Chapter 440 439 Struggle is everywhere

Beijing, Forbidden City, Wenyuan Pavilion.

This place has always been a cabinet office, so there are many officials coming and going on weekdays, including cabinet secretary, pedestrian, etc., as well as officials sent by other yamen to do business.

Despite the crowds, the yard always maintains a silence, and everyone seems cautious in their words and actions, for fear of affecting others.

Because this is the place that scholars all over the world yearn for the most.

Of course, those who can enter and exit here can also be regarded as elites in the court. Even if they are not the top ones, they are outstanding people.

Today, after receiving the order from Xiyuan, Xu Jie stayed in his own room and never came out again.

The content of the order of Xiyuan naturally spread in the pavilion very soon.

No one is a fool. Among the officials, there are those who lean against Xu Jie, and of course there are also people from the Yan family, and the so-called neutral faction.

Since you can be arranged to work here, you will either be lucky or you will be extremely smart, so you will naturally not lose your eyesight.

Even though Xu Jie usually showed respect for Yan Song, they could think of it even if they could not see how sincere or false he was.

At this time, Xu Jie was sitting quietly in his seat and did not work. Even though the documents were already filled with official documents sent from all over the place, he did not deal with any of them.

I had been in this position for a while and seemed to finally come back to my senses. I looked down at the official documents on the table. Thinking of the order I received before, a bitter smile finally appeared on my face.

It’s just that Emperor Jiajing wanted Yan Shifan to stay. What a big deal? It’s not like this before. Didn’t he react so much?

Xu Jie had already realized it after sitting quietly for a while. This is what the emperor means, so naturally he cannot be more worthy of it.

What is my goal? In fact, whether Yan Shifan has a great relationship in the capital. He has occupied the general trend and he will be invincible in the end.

Looking up, Xu Jie looked at the roof, carved beams and painted buildings.

Perhaps it was because he was overwhelmed by the Yan family over the years that he felt a little afraid of Yan Song and Yan Shifan.

Yan Song is old, but his reputation is still there. Only Yan Shifan and Emperor Jiajing call him "genius", so he knows that Emperor Jiajing chose to seize the relationship and wants to keep Yan Shifan in the capital and lose his composure.

Thinking of the order just now, Xu Jie breathed out and asked to draw an order to seize the mercy and leave Yan Shifan. It was a bit ironic.

After drawing up the decree and sending someone to the palace, Xu Jie returned to his position and smiled bitterly as he looked at the piles of documents in small hills.

Soon, the sent out people came back, and the news sent back made Xu Jie feel even more uncomfortable.

Not only did the palace send an envoy to issue an order, but Emperor Jiajing also sent people to give the Yan family many silver coins and treasures.

Baochao is worthless. The inner Baochao Bureau has been printed all day long as the salary of officials and the emperor's rewards. However, the silver coins minted by the Silver Bureau are still very good, and the quality and quality are very good.

Speaking of which, the inner court is also very interesting.

It is the word "Treasure Cash". There are two official signatures of the inner court in the inner court. One is the Neibao Cash Bureau that prints the treasure bank, and the other is the Baochao Cash Department.

The Neibao Cash Bureau prints treasure money, so what is the treasure money department printing?

At first, Wei Guangde was still stupid enough to tell the difference, but later he found out that Baochao Shi printed toilet paper.

Xu Jie did not let someone pass the news to Prince Yu's mansion, because he believed that Prince Yu's mansion would have received the news at this time. If he still sent someone to pass the news, it would only make him afraid of Yan Shifan in front of outsiders.

Moreover, even Prince Yu's Mansion cannot help in this matter.

Who dares to object to the emperor?

Just as Xu Jie thought, the news reached Prince Yu's Mansion very early, and then the people of Prince Yu's Mansion repeated Xu Jie's previous state.

However, in the end, they did not have enough concentration, and they only reported that they would have been longer than Xu Jie, and Wei Guangde was the first to react.

Similar to Xu Jie's way of thinking, it was originally an emergency. It was naturally the best to send Yan Shifan away. It was equivalent to cutting Yan Song's arm off. If you don't send him away, you wouldn't lose anything.

