The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde proposed to tax the clan and then use the tax to subsidize the clan's lack of rice. This idea was in line with the emperor's wishes, but he was also hesitant. After all, he wanted to collect money from them, and there was no precedent in the past.

"Your Majesty, the clan has always been lawless in local areas due to lack of restraint.

Taxing them is also a reminder to them that Your Majesty is there, so that when the taxes are paid every year, the princes or clansmen of each prince's palace will be escorted to the capital without going through the imperial court.

After they enter the capital, your majesty can get familiar with the clans in various places, and secondly, he can show you dignity. This is actually for their own good. "

Wei Guangde saw that Emperor Longqing understood, but still did not express his position, so he simply continued.

"This matter is too big, let me think about it carefully."

Emperor Longqing spoke at this time, but turned to look at Wei Guangde and said: "But the mining issue you mentioned seems to be discussed urgently. The inner and outer courts have no money now, and a solution must be found as soon as possible."

"We can first identify two mines near the capital for mining. In this way, we can also improve the regulations and establish systems, and then gradually roll them out."

Wei Guangde said.

Many of the things he tinkered with were just trying to cross the river by feeling the stones. It was best to take it step by step and try it slowly, so that even if there were mistakes, they could be corrected in time to avoid catastrophe.

"You go back and think about it, write a charter, and I will consider it."

Wei Guangde was thinking about it as he exited the Qianqing Palace and returned to the cabinet. It seemed that the emperor thought the matter was relatively big, and might even consult Gao Gong, Li Chunfang and others.

Collecting taxes from the clan is actually not difficult. The main thing is to be able to withstand the clan's cries. Those people are used to crying about poverty, but as long as two of them are punished, the others will be honest.

However, I don't know if Emperor Longqing didn't notice the matter of sharing the land with his family, or didn't pay attention to it at all. It seemed that he was more interested in mining.

With Gao Gong's return to the court, everyone in the cabinet discovered that Emperor Longqing had changed a lot recently.

In the past, people would be sent to the cabinet every one or two days to summon people, but now they have become more diligent and send people here almost every day.

However, most of those summoned into the palace every day have high arches, and because of this, the number of times they are summoned has become less.

In the past, they could see the emperor once every six or seven days, but now it has become ten days to see the emperor, which means they can only see him two or three times a month.

It is very important for cabinet ministers to show their face in front of the emperor.

As a cabinet minister, the emperor's support and trust are very important, but it is only through the cold words attached to the memorial, but after all, without seeing the emperor in person, speaking a few words in front of him has the best effect.

Among the few people, only Wei Guangde seems to still be able to see the emperor five or six times a month, and basically there is not much change.

In the last month of the third year of Longqing's reign, the atmosphere in various government offices in the capital was also very relaxed.

After Gao Gong returned to the court, he may have discovered that the people who needed his revenge were all gone. He did not take any action until now. He just went to the cabinet to work every day and accepted the emperor's inquiries like other cabinet ministers.

As time went by, everyone seemed to gradually forget the fear that had brought them before.

"Master, butler Zhang Ji wants to see the master outside the palace."

In the cabinet duty room, Wei Guangde was processing the memorial when Lu Bu came in and whispered in his ear.

Lu Bu was the steward of the Wei Mansion, but without official status, he naturally could not enter the Forbidden City.

"Did he say what happened?"

It was rare for Zhang Ji to come to the cabinet to find him. Something must have happened, so Wei Guangde held back his nerves and asked.

"It seems that Mr. Ouyang, a fellow countryman of the master, died of illness on the road."

Lu Bu said cautiously.

"What?"

Wei Guangde stood up suddenly. He didn't know that in another time and space, it was said that Ouyang Yijing died of depression because of Gao Gong's return to the court. Of course, some people said that he was frightened to death by Gao Gong's return.

But no matter what, Ouyang Yijing is his fellow Peng Ze, and he is the one closest to home among his colleagues, so they usually have a closer relationship. It was shocking to hear that someone died suddenly.

Wei Guangde knew that this was probably true, and Zhang Ji would not believe the rumors without thinking. He sighed and said, "I'll go take a look."

Wei Guangde left the duty room and walked straight to the palace gate, with Lu Bu following closely behind him.

After leaving Chengtianmen, Wei Guangde saw Zhang Ji in the square outside the palace gate. At this time, Zhang Ji had already hurriedly greeted him.

"Sir, Mr. Ouyang passed by Guide Mansion and fell ill. He did not recover after more than half a month of recuperation, and he died after that."

Zhang Ji handed a letter into Wei Guangde's hand, and Wei Guangde took it out and took a quick look at it.

The letter was written by Ouyang Yijing's elder. According to the rules, if an official with official status like Ouyang Yijing dies, he must report it to the official, and the court will give him preferential treatment.

