Chapter 54 Ball Put

The soft morning sun shines beautifully among the palaces of Daming Palace, and the tall and straight classical buildings show their graceful and luxurious temperament like beautiful ladies.

The cool breeze and the sunshine caresses people's faces like gentle hands, which is undoubtedly a good morning.

The needles falling from the two famous pine trees outside the door added a little bit of autumn melancholy and withering to this glorious scenery.

There were nine people standing under the two trees, and because Du Xian was not in Chang'an, there was one missing, and they were all wearing purple clothes.

Li Shouyi's brocade robe looked old and the wrinkles of his clothes were not ironed, but when he looked closely, he was still made of large balls of flower silk, which was a symbol of status.

I'm afraid I can't see you now.He sighed, and the people around him didn't say anything. Anyway, they wouldn't be able to see him when they came and walked.

Everyone was talking about some irrelevant life anecdotes, and some looked up at the top of the pine tree, as if they were about to write a poem.

In the end, I didn't recite the poem, but these two trees were probably the most familiar trees they were. People probably never watched such two ordinary trees without characteristics so often in their lives.

After waiting for a long time, the eunuch Zhang Xiao came over from the stone road next to the main hall, and two eunuchs were pushing a wheelbarrow behind them.The boring ministers were immediately curious about what was in the car?

Zhang Xiao walked over and greeted the nine ministers with a smile.

Everyone looked down on eunuchs from the bottom of their hearts, but because Zhang Xiao could often appear around the emperor, everyone gave him some face.

When the wheelbarrow was also pushed over, the ministers took a look and saw two shot puts of different sizes inside. The Minister of War Cheng Qianli casually said: The small one seemed to be a cannon ball for the cannon in Wugong County.

Cheng Xiang has good knowledge.

Zhang Xiao smiled and said, "The emperor ordered these two shots to be sent outside the Zichen Hall to show the ministers first, and asked everyone to guess: If they were thrown off the Big Wild Goose Pagoda together, which one would land first?"

Haha, it's naturally big... A minister just said half of the sentence when Dou Huaizhen suddenly pulled his sleeve. When he turned around, he saw that the elegant Dou Huaizhen was winking at him, and then he stopped the words to his mouth.

Dou Huaizhen's level of governance is not bad, and he has no extraordinary achievements. However, he has strengths and is very good at observing words and expressions to figure out the intentions of those in power. Therefore, at the beginning, he was good at beating Empress Wei and then Princess Taiping.

The ministers are currently in the officialdom for a long time and are obviously familiar with Dou Huaizhen. When they see him, they know what mystery is there.

Zhang Shuo said: First, send the shot put to the study of Zhengshitang. Let’s go back and think about it before replying to Your Majesty.

Well, the miscellaneous family remembered that when the emperor uploaded the imperial edict, he didn't say that he wanted the officials to answer immediately.Since that's the case, someone came and pushed the shot put to the government office.Zhang Xiao waved his hand and shouted at the little eunuch behind to do work.

This shot put is given to people from the two yamen of the Cabinet and the Zhengshi Hall. The Zhengshi Hall is on the Xuanzheng Hall, so why should I go so far away if I want to go far?

Zhang Jiuling, Wang Changling and Su Jin were a little dissatisfied, but they had already said that they would be too lazy to compete with the old men for such trivial matters.

The three of them had to go to the Political Affairs Hall together.

The officials of the Political Affairs Hall had already started working, and they were curious when they saw the eunuch pushing two leads in.Someone asked the prime minister, but the prime ministers did not reveal that several people entered the study and spoke closed the door.

Zhang Shuo asked Dou Huaizhen: What do you think is the purpose of sending these two balls to you today.

Dou Huaizhen did not answer immediately, but gently stroked his hair with his palms to ensure that he was not messy, and then placed his hand on his chin to make a meditative look.

The ministers looked at each other, and finally Li Shouyi couldn't help but say: This one is big and small, one is heavy and the other is light. Let's drop the Big Wild Goose Pagoda together and land it first.

When Zhang Shuo and others saw Li Shouyi's serious look, they couldn't help but smile. Zhang Shuo also said casually: I think so too.But I have never thought about this before, and I don’t care. I’m afraid I can only find out if I try it.

I'm afraid that the emperor suddenly asked about this matter is a bit profound?Zhang Jiuling thoughtfully, it doesn’t matter which lead pill is first landed, what is important to mean?

Li Shouyi said angrily: If the country is in great trouble, you still have to guess the riddle!Isn’t this asking about shot put?At the entrance of Xuanzheng Hall, two guards were asked to go and throw them off the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The result was that the truth was!

At this time, Dou Huaizhen suddenly looked up and realized: I understand!

Everyone's eyes were all focused on him, and he smiled and looked at Cheng Qianli: Didn't Cheng Xianggong just now say that these two lead balls were cannon balls?What are the artillery made in Wugong County for? It is used for war, so we have to think about military affairs... Some words are inconvenient to say to Your Majesty. Isn't this just a reminder to us?

Everyone was silent.

Dou Huaizhen glanced at the three people in the cabinet and said calmly: What Your Majesty asked today is of course the first and the last, which is obvious.

