The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Capital, Bauhinia City, Cabinet, Chief Assistant Housekeeper.

"The Li Ke asked Shi Yingyue Shangshu to open the vassal ban. He said that the vassal's expenses were increasing day by day, and Lumi could not satisfy it.

The princes and above still receive generous rewards, but many generals and lieutenants cannot survive on their own.

Even those who have been knighted are like this. It is not difficult to know the hardship of those who have not been knighted.

Please relax restrictions on those who are not conferred names and titles, and are allowed to engage in the fields of scholars, agriculture, industry, and commerce.

Among them, those with literary talents were allowed to participate in the imperial examination and become officials, but they were not allowed to serve as officials in the capital or hold military power.

Otherwise, the public will have nothing to provide for, and the private will have nothing to support, which will harm the national system.

Let's discuss how to draft this memorial. "

Zhang Juzheng handed a memorial to Wei Guangde. Wei Guangde reached out to take it, opened it and browsed it quickly.

"I'm afraid the palace won't agree to this."

Wei Guangde was reading Shi Yingyue's memorials when he heard Lu Tiaoyang's voice.

Wei Guangde continued to read the memorial, but he still nodded involuntarily.

Lifting the vassal ban and allowing the clan to engage in the business of the four peoples was actually mentioned by Wei Guangde in the vassal reform regulations, but unfortunately, it was rejected by the palace.

The palace only agreed to verify the Lumi expenditures of each clan government over the years to determine the permanent amount, and the time was the Lumi amount in the years from the fourth year of Longqing to the second year of Wanli. After the amount was obtained, a Lumi amount was determined.

After all, it would be biased to only refer to the number of Lumi in one or two years.

The Lumi here is not determined based on the sum of the number of clan members and the Lumi they deserve, but the amount that the local area can afford, or the actual amount distributed in recent years.

The permanent quota will definitely be slightly higher than the actual amount issued in recent years, but it must also be within the local affordability range.

As for when the new vassal king opened his palace and established the permanent quota, the palace did not say.

After all, Emperor Wanli is young now, and King Zhu Yili of Lu is also young, so it is still too early to leave the vassal state.

"The worries in the palace are actually too much."

After Wei Guangde quickly read Shi Yingyue's memorial, he immediately said, "In fact, even if the palace allows the clan to engage in the four professions and even allows them to take the imperial examination, I dare say that not many clan members will choose to do these.

Those who are interested in doing business have already participated in it through their disciples. Those who are unwilling to do it are left to die. Unless the court cuts off their money, they will be too lazy to do this.

As for letting them take the imperial examination, haha, maybe it would be a blessing if one subject could produce a clan scholar. "

After hearing Wei Guangde's words, Lu Tiaoyang nodded in agreement.

"What Mr. Wei Ge said is exactly what I thought. The clan has actually..."

At this point, Lu Tiaoyang did not continue, but he could not help but shake his head.

"The palace didn't agree last time, probably because of the ancestral system. Now if a minister proposes it again, it might be an opportunity."

Zhang Juzheng said.

"Trying to attract others?"

Wei Guangde asked hesitantly.

Zhang Juzheng nodded and said with a smile: "The memorial drafted by Shandai last time was only seen by you, me and the palace, and has not been circulated to the outside world.

Now that a minister is submitting a memorial, it will inevitably arouse discussion between the court and the central government. It may be an opportunity for everyone to talk more. Maybe there will be more such memorials.

The courtiers all agreed, and the palace naturally hesitated. After all, how could the so-called ancestral system alone calm the turbulent court discussions. "

In fact, the emperor's sacrifice of the ancestral flag really left the ministers speechless, but this had to be detrimental to the emperor's interests.

This memorandum of releasing the four people's business to the clan had little impact on the emperor.

Although today's ministers may not necessarily be of the same mind as the emperor, they will never think that this can weaken the imperial power.

In fact, the clan has been ruined by the royal family's pig-raising policy for so many years. It is almost impossible for a hero like Cheng Zu to emerge.

"Then to add fuel to the fire, we can set up a 'ministerial meeting' in the draft?"

Wei Guangde asked tentatively.

"I think it's okay."

Lu Tiaoyang spoke his mind.

After hearing Wei Guangde's words, Zhang Juzheng nodded slightly and said, "That's it. I suggest that the lower levels discuss this matter and allow more officials to participate in discussing this matter. I hope more people can come forward to support this case."

Having said this, Zhang Juzheng looked at Wei Guangde and said with a smile: "Today is the new Jinshi Jinshi's visit to the temple of the ancestors to perform the ceremony of releasing vegetables. Tomorrow, Your Majesty should issue an order for the middle Jinshi to be introduced to the Ministry of Civil Affairs for conferment. I wonder if there are any arrangements for the loan?"

"There are no arrangements. Everything just follows the court regulations."

Wei Guangde smiled immediately.

