Last fall, Queen Zhu Xuan gave birth to the third prince, Su Heng.
Before the Queen's confinement, Su Mingzhe often stayed at Kunning Palace.
If it is inconvenient for the queen to attend her bed, she can only have the palace attendants and female officials to attend her bed instead.
It was at that time that two sisters, Zhou Miaotong and Zhou Miaoxuan, were injured by Su Mingzhe.
After Su Mingzhe made the two sisters transform from girls to women, he only upgraded their female official ranks, but did not ennoble them as concubines in the harem. He still let them stay in Kunning Palace.
Different from her sister Zhou Miaoxuan's elegant temperament, Zhou Miaotong only has a cold temperament on the outside, but is fiery on the inside.
After Su Mingzhe occupied the two Zhou sisters, Zhou Miaoxuan just wanted the title of female official of the palace painter and was satisfied.
Zhou Miaotong, on the other hand, wanted to live a two-way life with a man. She quietly told the man several times at night that she wanted to be a female official or a master attendant in the Qianqing Palace.
Naturally, Su Mingzhe couldn't refuse Zhou Miaotong's request. After the ceremony, he transferred her to Qianqing Palace, where the two of them worked together and sang happily every day.
the other side.
Ding Yi didn't stop at all and immediately returned to Guangdong Province.
As the Dazheng Dynasty built a shipping department, pirates in nearby waters began to become rampant again.
To this end, Su Mingzhe built five maritime divisions in one go, which were to guard the Bohai Sea in Liaodong Province, the Yellow Sea in Shandong Province, the East China Sea in Jiangnan Province, the Japanese Sea in Ryukyu Province, and the South China Sea in Fujian and Guangdong Provinces.
Ding Yi is the Duke of Yue who guards Guangdong Province.
There was also Lu Guogong Qi Jin who guarded Fujian Province. The two of them joined forces many times to sweep away these pirates, but they could not achieve full success.
Now that the emperor's approval has been obtained to form the Nanhai Navy, there is no room for relaxation.
"Father, the treasury is out of money again!"
The sea master is a gold-eating beast.
Su Xi, who had already begun to study government affairs, received the information from the Ministry of Household Affairs and went to the Qing Palace with a grimace.
"If you have no money, just find a way! What's the use of coming to me?"
Su Mingzhe was a little annoyed when his son interrupted his good business. He took the memorial and glanced at it casually, then said angrily:
"You are thirteen or fourteen now. In two years at most, you should get married. Once you get married, you should learn to supervise the country and govern the country. So, don't come to your dad whenever something happens. Your dad can't change. Here comes the money!”
As soon as Su Xi entered the door, she noticed something was wrong in the atmosphere, so she kept her head down and didn't dare to look up.
Hearing her father's scolding, Su Xi could only continue to plead:
"Father, before I came here, I had already asked the grand master and several pavilion elders. They all said that it is summer now and it will take at least two or three months to wait for the summer taxes to be put into the treasury."
"However, now that the summer flood is coming, it is absolutely impossible to have no money! Therefore, the elders of the pavilion ask if the preparations for the naval division can be slowed down. After all, things must have a priority, right? "
"The preparations for the naval division cannot be stopped, otherwise piracy will become rampant and it will affect the income of the maritime division."
Su Mingzhe flatly rejected his son's request.
However, after a moment of silence, he spoke again:
"Let's do this. I'll send an order to the navy at Iwami Yinshan and ask them to bring back the silver for the first half of the year in advance."
Iwami Yinshan now earns more than 20 million taels of silver every year. In order to be wary of pirates, he only transports money every six months.
Su Xi secretly breathed a sigh of relief when she heard that her father was going to bring back the silver from Shijian Yinshan.
This was also the result of his discussions with Grand Master Sun Chengzong and several other pavilion elders.
After all, since farmers were exempted from the Ding tax and land tax, the Dazheng Dynasty now only has those few sources of income.