However, Wei Guangde still thought in his heart that it was a pity for a chance.

Without Yan Shifan around, Yan Song would definitely have a greater chance of making mistakes.

Yan Song and Yan Shifan returned to the cabinet office the day after receiving the order, but Yan Shifan had more things to do. During the day, he had to go to the cabinet to handle official duties with his father, and after the dispersal of the yamen, he had to go home to wear mourning and keep a mourning look.

In addition to not being able to see the current situation clearly and those who are flattering in and out of the Yan Mansion, Beijing officials now stare at the sky all day long except for completing their jobs.

In the 40th year of Jiajing, in May, Beijing City did not see any rain except for a light rain in February, and the drought in the north had already appeared.

There are actually not many ways to resist drought, besides building water conservancy and preservation, even in later generations.

However, now is not an era when everything is about science. There is still a way to deal with drought that will not appear in this era.

Jiyou, Yuan Wei, Minister of Rites, submitted a report to the emperor:

"The emperor has established a scripture and prays that both spiritual zodiacs will be happy as they descend, but the turbulent zodiac signs have not been touched by the four fields. Then the drought is in full swing and haze will rise again."

In February, the solar eclipse was held, and Emperor Jiajing thanked God for his kindness. It was strange that it rained lightly in the capital afterwards, but that was all.

In Wei Guangde's surprised gaze, Emperor Jiajing happily accepted Yuan Wei's memorial and held a grand fasting ceremony in the West Garden to pray for rain.

More than that, according to Yuan Wei's request in the memorial, Emperor Jiajing issued an order to order British Duke Zhang Rong to go to various palaces and temples to pay tribute, and all officials stayed in Qingyi and stayed in Qingyi for a period of time.

In this regard, the reason why Emperor Jiajing asked someone to release it was that "the meaning of oneness that you said is ".

Emperor Jiajing was in the palace and the officials should not be out of the matter, so they all went to temples and temples to attend the rain prayer ceremony.

For a time, hundreds of temples in and outside the capital were busy and began to arrange altars and organize rain prayers. Officials also attended the scene and fooled many people for a while.

In this era, there is more or less awe of these gods and ghosts, from princes and ministers to common people, not to mention that the emperor requested that he also prayed for rain in the palace.

Isn’t praying for rain? Isn’t it better to harvest in the fields?

For a time, Emperor Jiajing's reputation improved a lot. It is said that the emperor was thinking about the livelihood of the people in the world when he saw a drought.

Wei Guangde was stunned when he heard the public discussion from his butler Zhang Ji. He learned some tricks from Yuan Wei. It turned out that flattery could be used like this.

When he heard that Yuan Wei submitted this memorial, he was really disdainful.

If the master Tiaotiao really can bring rain, then what science will be developed in the future? Just practice it directly.

However, this thing that he thought was feudal superstition had played such a great role in the Ming Dynasty, and he had no choice but to think about the reason.

The seemingly useless measures have alleviated the public's concerns and have also harvested a wave of people's hearts. Do you think Yuan Wei's memorial is useful?

In addition to dispatching officials to participate in the rain prayer ceremony, the execution and slaughtering for nine days was dismissed, and eunuchs were sent to pass the eunuchs to the Ministry of Rites: "Yesterday, officials were sent to pray for rain, and they should worship the gods, so I have no regrets?"

Emperor Jiajing asked the Ministry of Rites to check again, worried that there would be omissions.

Afterwards, the Ministry of Rites summoned subordinate yamen to discuss and finally added the investment of the rivers and seas. The water transport of the rivers was not heard, so I prayed for it. I sent Li Chunfang, the Minister of Rites, Gao Gong and others to sacrifice to the gods and other gods, and the Chief Censor Hu Zhi sacrificed the gods of the river.

Wei Guangde also wanted to go, so he naturally chose the Lingji Palace, which is relatively close to home and is more familiar with.

It is necessary to participate in the rain prayer ceremony, which is the emperor's destiny, but by the way, I will find a place to rest well at the Lingji Palace.

