Chapter 269 Chapter 268 One Step Late

"Last year, only 80,000 taels of silver were borrowed, but this year it suddenly became 700,000 taels."

In the Yongshou Palace in the Western Garden, Emperor Jiajing sat on the throne and looked at the note that had just been sent to him. This was not a memorial, but a request from the cabinet.

From the handwriting, Emperor Jiajing could tell at a glance that the note written by Xu Jie was stamped with Yan Song's seal.

I thought that after the increase in taxes in Jiangnan, the court's finances could take a breath this year, but I didn't expect the deficit to be worsening.

Emperor Jiajing naturally knew how to distribute the 700,000 taels of silver. He just didn't say a lot of things, but it didn't mean he didn't know.

Footsteps sounded outside the palace, and soon a little eunuch came in to report: "Your Majesty, Governor Lu outside the palace requested an audience."

Hearing that it was Lu Bing who came, Emperor Jiajing nodded slightly to let him in.

The little eunuch naturally understood the meaning of his own emperor's action, and immediately bowed and retreated.

Not long after, Lu Bing, dressed in a python robe, strode into the hall and saluted in front of Emperor Jiajing.

"Stand up, no need to be so polite."

Emperor Jiajing looked at Lu Bing, a rare smile appeared on his calm face and said: "What's the matter with you coming to me today? This is not your usual time to come here. Did something big happen again?"

Although Lu Bing held many official positions, his main task was to be in charge of the Jinyiwei and monitor the world. Naturally, he had the right to meet the emperor at any time, otherwise the role of the Jinyiwei would be useless.

"Your Majesty, this is a memorial written by this humble minister. Please take a look at it."

The Ministry of Revenue was worried about the money for the New Year, and Lu Bing believed that the palace must know about it.

Emperor Jiajing at this time, although he didn't say it, he must have been thinking about this matter in his heart.

Although Emperor Jiajing was almost fifty years old, he was also pure and abstinent in order to practice Taoism, but in fact he still had a playful heart and especially liked to watch fireworks.

There was no large-scale industry in ancient times. All objects were handmade by craftsmen. Although they could not be said to be unique, they were indeed very rare and naturally expensive, even ordinary fireworks in later generations were the same.

Now that the Ministry of Revenue had no money, Emperor Jiajing should also be worried about the New Year. Lu Bing felt that the opportunity he had been waiting for had finally come.

Impeaching Li Bin when the emperor was worried about money, even if Emperor Jiajing favored him, he would harden his heart and wield the butcher knife at this time.

Huang Jin took the memorial from Lu Bing and gently placed it on the imperial desk, and then stepped aside.

Emperor Jiajing did not read the memorial at this time, but just stared at Lu Bing with interest for a long time, then retracted his gaze and looked at the memorial in front of him, picked it up and read it carefully.

Gradually, as he read the memorial and saw the content, Emperor Jiajing, who had been relaxed before, gradually became gloomy.

While the emperor was reading the memorial, Lu Bing secretly glanced at Huang Jin next to him. Huang Jin shook his head at him, but his mouth did not open or close.

Even so, Lu Bing's heart trembled slightly, it seems that he came at the wrong time today.

Huang Jin did not speak, but shook his head, and he roughly understood the meaning of it.

Yes, Lu Bing intended to take action against Li Bin, and naturally he had explained it to Huang Jin beforehand.

Li Bin was not promoted by Huang Jin. Like Gao Zhong, he was a wild one, and was valued because of his outstanding performance when Emperor Jiajing first entered the palace.

Of course, this was not because Huang Jin was jealous of Li Bin's favor. His position was unbreakable. In the past, he was happy to see the open and secret struggles between Li Bin and Gao Zhong in the Silijian.

It was just that compared with Gao Zhong, this Li Bin was bolder and more greedy, which made the loyal Huang Jin more and more unbearable to Li Bin.

Although he was the governor of the inner court and could nominally manage all eunuchs and eunuchs, he was often unable to control the eunuchs around Emperor Jiajing. He could only take action against them when the emperor ordered.

After Lu Bing found two pieces of evidence that Li Bin was corrupt, Huang Jin naturally would not oppose Lu Bing's impeachment of him, but he did not get involved and let Lu Bing do what he wanted, but he still had to take care of him.

Lu Bing's time for the audience today was wrong, and what he said after entering the palace naturally made him know what was said in the memorial, which should be the evidence of Li Bin's guilt.

Unfortunately, if it was earlier, before the cabinet passed the note, Emperor Jiajing might have ordered Li Bin to be arrested on the spot.

Now, maybe he would be detained first, or he might be called to scold him.

Thunder and rain, all in the emperor's heart.

