Chapter 699 Chapter 798 Yu Yan Exchanged for Beijing Camp

After Wei Guangde finished writing the memorial, he took a break and thought about it again. He picked up the memorial and read it carefully. He felt that there was nothing to modify, so he got up and went to Li Chunfang's duty room.

The cabinet is divided into the first assistant, the second assistant and the assistant minister. If there is something, it is natural to discuss it with the first assistant. If the first assistant is on vacation or not, then go to the second assistant.

Although the current Ming cabinet is a little special, the surface work still needs to be done.

Chinese culture has a long history, and Confucianism has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and "etiquette" is the most important among them.

Etiquette also includes the respect of the old and the young, so when Wei Guangde and Yin Shizhan encounter something, they cannot skip Li Chunfang and discuss the disposal directly with Chen Yiqin. They can only hold together in the cabinet.

"Is the first assistant in the room?"

Wei Guangde took the written memorial to the outside of Li Chunfang's duty room and asked loudly to the clerk at the door.

"Yes, I will go in and report."

The clerk replied immediately.

"Okay."

Wei Guangde nodded and said.

Their conversation was quite loud, and Li Chunfang inside certainly heard it. He had already put down the memorial in his hand and looked up at the door.

After the clerk came in to report, Wei Guangde was naturally invited in.

"Prime Minister."

Wei Guangde saluted Li Chunfang after entering the door, and then handed the memorial to Li Chunfang with both hands and said: "I went to the Beijing Camp to take a look yesterday. I thought about the practice of reviewing the Beijing Camp. It seems that it can be revised during the opportunity of His Majesty's review this year. Please correct me."

"Oh, then I'll take a look."

Li Chunfang was still wondering why Wei Guangde came to him. When he heard this, he reached out to take the memorial, opened it, and looked down.

As he read it, Li Chunfang began to nod, "Well, not bad, this suggestion is very good."

Wei Guangde made it clear in the memorial that after selecting the elite, the Beijing Camp has formed several new camps that are slightly acceptable.

Such a trained army is hard-won, and we hope to preserve it, hold a grand review every three years to strengthen our momentum, and also preserve the seeds of the Beijing Camp.

Although the civil official group has been suppressing military generals, they also know that there is a limit, otherwise they will repeat the story of the fall of the country during the Song Dynasty.

The Beijing Camp still needs a combat-capable army, so that those who serve as officials in the capital can feel safe.

"Shan Dai, your memorial is well written. I completely agree with your opinion, that is"

Li Chunfang seems to think more. In fact, they all know that it is not that no one has thought about making drastic changes to the Beijing Camp in recent years, especially after the Gengxu Change, they have also tried several times to reach out again.

However, in addition to getting a military position, the foundation of the civil official group in the Beijing Camp is too shallow to shake the influence of the nobles in the Beijing Camp.

Moreover, the Beijing Camp is the last territory of the nobles. Whenever the civil officials want to reach out, they will inevitably encounter the counterattack of the nobles. Anyone who proposes this will soon be impeached.

Although ordinary nobles had lost face in front of the emperor, the top nobles still had. They tried to attack those civil officials who emerged in front of Emperor Jiajing.

In addition, the favored Prime Minister Yan Song did not want to tear his face with the nobles, so it continued like this.

Although Wei Guangde's operation this time did not increase the influence of civil officials on the Beijing Camp, it did increase the combat effectiveness of the Beijing Camp, which seemed to be a good thing.

But he was still worried about how the nobles would react?

After looking at Wei Guangde, Li Chunfang still asked: "The review is held every three years, but I don't know if Cheng Guogong and others will support it?"

Wei Guangde was still wondering why Li Chunfang had such an attitude. When he heard him mention Cheng Guogong, he understood his concerns.

Although Wei Guangde did not discuss this matter with other noble groups, he knew that if he really talked to them about this matter, there would definitely be countless reasons to refuse.

Just kidding, in the past six months or so, it has already affected the wallets of some nobles.

According to Wei Guangde's method, the income will remain at the current level in the future. It's okay for the top nobles, but the lives of the middle and lower nobles will be affected to some extent.

Therefore, Wei Guangde didn't discuss it with Zhu Xizhong and others at all. Anyway, they would know it after the memorial was submitted.

If he told them in advance and discussed it with them, they would not accept it. They would definitely oppose it and start preparing early.

It's possible that before Wei Guangde's memorial was submitted, they would have collectively run to the palace to complain to Emperor Longqing.

Emperor Longqing was soft-hearted, and a bunch of nobles crying and complaining might directly ruin the matter.

