My father is Jiajing

Chapter 515: Training to be like a crane

Qiao Wanjin stood excitedly in Zhu Zaigui's study, still wearing the official robes that only third-rank officials could wear. He bowed deeply and said, "I thank you, Your Majesty, for your cultivation."

Zhu Zaigui looked at Qiao Wanjin's red third-rank crown and belt and said cheerfully, "You deserve this. You are now a proper official of the imperial court. Although you are only the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, you can also attend important financial meetings of the imperial court."

Qiao Wanjin nodded excitedly, even though Zhu Zaigui had told him last year that he would recommend him to succeed Gao Gong as the second chairman of the Ming Federal Reserve.

However, Qiao Wanjin never expected that after he was elected to succeed the Chairman of the Ming Federal Reserve, the imperial court would issue a special appointment letter, allowing him to concurrently serve as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, just like Gao Gong before him. This was something Qiao Wanjin never dreamed of.

So this is the scene we have now.

Qiao Wanjin said: "I will definitely live up to your high expectations and work hard in the Ming Dynasty Reserve. Everything will be done according to the rules set by Minister Gao."

Zhu Zaigui looked at Qiao Wanjin who was so sensible, and he smiled again: "Chairman Qiao not only needs to satisfy this prince, but also His Majesty, the shareholders, and the depositors."

"It is a good idea to follow the old rules, but the actual situation and future development will always bring some new problems. Therefore, Chairman Qiao must learn to be flexible and take the initiative to solve problems. Otherwise, when this four-year term is over, people will point fingers at his spine and scold him."

When Qiao Wanjin heard this, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. He almost forgot that the Ming Federal Reserve was a shareholder responsibility system. Although the court gave him a promotion, it was more to tie the Ming Federal Reserve into the court system. He couldn't really regard this job as a new starting point for his career.

After all, Qiao Wanjin is not Gao Gong. Gao Gong is a serious imperial scholar and a gentleman in Prince Yu's mansion. He has worked in the Ming Federal Reserve for a few years and can use this job as work experience for future promotion.

But to put it bluntly, Qiao Wanjin is just a professional manager without any foundation or background. When his term of office expires and he steps down, he will return to the ranks of ordinary people.

Therefore, for the sake of his own future and to avoid being held accountable or troubled by others, he had to be much more careful than Gao Gong.

Therefore, if Qiao Wanjin and his successors want to do a good job in this position, they must hand in a satisfactory answer sheet, otherwise they will easily be treated as scapegoats.

Qiao Wanjin immediately put away his joyful passion and bowed to Zhu Zaigui again, "Thank you very much for your advice, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "This is not my advice to you. This is something you should understand. After all, you are different from Mr. Gao and the others. You are a talent who has come out of the formal imperial examination. You have stood out from the crowd with your intelligence and talent."

"People like you are very capable, but you also have obvious shortcomings. It is difficult for you to integrate into the officialdom dominated by the imperial examination system. Therefore, you must work very hard and strive to make achievements that are worthy of your life."

"You know, although the long river of history prefers to record the romanticism of literati and poets, there are also many top masters who surpass the romanticism of literati and poets and are remembered by history."

"And this kind of influence will gradually increase with the development of time. Just like Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty and Bi Sheng in the Song Dynasty. The reason why they can leave their names in history is because they made achievements that influenced the times in their respective eras."

“Although the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve is not a physical technology like paper and papermaking, its significance and influence are not much different from these inventions.”

“Therefore, I can also assert here that as long as you can achieve financial success that affects Ming Dynasty or the entire world during your tenure, even if thousands of years pass, you will still be remembered as sages!”

Zhu Zaigui unceremoniously painted a pie in the sky for Qiao Wanjin, and after the pie was painted, Qiao Wanjin's eyes suddenly lit up.

It can be seen that the glory of this pie really touched his heart.

After all, he has lived to his age and achieved achievements that he never dared to imagine before. Now that he has such a big pie in the sky, it would be strange if he didn't fall into a state of elated imagination.

Qiao Wanjin said excitedly: "I will definitely remember your words, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "Okay, let's stop here today. You should go back to your place, otherwise you will be incompetent as the chairman."

Qiao Wanjin bowed again and said, "I'll take my leave!"

After watching Qiao Wanjin leave, Zhu Zaigui was in a very good mood.

