When Zhang Yixian accompanied Xu Guangqi into the courtyard, Liu Jingting suddenly stood up and saluted Chongzhen and retired.

And after Zhu Youzhen said goodbye to Liu Jingting, he also took the initiative to walk towards Xu Guangqi. He trotted a few steps and helped Xu Guangqi, who was about to bow down to him.

"Mr. Xu should not be polite, this is not above the main hall, nor is it the time for the court. I'm just a passer-by at the inn today, so why don't you get along with me more easily? ”

Xu Guangqi was not the kind of stubborn and old-fashioned Mr. Morality, and the power he used to help him from Chongzhen also felt that what the young emperor just said was also from his heart.

So Xu Guangqi didn't insist on saluting Chongzhen anymore, and after entertaining Xu Guangqi to sit down, Zhu Youzhen instructed Wang Chengen: "Go make a pot of hot tea, and then you can go down, I want to talk to Mr. Xu alone." ”

Wang Chengen went down in response, and Zhang Yixian also followed with interest. After the two walked out of the courtyard, Zhang Yixian immediately complained to Wang Chengen: "Princess, why did Your Majesty come here from Beijing today, seeing that Your Majesty is not in a very good mood today, who provoked Your Majesty?" Otherwise, I wouldn't have suffered from this kind of pond fish. ”

Wang Chengen looked at this eunuch with more qualifications than himself, and he was really helpless. Although Zhang Yixian's personality is a little worse, he is actually not bad, and he also takes care of his subordinates, and his popularity among the old people in Xinwangfu is still good.

Wang Chengen did not stop at his feet, and replied: "You are really unlucky, Your Majesty planned a major event a few days ago, and discussed it with Li Kuilong, the right deputy of the Imperial Palace, for a few days, and planned to propose at the court meeting today to revise the commercial tax and abolish the provisions of exempting scholars and nobles from commercial tax.

I don't want this Li Kuilong to be more than enough to lose, the content of his performance today has already been disseminated, and everyone at today's court meeting will attack Li Kuilong, and he will almost abolish the post of Li Kuilong's right deputy capital imperial history. If it weren't for the emperor's anger, he bluntly said that he instructed Li Kuilong to handle this matter, and asked everyone if they wanted to remove him, the emperor, together, which made everyone at the court meeting silent. In the end, Huang Shoufu came out to play a round and persuaded everyone to discuss this matter later, and today's court meeting ended hastily.

After His Majesty retired from the court, he was upset and unwilling to stay in the palace, so he changed his clothes and came out to relax, but he didn't expect that outside Mr. Chen's old residence, Ao Ying changed his name to Mr. Liu, and met Mr. Liu, who had just returned to Beijing.

They walked around the capital for an afternoon, and then they went out of the city and came here, saying that they wanted to find a place to play chess, and waited for Mr. Xu and them to come by the way. Then you rushed in with the blindless Jinyi Guard, fortunately, Your Majesty restrained his temper today, otherwise you would not have just served the Three Qing Dao Ancestors for a few days. ”

Zhang Yixian felt a little chill on his scalp at this time, he didn't expect that so many things had happened today, His Majesty didn't vent his anger on himself, he really opened up to himself.

After Zhu Youzhen sent the others away, he and Xu Guangqi were the only ones left alone in the courtyard.

Xu Guangqi only then spoke: "Your Majesty did not hesitate to violate the palace rules and deliberately rushed outside the city to wait for the minister, presumably he had something to say to the minister." I don't know what is important to Your Majesty, and you are willing to risk being criticized by Shilin, and you are not willing to wait one more day until the old minister enters Beijing? ”

Xu Guangqi tactfully admonished Chongzhen, Zhu Youzhen habitually tapped his right finger on the stone table a few times, and muttered for a while before saying: "To be honest, I am waiting for Mr. here, and I really have something to ask Mr. If you wait until Mr. enters Beijing, Mr. 's every move may have already fallen in the eyes of people with intentions, and no matter what Mr. you do, someone will definitely attack Mr. as a move to invite pets. That's why I wanted to come and meet him before he entered Beijing. ”

Xu Guangqi quickly adjusted his thoughts, it seems that this young son of heaven did not run out of the capital on a whim, and waited for him here.

