Chapter 335: I Do Not Understand!

How could he possibly not understand?

Behind the imperial desk, Zhu Youjian lowered his gaze slightly, looking at Guo Yunhou standing respectfully below.

In his later-life post, matters had streamed past in a ceaseless flow every single day.

Out of every ten matters, three were attempts to pass the buck, three were wrangling over departmental responsibility and jurisdiction, and only the remaining four were unambiguously things his own department ought to handle.

But deciding who within the department would do them — that became yet another calculation involving inner-circle men, innermost-circle men, and the innermost of the innermost.

When it came to the art of Tai Chi deflection, the sum of all the buck-passing Guo Yunhou had done in twenty years might not match what he himself had passed off in a single year in that later life.

Those faint hints of evasion and slickness were, to his ears, as glaring as a candle flame in the dark.

The draft budget for the first year of Yongchang was the first project since Zhu Youjian's enthronement in which he had tried to delegate on a large scale.

He was not unprepared for it to turn out this wretched.

The current state of the fiscal and tax structure, Guo Yunhou's limited ability, the rushed timeline, the atmosphere left uncleansed because of compromises...

There were too many negative factors; the blame could not all be laid at Guo Yunhou's feet.

Yet the buck-passing intent revealed in Guo Yunhou's final words still uncontrollably ignited his anger.

The great hall fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Zhu Youjian suddenly gave a soft laugh, breaking the suffocating silence.

"We do not understand."

"Why does Minister Guo seem to have words hidden within his words?"

"We understand even less."

"Why, when faced with this 670,000-tael fiscal gap, does everyone sit here trembling, terrified of letting any responsibility touch them?"

"Why are those who step forward willingly to shoulder responsibility so very few?"

Zhu Youjian leaned forward slightly, his gaze like a blade, scraping across the faces of the ministry grandees in the front row one by one.

"The various proposals drawn up by the Ministry of Revenue involve multiple ministries, and in the end, only the capital's tax office gave a clear commitment?"

"Several months ago, we gathered in this very place."

"You gentlemen raised your arms and swore to turn this great situation around together, to defy this mandate of heaven."

"That scene of vibrant vitality, of all things striving and contending, still seems to be right before our eyes."

"Could it be that now, you gentlemen have already forgotten the resolve you held then?"

"Then can We, too, simply forget?"

He swept his gaze across the faces of the assembled officials, and a sense of helplessness could not help but rise in his heart.

The younger officials might still feel a trace of shame.

But those ministry grandees in the front row were all old foxes who had rolled about in the Great Ming court for decades; their faces were composed, eyes on their noses and noses on their hearts — how could a few words shake them?

Yet what needed to be said still had to be said, and said repeatedly, said persistently.

One man alone cannot save the Great Ming.

To save the Great Ming, it must be "a group of people."

And what binds this group together may be power, may be interest, may be reward and punishment, but it absolutely must include a shared conviction.

This thing called conviction — in a brotherhood, it is brotherly loyalty; in a company, it is corporate culture; in a nation, it is a lofty ideal.

No matter what, you must have this thing; you must forge this conviction within your true core team!

Yes, the true core team.

The current team, to give it a more formal name, should probably be called the "First Year of Yongchang Transitional Stabilization Single-Use Team."

All the Grand Secretaries and ministry grandees, though seated high at this moment, were in truth mostly just holding heavenly-bestowed emoluments in trust.

The authority, rank, and salary in their hands were all temporarily lodged and held, not their own destined fruits of the Dao.

Once the times shifted, those who had attained the Dao would naturally come and take their places.

It was just that... these people who had attained the Dao — the Yongchang Emperor was still slowly nurturing and carefully selecting them.

Zhu Youjian drew a deep breath, adjusted his mood, leaned back against the chair once more, and spoke coldly:

"The Ministry of Revenue governs the realm's finances and taxes, and is by its very nature the primary party responsible for fiscal revenues and expenditures."

"This is inescapable."

"Minister Guo's words were improper. He shall be fined one month's salary."

Guo Yunhou had already fallen to his knees during Zhu Youjian's earlier speech; now he immediately prostrated himself deeply and admitted his fault.

Zhu Youjian swept a glance at him, paid him no further heed, and continued:

"But the dynasty's accumulated ills are long-standing. Relying on Minister Guo alone to push this forward is indeed difficult."

"Chief Grand Secretary."

Huang Liji, upon hearing this, immediately rose to his feet, cupped his hands, and said, "Your subject is here."

