Zhu Qizhen returned to the palace and went directly to the cabinet.

The seven members of the cabinet, including Zhang Fu, are no longer here.

Although the sky has darkened, the sound of locusts flying has not diminished at all.

Wang Zhen ordered the eunuchs to close all the windows to block out the sounds from outside. Even the palace courtyard was densely covered with locusts.

At this moment, Cao Jixiang and the eunuchs and maids in the palace, one by one, were trying their best to kill the locusts, but the locusts almost seemed to die.

Zhu Qizhen passed the last closed window, glanced outside, turned to look at Yang Shiqi and others, and said, "Gentlemen, what should we do now?"

Yang Shiqi said: "I think we should first exempt Zhili from taxes this summer."

Zhu Qizhen said: "How much tax does Zhili have this summer?"

Wang Zhi said: "Five hundred and fifty-seven thousand stones."

Zhu Qizhen said: "No, the cabinet will immediately draft a decree to exempt Zhili Province and Shuntian Prefecture from taxes this summer."

Yang Shiqi said: "Order all prefectures and counties to purchase locusts at a penny per stone. However, the Ministry of Household Affairs does not have enough money and food."

Zhu Qizhen naturally knew that what Yang Shiqi said was half true and half false.

The half-truth is that the Ministry of Finance is really running out of money and food.

After all, there is no gold or silver in the household department. Even the total amount of money and grain stored in the household department is not as much as the internal treasury. This is also the empress dowager's method.

Otherwise, where did the Empress Dowager withhold more than 30 million taels of silver? If there was too much silver in one place, there would naturally be less in another place.

Of course, the household department will not be empty.

It's just that Yang Shiqi doesn't want to rely on the internal treasury for everything, and must leave some financial resources to face special circumstances.

Zhu Qizhen had no intention of arguing at the moment and said, "Okay, let the Ministry of Household Affairs report it."

Yang Shiqi said: "I am going to send ministers to inspect the disaster-stricken areas and deal with them on the spot."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Okay, sir, who do you think we should send out?"

Yang Shiqi immediately named a series of names. Zhu Qizhen listened. They were all from the Hanlin Academy. Zhu Qizhen glanced at Yang Shiqi. Over the past few years, everyone knew that Zhu Qizhen preferred ministers with local experience.

Yang Shiqi can also be regarded as finding a way out for the common people in the Hanlin Academy.

Originally, most of the cabinet members were from the Imperial Academy, and there was an unspoken rule that non-Hanlin officials were not allowed to join the cabinet.

But this was the early Ming Dynasty after all, the cabinet had only been established for a few decades, and many rules were not yet ironclad. Naturally, they changed due to the emperor's attitude.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Yes."

Zhu Qizhen only looked at ministers with local achievements in a different light, but he was not discriminating against the Hanlin Academy. After all, they were able to get through the imperial examinations at all levels and have better rankings, which speaks volumes.

Yang Shiqi then said a few more things, but generally they were disaster relief, locust hunting, tax exemption, etc.

Zhu Qizhen pondered for a while and suddenly said to Zhang Fu: "The British Lord, can the Beijing camp go to war?"

After hearing this, Zhang Fu immediately understood the implication of Zhu Qizhen's words: Zhu Qizhen wanted to send the Beijing camp to catch locusts.

Zhang Fu said: "As long as your majesty gives the order, the capital camp can go out to fight, but the north is not peaceful. If something happens to the capital, I will die without mercy. I thought that at least half of the soldiers would be left to guard the capital, and the rest of the troops would guard the capital."

, with the dukes as generals, distributed in various places under Zhili, specializing in catching locusts."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Okay, I will appoint Cheng Guogong and Wei Guogong as the left and right locust hunting ambassadors, responsible for the locust plague in the nearby counties of Zhili. The cabinet will immediately draft a decree."

Yang Shiqi immediately said: "I will accept your order."

Zhu Qizhen warned: "Let all the princes come to see me tomorrow morning. I have something to say."

However, after a while, Zhu Qizhen and Yang Shiqi finalized a lot of government affairs together, and Zhu Qizhen was ready to return to the palace. He estimated that after he left, the cabinet and the six ministries would be busy all night.

Not to mention anything else, there are hundreds of thousands of troops in the capital. Even if there are half of them, there will be at least 200,000. Who will catch locusts where, who will go where to provide disaster relief, who will go where to patrol.

Various orders are passed to various prefectures and counties.

They are all troublesome things.

