Chapter 759 858 The Fourth Year of Longqing
Wei Guangde proposed to tax the clan and then use the tax to subsidize the clan's lack of rice. This idea was in line with the emperor's wishes, but he was also hesitant. After all, he wanted to collect money from them, and there was no precedent in the past.
"Your Majesty, the clan has always been lawless in local areas due to lack of restraint.
Taxing them is also a reminder to them that Your Majesty is there, so that when the tax is paid every year, the princes or clan members of each prince's palace will be escorted to the capital without going through the imperial court.
After they enter the capital, your majesty can get familiar with the clans in various places, and secondly, he can show you dignity. This is actually for their own good. "
Wei Guangde saw that Emperor Longqing understood, but still did not express his position, so he simply continued.
"This matter is too big, let me think about it carefully."
Emperor Longqing spoke at this time, but turned to look at Wei Guangde and said: "But the mining issue you mentioned seems to be discussed urgently. The inner and outer courts have no money now, and a solution must be found as soon as possible."
"We can first identify two mines near the capital for mining. In this way, we can also improve the regulations and establish systems, and then gradually roll them out."
Wei Guangde said.
Many of the things he tinkered with were just trying to cross the river by feeling the stones. It was best to take it step by step and try it slowly, so that even if there were mistakes, they could be corrected in time to avoid catastrophe.
"You go back and think about it, write a charter, and I will consider it."
Wei Guangde was thinking about it as he exited the Palace of Qianqing and returned to the cabinet. It seemed that the emperor thought the matter was relatively big and might even consult with Gao Gong, Li Chunfang and others.
Collecting taxes from the clan is actually not difficult. The main thing is to be able to withstand the clan's cries. Those people are used to crying about poverty, but as long as two of them are punished, the others will be honest.
However, I don’t know if Emperor Longqing didn’t notice the matter of sharing the land with his family, or didn’t pay attention to it at all. It seemed that he was more interested in mining.
With Gao Gong's return to the court, everyone in the cabinet discovered that Emperor Longqing had changed a lot recently.
In the past, people would be sent to the cabinet every one or two days to summon people, but now they have become more diligent and send people here almost every day.
However, most of those summoned into the palace every day have high arches, and because of this, the number of times they are summoned has become less.
In the past, they could see the emperor once every six or seven days, but now it has become ten days to see the emperor, which means they can only see the emperor two or three times a month.
It is very important for cabinet ministers to show their face in front of the emperor.
As a cabinet minister, the emperor's support and trust are very important, but it is only through the cold words attached to the memorial, but after all, without seeing the emperor in person, speaking a few words in front of him has the best effect.
Among the few people, only Wei Guangde seems to still be able to see the emperor five or six times a month, and basically there is not much change.
In the last month of the third year of Longqing's reign, the atmosphere in various government offices in the capital was also very relaxed.
After Gao Gong returned to the court, perhaps he found that the people who needed his revenge were all gone. He did not take any action until now. He just went to the cabinet every day to work and accept the emperor's inquiries like other cabinet ministers.
As time went by, everyone seemed to gradually forget the fear that had brought them before.
"Master, butler Zhang Ji wants to see the master outside the palace."
In the cabinet duty room, Wei Guangde was processing the memorial when Lu Bu came in and whispered in his ear.
Lu Bu is the steward of the Wei Mansion, but without official status, he cannot enter the Forbidden City.
"Did he say what happened?"
It was rare for Zhang Ji to come to the cabinet to find him. Something must have happened, so Wei Guangde held back his nerves and asked.
"It seems that Master Ouyang, a fellow countryman from the military department, died of illness on the road."
Lu Bu said cautiously.
"What?"
Wei Guangde stood up suddenly. He didn't know that in another time and space, it was said that Ouyang Yijing died of depression because Gao Gong returned to the court. Of course, some people said that he was frightened to death by Gao Gong's return.
But no matter what, Ouyang Yijing is his fellow Peng Ze, and he is the one closest to home among his colleagues, so they usually have a closer relationship. It is shocking to suddenly hear that someone has died.
Wei Guangde knew that this was probably true, and Zhang Ji would not believe the rumors without thinking. He sighed and said, "I'll go take a look."
Wei Guangde left the duty room and walked straight to the palace gate, with Lu Bu following closely behind him.
After leaving Chengtianmen, Wei Guangde saw Zhang Ji in the square outside the palace gate. At this time, Zhang Ji had already hurriedly greeted him.
"Sir, Mr. Ouyang passed by Guide Mansion and fell ill. He did not recover after more than half a month of recuperation, and he died after that."
Zhang Ji handed a letter into Wei Guangde's hand, and Wei Guangde took it out and took a quick look at it.
The letter was written by Ouyang Yijing's elder. According to the rules, if an official like Ouyang Yijing dies due to illness, he must report it to the official, and the court will give him preferential treatment.
