Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 597: Eunuch's Sense of Crisis
"Your Majesty, I understand what you mean. But Your Majesty, relative to water, the density of silver is 10.5. Only copper and lead are close to this density. But if you reduce the silver content in the silver coin and increase copper or lead, it will cause a significant change in the color of the silver coin. For users, they can tell the difference at a glance."
At Fangshan Academy of Sciences, the newly appointed Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guangqi pondered for a long time after listening to what Zhu Youdong and Li Guojun said, and finally said: Your Majesty, there is no ready-made solution to this problem.
It is quite normal to say that the three precious metals of gold, silver and copper can serve as equivalent exchange objects in so many civilizations around the world. Isn't it because they are stable and difficult to replace? If it were really that easy to forge, our ancestors would have come up with something new long ago. How could Zhu Youdong have to come up with a solution?
"Mr. Xu, can we set up a research group to conduct special research?"
Glancing at Li Guojun who interrupted, Xu Guangqi shook his head and said, "President Li, the current research focus of Fangshan is on electricity and plastics. We are concentrating the whole institute's strength on this. We have set up a new research group because there are no scientists who are free at Fangshan right now. Secondly, let alone whether this project can produce results, even if it does, it will be many years later. By then, I estimate that paper money will be in full swing."
"Okay, I understand what Mr. Xu means. Let's put this matter aside for now. I'll find another solution."
"I am ashamed and respectfully bid farewell to Your Majesty."
Leaving Fangshan Academy of Sciences, Li Guojun said anxiously, "Your Majesty, since Fangshan can't produce anything, what about the paper currency? Oh, Your Majesty has said that it will take three to five years to consider issuing paper currency, and I am willing to make adjustments for this. But Your Majesty, I just thought of a new problem. Isn't my Ming Dynasty going to build and strengthen local institutions recently? The establishment of these new institutions will promote the economy even more. What if the country's GDP grows by 10% every year? Then I dare not say that I can barely cope with it within three to five years."
"...Guojun, the issue of paper money must not be touched now. As for the lack of silver, in addition to what I just told you, I have also thought of a good way to make it happen."
"May I ask the Emperor?"
"Hahaha, I can't tell you, I can't tell you, this is not something you can do. Anyway, Guojun, don't worry, in the next one or two years, I will turn a lot of gold and silver into something for you."
"Then I will follow the emperor's arrangements. I will take my leave now."
After Li Guojun's carriage left, Zhu Youdong boarded his own spacious royal carriage. After closing the door to rest for a while, he spoke: "Fang Zhenghua."
"The servant is here."
"Come in the car, I have something to ask you."
"yes."
After Fang Zhenghua got in the car, he sat opposite Zhu Youdong and said, "Your Majesty, what do you want me to do?"
"I want to ask you, which god do you worship at home after work?"
"Which god? Your Majesty, I worship Yue Wang and Guan Shengdijun."
"Oh? So you eunuchs also worship these two?"
"Most of them worship these two. Some worship the Three Pure Ones and some worship Buddha. Oh, yes, there are a few eunuchs who worship Christ. In addition, there are a very small number of Muslims in the palace."
"Haha~ I didn't know until you told me that I didn't expect the beliefs in the palace to be so complicated. Well, what did Cao Huachun, Wei Zhongxian, Wang Chengen and others worship?"
"They are just like me, they all worship Yuewang and Guandi." After looking at Zhu Youdong, Wang Chengen added, "Your Majesty, we eunuchs are all prisoners of war, and we feel that we have too much yin energy, so we need the strongest and most yang gods to guard our offices and homes. In addition, we serve Your Majesty's family personally, and the words loyalty and righteousness are the most important. Therefore, among the more than 10,000 eunuchs in the palace, at least 70% worship Yuewang and Guandi."
"Well, 70%." Sitting in the car, Zhu Youdong tapped his knees for a while with his eyes closed, then opened his eyes: "After returning to the palace, call the three of them to me immediately."
"As you wish."
Cao, Wei and Wang were the three eunuchs who served Zhu Youdong closely when he was young. They were in charge of the Imperial Household Department, the Eastern Depot and the Internal Affairs Department respectively. These three, together with Liu Shimin who was in charge of the Imperial Horse Department and Zhu Youdong's personal eunuch Fang Zhenghua, were the five most powerful eunuchs in the entire Ming Dynasty.
"Your servants are here to see His Majesty."
"No need to be polite. I summoned you here today because I want to tell you something... Anyway, the country is short of silver now, but because the credit of the treasure notes is completely bankrupt, the rash use of paper money will only cause unrest among the people. Moreover, the last three to five years is the time for the civil service system of my Ming Dynasty to be built, and there are many problems in it. Therefore, I cannot issue paper money before the civil service system is completed. However, if paper money is not issued, according to the current economic development momentum of the country, there will be a serious shortage of silver sooner or later. Therefore, in addition to increasing the intensity of mineral mining, there must also be a large amount of new silver income."
"Your Majesty, we understand what you mean. May I ask if you have any direction?"
"Got it." After glancing at the four eunuchs, Zhu Youdong gritted his teeth and spat out two words: "Buddhist temple!"
