Chapter 956 1045 Cabinet Discussion

In the inner city of Beijing, Nanxunfang, Wei Mansion Study Room.

"Where did Li Chengliang go to in the past two days?"

Wei Guangde sat on the Taishi chair and asked Zhang Ji who was standing in front of him.

"Master, Li Chengliang has been staying at the post house for the past two days and has not gone out. Apart from attending court ceremonies, he also went to the Ministry of War to report.

By the way, he spent a long time with Wang Daokun, the minister of war, in the Ministry of War, and I don't know what they talked about.

Also, he did not go out, but he sent out a few soldiers and contacted several dental shops in the inner city, saying that he wanted to find a house to live in the inner city. "

Zhang Ji replied.

"Wang Daokun."

Wei Guangde nodded. He probably knew Li Chengliang's connections in the capital. Li Chengliang didn't have many connections in the capital, otherwise it wouldn't have taken him so long to come to the capital to take up his post.

Not at the beginning, but he has been in Liaodong since then. Although he sends ice and charcoal to the capital every year, we have never met him. Who dares to get close to him.

Just maintaining a superficial relationship, such a relationship is actually very fragile and cannot withstand the test at all.

Everyone gives it away like this. If you don’t offend anyone by giving it, others won’t remember it if you do.

Wei Guangde understood that Li Chengliang might have gotten some information from Wang Daokun, so he was now more stable.

In this case, he originally planned to call Li Chengliang over tomorrow night, so there was no need to be so anxious.

"Just keep arranging people to keep an eye on him and see if anyone else has contacted him."

Wei Guangde just gave an order and waved Zhang Ji to go down.

After the others left, Wei Guangde stood up and took down the wooden box from the bookshelf, dug out what he had recorded, put it on the desk, spread out another piece of paper, and began to write carefully.

These days, his main focus is still on the reform of money laws.

Establishing a new money law, although he does not think that all problems can be solved in one step, he still wants to do it perfectly.

At the very least, the money law introduced by the imperial court this time must adapt to the current social environment, and there will be no major mistakes.

As for the future, he didn't expect it.

After all, times are changing at any time, and there are no immutable laws. Only by assessing the situation and taking appropriate measures is the best way to govern.

Establish a large framework and put forward requirements, and the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works will coordinate the rest.

Early the next morning, Wei Guangde left the Wei Mansion to go to the cabinet to run errands.

After entering, Zhongshu hurried over to see him.

"What's the matter?"

Wei Guangde asked while standing under the corridor in the courtyard.

"Urgent reports from Shanxi include Yingzhou, Shuozhou, Shanyin, Mayi, Datong counties, Andong, Zhongtun, Shanyin, Yinhe, Gaoshan and other counties in Shanxi. There is a severe drought. Disaster reports are coming.

In addition, after the severe drought in Lusi and other fields under the jurisdiction of Lianghuai, east of Gaoyou Prefecture in the South, violent storms occurred, and the rivers and seas overflowed. More than 10,000 cottages were destroyed, and more than 1,600 residents were drowned, as well as countless livestock and warehouses. The salt fields were left in ruins, the people were displaced, and they were hungry and had no food. Heavy rains caused disasters in Xuzhou and Yangzhou, and rivers overflowed with tsunamis. "

While he was talking, two memorials appeared in the Zhongshu's hand, and he handed them to Wei Guangde with both hands.

Reaching out to take it, Wei Guangde quickly opened it, looked through it, and asked casually: 'Did it come this morning? ’

"Back to Mr. Wei Ge, the urgent report from Shanxi was delivered last night, and the urgent report from South Zhili was delivered directly from the General Affairs Department this morning."

Na Zhongshu replied hurriedly.

"Are the two elders here?"

Wei Guangde asked again.

"Not yet in the cabinet."

"I understand, go down and distribute the memorials received today."

Wei Guangde glanced at the person in Zhongshushe and vaguely remembered that this person's surname was Yang. He seemed to be from Nanzhili. He should be in the disaster-stricken area, so he was so confused.

Wei Guangde returned to the check-in room with two memorials, put them down directly on the desk, took out two pieces of paper and wrote on them respectively, and wrote down the votes for land rent reduction and exemption in Shanxi, Huai, Yang and other places, and relief for the victims. Simulate.

Ever since Wei Guangde became an official, he has been numb to such disaster reports.

Unless some natural disaster occurs every year, it seems that this year will be difficult.

It's terrifying to think of the Jiajing period more than 30 years ago. Disasters occurred in almost all provinces, either severe droughts or severe floods. It was difficult for Yange to survive the old days when he demolished the east wall to make up for the west wall.

When Lu Bu came in with tea, Wei Guangde had already written the draft, pasted it on the memorial and put it aside.

"Lu Bu, please pay attention. Let me know when the chief assistant and Mr. Lu Ge arrive later."

Wei Guangde ordered.

"yes."

Lu Bu naturally agreed immediately.

Not long after, Lu Bu brought in a pile of memorials distributed today, placed them at the end of the desk, and then went out.

