Meng Zezhi got a lot of news from the outside world from Lu Li.

For example, what happened in Song Guogong's mansion that day.

For example, the current layout of the court.

...

Another example is the great eunuch Tao An is his uncle.

Thanks to these news, Meng Zezhi had eaten meat nearly as often as last year's total in the past month or so.

In the blink of an eye, it was early August.

This afternoon, Meng Zezhi went to the Qianqing Palace as usual to greet Emperor Guangde.

As soon as they arrived at the gate of the palace, they heard the ministers shouting, "This minister is guilty."

"His Royal Highness."

Seeing Meng Zezhi coming, the waiter who was waiting outside the hall immediately bowed and saluted.

"No." Meng Zezhi asked, "Why, the royal father is still meeting ministers at this time?"

Seeing that there was no one left or right, the servant moved forward and whispered, "If you go back to Your Highness, the news that just arrived, 800 li in Henan is urgent, the Yellow River has burst its banks, and the national treasury will not be able to provide money for disaster relief."

Meng Zezhi's expression turned solemn, because the Yellow River has always suffered countless casualties.

"Forget it, disaster relief is the most important thing. Since the treasury has no money, 120,000 taels of silver will be allocated from the internal funds to resettle the displaced people and repair the river embankments."

"Long live, long live, Xie Wuhuang!"

"But my ugly words are ahead of me. If there is another mistake in this disaster relief, I will never forgive me lightly." Emperor Guangde slapped the table with a murderous slap.

"I don't dare to wait." The officials shouted in unison again.

Emperor Guangde took two rough breaths and said, "Since this is the case, I don't know which Aiqing is willing to go to Henan to preside over this disaster relief."

"Long live the report, Wei Chen is willing to go." But it was the second prince's right-hand man who left the job, Lou Shuxun, the current left servant of the Ministry of Household.

The eighth prince (the original seventh prince) frowned slightly.

Since Meng Zezhi's birth, the attitude of the officials who originally stood on the side of the second prince who supported the successor began to waver. It can be said that now is the time when the second prince's party is in turmoil. Just at this juncture, the second prince is going to send Lou Shuxun to disaster relief. Isn't this because the capital is not chaotic enough?

Either the second prince wanted to rebel, so he sent Lou Shuxun to contact the officials in the dark;

The eighth prince had a calculation in his heart.

Seeing that no one else stood up in the court hall, Emperor Guangde nodded: "Well, then Lou Aiqing will take the hard work."

"The minister leads the order."

After all the ministers dispersed, Meng Zezhi entered the Qianqing Palace under the guidance of the inner servant.

"My son, please greet the emperor." Meng Zezhi knelt down and bowed.

"Yunzhong is here." Emperor Guangde put down his hand rubbing his temples and forced a smile: "My father is busy with government affairs today, so I won't let you eat."

After he finished speaking, he instructed: "Tao An, instruct the imperial pantry to cook one more roasted venison for the fifth prince, and take it from my order."

"Thank you, Father."

Meng Zezhi picked up his robe and stood up. He paused and said, "I wonder if this servant can help the father and emperor?"

Tao An's head tightened, he was the most aware of Emperor Guangde's thoughts.

He didn't want Meng Zezhi to get involved in the struggle for succession, otherwise he wouldn't hold Meng Zezhi in Duanben Palace for two months.

Under such circumstances, Meng Zezhi suddenly said such words and fell into the ears of Emperor Guangde, fearing that it would be no different from reaching out for power.

Even if Emperor Guangde didn't pursue it, his affection for Meng Zezhi would probably drop by two points.

Sure enough, Emperor Guangde frowned inadvertently, but he still said in a good voice: "It's not a big deal, it's just that the treasury is empty and I can't come up with money."

He originally wanted to use these words to prevaricate Meng Zezhi. After all, there was no money in the national treasury, so Meng Zezhi couldn't change it.

But he didn't want Meng Zezhi to say seriously: "The treasury has no money, and the taxes collected are too little, not enough for a country so big to spend on a daily basis."

