After greeting the ministers, Chang Yu bowed to the front. After the ceremony, Chongzhen asked lightly: "But are you leaving the capital?"
In public, he did not dare to address Chang Yuqing to avoid the cabinet's rhetoric. Chang Yu did not dare to address him as a minister. He hesitated and kowtowed: "I have something else to discuss."
His Highness Li Banghua and others raised their eyebrows. Ministers are not allowed to be officials or discuss politics. What do these two people want to do? Do they challenge the bottom line?
Emperor Chongzhen had a slight smile on his lips: "What's the matter? Let me tell you."
"The plague chaos will increase the investigation and punishment of corruption," Chang Yu said quickly.
Everyone was shocked. Could it be that he had a cure for the plague? They immediately became more energetic.
Even Emperor Chongzhen was shocked: "But there are good strategies, the plague has become more and more serious, and it has reached an urgent stage."
"I don't have a good idea, but after reading many medical records and folk remedies, I found that this disease is mostly transmitted from rats and mosquitoes. Now that the weather is getting warmer, rats, ants, and mosquitoes are spreading. I'm afraid that the epidemic will become more serious, so I'm going to propose it first.
The whole city should quickly clean up the source of the spread!"
The source of the spread? Chongzhen frowned, and the ministers were also confused.
"Clean up garbage and debris, especially human and animal filth, to reduce the breeding of rats and mosquitoes, thereby preventing the spread of the epidemic. In short, it means cleaning up the whole city, building public toilets, and returning the Qingming Festival to the capital to control the spread of the epidemic to the greatest extent..."
Chang Yu talked non-stop.
When the official toilet was being built, Chongzhen, Li Banghua and other ministers looked at each other.
In fact, there were no public toilets in China before the invasion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces in the late Qing Dynasty. There were no public toilets in small counties or large countries. Pedestrians had to find a wall to solve their problems. Chang Yu was still outside the Daming Gate last night.
Once.
Therefore, feces and urine are everywhere in the streets, and every summer it is even more stinky. This phenomenon did not appear in the capital until after the invasion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces. In Europe, toilets became popular in Europe as early as 1956 when Harrington, an Englishman, invented the flush toilet.
.
The proposal of cleaning up the whole city and building official toilets was novel. Not only did Chongzhen think it was feasible, but the ministers also nodded slightly. At present, the plague was raging and everyone was helpless. If the epidemic could be eliminated or reduced from this source, it would be worthwhile.
It's just that building an official toilet will definitely require a large sum of money. The national treasury is already so empty, wars are raging everywhere, and there is not enough money to pay...
Chongzhen looked at Chang Yu slightly embarrassed.
Chang Yu shook his head slightly, his meaning was very clear, if you don’t do this, you still have to pay if I mention it, I really have no money!
No matter what, Chongzhen knew that Chang Yu now had four battalions of men and horses under his command, as well as hundreds of thousands of mouths in Dongchang, so money must be tight enough!
Feeling a little bored, he suddenly saw Chang Yu winking. Emperor Chongzhen was startled at first, then suddenly realized, and almost couldn't help laughing: "This matter is feasible. After a brief discussion by the cabinet, the Ministry of Industry will do it. Let's talk about what we just said about investigating and dealing with corruption.
But why?"
"Your Majesty, Li Jiantai, the former right servant of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and a scholar of the cabinet, was murdered a few months ago. Dongchang was ordered to investigate, but unexpectedly discovered that Li Jiantai had accepted bribes wantonly during his lifetime and had tens of thousands of taels of silver hidden in his home!"
Ah, so many! Everyone in Huangji Palace exclaimed!
"Immediately, I asked people to investigate Chen Yan, the former chief assistant who was also involved in the case. Wei Dezao and others found that he was worse than Li Jiantai. The amount of corruption and bribery was shocking!"
"I'm so angry!" Chongzhen yelled angrily and slapped the case: "Chen Yan has been eating corpses for years without success, but he is a good man who makes money. Investigate it to the end. Look at these people who don't share your worries and only know how to be corrupt."
How much people's wealth and wealth have the thieves plundered?"