He was simply talking nonsense, but Zhang Shuo and others didn't think it had a lot of meaning. Zhang Shuo held a horse's face and stroked his hand on the thick beard, and said seriously: If you have anything to say, just finish it. Don't be too rude, there are only a few people now.

Dou Huaizhen then said in a deep voice: Didn’t Du Xian submit a memorial to build the city last time?However, the cabinet and the Political Affairs Hall did not agree very much, and the result was that the comments were pressed by the inner court and have not been reviewed until now, so I will not mention them now.Before Du Xian left the capital, he was summoned by Jin Shang to discuss border affairs several times. I am afraid that Jin Shang would have a clear idea of ​​how to build a city after taking Yingzhou.Now we oppose one by one, and we will never stop for a long time. In the end, we must have a way to compromise and resolve it...

It is also said that some local officials in Hebei wrote a letter to impeach Du Xian to use tyranny in Yingzhou, burning, killing, slaughtering and slaughtering the people.Our Political Affairs Hall also believes that this is not a long-term solution and that it must send another minister to take over the Yingzhou stall to calm the situation.It just so happened that the upper party was going to build a city today, and the ministers from the subordinates could also preside over this matter.Du Xian went to the local area first, and then the second minister was sent to the ground. Didn’t he land from the top of the tower one after another?And this cannon ball implies military affairs and is in line with the meaning of border defense.This is to imply that Your Majesty will transfer back to Du Xian to make concessions in the governance of Yingzhou; we will reach the same as him in building the city... There is no imperial edict to force it, but we still respect the political views of our old ministers.Now that things have given us a step, we still have to bite the bullet and fight against the top. What are the benefits?

After saying something, several ministers stared at him with wide eyes, just like looking at a monkey, almost giving him a thumbs up and saying: Bull's nose!

You can tell such a big mystery with two lead lumps!

As expected, he is worthy of being a good judge, loyal and virtuous.

However, after careful consideration, what Dou Huaizhen said is not unreasonable, otherwise the emperor would have sent two lead lumps for no reason and asked everyone to guess what?

Besides, if you can compromise like this, it will not be unacceptable. On the one hand, it will satisfy those who are worried that Du Xian will stay in Northeast China for too long. After all, Du Xian has the elite troops of the North Yai and the troops of the three towns; on the other hand, the matter of building a city is replaced, and you can also bargain with bureaucrats from the Zhengshitang Department, and the people in the cabinet will not be too powerful in a short period of time.

When everyone was thinking silently, only Li Shouyi was blowing his beard and staring at him very angry: How much money will it cost to build a city?

When he was excited, he spitted everywhere. Dou Huaizhen hurriedly stood a little far away and looked at Li Shouyi angrily, thinking: "What, you are just a loyal boy, you are a loyal minister. If you don't collect taxes, don't get a salary. You can farm by yourself. It's better to be a clean official while farming.

Zhang Shuo was already in his heart, but he still said seriously: It’s far-fetched, and everything can be linked to what kind of Dou Xiang.

But after a while, he walked to the door and called his trusted clerk: You are responsible for calculating. Hebei needs to repair the Great Wall, how much money, people, and time it will take.

At this time, Liu An said: The Ministry of Revenue has already made a budget, and it is a huge cost. I am afraid that the national treasury will be insufficient.

Li Shouyi said: In front of the Minister of Revenue, you only know the shortcomings, but you have never seen you write a letter to talk about some obvious problems: Once the taxes in the world are settled, the Interior Bureau and the Treasury are not separated, and the Inner Palace is at will without restraint, resulting in the insufficient treasury; and you have been using troops for many years, and the mountains of gold and silver are not enough to squander it!Why can’t the Palace Interior Bureau and the public treasury reform and separate?

Liu An gave Li Shouyi a blank look and said: Li Xiang, you really don’t feel hurt when you stand and speak.He wanted to say why you didn't write to the book?But Li Shou was so busy with rituals and music that the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue were really uncontrollable.

But how did Liu An write a letter?

As Xue Chongxun's direct descendant, he went to accuse Princess Taiping of giving generous, arrogant, extravagant and lewd?

Haven't you seen the emperor himself try to balance the relationship with Princess Taiping? If Liu An takes care of Princess Taiping's affairs, he may be suspected to be instructed by Xue Chongxun. In short, there are many involvements in this and it is very difficult.

The Ministry of Revenue has only further reformed the tax system, and the commercial markets in several places in the south of the Yangtze River are booming. In addition to repairing river embankments every year, there is no need for much labor, and the number of troops recruited from the southeast can be reduced, which can reduce corvee labor and increase income from business and land tax. At the same time, major fortifications in various places have been suspended, allowing the people to use money and grain to facilitate corvee labor; while the Hebei area can levy the city to reduce land tax and provide food... In short, we can still think of a solution.

Liu An talked freely and knew exactly how to exploit the whole country.

Zhang Shuo nodded and said: The world is safe, and the national policy of light taxes and low taxes cannot change. Even if we have difficulties, we should think more about the people and try our best to reduce the burden on the people.

Li Shouyi sneered: To put it nicely, it’s really like what he said. We should argue with reason and not build that city.

Zhang Shuo also didn't argue with this old boy head-on. As a clerk of the Secretariat, if others dared to challenge authority, they would always give him some color, but Li Shouyi was an exception...

All officials understand.