Officials of high enough rank will also be given posthumous titles and other rewards based on their contributions to the court during their lifetime.

Posthumous titles refer to the writing of praise or derogation given by descendants after the death of a person with a relatively high social status based on his or her life deeds. It began in the Western Zhou Dynasty and was widely used in the Chinese character culture circle.

Evaluating a character's merits and demerits often cannot be described clearly in just a few words. In order to facilitate the conclusion of historical figures, the ancients chose to use posthumous titles to summarize them.

Generally speaking, in ancient history, for people with relatively high social status such as emperors, queens, princes and ministers, after their death, the court would give them a title with evaluative meaning based on their actions during their lifetime. This is the usual meaning. posthumous title.

When the posthumous title law first came into being, there were only "beautiful posthumous titles" and "flat posthumous titles" and no "evil posthumous titles". However, since King Li of Zhou Dynasty was given the posthumous title of "Li" because of his tyranny, such as "defending the people more than guarding the rivers", "Li" became "Li". "Evil posthumous title" also appeared.

The posthumous name is selected according to the posthumous law. The posthumous law stipulates some words with fixed meanings for selection when determining the posthumous name.

The above three types of posthumous titles generally belong to official posthumous titles.

In addition, there are also "private posthumous titles".

Private posthumous titles are posthumous titles agreed upon by relatives, disciples, and former officials after the death of a famous scholar or scholar-official. "Private posthumous titles" began on weekends and flourished in the Han Dynasty.

However, despite Ouyang Yijing's reputation as a "god curser" in the capital, his rank was too low, so he was given to a seventh-rank official, so of course he could not enjoy the posthumous honor.

"Lu Bu, please go to the Ministry of Rites and tell Zhao Zhenji the matter. Ask him to deal with the matter as soon as possible after reporting it to Guide, and arrange for a post to send the spirit back home."

Wei Guangde turned around and gave an order to Lu Bu behind him. After receiving the order, Lu Bu immediately ran to the Ministry of Rites not far away.

"Zhang Ji, arrange for an old man who understands these things to go to Guide Mansion immediately with two guards and escort them all the way back to Pengze."

Wei Guangde ordered Zhang Ji again.

Now Ouyang Yijing must stay in Guide, and he will have to wait for the court to make further arrangements before he can continue to go back.

"I understand, sir."

Zhang Ji agreed.

"Oh, I didn't expect this to happen. If I had known it would happen, I should have forced him to go to Fujian to avoid the limelight."

Wei Guangde knew that it was the journey that had killed him, but the cause must have been his heart disease.

That's how people are, when they are full of energy, they can survive no matter what.

But if a person loses his energy and energy, a minor illness may turn into a serious illness, and he may even die directly like Ouyang Yijing.

As a fellow villager, Wei Guangde must make these arrangements, otherwise he will be regarded as having no family affection by other fellow villagers.

"You send people from the government to convey the news to the Jiangxi fellows in Beijing. There is no need to hide this matter. I guess the report from Guide will arrive in Beijing soon."

After Wei Guangde finished speaking to Zhang Ji, he turned and walked towards the palace gate.

After Wei Guangde left, Zhang Ji immediately returned to the Wei Mansion and sent people out to do things according to Wei Guangde's instructions.

But one day, the news that Ouyang Yijing died of illness and returned home spread in the capital, almost instantly awakening the vigilance that the officials in the DPRK and China had forgotten.

Although Ouyang Yijing did not die of depression because of Gao Gong's suppression, most officials still pointed the finger at Gao Gong, which made Gao Gong very angry.

It is true that before entering the capital, he did consider dealing with Ouyang Yijing, but at most he would find a way to either dismiss the people from office or throw them to Yunnan, without intending to kill them.

Unlike Yan Shifan, he didn't want to eradicate the roots or anything like that.

But the result is that I didn’t do anything, and the shit basin was still placed on my head.

However, two days later, the Ministry of Rites received another report from the Huai'an Prefecture that Hu Yingjia, the former Huguang Chief Secretary and left counselor who had been begging to return to recuperate, died of illness at home.

For a time, the officials in the capital became even worse. Whenever they saw Gao Gong, they looked like a god of plague.

Although they all died of illness, people these days are superstitious. The two men who impeached Gao Gong died of illness in a very short period of time. Naturally, everyone felt that it was abnormal.

Some people even whispered privately that they suspected it was someone sent by Gao Gong.

Wei Guangde was only slightly surprised when he heard the news from Zhang Ji, but of course he didn't believe it, although he believed that Gao Gong might have this ability.

But the point is, whether it's Ouyang Yijing or Hu Yingjia, they just have different positions, not to the extent of life or death.

Political struggle is very cruel, but it is far from killing people. Dismissal from office and exile are already very severe revenge.