Chang Yu accepted the order and felt that the corruption of these people had reached a shocking level, so he proposed to launch an anti-corruption campaign and strictly investigate some of the big bosses in the well-oiled yamen.
Chongzhen nodded without hesitation.
Li Banghua and other important ministers, however, felt as if they were riding a roller coaster. The young eunuch had previously proposed the construction of official toilets. While they nodded, they were still thinking about another question. Is this considered an internal minister interfering in politics?
I also thought this matter was related to the epidemic, so I thought it was just a suggestion.
Just when they were thinking about whether to give the little eunuch a hat, this guy suddenly wanted to start another anti-corruption storm, and Emperor Chongzhen actually expressed his support without hesitation, which made them frown.
First, there are a few clean people who can achieve this position. Although these people are die-hard fans of Chongzhen, they will work hard for state affairs, and eventually die for justice, but it cannot be said that they are not corrupt or bribery.
Secondly, they were thinking, does this count as meddling in government affairs? The Metropolitan Procuratorate is the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Ming Dynasty, and this matter is under their control. However, they also thought that Dongchang is a servant of the emperor and has the power to investigate and deal with corruption and bribery.
!
I'm a little nervous! I'm also a little self-conscious!
It's OK to scare them, but of course Emperor Chongzhen will not actually attack the few people in front of him. At this time, there are only a few people in the Ming Dynasty who are sincerely willing to defend the country with him. Only these few die-hard fans are left, no matter what.
But he won't be polite to those who are waiting for the collapse of Lao Zhu's family!
Immediately, Chang Yu was ordered to strictly investigate the powerful bureaucracies such as the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Ministry of War. The investigation was not carried out by Dongchang alone, but also by the Metropolitan Procuratorate. This made Li Banghua and others feel a little relieved.
It's not that he's afraid of being traced to them, but that the emperor is relatively fair and doesn't throw the Metropolitan Procuratorate aside, otherwise his intention to suppress him would be too obvious.
Chang Yu accepted the order, said goodbye to the ministers and left the Huangji Palace. When Chongzhen was about to discuss these two matters in detail with Li Banghua and others, Chang Yu suddenly returned and spoke softly in front of the emperor. Chongzhen heard this
, stood up quickly and said to Wang Chengen: "Get out of the palace"
The system of the Ming Dynasty was relatively strict, and emperors could not leave the palace at will like the emperors of the Qing Dynasty. Some emperors never left the imperial city a few times, or even took a step outside the capital. Of course, there were exceptions, such as the weird Emperor Zhengde.
Except for generals who personally conquered or returned victoriously from the war, it was possible to leave the palace. As for private visits in private, which is the most talked about plot among the people, it was almost impossible to happen.
But why did Emperor Chongzhen suddenly leave the palace?
Because Chang Yu said: "Li Yan's troops went outside Beijing and brought thousands of Tatar heads!"
It is not a trivial matter for the emperor to leave the palace. The various etiquette specifications alone are enough to keep busy for several hours. However, Emperor Chongzhen orally said: "Keep everything simple and quick!"
In just half an hour, everything was prepared properly. Thousands of imperial guards lined up to guard outside the north gate of the imperial city. Dongchang's fans were all out, and the Jinyi Guards' troops controlled traffic along the way, from the north gate of the imperial city to the northeast.
All the way to Andingmen is smooth!
Four carriages drove out from the imperial city. Beside the carriages were more than 200 heavy armored cavalrymen from the palace camp. They were accompanied by soldiers of the imperial guards at the front and rear, and they rushed out of the city in a mighty manner.
One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the big headline of the emperor leaving the palace instantly suppressed the storm of Chang Yu scolding the civil servants. The people in the capital rushed to tell each other and came to watch.
The emperor actually left the palace. This is a rare occasion in a hundred years, but what is he going to do?
I heard that they were going to meet a victorious army, maybe it was Wu Sangui...
I heard that Wu Sangui killed tens of thousands of Tatar heads, just outside Andingmen...
I bet, it’s true or false. If the rumor is true, then the good news about the little governor of Dongchang and Wu Sangui is true. Let’s go and see what the Tatars look like... (To be continued)