A few months later, Concubine Zhuang's belly became pregnant.
Wang Yuan bowed and said: "Congratulations to your majesty and congratulations to the empress."
Zhu Houzhao took Wang Yuan's hand and sat down, smiling and saying: "Speaking of which, Erlang is still Yuelao. Pan'er and I should be very grateful."
Seeing the emperor's lack of airs, Wang Yuan began to lose his temper and joked: "Your Majesty really wants to thank me, so you shouldn't reward me with three heroes. Wouldn't I push me into a pit of fire? And this time when I return to Beijing, I have to do it."
If I ride a horse and walk alone through Chengtian Gate, I don’t know how many people will be jealous and jealous."
"I want to make them jealous!" Zhu Houzhao got angry when he talked about this.
Since the defeat of the north, although Zhu Houzhao did not go to the border town in person, he sent several censors to conduct a strict investigation. There are censors for everything, censors for inspection, censors for tea inspection... There are many kinds of censors, censorship for tea inspections is not a typo,
Specialized in inspecting the tea-horse trade.
Seeing that the emperor was really angry, the censors did not dare to neglect and quickly found out the big problem.
For example, the horse herding pasture in Yuanmasi, Shaanxi Province has actually disappeared without a trace, and has all become the private fields of hereditary military commanders and local powerful people. It is the largest official pasture in the northwest, and it has been swallowed up completely, even in prefectures and counties.
The civil servants helped to cover it up. No wonder they complained every year that they didn't have enough horses.
Zhu Houzhao was only thinking about fighting with the little Mongolian prince, and the cavalry was a top priority. After learning the news, Zhu Houzhao was so angry that he was shaking all over, and a bunch of civil servants, military generals, eunuchs and nobles were severely punished.
At the end of last year, the Ministry of Revenue spent nearly 300,000 taels of silver to restore the towns in the north. Now they are asking for money again. The Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue's stone steps are so painful that after much discussion, they have to allocate another 60,000 taels of silver.
It's okay. It is estimated that more than 100,000 taels will need to be allocated in the next two months.
You can't do it without giving money. Many border areas have been destroyed and must be reorganized as soon as possible. After the spring, some Mongolian tribes entered the country in a big way and directly selected pastures to graze there. The Ming Dynasty border army did not dare to send troops to drive them away because the loss of troops last year was too serious.
All these factors prompted Zhu Houzhao to make up his mind. After Concubine Zhuang gave birth to an heir, he would immediately go to the border area to straighten things out.
"Erlang," Zhu Houzhao said with emotion, "How could those bastards be so bold as to embezzle the Yuanmasi Ranch in Shaanxi Province? The guarding eunuch not only did not stop it, but also participated in it. Didn't the governors and censors know about it all the years?
Everyone is turning a blind eye to this!”
Wang Yuan replied: "The more you are greedy, the less you will be punished. The benefits gained from occupying pastures will last a few lifetimes. Even if the matter is exposed and investigated, only a few scapegoats will be executed. Most of the embezzlers will only lose their official positions. Or even
You don’t have to lose your official position, you are just demoted. Isn’t this the court trying to lure officials into corruption?”
"Then kill a few more!" Zhu Houzhao gritted his teeth.
Wang Yuan curled his lips.
Killing a few more is useless. If the system is not completely reformed, there will definitely be no more pastures in a few years.
Liu Liu and Liu Qi were able to grow rapidly because of problems with the horse administration in the border areas. At Zhu Di's time, the border town ranch often used hundreds of thousands of war horses. Now they have to slowly collect hundreds of horses, and they have to let Shandong and Zhili
The common people broke their homes to raise horses.
Zhu Houzhao said: "Erlang, you go home and rest for a few days, and then quickly go to the south to explore the sea. Get me some more money and come back. I want to have a fight with the little Mongolian prince, but I am very short of money now!"
"According to the decree." Wang Yuan was waiting for this sentence.
Zhu Houzhao added: "Don't go to Guangdong to open sea, go directly to South Zhili. Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou... Merchants are everywhere. If we open sea in South Zhili, we will definitely make more money than in Guangdong."