Before Qiao Wanjin was officially elected as the next chairman of the Ming Federal Reserve, he finally approved Hai Rui and Pan Jixun's application for the project to build a toll-free hardened road in Beijing and Tianjin.

However, even so, this project still has to go through an imperial meeting in front of Emperor Jiajing before it can be officially launched.

Otherwise, such an unprecedented event would not have been something that Hai Rui and Pan Jixun could have expected to happen just by shouting a few words in the Beijing Special District.

After all, in the traditional impression of people all over the world, roads are free, and those who block the road and collect money are robbers!

Therefore, in order to lay a legal basis for this matter, Emperor Jiajing had to come forward and give a conclusion to the matter.

Otherwise, when the road is repaired, if people who use it refuse to buy it and pay for it, it will be troublesome.

Therefore, when Qiao Wanjin came to Prince Yu's Mansion to express his gratitude, an imperial meeting on toll-charging and hardened roads was being held in the Yuxi Palace of Emperor Jiajing.

In addition to Hai Rui and Pan Jixun, the two parties involved, those who were able to attend the meeting included people from the cabinet, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Revenue.

These people are now gathered in the main hall of Yuxi Palace, waiting for the appearance of Emperor Jiajing with solemn expressions.

Pan Jixun also looked at Hai Rui beside him nervously, and then looked at the other bigwigs in the hall nervously.

After all his years as an official, this was the first time that Pan Jixun had seen such a grand occasion.

It can be seen how great the mysterious and oppressive feeling that Emperor Jiajing's cultivation of immortality brought to people on a daily basis!

Just when Pan Jixun was nervous and everyone was waiting silently, Huang Jin appeared.

Huang Jin looked at the familiar face in the hall and couldn't help but smile: "Thank you for your hard work, Elder Yan and everyone else."

When Yan Song heard Huang Jin's voice, he also stood up from the brocade cushion and returned the greeting, saying, "Eunuch, you have served His Majesty on our behalf. That is really hard work."

Huang Jin chuckled and said, "Lord Yan, that's too much. It's our honor and luck to serve the Emperor. How can it be said to be hard? It's you who are in the cabinet and in your respective offices helping the Emperor manage a lot of things. That's really hard work."

After hearing what Huang Jin said, none of the officials in the hall dared to agree with him, so at this time they couldn't help but say thank you and greeted Huang Jin one by one.

After finishing these two sentences of greeting, Huang Jin said again: "Please wait a moment, everyone. The Emperor is still practicing. He will be able to finish in another quarter of an hour." When Yan Song, Xu Jie and others heard this, none of them had any objection.

But Hai Rui, who was standing at the very end, frowned slightly. He also knew that Emperor Jiajing liked to cultivate immortality, but he didn't expect that he would still be cultivating immortality when such an important imperial meeting was about to be held.

This is really putting the cart before the horse.

But Hai Rui was not stupid. He knew that the most important thing at the moment was to get the decision-making opinion on toll-charging and hardened roads. As for the matter of Emperor Jiajing's cultivation of immortals, that could be put aside for the time being. After this matter was dealt with, he would make a special memorial to persuade Emperor Jiajing to put state affairs first and stop indulging in immortality.

A quarter of an hour passed quickly.

Emperor Jiajing came out of the Jingshe behind Yuxi Palace wearing a black Taoist robe embroidered with the "Tao Te Ching" in gold.

This Taoist robe was also embroidered by Chen at the beginning of this year's New Year and presented to Zhu Zaigui as a New Year gift.

When Emperor Jiajing saw the black Taoist robe embroidered with verses from the Tao Te Ching, he was very happy, so he liked to wear this robe in occasions that he considered solemn and serious.

"The body has been trained to look like a crane, and two scriptures are written under a thousand pines. When I come to ask, I can't help but say, the clouds are in the blue sky, and the water is in the bottle."

Emperor Jiajing appeared slowly in the main hall of Yuxi Palace while reciting a very fairy-like Taoist poem and taking square steps.

Yan Song and his companions looked at the immortal-looking Emperor Jiajing and immediately bowed and paid homage: "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you."

Emperor Jiajing walked to his seat and sat down, then looked at everyone in the hall with a calm gaze, and finally said: "Everyone, stand up, and make room for Lord Xu to sit. From today on, Lord Xu will not have to stand when he sees me."

When Emperor Jiajing said this, everyone in the hall was stunned, especially Yan Song who was just about to sit down. He was so shocked that he stood there in a daze and even forgot to sit down for a moment.

