In the fifth year of Longqing's reign, on May 22nd, Anda's tribute payment was a complete success. The border officials reported back to the court, saying that Anda had sworn an alliance on April 13th in front of the leaders of the right-wing Mongolian tribes and hundreds of thousands of tribesmen.
So the Great Ming Dynasty took the crown prince's imperial edict and made Anda the king of Shunyi. He changed the name of the city where he lived to Guihua. Kun Duli, Xin Ai, etc. were all awarded officials. He was named General Han Ji Zhaoyong and commanded the envoys as before.
I led all the ministries to receive the imperial edict very respectfully. I sent envoys to pay tribute and took charge of all the rest of Zhao Dynasty to present to the Ming Dynasty. The emperor commended him for his sincerity and gave him gold coins. He also praised the ancients and discussed with the court officials. He also gave the king's seal, food, and rewards.
, but the tribute envoy refused to enter the capital.
Ji Neng of Hetao also requested orders as promised. Since the matter was in Shaanxi, the cabinet ordered Governor Wang Zhigao to discuss the matter. Wang Zhigao hoped to issue an edict to Ji Neng, requiring him to refrain from violating the border for one or two years before he could pay tribute.
Chonggu Fushu said: "I answer that Ji Neng is an uncle and nephew, and the first and last are corresponding. Now I accept his uncle and indulge his nephew, hold his head and stretch his arms. I answer that I will call Ji Neng's people to the market in Hedong to announce
, it’s big; the traders can’t give it, and Ji Neng can trouble me and disturb Shaanxi, so the worries of the four towns will be huge.”
Long Qing thought it was reasonable. If he could be granted the title of Anda, he could be granted the title of Ji Neng. Anyway, if a sheep is driven, a group of sheep are also driven. So he also granted Ji Neng the title of Governor Tongzhi.
After that, Wang Chonggu summoned merchants and listened to orders to trade. Cloth, millet, and leather came from far away from the Jianghuai River and Huguang to the fortress. He collected taxes from them as rewards. His ministers, big and small, were given gold silk ribbons by their officials, and there were a number of horses every year.
. Respecting the ancient times, I still went to the fort to proclaim the mighty virtues. All the tribes paid tribute, and no one dared to make a fuss.
Since then, the border has been peaceful, starting from Yan and Yong in the east and reaching the seven towns of Jiayu in the west. The army and the people are working happily for thousands of miles without the need for military reforms, and seven out of ten expenses are saved every year. The emperor issued an edict, and Wang Chonggu joined the crown prince Taibao.
Now that the tribute matter has been settled, the emperor is ready to reward all the ministers. From the central government to the three towns of Xuanda, almost everyone who previously agreed to the tribute will have a share.
But at this moment, Li Chunfang, the chief assistant of the cabinet, went to the hospital again and begged for leave. Longqing immediately sent an imperial doctor to visit him. After diagnosis and treatment, the imperial doctor reported back to the emperor and said: "Yuanfu's Qi is depressed and his heart is knotted. He has an unsteady cough and shortness of breath. He really needs to be calmed down."
keep."
In fact, as early as February this year, Li Chunfang went to the hospital to "beg for rest", but the emperor did not agree and sent the imperial medical officer to examine her.
In April, Wang Zhen and others from the Nanjing Official Affairs Department commented on Li Chunfang's case: "I begged to leave because of my close relationship with him, and we will stop sparing him as soon as possible. He was promoted to an official position for his younger brother because of fate, and he was taking advantage of his kindness. He also said that his father was not good at home, and Chunfang could not refuse to take responsibility."
"
After seeing this, the emperor became furious and reprimanded: "Zhen and others have spoken recklessly and slandered their ministers. They have lost the state and are guilty of this." Li Chunfang immediately went to court to plead for leave. This was the second time he begged for leave.
Judging from what Wang Zhen said, "Ask to leave with relatives, and stop sparing again", it means that in March of the third year, Chunfang asked to leave with Ershu. At this time, Gao Gong had not returned to the cabinet. That time was actually forced by Zhang Juzheng's words.
Yes, it was later that Li Chunfang secretly made efforts to let Zhao Zhenji enter the cabinet to challenge Zhang Juzheng. However, Zhang Juzheng was not a good person, and soon brought Gao Gongqi back, causing Li Chunfang and Zhao Zhenji to lose in the end.
In fact, the reason why Li Chunfang asked to leave was indeed forced by the situation. Firstly, it was because Zhao Zhenji committed suicide and Li Chunfang lost his ally. Secondly, although Gao Gong returned to power only for more than a year, he gained Li Chunfang.