In the third year of Longqing, in such a strange atmosphere, Wei Guangde wrote the articles he had written before about trying to increase the number of "divided people into acres" in the process of implementing the "One Whip Law", as well as the articles on taxing clan members and mining. It was delivered to the palace, but except for being summoned by Emperor Longqing from time to time for questioning, Emperor Longqing never gave a clear attitude.

Wei Guangde also understood that this matter could not be rushed. After all, it involved national policy. It was right for the emperor to think carefully and not act rashly just because of the seemingly "reachable" interests in front of him.

However, copies of the charters he wrote to Emperor Longqing actually fell into Gao Gong's hands.

Although Gao Gong never asked Wei Guangde about anything in the cabinet, he did read the regulations.

But perhaps only he and Emperor Longqing knew what Gao Gong thought about these things.

Of course, Wei Guangde also had speculations about these, but he didn't pay much attention to them.

Compared with the emperor's trust, Wei Guangde knew that even if he flattered him, he could not keep up with Gao Gong.

But what he didn't expect was that Emperor Wanli after Longqing was keen on mining everywhere to increase internal revenue, which actually came from the memorial he wrote to Emperor Longqing.

In the fourth year of Longqing's Zhengdan Dynasty meeting, just like in previous years, Emperor Longqing sat high on the throne, but his complexion was obviously not as good as before.

Wei Guangde took a peek at the aloof emperor, his face was a little pale, and he was obviously working hard in the harem.

But strangely enough, there were many beauties in Emperor Longqing's harem, but the one who really blossomed was the former maid of Prince Yu, now Concubine Li.

Perhaps because of her easy pregnancy, in the second year of Longqing, Concubine Li gave birth to Emperor Longqing's second son, Zhu Yili. She was the fourth eldest son in the royal family, which made Emperor Longqing happy for a while.

In the Huangji Hall, civil and military ministers and tribute envoys from all over the world paid tribute to Emperor Longqing. They ordered that no public announcement be made, no banquet for hundreds of officials, and only festival money be given.

This is not beyond everyone's expectations. Except for the first and second years of Longqing, this was the case in the third year of Longqing. The emperor's Huangji Palace accepted the congratulations of hundreds of officials and tribute envoys, and it was the same after that.

After the emperor retired from the palace, the ministers filed out, collected their respective money, and prepared to find a place to eat.

It was very early for the officials to gather outside the palace gate during the official meeting, so most of them just ate something to cushion their stomachs. After tossing for a long time, they were so hungry that their chests pressed against their backs.

As for the money-saving rewards, they were actually just that, a stack of treasure notes that were too hard to wipe your buttocks, and gold and silver coins minted in the palace.

Wei Guangde received a lot of treasure money every year. For example, the Zhengdan treasure money amounted to one hundred guan. If it had been placed in the early Ming Dynasty, it would have been treated as one hundred taels of silver.

However, this is the Longqing Year, and the price of treasure banknotes has already plummeted. If it is not useful for paying taxes and passing banknotes, people may just throw them away.

As for the gold and silver coins cast by the Ming Dynasty specifically for rewards, they appear to be in good condition and almost represent the best casting level of the Ming Dynasty in this era.

These gold and silver coins are slightly larger than official copper coins. The material is made by adding gold, silver and copper materials in a certain proportion, so they feel much better than copper coins.

Wei Guangde's money festival this year is still one hundred guan of treasure notes and ten pieces of gold. According to the current market price, these ten pieces of money are equivalent to about ten taels of silver, maybe a little more. After all, they come from the palace and are genuine gold and silver. , it is not bad money that involves adding worthless materials such as lead.

A few people from the cabinet were walking together. It was not easy to sit with people from the Six Ministries and Five Temples at this time. It only seemed cordial to sit at the same table with people from the yamen.

So far, Gao Gong has maintained a close relationship with everyone since his return to the court, and there have been no serious disagreements due to political differences, so the current atmosphere in the cabinet is pretty good.

Several cabinet ministers found a large restaurant outside the palace, asked for a private room, and sat around, eating and drinking.

"I heard that the palace spent more than 200,000 taels on this year's Aoshan Lantern Festival, which is more than before."

At the banquet, Yin Shizhen spoke.

"The venue should be closed in the next two days and decorations will begin. Then we will see how spectacular this year's Aoshan Lantern Festival will be."

Wei Guangde answered cheerfully.

After arriving in the Ming Dynasty and entering the capital, he would not attend the Aoshan Lantern Festival every year.

At first it was to meet Prince Yu by chance, and later it was because he knew that Emperor Jiajing would also watch from the tower. Until now, it has become a habit without realizing it.

Maybe it’s because there are so few entertainment activities these days.

In Beijing, unlike Nanjing, there is an event to choose an oiran every year, and the Aoshan Lantern Festival is the only choice.