"You are the Chief Grand Secretary of the dynasty. You shall take the lead. Based on the various draft proposals from the Ministry of Revenue, coordinate across all ministries, and jointly drive forward the deliberation, implementation, and finalization of each proposal." Huang Liji did not dare show even a hint of evasion, and said in a deep voice, "Your subject receives the decree."

"Minister Zheng, Minister Yang."

Zheng Sanjun and Yang Jingchen rose together and said, "Your subject is here."

"The various matters in the proposals may touch upon performance evaluations under old policies, or upon rewards under new policies."

"Based on their effects and scope of implementation, you are to set proper evaluation metrics and supervise the implementation of each proposal."

The two men cupped their hands in unison: "Your subjects obey the decree."

Having assigned the tasks, Zhu Youjian's gaze passed over the assembled officials and fell upon the secretariat in the corner, and he actually hesitated for a moment.

Choose Lu Xiangsheng? Or Yang Sichang?

One of these two would certainly be assigned next year to the matter of establishing an office in Tianjin.

That was a critical nexus linking the bank, maritime transport, the new policies in Northern Zhili, and the Ji-Liao theater of war — it could not be called unimportant.

If this point can be opened, the entire North China plain will be like a painting of a dragon given eyes — the whole board comes alive.

As for the other person, he could be pulled over here to handle project management and keep a tight grip on the schedule.

Pull whom, specifically?

The two men's official appointments and service records, their everyday conduct, their character traits — all flowed past in his mind like a stream.

Lu Xiangsheng had long experience in the localities, with local administrative experience in Daming Prefecture and commercial-port governance experience in places like Linqing; he acted with upright decisiveness, drew a clear line between right and wrong, and absolutely would not tolerate the intermingling of the crooked and the corrupt.

Yang Sichang had deep practical grounding in the Ministry of Revenue and had also supervised the new levies for two years; on the surface he was tactful and adaptable in his dealings, yet within his breast he harbored an ambition to set the realm in order and to drive affairs to completion with keen resolve.

One was steel wrapped in softness; the other was steel wrapped in steel.

The answer was obvious.

"Minister Yang, you will withdraw from the policy group. Have Gao Shiming assign you a secretary and three interns."

"For this period, assist the Chief Grand Secretary well, and together coordinate all the fiscal and accounting proposals properly."

Hearing his name called, Yang Sichang fought to suppress his delight, rose to his feet, and said in a ringing voice: "This subject obeys the decree." In principle, Zhu Youjian did his utmost to avoid directly undercutting the authority of a ministry's presiding official.

But Guo Yunhou's final remarks had crossed his bottom line.

If matters proceeded along the lines of Guo Yunhou's words, the entire Ministry of Revenue budget-related proposal would sooner or later degenerate into a deep pit where every department pushed responsibility onto the others. The idea of centering on the Ministry of Revenue to take the lead in restructuring and concentrating the strength of the whole court would also become utterly impractical.

It was even possible that the more authority he delegated to the Ministry of Revenue, the more it would be left to fight alone, and the more estranged it would become from the other ministries and offices. Remove him on the spot? Dismiss him from office on the spot? That would be far too childish — statecraft is not playing house.

He could only use this method of rapping the table as a warning, to buy a temporary buffer.

And at the same time, to get a better look.

With Guo Yunhou's prestige swept away and the presiding officer of the Ministry of Revenue effectively absent,

whether, underneath, a few men who walked the same path and whom he could pluck for use might emerge.

Whatever happened, Zhu Youjian had a final fallback plan in his heart.

One — if worst came to worst, this Daoist master would personally roll up his sleeves and do the work!

Only, if he could avoid that, it would be best to avoid it.

Attending to every matter personally — you can accomplish one thing that way, but you can never accomplish a hundred.

After making these simple personnel arrangements, Zhu Youjian paid no attention to whatever expression was on Guo Yunhou's face at that moment and continued:

"As for the remaining 4.7 million tael fiscal shortfall."

"There are always solutions."

"Our privy purse currently holds 1.2 million taels."

"Next year, with all revenue streams combined, it should reach 2.6 million taels."

"After deducting the new electrical road construction, palace expenditures, and the grand one-million reward, a remainder of one million should not be a problem."

"If this year's fiscal accounts truly cannot be balanced, We will naturally disburse from the privy purse without the slightest stinginess."

"Then, with the auction of bank charters and the various ministries and offices shifting some surplus silver around, scraping together another 700,000 taels should also not be a problem."

At the mention of bank charters, the eyes of quite a few officials below flickered faintly.

