Depreciation, that is, the depreciation of some foreign tributes into grain and silver taels according to their value, and distributed to officials to offset their original salaries.

This method prevailed in the period from Yongle to Chenghua, because the eunuchs of Sanbao went to the West, and there were many small countries in Nanyang who came to pay tribute, and the tributes such as pepper and Sumu were piled up in the treasury, and the imperial court implemented the discount to reduce the inventory, and in the middle of Chenghua a hundred years ago, because the inventory declined, it was gradually abolished.

Zhang Juzheng was in the country, Longqing opened the sea, and the number of countries that came to carry out tributary trade gradually increased, and the tribute also increased; At the same time, the civil sea trade was prosperous, and the eunuchs and cunning merchants of Yuegang in Fujian conspired to cheat and fool the imperial court, and made a lot of strange overseas products as taxes in kind, all of which were transported to Beijing and piled up in the treasury.

Just as Zhang Juzheng was implementing the new policy, hoping to open up sources and reduce expenditure, the court discussed reopening the discount and using these goods as salaries to distribute to officials, so as to save the original expenditure on food and silver.

But just one month after the implementation, it made a big trouble, and the officials in the north and south of Beijing complained bitterly, especially those middle and low-level officials who were poor and hard-working, such as the Ministry of Affairs, the Imperial History, etc., for a while, the matter was boiling, and many imperial relatives and nobles also tried their best to rebound.

Forcefully implement it, many low-level poor Beijing officials have no means of living, and it is unreasonable to reluctantly convert people's salaries into strange things that are not suitable for food and clothing; Let's take back the fate, and there is a suspicion that the order will be changed overnight, where is the prestige of the imperial court, the cabinet, and especially the first auxiliary emperor?

Now Zhang Juzheng has the feeling that it is difficult to ride a tiger, so when Wang Guoguang raised this matter, he looked at Qin Lin with anticipation, hoping that he would come up with a crooked idea again to solve this trouble.

Qin Lin touched his chin and smiled bitterly, saying in his heart that you treat me as Doraemon?

The large amount of grain needed by the river workers and the people, because of the large wealth of the Cao Gang and the Wufeng Maritime Merchants, the sphere of influence happened to be located in the Jiangnan Water Town, a high-yield rice production area, and they themselves had a strong transportation capacity, which could be easily solved by Qin Lin.

The issue of funding for the new army to equip the new army with electric guns and thunderbolt guns, the new weapons were originally made up by Qin Lin, although Zeng Xingwu and others were capable officials, it had only been a few days since they received the samples and schemas presented by Wei Guogong, so of course they were not as familiar with it as he was.

And this matter of folding, Qin Lin heard about it for the first time, and he didn't have any preparation at all before, if he could come up with the perfect plan immediately, okay, Zhang Juzheng directly let Xian get it.

"Well, the lower officials can't think of any good way for the time being," Qin Lin smiled wryly, and arched his hand towards Wang Guoguang: "Wait for the lower officials to go back and think about it slowly, if you have any opinions, please ask Wang Tianguan for advice." ”

Wang Guoguang didn't say anything, after all, Qin Lin had already solved the two problems of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry, if he even had a way to deal with the incident, it would be too demonic.

Zhang Juzheng sighed a little disappointed when he heard it, maybe it was Qin Lin's special performance in front of him, and the first auxiliary emperor had unconsciously regarded him as a figure who could be at the same level as Wang Guoguang and Zeng Xingwu, and even had more scheming.

"Nephew Qin, the old man knows that you are quite a bit crooked, you should think more about this matter when you go back, if you have any ghost ideas, you might as well come and tell the old man."

Zhang Juzheng said with a pleasant face, originally planned to take a few difficult problems to defeat Qin Lin, and then take him hard, but now Lord Shoufu changed his mind, paused, and said: "If the method is good, the old man will reward you heavily!" ”

Qin Lin's hippie smile on his evil face, how can he reward his heart? Give me Zhang Zixuan, that's pretty much it.

Zhang Maoxiu, who was waiting in the corridor outside the window, said with relief: "Hmph, Qin finally had a time when he was knocked down, I only said that he knew five hundred years before and five hundred years later, Liu Bowen was reincarnated!" ”

"I think Qin Lin is good, at least we won't be able to do the two of Hegong and the new gun," Zhang Jingxiu smiled, feeling that his younger brother was too harsh, and the six Shangshu didn't come up with a good way, so he wanted Qin Lin to take it out?

"Hey, little sister, what do you say?" Zhang Maoxiu pushed his sister's shoulder.

"The matter of breaking the money, the middle and low-level Beijing officials have suffered a lot of damage, and the nobles and nobles have rebounded ......strongly," Zhang Zixuan muttered, her beautiful and neat front teeth gently biting her lip, and her eyebrows that flew obliquely into her sideburns furrowed slightly.

Zhang Mao Xiuqi said: "What did you say? We ask what you think of Qin Lin......"

"Do you still need to ask?" Zhang Jingxiu looked at his younger brother helplessly, and then looked at his younger sister, everything was silent.

Zhang Zixuan reacted, and her pretty face suddenly turned crimson - it turned out that she was thinking about a way for Qin Lin just now!

Above the lobby, Li Youzi, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Pan Jitao, and Zeng Shengwu, the waiter of the Ministry of War, were smiling and happy, and their problems were settled; Zhang Xueyan, the secretary of the household department, is mixed with joy, the good thing is that there are two urgent treasury expenditures have been solved, the court expenditure is no longer as tight as expected, and the worry is that there is no suitable way to fold the money, and he, the secretary of the household department, will become the target of the public.