During these few days, he could not go home and could only live in the temple.

The officials of the Beijing teamed up with Emperor Jiajing to pray for rain, but no matter how big the Ming Dynasty was, all kinds of reports were not pulled down, and they were still sent to the capital, to the Tongzheng and the Department of Public Security, and then reported upwards one by one.

Because of its geographical boundaries, Ganzhou Prefecture in Jiangxi is close to Jiangxi and Guangdong. The first force of the Fujian-Guangzhou bandit Zhang Lian contacted here, constantly inciting local people to cause trouble, and even sent troops to rob, which made the entire Jiangxi uneasy for a while.

While mobilizing the Ganzhou Prefecture Guards to suppress the bandits, the Jiangxi Commander Office also mobilized troops from surrounding prefectures and counties to support. For a time, the military supplies undertaken by Ganzhou Prefecture increased significantly.

Of course, the Jiangxi governor knew that these expenses were necessary and could not be saved, but Ganzhou Prefecture had no money and could only go to Nanchang to find the governor's office to ask for money and grain.

There is no way. As a local official, it is a responsibility to protect the country and the people. If you don’t do it well, you will lose your official hat.

After a conclusion was made within the Jiangxi Provincial Administration and the Ministry of Justice, a document was soon delivered to the capital.

"The salt tax in Ganzhou Prefecture, Jiangxi Province is about 20,000 yuan per year. The original example is based on ten points. Two parts are kept as military pay, and eight parts are divided into the border areas to help the border. The ministers are in a hurry to increase the troops and increase the funds and pay, so please keep them all."

It only requires money, and the money is the salt tax received by the local government. Most of it was handed over to the Ministry of Revenue. Now, there is a war disaster in Ganzhou, so naturally I want to leave the money for local payment.

The official documents were sent to the Ministry of Revenue and were soon sent to the desk of the Minister of Revenue Gao Yao.

Before Jiangxi, there were similar official documents sent to Fujian and Guangdong.

To be honest, their demands are not excessive.

The money was transferred to the Ministry of Revenue, and was used specifically for military pay for the nine-sided branches and for war.

The local government is also fighting now, so the money should be left in the local area as military pay for the thief suppression, but the Ministry of Revenue did not dare to fully agree. It is because the Ministry of Revenue is short of money now.

In fact, many places mostly settle tax relief on paper, and in official documents, there are very few current silver payments, so every time the court wants to use a large sum of silver, the Ministry of Revenue can only urge the Ministry of Revenue to pay, or even threaten it with official positions, intending to hand out notes to the Ministry of Personnel directly for the disadvantage of doing business.

Only in this way can the place be spit out more silver.

After all, these officials are all vain officials, and the ones they can hold are official positions. As long as the background is not particularly large, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Personnel cannot afford to offend them.

Gao Yao looked at the official documents sent by Jiangxi and calculated in his mind that this official document was to deduct the salt tax from the Ministry, but the above was unclear. He also regarded the Ministry of Revenue as a fool and wanted to give the tax and silver that had not been paid a few years ago.

Gao Yao rose from the place and was clear about these doors.

It makes sense, but if you want to approve it, it is not a matter of more than 10,000 taels of salt tax per year, but a few years ago, he would not blame the squeezing salt tax in Jiangxi.

"Come on, check the situation of the salt tax removal department in Jiangxi in recent years."

Gao Yao sent clerks to the Qinglisi Department of Jiangxi to transfer the account books to check, and soon the Jiangxi Qinglisi Department of Jiangxi and Yuanwailang both followed in.

They only knew that Lord Shangshu wanted to check the accounts, but they didn't know what the purpose was, so they followed him here with the account book.

Gao Yao didn't need to explain anything to them, but he just needed to know how much salt tax has been paid in Jiangxi in recent years and how much he still owe it. He would be able to approve it if he knew it. Then he would just report it to the cabinet and submit it to the Xiyuan with other official documents.

This is equivalent to the work records of the Ministry of Revenue during a period, and I will give it to the above.

“Thirty-six years of salt tax haven’t been paid enough?”
To be continued...