Not long after, Lu Bu came in and announced that both Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang had arrived at the cabinet and started running errands.

"Um."

Wei Guangde just nodded slightly, but did not go over immediately. He was still waiting for Wang Guangguang and Zhu Heng to come over.

At the end of yesterday, the main task was to arrange for Wang Guoguang to go down and check the total number of copper coins in circulation in the Ming Dynasty, especially the number of copper coins minted since the Jiajing Dynasty, while Zhu Heng needed to find craftsmen to choose the appropriate gold, silver and copper alloy ratio.

Determining the cost of minting coins first allowed them to determine which denominations of coins to mint under the new money method.

In fact, Wei Guangde wanted to directly introduce a decimal monetary unit, that is, change the current sixteen cents and one tael to ten cents and one tael, which feels more convenient.

However, he tentatively mentioned it and was opposed by almost everyone, including Zhang Juzheng.

They have long been accustomed to hexadecimal, and Wei Guangde thinks that the simpler decimal is more troublesome for them.

It's all habit, and Wei Guangde doesn't want to continue to mention it.

In ancient China, coinage was an inevitable choice for all dynasties.

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, the four major monetary systems of cloth coins, knife coins, ant nose coins, and ring coins have been established.

After that, it went through the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, and Tang Dynasties. Round square hole coins began to dominate the era, and coins evolved from the previous messy shapes to unified shapes.

The coins of the Ming Dynasty also changed from the shape of "Da Zhong Tong Bao" cast by Zhu Yuanzhang when he was the King of Wu to the casting of "Hongwu Tong Bao".

The shape of Da Zhong Tong Bao is divided into five grades, stipulating that each small flat coin weighs one coin, and there are four types of weights of two coins, three coins, five coins, and ten coins.

The Hongwu Tongbao, which was minted in the first year of Hongwu, was minted intermittently. In the 26th year of Hongwu, the coin system was changed and the five grades of coins were re-minted. According to the minting regulations in the first year of Hongwu, the weight of each copper coin was changed to one coin and two cents.

The other four grades of coins were increased according to the weight of the small flat coins.

The most special one is the Hongwu Tongbao, which is worth ten coins. When this specification of coins was issued, it was still a period of war. Zhu Yuanzhang did not have enough copper materials, so when issuing coins at that time, it was stipulated that the weight of ten coins was one tael, that is, ten coins were counted as one tael of silver.

However, such large coins did not flow to the people on a large scale, but mostly circulated between government vaults.

So in later generations, most of the copper coins handed down were flat coins, two-fold coins, and three-fold coins.

From the Hongwu period of Ming Taizu to the Longqing period of Ming Muzong, there were twelve emperors, of which only six minted coins. Except for the large number of coins minted during the Zhu Yuanzhang period, the number of coins minted by other emperors was limited.

This is also a major reason for the shortage of private money and the flood of private money in the Ming Dynasty. The court was really short of copper.

After reading two more memorials, Wei Guangde didn't want to continue reading other memorials. He picked up the two Shanxi and Nanzhili memorials and walked to Zhang Juzheng's office.

Although he was numb to the disaster reports, the court must deal with such reports as soon as possible, and there was no delay.

If the news spread, it was unknown how the court and the scholars would discuss them.

Wei Guangde walked into Zhang Juzheng's office. Zhang Juzheng had received the notice and stood up to greet him.

"Be kind, you are here, come, sit down and talk."

Zhang Juzheng asked Wei Guangde to sit down, and Wei Guangde directly took out two memorials and handed them over.

"Is this the money law charter you wrote?"

Zhang Juzheng mistakenly thought that Wei Guangde had written a charter for the improvement of the money law overnight. After all, this matter was proposed by Wei Guangde, so he would naturally focus on pushing it.

"No, I'm still writing the rules, and they're not finished yet."

Wei Guangde wrote some last night, but he didn't finish it, so he wouldn't rush to take it out.

"This is the report I got from the Secretariat this morning about the disasters in Shanxi and Nanzhili.

Brother, please take a look. If there's nothing else, arrange for someone to send it to the Silijian for urgent approval."

Wei Guangde explained the source of the memorial, and Zhang Juzheng opened it and read it immediately.

Zhang Juzheng read the memorial very quickly, or it could be said that the cabinet ministers generally had the ability to read ten lines at a glance, otherwise, if so many memorials were sent in, and they were read word by word, they wouldn't be able to handle many in a day.

Zhang Juzheng understood Wei Guangde's intention of taking it, and immediately took the two memorials to the desk, and picked up the pen to sign after Wei Guangde's draft.

Then he called his clerk, handed him two memorials, and ordered: "Send them to the Silijian immediately, and ask Eunuch Feng to present them to the emperor as soon as possible."

"Yes."

The clerk took the memorial handed over by Zhang Juzheng, clasped his fists, turned around, and trotted out of the duty room.

