My father is Jiajing

Chapter 246 The Emperor is also a Human Being

After Gao Gong finished expressing his feelings for Zhu Zaigui, he continued optimistically, "Fortunately, Your Majesty has already made preparations and appointed Yan Maoqing as the Minister of Salt Administration to raise money for the expansion of the capital. I heard that this year's 1 million taels of salt tax has been deposited into the Ministry of Revenue's account. This is also good news."

Hai Rui did not like Gao Gong's optimistic view.

Hai Rui said to Gao Gong, "Master Gao, this matter is not as simple as you think. It is true that the one million taels of tax silver sent by the Yan Salt Envoy were deposited into the Ministry of Revenue's treasury, but seven or eight out of ten of the silver has been used up, and the remaining silver is not enough to cover the first phase of the capital's expansion project."

Gao Gong was also shocked when he heard this. "How could this happen?"

Hai Rui took another bite of the pickled radish and continued, "The court spends tens of millions of silver every year! Apart from the nine border areas where the most money is spent, whenever there is a disaster in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, the court cannot stand idly by and must provide money and grain to help the victims. These expenses are sometimes hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, and there is no stable standard at all."

"Of course, the imperial court will sometimes try to use the local financial capacity to alleviate the heavy expenses. However, there are always things that the imperial court cannot adjust the local finances and they are piled up in the Ministry of Revenue."

"For example, the salaries of officials in the capital have been in arrears since who knows when. So as long as the Ministry of Revenue has new silver deposited into the treasury, the officials in the capital who have been owed wages for a long time will gather at the Ministry of Personnel and ask the Ministry of Personnel to ask the Ministry of Revenue for silver to pay their salaries. At least hundreds of thousands of taels will be paid back in this round trip."

"In addition, the salaries of the eunuchs and maids in the palace and the expenses of the ladies in the palaces are also partially borne by the Ministry of Revenue. Therefore, when the salaries of the officials in the capital are supplemented, these people also have to be supplemented. This supplement is an expense of more than 100,000 taels of silver."

"There is also the military pay of the Beijing Camp. Although the military pay of the Beijing Camp can be counted on the Ministry of War, the money of the Ministry of War does not come out of thin air. Therefore, in order to pay the military pay of the Beijing Camp, the Ministry of War will also ask the Ministry of Revenue for money. This will cost at least 300,000 to 500,000 taels, and sometimes your Majesty's treasury will also pay part of the money to supplement the military pay of the Beijing Camp."

"So if we just spread out these expenses, it would be difficult to use the one million taels of silver sent by the Yan Salt Envoy exclusively for the expansion project of the capital."

Gao Gong was shocked when he heard Hai Rui talking about the troubles in the Ministry of Revenue. He knew that the Ministry of Revenue was short of money, but he never expected it to be so tight.

Gao Gong's face darkened as he picked up the glass of wine and drank it down his throat. At this moment, Gao Gong couldn't help but feel that the wine was a bit bitter.

Gao Gong said: "The court's finances are already in such a difficult situation. What should we do in the future? The elders of the cabinet and the officials of the six ministries, don't they want to find a way to increase revenue and reduce expenditure for the court?"

Hai Rui picked up another carrot strip and started eating it, then said, "The court has also taken action. For example, after the defense of the suburbs of Beijing last year, the court agreed to build a national policy of 'Ming Dynasty Industrial Circulation Market'. Now the effect of this national policy is quite good, and a preliminary trade market has been established with the Tatar tribes."

"The cattle, sheep and horses from the northern grasslands have also begun to enter Daming at low prices. At the same time, Daming's tea, cloth and luxury goods from Shunyi Industrial Park have begun to be sold to the grasslands, in exchange for more profits."

"Under the manipulation of the imperial court, these benefits have also begun to slowly transform into actual fiscal revenue. Unfortunately, this matter is now led by the palace, and most of the silver earned has been returned to the imperial treasury, and the Ministry of Revenue can only get a small amount."

