"I will explain today about the trip south. I will go straight from Tongzhou to Tianjin. The road is dangerous and dangerous. I don't need to say more. You can make your own decision. If you follow me, you must travel lightly. You will bring no more than five family members. This period of time will be difficult.
Just be patient, it will be much better when you get to Nanjing."
This passage can actually be regarded as asking the ministers to stand in line and follow the southward journey at least for the sake of the Ming Dynasty. If they don't go, they may still not believe in the southward journey and even despise the southward journey.
"Your Majesty, I would like to ask what Master Meng's arrangements are?" Wang Jiayan, as the Minister of War, naturally had to ask who will be in charge of the defense of the capital. It is impossible to give the capital away directly.
"This was what I had in mind when I asked Meng Zhaoxiang to be the admiral of the capital camp. Let him take charge of all the affairs of the capital. In other words, after I and you all leave Beijing, he will be my agent here, and he will naturally be in charge of the defense of the capital.
"
Zhu Ling explained word for word that these issues were something he had considered every day since he arrived at the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the past few days, almost everything had come to an end.
"That is to say, the Guan Ning Army is responsible for escorting His Majesty and us to the south. Where exactly is the escort going? Tianjin or Shandong? You must know that Liu Zeqing in Shandong will sooner or later be deprived of military power by Your Majesty. Will he communicate with you in advance?
How to contact the intruder? Or even betray the court? "
At this time, Fan Jingwen stepped forward and asked again. Although he insisted on staying in the capital, he must pay a lot of attention to the imperial party's trip to Nanjing. If something went wrong on the way, wouldn't it be a failure?
"Guan Ning's army will naturally escort him to Nanjing. Now that the imperial court has no troops, he will naturally escort him all the way. The person Mr. Ge mentioned, Liu Zeqing, is afraid that he will know the whereabouts of the imperial court? Don't tell the world, especially Nanjing, that the imperial court is traveling south.
thing."
Zhu Ling paced back and forth on the stage, his eyebrows lowered, and he thought as he spoke.
"This person will be eliminated sooner or later. I will not put myself in danger, let alone the imperial court. I will leave the killing to Guan Ningjun, and cooperate with the Jin Yiwei. If I still can't kill him, let someone like this go."
Even Li Zicheng would be dead."
"I understand."
With that said, Fan Jingwen nodded and retreated.
"Everyone, do you have anything else you want to ask me? If not, go ahead and pack your bags. Leave Ni Yuanlu here while the others go back first."
"I excuse myself."
Naturally, all the ministers didn't care who His Majesty kept. If they had something to do at home, they all knelt down and resigned.
After leaving the main hall, the ministers took up their official positions again. After the discussion in the main hall, it is inevitable that everyone has their own thoughts and worries.
"Master Li, I'm afraid that the elder is not caring about the queen's face at all when he is interrogating Zhou Kui." Seeing Li Banghua walking alone, Wang Jiayan immediately approached him and muttered.
"Jiayan, at this juncture, Zhou Kui has committed such a crime, and face is no longer important. I think that although Your Majesty will blame Chen Yan for negotiating a peace with the intruder, in the future the scholars will really say that this matter is just Chen Yan.
Is it wrong to act as a person? No, His Majesty is only acting like this on the surface. In fact, he is really bearing this infamy. But is Your Majesty afraid? No, at this time of life and death, if anyone continues to argue about face, I'm afraid it's true.
It harms the country and the people.”
Although Li Banghua's temples were slightly gray, his ideas and vitality were still as good as those of others. Even Wang Jiayan could not keep up with his pace for a while.
Wang Jiayan was thoughtful and immediately understood: "After all, the Queen and Your Majesty have been together for seventeen years. Who can tell the relationship between them? Although the elder today is for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, he has offended the Queen because of this matter. Obviously
not worth it."
"Don't you understand now? Your Majesty is really angry because of Zhou Kui's taking away his wife? What your Majesty really wants is money, military pay! A few days ago, when thieves besieged the city, your Majesty sacrificed his dignity to borrow money from Jiading Bo. Who knew?
He was rejected and only borrowed two thousand taels of silver. Doesn't this mean that your majesty's face is only worth two thousand taels?"
Speaking of this, Li Banghua couldn't help but show Zhou Kui's mockery, and the city government felt even more ridiculous. As the head of the state, he did not give any face to his majesty. From that day on, his death date was determined.
"Your Majesty was so humiliated that your Majesty could only admit it at the time. But from that moment on, Zhou Kui's death date was set. I even guessed that what Ling Yiqu did was probably under your Majesty's instructions and for the sake of money."
"Your Majesty is doing this because..."
Hearing this, Wang Jiayan was a little puzzled. Although His Majesty did what he did because of the critical moment of life and death, he would be criticized by the scholars later, saying behind his back that he ignored family ties for money and was extremely hypocritical.