He said cautiously: "Your Majesty has any requirements, but please speak bluntly, if the old minister can do it, he will naturally do his best for His Majesty." ”

Looking at Xu Guangqi's cautious and cautious appearance, Zhu Youzhen could naturally see that the unfinished meaning in the language of this great scientist of the Ming Dynasty was that if it was a nonsense request that was difficult for a strong man, it was better not to mention it as soon as possible.

Zhu Youzhen turned a blind eye to Xu Guangqi's gesture of resistance, and said bluntly: "From Mr.'s point of view, how should I reform in order to save this crisis." ”

Zhu Youzhen's straightforwardness startled Xu Guangqi, and he couldn't help but say in surprise: "Is it too exaggerated to say that Your Majesty is in this critical situation?" Although I have the trouble of being captive outside the Ming Dynasty and the chaos of luxury and peace inside, they are just savages, and as long as the court selects the virtuous and capable, these sibling mosses can be leveled in one fell swoop. Besides, what does this reform mean? ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Xu Guangqi with both eyes, and said without concessions: "The annual income of the Ming Dynasty is only more than 2 million taels in Taicang, and last year's state expenditure reached more than 500 thousand taels.

Last year, a total of 6.8 million taels were spent on Liaodong, and 5 million taels were spent on the military expenditure for the Southwest Rebellion. These two military expenditures alone exceeded 13.8 million taels. Last year, 7.71 million taels of silver had been levied, but the treasury was still short of more than 1.64 million taels.

The total tax revenue and color of my Ming Dynasty is only 27 million taels a year, but the military expenditure has exceeded half, and it is already nine out of ten to remove the officials' expenses, the expenses of the clan, and the expenses of the royal family. However, the waterways of the Yellow River, the Huai River, the Grand Canal, and the Yangtze River have been slightly repaired, and the state finances have been unable to make ends meet.

It's still a good time for the year, and everyone can still mix it up with their eyes closed. Once a natural disaster occurs, the great Ming Dynasty can't even move out the money for disaster relief, and the victims of the disaster can't survive.

The local disaster turned into a military disaster, and the imperial court could neither provide relief to the victims nor quell the civil uprising, so it could only be helpless, this is not the crisis of the Ming Dynasty. Reform is to change the law, to innovate also, to remove the old and cloth the new, to find a way to live for the people of the Ming Dynasty. ”

Zhu Youzhen said a lot of things, but Xu Guangqi's heart was tangled. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva before he said calmly: "Your Majesty's pure heart, the old minister naturally agrees." But how should His Majesty's reform be changed? Is it like the old example of Zhang Jiangling? ”

Although Xu Guangqi was the most brilliant scientist of his time and the most receptive to new things, he was still a scholar. Zhu Youzhen looked at Xu Guangqi's somewhat stiff face, and was also thinking in his heart, "Whether he wants to tell Xu Guangqi his thoughts or not, what he wants to change is the already rotten feudal system of the Ming Dynasty, and this kind of change will inevitably be resisted and counterattacked most fiercely by the conservative forces."

As a member of the vested interests in the old system, will Xu Guangqi follow him firmly and become a gravedigger who betrays the scholar class? However, if he wants to accomplish the change he has in mind, he must find his peers, and in order to find his peers, he must be clear about his own ideas for change.

Any reform of the old system will not be a polite dinner, but a fight to the death. In this battle against the old system, it takes countless idealists, united under the same ideal, belief or concept, to join the battle one after another, in order to change the old ideas, old rules or old order that bind the people. In England they were called the New Aristocrats, in France they were called Jacobins, and in America they were called Puritans. ”