After hearing Hai Rui talk about these things, Gao Gong remained silent. Originally, Gao Gong was extremely excited and even thrilled about the construction of the Ming Dynasty's industrial recycling market.

However, in the end, it was not the imperial court that took the lead in this matter, but the person appointed by the palace.

This was very inconsistent with Gao Gong's political philosophy. Although Gao Gong did not look down on the abilities of the people in the palace, he believed that some things should be clearly distinguished.

The people in the palace are responsible for managing the palace affairs and executing the emperor's orders.

Economic affairs like these can obviously be handled by the court itself, so it is better to let the bureaucratic system operate.

If the palace continues to control it, wouldn't that be infringing on the interests of the court?
You must know that the imperial court is not the court of one family or one surname, but the court of all the people in the world. The policies implemented by the imperial court should all be for the people.

If the emperor wanted to use private interests to interfere with the court's original duties and affairs by using eunuchs and private slaves, he might end up disrupting the order of the court and causing problems in the management of the country.

Therefore, whether in Gao Gong's political philosophy or in the minds of other officials who were determined to open up a career for the Ming Dynasty, they all hoped that the emperor could distinguish the boundaries between private and public affairs and not use eunuchs and slaves to interfere in administration. But how is this possible?
The emperor is also a human being, and as a human being he has selfish desires. Now that he sits in this position, the first issue he has to consider is his own interests and safety.

Therefore, out of considerations of safety and interests, the emperor would certainly be more willing to trust his own slaves rather than the so-called loyal officials in the outer court.

After all, since ancient times, judging from big data, cases of eunuchs rebelling have always been extremely rare cases, and eunuchs' rebellions will never have any results. In the end, they will be killed and suppressed because they are unpopular.

But the same cannot be said for those seemingly loyal foreign ministers in the court. If they are not kept under a close watch and their powers and responsibilities are not suppressed, who knows whether a powerful minister like Wang Mang, Cao Cao, Sima Yi, Yang Jian, or Zhao Kuangyin will emerge in the end to bully his lord.

Therefore, ideals are always just ideals, and it is impossible for the emperor to do without eunuchs.

If an emperor does not trust or use the eunuchs who serve him, then this emperor is most likely either a brain-dead emperor or a pitiful puppet monarch.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for a sane emperor to do things without eunuchs.

The degree of this simply depends on the emperor's trust in his foreign officials at the time and the degree of control over his desire for power.

If the emperor has a high trust in his ministers, then the eunuchs around him may just be the messengers for him.

If the emperor does not have much trust in the outer court and has a strong desire for power, then the eunuchs around him may be the imperial envoys who patrol the world for him!
This situation was particularly prominent during the Ming Dynasty when Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system.

Because the centralized court abolished the prime minister system, the emperor was not only the chairman but also the CEO.

Under such circumstances, the emperor not only has decision-making power, but also administrative power.

But not all emperors have the energy and ability to take charge of decision-making and administration.

Therefore, in order to ensure that the imperial power did not fall into the hands of others, the eunuchs who served him naturally became the emperor's close assistants, helping the emperor to deal with some decision-making and administrative affairs.

Therefore, in such a comparison, the court, which was supposed to help the emperor govern the world, ultimately became just an executive body of the emperor's will.

Just imagine, which totalitarian emperor would trust an executive body that already has its own ideas and management mechanisms?
Therefore, many times, the emperor would naturally skip the court system and management and directly use the eunuchs around him to deal with the issues he considered critical.

For example, regarding the current issue of financial power, it would be a blessing if the emperor did not rob the Ministry of Revenue of its silver to supplement his own treasury. But now people are actually thinking of snatching food from the emperor's mouth, which is obviously a daydream.

Especially since the current emperor is still so shrewd and capable, anyone who wants to take advantage of him must be prepared to pay the price with his life.

But even so, the officials of the Ming Dynasty still enjoyed it, wanting to show off their skills to compete with the emperor and get more benefits from the emperor.

The only difference is: some people do it for the Ming Dynasty and for their ideals; some people are simply driven by greed, thinking they are so smart that they can fool the emperor.

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(End of this chapter)