Officials of high enough rank will also be given posthumous titles and other rewards based on their contributions to the court during their lifetime.
Posthumous titles refer to the writing of praise or derogation given by descendants after the death of a person with a relatively high social status based on his or her life deeds. It began in the Western Zhou Dynasty and was widely used in the Chinese character culture circle.
Evaluating a character's merits and demerits often cannot be described clearly in just a few words. In order to facilitate the conclusion of historical figures, the ancients chose to use posthumous titles to summarize them.
In general, the emperors, empresses, and ministers of the vassal states in ancient history who had relatively high social status would be given a title with evaluative significance by the court after their death based on their deeds during their lifetime. This is the posthumous title in the usual sense.
When the posthumous title law first started, there were only "good posthumous titles" and "neutral posthumous titles", but no "bad posthumous titles". However, since King Li of Zhou was posthumously named "Li" because of his tyranny and "guarding against the mouths of the people is worse than guarding against rivers", "bad posthumous titles" also appeared.
The posthumous title is selected according to the posthumous title law, which stipulates some characters with fixed meanings for selection when determining the posthumous title.
The above three types of posthumous titles are generally official posthumous titles.
In addition, there are "private posthumous titles".
Private posthumous titles are posthumous titles agreed upon by relatives, students, and former officials of prestigious scholars and literati after their death. "Private posthumous titles" began in the late Zhou Dynasty and flourished in the Han Dynasty.
However, although Ouyang Yijing was called "God of Curse" in the capital, his rank was too low. He was actually a seventh-rank official, so he certainly could not enjoy the honor of being granted a posthumous title.
"Lu Bu, go to the Ministry of Rites and tell Zhao Zhenji about the matter. Ask him to deal with the matter as soon as possible after reporting to Guide, and arrange for the post horse to send the spirit back to his hometown."
Wei Guangde turned his head and gave an order to Lu Bu behind him. Lu Bu immediately ran to the Ministry of Rites not far away after receiving the order.
"Zhang Ji, arrange an old man who knows these things in the mansion, take two guards to Guide Mansion immediately, and escort them all the way back to Pengze."
Wei Guangde gave another order to Zhang Ji.
Now Ouyang Yijing must stay in Guide, and he can only continue to go back after the court makes arrangements.
"Got it, sir."
Zhang Ji agreed.
"Alas, I didn't expect this to happen. If I had known this, I should have forced him to go to Fujian to avoid the limelight."
Wei Guangde knew that the journey was the reason for his death, but the cause of the disease must be his heart disease.
People are like this. When they are full of energy, they can survive anything.
But if people lose their energy, a small illness may become a big illness, or even die directly like Ouyang Yijing.
As a fellow villager, Wei Guangde must make these arrangements, otherwise he will be regarded as having no family affection by other fellow villagers.
"Send someone in the mansion to convey the news to the Jiangxi fellows in Beijing. There is no need to hide this matter. It is estimated that the memorial from Guide should arrive in Beijing soon."
Wei Guangde said to Zhang Ji again, and then turned and walked towards the palace gate.
After Wei Guangde left, Zhang Ji immediately returned to Wei Mansion and sent people out to do things according to Wei Guangde's instructions.
However, one day, the news that Ouyang Yijing died of illness on his way home spread in the capital, and almost instantly awakened the officials in the court who had forgotten the vigilance.
Although Ouyang Yijing did not die of depression due to Gao Gong's suppression, most officials still pointed the finger at Gao Gong, which made Gao Gong very angry.
Admittedly, he did consider dealing with Ouyang Yijing before entering the capital, but at most he would find a way to either dismiss him from office or send him to Yunnan, and he did not want to kill them.
Unlike Yan Shifan, he did not think about cutting the grass and eradicating the roots.
But the result was that he did nothing, and the shit pot was still on his head.
It was just two days later that the Ministry of Rites received another report from Huai'an Prefecture that Hu Yingjia, the former left counselor of Huguang Provincial Administration, who had asked to return home to recuperate, died at home.
For a time, the officials in the capital were even worse, and whenever they saw Gao Gong, they looked like the god of plague.
Although they all died of illness, people are superstitious these days. The two great officials who impeached Gao Gong died of illness in a very short period of time, which naturally made everyone feel that it was abnormal.
Some people even spread the word privately, suspecting that Gao Gong had sent someone to do it.
Wei Guangde was only slightly surprised to hear this news from Zhang Ji, and of course he would not believe it, although he believed that Gao Gong might have the ability to do it.
But the point is that whether it is Ouyang Yijing or Hu Yingjia, they just have different positions, and it is not to the point of life and death.
Political struggle is very cruel, but it is far from killing people. Dismissal and exile are already very heavy retaliation.
