Inside the Huangji Hall, civil and military officials expressed their opinions.
There was no need to argue about this kind of thing, so the usual scenes of mutual accusations and beatings in the court did not occur.
After discussing for a while, Chongzhen decided on the posthumous title for Sun Chuanting.
"Sun Chuanting is bestowed with the title of Prince Taibao, posthumously conferred with the title of Pingyuan Earl, given the posthumous title of Zhongwu, and enshrined in the Jingzhong Temple." As Wang Chengen finished reading the decree, the bestowal of titles on Sun Chuanting came to an end.
Immediately following.
Zhou Yuji, the former general commander of Shanxi, Lu Xiangsheng, the former governor of Xuanda, Sun Chengzong, the former commander-in-chief of Ji-Liao, who died in the battle, and others were all given titles and honors.
As for the executed Denglai Governor Sun Yuanhua and former Shaanxi Governor Zheng Chongjian, Chongzhen did not rehabilitate them.
He personally ordered the execution of these two people. If he exonerates them, he will be slapping himself in the face.
As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, doesn't he have any face?
As an emperor, sometimes face is more important than life!
As for the work of rehabilitation, he had secretly kept it in mind and left it to Zhu Cilang to do.
By then, the Ming emperor will be able to win the hearts of the people and consolidate his throne, killing two birds with one stone!
After just over an hour of discussion, the atmosphere in the court became increasingly depressing.
Especially those who were good friends with those who were posthumously honored, they didn’t know whether to be happy or sad.
Fortunately, the court and the emperor did not forget them.
Sadly, they are all dead.
They died for the Ming Dynasty and perished for the Ming Dynasty.
If these people were still alive, the Ming Dynasty would definitely be a very different place.
Although it was not a restoration of the Ming Dynasty, at least the likes of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong could not run rampant, and the Jiannu in Liaodong could not force the Ming army back to the interior.
After the court returned to calm, Li Banghua stood up with a serious face.
"Your Majesty, I have a report to make."
"Approved." Chongzhen sat on the dragon throne and said pretending to be indifferent.
"As you wish."
Li Banghua cupped his hands and said, "Now there are bandits inside and Tartars outside. Natural disasters continue, and man-made disasters never cease."
"Although the court exempted the land tax throughout the country, there are still many places where the harvest is not harvested, resulting in starvation everywhere. After several discussions with the cabinet, I decided to use disaster relief to calm the refugees."
Disaster relief?
The court became even quieter.
Disaster relief is a big deal.
Although the imperial court had a complete disaster relief system, it was difficult to follow the rules in times of chaos.
If you do well, you won't get much credit. But if you don't do well, you will be impeached by the censors or even take the blame for others!
The most important thing is that the victims are likely to rebel!
For these intellectuals who have no soldiers or generals to provide disaster relief is like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth.
So when everyone heard Li Banghua talking about disaster relief, they shut up.
Li Banghua took in everyone's expressions and continued calmly, "Let's not talk about whether to fight against foreign invaders or maintain internal stability. The biggest reason why the bandits can't be eradicated is that there are victims wherever they go. The reason why the Jian Nu cannot be pacified is that there are no soldiers available."
"So the cabinet plans to abandon the previous method of using food to provide disaster relief and instead use a new method to provide disaster relief."
"There are two new methods: one is to use soldiers instead of relief, and the other is to use workers instead of relief."
"Except for Shanxi, Shaanxi, Liaodong and the area occupied by Zhang Xianzhong, the disaster situation in other places is counted from top to bottom. The disaster situation is divided into three categories: severe, relatively severe, and mild."
"The areas with severe disasters are in urgent need of food, so the method of using soldiers as relief is used. The court allocates silver to buy food from areas without disasters, and recruits soldiers to exchange their resettlement expenses and salaries for food to give to their families to help them survive the disaster. This can not only solve the problem of the court's military resources, but also provide disaster relief to the people."
"Some areas hit hardest by the disaster are short of food, while others are not so short of food. We are using soldiers for relief and using workers for relief at the same time."
"Lord Li, what do we ask the people to do under the work-for-relief program? Repair official roads? The national treasury doesn't have much money now, and Your Majesty has exempted the country from land tax and corvee labor for one year. If we go to great lengths to use money to repair official roads, even if we have more money, it won't be enough!" The Secretary of the Household Department asked sharply.
Li Banghua still had a calm expression on his face. He said, "No! The work I'm talking about is not repairing the official road, but something related to the soldiers."
"Soldier?"
"Yes, recruiting soldiers requires weapons and armor. The court can let the victims make the weapons. After they are ready, the court will use money to buy them. This will not only solve the shortage of weapons for the court, but also give the victims a chance to survive, killing two birds with one stone."
The Engineering Department Secretary stood up to refute: "Mr. Li is wrong! The weapons and armor required by the court have strict requirements. Only experienced craftsmen can make qualified ones. Ordinary people can't do it and don't know how to do it."
Li Banghua rolled his eyes at him and said, "The Ministry of Industry has many types of weapons, but the most used ones are arrows and spears. The arrow shafts and the wooden sticks of the spears are not difficult to make. With the guidance of the craftsmen in the prefectures and counties, we can make qualified weapons."
"The rest of the weapons and armor will still be made by the Ministry of Industry."
Seeing that no one objected, Li Banghua continued, "In places where the disaster is not serious, use the method of work-for-relief. I have already explained the reason before, so I will not repeat it again."
As Li Banghua proposed methods of disaster relief, the court once again fell into discussion.
The officials of the Ministry of Revenue all looked at the Minister of Revenue Fang Yuegong. They were scared!
Afraid of being sent to various places to provide disaster relief.
It’s so chaotic out there now, you might die on the road.
Fang Yuegong felt a chill on his back from being stared at, so he stood up and said, "My dear colleagues, the disaster relief method discussed by the cabinet definitely needs someone to implement it, but who will do the job has not yet been decided. Let's discuss this matter later."
All the civil and military officials blinked their eyes and fell silent.
Chongzhen saw that the time was right and asked, "My Lords, what do you think of the disaster relief method proposed by the cabinet?"
The ministers present curled their lips almost at the same time.
Is this an inquiry?
This is a threat!
If anyone disagreed, the emperor and the cabinet would definitely send him to provide disaster relief.
In order to avoid being remembered by the emperor, the ministers answered in unison: "We think it is feasible."
In fact, this method itself does not have any obvious flaws, so even without this threat, the ministers would still agree.
"Then the cabinet should hurry and get it done!" Chongzhen looked calm.
"Your Highness obeys your order."
After receiving the decree, Li Banghua did not leave, but bowed again and said: "Your Majesty, I have something else to report."
"Yes."
"Although Your Majesty has exempted the entire country from land tax for one year, various provinces, prefectures, and states have already experienced tax arrears or over-taxation."
"I think we should take advantage of this disaster relief opportunity to sort out these two issues and resolve them."
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