Chapter 200 Financial Expert Yan Maoqing
Yan Mansion.
Yan Shifan’s fat little hand held a jar of sweet Yiran candy, and his other hand held a small silver spoon with exquisite patterns, scooping out the Yiran candy in the small jar one by one. Sugar, just eat it dry.
He seems to like this sweet and greasy feeling. He never adds other ingredients and just eats it dry.
If Zhu Zaijing knew about this way of eating, he would definitely give Yan Shifan a thumbs up in admiration!
Aren't you afraid of getting high if you eat sweets like this?
Yan Shifan's life trajectory is much happier than that of his hard-working father Yan Song.
In the tenth year of Jiajing, Yan Shifan took advantage of his father's influence and entered the Imperial College to study, assuming the status of a prison student comparable to Juren. After that, because of his steady rise, he also gained varying degrees of status. Add grace.
He was awarded the title of Governor of the Zuo Army and the Governor of the Hou Army, and later served as the governor of Shuntian Prefecture of the Capital.
In the 22nd year of Jiajing, he was promoted to Shaoqing of Shangbaosi, and in the 24th year he was promoted to Shaoqing of Taichang Temple.
Now, because his father is the chief minister, Emperor Jiajing has favored him as the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, in charge of some palace and local engineering affairs, which is also a big job!
But these are not the things he is most proud of.
What Yan Shifan is most proud of is his title of "Xiao Ge Lao".
In the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing, Yan Song once again defeated his political opponents and became the chief minister of the cabinet that overpowered Xia Yan. Among them was Yan Shifan's help.
Yan Song was nearly seventy years old at that time. He was old, physically weak, and mentally exhausted. In addition, he had to serve the emperor day and night, and he no longer had enough energy to handle government affairs.
Therefore, many times, when some matters need to be decided, Yan Song relies on Yan Shifan's ability. As the saying goes: "I will make a decision after I discuss it with Donglou's children."
At this point, Yan Shifan became Yan Song's strongest assistant. Yan Song often took Yan Shifan to the cabinet in private, allowing him to participate in the drafting of major government affairs, making him a non-cabinet minister. Cabinet minister.
And because Yan Shifan's votes were mostly in line with Emperor Jiajing's wishes, Emperor Jiajing acquiesced to Yan Shifan's presence in the cabinet and even awarded him many awards.
As a result, Yan Shifan got the title of "Xiao Ge Lao" and became an important "unofficial member" of the cabinet after his father.
After the victory in the defense battle in the suburbs of Beijing, Yan Shifan's thoughts became active.
Although he was a little embarrassed about recommending Qiu Luan before, he didn't know about the bad things Qiu Luan did. Therefore, when pursuing Qiu Luan, Yan Shifan was not involved.
So now Yan Shifan is thinking about how to show off his previous sin of "unrecognizing people".
Yan Shifan thought about the fires in Yiran Hall and Shunyi Industrial Park. Although he was very jealous, he also knew very well that if he could no longer show his excellent financial management skills.
As time goes by, if the emperor only relies on Yiran Tang and Shunyi Industrial Park, which are named by King Yu and operated in the palace, to make money, his importance will be greatly reduced.
So, the smart Yan Shifan also had to think of his own way to come up with some new ideas for His Majesty the Emperor, to contribute to the increasingly congested and dilapidated capital, and to show His Majesty the Emperor that he was still a very capable person. talents!
So during this period, Yan Shifan spared no effort to lobby Shang Shu to make Emperor Jiajing pay attention to the importance of the expansion of the capital, thus highlighting his importance.
Now that Emperor Jiajing has finally thought of overhauling the outer city of the capital, Yan Shifan will naturally not let go of the opportunity to show off his abilities. Therefore, at the imperial meeting the day before yesterday, Yan Shifan excitedly proposed his plan and requested His Majesty the Emperor's permission to have Jing Wang Zhu Zaizhen supervise the construction of the outer city of the capital in name. The Ministry of Industry actually implemented the strategy and provided suggestions for the planned outer city of the capital.
