Chapter 1929 Court Meeting
In the wind and snow, Yan Song, Xu Jie, Li Mo and other ministers summoned by Emperor Jiajing rushed to Xiyuan Wuyi Hall immediately.
No one dares to be late when summoned by the Holy Spirit.
In the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was better, mainly in terms of fines, but in the Ming Dynasty, the punishments were much heavier. "Ming Law" stipulates that if you are late once, you will be flogged 20 times. If you are late three times in total, you will be rewarded again and executed directly in front of the palace. Not only will you lose your face, but you will be injured after dozens of boards.
In addition, there are hidden penalties. If you are late, your impression in the emperor's mind will deteriorate and your political future will collapse.
Therefore, no one dares to be late, and everything is as fast as possible.
Soon, all the ministers arrived, and they consciously arranged themselves into two rows according to their official positions and seniority to wait for Emperor Jiajing.
In the coldest month of winter, there was no brazier in the hall. It was so cold that every official in the hall was shivering from the cold.
They are wearing court clothes this time. For the sake of image, they cannot wear more clothes underneath. They can only wear a thin cotton coat. If they wear too much, the court clothes will be bloated and wrinkled. If they are not ironed, It's unbecoming.
In the main hall, they could not rub their hands or stamp their feet, as this would be disrespectful to the emperor. They could only rely on their own firepower to resist the severe cold.
Those who are not that old are better off, but those who are older, such as Yan Song, will have their hands and feet numb from the cold.
Writing will probably be a problem later.
In addition, in addition to his hands and feet, Yan Song's head and face were also cold because he was wearing a fragrant leaf crown given by Emperor Jiajing. This gauze hat is neither beautiful nor warm, and its only effect is to increase the number of holy coupons.
Fortunately, the waiter brought them cups of hot tea so that they could warm their hands while drinking tea.
Not long after, Emperor Jiajing, surrounded by eunuchs, slowly walked into Wuyi Hall.
As usual, in the twelfth lunar month of winter, on a snowy morning, Emperor Jiajing still wore very few clothes, spring and autumn clothes, embroidered with dragon patterns, the main pattern was the Tai Chi Bagua diagram, with big sleeves fluttering, and the fairy spirit was freezing.
"Long live my emperor."
Yan Song, Xu Jie and other ministers knelt down to pay homage to Emperor Jiajing.
"All the ministers stand straight."
Emperor Jiajing sat down on the only chair in the middle of the hall, waved his sleeves, and made all the ministers stand straight.
"Weizhong is not young, please give me a seat. The others can stand and be energetic." Emperor Jiajing glanced at everyone, and finally his eyes fell on Yan Song's fragrant leaf crown. He waved to the little eunuch and gave it to Yan Song. preferential treatment.
"Thank you, True Lord." Yan Song quickly knelt down and thanked him.
Soon, a young eunuch brought a chair. The model and height were lower than the dragon chair where Emperor Jiajing sat.
After Yan Song thanked Emperor Jiajing again, he sat down.
“Okay, it’s the end of the year, you are all raising a family, and my family is waiting for you to go back. I won’t chat with you about family affairs, and let’s start discussing things directly. Let’s discuss the first thing first Regarding the matter, Mongolia will tell you how to deal with it. Please speak frankly.”
Emperor Jiajing spoke.
“The Beibei Ida is extremely hateful, but just this year, they have invaded Datong four times, invaded Liaoyang three times, invaded Ningxia twice, and invaded Liaodong once. They destroyed houses, looted property, and bullied the people. , too many to write about!”
The officials of the Ministry of War counted the number of invasions by the Anda tribe this year, and they hated the leader Anda with gnashing of teeth.
"What I am asking for is tribute and property. Why not reopen the horse market to meet some of their needs and ask them to put an end to war in exchange for peace on the border and to keep the people living and working in peace and contentment. It can also reduce our number of people. The government is under pressure from paying money.”
An official from the Ministry of Rites came forward to suggest reopening the horse market in exchange for the peace of the Beilu people.
"No! In the middle of this year, the Anda tribe went to Datong in the name of tribute. They first paid tribute to me 40 horses, and then used the horses as objects to barter for tea and salt. They exchanged 413 horses for 3,000 kilograms of tea leaves and five thousand kilograms of salt. At night, The Anda tribe actually led a group of people to seize all the tribute horses and Yi horses when I was not prepared, and invaded Datong, plundering the people, livestock and property near the border market of Datong, and setting fire to more than a hundred people's houses. From then on, the northern captives! Our troops are plundering on the border, so there is almost no peace. See, I am shameless and unfaithful. I act like an animal and cannot be treated as a human being. I can only beat the Beibei hard, and there is no room for peace. There is peace."
"Chen. Please increase the pay and silver of Tong and Xuanfu to reward the soldiers, repair their weapons and armor, prepare for war day and night, and severely attack the northern captives."
The officials of the Ministry of War shook their heads vigorously, requesting to increase the salary and silver, reward the soldiers, and attack the northern captives. Punch hard.
“You need to increase the salary?! You are not a family member and you don’t know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are. Now, most of the tax I will receive next year will be spent on salary. If we increase the salary, the court will not be able to survive?! Others Do we need to pay for relief, do we need to support the royal family, do we need to build rivers?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a censor stood up and first opposed the request of the Ministry of War officials to increase their salaries. The money was only in the treasury, but it had many uses, such as military, official salary, royal family, rivers, etc. If too much is spent on military expenditures, there will not be enough for other places. Every penny in the treasury is tight.
"Ministry of Household Affairs and Ministry of Industry, do you have statistics to verify how much money has been brought into the treasury this year and how much money has been paid out?"
Emperor Jiajing asked on the dragon throne.
The Minister of Hubu and the Minister of Hubu whispered a few words below, and then the left minister of Hubu came forward and reported: "Back to the Holy Lord, after preliminary statistics, from the first month to this month, the total income has been paid. , added taxes, and surplus salt, the total amount of silver was more than 5 million taels, and the foreign items collected more than 4 million taels, totaling more than 9.9 million taels. According to the annual regulations, the total amount of silver used by the host and guest soldiers on each side was 280. ten In the past few months, more than 2,450,000 taels of military pay have been added, and in addition to trimming and subsidizing various expenses, the total amount of silver used is more than 8 million taels. Next, I will go back to verify carefully and make statistics. The precise figures will be submitted to the Holy Emperor for inspection.”
When the officials in the palace heard this, many people showed surprised expressions. They knew it would cost a lot, but they didn’t expect the phone bill to be so high.
After hearing this, Emperor Jiajing frowned slightly, looked down again, asked and urged, "Where is the Ministry of Industry?"
Yan Shifan stepped forward and reported: "Going back to the Holy Spirit, from the first month to today, the price of work, food, and materials has cost a total of 345,000 taels of silver."
"The price of work, food, and materials can only be paid back in silver. , why are there so many military pay on all sides? Is there any false aggression among them? This is also It's not that there is no precedent. The cabinet has remembered it. Next, it will select three people from the ministers and the censor to go to various places to investigate. What each side receives and uses must be carefully investigated and recorded in detail. For those who have problems, no matter what their position is. , they will all be impeached and punished severely," Emperor Jiajing explained with a frown.
"I obey the order." Yan Song, Xu Jie and Li Ben came out to receive the order. (End of this chapter)