The old story between Emperor Jiajing and Xu Jie reminded Zhu Ping'an of a modern joke, which goes like this: if your name is XXX, your boss will write "XXX villain, never to be employed again" under the transparent glass of your desk. The boss can see these words every day when he sits down, and you can also see these words when you come to the boss's office to report on your work every day.
So, what would you do
I admire you for refusing to resign.
But what about Xu Jie? Not only did he not resign, he worked his way up to become a senior executive and joined the board of directors.
When Zhu Ping'an came back to his senses from his distraction, the court meeting in the hall had already made some progress.
Watching the big guys fighting each other, Zhu Ping'an, a small Si Zhilang, could only listen and watch. He had no right to speak and waited quietly for the results of the court meeting to be announced.
The arm cannot twist the thigh, this is an unshakable truth. In the end, the cost of the ceremony of calming the spirits at Jianyuan Yue in Wudang Mountain was paid from the national treasury.
Of course, Emperor Jiajing also approved several proposals from the ministers of the court.
The first proposal passed was to send the capital silver. This was based on the suggestion of Sun Yingkui, the Minister of Revenue, and after being revised by Yan Song and others, it was the first effective method.
Due to the urgent situation of border defense, the border towns recruited more and more soldiers and horses, and the expenses were too high, so the capital silver was sent. Except for the prefectures and counties of Northern Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Huai'an, Yangzhou, Luzhou, Fengyang, Pizhou, and Xuzhou provinces, if there was no recruitment of soldiers and no large-scale projects such as building city walls, the capital silver was sent.
Zhu Ping'an and Li Chunfang found the records of recruiting soldiers and repairing border walls from the cabinet's archives. Those prefectures and cities that did not recruit soldiers, repair border walls, or hire soldiers had to pay the capital's materials and silver.
At the court meeting, Yan Song and other bigwigs roughly determined the amount of silver that each prefecture would be required to pay in Beijing: Yingtian Prefecture would be required to pay 30,000 taels of silver, Huizhou Prefecture would be required to pay 35,000 taels of silver, Ningguo Prefecture would be required to pay 25,000 taels of silver, Chizhou Prefecture would be required to pay 20,000 taels of silver, Taiping Prefecture would be required to pay 20,000 taels of silver, Anqing Prefecture would be required to pay 20,000 taels of silver, Suzhou Prefecture would be required to pay 85,000 taels, Guangde, Hezhou and Chuzhou would be required to pay a total of 9,000 taels of silver, Zhejiang would be required to pay the most, with a total of 156,000 taels of silver, Jiangxi would be required to pay 120,000 taels, Huguang would be required to pay 140,000 taels, Sichuan would be required to pay 150,000 taels, Fujian would be required to pay 140,000 taels, Guangdong would be required to pay 150,000 taels, and Yunnan would be required to pay 57,340 taels.
The total amount of silver allocated to the capital from various places is over one million taels, and it is required that all of it be delivered to the Taicang Warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue before October of this year. Violators will be held accountable to their superiors.
The amount of silver collected from Beijing accounted for nearly half of Taicang’s annual revenue.
Emperor Jiajing, the Ministry of Revenue and others were all very happy.
But it’s a pity for the people of the world.
After listening to this, Zhu Ping'an sighed in his heart. The wool still comes from the sheep. The Beijing silver allocated by local officials cannot be borne by local officials. In the end, it will still be paid by the common people.
Why... ...
The second item of the court discussion that was passed was the cost-saving measures proposed by Xu Jie. Xu Jie proposed that the Jiajing Emperor order all ministries and government offices to conduct their own checks on officials, cooks, yamen runners, school soldiers and other personnel, and eliminate redundant officials and staff. He also requested the Ministry of Revenue to publish a comprehensive outline of revenue, expenditure and surplus items in the court bulletin, so that everyone in the court would understand the plight of the Ming Dynasty and cherish state property.
Emperor Jiajing nodded in approval of Xu Jie's proposal on the spot and then made the arrangements.