The matter of banks — once introduced, the auction price of their charters had, within a small circle, been the subject of intense debate all along.

Wu Cheng'en of the secretariat was adamant that the auction price of each charter would certainly exceed 500,000 taels.

Relying on the remaining twelve charters alone, they could obtain at least six million in ready silver.

Of the silver raised through auction, aside from thirty percent that needed to be reinvested as shares to form joint official-private ownership, the remaining net profit would be at least four million taels. Thus, this single item alone could fill the budget shortfall.

And therefore, all the more...

All resources ought to be concentrated on this project!

What exactly does your Ministry of Revenue mean by haggling endlessly and treating it with such disregard?!

The officials of the Ministry of Revenue, however, were not so optimistic.

They brought up for comparison the Lianghuai salt-industry gangfa system that had been implemented in the forty-fifth year of Wanli.

The gangfa system used hereditary tax-farming to make the twenty-four salt merchants of Lianghuai cough up genuine gold and silver, digesting for the Great Ming the 2.7 million over-issued salt certificates. After consolidating the certificate price, verification fees, paper fees, famine-reserve silver, and all the other miscellaneous charges, one Lianghuai salt certificate was worth roughly 1.7 taels of silver. That is to say, in a certain sense, the twenty-four hereditary salt-merchant positions were bought back by the Lianghuai salt merchants with 4.6 million taels of silver. Most of the Ministry of Revenue people held that: this so-called bank — how could it possibly compare with the colossal profits of the hereditary salt-merchant houses!

Secondly, the north-south silver flow had an annual benchmark of between four and six million, with the constant benchmark perhaps exceeding twenty million.

Even if the total turnover amounted to thirty million, calculated at three percent per annum, the agio would be no more than 900,000 taels.

This net profit was even less comparable to the Lianghuai salt trade.

With the two added together, how could one expect merchants to bid high prices?

Each side clung to its own argument, neither able to convince the other, and they could only wait until the third month to see.

Zhu Youjian himself could not give an absolute judgment either.

He had a clear-eyed understanding of himself.

From the moment of his transmigration until now, he had never once gone deep among the common people.

His grasp of this world's lowest levels had always been like viewing flowers through a mist — indirect understanding, nothing more.

What qualifications did he have to issue a definitive judgment on a matter so heavily dependent on native Ming commercial experience and knowledge of the ways of the world? So although he too hoped the thing could bring in several million taels, in practice he still, for the time being, regarded it as a small project on the order of "half a million" and set his expectations accordingly.

"As for the remaining three-million shortfall."

Zhu Youjian paused here, and his gaze took on a somewhat playful quality.

"Come to think of it, the two million taels in back pay owed to the Nine Border Garrisons — we shall not repay it for now."

"The one million earmarked this year for reform rewards — we shall not disburse it for now."

"The two together come to exactly three million."

"This shortfall — who knows, perhaps it can simply be muddled through like that."

At the end, he could not help letting out a soft laugh. The laughter echoed through the silent great hall, yet it sent a chill through everyone present.

"Gentlemen."

Zhu Youjian withdrew his smile, swept his gaze across the assembly, and his voice turned abruptly cold:

"I do not understand."

"Words spoken without good faith, promises lightly made and rarely kept."

"Is this how the affairs of the realm ought to be conducted?"

Silence filled the great hall for only a moment.

Huang Liji, who had just received his assignment, rose resolutely and, meeting the Emperor's gaze, spoke:

"Your Majesty, the affairs of the realm ought not to be so!"

The old Chief Grand Secretary's voice was steady and forceful, each word striking the ground with weight.

"Coin and goods are the surface; establishing trust is the substance."

"However it is done, if the new policies are to be proclaimed, then they must be carried through. Not the slightest ambiguity, not the slightest compromise can be permitted!"

"Only thus can we cultivate ourselves, regulate our families, bring order to the state, and pacify the realm — reversing the dynasty's many years of accumulated rot, sweeping the foul miasma from the scholarly ranks, and rebuilding the court's authority and credibility!"

Huang Liji abruptly cupped his hands and straightened his frame ramrod-straight: "Since this subject has been personally chosen by Your Majesty, he shall naturally take full responsibility for this 6.7-million-tael fiscal shortfall. If I cannot deliver, let me be punished for my crime!"

His face was resolute, his bearing righteous and awe-inspiring, as though he did not regard this enormous fiscal shortfall as a matter of any consequence.

And indeed, in his heart, he truly did not regard it as a matter of any consequence.

