If it weren't for the fact that no one was available, Zhu Youzhen would have agreed to Huang Liji's resignation a long time ago. But with the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible for him to let Huang Liji go home and have a good time.

Although the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty were self-contained, even if it was a well-organized party in later generations, there was a so-called: "There is no party outside the party, imperial thought, no faction in the party, and there are all kinds of strange." Not to mention the fierce struggle between the eunuchs and Donglin in the last days of the Ming Dynasty.

It is precisely because there are all kinds of contradictions within the civil official group that Zhu Youzhen feels that there is an opportunity. Although the eunuch party led by Wei Zhongxian has been divided, as long as Huang Liji is willing to come forward, then the eunuch members who were originally attached to Wei Zhongxian will automatically move closer to Huang Liji, the first assistant.

With Chongzhen's support, even if Donglin is powerful, he will not be able to squeeze out Huang Liji, a non-Donglin party, and control the government.

Huang Liji ascended to the position of first assistant step by step, and his protégé and the defection of eunuch members made his power enough to control the situation in the DPRK. And with Huang Liji, a bureaucrat who is well versed in the unspoken rules of Ming officialdom, in the way, the Donglin Party has no time to estimate, and it seems that there is no threat to Western education.

If Huang Liji is scared away now, then the Donglin Party will naturally point the contradiction at Xu Guangqi and the Western missionaries, and change from the struggle for power in the court to the struggle between Eastern and Western doctrines.

As for the struggle between Eastern and Western doctrines and ideas, from the end of the Qing Dynasty until the Republic, it was barely a victory. But Zhu Youzhen didn't have more than 100 years to argue with them about the merits of Eastern and Western theories.

What's more, the current Western studies are still in their infancy, and they are not yet the mature period that Confucianism was completely incomprehensible at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Rather than wasting precious time on arguing about which is better or worse, it is better to first carry out the popularization of Western studies among the people.

Different from the Confucian subtle words, the knowledge of Western studies itself is closely related to our lives. As long as the people realize that Western learning can help them solve various problems in life, then no matter how much these feudal defenders reject it, they will not be able to stop the people's enthusiasm for learning Western studies for a better life.

And once the Donglin Party provoked a struggle between the Eastern and Western Doctrines, then even the Ming Emperor could not protect Xu Guangqi, the pioneers of Western learning. After Dong Zhongshu established the unified Confucianism, so that Confucianism obtained the only doctrine of imperial governance, after more than 1700 years of evolution, Confucianism has been completely deified.

Wang Yangming just wanted to change the extension of Confucianism slightly, and wanted to make Confucianism closer to the way of application in the world. As a result, Wang Yangming became a thorn in the side of the stubborn conservative forces, and the scholars who studied Wang Xue were repeatedly attacked by the conservative forces.

This is nothing more than a school divide within Confucianism, which has already been struggled to such an extent. When the dispute between the East and the West was provoked, the Confucian students in the world would inevitably criticize Xu Guangqi and other scholars who advocated Western studies.

And officials, like Xu Guangqi, who are more like scholars, are simply no match for the Donglin Party, which is skilled in party disputes. Zhu Youzhen didn't have to guess, and he knew that Xu Guangqi and these people would definitely lose.

And once even Xu Guangqi was driven out of the court by the Donglin Party, then Zhu Youzhen could only be a real loner.

The virtue of the Donglin Party is not enough to succeed and more than to lose. Chongzhen can almost see his ending, and it will not be much better than the original history.

Therefore, before Xu Guangqi and others' universities did not cultivate talents, Zhu Youzhen needed Huang Liji to stand up to the front and attract the firepower of the Donglin Party.

After Huang Liji finished saying his heartfelt words, he suddenly felt that a stone had gone to his heart, and the whole person felt much more relaxed. After he finished speaking, he closed his eyes and waited for Chongzhen's final fate.

Zhu Youzhen, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke to Huang Liji again and said: "Although Mr. Huang is right, his understanding of the situation between scholars and merchants is still too rough.

From the time of the Ming Dynasty to today, although the gap between the scholars and merchants has gradually disappeared, the situation between the scholars and the wealthy merchants has not yet reached the situation of indistinguishing each other. Daming has truly become a business gang of the climate, and it is also in the five regions of northern Shaanxi, Shaanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong.

Merchants in northern Shaanxi and Shaanxi started with salt and grain, and now most of them are engaged in the northwest border trade and Huaiyang salt industry. There are fewer people in the Qin Dynasty than in the Jin Dynasty, and the Qin merchants are attached to the Jin merchants.

Anhui merchants started with timber, grain, pawn shops, and now the pawn shops in various places are mostly Hui merchants, starting from the end of the emperor's grandfather, Hui merchants began to enter the two Huai salt industry again, and the merchants of Qin and Jin fought for the control of the two Huai salt industry.

Most of the merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were born on the two islands of Suzhou, Huzhou, Dongting Lake, and Dongting Lake, and their main business was grain, cotton cloth, and raw silk.

Fujian and Guangdong merchants mainly traded overseas, and the silk, cotton, raw silk, porcelain and Foshan ironware they operated were the bulk commodities. However, the merchants of Fujian and Guangdong were only vassals dependent on the merchants of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and their profitable goods had to rely on the supply of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Fujian and Guangdong merchants drifted on the sea and took risks, but it was the merchants of Jiangsu and Zhejiang who got the greatest benefits, will there be no complaints?