Seeing this scene, Zhu Pingan felt a little strange. He wondered if Emperor Jiajing still remembered the eight words he had carved on the pillars of the main hall: "Xu Jie is a villain, and will never be employed again"... ...
The third thing was arranged directly by Emperor Jiajing. Emperor Jiajing believed that the expenses for military pay, border repairs, relief and other expenses in various border areas were too high, almost 10 million taels of silver in that year. The cost was too huge, and he suspected that there was fraud and extortion. He handed it over to the Imperial Censor and the Censor, ordering them to investigate the relevant expenses in various border areas and impeach the officials who committed fraud and extortion.
The fourth thing was that Emperor Jiajing issued an edict that "the silver stored in the Taicang warehouse is for emergency use. From now on, no one can take even one tael of silver from the Taicang warehouse without an imperial edict." The silver in the Taicang warehouse was sealed, and then another imperial edict was issued on the spot to take 200,000 taels of silver to be used for the ceremony of calming the gods at Jianyuan Yue in Wudang Mountain.
After the court discussion, Emperor Jiajing kept Yan Song, Xu Jie and the Minister of Revenue Sun Yingkui to arrange other matters for them, and the rest of the officials left in an orderly manner.
Zhu Ping'an also followed everyone out of the hall.
Of course, we have just left the main hall. We still have to work overtime tonight. All the matters discussed in the court today must be written down overnight and sent to various places.
Because of the court discussion on the allocation of Beijing food silver, Zhu Ping'an had no appetite. He felt that today's delicious imperial meal was tasteless and tasted like wax. He hurriedly took two mouthfuls of the meal and felt full, so he put down his chopsticks.
Soon, Zhu Ping'an and others were organized by Lu Ben, the elder Lu, to draft official documents.
Zhu Ping'an was assigned to draft the documents for the three prefectures of Anqing, Suzhou and Hezhou to receive the capital's silver.
When Zhu Pingan picked up the brush, he froze on the spot. He felt that the brush in his hand weighed a thousand pounds and he could hardly bear the weight. He couldn't write a single stroke...
Just think of it.
The additional taxes imposed on the common people were all in the official documents drafted and issued by himself and others. Zhu Pingan couldn't help but shudder, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead... ...
Although he had no say in such national affairs, and although he was just a drafter under orders, Zhu Pingan also felt that
"Hey, so-and-so, why don't you write?"
Everyone is racing against time for military and national affairs, and you, a young man, are actually distracted. When Lord Lu Ben saw Zhu Ping'an holding a brush and daydreaming, he looked displeased and scolded him with some dissatisfaction. However, as he was old, he could not remember Zhu Ping'an's name for a moment, so he pointed at Zhu Ping'an and used "who so-and-so" to represent him.
Zhu Ping'an was stunned for a moment before he realized that Lord Lu was talking about him. He quickly stood up and apologized to Lord Lu, first admitting his mistake and then saying sincerely that this was his first time drafting a document and he had no experience. He was inevitably a little nervous and afraid of making mistakes, so he started writing a little late.
Seeing that Zhu Ping'an sincerely admitted his mistake, and for Xu Jie's sake, Lu Ben's displeasure was reduced a little. He waved his hand and asked Zhu Ping'an to sit down. He said this would not happen again. He then ordered an official nearby to give Zhu Ping'an a sample document and asked him to read it.
Why
The important affairs of the imperial court are not something that a lowly sixth-rank official like me can influence. It is not my turn to make decisions.
The court was like a big stage, performing one play after another, but he was not the protagonist, and even the role of a minor actor was not his turn. He was just a spectator under the stage, at best a spectator standing a little closer to the front.
Zhu Ping'an silently apologized to the people of Anqing, Suzhou and Hezhou in his heart, then he picked up the pen, dipped it in ink, and honestly drafted the official document as required.
However, a bystander who wrote official documents did not expect that there would be a play missing its protagonist soon.