This was not because Grand Secretary Huang possessed any genuine ability to turn stone into gold.

It was because he saw with perfect clarity that his tenure as Chief Grand Secretary would not last much longer.

In that case, how exactly he made his exit became a matter of considerable art.

If he were the least bit careless and made his exit the way the "Know-Nothing Grand Secretary" had, it would be far too wretched.

Serving the sovereign's cause with utter devotion, exhausting himself for the state — that was a very dignified way to make one's exit.

This year he would naturally strive with all his might and do his utmost to achieve this target.

But if, when the year's end came, he had unfortunately failed to deliver, he would simply submit a petition begging for his bones.

On the one hand, he would shoulder the blame for His Majesty, transforming the Emperor's rash words into his own failure to execute. On the other hand, he would deftly offer a stepping-stone, giving the Emperor an opportunity to replace him with a trusted confidant of His Majesty's own.

Would that not be the best of both worlds?

He trusted that, with the Emperor's intelligence, His Majesty would never let him meet an ugly end.

As for what if he actually succeeded?

Forgive him, but how could Grand Secretary Huang possibly entertain such a possibility…

Zhu Youjian looked at Huang Liji. Before he could speak, the Minister of War, Huo Weihua, rose immediately after.

"The matter of border pay is intimately tied to the Ministry of War. The waste and false muster rolls within it consume vast sums. This subject is willing to sign a military pledge…"

Seeing this solemn budget conference inexplicably turning into a coerced loyalty parade, Zhu Youjian hurriedly spoke up to cut him off.

"Minister Huo…"

He turned his head back toward Huang Liji.

"Chief Grand Secretary…"

"How could I not know the ardent hearts of all my ministers? Be seated, all of you."

Zhu Youjian let out a long sigh, his tone softening somewhat: "I am young and impetuous; my words carried sarcasm and fell short of a sovereign's proper decorum."

But then he shifted his tone and said with absolute finality:

"But the two million must be repaid."

"And the one-million-tael grand bounty must also be distributed."

"On this there can be no wavering."

"If the funds are insufficient, then I shall auction off the antique curios and art objects of the palace."

"If the funds are insufficient, then I shall reduce the palace staff and reside solely in a single hall of the Western Park."

"No matter how many difficulties there are — to establish trust, one must keep one's word; to keep one's word, one must see it through. Otherwise, the vital spirit of the state, barely gathered, will scatter at once, and thereafter there will be no saving it!"

Having said this, he secretly swallowed a sentence that had risen to his throat.

— If it truly came to it, even if he had to issue lottery tickets, he would raise the money!

Of course, this was not a suitable thing to say here.

For the matter of lottery tickets had once been discussed in a small circle, and had been met with fierce opposition from nearly everyone present.

Even men like Qi Xinxiao and Li Shiji, the vanguard radicals of the new policies, had shaken their heads vigorously and regarded it as a savage tiger.

At first, Zhu Youjian could not understand this, but later he came to grasp it.

The dynasty's fortunes were declining but not yet collapsed; it was indeed not yet at the point where these civil officials would utterly abandon all bottom lines, as they would in the late Qing.

And so, seeing that the general tide was against him, he had not forced the issue at the time.

But if he were truly pushed to that extreme, he would issue them all the same.

Lottery tickets — reaching high and low, striking straight at human nature, a capital-free enterprise run in partnership between officials and merchants.

If they were actually to be implemented, they might well be far easier to push through than the bank, easier than the new policies.

Even if it brought about exactly what the civil officials warned of — moral decay, the collapse of public virtue, the loss of the dynasty's authority and credibility — he could not afford to care!

But Zhu Youjian's resolve on this point was not entirely because of keeping faith.

— That was merely a pretext.

Trust, for all that it is said to be important, is in truth not so important.

Zhu Youjian was determined, no matter what, to treat the 6.7-million-tael fiscal shortfall as his target.

And the real reason was precisely the 6.7 million taels themselves.

Anyone who has played strategy games knows that five hundred gold at the start is worth ten thousand gold in the late game.

If the historical Chongzhen had been able to raise ten million taels in his first year, his subsequent moves might not have become so distorted. Ten million taels in the first year of Yongchang and ten million taels in the seventeenth year of Yongchang are two utterly different concepts!

A pity… the Ministry of Revenue lacked the nerve, and would never dare accept a ten-million-tael fiscal budget shortfall.

But for Zhu Youjian, his target had from start to finish been driving hard toward ten million taels.

If it truly wouldn't work, the lottery perhaps could not be pushed lightly.