…
After the emperor left, the four eunuchs, who were sweating coldly, found a secret room and began to discuss what to do.
The person sitting at the top was naturally the Chief of the Imperial Household Department, Cao Huachun. He looked at the three people below him, and then said to Wang Chengen, "Chengen, how many people in the palace worship Buddha on a daily basis now?"
"Hey, there are always about a thousand people among our eunuchs who worship Buddha, but if we really say that they are fanatical, there is not a single one." Wang Chengen smiled and continued: "We see these little guys, today they worship Tathagata, tomorrow they worship Guanyin, and the day after tomorrow they worship Manjusri and Samantabhadra. This can't be called faith. But the nobles in the palace, especially the Queen Mother..."
"Hey, what you said makes sense." Taking a deep breath, Cao Huachun said, "Thinking back then, my family followed the emperor to Nanjing to work, and we worked hard to earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year. After sending it to the palace, the treasury was not even warm before Empress Bitian Zuosheng (Wanli's biological mother Li Caifeng) donated all of it to Buddhist temples. At that time, my family thought to themselves, what's the point of our hard work?"
"Mr. Cao is right." Old Wei also spoke up: "I remember that when we fled to Beijing to avoid debt, there were only about 60 Buddhist temples in Beijing. But during the Wanli period, especially when the emperor went to Nanjing and continuously supplied money to the palace, Buddhist temples in Beijing were constantly built like mushrooms after rain. Now, um, there are at least 300 of them, right?"
"There may not be 300 formal temples, but if we include those small-scale nunneries, there are more than 300."
"That's right. If the capital city is like this, there must be no less than 10,000 temples in the Ming Dynasty. Even if there are only 20 monks in one temple, there are no less than 200,000 people. These bald donkeys do nothing and rely entirely on believers for support. Not only do they occupy farmland everywhere, but they also refuse to pay taxes. What's even more abominable is that they keep persuading people to abandon their families... It's time to give them a good beating."
"That's true. Buddhism encourages people to withdraw from the world all day long. But the six major newspapers have made it clear that the world is in a time of great contention. Sooner or later, the Ming Dynasty will have to fight Spain or the Ottoman Empire to determine who is the world's only leader. If everyone were to practice Buddhism and withdraw who would work? Who would join the army? Who would do scientific research? Who would heal the sick and save lives?"
"Old Wei has become more knowledgeable over the years, and his words are very eloquent." Fang Zhenghua clapped his hands, "I have heard the emperor mutter to the empress dowager before, saying that Buddhism is open to the public in prosperous times and closed in troubled times for meditation and chanting. He also said that there are many petty and despicable things in Buddhist temples... Although the emperor was scolded by the empress dowager at that time, it can be seen that the emperor has long been dissatisfied with Buddhist temples."
"Yes." After everyone had spoken and expressed their opinions, Cao Huachun clapped his hands and said, "Everyone, I think that if the Buddhist temple continues to develop like this, it will cause great harm to the country. It should have been rectified long ago. Not to mention that the country is short of hard currency now, and this Buddhist temple does have a large amount of precious metals... So, this Buddhist temple must be rectified."
"Eunuch Cao is absolutely right."
"After we decide to do something, we need to discuss how to do it. First of all, we have to make clear our attitude. Although there were three Wus and one Zongs who destroyed Buddhism in history, Buddhism did not completely die out . Therefore, when we do something to clean up the Buddhist temples this time, we should not dream of completely destroying Buddhism. In our opinion, the focus of this time's rectification of Buddhist temples should be on Pure Land Sect temples, and Zen Sect temples should be left alone."
"It's not the lack of wealth that's worrying, it's the inequality. Eunuch Cao's arrangement is excellent. By then, the Buddhist sect won't be able to unite to fight against us."
"Yes." Nodding, Cao Huachun continued, "I think that to rectify the Buddhist temples, we should first expose the corruption and darkness within the Buddhist temples to the people of our Ming Dynasty. We must first gain the upper hand in public opinion. How about letting your Dongchang handle this matter, Zhongxian?"
"Don't worry, Eunuch Cao. We will prepare all the evidence and make it a solid case even in the Supreme Court."
"Well, secondly, we need to make clear the purpose of this rectification. We think that as long as those bald donkeys do not openly rebel, we should try not to kill people. We just want the precious metals in the temples to supplement the hard currency, and at the same time, we will nationalize the land of the temples and let the monks in the temples return to secular life in large numbers, so that those who need to join the army can join the army, and those who need to go to work can go to work."
"Eunuch Cao is absolutely right. No matter how bad these bald donkeys are, they are still the people of the Ming Dynasty. There is no reason to kill them indiscriminately."
"Okay, the basic tone has been set, and the next step is to refine each link. Everyone, now the institutions of the outer court are becoming more and more complete, the power of the court officials is getting bigger and bigger, and the position of us eunuchs is becoming more and more awkward. It's not easy for the emperor to give us eunuchs full authority to be responsible for such an important matter. We have to do our best to do it for the emperor! Otherwise, I'm afraid that the status of us eunuchs will become lower and lower!"
"Don't worry, Eunuch Cao. We will definitely work hard for the emperor!"