Emperor Guangde frowned, and could not help but follow Meng Zezhi's words: "You mean to increase taxes?"

"Yes and no. The former dynasties had bad governance and harmed the people the most. It was better to send extra army salaries to suppress our Han people's uprising army, so that the people became poor and robbery. These three salaries are several times higher than that of the positive ones, and they tickle the common people.

"Since the emperor's accession to the throne, he has been benevolent in government and love the people, first removing the three salaries, resting with the people, and lightly repaying the poor. Only then can the world be at peace today."

Hearing this, Emperor Guangde's expression improved a lot.

After complimenting Emperor Guangde, Meng Zezhi's eyes were bright: "But Father, is the amount of money and grain collected by the imperial court really the amount paid by the people?"

Emperor Guangde's face sank.

Meng Zezhi had no scruples: "Take Zhejiang Caoliang as an example, the imperial court spends 4 million shi in Zhejiang, while Zhejiang produces 10 million shi. The 4 million shi may not necessarily go back to the imperial court, while 6 million shi is often used for officials. , Shang and all kinds of beetles are the food of evil."

The Dayang Dynasty implemented the 'one whip law', and all taxes were collected and turned over to the treasury. However, when the government levied the canal grain, it was inevitable that the grain would be lost due to drying, winnowing and transportation. The government was unwilling to bear these additional losses, so it was transferred to the common people, which is the so-called consumption.

In this way, extra-legal taxes are not regulated, and officials will naturally go up and down, and there will be a lot of **.

"Father, does the emperor know how much the son and minister received in the Ministry of Household as the minister of the Qing Dynasty in Jiangsu and Zhejiang for half a year?"

Meng Zezhi asked and answered, "Four thousand taels."

A junior official of the fourth rank, with an annual salary of only 1,050 taels, can receive 8,000 taels of envy a year.

Emperor Guangde did not speak.

Does Emperor Guangde really not know about these things? he knows.

Why can he tolerate the levy of consumption by local officials?

First, officials have low salaries. In addition to supporting their families, they have to hire screen friends and servants. Otherwise, no one will be responsible for office work and chores. The court does not care about these extra expenses. During the festival, you have to pay attention to your bosses at all levels. Often, the annual salary of the officials is not enough for them to spend a month.

On the other hand, Emperor Guangde has been fighting with the Tartars all his life.

——In Meng Zezhi's view, Emperor Guangde was a diligent emperor, but not a good emperor.

He came to the throne lightly.

Among the eight sons of Emperor Taizu, Emperor Guangde was the youngest and the most mediocre in aptitude, but he could not bear his luck.

Before the world was settled, half of his seven brothers were killed. When the Dayang Dynasty was established, his fifth brother and seventh brother wanted to follow the change of Xuanwumen and get rid of his second brother in order to compete for the throne, but they were killed in the end.

His victorious second brother was half-laughing, and a stray arrow flew out of nowhere and killed him, taking away the grief-stricken Emperor Taizu by the way.

In this way, Emperor Guangde, who was dreaming of the idle king and never received a day of orthodox imperial education, was in a hurry and was pushed to the dragon chair by the civil and military officials.

As a result, in the third year of Guangde, the Tartars violated the border.

The dignified king of a country was driven to abandon the capital by the Hulu, fled from the north to the south, and then fled back to the north from the south. In the end, although he saved his life, he ended up with the death of his wife and son. It was a great shame!

To this end, Emperor Guangde endured humiliation and finally defeated the Tartars completely in twenty years.

——This is also the only achievement of Emperor Guangde who has been in power for more than 20 years.

After the incident of Guangde three years, the Yanggu royal family was swept away in the hearts of the common people.

Under such circumstances, Emperor Guangde officially started to govern the government.

In order to increase the people's confidence in the new dynasty and gain a reputation for benevolent governance and love for the people, Emperor Guangde had to cut taxes again and again. The effect was good at first, but the wealth and silk moved people's hearts. Gradually, the people below became dishonest. Even the prince got involved.