Among them, silver from Iwami Yinshan was one of the important sources. Twenty million taels of silver a year accounted for one-fifth of the total income.
In addition to Ishimi Yinshan, the twenty-four supervisors of the inner government, the Salt and Iron Bureau, the Municipal Ship Bureau, and the commercial taxes in various places all basically have an income of about 20 million taels.
Among these five sources of income, the income from salt and iron mines mainly supplies the northern frontier and cannot be misappropriated.
The income of the twenty-four supervisors mainly provides the salaries and salaries of the court officials.
The income of the Municipal Shipping Department continues to be invested in infrastructure construction in various places, and the expenditure of the Marine Division is also included.
The commercial tax revenue of various regions is mainly responsible for ‘emergency disaster relief’ in various regions.
The final income from Shijian Yinshan belongs to the royal treasury and can be mobilized by the emperor alone.
When Su Xi heard that her father agreed to mobilize Ishimi Yinshan's money, she immediately handed over:
"In that case, I will inform the Ministry of Revenue and ask them to persist!"
"Wait!"
Su Mingzhe stopped the prince who was running away in a hurry, and said angrily:
"Xi'er, you are not young anymore, and you have reached the age where you should get married. Later, you go to Kunning Palace to discuss with your mother the choice of your crown princess."
"My son, I obey!"
Su Xi was surprised and happy when she heard that her father actually asked her to discuss marriage with her mother. She hurriedly thanked her and was about to leave.
Su Mingzhe said again:
"Xi'er, there's something I want to tell you. I don't care who your crown princess is, but after you decide on the crown princess, your first son must be the daughter of the crown princess."
Before Su Xi asked the reason in surprise, Su Mingzhe explained directly:
"I, Dazheng, won the country unfairly. The eldest son must be the eldest son to be the emperor in the future, so as to avoid fighting among the same brothers and causing trouble to Xiao Qiang!"
"My son understands!"
Su Xi bowed again and confirmed that Su Mingzhe had no new instructions, then slowly backed away from the imperial study room.
After leaving Qianqing Palace, Su Xi first sent his personal minister to inform the Minister of Household Affairs. Then, instead of going to Kunning Palace to see his mother, Su Xi first went to the cabinet to see his teacher Sun Chengzong.
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Although Sun Chengzong is over seventy years old, he looks quite energetic and has a childish face and bright hair because he took the elixir given by Su Mingzhe.
If you put on Taoist robes again, some people will believe you if you say you are an old god.
Su Xi came to the cabinet, backed away, and then told Sun Chengzong exactly what his father had just told him.
After hearing this, Sun Chengzong smoothed his long beard with his hand and said with a wide smile:
"Your Highness, what your Majesty said is true. Only the eldest son succeeds to the throne can the Zheng Dynasty be protected from disasters."
Seeing that Sun Chengzong also agreed with this, Su Xi felt relieved after having been worried for several years:
"In that case, how do you think I should look for a candidate for the Crown Princess?"
"Your Highness, didn't His Majesty say that? This matter is left to you and the Queen to discuss!"
When Sun Chengzong saw Prince Su Xi's subservient look, he sighed in his heart, and then enlightened:
"Your Highness, please don't underestimate the Queen. In fact, the Queen has been of great help to Your Highness over the years, but Your Highness doesn't know it."
"Yeah?"
Su Xi didn't believe that her always docile mother could do anything to help her.
However, since Grand Master Sun Chengzong said this, Su Xi could only believe it with hesitation.
After leaving the cabinet, Su Xi came to the entrance of the harem. After reporting, she entered Kunning Palace.
Because the weather was getting hotter, Zhu Xuan was sitting in the pavilion of Kunning Palace to enjoy the cool air, holding the third prince Su Heng in his arms.
When mother and son met, Su Xi said hello and then told her the purpose of coming to Kunning Palace.
After hearing this, Zhu Xuan smiled tenderly:
"As for the selection of the Crown Princess, the Queen Mother has indeed helped you select a few candidates. It just depends on your wishes as to which one you choose."