Chu King Zhu Huakui is willing to donate half of his property for disaster relief in Shaanxi? If it wasn't the emperor himself who said this, Huang Liji would never believe it.

Zhu Huakui was born in the second year of Longqing, succeeded to the throne of Chu in the eighth year of Wanli, and in the thirty-first year of Wanli, Zhu Huajiao, a sect member of the Chu Palace, pointed out that Zhu Huakui and his younger brother Zhu Huabi, the king of Xuanhua, were not the sons of King Chu Gong. Zhu Huakui is the son of Princess Gong's brother Wang Ruyan, and Zhu Huabi is the son of Wang Yu, Wang Ruyan's family. Zhu Huabao learned from his wife, Wang Ruyan's daughter, that it was a case of a pseudo-king of Chu that caused an uproar in the Chu Wangfu.

However, Zhu Huakui bribed the then first assistant Shen Yiyi, and deposed Zhu Huabao and his wife as concubines and imprisoned them in Fengyang. attached to his sect Zhu Yunfang and many others, or punished and commuted to Lu, or Ge Jue was imprisoned; The two honor guests of the palace will always be on the border and fill the army.

At the same time as the case was successfully overturned, Zhu Huakui arrogantly instructed his subordinates to beat Zhao Kehuai, the governor of Huguang who had a grudge against him, to death, and since then, Zhu Huakui's corrupt and illegal deeds in the fief have been reported to the capital from time to time.

Zhu Huakui, 60 years old, is famous for being greedy for money and lustful even among vassal kings. The number of people in the Chuzong lineage exceeded 3,000, and there was one prince, six county kings, and the others were all generals and lieutenants. The clan of the Chu Sect has nearly 300,000 stones a year, most of which are divided by the clan above the county king, and the clan below the general can't even solve the problem of food and clothing.

But Zhu Huakui sits on tens of thousands of acres of land, and the palace has accumulated countless savings, and he didn't see him take out a little to help his fellow bloodline, but he only cared about his own life.

It was Chongzhen who said that the king of Chu took the initiative to take out half of his property to relieve the victims of the disaster in Shaanxi, and Huang Liji didn't believe it in his heart. However, what has been rumored in the capital recently is the retrial of the case of the puppet king of Chu.

Zhu Huabao and his wife, Zhu Yunfang and other Chu sects brought up the accusation that Zhu Huakui was not the bloodline of the old Chu king. And the strange thing is that King Fu, who had just taken over the Zongren Decree of the Zongren Mansion, actually dared to risk the world's disapproval and really took over the case.

You must know that the case of the puppet king of Chu is no longer a simple case of counterfeiting the bloodline of the clan, but a political case involving the party dispute between the DPRK and China in the past. Overturning the case for the puppet King of Chu is undoubtedly opening up for the Donglin Party. It is really surprising that King Fu, who is regarded as an enemy by the Donglin Party, would take on this case.

Just when Huang Liji was still thinking about the King of Chu's willingness to donate money, Zhu Youzhen continued to him: "Huguang is a feudal land, and 40% of the Ming Sect is sealed here.

This time, the king of Chu was able to lead by example, and it is really commendable to do this good deed. However, in the final analysis, the case of the puppet king of Chu is due to the rapid reproduction of the population of the clan, and the limited output of the fiefdom, resulting in the fact that although they are all children of the clan, some people are clothed and fed, and some people are not allowed to eat three meals, and the wealth distribution is too disparity.

I felt that the reform of the clan support system must also be put on the agenda, and I also discussed with the king of Chu and decided to use Chu Zong as a pilot first.

The titles of the clan are divided into princes, county kings, Zhenguo generals, auxiliary generals, Fengguo generals, Zhenguo lieutenants, auxiliary lieutenants, Fengguo lieutenants, etc., and after the sixth generation, he will always be the lieutenant of Fengguo. Born as a clan, he is not allowed to practice the business of the four people, he can only sit and eat the sect, and he has no right to move around.

I thought that the ancestors of the past cherished their children and grandchildren too much, so that the children of today's clan are either cultivated as waste, or have become prisoners in the well. It has been less than 300 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, but there are more than 200,000 clans in the world.

The gentleman's Ze is only the fifth generation, can the identity of this Ming clan really be maintained endlessly by children and grandchildren? I can't see it. The maintenance system of the Ming clan has reached a critical juncture today that it has to be changed, and it cannot be changed. ”

Regarding Chongzhen's explanation to him why he wanted to reform the clan support system, Huang Liji actually did not resist at all. Regarding the shortcomings of the current Ming clan system, the civil officials of all dynasties have seen it very clearly, and they have tried every means to compress the clan's money, and the civil officials have not done less.

In fact, starting from Emperor Zhengde, successive Ming emperors have noticed the problem of the clan, but no emperor dares to really propose a package of solutions and completely reform the clan support system. First, he was afraid that he would anger the clans of the world and ruin his reputation; The second is that each emperor has his own descendants to divide the feudal domain, and they can't cut the feudal domain at the same time, which is obviously unreasonable. So in the end, it was not done.

Now the Daming clan costs 8 million stones a year, although under the deduction of civil officials, the clan can only get about 5 or 6 million stones. But this is already a considerable expenditure, and the annual financial income of the Ming Dynasty is only about 26 million stones. What's more, these Ming clans have no contribution to the Ming Dynasty except for the consumption of social wealth, and they are a pure burden to the Ming Dynasty.

If Chongzhen can strip off the expenditure of eight million stones a year, at least the treasury will be much more abundant, and he, the steward of the Ming Dynasty, will be much better. Therefore, Huang Liji listened calmly, how Chongzhen made up his mind to deal with this sect problem.

Zhu Youzhen continued without distraction: "... It's all the blood of Taizu, and I think that since I want to give preferential treatment to the clan, then the benefits can't be eaten by several princes and county kings.