"Jiayan, at this time, the survival of the Ming Dynasty is more important than anyone else's interests! Now your Majesty has Jin Yiwei and a Beijing camp, and it is very likely that the Guan Ning Army will be captured by your Majesty. With such strength, we were once proud of
Your power is a complete joke in front of Your Majesty!"
When he was emotionally excited, Li Banghua turned to Wang Jiayan and said to Wang Jiayan, ignoring several ministers around him: "Jiayan, if the Ming Dynasty continues, you and I will be ministers of ZTE. If it cannot continue, we will be ministers of the country's subjugation.
It depends on which one you choose. As the Minister of War and the Superintendent, you might as well think carefully about how to kill the intruders."
"Your Majesty's teachings, I will keep them in mind."
Seeing Li Banghua so excited, Wang Jiayan immediately bowed and said in fear.
Fan Jingwen, who passed by the two men, was followed by two censors behind him. Hearing the conversation between Li Banghua and Wang Jiayan, he inevitably had an idea in his mind. He was a little confused about what Mr. Ge did today, so he stepped forward to ask.
"Mr. Ge, what did you say today?"
"As they say, everything has to make way for money. Yesterday, the Chengguo Palace was ransacked, and even hereditary nobles cannot escape death. What does Zhou Kui mean to him?"
After Mr. Ge finished speaking, the two of them were shocked. When they looked at each other, they could almost clearly see the horror in each other's eyes. They never expected that His Majesty would not even let Duke Cheng go!
His ancestors followed Chengzu and killed the enemy! They were actually killed by His Majesty. It seems that what others said about His Majesty's change was indeed not a rumor.
Will the Ming Dynasty really be revived?
…
Leaving Ni Yuanlu in the palace, the conversation was naturally about the treasury. Zhu Ling walked down and looked at Ni Yuanlu's expression that was neither humble nor arrogant. He chuckled a few times and said to her: "Ni Qing, where is the treasury now?"
"Not a cent."
After receiving such a cold answer, Zhu Ling knew that it was expected and continued: "The treasury doesn't have it, I have it in my hand."
Ni Yuanlu's eyes suddenly lit up, she raised her eyes to look at His Majesty, suppressed her inner excitement and asked: "How many do you have, Your Majesty?"
"Two million taels!"
two millions!
Such a huge amount of silver inevitably made him, the minister in charge of money, agitated. This was enough to cover nearly half a year's tax revenue, but he immediately felt puzzled. Where did your majesty get such a large amount of silver? There was no tribute at this time.
, and no one gave it as a gift.
Could it be?
"I don't know where your Majesty's silver comes from, but I would like to ask whether these silver coins are given to the national treasury or internal funds?"
"I told you, naturally it will be given to the national treasury. In the future, when it comes to military pay, the food and salary will still be distributed by the Ministry of Household Affairs." Zhu Ling previously received three million from Zhu Chunchen, leaving one million to Meng Zhaoxiang, for the daily needs of the Beijing camp.
It was so big that these two million were no longer kept by themselves, which also made the court feel at ease.
"Your Majesty is Holy Ming."
Ni Yuanlu immediately knelt down and worshiped. Although the money was probably obtained by ransacking the house, the infamy was shouldered by His Majesty. Since he was serving the country, his kneeling down was naturally sincere.
"I want to tell you something."
"Your Majesty, please speak."
"I want to exempt Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, Henan, Liaodong and other places from taxes. When the country recovers, taxes will be levied again. What do you think?" Zhu Ling naturally wanted to gain the approval of the ministers in doing this. He was too arbitrary on his own.
Not a good thing.
Ni Yuanlu was about to refuse, but after thinking carefully about what His Majesty said, these places were occupied by thieves and slaves. I was afraid that there would be no chance of collecting taxes. Rather than collecting taxes and failing, it would be better to directly exempt taxes and change the face of the court.
.
"Your Majesty cherishes the people of the Ming Dynasty, and I naturally agree."
"I have one more thing."
"Your Majesty, please speak." Ni Yuanlu suddenly felt that what he just said was definitely not what His Majesty really wanted to say, and this time was the highlight.
"Re-develop the sea route, develop the business of merchants, and change the tax from 30 to 10 to 10. Although the tax is a lot higher, I will order that officials are not allowed to obstruct business. Unless business has to lose territory, all business will be unimpeded within the Ming Dynasty.
, do you think it’s feasible?”
Zhu Ling looked at Ni Yuanlu, and he was actually very afraid that she would object. If the ministers objected, it would be difficult to implement any national policy. After all, it was not the emperor but the officials below who actually implemented the national policy.
"My lord, I agree!"
[Author's digression]: It's up to you if the banknote can reach a thousand at the end of the month! I would like to thank you here!