In the imperial palace in the capital, Emperor Hongzhi was reviewing memorials in his study.
In the past two years, his life has been very comfortable, the country is peaceful and the people are safe, and the weather is smooth. The key is that all internal and external troubles have been swept away.
Not only did he have money to spend and control the military, but now the court also had money, the treasury was full, and he had so much money that he didn't know how to spend it.
All walks of life were prosperous, and the development in various parts of the Ming Dynasty was also very rapid. Even if there were floods, droughts, and locust plagues in some places, a lot of money was poured out, and a large amount of grain was constantly transported, and nothing happened.
"Silver is such a good thing~"
Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but sigh after reading the memorial.
The memorial just now was sent from Shaanxi. Shaanxi has experienced another severe drought this year. Many places have not had a drop of rain for several months in a row. The earth has dried up and there has been no harvest.
In the past, the imperial court had little money and could only mobilize food to help the victims. Often, before the food arrived, Shaanxi would have been in chaos.
The ground may be full of hunger, and the phenomenon of exchanging children for food may occur.
At that time, there may inevitably be many mountain kings, peasant uprisings and the like. In short, it may take two or three years of turmoil to slowly subside.
But it's different now.
Although such a severe drought has occurred, judging from the situation reported from various aspects, everything in Shaanxi is very stable. The imperial court has money, and the money is allocated in a timely manner.
The grain transported by the imperial court, the grain purchased from grain merchants, and the Ming Dynasty Morning Post called on everyone to donate money and materials to support Shaanxi. A major drought that was supposed to cause trouble and kill many people was eliminated invisibly.
.
When the court has money, things are different. Even if there is corruption, it will eventually fall on the people below.
What's more, the money used for disaster relief is basically used to buy food and transport it to disaster areas for disaster relief. The corruption situation has also improved.
The Ming Dynasty Morning Post also plays a certain supervisory role. Many editors of the Ming Dynasty Morning Post go deep into the disaster areas to collect news materials. If any local officials embezzle money or food for disaster relief, they will report it, and they will definitely die soon.
Well, this has also made many people restrain themselves a lot.
Secondly, the Ming Dynasty is building cement roads, and there are also planned cement roads in Shaanxi? This road construction requires a lot of manpower? It also recruits many victims who just have nothing to do because of the drought.
Let them have something to do, work to do, food to eat, and money to earn, and they will naturally settle down.
The construction of roads also made the court's disaster relief faster? With cement roads, four-wheeled carriages could transport large amounts of grain to Shaanxi very quickly.
In the past, it might have taken ten days and a half. Maybe only half of the ten kilograms of grain could be transported? But it is different now. Two or three days are enough. Ten kilograms of grain can be fully transported for you.
In addition, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan are also the places where the imperial court focuses on relocating people. Last year, 100,000 people moved to Liaodong? In addition to the people who migrated overseas, people who went to Beijing and Tianjin to find jobs.
Hundreds of thousands of people moved out of Shaanxi last year alone, which greatly reduced the pressure on Shaanxi. With a smaller population, the pressure on survival is reduced.
Under the influence of many conditions, nothing happened about the severe drought in Shaanxi that should have caused Emperor Hongzhi a huge headache. Everything in Shaanxi is in order, and the victims in various places are eating good rice and white noodles at home with peace of mind. Small days
It was such a leisurely life that many people said that this was a year of famine.
Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but sigh.
Silver is such a good thing.
Even if he is the emperor? He has to sigh like this.
Think about the hard days in the past? Think about now? Emperor Hongzhi understood it deeply.
When there was a famine in the past, the imperial court was very poor. Not to mention money, it would be good if we could have food to help the past. We could allocate a few tens of thousands of taels of silver here and there, but it would not be enough for these officials below.
Woolen cloth.
Now, this time, the imperial court directly allocated 500,000 taels of silver, and Emperor Hongzhi took out another 500,000 taels of silver from the internal funds. The Ming Dynasty Morning Post also claimed that donations from all walks of life, food donations, etc., collected more than 300 taels.
Ten thousand taels of silver, which adds up to more than one million taels of silver.
Coupled with the large amount of grain allocated, such a huge amount of money and grain was thrown down, and the victims of the disaster in Shaanxi could not finish it even if they sat at home and ate for a year.
This is money. It’s easy to do things with money.
"We have to continue to build kilometers of cement. Anyway, we have money now. There has just been a drought here in Shaanxi, so we should build more, and build roads to Sichuan and Henan. We will use work-for-relief and let them build roads and build roads."
Reservoir.”
"With cement roads, everything is more convenient. Transporting food is much faster. It's too much."
"It is not only necessary to repair it here in Shaanxi, but also all over the Ming Dynasty. The more repairs, the better."
