Chapter 41 Currency Reform!
“How many taels of silver do I have in my internal funds?”
“Your Majesty, there are a total of 2.7 million taels of silver.”
Hear the specific number After that, Zhu Youtang clenched his fists.
It turns out that not only was the treasury short of money, but there was also no money in the emperor's internal funds.
Zhu Youtang had no expression on his face and ordered: "Withdraw one million taels of silver from the internal funds and reward the soldiers who fell into the camp."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Wang Zhi Take orders.
Then Zhu Youtang turned around and looked at the civil and military officials on the city wall.
"Put away the heads of Ma Wensheng and Qiu Yue and spread the word to others as a warning!"
"Xu Pu, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, the four of you will follow me back to the pavilion to discuss matters."
"Everyone else, please go clean the battlefield for me!"
After that, Zhu Youtang walked straight to the city.
The remaining civil and military officials looked at each other in confusion, wondering what Zhu Youtang meant by cleaning the battlefield.
Liu Jian was startled at first, then surprised again, and quickly caught up with Zhu Youtang.
"Your Majesty, what about Wang Shu? He is also the cabinet minister?"
"Not anymore, I will not allow him to enter the cabinet."
Zhu Youtang thought of Wang Shu's first day When he goes to court, he dares to question his orders, which makes him feel irritable.
Zhu Youtang will never allow such a disobedient thorn to join the cabinet.
Liu Jian was shocked and looked at a loss.
Zhu Youtang glanced at him: "What? Liu Ge always has an opinion?"
Liu Jian stopped and his face turned pale: "Don't dare!"
Zhu Youtang has not yet stepped forward. He stopped, went straight down the city wall, got on the dragon chariot, and drove back to the palace.
Huaien, Wang Zhi, and Mou Bin were accompanying us.
"Wang Zhi, let Gao Shun enter the palace to discuss matters, and then arrange for the trapped camp to camp near the capital to rest."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Mu Bin, let the Jin Yiwei supervise those officials and clean the battlefield properly. If it is not clean, they are not allowed to return to the palace."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Wang Zhi and Mou Bin took the order and left. Only Huai En was still with Zhu Youtang.
Zhu Youtang frowned, thinking about how to quickly get some money back to Daming.
It's easy to kill people, but hard to do cashiering.
……
On the city wall.
Liu Jian stayed where he was, while Xu Pu, Wang Shu, Xie Qian, and Li Dongyang walked up.
"Xixian, your majesty, what is this?" Xu Pu asked first.
Liu Jian looked at Wang Shu, smiled bitterly, and said apologetically: "Wang Shangshu, Your Majesty... you are not allowed to enter the cabinet."
"Ah?"
"How could this be?"< br>
"This..."
The other three looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
Only Wang Shu looked calm, as if this incident had little impact on him.
"It doesn't matter. The Minister of the Ministry of Personnel is the official of heaven, in charge of the promotion and assessment of hundreds of officials. Your Majesty does not allow me to join the cabinet, but I can still shine for the Ming Dynasty."
Xu Pu He nodded and said in a much colder tone: "Well, Wang Shangshu, your Majesty has ordered me to excuse you for a moment."
"Please." Wang Shu cupped his hand.
After returning the gift, Xu Pu, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang and Xie Qian walked down the city wall together.
Liu Jian still felt a little regretful. The cabinet had lost a veteran minister with rich experience like Wang Shu, which was a huge loss.
Just after the four pavilion elders left, a large number of royal guards climbed onto the city wall, frightening all the civil and military officials on the wall.
Mo Bin walked up to the city wall, glanced at the ministers, and said loudly: "My lords, Your Majesty has an order, ordering all your lords to go down to the city to clean up the battlefield."
"When has it been cleaned up? When can I go home?”
The ministers and officials couldn’t believe their ears!
Since they were dignified officials in the capital, when had they done any cleaning work since they wore these official uniforms?
"What?! There is such a thing!"
