Chongzhen Chat Group

He made such a statement without the emperor's permission. It was obvious that he had the emperor's permission, otherwise he would not have dared to say this even if he had the guts to do so.

Emperor Chongzhen's intention was to hope that the new army could take action as soon as possible. The purpose of coming here in person was not only to show attention, but also to take advantage of Lu Xiangsheng's good news to tell these new soldiers that Jianlu was not to be feared. Such hard and soft beatings made the new soldiers tense up for training.

If the training time drags on for too long, Emperor Chongzhen will be overwhelmed. Although it seems that the Jianlu can be restrained for the time being so that they no longer pose a threat to the capital, in fact, there are still many enemies of the Ming Dynasty, such as the chieftains in the southwest, the pirates on the southeast coast, the Western Yi, and more importantly, the , disasters in various places, floods in the south and drought in the north are very serious, and it is easy for the hungry people to cause civil riots if they cannot be comforted.

His worries were not unnecessary. No, as soon as he returned to the palace from the Beijing camp, Cao Huachun, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, came to see him with a memorial.

This memorial was sent by Xue Guoguan, the assistant minister who was still in charge of the Xuan Mansion. He said that signs of drought in Jin this year have appeared, and it seems to be more serious than in previous years. He is worried that Jin will be like Qin, because famine occurs everywhere. civil unrest.

In order to illustrate the authenticity of this situation, Xue Guoguan also reported in the memorial that the original grain reserves in Shanxi were purchased by those Shanxi merchants last year and have now been transported to the capital to rescue the people and support the capital. Once a more serious drought occurs, the consequences will be absolutely unpredictable.

Therefore, Xue Guoguan requested in the memorial that taxes should be reduced or reduced, and even preparations for disaster relief should be made. Otherwise, if you wait until the civil uprising occurs and then suppress and appease it, the losses will be great!

If it were somewhere else, Cao Huachun would have known Emperor Chongzhen's thoughts and would have responded and informed Emperor Chongzhen of the result. But because there was such a big case involving Shanxi merchants in Jin, and he knew that the emperor hated the traitorous Shanxi merchants, he was a little unsure of the emperor's attitude. Therefore, he handed the memorial directly to the emperor for personal processing.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw the words "The drought is worse than in previous years" written in the memorial, he knew that the severe drought in northern Shaanxi had begun to spread. Suddenly, his expression changed a little.

Emperor Chongzhen remembered that the thieves from Shaanxi had just jumped into Shanxi, and happened to encounter a major disaster after a series of disasters like this in Shanxi. Wouldn't it add fuel to the fire, and a single spark could start a prairie fire!

He felt that the situation was a bit serious, but Jin was different from the inland provinces. This was a border province of the Ming Dynasty, and the land taxes collected were all useful.

Generally speaking, the land tax collected by Shanxi local governments is divided into two parts, namely retention and transportation. The shipping part is not for the central government, but for military supplies in border towns. If this part is reduced or reduced, the border town will not be able to eat, and the consequences will be disastrous. Obviously, it is impossible to reduce or reduce it.

The other part is retention, which means staying in the local area. However, there are generally several uses. The first is military supplies for the local health post, the second is salary for the vassal, and the third is food for the students, etc.

Emperor Chongzhen thought about it, and immediately called the files and began to check the status of these land taxes.

He found that among these land taxes, the two largest expenditures were military supplies in border towns and vassal stipends, accounting for more than half of the land taxes. Among them, Zongfan's salary has always been insufficient. Otherwise, all the land and tax combined would not be enough to give Zongfan's salary. But it can be seen that the vassal salary is already too much.

As a result, the issue of the vassal clan was immediately placed in front of Emperor Chongzhen. The purpose of Xue Guoguan's memorial was also very obvious, that is, he wanted the emperor to come forward and exempt the vassal from his salary. It's just that when it comes to royal matters, he can't point it out directly.

In fact, Xue Guoguan was overly concerned about this point. What is royal or not? In the eyes of today's Emperor Chongzhen, these are nothing. He himself is thinking about how to weaken those vassal princes and clans!

Previously, the chief minister of the cabinet, Wen Tiren, had already raised the issue of the vassal clan. Now that it was put before him again, Emperor Chongzhen could not help but seriously think about the idea of ​​establishing a feudal vassal outside the Ming Dynasty again.

After a long time, Emperor Chongzhen started to write a letter to the vassal king in Shanxi. No matter what, with outsiders watching, he could not directly issue an order to reduce or reduce the vassal salary.

In the letter, he explained the difficulties of the court and the current situation in Shanxi. He hoped that the vassals and vassals who were capable, at least those vassal kings, would not only remove this year's land tax, but also preferably use part of it for disaster relief. Only in this way can they avoid civil unrest and threaten their future income and other things.

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen would not be the kind of begging for help in a low voice. There was a hint of threat in his words that were reasonable and presented the facts.

After finishing writing, he simply threw the letter to Cao Huachun and asked him to copy a few more letters based on this intention and send them to the vassal kings of Qin.

After handling this matter, Emperor Chongzhen discovered that the biggest problem was once again before his eyes. This problem is the problem of food shortage!

The problem of bandits that shook the foundation of the Ming Dynasty and eventually overthrew the Ming Dynasty was actually easy to solve at the beginning. It is the food that allows the victims to survive. Without these, the bandits are like a rootless tree, and they will never be able to make waves under the government's encirclement and suppression.

But in this Little Ice Age, in fact, not many provinces were rich in food. Although he paid enough attention to it, he even sent Xu Guangqi, the Minister of Rites, as an imperial envoy to inspect various places and promote high-yielding crops. But this takes time, and it will take at least a few years to achieve scale.

But in the past few years, the disasters caused by the Little Ice Age have become increasingly serious. It may be too late to wait until the day when high-yielding crops take effect, and we must find another way to solve the food problem! Even for food, no matter the cost!

When Emperor Chongzhen thought of this, he immediately thought of Nanyang's food. At a young age, he sent imperial envoys to various countries in Southeast Asia to ask them to pay tribute of food. It’s time for a response, right?

Although I have a chat group at hand, the number of people does not cover the whole world, so I cannot immediately know what is going on in the distance. Now I just hope that everything goes well and that the countries in Southeast Asia can pay tribute with food, which can at least alleviate part of the disaster.

Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but worry about another problem, that is transportation. Food from Southeast Asian countries must be transported by sea, but even if it comes from Tianjin, it will be transported to Shanxi and Shaanxi, which are the hardest hit, and a lot of food will be consumed on the road alone. Unlike later generations, a train skin can be pulled in.

It seems that the train still has to be prepared in advance, even if it is an original train! Emperor Chongzhen felt that there were so many things to do, and he was simply too busy!

Thanks to Boring Passer 08 for the tip!

I recently wrote a story about the New Army. Some friends couldn't accept the political commissar and the modern military system and abandoned the book, which was a bit of a shock.

Thanks to friends who are still reading. I will slowly complete the New Army section and try to be in line with the national conditions at that time. At least I think it is reasonable. thank you all!