"Then I'd better go to Zhejiang," Wang Yuan said with a headache. "The water in southern Zhili is too deep. I'm afraid I'll drown if I go there."
Zhu Houzhao was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "That's okay."
Wang Yuan had previously requested to go to Guangdong to open the sea. He also felt that the sky was high there and the emperor was far away, and he could do whatever he wanted. If it were replaced by Nanzhili, the difficulty of opening the sea would increase exponentially. There are six teams there, and he would have everything.
Interest groups are so intricate that it’s hard to figure them all out.
Since the emperor wanted quick results, it would be best to go to Zhejiang.
With Hangzhou as the base camp to open up the sea, it is also close to Susong and other places with developed handicraft industries. As long as you are bold enough and tough enough, you will definitely be able to open up the situation quickly.
Wang Yuan said: "If I supervise Zhejiang, I would like to ask your majesty to grant you the right to open a mansion. There must be role models on your left and right to follow you."
Zhu Houzhao thought for a while and said: "Then you can become the right minister of the Ministry of War. Only with the title of the Ministry of War can you be a model soldier!"
Wang Yangming was the governor of Jiangxi, so when he was suppressing bandits, the local generals were often disobedient and had to ask for Wang Mingqipai (temporary military power) from the court.
Wang Yuan is the governor of Zhejiang and has the power to coerce the Zhejiang army. But it is only a coercion. If the military leader of Zhejiang violates the law, Wang Yuan's only way is to impeach him. The same goes for the officials of the third division. In principle, Wang Yuan can order them
, in fact, whether you listen or not depends on your face. This is of no use!
Therefore, Wang Yuan demanded the right to open a government and serve as a model for the military. This kind of power marked the birth of the feudal officials, which historically began in the Jiajing Dynasty and was intended to facilitate the campaign against Japanese pirates.
Zhu Houzhao also risked his life in order to raise money for the war. He would give Wang Yuan whatever he wanted.
In other words, after Wang Yuan went to Zhejiang, he could openly set up a shogunate and recruit temporary officials on his own. He could also recruit and train troops locally, or lead an army south from the capital, or even temporarily recruit local guards to obey his orders.
When the Japanese pirates were raging, this kind of appointment could be passed. Now that there is peace in the south, I am afraid that the officials will jump up and say some nonsense about beingware of feudal towns.
There are too many lice but it doesn't itch. Neither Zhu Houzhao nor Wang Yuan bothers to pay attention to those talkative guys.
Zhu Houzhao said: "Erlang wants to open the sea to make money as soon as possible. I only give you one and a half years."
"Why so urgent?" Wang Yuan asked.
Zhu Houzhao said: "In a year and a half, I will go on a personal expedition, and you, the general in charge of the army, will be indispensable by then!"
Wang Yuan said: "I will come back as soon as possible."
Zhu Houzhao asked with a smile: "Don't you want to dissuade the emperor from going on a personal expedition?"
Wang Yuan asked, "Is it useful to persuade him?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Zhu Houzhao laughed heartily, and his worries for many days were gone. He said happily: "Erlang still understands me. It's not like other big headscarfs who only know how to risk their lives to remonstrate, but don't know how to share my worries."
With only Wang Yuan's shallow historical knowledge, he also knew that Zhu Houzhao would come back with a great victory after his personal expedition. Otherwise, Wang Yuan would also advise, who knows whether the emperor is really reliable? What if there is another Tumu Fortress Incident?
In the battle of Yingzhou, Zhu Houzhao personally deployed the defenses. Although it cannot be said to be very sophisticated, it was definitely clear-cut. When other generals did not dare to fight, Zhu Houzhao defied everyone's opinions and personally led his army to support him, chasing the Mongols from Yingzhou all the way.
When the army arrived at Shuozhou, they stopped their pursuit because of a sandstorm. Otherwise, the results of that battle would have been even more astonishing.
Wang Yuan is looking forward to what kind of effect it will have if he joins the battlefield.