"What do you mean by this, Your Majesty?!" "This...this...how is this, how is this!"
“……”
There were a million reluctances in Baiguan's heart, but after seeing the fierce-looking imperial guards beside them, none of them dared to resist.
In the end, under the guard of the Jin Yiwei, the officials walked down the city wall and walked to the battlefield outside the city.
Before even walking into the battlefield, many ministers could not bear the smell of the fishy smell and started to vomit.
Jin Yiwei was very considerate and sent them cleaning tools.
The civil and military officials suppressed their nausea and began to clean up the battlefield under the supervision of Jin Yiwei.
The battlefield was full of body parts and scraps of flesh, not even a whole corpse.
You can only clean up the large pieces of stumps first, and then the small pieces of minced meat.
And they are still familiar with the stumps on the ground.
This is Ma Shangshu's head, this is Wange Lao's legs, this is Ye Shangshu's hand...
All the officials were livid, their whole bodies were shaking, some were vomiting, some were Fainted, the scene was in chaos.
……
Forbidden City.
Wenyuan Pavilion.
Zhu Youtang walked in first and sat on the dragon chair.
Immediately, a young eunuch from Shangshan Supervisor brought snacks and tea.
Zhu Youtang took the teacup and took a sip.
Not long after, the young eunuch in charge of the ceremony came in to report.
"Your Majesty, cabinet bachelors Xu Pu, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian would like to see you."
"Xuan."
"Here."
Soon, Xu Pu and four others walked into the Qianqing Palace and knelt down to salute: "My ministers Xu Pu, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian, pay homage to Your Majesty!"
"Excused."
< br>Zhu Youtang took out a memorial. These are some of his thoughts on currency reform that he has written in the past few days.
“I invite you to join the cabinet this time because I want to discuss the issue of currency reform.”
“To put it simply, I want to promote the new Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes and become the legal tender of the Ming Dynasty. .”
After hearing this, Xu Pu and the others' expressions changed drastically. They all knelt down in front of Zhu Youtang and tried their best to stop him.
"Your Majesty! No! Now it is a problem for the people to eat. We must not plunder the people's wealth anymore!"
"Yes, Your Majesty, there have been many disasters and man-made disasters in recent years, so the people can support themselves. It’s not easy anymore, we can’t compete with the people!”
“Your Majesty...”
“That’s enough!”
"When did I say that I would plunder people's wealth and compete with them for profit?"
Zhu Youtang was furious and slapped his palm on the table, which made the four cabinet elders shut up.
“Stop trying to persuade me!”
“I must do what I want to do!”
In the feudal dynasty, every time there was a reform, there must be a large number of officials. Stop, Zhu Youtang is tired of this.
Xu Pu and Liu Jian opened their mouths several times, and finally closed them helplessly.
The Ming Dynasty promoted Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes several times. Which one was not used to search for private wealth because the internal treasury was in urgent need?
Emperor Taizu was like this, and Emperor Taizong was like this too.
Only printing treasure banknotes without recycling them, people were forced to exchange silver grain for treasure banknotes. In the end, the treasure banknotes could not be exchanged for silver grain.
Bao banknotes depreciated rapidly, and the wealth of the people of the Ming Dynasty was all turned into bubbles.
The Ming Dynasty banknotes issued during the Hongwu period had depreciated to one thousandth of their original value by the Hongzhi period.
The Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes with the usual amount are now worth only one penny.
Now that there is also a shortage of money in the internal treasury, Zhu Youtang wants to re-introduce the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes.
This is not about plundering people’s wealth. What is competing for profits with the people?
Zhu Youtang was too lazy to explain and gave the memorial he wrote to Xu Pu and others.
"You guys, let's take a look at the reform plan I wrote first, and then discuss the feasibility."
"If it is feasible, immediately draw up a practical plan for me!"
< br>Xu Pu reluctantly accepted the memorial: "Yes, Your Majesty."
(End of this chapter)