There was a contradiction between the Qin merchants and the Jin merchants, and there was a contradiction between the merchants of the Qin and Jin dynasties and the Hui merchants for the Huaiyang salt industry, while the Hui merchants operated pawn shops, and the profits were one cent, two cents, and three cents per month, and the other regions were often three or four cents, so the merchants who opened pawn shops in the world all hated the Hui merchants.

The tea merchants in Sichuan and Shaanxi monopolized the tea routes to Wusizang, the Western Regions, and Mongolia, and the tea merchants in Hubei had tea but no trade routes, and there were also many contradictions between them.

With so many contradictions between these businessmen, does Mr. Huang still think that it is impossible to increase the business tax? ”

Huang Liji had already made up his mind, no matter what Chongzhen said, he would never agree with it. But then Chongzhen didn't persuade him, but directly talked about Shangjia. The more Huang Liji listened, the more frightened he became, although he cared about the merchants when Chongzhen proposed to increase the commercial tax, but it was far from being as thorough as Chongzhen's research.

Huang Li opened his eyes violently, looked at Chongzhen in surprise, and said, "How can Your Majesty know so clearly about the affairs of Shang Jia?" ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled and said: "Businessmen make a living by chasing profits, and the food and clothing of hundreds of thousands of people in the capital is the greatest benefit in the eyes of businessmen. In this capital, there are many merchants from all over the country from the south to the north, as long as they send individuals outside the Chongwen Gate every day to record these merchants who are waiting to pay taxes and pass the customs and chat. In less than two months, Mr. Huang will know as much as I do. ”

"Two months? In this way, if Your Majesty wants to increase the commercial tax, won't he start preparing as soon as he ascends the throne? Huang Li said with some surprise.

"yes, the time is a little short. If I still have time, I think it would be better to send people to various places to investigate and then launch a tax increase plan. Zhu Youzhen said with emotion.

Huang Liji disagreed, and the information that Zhu Youzhen had prepared for two months seemed to him to be perfect enough. Although he was shocked that Zhu Youzhen was not a whim, Huang Liji was not moved by Chongzhen's words.

"But Your Majesty, although there are contradictions between these merchants, the minister can be sure. Once His Majesty issued an edict to increase taxes, these merchants would surely unite to resist the imperial court. And the officials of the DPRK and China, who they have befriended, will also slander His Majesty's policy of increasing commercial taxes in the court as a policy that harms the people. What's more, the local officials are deeply influenced by the Donglin Party, and I am afraid that when the time comes, His Majesty's edict will only be rejected by these officials as a dead letter. At that time, this policy of increasing commercial taxes will not only destroy His Majesty's prestige, but will not be implemented, and I am afraid that it will not be able to satisfy His Majesty's hope of enriching the treasury. ”

At this time, Zhu Youzhen also knew that if he didn't come up with something real, this Shoufu Master who had been immersed in officialdom for a long time would never come to wade into the troubled waters of this reform.

"From the establishment of the cabinet system in the Jianwen Dynasty to the perfection of the Xuanzong and Renzong dynasties, the cabinet of my Ming Dynasty can be said to have no name of prime minister, but the reality of prime minister. But the sage once said: If the name is not right, the word is not good; If you don't go your way, you won't get it. The Ming Cabinet is not the real prime minister after all, is Mr. Huang willing to change the name of this first assistant? ”

Huang Liji finally changed color when he heard this, and his current mood can be described as complicated. After Taizu abolished the prime minister, the Ming civil official group went through a hundred years, although it regained some of the prime minister's power from the emperor, but after all, it was far from the era of the prime minister who could confront the imperial power.

The scholars of the world are all in the two Song Dynasty eras, which shared the world with scholars. However, the majesty of Taizu is too great, and to this day, scholars only dare to say that the current cabinet is the prime minister of the past, but no one dares to ask the emperor to restore the prime minister system and self-restrain the imperial power.

If Huang Liji's dream of being a prime minister can be realized in the hands of this scholar, then he, Huang Liji, will immediately leap above the famous ministers of the previous dynasty and become the first person in the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Majesty, please be cautious, this abolition of the prime minister is the ancestral system formulated by Taizu. Taizu once said: The heir is not allowed to set up a prime minister, and if his subordinates dare to ask for the establishment, the civil and military ministers will be impeached immediately and sentenced to heavy punishment. The minister did not dare to violate the hadith. Huang Liji's words were high-sounding, but his voice was unusually dry.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Huang Liji's eyes meaningfully, and it was not until Huang Liji lowered his gaze to avoid Zhu Youzhen's gaze that he said calmly: "If I want to implement reforms, I will naturally abolish the ancestral system. If even the ancestral system of Taizu without a prime minister cannot be overthrown, how can the people of the world believe in my determination to reform the Ming Dynasty? Is Mr. Huang willing to go further, be the prime minister of Zhongxing Daming, and then leave a name in history? Or is it the infamy of a remnant of the eunuch party, retiring from home and not asking about the world, and being laughed at by future generations? ”

What is the matter of a scholar, it is only three things: morality, meritorious service, and speech. Although Huang Liji is the first assistant, he still thinks of himself as a Confucian in his bones. The temptation thrown out by Chongzhen is from the perspective of meritorious service.

At this moment, even if Huang Liji was reserved, he couldn't hold his mind a little bit. He hesitated and replied, "I'm afraid that the Donglin Party will not give up." There is no pity for the old minister to die, lest he spoil His Majesty's plan. ”