"I only said that the allocation is temporary, not that the allocation is stopped. Mr. Huang is a little impatient to ask this question."
Zhou Yanru was dissatisfied with Huang Ruliang's questioning and snorted coldly. Without looking at Huang Ruliang, he turned his head and said to Chongzhen:
"Your Majesty, today is different from the past. Bandits are now raging in Henan. If they are not suppressed early, the Central Plains will be in chaos. Since ancient times, when the Central Plains is in chaos, the world will be in danger. For the sake of Jiangshan Sheji, Liao's salary is allocated to cope with this emergency. The matter is
It must be done.”
When Huang Ruliang saw that Zhou Yanru insisted on allocating Liao's salary, he became anxious and asked: "The chief assistant is trying his best to allocate Liao's salary, but this Liao's salary is exclusively used for Liao affairs. If it is allocated to other places, what will happen to Liaodong Town? Is it possible?
Does the imperial court really no longer want to control foreign affairs?"
"Jinzhou Fangjie, Donglu suffered heavy losses, and must not attack again in a short period of time. There will be no danger in a short while. But if Liao's salary is not allocated, I would like to ask you, where does the salary of Henan's Diping thieves come from? If it is flowing,
The thieves captured Kaifeng and Luoyang, causing the death of the vassal king. Who bears the responsibility? Are you, Mr. Huang?" [
"I..." Huang Ruliang was speechless for a moment.
Chongzhen missed the clan the most, and when he thought of Kaifeng, King Zhou and King Fu of Luoyang, he couldn't help but be a little worried, but he didn't know whether a part of the Liao's pay should really be allocated for the Henan thieves to use first, so he had to ask all the officials to talk about it.
Is it better to divide the wages or not to divide them?
Unexpectedly, it was better not to ask. When I asked, the hall suddenly became a mess. Some agreed to allocate the salary, and some did not agree. They all had their own opinions and argued with each other until their faces turned red and their ears whitened. A few officials remained neutral.
, stood there with his hands folded and said nothing.
The commotion was really overwhelming, and no one came up with an effective solution. Chongzhen became angry and said angrily: "Stop arguing!" He turned to look at Bi Ziyan: "How much has Liao's salary collection been collected this year?"
Bi Ziyan said: "In February, the levy per mu has been increased to one cent and two cents, with a total of 6.6 million taels of silver. In addition to customs duties, salt taxes and miscellaneous items, the total is 7.482 million taels of silver."
Ninety-eight taels."
"That's nearly 8 million taels of Liao salary collected this year." Chongzhen nodded and made a mental calculation. If he embezzled 1 or 2 million taels to other places, it seemed that it would have little impact on the Liao affairs.
We have been hit hard, so we have to wait until the spring of next year before we can take any action. As long as we wait for a few months, the new levy and salary will be renewed next year, so there shouldn't be any problems.
Just as he was making calculations, Huang Zongzhou, the censor of Zhejiang Province in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, suddenly came out and said: "Your Majesty, in the last years of Shenzong's reign, the combined pay of Jiubian was only 2.8 million. But now you will increase the pay of Liao to 7 million, and there are still more to suppress."
The salary is 3.3 million yuan, and the training salary is more than 7.3 million taels. I boldly ask the emperor, since ancient times, there has been a year of 20 million yuan to lose to the capital, and also 20 million yuan to the capital city to lose to the side?"
Li Changgeng, the censor of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, also reported: "Besides the three salaries, there are so many miscellaneous additional payments, how can the people be safe? In the second year of Chongzhen, the refugees in the northwest rebelled, and the more officers and soldiers suppressed the bandits, the more thieves they killed. This is exactly what happened.
The poorer the people are, the more bandits will rise. If we continue to collect taxes like this, I am afraid that all the people in the world will be forced to rebel by these three taxes!"
"An acre of civilian land is worth seven or eight taels of silver, and the wages are as high as ten taels. How do the people live?" All the officials were worried about the matter. Li Qi had long wanted to come to Shu and advise him to stop collecting three major wages. When he saw the capital
The Procuratorate finally objected to the additional levy, and the hurried people went out to support the proposal. He did not go to the big ones like Huang Zongzhou and Li Changgeng, but directly made a calculation with the emperor, that is, one acre of fertile land is only worth seven or eight taels of silver.
However, the amount of money paid per mu of land has accumulated to ten taels. I wonder how the people can afford such high taxes.
People from the Metropolitan Procuratorate took the lead. At that moment, more than 20 officials came out to second the proposal and unanimously asked Chongzhen to strike off the three major salaries. Among them, most of them were Yan officials.
Zhou Yanru frowned when he saw that so many officials suddenly opposed the levy of wages. However, he was not thinking about why so many officials opposed the levy of three wages, but he was wondering who had inspired these people to suddenly attack the three wages.