When Emperor Jiajing put down the memorial in his hand, his face had returned to calm.

Not showing joy or anger on his face, this may be the basic skill of being an emperor.

However, Huang Jin and Lu Bing, who were familiar with him, could still feel his anger at this time.

Yes, although his face was calm, the emperor was still a little angry now, but his long-term monastic life taught him to control his emotions.

The purpose of Taoist practice is to achieve the Great Dao, longevity and transcendence. To achieve this, one must be focused.

If one wants to practice without distraction, one must naturally cut off the so-called seven emotions and six desires.

The seven emotions are joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear and shock. The six desires are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind.

In Taoist practice books, fog is often used to describe the seven emotions and six desires. This is a very vivid and clever description. Once you see through it, you will naturally understand it and be able to concentrate on practice without being affected by the outside world.

Huang Jin and Lu Bing naturally didn't know whether Emperor Jiajing had seen through the fog, but they didn't guess because the emperor didn't seem to have learned the skill yet.

In this era, there are atheists, but not many, so naturally they are not among them.

So at this time, they could still see that Emperor Jiajing was angry inside.

"Wow, wow, haha, it's really difficult for a slave to accumulate such a huge fortune."

Emperor Jiajing looked at Lu Bing, then looked at Huang Jin, and asked, "Huang Jin, how much wealth have you accumulated?"

Hearing the emperor's question, Huang Jin was so frightened that he knelt down with a "pop" and exclaimed: "Your Majesty, although I have accumulated some money, it is all a reward from your Majesty, as well as the New Year's Eve of the ladies in the palace. The rewards given by the emperor, and when I go on errands for the emperor, the people below will give me some money for transportation, but I never take ill-gotten gains by taking bribes and perverting the law. The emperor knows clearly. "

With that said, Huang Jin kowtowed to Emperor Jiajing.

"Get up, I just want to ask, don't your sons and grandsons show their respect to you?"

Emperor Jiajing asked, waving his sleeves and placing his hands on his knees.

"Yes, there are some, but not much. They don't have much money themselves."

Huang Jin didn't expect that the matter would involve him. At this time, he felt regretful. He should at least inform Lu Bing beforehand that if he was going to be impeached, he would first find a chance to leave Yongshou Palace and let others bear the burden.

Can these eunuchs around me not accept gifts?

Even the emperor has tributes sent from all over the country every year, which is actually one of the ways to receive gifts.

Emperor Jiajing would not notice if the people around him took some money and could still serve him wholeheartedly.

Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were a bit too much, beyond the limit he could bear, which naturally made him think of the saying "eating people is short-tongued and being soft-handed."

These days, the wealth of local wealthy families probably only amounts to this amount.

"Several hundred thousand taels of silver, haha, you can really collect a lot of money. I don't know how much trouble you will have to do if you take this money."

After Emperor Jiajing waved his hand for Huang Jin to get up, he turned to Lu Bing and said.

Hearing the emperor's words, Lu Bing's previously worried heart finally relaxed. Li Bin was finished.

"Your Majesty, the crimes listed in the memorandum of the ministers are all supported by witnesses and material evidence. Otherwise, we would not dare to report the matter. After all, the matter is of great importance. Eunuch Li serves as the Supervisor of Ceremonies."

Lu Bing whispered.

Only this time, after Lu Bing finished speaking, Emperor Jiajing did not speak immediately. Instead, he kept his hands on his knees and looked at the memorial on the imperial desk.

I don't know what Emperor Jiajing is thinking about. At this time, Lu Bing and Huang Jin didn't dare to say anything. They could only stand there quietly, waiting for the emperor to speak.

I don't know how long it took, but Emperor Jiajing seemed to have thought it over clearly, and then he said to Lu Bing: "First put him under surveillance and check for evidence of his crime. I don't believe that he has just such a small amount of guilt. Let me check it carefully. Don't let him go." He got away."

Emperor Jiajing did not immediately order the arrest. Lu Bing was confused at this time and could not distinguish the situation.

If we don’t take away people before the New Year, what will we do during the Chinese New Year in Jinyiwei?

However, the emperor had already said this, so he naturally had no choice but to obey.

After leaving Yongshou Palace, Lu Bing did not leave Xiyuan directly. Instead, he found a place to sit down near Yongshou Palace. He wanted to wait for someone and figure out the situation.

The person he is looking for is naturally Huang Jin, the eunuch beside the emperor. No one knows the emperor better than him.

Huang Jin had given him hints before. Apparently something happened before that he didn't know about, and the timing he caught was a bit wrong.

Lu Bing didn't know the details, but Huang Jin roughly guessed Emperor Jiajing's thoughts.

