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Volume 1: Dragon Trapped in the Shoals Chapter 77: Minister of the Ministry of War

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.    "Sir, the Meridian Gate has arrived."

    Hearing the soft call outside, Shi Xing, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, who was dozing in the soft sedan, slowly opened his eyes, adjusted his official uniform, smoothed his gray beard, and then walked slowly out of the sedan that had been pressed down.  down.  However, the Minister of the Ministry of War, who holds great power and almost controls the promotion of all military attach¨¦s below the fourth rank of the Ming Dynasty and the evaluation of all military attaches, has a look of exhaustion on his face.

    This time Shi Xing came to the palace, neither to discuss military affairs with the cabinet nor to see Zhu Yijun, who rarely met with ministers anymore. Instead, he went to the Wenhua Palace to explain government affairs to Zhu Changluo. It was his turn to be on duty today.

    Speaking of which, Shi Xing is a fairly upright person, and being an official can benefit a party, so he can definitely be regarded as a capable official.  However, his luck seems to be a bit bad, and it is fair to say that he has bad luck.

    In the first year of Longqing, when Mu Zong just came to the throne, because the cabinet at that time was full of talents, including the famous Prime Minister Xu Jie, the capable official Gao Gong, and the talented and strategic Zhang Juzheng, Emperor Longqing, who advocated "governing by doing nothing", let go of his hands.  , let the cabinet do whatever it takes.  When he was free, he would inevitably indulge in food and clothing, and indulge in other aspects.

    As a public speaker, Shi Xing, who was in charge of the affairs at that time, did not forget his duties. Shangshu pointed out that Emperor Longqing indulged in wine and sex, neglected government affairs, and spent long nights drinking and enjoying sensual entertainment for the pleasure of Aoshan.  The chapter memorial was restrained and finally he had the courage to say at the end of the memorial that if things continue like this, the world will be hopeless!

    When Emperor Longqing saw this, he immediately became furious and thought that Shi Xing was slandering him. He immediately issued an order to banish Shi Xing to the people.  This was not the most unlucky thing about Shi Xing. What shocked him was that the person supervising the imperial staff at that time was actually the eunuch Teng Xiang who had a gap with him!  Of course, the other party took the opportunity to retaliate and let Jin Yiwei deal a heavy blow, beating him to death and leaving his skin and flesh to pieces If it weren't for the protection of his friend Mu Wenxi, who was from the same hometown, his life would have been sealed.  What's even more unfortunate is that when his wife Zheng heard that he might have been shot to death with a cane, she was so loyal that she hit a pillar and died on the spot!

    It was not until the first year of Wanli, when Zhu Yijun came to the throne, that Shi Xing, who had been deposed as a citizen for nearly seven years, was reinstated and restored to his original position.  Unexpectedly, Zhang Juzheng was the chief minister at that time, and Shi Xing had different political views with him, so his impeachment petition failed, so Zhang Juzheng looked for an opportunity to be dismissed from office, and was driven back to his hometown It would be another ten years before Zhang Juzheng died, and he went to live in the court again.  official.

    Shi Xing, who was dismissed twice and has been in the opposition for nearly twenty years, entered the court for the third time as an official. This time, the speed of promotion was unusually smooth.  In just five years, in the fifteenth year of Wanli, he was promoted to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Industry!  Three years later, in the eighteenth year of Wanli, he was transferred to the extremely important position of Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, which was much more important and powerful than the Minister of the Ministry of Works.  More than a year later, due to the increase in internal and border wars in the Ming Dynasty, and the continuous natural disasters, the Ministry of War urgently needed a minister who understood finance, and this important task fell on Shi Xing.

    Normally, Shi Xing, who entered the court for the third time as an official, should be regarded as having a smooth career and great power, but in fact this is not the case.  In the fifteenth year of Wanli, less than a month after he became Minister of the Ministry of Industry, the Yellow River burst in Kaifeng!  This falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry, and the first person responsible if something goes wrong is the Minister of the Ministry of Industry.  Therefore, Shi Xing, who had not yet secured his position as Minister of Industry, had been in the opposition for so many years and understood the sufferings of farmers, so he went to Kaifeng in person to direct the emergency response and subsequent construction projects. He was so busy that his beard turned white.  Less, the loss was finally controlled to a minimum, and it was unanimously recognized by the government and the opposition.

    At that time, this was a big project. He worked hard for nearly two years. In April of the 17th year of Wanli, he was able to sort out the construction of the Yellow River embankments in Henan.  But before he could take a breath, in June of the seventeenth year of Wanli, the Yellow River burst into Xiazhen again!  Shi Xing, who was well versed in emergency rescue and disaster relief, shouldered his responsibilities and once again devoted himself to handling the follow-up matters.