The first thing to reform is the method of issuing fixed sects according to rank. The first imperial court simply couldn't take out so much money and grain to subsidize it, and the clan population that continued to multiply.

Therefore, I intend to abolish the fixed income of all the people in Chuzong, and instead give Chuzong 250,000 stone of grain or equivalent value of money a year.

How will this money and grain be distributed within the Chu Sect, my plan is this, the sect under the age of 18 and the age of 60 can each receive 3 stone of grain per month. In addition, children of the clan under the age of 18 can also receive a monthly study fund of 1 and a half stones. If you are 60 years old or older, you can get 2 stone per month for medical expenses.

As for the clans between the ages of 18 and 60, each person will receive 3 koku of grain per month for three years, which will be halved for the next two years, and no subsidies will be paid after five years.

The prince and below must learn a business of the four peoples, and abolish the ban on the clan's prohibition on traveling and engaging in the business of the four peoples. The county king and above listened to the court, and the court did not force it.

In addition, the king of Chu will take out 500,000 taels of silver to set up the Chuzong Foundation, which will be specially used to help the old, weak, sick and disabled in Chuzong's difficult life. The funds of the foundation will be held in escrow by the central bank, and the annual income will be distributed and used by the King of Chu, and the Zongren Mansion will supervise it. Every year, if the imperial court allocates money and grain to Chu Zong, it will also be directly invested in the foundation. ”

Huang Li was slightly disappointed, the imperial court also allocated 250,000 stone of grain to Chuzong every year, which did not seem to save much money. However, he turned his head and thought about it, this completely fixed the Zonglu of Chu Sect in the future, which was much better than the vague unspoken rules before.

After hesitating for a long time, Huang Liji opened his mouth and replied: "The method Your Majesty just said is indeed very reasonable, but will the clans and clans from all over the country write against it?" According to Your Majesty's clan reform law, the prince and the county king have suffered the greatest losses, and the clan between the county king and the lieutenant has also lost the Zonglu that guarantees the harvest in drought and flood, so they may not be in trouble. ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head lightly and said: "Although this is my idea, but I have no intention of forcing the Chu Sect, the King of Chu will return to Huguang with Zhu Huabao, Zhu Yunfang and other Chu Sect clans, and convene a Chu Sect clan meeting to discuss this matter, and then they will write the resolution of the conference to the imperial court.

As for the other clans, let them jump. If they don't jump out, how will the imperial court know whether those clans are loyal to the Ming Dynasty or deviate from the imperial court. ”

Listening to Chongzhen's meaningful words, Huang Liji really had nothing to say. However, he did know one thing, Yuan Liqing's impeachment of Xu Xianchun and Yang Suoxiu this time was about to end without a problem.

When Huang Liji was talking with Chongzhen in the study room of the Qianqing Palace, a meeting on financial policy was also secretly held in the courtyard of a large mansion with the sign of the headquarters of the Central Bank of the Ming Dynasty.

The courtyard, which used to be bustling, is now sparsely populated, and most of the merchants who come to negotiate business have been led to other places. The vast mansion is full of guards, as if it is facing a great enemy.

In the flower hall in the backyard of this house, Wang Jiazhen, the left attendant of the household department, officials of the financial department of the household department, and nearly 20 representatives of the central bank, the Bank of Shanxi, and the Bank of Communications, are holding a meeting on the gold exchange bill.

This meeting has been held for three days, and the theme of the meeting has changed from the original discussion of the gold exchange bill to the current discussion of the Ming currency circulation bill.

Being confined to this house for three consecutive days for meetings made Wang Jiazhen and several household officials feel very tired, but the representatives of the three major banks attending the meeting became more and more energetic.

As the first person below the head of the household, Wang Jiazhen's power is not as great as outsiders seem. It's not that his personal ability is not good, it's really that the current head of the household Guo Yunhou is too trusted by Chongzhen.

If it was in the past, Wang Jiazhen would not really care about this kind of thing, and Guo Yunhou would not be able to hold on to the position of the head of the household department if he won the trust of His Majesty again.

What's more, since he has achieved the position of the left attendant of the household department, even if he can't take over as the secretary of the household department, he is already qualified to serve as the secretary of the other ministries that have vacancies.

For the previous Ming officials, it didn't matter what official position they held, what mattered was whether they had entered the Hanlin Academy, whether they had enough qualifications and background, and whether they could see the emperor from time to time. Then Soaring is just around the corner.

But recently it is not the same as in the past, after the reform of the official system, Chongzhen attaches great importance to the resume and performance of officials, but does not care much about the morality of officials.

There is also an obvious invisible gap between the six ministries, and now the first requirement for the promotion of officials is whether they have experience in related work.

Cross-departmental transfers are quite rare, and cross-departmental transfers must be personally approved by Chongzhen. According to recent experience, in the past, interdepartmental transfers were promoted by half a level or one level, but now they are basically transferred or reduced by half a level.

That is to say, if Wang Jiazhen wants to go further, it is most feasible to take Guo Yunhou's class, and the direct entry of the household department into the cabinet makes him reluctant to take other paths.

But Guo Yunhou is a senior official who likes to seize power, and Wang Jiazhen basically can't find anything important to do under him.

If you don't have merit, you can't get into Chongzhen's eyes, but he knows this very well, so when he finally got a meeting to preside over the gold exchange bill, he attached great importance to it.

First of all, he issued an order prohibiting the participants from leaving the meeting in the middle of the meeting, so as to avoid prematurely leaking the contents of the meeting to the outside world, causing losses to the treasury and putting pressure on the household department. For this reason, he did not hesitate to borrow the place of the central bank, so that even the officials of the household department could not pass on the news during the meeting.