"Oh? What's the best strategy?" Chongzhen stared at Li Banghua and asked.
"I think Your Majesty should defend the capital and send the crown prince to Nanjing to supervise the country. If the capital is captured and Your Majesty dies for the country, the Ming Dynasty will still have half of its territory!"
Oh shit!
Everyone in the hall cursed in their hearts at the same time.
Wu Mengming swallowed his saliva. Apart from him, no one dared to say such treasonous words in front of the emperor.
Li Banghua’s mouth is so stinky and hard!
"How dare you!" Without Chongzhen saying anything, Wang Chengen, who was standing beside him, immediately stood up. He pointed at Li Banghua's head and angrily said, "How dare you, Li Banghua, slander the present emperor. You should be executed according to the law."
Li Banghua was not afraid at all and continued, "The capital is the foundation of our dynasty and cannot be abandoned. Moreover, Wu Sangui has traveled thousands of miles to defend the emperor and is on his way to the capital. If Your Majesty abandons the city at this time, the last elite force of the Ming Dynasty will be handed over to others."
"On the other hand, the bandits, tyranny and banditry will not last long. The Jiannu in Liaodong are the biggest threat to the Ming Dynasty. With the capital in place, the Jiannu dare not march straight in. If the capital changes hands, the Jiannu will use it as a base to march south, and the Ming Dynasty will be in danger."
Chongzhen raised his eyebrows and couldn't help but look at Li Banghua with admiration.
He said it very well, analyzing the current situation of all forces and the future situation clearly.
It’s exactly like history!
This Zuodu Yushi is a talented person.
"Then, Censor Li, tell us why the bandits cannot last long." Chongzhen continued to test.
"Yes." Li Banghua felt relieved when he saw that Chongzhen was not angry but very happy.
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and continued, "Taxes are the foundation of the court."
"The sources of taxation for the imperial court are nothing more than land tax, regular labor service in the village and miscellaneous taxes. The bandits claim to exempt land tax, so the only taxes that can be collected are regular labor service in the village and miscellaneous taxes, and among the miscellaneous taxes, commercial taxes are the most numerous."
"The source of commercial taxes is merchants. The bandits exploited and killed merchants and gentry along the way, and seven or eight out of ten were killed."
"With no tax revenue, the bandits can only rob and rob. One day, when they can no longer rob money and food, they will disperse on their own."
Chongzhen agreed with Li Banghua's view. Not only him, but also historians agreed. In that feudal era when agriculture was the basis, the policy of equal distribution of land and exemption of grain was doomed to fail.
According to statistics, seventy to eighty percent of the tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty came from land tax.
To exempt this part is tantamount to digging one's own grave.
Chongzhen was very satisfied with Li Banghua's performance. He stood up and waved his hand to let Wu Mengming, Wang Zhixin and Li Ruolian leave.
After they walked out of the palace, Chongzhen came to Li Banghua and said, "Li Yushi is indeed very talented. I plan to let you join the cabinet as the chief minister. What do you think?"
The emperor wants me to be the prime minister? Li Banghua thought to himself that this was not good.
Chongzhen was emperor for seventeen years and had nineteen prime ministers.
The punishment could be dismissal from office at the lightest and beheading at the worst.
The power seems great, but the risks are also high, and sometimes you have to take the blame for the emperor.
Now, among the civil servants, no one is willing to fight for the hot potato position of the cabinet prime minister!
but.
The more times like this, the more we must face the challenges head-on!
After quick thinking, Li Banghua felt that this was an opportunity.
He said quickly, "Your Majesty, the cabinet is a huge matter with many rules, but it has always been the case that one must first enter the cabinet before being promoted to the position of Prime Minister. It is somewhat against the rules for me to directly serve as the Prime Minister."
Chongzhen smiled faintly: "My words are the rules."
Seeing this, Li Banghua no longer hesitated and knelt down to thank him: "Your Majesty, I thank you for your grace."