The third year of Longqing passed in such a strange atmosphere. Wei Guangde submitted the regulations he had written before about trying to increase the "taxation per mu" in the process of implementing the "One Whip Law", as well as the regulations on taxing the royal family and opening mines to the palace, but except for being summoned by Emperor Longqing from time to time for questioning, Emperor Longqing never gave a clear attitude.
Wei Guangde also understood that this matter could not be rushed. After all, it involved national policy, and the emperor was right to consider it carefully, and could not act rashly just because of the seemingly "at-hand" benefits.
However, the copies of the regulations he wrote to Emperor Longqing actually fell into Gao Gong's hands.
In the cabinet, although Gao Gong never asked Wei Guangde anything, he did not miss those regulations.
However, what Gao Gong thought of these things, perhaps only he and Emperor Longqing knew.
Of course, Wei Guangde also had guesses about these, but he didn't take them seriously.
Compared with the trust from the emperor, Wei Guangde knew that he couldn't catch up with Gao Gong even if he flattered him.
What he didn't expect was that the Wanli Emperor after Longqing was keen on opening mines everywhere to increase the revenue of the treasury, which actually came from the memorial he wrote to Emperor Longqing.
In the first day of the fourth year of Longqing, the court meeting was held. Just like in the previous years, Emperor Longqing sat on the throne, but his complexion was obviously not as good as before.
Wei Guangde glanced at the emperor who was high above him. His face was a little pale, and it was obvious that he had been working hard in the harem.
However, it is strange that Emperor Longqing had many beauties in his harem, but the only one who really blossomed and bore fruit was the former maid of Prince Yu's Mansion, now Concubine Li.
Perhaps because of her easy fertility, in the second year of Longqing, Concubine Li gave birth to Emperor Longqing's second son, Zhu Yiliu, who was the fourth child in the royal family, which made Emperor Longqing happy for a long time.
In Huangji Hall, after the civil and military officials and the tribute envoys from the four barbarians congratulated Emperor Longqing, there was an imperial decree to exempt the proclamation, exempt the banquet for all officials, and grant the emperor money.
This was not unexpected by everyone. Except for the first and second years of Longqing, the third year of Longqing was like this. The emperor went to Huangji Hall to accept the congratulations of all officials and tribute envoys, and it was the same afterwards.
After the emperor left the hall, the ministers filed out, received their own money, and prepared to find a place to eat.
During the grand court meeting on the first day of the lunar year, all officials gathered outside the palace gate very early, so most of them just ate something to fill their stomachs. After a long time of tossing and turning, they were already starving.
As for the reward money, it was just that, a stack of treasure notes that were too hard to wipe your butt, and gold and silver coins minted in the palace.
Wei Guangde received a lot of treasure notes every year. For example, the treasure notes for the first day of the lunar year amounted to 100 strings. If it were in the early Ming Dynasty, it would be used as 100 taels of silver.
However, this was the Longqing year, and the price of treasure notes had already fallen to a point of no return. If it were not useful for paying taxes and passing the banknote customs, the people might have directly discarded it.
As for the gold and silver coins minted by the Ming court for rewards, they looked good, almost representing the best casting level of the Ming Dynasty at that time.
These gold and silver coins were slightly larger than the official copper coins, and the material was cast with gold, silver and copper materials in a certain proportion, so they felt much better than copper coins.
Wei Guangde's treasury money this year is still 100 strings of treasure notes and 10 gold coins. According to the current market price, these 10 gold coins are equivalent to 10 taels of silver, or perhaps more. After all, they are genuine gold and silver from the palace, not inferior money mixed with worthless materials such as lead.
The cabinet members walked along the way. It was not appropriate to sit with the people from the six ministries and five temples at this time. It would be more cordial to sit at the same table with the people from this yamen.
Since Gao Gong returned to the court, he has generally maintained a close relationship with everyone, and there has been no fierce disagreement due to political differences, so the atmosphere in the cabinet is still good.
Several cabinet ministers found a big restaurant outside the palace, asked for a private room, and sat together to eat and drink.
"I heard that the palace spent more than 200,000 taels on this year's Aoshan Lantern Festival, which is more than several times in the past."
At the banquet, Yin Shizhe said.
"It should be closed and arranged in the next two days. Then we will see how spectacular this year's Aoshan Lantern Festival is."
Wei Guangde said happily.
After arriving in the Ming Dynasty and entering the capital, he never missed the annual Aoshan Lantern Festival.
At first, it was to meet Prince Yu by chance, and later it was because he knew that Emperor Jiajing would also watch from the city wall. Now, he has unconsciously developed a habit.
Perhaps it is because there are fewer entertainment activities these days.
Beijing is not like Nanjing, where there is an event to select the oiran every year, and the Aoshan Lantern Festival is the only choice.