In the eighteenth year of Guangde, in order to deal with the eldest prince, the second prince tried his best to come up with a case of imperial examination fraud. After the incident, the eldest prince was imprisoned, more than a dozen officials involved in the case were pushed out of the Meridian Gate and beheaded, and their family members as many as two or three hundred people were either exiled or charged as prostitutes.

Afterwards, the unwilling eldest prince colluded with the remaining Tatar forces to assassinate Zhao Yijing, who was about to return to Beijing.

After the first prince was abolished, in order to prevent the second prince from dominating the court, Emperor Guangde had to support the seventh prince to fight against him.

Then in the 22nd year of Guangde, there was a severe drought in Qingzhou. In order to pull the second prince off his horse, the seventh prince did not hesitate to rob the disaster relief silver tael, causing the Qingzhou refugees to riot and starve to death.

But what if Emperor Guangde knew about it?

For the sake of the people and the majesty of the royal family, he not only wanted to suppress these things, but also ordered people to help them clean up their little tails.

To be an emperor to do this is enough to fail.

Didn't Emperor Guangde think about changing the status quo?

How could he not have thought about it.

It's just that the freezing three feet is not a day's cold, and the matter of wasting envy is related to the interests of the officials of the Manchu Dynasty, which can be said to affect the whole body.

For the past ten years, he was busy dealing with the Tartars, always thinking that he must be safe from the inside first, and it is better to do less than one thing, so he mostly turned a blind eye to the corruption of officials.

By the time he finally finished fighting Tatar, his health was not as good as before, and because of his lack of energy, he really couldn't get up.

Now that he heard Meng Zezhi talk about this matter, he couldn't help but ask, "What do you think is the solution to this matter?"

"One, the amount of envy is clearly determined, and the amount of envy is returned to the public, and the imperial court uniformly allocates it to the prefectures and counties for dispatching and use. Two, high wages and honesty. Three, clearly punishing the law." Meng Zezhi's words were sonorous and powerful.

"Consumption of envy and return to the public, high salaries and cheap..."

It is equivalent to giving a slap in the face and then giving a sweet date, Emperor Guangde muttered to himself, this is indeed a good way.

The more he thought about it, the brighter his eyes became, and then he seemed to think of something, and the light in his eyes slowly dimmed.

Again, his body couldn't stand the toss.

If Meng Zezhi could do this—

Thinking of this, he raised his head sharply, and then his expression froze.

Just as Tao An thought, he really didn't want Meng Zezhi to get involved in the struggle for succession.

Others may not know his physical condition, but he knows it all too well. The court was already ruled by the second prince and the eighth prince. Even if he had this idea, he couldn't pave the way for Meng Zezhi in a short period of time.

That being the case, it would be better to let Meng Zezhi be an idle king who will not fight or rob from the very beginning. With his status as the first rank of six yuan, believe that his successor will be very willing to keep Meng Zezhi as a mascot.

But at this moment, Meng Zezhi's performance was really too dazzling, and he couldn't help but think of the North-South list proposed by Meng Zezhi during the 21st Palace Exam...

At this moment, he was shaken.

With a complicated look on his face, he sighed and said, "You go down first, let me think about it."

"Yes, Erchen retire."

When Meng Zezhi left, Tao An also withdrew. He recruited his confidants and said, "Go, talk to Master Liu and the others, and put the matter of jointly inviting His Highness the Fifth Prince to enter the court to observe politics."

"Yes."

After speaking, Tao An opened his eyes.

His nephew is much better than he imagined.

The author has something to say:

Consumption of envy and return to the public, high salary and honesty were an important measure to increase the salary of local officials at all levels by setting fire consumption during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty.

Pertinent comments in the previous chapter

Can't be repaired: feel like they will beep as soon as they meet—

#No, no, don't talk nonsense, people don't go to bed at all. #