My father is Jiajing

Chapter 214 Imperial Meeting
The first imperial meeting after the first month of the 30th year of Jiajing.

Emperor Jiajing, wearing a dark-patterned black lining, sat on the throne in the main hall of the Wanshou Palace.

Yan Song, Xu Jie, as well as the Minister of Revenue Sun Yingkui and the Minister of Works Ouyang Bijin stood on the right side respectively.

Huang Jin, Feng Bao and other eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department stood on the left side.

People on both sides bowed their heads slightly respectfully towards Emperor Jiajing.

Emperor Jiajing fiddled with his clothes casually and said, "Let's summarize last year's events. The cabinet will speak first."

Emperor Jiajing directly gave the conversation to Yan Song. After hearing what Emperor Jiajing said, Yan Song bowed respectfully to Emperor Jiajing again.

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Yan Song began his first sentence by affirming the important role of Emperor Jiajing.

Then he began to speak: "Last year, under your Majesty's wise leadership, our cabinet and officials have been advancing various important matters of the court in an orderly manner."

"First of all, last year's spring imperial examination went very smoothly and selected a lot of talented people for the court. Xu Jie made a great contribution to this important event."

When Xu Jie, who was standing behind Yan Song, heard Yan Song attribute the credit for the Spring Examination to him, he leaned slightly and bowed to Yan Song.

At the same time, Emperor Jiajing nodded without denying, indicating that he agreed with Yan Song's words and also recognized the contribution of Xu Jie, the Minister of Rites, in presiding over the Spring Examination.

Yan Song then began to talk about the border towns. "Last year, the Tatars repeatedly invaded Xuanda, causing loyal generals such as Zhang Da and Lin Chun to die for their country, and our people suffered greatly. These are all our faults. We failed to take timely precautions. Moreover, we recommended people who were not supervised, and let corrupt and cowardly officials such as Qiu Luan take important responsibilities, which almost brought disaster to the capital. I hope Your Majesty will punish us."

When Emperor Jiajing heard Yan Song talking about Xuan Da and Qiu Luan, he did not show any anger.

Emperor Jiajing said: "The cunning of the Tatars has been going on for a long time. They have been so lawless since Emperor Xiaozong. So the incident of Xuanda in May last year cannot be blamed on the cabinet."

"As for Qiu Luan, although the cabinet had some problems in recommending the candidate to guard Datong, it was ultimately because the court had no generals available at the time. And Weng Wanda was not considerate of the emperor's wishes and was late in coming to Beijing to perform his duties. So, you can't be blamed for this matter."

"Moreover, in the subsequent changes in the war situation, although the Tatars wanted to raid the capital with the cover and help of Qiu Luan and Duoyan tribe, our Ming Dynasty is the Celestial Empire, and its fortune is extraordinary. And there is also a peerless general like Guanjun Hou who suddenly appeared and crushed the arrogance of the Tatars."

"So, overall, we did a good job and achieved something in the defense battle in the north last year."

"And afterwards, I issued an imperial edict to restore the worship of Yuan Shizu and changed the mutual market to the 'Great Ming Industrial Circulation Market'. Anda also obeyed obediently. The cabinet and the Ministry of Rites will keep an eye on this matter and there must not be any more mistakes."

After Yan Song and Xu Jie heard what Emperor Jiajing said, they bowed and said, "We obey your order."

Then Emperor Jiajing began to speak again: "Go on."

Yan Song bowed again, and then said, "It has been nearly two hundred years since Emperor Chengzu moved to the capital to quell the rebellion. The number of people in the city has increased dramatically during these two hundred years."

"Now, both inside and outside the capital are suffering from the fact that the capital is too small and does not match the style of the Celestial Empire. Therefore, I and other ministers suggest that we build the outer city of the capital to enhance the prestige of the Celestial Empire."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Jiajing leaned forward slightly, and he looked at Yan Song and continued, "Although the expansion of the outer city of the capital is urgent, I believe you all know the difficulties of the court."

