Wanli Youming

Chapter 514

Chapter 514

In the 15th year of Wanli, midsummer.

On the outskirts of Beijing, as soon as the heavy rain stopped, the cicadas rang out among the lush green forests.

A large number of migrant workers were sweating profusely amidst the noisy cicadas, but these migrant workers did not get restless because of it, instead they were tamping earth and transporting stones peacefully.

Insufficient circulation of silver dollars caused a large number of private workshops to close down, which led to a large increase in unemployment and vagrants. As a result, the imperial government had to increase the scale of infrastructure construction. For this reason, the Ministry of Industry requested an edict to dredge the river, and also requested an imperial edict to widen the river. The land road between the two capitals is convenient for the large four-wheeled carriage invented by Qi Changguo to pass through, reducing the pressure on water transportation.

Now, what these migrant workers are doing is this project.

The reason why they are satisfied is that they are not more irritable because of unemployment in the hot summer days, but because the wages paid by the imperial court are really high, which is not lower than their income in private workshops, so it is difficult for some The literati instigated trouble.

Under the deliberate propaganda of the official newspaper, they only thought that because the emperor was benevolent and willing to let them live a better life, they gave them higher wages.

But what they don't know is that the court is more to allow more silver dollars to circulate in the market by issuing them.

After all, no matter how high their wages are, they are not much compared to wealthy households. Most of their wages are still used to support their families. Even if they save a little, the savings will be used to send their children to school. A piece itself costs a lot, so it is even more difficult to save.

Therefore, the Ming court did not mind giving them more money to these migrant workers, because as long as more money was given to these migrant workers, the circulation of silver dollars on the market would increase instead of being saved after getting silver dollars.

Of course, Zhu Yijun is willing to reprimand a large amount of state money to distribute to the people, which is not what any emperor is willing to do.

Because this is actually equivalent to spitting out what you eat in your mouth, which is really not something everyone can do.

Zhu Yijun can do it, firstly because he comes from later generations, he is more willing to think of ordinary people as human beings, and secondly because he knows that there are still many interests in the world of this era that are worthy of his exploration, which can greatly increase his wealth value, and The loss at this time is only based on the needs of long-term interests. It is necessary to temporarily reduce some capital so that internal chaos due to money shortage will not affect its future external expansion.

More importantly, the new rites have been promoted for so many years, and many ruling bureaucrats have accepted the idea that the Han people are more valuable than the barbarians, and they think that since the wages paid to the Fanyi are to ensure their basic survival because the new rites promote benevolence, then the Han people are more expensive than the barbarians. Yu Fanyi, as the son of the emperor, naturally had to give him more preferential treatment, and the treatment he was given could not just allow him to guarantee his basic life.

Therefore, Zhu Yijun was able to let the court feed back the people.

However, although Zhu Yijun and the bureaucrats who supported the Xinli Party were willing to use the state money to make a big fund to feed back the people, a large part of the bureaucrats were still unwilling and went to the school to oppose it.

"The people are not starved to death. Although the famine is only caused by seeking leisure and laziness, there are still a lot of industries in the world today, such as cultivating wasteland on the frontier, such as pulling fiber, such as long-term labor for large households, such as bearers, etc., and small The reason why many people are unwilling to do it is because they think it is hard work and poor, and they don't know the virtue of thrift, so they make troubles; "

"However, the imperial court condoned their nonsense, and did not hesitate to raise wages, so that the laborers and those who work hard have the same money to drink tea and listen to music, and they do not hesitate to spend a lot of money on the state."

"If the national money continues to be consumed like this, I really don't know if it will be exhausted in time! Besides, now that the Japanese and Luzon incidents are imminent, there is already a lot of money to spend. Now that the project is carried out at a high price, I'm afraid In a few years, the imperial court will be at the end of its rope, and if there are natural and man-made disasters, how will the imperial court respond?"

"What's more, the mountain mausoleum has not yet been built. Although His Majesty advocates thrift, but in terms of etiquette, the mountain mausoleum must be built. Such a waste of state money, I really don't know where the money for the mountain mausoleum will come from in the future?"

"Today's Chief Assistant Shen Shixing deceives His Majesty with benevolence, spends a lot of money on the country, and promotes his personal good name, but does not care about the future of the country. His heart is not insidious, and his actions are not shameless. Please choose the right people at the time and stop this early. The government of subjugation!"

Censor Wang Zhixiang gave such a memorial.

However, Zhu Yijun did not report these memorials, and still let the cabinet continue to spend the state's money on a large scale to promote the project.

That made it hard for bureaucrats who opposed the move.

