The Prosperous Era of Longwan

After Wei Guangde finished writing the memorial, he rested for a while and thought about it again. Then he picked up the memorial and read it carefully. He felt that there was nothing that needed to be revised, so he got up and went to Li Chunfang to check in.

The cabinet is divided into the chief assistant, the second assistant and the assistant ministers. If something happens, it is natural to consult the chief assistant. If the first assistant is on vacation or is away, he can only go to the second assistant.

Although the current Ming Dynasty cabinet is somewhat special, it still needs to do enough on the surface.

Chinese culture has a long history, and Confucianism has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts, among which "ritual" is the most important.

Etiquette also includes respect for elders and younger ones. Therefore, when Wei Guangde and Yin Shizhen encountered problems, they could not skip Li Chunfang and directly discuss the matter with Chen Yiqin. They could only work together in cabinet discussions.

"Is Mr. Chief Assistant in the room?"

Wei Guangde took the written memorial to Li Chunfang's room and asked loudly to the clerk at the door.

"Here, the younger one, go in and report."

The scribe replied immediately.

"good."

Wei Guangde nodded and said.

Their conversation was quite loud. Of course Li Chunfang inside heard it. She had put down the memorial in her hand and looked up at the door.

After the scribe came in to report, he naturally invited Wei Guangde in.

"Master Chief Assistant."

After Wei Guangde entered the door, he saluted Li Chunfang, and then handed the memorial to Li Chunfang with both hands and said: "I went to the Beijing Camp yesterday to take a look, and thought of the practice of reviewing the Beijing Camp, it seems that I can take advantage of His Majesty's review this year to revise it. Please also ask Sir, please correct me."

"Oh, let me see."

Li Chunfang was still wondering why Wei Guangde came to see her. When she heard this, she reached out to take the memorial, opened it and looked down at it.

After looking at it, Li Chunfang began to nod, "Well, yes, this is a very good proposal."

Wei Guangde's memorial made it clear that through the selection of elites, the Beijing camp has formed several new battalions that are somewhat decent.

Such a well-trained force is hard-won, and we hope to retain it. A grand review will be held every three years to build momentum and preserve the seeds of the Beijing camp.

Although the civil servant group has been suppressing military generals, they also know that there is a limit, otherwise they will repeat the story of the country's collapse in the Song Dynasty.

The Beijing camp still needs a capable army so that those who serve as officials in the capital can feel safe.

"Shandai, your memorial is well written. I completely agree with you. That's it."

Li Chunfang seemed to be thinking more. In fact, they all knew that no one had thought of drastic changes in the capital in recent years. Especially after the Gengxu Revolution, they had tried several times to reach out again.

However, apart from getting a military position, the civil service group's foundation in the Beijing camp was too shallow to shake the influence of Xungui in the Beijing camp.

Moreover, Jingying is the last territory of the Xungui Group. Whenever civil servants want to reach out, they will inevitably encounter the counterattack of the Xungui Group. Anyone who proposes this proposal will soon be impeached.

Although the ordinary nobles had long lost face in front of the emperor, there were still top-level nobles, and they tried every means to criticize the civil servants who came forward in front of Emperor Jiajing.

In addition, Yan Song, the favored chief assistant, did not want to break up with Xungui, so in the end he continued like this.

Although Wei Guangde's operation this time did not increase the influence of civilian officials on the Beijing camp, it actually improved the combat effectiveness of the Beijing camp, which seems to be a good thing.

But he was still worried about how the nobles would react?

After looking at Wei Guangde, Li Chunfang still asked: "There is a grand review every three years, but I don't know if Duke Cheng and others will support it?"

Wei Guangde was still wondering why Li Chunfang had such an attitude. Only when he heard him mention Cheng Guogong did he understand his concerns.

Although Wei Guangde did not discuss this matter with other noble groups, he knew that if he really talked to them about this matter, there would definitely be countless reasons to decline.

Just kidding, in more than half a year, it has already affected the pockets of some distinguished nobles.

According to Wei Guangde's approach, the income will remain at the current level in the future. The top nobles will have nothing to do with it, but the middle and lower class nobles will have some impact on their lives.

Therefore, Wei Guangde did not discuss it with Zhu Xizhong and the others at all. Anyway, they would know after the memorial was submitted.

Even if you tell them in advance and discuss with them, they will not accept it, they will definitely object, and they will start preparations early.

It's hard to say that before Wei Guangde's memorial was delivered, people had already gone to the palace to cry to Emperor Longqing.

Emperor Longqing's ears were soft, and a group of noble nobles cried and complained, which might directly mess up the matter.