Obviously he didn't expect this day to come so soon.

It seems that His Majesty the Emperor has already made up his mind that the position of Prime Minister will be replaced.

After Xu Jie was shocked, he immediately bowed and said, "Thank you very much, Your Majesty, for your reward, but I can still stand."

Emperor Jiajing laughed and said, "Lord Xu is almost sixty this year, right?"

Xu Jie replied: "I was born in the sixteenth year of the Hongzhi reign, and I am exactly sixty this year."

Emperor Jiajing laughed again and said, "Yes, you are already sixty years old, not young anymore. I still want to use you for a few more years, so you still have to sit when you are supposed to. Otherwise, you will be too tired one day, and I will have to choose someone else to use."

After hearing these words, Xu Jie couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. Although he knew that being granted a seat in front of the emperor was a great honor, the Jiajing Emperor said that he was not young anymore. Was this implying that he should be like Yan Song and leave when he reached the age to do so and should no longer be attached to the court?
Xu Jie bowed anxiously, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the seat."

Then he carefully sat down behind Yan Song.

But when he actually sat down, he realized that this chair was really not easy to sit on and it was more comfortable than standing.

But there was no turning back now. He could only sit on the edge of the chair, trembling like Yan Song, not daring to move at all.

It is as if this small chair is a cage, which makes people feel uneasy and dare not have any delusional thoughts.

Emperor Jiajing was very satisfied when he saw Xu Jie's cautious sitting posture.

At this time, Emperor Jiajing finally started the important topic of today's imperial meeting.

As soon as Emperor Jiajing extended his hand, Huang Jin immediately handed over the memorial he had prepared long ago.

Emperor Jiajing held the memorial in his hand and said, "This is the memorial submitted by Hai Rui and Pan Jixun on the toll-collecting and hardened roads in Beijing and Tianjin. You all know about it, right?"

Yan Song, Xu Jie and others bowed slightly and replied, "We have heard a little bit about it."

Emperor Jiajing nodded, then looked at Hai Rui and called out his name, "Hai Rui, this memorial was written by you and Pan Jixun. Now it is your turn to explain it to the Cabinet, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Revenue."

Hai Rui came out from the back and bowed to Emperor Jiajing, "I obey your order!"

Then Hai Rui stood up from the back and began his speech.

Hai Rui said, "Your Majesty and the other gentlemen, please understand. Today, our Great Ming is prosperous, but domestic demand is underdeveloped. Although the Tartars in the north have been pacified, there are still huge problems in the development of people's livelihood throughout the north."

"I suggest building a toll-paying and hardened road from the capital to Tianjin in order to find an effective development path for the future livelihood of the people in the north."

"And now, with the continuous development of the Beijing Special District, the population gathered in the capital has already shown a tendency to surpass Chang'an in the former Tang Dynasty and Kaifeng in the former Song Dynasty."

"However, compared to the ancient Chang'an and Kaifeng, our capital is a northern frontier city, not like Chang'an and Kaifeng, which are in the heart of the world."

"So in terms of population accumulation and manpower support, the population potential of the capital is not as good as that of ancient Chang'an and Kaifeng, which can build a super city with a population of millions."

"But now everything has turned around. Now that the northern Tartars have surrendered and no longer disturb our capital, our dynasty can focus more on developing the people's livelihood in the capital, thereby boosting the people's livelihood in northern Zhili and even the entire northern region."

"Therefore, for the sake of future generations, the construction of a toll-charging and hardened road between Beijing and Tianjin is an inevitable result. If this road is completed, goods can be transported more quickly from north to south and east to west, and the consumption and loss on the road can be greatly reduced. It can also provide more convenient conditions for the development of people's livelihood."

"And once this road becomes a model, the imperial court can use this method to re-plan the official roads of the Ming Dynasty in the future. This will not only strengthen the imperial court's control over all parts of the world, but also allow the world's goods to flow to all parties in the shortest time."

"When the time comes, no matter where in the north or south there is a disaster or distress, the imperial court can use this road to quickly rescue. And if there is any change in the four barbarians, the imperial court's heavenly soldiers can also use this road to carry out precise strikes at a speed of hundreds of miles a day."

"In this way, the future of our Great Ming Dynasty will surely be able to create the glory that the Han and Tang Dynasties never achieved!"

------

Asking for a monthly ticket~~
(End of this chapter)