Many of them hope that the price of silver dollars will continue to rise sharply. As a result, the imperial court has been using this method to distribute the silver dollars in stock to the people in the form of Daxing Project and various welfares, so that the silver dollars circulating on the market have been constantly increasing. Without a large-scale reduction, the price of silver dollars has only risen slightly, and the increase has not been as high as the expectations of bureaucrats and rightists.

As more and more projects appear, more and more state funds are flowing into the hands of ordinary people, and more and more officials cannot sit still.

Du Yushi Wu Shilai, Hu Kedu Shizhong Yang Yuting and others all came to the cabinet on this day, asking when the cabinet would spend the state money.

Yang Yuting even asked Shen Shihang directly: "When the national treasury and bank deposits are almost exhausted to the red line set by the Ministry of Households, if you continue to waste money like this, will Yuanfu think about the consequences?"

Shen Shixing said with a calm face: "The cabinet and the household department both have their own measures, so don't worry about giving advice."

Yang Yuting sneered: "I really don't know what measure you have."

When Wu Shi came to see Yang Yuting's words were a bit heavy, he quickly stopped him and said, "Yang is so rude to admonish him! As long as the cabinet has an answer to this matter, we will talk about it when we really reach the red line!"

Hearing Wu Shilai's persuasion, Yang Yuting said, "Okay, let me put my words here first. You don't have the long-term safety of the country in your heart, but I do! If it really comes to the time when the silver in Taicang warehouse really reaches the red line, I will I would rather be relegated to the extreme edge, but also exercise the right to refute!"

"I'm taking the liberty today, please forgive me and leave!"

After Yang Yuting finished speaking, he turned and left.

"Continue to collect silver dollars at high prices, and use land, houses, and maidservants to exchange for more valuable items such as silver dollars on the market!"

"Even if the beautiful maidservants in Guangsha are replaced with peddlers, we only need less silver dollars now, which will affect the war against Japan, make the world's silver shortage more serious, and make the imperial court even have to pay their true colors, even their true colors. Can't send it out."

Gu Xiancheng also said this to Gu Yuncheng when the cabinet released the silver dollars in Taicang and other treasuries to Xiaomin, and said with a sneer:

"In this way, there will be soldier mutiny and civil uprising, and Shenwu County will fall because of this, and the emperor will at least have an unknown evaluation. Either kill Shenwu County to restore its reputation, or deny internal funds to supplement the national treasury. The former will let the new party who advocates reform Cold heart, the latter is also in line with the wishes of the gentlemen in the world, and the emperor is empty to benefit the world."

Gu Yuncheng also smiled and said: "As my brother expected, all the dignitaries and gentry who are secretly dissatisfied with the new party are doing this. Brother Dongning discounted his 1000 mu of irrigated fields for less than [-] taels and sold them It was given to the local common people, and it was called in response to the new ceremony, self-restraint and annexation, and greatly benefited the common people. Therefore, many scholars in Nandu praised it for it, and the Taoist officials of Nandu Science and Technology wanted to ask for a letter for him. The imperial court had no choice but to It’s a sign, but not to blame the malicious cashier.”

"This is the advantage of speculating in silver dollars and doing things. If you learn from him, Zhu Yijun, you don't need to plot, and use new rituals to deal with new rituals. In this way, the emperor will not be able to abandon the new rituals, and he will not be able to use an upright gentleman."

Gu Xiancheng said with a smile.

Right now, the rich and powerful bureaucrats are indeed wantonly exchanging their own high value-added assets for silver dollars on the market.

At this time, Lu Yinchang, a member of the Wenxuan Department, gave a beautiful concubine he brought to Beijing at a discount of fifty silver dollars to Ren Yonggang, a commoner who came to the north to work, in order to get more silver dollars.

Ren Yonggang wanted to have a wife for a long time, and he really coveted her beauty and the price is really very low, so he gave up the plan to buy subscription coupons, and borrowed from his fellow workers with his part-time earnings and unused savings. I bought some silver dollars to buy this beautiful maid.

This is of course very bad for Lu Yinchang, you must know that he spent thousands of taels of silver just to cultivate this beautiful servant girl's ability to play piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.

But Lu Yinchang himself didn’t feel that he was at a loss. What he wanted was to see Shenwu County fall because of the silver shortage, and the Department of Literature and Literature of the Ministry of Officials returned to the era when it was possible to sell officials and nobles. appreciation.

And the rich and powerful bureaucrats do have a lot of high value-added assets, after all, they have been merged for more than 200 years.

So when they chose to sell at a low price, the imperial court was really overwhelmed for a while. Seeing that the treasury's silver deposits were really approaching the red line, Wang Lin, Minister of the Household Department, had no choice but to take the initiative to say to Zhu Yijun:

"Your Majesty, the price of silver dollars is still rising. If you want to stabilize, you can only rely on internal funds, and the treasury can no longer be released!"

(End of this chapter)