    By the eighteenth year of Wanli, Shi Xing was probably recognized by the cabinet and Zhu Yijun because of his proper handling of the two rescue and disaster relief operations, and was transferred to the Ministry of Household Affairs as Minister.  Not long after he got the imperial edict to go to the Ministry of Household Affairs to serve as Minister, trouble came again: this year, first, a major earthquake occurred in Shunde Prefecture, Zhili in February; in March, there was a violent storm in Daming Prefecture, Zhili, and countless houses collapsed, and in Yanzhou, Shandong  News of heavy losses due to black winds and sandstorms coming from Henan Province, Jinan Prefecture, Qingzhou Prefecture, Kaifeng Prefecture, Zhangde Prefecture, Weihui Prefecture, Guide Prefecture and other places in Henan Province also came one after another. Countless houses were damaged and heavy losses occurred; in April, there was a severe drought in the capital, Huguang and other places.  Famine; Shanxi earthquake in May; Qinghai tribe Horqi invasion in June, the Ministry of Household Affairs must prepare money, food and other materials for the war

    In short, in the more than a year since Shi Xing took office as the Minister of Household Affairs, he could not live in peace for even a month. Natural and man-made disasters came one after another, which really broke his heart.  In the 19th year of Wanli, he finally left the troubled Ministry of Household Affairs and became Minister of the Ministry of War. He thought he would just focus on dealing with the petty troubles of the grassland people at the border, but the actual situation caught him off guard.reach.

    Shi Xing was transferred to the Ministry of War in August of the 19th year of Wanli. At the end of this month, the Hetao Ministry went south to invade the border. By the time this matter was dealt with, it had already entered the 20th year of Wanli.  On February 18th of this year, Ningxia Kuaibai gathered his son Chengen, adopted son Yiyun and Tu Wenxiu to rebel, killed Dang Xin and deputy envoy Shi Jifang, set fire to the office, and confiscated the talisman.  Seal, pay money to release prisoners, this is a large-scale Ningxia rebellion!

    Before Shi Xing, the Minister of War, could figure out a strategy to deal with the Ningxia rebellion, the North Korean envoys came crying for help. They were invaded by the little Japanese, and the country was about to fall. Please send troops to rescue them quickly!  It's true that misfortunes never come singly. Shi Xing is very busy. He has to pacify Ningxia and send troops to deter the southwestern chieftains who sometimes surrender and rebel. North Korea can't just ignore it

    Fighting the war is secondary. The key is that Shi Xing, who once served as the Minister of the Ministry of Industry and the Minister of the Ministry of Households, knows that both the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households do not have much silver due to constant natural and man-made disasters. The national treasury cannot make ends meet.  Especially for the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Revenue, Shi Xing knew exactly where there was excess money for the Ministry of War to advance for the war!

    The Ming Dynasty had no money to fight, which made Shi Xing, the Minister of War, almost turn his head with sorrow. However, whether it was Ningxia or the Japanese who invaded Korea, they had to fight. This was Zhu Yijun's personal instructions.  In the end, there was really no other way. After discussing with Wang Jiaping, who was the chief minister of the cabinet at the time, Shi Xing reported to Zhu Yijun and misappropriated the silver deposits in Taipu Temple and the Nanjing treasury and used the money as reserve funds specifically for the war.  In fact, this was a last resort. In addition to some savings in the palace's inner treasury, the entire Ming Dynasty only had the money in Taipu Temple dedicated to Ma Zheng and the spare deposits in the Nanjing treasury.

    The pacification of Ningxia went smoothly, with less than one million taels of silver spent, but the war in Korea was not so smooth.  In recent years, apart from the nearly one million taels used by Ningxia, North Korea alone has spent more than three million taels of silver!  This has already used up more than half of the special funds for the war. If we continue to fight, even if we can defeat the Japanese pirates within half a year, the remaining two million taels of silver will be almost exhausted!  How to deal with the border war?  How to deal with emergencies?  As Minister of War, Shi Xing had to consider these.

    To be honest, Shi Xing was one of the most determined people to go to Korea to fight Japan at the beginning. If he, Zhu Yijun and Wang Jiaping, the chief minister of the cabinet at the time, had not insisted, Ming Dynasty would not have been able to make decisions and react so quickly.  , dare to deal with the Ningxia rebellion and the Korean War at the same time!

    "However, one must seek his own government when he is in his position. This is the motto that Shi Xing has always adhered to, and he did the same!"  Seeing that Ming Dynasty was spending money like water, and the reserve funds for war were quickly consumed. How could he, the Minister of War, sit still?  The only way to end this war in a vassal country is to quickly end it.  At that time, Japan seemed to be interested in peace talks. After thinking about it, Shi Xing had no choice but to make a decision, change his position, support peace talks, and end this damn war as soon as possible!
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