But it didn't work. When Zhu Qizhen was about to leave, Ma Yu, who had been silent, suddenly came out and said: "Your Majesty, since last year, there have been floods, droughts, and locusts. It should be that there are treacherous ministers controlling the government. I ask your Majesty to deal with the treacherous ministers.

To rectify the celestial phenomena."

After hearing Ma Yu's words, Yang Shiqi's eyes moved slightly and actually narrowed.

After hearing what Ma Yu said, Yang Pu looked a little stunned, but then his expression became normal, as if nothing had happened. The other people, all of them old foxes, fell silent immediately.

For a moment, Wenyuan Pavilion actually became quiet.

Zhu Qizhen looked at Ma Yu, but saw that Ma Yu looked unmoved.

Zhu Qizhen said calmly: "Ma Qing, who do you think is the traitor?"

Ma Yu said: "I don't know, but His Majesty has decreed it. It's just that the weather is not constant, and if you make any mistakes, you must give an explanation to the world."

Zhu Qizhen thought to himself: "Fortunately, you didn't say it was Yang Shiqi, otherwise today would be the time to leave the cabinet." In fact, Zhu Qizhen also knew that what Ma Yu said may not be unreasonable.

Of course, this principle does not mean that there are treacherous ministers in the court, but that an explanation must be given to the world.

This kind of thing has happened frequently since the days of heaven and man's induction. It doesn't happen once or twice. Especially during the Eastern Han Dynasty, every solar eclipse would avoid the Three Gods.

It's simply child's play.

But this seemingly absurd situation has its own logic and context.

Just like today, if the responsibility for this disaster is placed on one person and dismissed from office, the emperor seems to be innocent.

It's just that Zhu Qizhen cannot do without Yang Shiqi at this moment.

Only Yang Shiqi can control this situation of internal and external troubles.

So at this critical moment, Zhu Qizhen had to protect Yang Shiqi no matter what Yang Shiqi did.

"Everything has happened, and it's all my fault." Zhu Qizhen said: "With Ma Qing's words, I will issue an edict to punish myself."

When Ma Yu heard this, he knelt down on the ground and said, "How dare I say this?"

Yang Shiqi was also shocked. He did not expect that Zhu Qizhen would be involved in the imperial edict of sinners. It is said that the main concern is the humiliation of the ministers, and the main purpose is to humiliate the ministers to death. If the emperor issued the imperial edict of sinners, what would they, the ministers and ministers, be like?

people?

Yang Shiqi said: "As disasters continue to happen today, I ask your majesty to send princes to sacrifice to the gods of the world. In order to rectify people's hearts, it is just the words of your majesty's edict to sin against yourself. You must not say it in your mouth. This will force me to die."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Then let's go to Mr. Yiyang."

Zhu Qizhen looked at Ma Yuyan deeply and said: "I thought this was a natural disaster. Isn't it because the Ministry of Punishment has some grievances that are difficult to resolve? Bachelor Ma, it's better to work hard."

Ma Yu said: "I obey." But Ma Yu's tone was trembling.

Zhu Qizhen flicked his sleeves and left.

Yang Shiqi made arrangements, and the people below went about their business. As Zhu Qizhen thought, today was definitely a sleepless night for them.

Everyone left, only Yang Shiqi was on duty in the cabinet, and Yang Pu stayed at the end.

Seeing that everyone else had left, Yang Pu waved his hand and asked everyone below to leave. Yang Pu said to Yang Shiqi: "Dong Li Gong, what happened today was not instigated by me."

Yang Shiqi smiled faintly and said, "I know it was Ma Yu who made the decision on his own. After all, if you were to do it, you definitely wouldn't choose this time today."

Yang Pu smiled softly and said, "It's better that Duke Dongli knows about me."

"It's just a fool who made the wrong guess." Yang Shiqi said lightly, while he dipped the brush into the inkstone twice.

When Yang Pu heard Yang Shiqi's words, his face suddenly froze. After a while, he said, "Dongli Gong doesn't believe me?"

Yang Shiqi said: "Do you think I believe it?"

The two old men, whose combined age was more than 150 years old, looked at each other for a long time and suddenly smiled. Yang Shiqi said: "If you want this seat, I'll give it to you. I don't want to sit there a long time ago.

If I could not repay my kindness, I would have hung up my hat and left long ago."

Yang Pu said: "Dong Li Gong is so upright and upright that I can never compare to him. I have been in the cabinet all my life. When I get older, the words "chief minister of the cabinet" should be engraved on my tombstone.

"The desire for fame will never be extinguished, which makes Mr. Dongli laugh."

Yang Shiqi chuckled and said: "Easy to say, easy to say."
Chapter completed!