Of course, when they went to the emperor, they would definitely not say that the money they received from the military pay in the Beijing camp was less, but for other reasons. The civil servants must have disobedient intentions and want to interfere with the Beijing camp, etc.

Regarding Li Chunfang's question, Wei Guangde thought for a while and then said: "Master Chief Assistant, I did not discuss this matter with Duke Cheng Guo and others.

This incident told them that they would only try their best to stop it. It would be better to leave it to the emperor directly and see what His Majesty decides. "

"In that case, if they know the news, they will go to the palace to complain and cry, which may even affect the subsequent parade.

Shandai, I think you should suppress this memorandum for the time being, and then submit it after the big reading. "

When Li Chunfang heard about this matter, she didn't discuss it with Xungui, so she knew that this memorial could easily cause an uproar if submitted, so she kindly reminded her.

Wei Guangde just smiled when he heard this, "This is a double-edged sword. Mentioning it now may, as the Chief Assistant said, affect the Dayue, but it may also be the opposite. They are worried about the Dayue in the future and do not dare to blatantly Come out and do mischief.

As long as it is established as a routine, it will be more difficult for them to do evil in the future, and it will be even more difficult to change it.

As for the dissatisfaction of those nobles, I will contact them privately to see their conditions.

In my opinion, there is nothing in this world that cannot be negotiated, it is nothing more than the price and what they want.

As long as the Beijing camp is divided into the new camp and the old camp according to the memorial, the old camp can place people at will, and the new camp must choose generals who are good at recruiting and fighting.

For them, what they lost was actually the yellow and white stuff, and they could just make up for it elsewhere. "

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, he looked at Li Chunfang.

"Do you have an idea?"

Li Chunfang asked tentatively. He wanted to know what benefits Wei Guangde planned to give Xungui so that they could take back their hands on making money in the capital camp.

"I remember that several salt farms had reported the disposal of surplus salt before, and the matter has been dragged on. It would be nice to just divide the salt and give them more compensation."

The Ming court actually had a lot of money that could be liquidated, but many of them were divided up by the officials below.

Most people in the cabinet have no grassroots work experience, so they can easily be deceived by people below.

Regarding the salt business, although the cabinet ministers knew that it was very profitable, they only had a rough idea, not details, nor did they know how wealthy the big salt merchants in Jiangnan were at this time.

Especially since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the salt tax has been very stable, about 1.25 million taels, so it gives the impression that although the profits are large, they are nothing more than that.

The salt fields of the Ming Dynasty were produced every year according to the number of households in the country given by the Ministry of Revenue. Therefore, the country's population of 60 million in the early Ming Dynasty was still roughly the same number by the end of the Ming Dynasty.

But in fact, the population of the Ming Dynasty had already doubled by this time, but the court did not know it because the statistics were inaccurate.

But as the lowest-level officials, although they don't know these data, they can roughly calculate it based on the salt sold.

The imperial court produces according to a population of 60 million, so the salt distributed by the imperial court cannot meet the needs.

The salt farm tried every means to increase the supply, but there was only so much salt, so every year the Salt Administration had to discuss the matter with the Ministry of Household Affairs and come up with reasons to dispose of the remaining salt, or sell the salt for profit.

In the early and mid-Ming Dynasty, salt was not an ordinary commodity and could not be purchased in private stores.

Regardless of whether you live in a city or a rural area, the local government extracts salt from the Salt Transportation Department and distributes it to the head of the village and the head of the village according to the account.

In fact, the salt supply model at that time was similar to a planned supply model.

However, as the population increased and the demand for salt increased, salt merchants found an opportunity to take advantage of it, so "local merchants" emerged.

When Yan Maoqing mentioned the rules for transporting salt, he said: "It should be divided into three categories: upper, middle and lower according to the distance of the land and the number of household registrations. The geometry of a certain prefecture and the geometry of a certain county should be assigned to a certain number, so that each merchant can transport salt to his land and have a secretary. Blame the local merchants for reselling."

By this time, the government had gradually withdrawn from the distribution of salt, and only provided the amount of salt required by the number of households and levied taxes, while the salt began to be sold by dental shops and shops.

This effectively concealed the secret of the population explosion and the increase in salt supply, laying the foundation for salt merchants to make huge profits.

Although the downstream problem has been solved, the salt field is still stuck. There is demand but no supply. Especially in the Ming Dynasty, the government has very strict control over salt prices. Salt prices in various places must be reported to the government every year as political achievements. The court needs to know What is the price of salt in various places?

Therefore, salt merchants are very smart in controlling the price of salt in the market, but they sell large quantities of private salt.