If Li Bin were captured at this moment, as eunuch Bingbi, the eunuch in charge of etiquette, the news would soon spread throughout the officialdom of the capital.

Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were copied, and it was the New Year's Day. It was impossible for Fang Rui and the others not to be interested in this money. The Ministry of Household Affairs was already anxious and angry because of the lack of silver.

If the things are copied to the dirty punishment treasury, the civil servants will definitely clamor to use the dirty silver as the palace's New Year expenses. The amount of silver they wanted to borrow from the Taipusi Changying treasury in the previous note should be reduced. Some, but not too much.

In short, those civil servants kept a close eye on the palace, especially money.

Emperor Jiajing consumed a huge amount of money because of his cultivation and enjoyment, so naturally he would not be indifferent to these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Emperor Jiajing wanted the silver in the Chang Ying Treasury of Taipu Temple, and he couldn't lose any of the silver stored in Li Bin's house.

As long as the time of the crime is moved back a little and the Taipusi money is loaned out and sent to the palace, it should be the time for Emperor Jiajing to take action.

If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was rich, he was really rich, at least on paper.

The emperor is the emperor and is rich all over the world. It is said that all the wealth in the world belongs to him. If necessary, he can just raise taxes.

But the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was unlucky to have a meddling ancestor. Zhu Yuanzhang settled everything and made it what the civil servants called the ancestral system.

Although Emperor Jiajing didn't value that thing, he would change it without hesitation if necessary, but he was tired of fighting with civil servants for a long time, not to mention that he had to concentrate on his cultivation and could not be distracted by these mundane affairs.

Well, as the emperor, Emperor Jiajing could not feel the feeling of being rich all over the world.

It took a long time to ask Zhang Zong and Xia Yan for money from the Ministry of Revenue. It was better to replace Yan Song. They tried their best to meet his needs, but the money was the Ministry of Revenue treasury silver accumulated by previous generations of emperors, and now it has been spent.

In the past two years, the court's silver has been used to repair the old wall. He knows this, but he doesn't want to get involved. Let the civil servants make trouble on their own.

Stick to your principles, what you deserve should be entered into the inner court.

To cultivate the great way is for the benefit of the people of the world, so naturally the national treasury should pay for the money.

Yes, the inner court of Emperor Jiajing has income, but this money will not be used for his own cultivation.

No one understands the importance of money better than the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

To govern the world, it is actually based on the control of financial power. As long as the flow of the court's finances is controlled, the power of the whole country can be effectively controlled.

This principle is definitely a rebellious theory for the current Confucianism, but Emperor Jiajing understands it, Yan Song also understands it, and Wei Guangde actually thought of it.

The ultimate goal of the fiscal and taxation reforms in later generations is actually for this, to control the local areas more effectively.

Lu Bing waited outside the palace for a long time before Huang Jin took the time to come out of Yongshou Palace.

It was not that Huang Jin had cultivated with Emperor Jiajing and had become skilled in fortune-telling, but that a young eunuch had secretly told him about this.

Huang Jin knew what Lu Bing wanted to know, but as he was serving the emperor, he naturally knew when he could leave the emperor's side.

Fortunately, he finally found an opportunity. Shang Meiren in the palace ran here when she had nothing to do, so Huang Jin naturally had to leave the hall.

When he arrived at the gate of Yongshou Palace, Huang Jin looked back at the towering palace. Shang Meiren was really blessed for eight lifetimes. Everyone thought that the emperor would punish this unruly little maid.

Who would have thought that it was a blessing in disguise, from a little maid to Shang Meiren, the serf turned over and sang, and became the little master in the palace.

She was the little maid who had laughed at Emperor Jiajing for dozing off in the palace before. Not only was she not punished for her misbehavior, but she was summoned by Emperor Jiajing to sleep with her. This was her luck.

After leaving Yongshou Palace, Huang Jin met Lu Bing and whispered to him about the note sent by the cabinet.

Lu Bing was naturally a smart man and instantly understood what Emperor Jiajing meant.

On the way out of Xiyuan, Lu Bing was even more worried. If he couldn't raid Li Bin's house before the New Year, where would he get the New Year gift from the Jinyiwei?

The impeachment was delayed until this time, not only because sufficient evidence had to be collected, but also because this was the time when the palace was short of money. Another reason was that the Jinyiwei also needed money to send off his men.

Although the Jinyiwei had a lot of money in the capital, he had more than a few people under his command. Up to now, not to mention the other Jinyiwei in the country, there were tens of thousands of people in the capital who relied on him for food, not to mention those rewarded empty positions.

Riding on the horse, Lu Bing felt a little dazed.