After everything was done, Zhu Youxiao asked, "Sir, what exactly brought you to the palace today?"
Sun Chengzong glanced at Zhu Youxiao and asked with a firm expression, "Your Majesty, do you want to reform?"
At this moment, Sun Chengzong did not beat around the bush and told the truth directly.
Since he had decided to come to the palace to ask, he didn't want to beat around the bush and was just direct.
Zhu Youxiao glanced at Sun Chengzong calmly and asked with a smile, "Why do you say that, sir?"
In fact, Zhu Youxiao did want to reform, and he was doing innovative things, but he did not want to raise the slogan of reform.
The reason is simple: innovation isn't something that can be achieved simply by shouting slogans. At a certain point, slogans are necessary, but now is not the right time.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao did not mention this matter at all. Even if he mentioned it now, it would only encounter more opposition and would be of no use at all.
Zhu Youxiao didn't expect that Sun Chengzong would actually ask about reform, and so directly.
Seeing Zhu Youxiao say this, Sun Chengzong had no way to continue asking questions.
The reason is very simple. As a minister, you cannot force the emperor. This must be observed and it is also the duty of a minister.
Sun Chengzong said: "Your Majesty has recently appointed new people and changed many rules, so I think Your Majesty has the intention of reform."
After hearing what Sun Chengzong said, Zhu Youxiao felt helpless.
There are always many smart people at any time, let alone in the court?
No one who can reach the highest official position is a fool.
Even though he had come up with many excuses, he was still seen through. However, at this moment, he still couldn't admit it, because it would not benefit him at all.
Zhu Youxiao said "Oh" with a puzzled look on his face, and then said: "What kind of innovation is this? I have never thought about it in this way."
"Since I ascended the throne, the court has been in turmoil. There are so many things going on. How can I have the time to think about this? Besides, there are many innovative things in history. Many ministers and emperors have wanted to do them, but what are the final results? Not many have good results, so I haven't thought about it."
This is not something Zhu Youxiao said nonsense. He certainly thought so, but it is true that no dynasty has had a good ending.
Not to mention other things, just take the Ming Dynasty alone. It took Zhang Juzheng many years to complete the reforms, and what was the result?
It has turned out like this, the leader is dead and the government is over.
Zhu Youxiao would not blindly shout slogans of reform until he was completely sure.
Sun Chengzong nodded and said, "I understand. In that case, let's not talk about this matter anymore. I have another matter to attend to."
The emperor has already given you an answer. No matter whether this answer is true or false, you need to treat it as true. This will never change.
Since he couldn't ask any further questions, Sun Chengzong decisively changed the subject.
"Your Majesty, since I arrived at the Ministry of War, I have found that many things in the Ministry are not going as planned."
Sun Chengzong thought for a moment and said, "Let's not talk about anything else. Just the Beijing Army alone is very unsatisfactory. The court spends so much money every year to support them, but in the end they are not of much use. So I want to thoroughly investigate the Beijing Army and lay off some of the old and weak."
This matter falls within the authority of the Minister of War, and it is normal for Sun Chengzong to raise this matter.
However, Zhu Youxiao also saw that Sun Chengzong was setting an ambush. But it didn't matter. He still recognized Sun Chengzong's military accomplishments. At least Sun Chengzong was good at training soldiers.
Apart from anything else, many people said that Sun Chengzong spent too much money in Liaodong and that his overall strategy was problematic.
But it was not until the Ming Dynasty that Zhu Youxiao realized that Sun Chengzong did have other ways, but those other ways were not feasible.
The Wei Suo system of the Ming Dynasty had become completely corrupt. It would be extremely difficult to reform the old army; even in Liaodong, the same was true.
Zhu Youxiao knew very well that the Liaodong army did not want to fight for the court.
First of all, the imperial court had no money to give to the Liaodong army, and they had to farm their own land every year when they fought; in addition, the imperial court did not provide adequate pensions if they died in battle, and the rewards for killing the enemy were not enough, so naturally the soldiers were unwilling to fight for you.
Liaodong's fighting spirit is not high and there are no elite soldiers. What should we do?
The only option is to build a city and a fortress and defend it. As long as there is enough money, the city can be built as far as possible and the enemy can be nibbled away bit by bit.
There are many benefits to this, except that it costs a little more. Besides, it doesn't cost much. According to the Ming Dynasty's expenditure, only 8 million taels were burned in Liaodong every year.
For such a big country, burning 8 million taels is considered money?
If it were normal taxation, the normal court expenses would be able to afford 20 million taels a year.
In the final analysis, the Ming Dynasty had no money. If it had money, everything would be easy.
Without counting other things, just calculate the tax revenue of the Qing Dynasty during the Qianlong period and you will understand.
During the Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty's annual fiscal revenue was around 50 million taels of silver, and grain revenue reached 13 million taels. In addition, there were other incomes. But what about the Ming Dynasty?
Logically speaking, the economy of the Ming Dynasty was more developed than that of the Qing Dynasty, but the tax revenue was so much lower.
Liaodong burned down the country with just a little bit of money.
Although there are many natural disasters and man-made disasters in various places, there is also a lot of wealth. The only problem is that the country is extremely poor.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao was not in a hurry to solve other problems. He just wanted to solve the internal problems. As long as the money was collected, everything else was unimportant.
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