Of course, they would definitely not say to the emperor that they got less silver from the military pay of the Beijing Camp, but other reasons, such as the civil servants must have rebellious intentions and wanted to interfere in the Beijing Camp, etc.

Regarding Li Chunfang's question, Wei Guangde thought for a moment before saying, "Prime Minister, I have not discussed this matter with Duke Chengguo and the others.

If we tell them about this, they will only try to stop it. It is better to throw it directly to the emperor and see what His Majesty decides."

"In that case, when they know the news, they will go to the palace to complain and cry, which may affect the subsequent review.

Shandai, I think you should hold back this memorial for the time being and submit it after the review."

When Li Chunfang heard that he had not discussed this matter with the nobles before, he knew that submitting this memorial would easily cause an uproar, so he kindly reminded him.

Wei Guangde just smiled when he heard it, "This is a double-edged sword. If we mention it now, it may affect the review as the Prime Minister said, but it may also be the opposite. They are afraid of the review later and dare not do bad things blatantly.

As long as it is set as a routine, it will be difficult for them to do bad things later, and it will be even more difficult to change it.

As for the dissatisfaction of those nobles, I will contact them privately to see their conditions.

In my opinion, there is nothing in the world that cannot be negotiated. It's nothing more than the price and what they want.

As long as the memorial is followed, the Beijing camp is divided into the new camp and the old camp. They can place people in the old camp at will, and the new camp must select generals who are good at fighting to lead the team.

For them, the loss is actually the yellow and white things, and they just need to make up for it in other places."

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, he looked at Li Chunfang.

"Do you have an idea?"

Li Chunfang asked tentatively. He wanted to know what benefits Wei Guangde planned to give to the nobles so that they would withdraw their hands from the Beijing camp to make money.

"I remember that several salt fields had reported to the emperor about the disposal of surplus salt. This matter has been dragging on. It's just right to distribute these salt permits and give them more compensation."

The Ming Dynasty court actually has a lot of cash that can be converted into cash, but many of them are divided up by the officials below.

Most people in the cabinet have no experience in grassroots work, so they are easily deceived by the people below.

For the salt business, although the cabinet ministers know that there are huge profits in it, they only know a general idea, not in detail, and they are not aware of the wealth of the big salt merchants in Jiangnan at that time.

Especially since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the salt tax has been very stable, about 1.25 million taels, so it gives people the feeling that although the profit is large, it is not much.

The salt fields of the Ming Dynasty produced every year according to the number of households in the world given by the Ministry of Households, so the population of 60 million in the early Ming Dynasty was still roughly the same at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

But in fact, the population of the Ming Dynasty had already doubled at this time, but the court did not know it because of inaccurate statistics.

But as the lowest-level officials, although they did not know these data, they could roughly calculate it based on the salt sold.

The court produced salt based on a population of 60 million, so how could the salt permits issued by the court meet the demand?

The salt fields tried to increase the supply, but there were only so many salt permits, so every year the Salt Administration Office had to discuss this with the Ministry of Revenue and come up with reasons to deal with the surplus salt, or sell the salt permits for profit.

In the early and middle Ming Dynasty, salt was not an ordinary commodity and could not be bought in private stores.

Whether living in the city or the countryside, salt was extracted from the Salt Transport Office by local officials and then distributed to the head of the Jia and the head of the village according to the household.

In fact, the salt at that time was similar to the planned supply model.

However, as the population increased, the demand for salt increased, and salt merchants found opportunities, so "local merchants" appeared.

Yan Maoqing said when talking about the rules of salt transportation: "It is advisable to divide the salt transportation into three categories according to the distance of the land and the number of households. The number of households in a certain prefecture and a certain county should be determined, and each merchant should be ordered to transport salt to the local area. The officials should be responsible for the local merchants to resell it."

At this time, the government had gradually withdrawn from the distribution of salt, and only required the supply of salt according to the number of households and levied taxes, while salt began to be sold by salt companies and shops.

This effectively concealed the secret of the population surge and the increase in the supply of salt, laying the foundation for salt merchants to make a lot of money.

Although the downstream problem was solved, the salt fields were still stuck. There was demand but no supply, especially in the Ming Dynasty, the government had very strict control over the salt price. The salt prices in various places had to be reported to the court every year as a political achievement. The court wanted to know what the salt prices in various places were.

Therefore, the salt merchants were very smart in controlling the salt prices on the market, but they sold a large amount of private salt.

However, the Ming Dynasty government has always been very strong in cracking down on private salt. The "Great Ming Law" stipulates: "Anyone who commits private salt shall be caned 100 times and sentenced to three years in prison." Those with serious circumstances may be sentenced to death.

