing it with the historical records, I can roughly figure out the opponent's combat effectiveness.
But how do you want me to compare the Spaniards? If we compare history, their opponents are either European armies or backward American tribes or tribal empires, and these opponents have no records of fighting the Ming Dynasty, so of course I can only
Relying on estimates alone. How accurate is this estimate? Who could guarantee it before the war?"
"You can rest assured now - well, at least you can rest assured." Liu Xin said seriously.
"What's the explanation for this?" Gao pragmatically asked.
Liu Xin found a stack of manuscripts from the side, handed it to Gao Pangshi, and said: "Here is the battle report. You should read it yourself faster."
Gao pragmatic immediately took it, read it, nodded after a while, and put down the battle report: "The naval battle was indeed a great victory, but although the main battle was fought by warships, it was the crushing method that forced the opponent's large treasure fleet to surrender.
The advantage of force...oh, the advantage of fleet size."
"So what?" Liu Xin raised her chin slightly and said: "In warship battles, we can obviously say that we have an advantage. As for the scale advantage... I think we can maintain this advantage even in the Indian Ocean.
What's more, it's in the South China Sea. In other words, as long as you don't think about an expedition to the Spanish mainland, this scale advantage will always be on our side."
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