Only the ministers of the Ministry of Shangshu Wang Guoguang and the squire Wang Seal were depressed, one of them was nearly seventy years old, the other was over the age of six, and the two white beards complained: "They all pay attention to the rule of officials, and the salary set by Hong Wuye is already low, and they have to pay for it, doesn't this force people to be corrupt?" ”

"It's good to be able to be corrupt, to be able to get some ice and charcoal, but those poor Beijing officials can't even be greedy, and they are originally low, but it happens that the Beijing Yamen is dilapidated and cold in winter, and they use this as an excuse to shrink at home to roast the fire, and the yamen ......is empty."

Any dynasty will inevitably relax the system after the middle of the period, take the court meeting as an example, Jinyiwei did statistics during the Chenghua period, and there were more than 1,000 officials who should have arrived at one time, and there were more than 1,000 officials who should have arrived, starting from the princess to the low-grade officials, so that when Zhang Juzheng was in power, he simply changed the morning dynasty every day to every 369 day, and the provincial officials always tried their best to avoid the court.

Officials can even meet the emperor's early dynasty can unscrupulously "skip class", the yamen office is even more casual slip number, the weather is good and a little normal, since the beginning of winter, the weather has been bitterly cold, on the grounds of the yamen's dilapidation and leakage on all sides, many officials simply went on strike openly, and to implement the examination method of strict investigation of the rule of officials, they encountered a large area of soft resistance.

When Qin Lin heard this, his heart suddenly moved, and he said: "The so-called officials don't repair the yamen, in fact, they all appear to be honest on the face, and the officials themselves are all magnificent, and they deliberately make the yamen tattered, firstly, they save money and put it in their purse, and secondly, they just use the dilapidated yamen as an excuse not to go on duty, and hide at home to have a comfortable business." ”

Zhang Juzheng was really furious when he heard this.

He uses capable officials without clean officials, such as Wang Guoguang and Zeng Shengwu, who are more or less greedy for money and lustful, but they are all capable and extremely diligent in handling government affairs.

On the contrary, what the Shoufu Emperor hated the most was that first, he was a person who sold his reputation and reputation, and second, he was a mediocre official, a lazy official, and a dull official.

"These mediocre and incompetent people, the corpses are vegetarian, they are really the silverfish of the country!" Zhang Juzheng said angrily, and put his hand down: "Sooner or later, the old man will have to rebuke all this generation." ”

Qin Lin said with a smile: "Uncle Shi, in my humble opinion, the matter of folding the money may be discussed later, and the yamen should indeed be repaired." The yamen was too dilapidated not only to hinder the country's view and lose the dignity of the Celestial Empire, but also to give officials an excuse to take advantage of the severe cold and heat to be lazy and skip work, which is not a good thing. ”

It costs money to repair the yamen, and Zhang Juzheng originally hated mediocre officials and lazy officials, but when he heard that it would cost money, he was indecided.

Li Youzi, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, thought about it and helped: "Of course, the new construction costs a lot, but if it is only maintenance, it is actually not much. ”

"And General Qin has solved the two problems of ordnance and river engineering, and we can still afford this maintenance cost," Zhang Xueyan, the secretary of the household department, also agreed to repair the yamen, and when he and Wang Guoguang compiled the "Wanli Accounting Record", they investigated the cost of building and repairing the yamen.

"Okay," Zhang Juzheng patted the table lightly and nodded: "The Ministry of Household will allocate funds and the Ministry of Industry will be responsible for repairing the yamen of the Beijing Division, lest the mediocre and lazy officials use this as an excuse to avoid sitting on duty and evading the old man's examination method!" ”

Qin Lin grinned hehe, this guy has a ghost in his heart.

He waved at Li Youzi and said with a smile: "It's not that the lower officials complain, the lower officials are in the office of the Fu Division in Jinyi Weinan Town, which is really broken, since I want to repair the yamen, I will ask for a favor here, and ask Li Shangshu to send someone to repair my yamen first!" ”

Uh~ Zhang Juzheng, Wang Guoguang, Zhang Xueyan and others looked at each other, and they were dumbfounded for a while - the boastful Qingliu, the capable officials, the veteran officialdom, and the high-flying nobles, everyone has seen a lot, but a faceless and skinless guy like Qin Lin, the court bigwigs have encountered it for the first time in their lives.

Li Youzi couldn't help but laugh, and teased: "It turns out that General Qin is in favor of repairing the ya, and he has already put his own idea in front, may I ask Mr. Zhang, is this considered a good nephew to borrow public business for personal gain?" ”

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard and smiled silently.

Qin Lin cheekily said in a loud voice: "Public and private, this is only public and private." ”

"Scoundrel, what a scoundrel!" Zhang Juzheng couldn't help laughing, and said with a straight face: "Qin Lin, it's okay for you to be a scoundrel elsewhere, but there is one thing, don't mess with ghost ideas, otherwise the old man will never spare you!" ”

Old Tarzan...... Qin Lin had a bitter face, and said in his heart You are really guarding against death, why is there such a big difference between people and people, do you think Wei Guogong and his old man are more open?

Zhang Jingxiu and Zhang Maoxiu heard this in the corridor, the two brothers had already laughed, Qin Lin was lazy enough, and his father was also happy, well, it has been several years, and I haven't seen my father laugh like today.

"This guy!" Zhang Zixuan pursed her lips, seeing that the conversation was almost over, Qin Lin was about to say goodbye, she pulled the two brothers again and left the corridor.

"Don't you see him?" Zhang Maoxiu's eyes were open, not understanding what his sister thought.

(To be continued)