A major achievement that cannot be compared in a few years.
According to historical records: "The high-ranking officer decided to combine Dinggong City and seven towns into one, saving more than one million yuan in border expenses every year. Zhao An Guoheng came out to deal with it, and all the barbarians in Guangdong and Guangxi were pacified. He managed the strategy for a while and was generous and direct, and all of them were successful.
.However, the prosperity was overwhelming, so he resigned from his position and took the top position."
In other words, Li Chunfang, who had lost all his allies, compared his and Gao Gong's political achievements and found that he could no longer shamelessly continue to be the chief assistant, so he had to resign. Therefore, this time he not only spoke sincerely, but also really put himself in the position.
Feeling depressed and sick.
In this way, it would be easier for Longqing to handle it. Of course, Emperor Longqing still acted like he had no choice but to issue an edict on May 24th to agree to Li Chunfang's resignation, and temporarily
Zhu Guo was added to Li Chunfang - this is unprecedented in history.
On May 25th, Li Chunfang left Beijing and returned to Xinghua. Gao Gong led a large number of officials from the cabinet and various ministries to send Li Chunfang back home.
On May 26th, Emperor Longqing officially issued an edict to reward all ministers:
Gaogongjiazhuguo, Shaoshi of Jin Dynasty, Bachelor of Zhongji Palace;
Zhang Juzheng is still a young master, concurrently the crown prince of the Jin Dynasty and the grand master of the Jin Dynasty, and a bachelor of Jianji Palace;
Yinshi Danjin Shaobao, bachelor of Wuyingdian;
…
As for Gao Pragmatic, he is an exception. He has received the reward several days in advance, so this time there will be nothing wrong with him.
Therefore, he was taking advantage of the free time when everyone in the court was busy receiving rewards to deal with his own affairs.
For example, he met with Gao Guoyan, Gao Xiaozhuang, Gao Mo, Cao Gan, Wei Ximin and others who had come to the capital in advance and had been waiting to report to him on the progress of their work in the past six months.
However, these business matters are very complicated, so there is no need to elaborate on them one by one. In short, Gao Pragmatic first understood the situation in the past six months, and based on these situations and combined with the plans that had been made before, he re-determined new plans for them.
Task.
Gao Guoyan didn't need to say anything more. He continued to do a good job in financial supervision, and by the way, he began to experiment with the "financial budget" method that Gao Pragmatic had mentioned to him.
After Gao Xiaozhuang was transferred to Kaiping, he has basically laid a good foundation in the past six months and started to make small-scale steel and iron. However, due to the lack of private ordnance affairs, there is no place to sell fine steel products even if they are manufactured, so for the time being, he still uses
Mainly smelting iron.
Gao Pragmatic gave him the task of prefabricating gun barrels in advance. As for the iron smelting products, they can be mainly used as agricultural tools first, so that the sales problem is easy to deal with - the number of farm tools that the Guangwei Station soldiers have to replace every year is an astronomical number, not to mention there are also
Civilian? Gao Pragmatic asked Gao Xiaozhuang to be responsible for the expansion of private business. As for the health center, he would wait until he communicated with the nobles.
Gao Mo is mainly in charge of the armed servants. According to Gao Pragmatic's plan, the cavalry and foot soldiers are now divided into several parts to avoid too many people gathering together. Now all Gao Pragmatic's cavalry are together.
It has exceeded two thousand, which is supposed to be a huge burden. Fortunately, these cavalrymen themselves also create profits - Cao Gan's Beijing caravan mainly relies on cavalry escorts when traveling.
Not only that, Gao Mo has even reached an agreement with some big merchants in the north in accordance with Gao Jingshi's instructions before leaving Beijing. When they need to transfer a large amount of materials, especially valuable materials, they can ask the cavalry of the Beijing Caravan to do so.
Guard. As for the price... it's not cheap, but fortunately, the Gao family's cavalrymen are famous and are rampant on the grasslands, so these big businessmen are also willing to spend the money. In this way, the cavalrymen are now not only
Instead of becoming a burden, there is still a surplus.
But the Bu Ding aspect was different. Gao Mo told Gao Pragmatic quite worriedly that at present, the Bu Ding under Gao Yude's command, except for the most elite about two thousand people, were sometimes hired by big businessmen as escorts to travel with caravans.
, the remaining five or six thousand people are in a state of "only losing money but not making money". At present, these people may spend 210,000 taels of silver a year!
Gao Pragmatic was also stunned and asked: "Why are there so many people?"