But on the salt trade side, since the Lianghuai region could be turned into a merchant-monopoly system, other regions could also be turned into merchant-monopoly systems.

Trading hereditary rights for their silver, and then attempting to bind the salt trade — this finance-rich industry — into the banking system, was also a viable, if risky, move.

As for the problem of salt merchants growing too powerful to rein in, first get through the immediate crisis; deal with it later.

Zhu Youjian rose to his feet.

"The study sessions have already been held for several rounds."

"The principles of effective tax rates versus nominal tax rates, and how dynasty after dynasty kept cutting taxes only to keep piling them back on — all of this has been explained with perfect clarity! Can all those many proposals from the Ministry of Revenue just now truly be implemented one by one? And once implemented, how long can they be sustained?"

At this point, he swept his sleeve and pointed toward the budget screen to the side:

"Why do the commercial taxes from the Nanjing Tax Bureau appear irregular compared to normal amounts, requiring investigation?"

"Why has the Southern Horse Relay Subsidy Silver, though clearly never abolished, vanished without a trace as it was collected?"

"Why, when the miscellaneous tax silver was first levied, could it still bring in one million eight hundred thousand taels in the first year, yet by the fourth year, only a paltry nine hundred seventy thousand taels remained?! Why, whether new levies or old levies, the regular grain tax or the Gold Flower Silver and all the rest — why, ever since the Liaodong levy was first imposed, has the arrears rate climbed year after year?! Is it that the common people of the realm have been flayed to the bone and squeezed to the breaking point?"

He paused, looked at the ministers below with their varied expressions, and shook his head with a cold laugh.

"How could it be only that!"

"Floods and droughts plague the realm without cease, military farmsteads scatter and desert and hide, bandits and thieves rob and plunder on the roads, and the princes and local strongmen conceal land."

"The common people have indeed reached their limit, but it is absolutely not solely because of the imposition of the Liaodong levy!"

Zhu Youjian looked toward the official historian Zhang Maoxiu, who was diligently recording off to the side.

"Master Zhang, be sure to record well the words I am about to speak!"

Zhang Maoxiu, his expression solemn, rose and cupped his hands with gravity, then sat down again.

Zhu Youjian continued:

"From the tenth year of Wanli to the present is barely fifty years. The reforms of Lord Jiangling back then have already been entirely undone!"

"The field-investigation reports from the three counties near the capital, the nine counties of Northern Zhili, and even the twelve counties submitted from Henan, Shandong, and other places."

"Every single one lays the results before our eyes with perfect clarity."

"The runner-service silver commuted in the yamen offices — has it not already plainly paid for the wages and food of the runners? Why then has a shift-service silver appeared on top of it? Why, when runners serve in rotation, must those whose turn has not come also pay a tax?"

"Why is the quota of fruit that the Court of Imperial Entertainments cut back during the Wanli era still hanging on the account books of Laoting County to this very day?!"

"Every sign tells us one thing —"

"The taxes abolished in the past have been added back anew; the corvée services canceled in the past have been reborn in secret!"

"Then the Liaodong levy we have been collecting these past seven years — where is it truly taken from the common people?"

"It is merely that the local strongmen and corrupt underlings, seeing the eastern crisis was urgent and the court's demands for collection were pressing, temporarily yielded and, for the moment, transferred some wealth from their own pockets to the court!"

"This is the truth behind the cycle of extortionate taxation!"

"This is why every reform ultimately decays and fails!" Zhu Youjian's voice boomed beneath the vaulted ceiling of the great hall.

"These vermin-officials and greedy men, entrenched in the prefectures and counties, exploit the flaws in the law and deceive both those above and below."

"When the dynasty advances one step, they retreat one step first."

"When the dynasty retreats slightly, they begin to levy privately without restraint, secretly alter the actual figures, and covertly increase and multiply exactions."

"Through monopolizing scoundrels, they forcibly collect next year's and the year after's taxes; through colluding with petty clerks, they practice the tricks of shifting and fraudulent registration."

"These arrears on every tax — how could they merely be the common people squeezed to the breaking point? They are, even more, a probing test aimed at the court!"

"Their nature is greedy, and it can never be restrained."

"By instinct, they will press all regular taxes and miscellaneous corvée down to the very baseline of the people's survival, grudgingly leaving only a thread of breath, so that they may embezzle and gnaw upon them for the long term!"

"Yet the Liaodong levy has now been collected for eight years, and the miscellaneous items have also been collected for five!"

"These local strongmen and corrupt underlings — their patience has already been worn away bit by bit!"