Zhang Juzheng returned to his previous position and smiled again: "I just read the report of the Ministry of Works, asking the Ministry of Revenue to allocate 30,000 taels of silver and the Ministry of Works to allocate 20,000 taels of silver for materials, a total of 50,000 taels to Nanzhili. Jiang Zhi is there and is waiting for the silver and money to arrive, so that the construction of the Jiayun Canal can start."

Hearing this, Wei Guangde understood that Zhang Juzheng wanted to delay the matter for a while and allocate it after the new money came out.

With 50,000 taels of silver, the court has a profit of 5,000 taels, and this is after deducting the labor and material costs of the court.

It can only be said that it is not easy to be the head of the Ming Dynasty.

Let alone 5,000 taels, even 50,000 taels is not too much money for Wei Guangde now.

Since the Chamber of Commerce in which he participated obtained the ship's license and started sea trade, money has flowed into his pocket like water.

The gold stored in Wei Guangde's old house in Jiangxi has exceeded 100,000 taels, which was only earned by him using a little privilege to help others get some resources. Strictly speaking, Wei Ge Lao has never embezzled a tael of silver from the court.

To say that the officials of the Ming Dynasty now all know that doing business can make money, but most people still can't put down their face and only want to make money by relying on the unspoken rules of officialdom.

In other words, the nobles have learned bad things and no longer have their eyes on the military settlements, but have begun to use various means to reach out to the big chambers of commerce to invest.

Anyway, whether they are willing or not, many people have already participated in business. As for their own shops in the capital, they are still not making much money for various reasons.

There are advantages and disadvantages for nobles to do business.

However, at least the life of the soldiers below will be a little better.

"The construction of the Jiayun Canal is not a matter of a day or two. Since the court has planned to complete it in ten years, I think it is better to proceed according to the plan.

As for the 50,000 taels of silver, the court can delay it a little, or let the surrounding treasuries advance it first.

Just wait until the new money from the court is minted and then allocate it to make up for it. "

Wei Guangde said.

His meaning was also very clear. Since it had been planned, it was best to proceed in accordance with the wishes of the Ministry of Industry.

As for the 50,000 taels of silver, the court may not be able to release it right away, so it can be cushioned by the local government first.

Zhang Juzheng thought about it and nodded, "Well, when Ru Guan comes, let the household department write a note to the other side first, and support it from the treasury."

The two chatted for a while, Wei Guangde had no intention of leaving, and Zhang Juzheng did not rush him.

Not long after, Wang Guoguang arrived at the cabinet first.

After informing him of the results of the inventory conducted by the Ministry of Household Affairs, Zhang Juzheng told him about the Ministry of Works' request for payment of money from Jiahe River.

"Wei Ge Lao and I want to let the local treasury handle it first, and then allocate additional money to make up for it when new money comes out."

Zhang Juzheng briefly explained the situation, saying that Wang Guoguang was indispensable.

As long as the cabinet votes are drafted and the ceremonial supervisor approves, the Ministry of Household Affairs will just issue a note.

It's not that the court has no money, it's just that due to some reasons, foreign money needs to be temporarily frozen.

"Yesterday, I sent a letter to Ambassador Taicang to ask them to suspend the expenditure of money."

Wang Guoguang smiled.

"That's very good. Let's wait and see when the Ministry of Industry can finalize regulations and mint sample money. Once the palace approves it, all silver coins will be transferred to the Ministry of Industry for re-casting."

Zhang Juzheng agreed.

"Two pavilion elders, there is another matter that I don't know whether to talk about or not."

After that, Wang Guangming said hesitantly.

"What's the matter?"

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Zhang Juzheng continued.

"Yesterday, after leaving the government office, I met Ge Yushi while passing by the Metropolitan Procuratorate. I saw that he was ill. After chatting for a few words, I learned that his bones had broken down again in the past two months."

Wang Guangguang's words were enough, but Wei Guangde also understood what he meant.

"Brother Yu Li heard that he was ill recently, but I didn't hear that he was going to serve again."

Of course they were talking about Ge Shouli, the current imperial censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. This old man had gone through several ups and downs. He was still in the Hubu department, but he became cannon fodder because of his neutrality in the fight between Gao Gong and Xu Jie. , sadly retired from office.

Of course, Gao Gong accepted his feelings and brought him back to the court.

Later, after Gao Gong left the field again, neither Zhang Juzheng nor Wei Guangde had any intention of touching him.

It is true that neither party wants someone from the other party to take over his position. The Metropolitan Procuratorate is too important. The two people who have experienced court battles know in their hearts that they cannot let the other party get what they want no matter what.

In this way, Ge Shouli, a neutral faction, sat firmly in his position in the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

"Ge Yuli is almost seventy."

Zhang Juzheng said.

Wei Guangde glanced at him and wondered whether Zhang Juzheng really knew or did it on purpose.

"Let's see again. If Brother Yu Li is really in bad health, it won't be too late to nominate a candidate."

It is a fact that Ge Shouli is old, but Wei Guangde will not agree to this matter easily and will deal with it first.

But he also knew that he really had to pay attention to the position of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to see if there was a suitable candidate.