For terminal transactions, the "Great Ming Law" also clearly stipulates: "Those who undermine the salt law, buyers and sellers will be caned 80 times each, and the guarantor will be reduced by one level, and the price of salt goods will be included in the government."

That is, in the retail stage, both buyers and sellers will be punished.

However, the amount of private salt is not much after all, and the output of the stove households is limited. After ensuring the production task of the salt field, there is not much left.

Therefore, increasing the supply from the official salt field has become the most important part of meeting market demand.

Whenever the government wants to deal with the surplus salt, it will inevitably attract salt merchants from all over the world to compete for this piece of cake.

To appease the dissatisfaction of the nobles, Wei Guangde thinks that it is enough to throw out the salt permit, and the party whose interests are damaged is actually the Ministry of Revenue in the two capitals and some local salt administration offices.

Relatively speaking, this part of money will not end up in the hands of the court. It is better to cash it out here to the nobles, so that they will not cause trouble to the military households, and also slightly improve the combat effectiveness of the Ming army.

Wei Guangde calculated the amount of surplus salt reported by Lianghuai, Liangzhe and Shandong salt fields to Li Chunfang, so that he would know how much silver the court would get from these salt permits.

Although he didn't know how much profit would be brought by the operation behind the scenes after getting the salt permit, Li Chunfang also knew that it should be able to satisfy the appetite of the nobles.

Li Chunfang understood Wei Guangde's thoughts and was silent for a long time before saying: 'Although this treatment can save the Beijing camp, will the officials below be dissatisfied and cause trouble again? '

In fact, what Li Chunfang wanted to say more was that if this wave of benefits was given to the nobles, they would get nothing.

And if they continue to stay with the civil officials, they can also receive a lot of gifts from the local people during the holidays.

According to Wei Guangde's approach, this year's income will probably be affected to some extent.

However, Li Chunfang has no desires for the position of the Prime Minister.

Since the redistribution of the benefits of the salt administration may restore a little combat power of the Beijing Camp, it seems that it is not impossible to exchange.

Although this proposal was proposed by Wei Guangde, there was still a verbal battle between him and the nobles. He, the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, had to fight with the nobles on behalf of the civil officials group. If he could do a good job in this matter during his tenure, his name should be remembered by future generations.

Thinking about his career as the Prime Minister in the past two years, he also knew what the outside world thought of him.

He said that he did not do anything big. Is this a big thing that benefits the country and the people?

Li Chunfang reached out and took the pen in his hand and wanted to vote, but after thinking about it, he thought that since this was proposed by Wei Guangde, he might as well call the other cabinet ministers and submit it directly in the name of the cabinet proposal.

Wei Guangde made a suggestion, and the cabinet agreed to it. Such a memorial would have a greater influence on the emperor.

In fact, all they wanted was for the emperor to choose the cabinet's decision in the end, rather than being influenced by the nobles.

He stood up and called the clerk outside to inform the other cabinet members to come here to discuss important matters.

Not long after, Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhan and Zhang Juzheng arrived.

After instructing the people outside to stay away from the duty room, Li Chunfang told the three of Wei Guangde's plan and showed them Wei Guangde's memorial.

Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhan both put state affairs first, and it would naturally be a good thing to enhance the combat effectiveness of the Beijing camp.

As for the remaining salt, in fact, no matter how it was distributed, they would not directly intervene in it. It was really not good to spread it out, so the impact on them was limited, and they naturally would not object.

Zhang Juzheng remained silent because he was deducing the possible final outcome of the matter in his mind. If the matter of the remaining salt was thrown out, it would end up in failure, and he would lose support from Emperor Longqing, allowing the nobles to profit from it.

You know, Wei Guangde's identity is too special. He has the identity of a civil official group, the shadow of a military household, and the relationship with top nobles. Zhang Juzheng is not sure whether Wei Guangde is really as he said, or whether the nobles have set their eyes on the remaining salt in the salt field.

However, after some deduction, it seems that in addition to submitting this memorial, the two sides began to quarrel and strive for the emperor's support. The only possible problem is whether Wei Guangde and the nobles will get some benefits in private when negotiating privately.

However, these are actually not important. As long as the combat power of the Beijing camp is really preserved, it will be the greatest contribution to the country for them.

Like Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin, he did not take the officials below seriously, but thought about the benefits of getting this done.

If you want to keep your position, or want to get promoted, you still have to ask for it here.

"I have no objection."

After Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhan expressed their opinions, Zhang Juzheng also expressed his opinion. (End of this chapter)