"The Ministry of Revenue only has 7-8 million taels of tax revenue a year, which is already stretched to its limits. If we were to build the outer wall of the capital, how much more taels would it cost?"

Yan Song replied tremblingly: "Your Majesty is worried. But the capital is the foundation of the court and the foundation of the world, and it cannot be neglected."

"So we have calculated for Your Majesty. According to the current labor and material costs, as well as the transportation costs of large timbers, bricks and stones, it will only take 10 million taels to build the outer city of the capital." As soon as Yan Song finished speaking, Emperor Jiajing couldn't help but snorted, "10 million taels sounds easy, but where does this money come from?"

Yan Song quickly replied, "Your Majesty, according to the Ministry of Works, the money can be raised from the salt administration. And the Ministry of Revenue has also calculated the revenue from the salt administration, and it can receive about one million taels of silver in salt tax every year."

"Now this task has been handed over to Yan Maoqing. He has been in office for some time. Recently, he reported to the cabinet that he had received 200,000 taels of salt tax in advance."

"And according to his current efficiency, this year's goal of collecting one million taels of salt tax should be successfully achieved."

When Emperor Jiajing heard that Yan Maoqing was so capable, he couldn't help but chuckle, "Yan Shifan has good vision. The Yan Maoqing he recommended is very good. He has collected 200,000 taels of silver in just two months after taking office. He is much more capable than the previous salt officials."

Yan Song listened to Emperor Jiajing's praise for Yan Shifan and Yan Maoqing, and bowed, "They are all helping His Majesty, and these are what they should do."

Emperor Jiajing shook his sleeves and changed to a comfortable sitting position, and then said: "Yes, if all the officials of the Ming Dynasty could be as capable as Yan Shifan and Yan Maoqing, I would have nothing to worry about."

"However, the capital is the capital of the emperor after all. It is easy to build an outer city, but it is not easy to build it well. I have seen the plan submitted by the Ministry of Works, and to be honest, I am not satisfied."

"Are you helping me build the capital? If you hadn't written at the beginning of your memorial that you were planning to build an outer city of the capital, I would have thought you were just going to build a thatched hut."

"Does this plan have any trace of the Chinese style? I don't know how your Ministry of Industry came up with this plan. Send it back and redo it!"

When Emperor Jiajing said this, he remembered Zhu Zaigui's suggestion.

So after comparing the two, Emperor Jiajing was very dissatisfied with the plan put forward by the Ministry of Works.

He felt that the Ministry of Works was just trying to give him a perfunctory response and was trying to ruin his great cause.

Minister of Works Ouyang Bijin was also shocked when he heard what Emperor Jiajing said, and quickly apologized, "I am terrified."

Emperor Jiajing snorted, "It's a good thing to know that you are afraid, but I didn't promote you to be the Minister of Works just to listen to your words of fear. When you have nothing to do, go out more often, take a look, and learn how people outside design new cities. Don't use the same old tricks to perfunctorily deal with me, okay?"

Ouyang Bijin bowed nervously again: "I understand."

Emperor Jiajing said again: "I think you still don't quite understand. Feng Bao!"

Feng Bao, who was standing nearby, heard the Emperor Jiajing's call and bowed quickly, "I am here."

Emperor Jiajing said: "If you have nothing to do, take my Minister of Works with him to travel around and see what's going on. Let him gain some experience and understand my intentions."

Feng Bao replied: "I obey your order."

When Feng Bao heard what Emperor Jiajing said, he immediately understood what he meant. Emperor Jiajing probably wanted him to take Ouyang Bi to Shunyi for a stroll and let him see the design style of Shunyi Industrial Park.

Therefore, Feng Bao obediently replied, "I obey your order."

Emperor Jiajing was very satisfied with Feng Bao's quick reaction. It seemed that the beating was good and it also made Feng Bao open his mind.

If there is a chance in the future, I will find a reason to send him to Prince Yu's Mansion to train him. Maybe he will be of great use in the future.

(End of this chapter)