Although the candidates in this subject can be regarded as his disciples, so what?

They are no longer Gongsheng students, but Jinshi scholars, disciples of the emperor.

Although the emperor was also his and Zhang Juzheng's disciple.

Imperial Master, just tell me.

In fact, during this period, Zhang Juzheng was very concerned about giving lessons to Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun. Not only did he personally arrange Hanlin lectures, but he also compiled special textbooks based on the age of the young emperor.

Zhang Juzheng took a group of Hanlin officials to teach the little emperor seriously, but he made the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun numb.

After all, the little emperor was still very playful. Especially in the early years when Emperor Longqing was still alive, he was more partial to Zhu Yijun and was reluctant to let him study and attend classes. He was worried that he would be too young to bear it, so he delayed it until he was ten years old. It was only when he was old that he arranged to leave the cabinet.

There is no way, the royal family has relatively high requirements for the prince's education.

For Zhu Yijun, it was really uncomfortable to listen to other teachers' lectures, which meant that Wei Guangde's class was easier.

Tell me what Zhang Juzheng planned to say, and then chat with the little emperor and talk about interesting things about the government.

In addition to the writing assignments assigned to Zhu Yijun in the palace, Wei Guangde rarely assigned other homework. Occasionally, he would take the young emperor out of the palace for a walk on the streets, so as to understand the sentiments of the people.

Wei Guangde also told Zhang Juzheng in advance about this.

In his words, the emperor is aloof, but he cannot do without grains. It is also good for the little emperor to have a proper exposure to the fireworks among the people.

At least let the little emperor know that the skills he has learned are not used to deal with the indifferent words in memorials, but to protect the people of this area.

Where are the people?

Naturally, you can't see it in the palace, so you have to go out and see the pedestrians walking on the street and the farmers working hard in the fields outside the city.

"By the way, last time the Ministry of Revenue allocated money to repair the Datong border wall, I wonder what you two thought about it?"

Last time, Wei Guangde saw that the Ministry of Revenue was allocating 50,000 taels of silver to Datong to repair the border wall this year. After five years, it would allocate more than 260,000 taels of silver, so he suppressed the memorial first.

When I talked to Zhang Juzheng and others that day, everyone had different opinions.

In Zhang Juzheng's view, even if the Datong Peace Agreement has been signed with Anda Khan, it does not mean that the border force can be abolished.

The money for repairing the side wall should be used as it should.

As for Wei Guangde's proposal to allocate the money to Datong, there is no need to repair the border walls. The local government can allocate the money to repair the forts.

The money was used as military expenses to allow Datong to organize a legion of 10,000 people, and to recruit elite Jizhen troops from various guards in Datong to form a legion integrating chariots, horses, and infantry battalions. This was not much better than building the Great Wall.

At the end of the day, I just said that everyone should go back and think about it. The money is in the household department, so the matter will be put on hold for the time being. It won't have much impact for a while.

When Wei Guangde mentioned it today, he naturally wanted to ask if they had thought about it.

Wei Guangde is not willing to continue spending money on the useless Great Wall. After all, it seems to be well-defended, but in fact it costs too much and the real effect is close to nothing.

Of course, Wei Guangde had told them this before, but his personal opinions were different, and it was difficult for Wei Guangde to force them to accept his point of view.

Zhang Juzheng did not speak, but looked at Lu Tiaoyang.

Seeing this scene, Lu Tiaoyang coughed twice, and then said: "Master Cifu proposed that day, I thought about it for several days when I went back, but I still don't agree with what Master Cifu said.

The construction of the side wall has its own reasons, otherwise it would not have been completed at a huge cost.

Although the border wall was repeatedly breached by the Tartars, this does not necessarily mean that it has no merits.

As far as I know, most of the prisoners who broke through the border took advantage of the fact that the border wall was in disrepair, not because my border wall was not well guarded. "

Of course Wei Guangde knew that what Lu Tiaoyang said was actually correct.

After all, the Mongols are not fools. Facing an intact border wall, it is not easy to jump over it, so they will naturally look for damage to the city wall.

Faced with this kind of city wall, the Mongols mostly used the method of digging earth to create a slope directly outside the side wall, so that large groups of cavalry could jump over.

It would be better if the city wall was damaged, as less soil would be required.

Sometimes, if the team is too large, they will use animal power to destroy the side wall and directly create a larger gap for their large army to pass.

Even if there were more Ming troops on the border, facing the large Mongolian army, it would be a drop in the bucket and they would be helpless.

In this case, people really choose unrepaired side walls to climb over, but that doesn't mean they can only climb over such places.

In fact, Ma Fang was very dissatisfied with repairing the border wall. In his opinion, the biggest role of the border wall was to inform people, and nothing more.

After all, he had lived among the Mongolian tribes before and was very familiar with their fighting methods.