Emperor Hongzhi came to the huge map and couldn't help but nod when he looked at the standard red lines on the map.
Now I can realize the benefits of road construction.
"Immigration from Shaanxi will continue to move out. It happens to be another year of famine, so we should move more, to Liaodong, to Xianglin, Jiaozhi, and Nanyang."
"It just so happens that there are few people in these places, so the more people move out, the better."
Soon, Emperor Hongzhi looked at the two newly acquired provinces in Nanyang and nodded immediately.
There are many good places, and I am worried about the small population in these places. I just want to relocate all of you disaster victims.
"When will that brat Liu Jin come back? Are you planning to stay in Nanyang until the Chinese New Year?"
Soon, Emperor Hongzhi thought of Liu Jin, and a smile appeared on his face.
"Okay, let him squeeze more money from Nanyang and come back. With the money, our Ming Dynasty can be more prosperous. As for the other things, it is no longer important."
Emperor Hongzhi is completely shameless now. Is it important to have a good face?
Can face be used as money?
Therefore, what Liu Jin did in Nanyang was in line with Emperor Hongzhi's wishes.
Money is the most important thing. Only with money can we do big things, whether it is army building, disaster relief, or infrastructure construction, Emperor Hongzhi can do it with free hands and feet.
Just when Emperor Hongzhi was looking at the huge map and meditating, Xiao Huangmen hurriedly walked over, handed a secret letter into Xiao Jing's hands, and spoke in a hurry.
"Your Majesty~Your Majesty~"
After Xiao Jing heard this, he couldn't help but open his eyes wide, and then he hurriedly came to see Emperor Hongzhi.
"What's up?"
Emperor Hongzhi looked at Xiao Jing and asked.
"Your Majesty, what a great joy, what a great joy. A fleet has returned from Golden Continent, bringing a great good thing to Your Majesty."
Xiao Jing said with a smile on his face, and then he opened the superstition and respectfully handed it to Emperor Hongzhi.
This superstition was brought to the capital here in Cai Songhu by sending people to the capital overnight.
"Yeah~someone is finally back?"
When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he immediately laughed and took the superstition very quickly.
This superstition is a secret letter brought back by the secret guards sent by Jinyiwei to Golden Continent, which reported in detail everything that happened in Golden Continent.
Emperor Hongzhi allowed Tianjin Ocean Trading Company's actions, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't monitor it. The Jinyi Guards were pervasive. In fact, nothing could escape Emperor Hongzhi's eyes.
"All the major commercial banks have made a fortune. Thousands of gold and silver mines, large and small, have been discovered all over the Golden Continent. They are constantly mining gold and silver mines. The dozens of ships that came back this time are all full.
Gold and silver.”
"Tian Erniu built many colonial strongholds on the Golden Continent, and even sent troops to conquer the Aztec Kingdom and the Inca Empire. By conquering the Aztec Kingdom alone, he obtained more than 50 million taels worth of goods at one time.
Gold and silver?”
Seeing this, Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but open his mouth.
"Gold and silver worth fifty million taels of silver?"
Emperor Hongzhi was a little unbelievable, but when he read it carefully, he couldn't help but his eyes turned red.
"Fifty million taels~"
"If it were the Inca Empire, wouldn't it be worth hundreds of millions of taels of gold and silver?"
Emperor Hongzhi's breathing became heavier.
Even though he is already very rich and is the Supreme Being, but when he saw the content of this superstition, he couldn't help but get excited and tremble.
Gold and silver worth hundreds of millions.
Use gold and silver to build a pyramid.
Only 10,000 people easily conquered the two big countries in the Golden Continent and asked them to compensate them with gold and silver. The key is that every year from now on, people from these two countries will use gold and silver to build pyramids to atone for their sins.
So stupid, so ignorant, so simple.
This made Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but sigh. This was too easy and simple.
"This Tian Erniu is really a talent. With ten thousand people, he easily conquered two big kingdoms and gained such huge wealth. He will be heavily rewarded when he comes back."
Emperor Hongzhi smiled from ear to ear. He and Prince Zhu Houzhao were the major shareholders of Tianjin Ocean Trading Company. Having gained such huge wealth this time, he was already calculating how much of it could go into his own funds.
"Europeans have actually reached the east coast of Golden Continent~"
"We really live on a ball. From the Ming Dynasty, we can reach Europe all the way to the west. All the way to the east, we actually have contact with Europeans."
After a long time, Emperor Hongzhi's excitement calmed down slightly, and then he began to read the contents of the superstition carefully.
The content of Superstition is very detailed. It not only explains in detail the situation of the Ming Dynasty in Golden Continent, but also mentions that this time, descendants of the Yin Shang and European Spaniards arrived in the Ming Dynasty with the fleet.