"Don't thank me so early. I haven't finished what I want to say. Li Banghua, are you afraid of death?"
Li Banghua was stunned for a moment, then thought for a moment and said seriously: "If Your Majesty wants me to die, I am not afraid of death."
"Why?"
"I have few ambitions in this life. Perhaps I want to be the most powerful official, or to be rich, or to leave my name in history books."
"Today, Your Majesty has appointed me as the Prime Minister. My wish of becoming the highest official in the country has come true. Anyone who can be killed by Your Majesty will definitely be recorded in history books. I don't care whether it is a good reputation or a bad reputation. Only mediocre people will be forgotten by history."
Li Banghua's words touched Chongzhen's heart. He stood there, quietly looking at this old minister who was nearly 70 years old.
At this moment, he had only one thought: Li Banghua is the person I am looking for.
but.
Before that, there is one more thing that needs to be confirmed.
Chongzhen turned around and said solemnly: "I need a powerful minister who can suppress the powerful ministers in the court."
"I will give him enormous power, second only to the emperor and above all others. He can kill anyone he wants, including court officials, eunuchs, nobles, and clan members. I will not care. As long as he can get money and is not too greedy, I will not care."
"As long as I live, I can ensure his prosperity and wealth for one day."
"but!"
"If I die, that person's fate may be even worse than Yan Song's!"
"He may be remembered in history, or he may be infamous, or he may be both famous and criticized."
"Can you bear it?"
Wang Chengen looked at Chongzhen in disbelief, feeling that the emperor in front of him was very unfamiliar.
Is the Emperor going to give up power?
What he hated most since he ascended the throne were powerful ministers.
and.
At a time when the Ming Dynasty is facing internal and external troubles, would delegating power at this time increase the risks for the Ming Dynasty?
Li Banghua raised his head. His old face was full of wrinkles, but his eyes were bright and lively.
He stood up seriously and knelt down and kowtowed again: "Your Majesty, please rest assured that I do not want to be Yan Song, I only want to be Zhang Jiangling (Zhang Juzheng)."
"Okay! Censor Li, please leave for now. I have to attend the court meeting."
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Li Banghua left the side hall.
Only after Li Banghua walked out of the hall did Chongzhen withdraw his expectant gaze from him.
He did this for two reasons.
First of all, Chongzhen had killed too many people since he ascended the throne, including eighteen officials above the second rank and more than a hundred officials below the second rank.
Not to mention the cabinet, during his 17 years in power, he changed 19 prime ministers (two of whom were re-elected twice).
Among them there are powerful officials and treacherous villains, as well as pillars of the country; there are corrupt people, as well as selfless people dedicated to serving the public.
Often the new prime minister is replaced before he has even established a firm foothold.
As a result, government decrees could not leave the capital (it was useless outside the capital, as party struggles and loyalty had shifted from the court to the provincial capitals), and the country became increasingly chaotic.
Those who were lucky were dismissed, and those who were unlucky were executed.
Does that make sense?
That doesn't make sense!
As a result, everyone in the officialdom felt insecure.
In the late Chongzhen period, the Donglin Party had lost its real power, and the party struggles in the court entered a stable phase.
Where does the contradiction go? It doesn’t disappear, it just moves.
Part of it was transferred to the provincial capital, and the other part turned into a conflict between the emperor and his subjects.
They opposed whatever Chongzhen wanted to do.
Only in this way can the value be reflected.
The purpose of re-employing Li Banghua was to restart the factional struggles in the court and transfer the contradictions between the monarch and his subjects into party contradictions.
He wants to use Li Banghua to make money and kill people!
Where does the money come from?
In the short term, it relies on house confiscations; in the long term, it relies on taxation.
Who to kill?
Civil officials who fight among themselves, corrupt court officials, nobles who are as wealthy as a country, and merchants who betray their country and surrender to the enemy!
Chongzhen calmed down and ordered: "Wang Chengen, summon all officials to the court to discuss politics."
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