However, the Ming Dynasty officials have always cracked down on illegal salt trading. The "Da Ming Code" stipulates: "Anyone who commits illegal salt trading will be punished with a hundred rods and three years in prison." Serious cases may be sentenced to death.

Regarding the sale and purchase of terminals, the "Da Ming Law" also clearly stipulates: "Those who break the salt law, buyers and sellers, each have eighty sticks, the tooth protection is reduced by one level, and the price of salt goods is incorporated into the official."

That is, at the retail stage, both buyers and sellers are penalized.

However, the quantity of private salt is not large after all, and the output of kitchen households is limited. After ensuring the production tasks of the salt farm, there is not much left.

Therefore, increasing supply from official salt farms has become the most important part of meeting market demand.

Whenever the government wants to deal with the surplus salt, it will inevitably attract salt merchants from all over the world to compete for this piece of cake.

To quell the dissatisfaction of the honorable nobles, Wei Guangde thought that it would be enough to throw out salt. The parties whose interests were harmed were actually the household departments in the two capitals and some local salt administration yamen.

Relatively speaking, this part of the money actually did not fall into the hands of the court in the end. It was better to liquidate it here and give it to the nobles, so that they would cause less harm to the military households and slightly increase the combat effectiveness of the Ming army.

Wei Guangde calculated the amount of remaining salt reported by the salt farms in Lianghuai, Liangzhe and Shandong to Li Chunfang, letting him know how much money the salt would bring to the court.

Although he didn't know how much profit the salt citation would bring after the operation behind the scenes, Li Chunfang also knew that it should be able to satisfy Xungui's appetite.

Li Chunfang understood Wei Guangde's thoughts and was silent for a long time before saying: "Although this approach can save the Beijing camp, the officials below will be dissatisfied and cause trouble again." ’

In fact, what Li Chunfang wants to say is that if this wave of benefits is given to the nobles, they will get nothing.

And if they continue to stay with the civil servants, they will also receive a lot of ice and carbon tributes at local festivals.

According to Wei Guangde's approach, this year's income may be affected to some extent.

But when she reached the position of chief assistant, Li Chunfang no longer had any desires or desires.

Since redistributing the benefits of the salt policy may restore a bit of the fighting strength of the Beijing camp, it seems that exchange is not impossible.

Although this proposal was proposed by Wei Guangde, there was still a quarrel between him and the nobles later, and he, the chief minister of the cabinet, represented the civil servant group to fight against the nobles. If he could do this well in his tenure, his name would also be with him. It should be remembered by future generations.

Thinking about his first assistant career in the past two years, he also knows a little about the outside world's evaluation of him.

Saying that he has done nothing important, is this considered a major event that benefits the country and the people?

Li Chunfang reached out with a pen in her hand and thought about voting, but after thinking about it, she thought that since Wei Guangde proposed it, she might as well call several other cabinet ministers and submit it directly in the name of cabinet discussion.

Wei Guangde made suggestions, and the cabinet discussed and approved them. When such a memorial reached the emperor, it had greater influence.

In fact, all they want is the emperor's final decision on selecting the cabinet, rather than being influenced by the noble group.

Get up, call the clerk outside, and ask him to immediately notify other cabinet members to come here to discuss important matters.

Not long after, Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng arrived.

After instructing outsiders to stay away from the check-in room, Li Chunfang told the three of Wei Guangde's plans and showed them Wei Guangde's memorial.

Both Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen put national affairs first, so it would be a good thing to enhance the combat power of the Beijing camp.

As for the remaining salt, in fact, no matter how it is distributed, they will not directly intervene in it. It is really not good to spread the word, so the impact will be limited to them, so naturally they will not object.

Zhang Juzheng, on the other hand, has remained silent because he was deducing the final possible outcome of this matter in his mind. The matter of Bie Yuyan was brought up. In the end, he lost support from Emperor Longqing and allowed the nobles to profit from it.

You must know that Wei Guangde's identity is too special. He has the identity of the civil servant group, the shadow of a military household, and the relationship with the top nobility. Zhang Juzheng is not sure whether Wei Guangde is really what he said, or whether he is a member of the nobility group. People are eyeing the remaining salt from the salt farm.

However, after deducing, it seems that apart from handing over this memorial, the two sides began to quarrel to win the emperor's support. The only possible problem was whether Wei Guangde and Xungui could gain some benefits privately during the private negotiations. .

But these are actually not important. As long as they can really preserve the combat power of the Beijing camp, it will be their greatest contribution to the country.

Like Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin, he did not take the officials below seriously, but thought of the benefits of completing the matter.

If you want to secure your position or want to be promoted, in the end you are not asking for it.

"I don't have any objection either."

After Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen expressed their stance, Zhang Juzheng also expressed his stance. (End of chapter)