C2030 Military financial power (2/2)
”This is what an official is like. My Ama is able to order around, but I may not be able to do so. Those who are loyal to me are not necessarily loyal to my son!”
”One has to be tough in order to forge iron!”
”That's right!” ”That's exactly what the empress dowager said …” Liu Dadao rubbed his hands together in excitement and said, ”The empress dowager wants me to tell Your Majesty … In the past, the empress dowager had expressed her displeasure and reprimand towards Your Majesty in front of everyone, but that was also to numb the enemies inside and outside! ”
”The imperial court is too complicated. Normal people can't figure out who is their enemy or friend. Many of them are even from the Swing Faction. In the morning, they expressed their loyalty to you, but when the situation changes this afternoon, they will immediately bite you …”
”His Majesty, don't blame the empress dowager …” 's mother wiped away her tears. ”The empress dowager's dissatisfaction with you is often an act! The empress dowager alone was already extremely fearful of the six devils, not to mention others! Thirty four thousand soldiers of the new army, Chen Bing and Xishan, what do you want the empress dowager to do? ”
”Your Majesty, the New Imperial Army that you practiced in Fujian, as well as the ones you helped in Heilongjiang and Jilin, the empress dowager called you unfilial and unfilial on the surface, as well as your powerlessness. But what's the actual situation …”
”Hehe …” The empress dowager had already understood long ago that His Majesty had the right to capture soldiers and that was the idea. Regardless of whether the method is correct or not, your general direction is the right one, so this is what you should do! ”
”Giving the land in the Far East to the Russian or Xiao Letian is not much of a big deal, the bitter cold lands are places to send prisoners, as long as it can give us benefits!”
”On the contrary, to exchange for Hun Chun's loyalty and devotion, this is real dry goods! The two provinces have already been tightly controlled by Your Majesty. Do you know how happy the empress dowager is behind all of this? ”
”Your Majesty, you must be more clear-headed. Military and financial power must be grasped in one's own hands, not in the hands of the imperial government …” The emperor is the emperor, and the imperial government is the imperial government.
If it was the old Zai Chun, the little emperor who had never left the palace and had always been educated by the scholars, he would definitely not understand the meaning of those words.
In Confucian education, the emperor and the imperial court were one and the same. The emperor was supposed to be a saint and a moral gentleman, while the imperial court ruled the Nine Prefectures around the emperor.
It was a pity that there was often a gap between imagination and reality. The emperor represented the supreme imperial power, while the imperial court was the main battlefield for the bureaucracy. He represented the interests of the world's scholars and officials.
There was cooperation between the two powers, but there were also conflicts. A very simple example was Dazhi. The officials in the imperial court were good at crying and staring at the emperor's coffers, occasionally saying that the Ministry of Revenue was out of money and the emperor had to pay them with his own pocket to support the imperial court.
A classic example of this was the three battles over ten thousand li. Many bureaucrats objected to those three battles because they had no money.
His teacher, Zhang Juzheng, had saved up quite a lot for him. In addition, the eunuchs were helping the emperor collect taxes throughout the country, so the Emperor was still very wealthy.
In one breath, Emperor Wanli opened up his coffers and used the royal family's money to fight these three battles. This was basically the last military glory of the Great Ming Dynasty.
In the end, it was the end of the Ming dynasty. The emperor had less and less money to control, and without money, he could not do much until he forced Chong Zhen to ask a group of officials to lend him money.
Of course the Qing Dynasty knew how to judge others by their history. Ci Xi was not a merciful person, she obviously understood the logic behind this, which was why she took the risk and thought of ways to mix in sand within Xiao Letian's envoys. What she was afraid of was that Zai Chun would fall for Xiao Letian's trick.