The Emperor Jiajing at that time was also about to ask Yan Shifan how he planned to build the outer city of the capital. After all, if he really wanted to build the outer city, it would cost tens of millions of taels. The design is by no means simply repairing an exterior wall and calling it a complete project.
Because after the exterior wall is completed, many ancillary buildings and new regional functional divisions will need to be filled in. These are the real big problems, and we dare not calculate them carefully. Once calculated, God knows how much money it costs.
And with the current Ming Dynasty's annual treasury income of seven to eight million, it is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket to support such a huge project. It may not be completed in ten or twenty years.
And the 7 to 8 million taels of treasury revenue has to be spent on countless places, such as official salaries, which are more intuitive, as well as the canals that need to be repaired every year, and the Yellow River that will never live in peace. As well as the imperial family members whose numbers are not fully counted and who are sitting on nothing.
After droughts and floods occur in various places every year, the court has to allocate disaster relief funds. For example, this year, Emperor Jiajing has issued an edict to exempt Liangji, Henan, Jiangxi, Liaodong, Guizhou, Shandong, Shanxi was hit by a disaster and taxed grain.
Just counting on the treasury income of 7 to 8 million taels per year and trying to do big things is simply impossible.
Furthermore, Emperor Jiajing himself was also a big money spender. He also wanted to cultivate immortality. The daily consumption of alchemy materials in the palace and the consumption of various materials for fasting and festivals were also a huge bill that could not be calculated.
Therefore, Emperor Jiajing was hesitant and did not dare to make such a decision easily.
But Yan Shifan put forward his own ideas very sensibly. He recommended a financial expert-Yan Maoqing!
Yan Shifan praised Yan Maoqing like a flower, saying that he was very good at managing money. If he were to be the Prime Minister of Liangzhejiang, Lianghuai, Changlu, and Hedong, he would definitely be able to manage the salt industry in the past years. The salt tax could only collect 600,000 taels, which turned into more than one million.
In this way, the imperial court will have more treasury revenue to support the expansion of the outer city of the capital.
When Emperor Jiajing heard that there was such a powerful financial expert, he immediately became interested. It would be a good thing to make more money for the national treasury.
Therefore, Emperor Jiajing also affirmed Yan Shifan's suggestion and asked the cabinet to examine Yan Maoqing's ability again. If he is really capable, it is not impossible to hand over the salt administration of the four salt transportation departments of Zhejiang, Lianghuai, Changlu, and Hedong to him as prime minister.
Anyway, the imperial court is short of money.
Then, Yan Maoqing’s inspection and appointment was just a formality. He quickly passed the inspection and review of the cabinet and the Ministry of Personnel, and got the appointment of the Prime Minister of Zhejiang, Lianghuai, Changlu, and Hedong. The errand of the Yan Department of Transport.
Before Yan Maoqing took office, Yan Maoqing came to Yan Shifan's house again and thanked Yan Shifan again with tears of gratitude for his kindness in reinventing the family.
Yan Shifan looked at the sensible Yan Maoqing and explained: "The salt policy is very important. This is our opportunity to show our face in front of the emperor. We have accomplished those things that Qingliu cannot do, which shows that we They are more loyal and capable of doing things than those so-called Qingliu. In the future, the emperor will rely on us more.”
"So, this time you are in charge of the salt administration of the four departments of salt transportation in Zhejiang, Huaihe, Changlu, and Hedong. This is also my high hope for you. I hope you will not disappoint me."
Yan Maoqing said: "Don't worry, Mr. Xiaoge. Even if I go up to the mountain of swords and face the sea of fire, I will definitely live up to Mr. Xiaoge's high expectations. I will definitely do my best for Mr. Xiaoge and handle the errands of the Salt Administration beautifully!"
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(End of this chapter)