"In the past, the Liao soldiers were used for the Liao soldiers. Now that the longevity has come and the Eastern captives have suffered heavy losses, the ministers thought that they could temporarily stop the Liao soldiers and train the soldiers, and only collect the soldiers. In this way, the burden on the people will be greatly reduced, and those who follow the thieves will
It will inevitably decrease." Li Kangxian, the Minister of Rites, for the sake of the national treasury, did not ask for all three salaries to be suspended, but asked for a temporary levy of Liao's salary to practice the salary, leaving only the elimination salary.
Bi Ziyan was the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and all the wealth of the Ming Dynasty was in his heart. The more the officials opposed the levy of wages, the more panicked he became. If you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are, if you don't have the three major wages, you will be afraid of the Ming Dynasty.
The whole court would collapse. You know, in the past two years, he had embezzled the salaries of the courtiers from their training salaries. If there was no salary collection, where would he find money to pay these officials? The soldiers at the border
What to eat and drink?
Seeing that Chongzhen listened with rapt attention and was obviously tempted, he couldn't help but panic. He was afraid that the young emperor would lose his temper and stop the three-payer tax as soon as he heard that the people's burden was heavy. If that happened, the Ming Dynasty would immediately ask for it.
collapsed.
Unexpectedly, Chongzhen understood it better than anyone else. He said to the ministers without hesitation: "I have already made plans to suspend the three-payment levy, but the time has not come yet, so we will discuss it later. I have decided to take action from now on."
Two million taels of Liao's salary will be allocated to quell thieves in Henan, and this matter will be handled by the Ministry of Household Affairs. The matter of three salaries has been discussed here, and the ministers do not want to talk about it anymore."
"I obey." Bi Ziyan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but Huang Zongzhou and others looked disappointed.
Zhou Yanru seemed to know that Chongzhen would make such a decision, his expression did not change, while Wen Tiren looked a little sad, and then returned to normal.
Xiong Mingyu reported again: "Your Majesty, Yang He, the governor of the three sides, has been locked up in Beijing. There is now a vacancy for the governor of the three sides. I would like to ask the emperor to clearly indicate who can fill the position of governor of the three sides."
"Who can replace Yang He in the cabinet?" Chongzhen asked Zhou Yanru.[
Zhou Yanru replied: "The cabinet has discussed that Hong Chengchou, governor of Yansui, can take over the post of governor of the three sides."
"Hong Chengchou?"
Chongzhen filtered this person in his mind and nodded in approval.
This Hong Chengchou was an official. In the second year of Chongzhen, the bandit leaders Zuo Gui and Miao Mei led their troops to attack Hancheng. General Yang He, in desperation, ordered Hong Chengchou, who was still participating in politics at the time, to lead his troops into battle. Hong Chengchou killed three enemy soldiers.
With one hundred men, they relieved the siege of Hancheng and became famous.
In June of the third year of Chongzhen, Hong Chengchou was appointed governor of Yansui. As a general under Yang He, he should have supported his superior's "recruitment policy", but Hong Chengchou did not. Instead, he vigorously suppressed the bandits. Not only did he suppress the bandits, but he also killed and surrendered.
He killed tens of thousands of surrendered "thieves", which made the thieves in Shaanxi flee as soon as they heard Hong Chengchou's name. No one dared to cause trouble in his territory. The bold one was Gao Chuangying.
Xiang also dared not go to the three sides.
This Hong Chongzhen was not only ruthless in his tactics, he was also very skilled in leading troops. Although his army only had 4,000 soldiers, it was a powerful force. With these 4,000 soldiers, in just one year, he conquered the three border areas.
All the tens of thousands of thieves inside were wiped out, and those who could not be wiped out were also driven out of the three sides.
Compared with the idiot Yang He, Hong Chengchou was so much stronger that when Chongzhen heard that the cabinet proposed him to succeed Yang He as the governor of the three sides, he agreed without hesitation.
"Accurate report, pass the decree, Hong Chengchou succeeds as governor of the three sides of Shaanxi."
He put his hands behind his back and was about to retreat from the government, but the words came to his lips: "The rebellion in Henan is serious. Is there anyone in the cabinet who can choose someone to oversee the fight against thieves in Henan?"
Zhou Yanru said: "The cabinet has made a decision. If this person supervises the troops in Henan, the cabinet dares to say that the rebellion in Henan will be quelled!"
"Oh? Who?" Seeing that Zhou Yanru was so sure, Chongzhen couldn't help but be happy and eager to know who Zhou Yanru was talking about.
"The names of the three prefectures of Guangping and Shunde are Lu Xiangsheng!" Zhou Yanru said loudly.
"Lu Xiangsheng?" Chongzhen was startled and said with emotion: "But the supervisor of the Xiongjun that day?"