"Exactly, the result of my thinking is the same as He Qing's. The border wall should not only be repaired, but also reinforced."

At this point, Zhang Juzheng glanced at Wei Guangde before continuing: "As Shandai said last time, there are many ways for the captives to break through the border. Among them, piles of soil are one way to climb over the border. Although it takes half a day and a lot of It requires a lot of manpower investment, but it does sound like a good idea.

Moreover, because the border wall was too long, the army could not quickly mobilize a large number of troops to block it. Under the suppression of their bows and arrows, the slope was really difficult to be affected.

After thinking about it for several days, I came to the conclusion that we could only raise the height of the side wall of the open area to make it difficult for the Tartars to quickly fill the slope and buy time for the government and army to assemble their troops.

Shandai, don’t forget that after the beacon is lit, the people nearby will also see it, and they will know how to avoid it.

If there were no border wall to block them and create time for them to escape, the soldiers would roar past and they would not even have a chance to react. "

Hearing Zhang Juzheng's words, Wei Guangde didn't know how to answer for a moment.

Indeed, the people of the border fort could predict danger through the beacon fire on the fort.

There used to be a border wall. In any case, the first half of the day can be postponed, so that the people outside the fort have enough time to escape back to the side fort to avoid the war.

If the border wall were to be damaged and collapsed, the troops would not be able to rush across the border in one go without a wall blocking their way.

Even if the beacon fire warns, not many people outside the fort will be able to escape.

Only people far enough away from the border have time to evacuate.

"But the nine sides are taking turns to repair the border walls, which is too expensive. I always feel that it is better to revitalize the border town's officers and soldiers than to build a useless border wall.

It doesn't need to be many, just 10,000 elites per town.

Not to mention that because of the Datong Peace Agreement, the threat to the north has actually been lost. Even if the Tatar ambitions revive again, the imperial court can quickly assemble an army to confront the enemy.

If we continue to repair the border wall, the consequences will be just a repeat of the Gengxu Revolution. We will be defensive everywhere but unable to defend everywhere, and the border wall will be useless.

The reason why Anda Khan broke through the border at Gubeikou and other dangerous places was actually to catch him by surprise, because he was worried about being blocked by our officers and soldiers. It was definitely not because the border wall here was dilapidated. It was just a local excuse. "

Wei Guangde still insisted on his opinion. With the border wall, the Ming army lost its enterprising spirit and could only defend the city with peace of mind. This was the fundamental reason for the decline of the Ming army's combat effectiveness.

At least, that's what Wei Guangde thinks.

If there are enemies watching at all times, officers and soldiers will not dare to slack off.

Lu Tiaoyang saw that Wei Guangde's attitude was still firm, so he said: 'How about we think about this matter again and wait for some time to discuss it.

It's not an urgent matter, so it doesn't hurt to take some time.

On the other hand, matters in Liaodong are probably the top priority of the imperial court, so it would be good for the Ministry of Household Affairs to keep some money as a backup. ’

For the war in Liaodong, a note had been sent to the household ministers in advance, asking them to set aside a sum of money to prepare as rewards and pensions after the war. This was also the court's practice.

After the soldiers finished fighting, the court had to reward them based on their merits and send them money.

In the past, it often happened that because the court had no money, the officers and soldiers could not receive the reward and caused trouble. It was a complete farce.

"Has the Ministry of War sent a message to Ji Zhen?"

Hearing this, Zhang Juzheng nodded first, and then said to Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde knew that this was the end of the matter, so he just continued to delay it.

However, if it drags on for a long time, I am afraid that when other places need to use the silver, the 50,000 taels of silver will not be preserved.

However, Wei Guangde is really unwilling to let this matter continue like this.

Building the Great Wall to develop tourism will happen hundreds of years later. Is it so urgent?

Obviously not, Ming Dynasty was not financially wealthy.

In response to Zhang Juzheng's question, Wei Guangde nodded and replied: "It has been sent. I think I should be preparing to leave for Tianjin now."

With an army of ten thousand people eating, drinking, and eating, even if Jizhen responds quickly, it will still take some time to allocate supplies.

Mainly not during wartime, when there is a beacon warning, it is only said to be a normal transfer to the outside world.

Of course, this statement would not fool anyone in the capital.

Things in Liaodong have long been spread in the capital, but they have not yet spread to the surrounding areas.

"Can the Nanyang Navy warships carry so many people and horses?"

This is actually the topic that Zhang Juzheng is concerned about. It is no small matter for ten thousand people to cross the sea.

If the Nanyang Navy has been able to ensure that a force of ten thousand people can cross the sea for several days, does that mean that the Navy no longer needs to allocate more funds?

Can this money be taken back to the court and used for other things?

After Zhu Heng inspected the Yellow River during the flood season, he had already re-established the Kanjia Canal route, and the previous reports were pretty good.

The Ga Canal is difficult, but surmountable.

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