Chapter 1,262 Kangxi returns to Beijing to persuade
This day.
Su Mingzhe came to Zhenbeile Mansion, and after a hearty exchange with Ruoxi, he told the good news that Kangxi was coming back.
When Ruoxi heard this, she didn't give the man any reaction. She continued to curl up in the man's arms and said lazily:
"What good news is this?"
She still can't forget the first time she met Kangxi and she was almost scared to death.
Although her man is now the prince of the dynasty and holds the power of the dynasty, this still cannot change the status quo of "accompanying the king is like accompanying a tiger".
Therefore, for Ruoxi, it would be better to stay away from the emperor. She did not want to experience the risk of being beheaded again.
Seeing that the girl was unhappy, Su Mingzhe reminded her:
"These days, haven't you been saying that what we are doing is sexual immorality? Only when the old man comes back can I ask for an order to marry you into the palace in a big sedan chair."
"You have the nerve to say it!"
As soon as Ruoxi heard what the man said, she was so angry that her delicate body trembled. She pressed the man's chest, stood up and scolded him:
"You have so many women in the palace, why are you here to provoke me? Do you know that if outsiders know that we are living together in advance, I will be put in a pig cage!"
"You are different from the women in the palace!"
Listening to the woman's grievances and anger, Su Mingzhe could only shamelessly explain to her:
"For men, it is important for a woman to be beautiful, but spiritual communication is also very important. You should understand, right?"
"When I'm with those women in the palace, I always feel like there's a layer of obstruction, as if I'm wearing a small umbrella, and I always feel unsatisfied..."
"Shameless!"
Ruoxi was completely speechless towards the man.
Su Mingzhe smiled and coaxed the woman several times, but when he saw that she was still angry and refused to lie back on the bed, he simply got up, changed his position, and communicated silently again.
For some unknown reason, Ruoxi doesn't like sleeping on a bed, but prefers sleeping on a couch.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, beds and couches were different appliances.
Among them, the beds of wealthy families are always placed in bedrooms, which are long and wide, with four or three sides of fences, can be covered with curtains, exquisite carvings, and gorgeous decorations.
The couch is different. It is usually placed in the flower hall and provides seating for the host and guests. It can also be used for writing, eating, etc. on weekdays.
The flower hall in Ruoxi's room is connected to Ruolan's bedroom.
This resulted in that every time Su Mingzhe stayed overnight, Ruolan would cover her head with a quilt and keep reciting Buddhist scriptures.
Because Kangxi was about to come back, Su Mingzhe thought it would be inconvenient to leave the palace and stay overnight before Ruoxi passed by.
So that night, the two of them stayed up almost all night.
The next day, when Su Mingzhe left, sisters Ruolan and Ruoxi had dark circles on their fair and rosy faces.
The sisters looked at each other, one shy and the other annoyed.
However, the two sisters didn't say anything. After yawning, they both went back to their rooms to catch up on their sleep.
Not a few days later.
When Kangxi returned, the dignitaries in the capital came to pay their respects and asked to lead troops to "go out" to attack the Japanese country.
After being the emperor for more than 40 years, Kangxi had a very accurate grasp of the thoughts of these powerful people and knew what their true purpose was.
If it were in the past, Kangxi might have given some guidance to a few people and let them lead the expedition because of past friendship.
However, now the Qing Dynasty has experienced the party struggle between Suo'etu and Nalan Mingzhu, and the struggle for the rightful son in Kowloon, which has led to rampant corrupt officials throughout the Qing Dynasty and an empty treasury.
At this time, Su Mingzhe finally found a way to make money that did not harm the country, and Kangxi was not willing to give it to these powerful people as a favor.
Therefore, when faced with the request of these powerful people to fight, Kangxi directly pushed back and said that he was not feeling well and that the power of the government had been handed over to the prince. If these powerful people had any issues, they could just go to the prince to deal with it.
Seeing that Kangxi was about to make a fool of himself
The boss and the dignitaries did not dare to disturb him, so they came to the East Palace again and asked Su Mingzhe for a fight.
Su Mingzhe had already expected the greed of these powerful people.
Therefore, no matter what these powerful people said, Su Mingzhe just smiled and sent everyone away on the grounds that the court was already communicating with the Japanese country.
When these powerful people saw that Su Mingzhe was not interested, they had no choice but to leave.
After the dignitaries retreated, the ministers of the court gathered around them again.
Zhang Yushu, Li Guangdi, Zhang Tingyu and other ministers of the Southern Study House all surrounded Su Mingzhe and advised him with gentle words:
"Prince, a gentleman is judged by righteousness, and a villain is judged by profit. The Japanese country was indeed disobedient to the king, but now they have paid tribute to me, the Qing Dynasty, and bowed down. If we attack the Japanese country because of a silver mine, this will make other vassals The country’s heart is filled with fear!”
After hearing what everyone said, Su Mingzhe just smiled coldly:
"We don't have many vassal states in the Qing dynasty. If we count them, they are only Korea, Ryukyu, Nanyue, and Siam. Now Korea and Ryukyu have surrendered to Wanghua and have begun to establish provinces. Japan, Nanyue, and Siam I’m not prepared to let go of these places either!”
When the ministers heard this, they were startled and were about to speak, but Su Mingzhe raised his hand to indicate that he still had something to say.
After the ministers calmed down, he finally asked:
"This Japanese country has silver mines, and there are many of them. Do you know what South Vietnam and Siam have?"
"I don't know!"
As a court in the Central Plains, it has always looked down on the small neighboring vassal countries. Even if it occasionally knew about it, it was mostly to create a spectacle of "all the nations coming to court". It was not sincere and it was rare to see the specialties of the small vassal countries.
Su Mingzhe saw that the ministers really didn't know, so he simply said bluntly:
"South Vietnam, Siam and other countries are rich in rice, and it is harvested three times a year!"
"And, as far as I know, South Vietnam, Siam and other countries combined have two to three million hectares of arable land!"
As soon as Su Mingzhe opened his mouth, everyone was shocked:
"Li Zhongtang, you used to be the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Can you tell us how many acres of cultivated land we have in the Qing Dynasty and how many kilo we produce in a year?"
Li Zhenyu, the Minister of Rites, did not dare to disobey the order and immediately said:
"The area of cultivated land in the Qing Dynasty, according to statistics in the 32nd year of Kangxi's reign, was more than 6.5 million hectares. If the weather is favorable, the total annual output can reach 2 billion shi!"
After hearing this data, Su Mingzhe could not help but sneer at the corner of his mouth:
"If we can produce 2 billion shi of rice, and one person eats 10 shi of rice a year, our Qing Dynasty has a total population of more than 100 million, which seems to be more than enough!"
"However, all of you here are ministers of the DPRK and China. You should understand that this 2 billion stone is not the rice production, but the total amount of dozens of agricultural products including rice, wheat, and sweet potatoes!"
"Furthermore, the so-called good weather is also an ideal state. Our land of China stretches eight thousand miles from north to south, and uneven water vapor occurs every year, so there will always be droughts, floods, and locusts! Once disasters occur, food production will decrease.
Big discount!」
"According to my investigation, in the sixty years since the Qing Dynasty entered China, people have eaten each other more than sixty times, and the total number of disaster victims has exceeded 100 million!"
"Ministers, I ask you to carefully calculate how many famines can be solved if we, the Qing Dynasty, incorporate South Vietnam and Siam into our territory, if we hand over their lands to our Qing people and implement intensive farming.
?』
"So, it's not that I'm greedy. It's the millions of people in our Qing Dynasty who are crying out for food. I can't help but reason with these vassal countries!"