"They have begun again to work their hands above and below. Upward, they default on tax payments; downward, they collect in full, they collect double."

"Today the arrears rate is ten percent; tomorrow it will be twenty percent; the day after, fifty percent!"

"The court retreats one step, and they advance one step! That is all there is to it!"

Zhu Youjian slowly walked back before the imperial desk, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the assembled ministers one by one, a grim killing intent showing through his eyes.

"However, the Great Ming's patience is now also wearing thin."

"Gentlemen, in undertaking new governance, the first and most crucial task is to think clearly about who our enemy is!"

"It is not your colleagues beside you, not the people sitting within this hall today!"

"It is those greedy and base wretches who do not know restraint, who gnaw upon and flay the common people, who suck the very fat and blood of the people!"

"Only when you have thought this through clearly can you..."

The Emperor's speech continued.

A faint, barely audible sound emerged from the seats of the secretariat off to the side.

"Hah, drawing pay and stuffing the seats..."

No one knew who had said it.

But everyone knew exactly whom those four words were aimed at.

All the secretaries turned their gazes toward Guo Yunhou, kneeling there, and then one by one looked toward those ministry grandees sitting upright in the front row. Those grandees had broad desks, steaming hot tea, exquisite pastries, and the finest paper and brushes.

Yet here in their secretariat, they had only a folding chair each.

Even when copying minutes, they held the notebook in one hand and the brush in the other.

Their inkstones, even, were placed on a single small side table, shared among three or four people.

And yet these grandees, sitting upright with such arrogance, drawing pay and stuffing the seats — they were the ones steering the dynasty's course.

While they, these juniors full of concern for the country and burning passion, could only hunch over in these folding chairs that allowed no room to stretch out.

How could this scene, combined with the Emperor's fury, not enrage them in turn!

If you can do the job, do it; if not, get lost!

Wu Cheng'en gripped his brush tightly, his eyes brimming with irrepressible excitement.

In his heart, there were not so many thoughts of power.

It was just…

This was the first time he had attended one of the Yongchang Emperor's speeches in person.

And even more, the first time he had heard such an analysis, ringing out like a great bell.

Yes!

This is exactly how the world works! This is how it has always worked!

There had never been reasoning more penetrating than this!

There had never been an analysis more incisive than this!

There had never been a cry more soul-shaking than this!

Yet, after the excitement passed, a question suddenly leaped into Wu Cheng'en's mind.

Who had discovered such a blood-soaked law?

Was it the Emperor?

Wu Cheng'en could not believe it.

How could someone who had never left the palace, raised deep within its walls by women, possibly sum up a law that saw through the ways of the world and officialdom so thoroughly? But…

He was no ordinary emperor!

Since His Majesty ascended the throne, the miraculous stories surrounding him had already been far too many.

Wait…

Why had a Son of Heaven so sagely and so penetratingly perceptive shown not the slightest sign of his dragon nature while still in his princely residence?

Wu Cheng'en had inadvertently stumbled upon a blind spot.

For a moment, brush in hand, he fell into deep contemplation.

At the front of the great hall.

Having vented his pent-up frustration, Zhu Youjian shook his head, his expression returning to calm.

A proper show of anger was conducive to a longer life.

"Alright, today is, after all, the fiscal budget meeting."

"If we are to discuss philosophy, we can do so properly at the study session later this month."

"Regarding the draft proposal submitted by the Ministry of Revenue today, apart from the two items of not issuing grand rewards and not repaying back pay, We have no objections."

"Let us begin the vote by show of hands."

The crowd had just heard a speech both deeply satisfying and, one might even say, murderously intense; their minds were still reeling from the shock, and for a moment they failed to react to the Emperor's leaping pace.

But after only a moment's hesitation, they all raised their hands.

Zhu Youjian swept his gaze across them, picked up the wooden mallet from the imperial desk, and gave it a light tap.

"Good! So be it. The proposal is approved."

"All responsibilities and authorities have been assigned. Proceed normally with the follow-up."

He paused, his eyes searching among the assembled ministers, first glancing at Li Guopu.

Li Guopu sat there, expressionless, like a clay statue.

Hmm, Old Li is a man of depth, one who can keep a secret — not bad, not bad. Zhu Youjian nodded inwardly to himself.

Then, he turned to Grand Secretary Zheng Sanjun and smiled:

"Minister Zheng, the matter of selecting candidates for the thirteen provincial governorships — bring it to a swift conclusion."

"Once they are finalized, We shall begin summoning them one by one."