The emperor’s idea was simple, but how should he do it?
No one had any good ideas in mind for the moment.
The several grand secretaries of the cabinet just turned their heads and looked at Sun Chengzong.
When discussing things yesterday, Sun Chengzong proposed this idea, wanting to bring the money and grain issues to the Ministry of War and let the new army be under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War. In this way, everything will be the same as before.
At that time, several people in the cabinet considered that His Majesty might not agree.
But no one expected that His Majesty not only disagreed, but also wanted to rebuild the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guards and renamed it the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guards.
Once the Imperial Guards Headquarters was established, the emperor would have his own army. Although all armies in the world belonged to the emperor, the Imperial Guards were different from other armies. They were an army that could only be dispatched by the emperor and not under the jurisdiction of anyone else.
You have to know that the military is now controlled by civilians everywhere. To put it bluntly, civilian officials have the authority to mobilize and control troops. This has always been a benefit that civilians have fought for. Now this benefit is gone.
Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Sun Chengzong didn't say anything and just stood there without saying a word.
Sun Chengzong's attitude is very clear, that is, he does not want to speak on this matter, and you should not count on him anymore; if anyone has something to say, please speak up quickly.
In fact, other people also wanted to say it, but they didn't dare to say it.
This is a big matter. Anything involving military power has always been extremely difficult.
The emperor's personal army was disbanded because of the Battle of Tumu, when all the personal troops were lost. In addition, the emperor was captured, and the court was in chaos for a while. Although it finally stabilized, there was no intention to rebuild a new army.
After Emperor Yingzong was restored to the throne, he had no intention of doing such things anymore, so no one mentioned the imperial army anymore.
Yu Qian completed the reorganization of the imperial army, and no emperor wanted to change it back. Although Emperor Zhengde later changed it, he lived too short a time to complete his plan.
After Emperor Jiajing ascended the throne, in order to highlight his differences from the previous emperor, he changed back all the changes made by Emperor Zhengde.
Now, Your Majesty wants to become the commander-in-chief of the Royal Guards. Anyone who opposes this is standing against Your Majesty.
The key issue is that there is no force in the court that can compete with Your Majesty, and the several cabinet ministers in the court are not of the same mind. Even if there are some who oppose, there will be others who support.
Han Yu and Huang Kexun are fence-sitters. Now that they have the trust of His Majesty, it is impossible to ask them to stand up and oppose this matter.
As for Xu Guangqi, it was good enough that he did not agree, let alone oppose.
Sun Chengzong had some objections in his heart, but he would not speak out. If he did, there would be no good results. Moreover, Sun Chengzong was in favor of training a new army.
As for who would command the imperial army, Sun Chengzong didn't care much. Even if it was under the jurisdiction of a civilian, the final decision still had to be made by His Majesty.
What's more, now that we have the General Staff Office, those people will definitely support it; other officials in the six ministries will probably agree generously as well.
This is the benefit of Zhu Youxiao’s early work. He learned from the Chenghua Emperor.
Even with the power of the civil officials, the Chenghua Emperor was able to exert his authority. He was often criticized for being "paper-made three cabinet ministers and clay-made six chancellors."
The Chenghua Emperor saw that the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang were colluding with each other and were not in good terms with the civil officials, so he created the Xichang. However, after he regained power, the Xichang was abolished, and Wang Zhi met a good end.
The current emperor has Cui Chengxiu and others from the Censorate, there is Wei Zhongxian in the East Factory, and the Jinyiwei are also mad dogs; what's more, there are now the Tongzhengsi and Xunchasi, and none of those people are easy to deal with.
The power struggle in the court is nothing more than the east wind prevailing over the west wind.
The emperor is now powerful and has many people under his command, so he is not at all vulnerable. If you oppose him, he can replace you. This is also Zhu Youxiao's confidence.
Seeing that no one stood up to speak, Zhu Youxiao said directly: "Since all of you agree, then this matter is settled. As for how to proceed? We can discuss it later."
"Now let's continue. The Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of War have all spoken. Now it's time for the Ministry of Revenue to speak."
After hearing what Zhu Youxiao said, Xu Guangqi took a step forward and said, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue does not need too much silver, but it just needs to build more granaries in various places."
"Your Majesty has mentioned this matter before. Although some construction has been done, it was delayed before the New Year due to lack of staff. Now we should continue. I have calculated that if it is completed according to the initial plan, it will cost about 500,000 taels of silver. This also includes the cost of purchasing grain, which should be sufficient."
Zhu Youxiao glanced at Xu Guangqi and nodded.
Zhu Youxiao's strategy was to build new granaries and store grain in various places. On the one hand, this was to prepare for future natural disasters so that the court would have food to allocate; on the other hand, it was also to ensure that the army would have food to use during wars.
Zhu Youxiao said, "Then let's just leave it at that."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Xu Guangqi agreed, bowed and stepped aside.
At this point, Zhu Youxiao actually didn't want to say much anymore. Because the important things had already been discussed. The Ministry of Justice would not have any other expenses except for the normal expenses.
Besides that, the Ministry of Works would have to spend some more money. The expenses required were nothing more than repairing the river and building water conservancy projects. No matter how much money was thrown into these things, they would be useless.
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