Emperor Hongzhi's order was quickly conveyed to Ma Wensheng, Minister of the Ministry of War, and Zhou Jing, Minister of Household Affairs. Both of them were confused after receiving Emperor Hongzhi's order.
"What on earth is this clairvoyance? It costs 10 taels of silver each, and the purchase price is 2,000. The 20,000 taels of silver are used to purchase this clairvoyance?"
Naturally, the telescope in Zhu Houzhao's hand was still in Zhu Houzhao's hand, so Ma Wensheng and Zhou Jing had no idea what this clairvoyance was and what it did.
As the Minister of Household Affairs, Zhou Jing has always been known as a miser. It is even harder to get money from him to do things.
There is no way, only those who are in charge know how difficult it is to be in charge, especially since the Ming Dynasty has been very poor from the founding of the country to the present. Although there is a lot of food, cloth, silk, tea and other things harvested every year, there is still a lot of money in terms of money.
Less than 3 million taels of silver.
These 3 million taels of silver were basically used to pay salaries to the officials in the court. In years of famine, it was difficult for the court to come up with money to provide disaster relief.
Therefore, another unique skill of Zhou Jing is to deceive Emperor Hongzhi and try every means to defraud Emperor Hongzhi. Anyway, this country belongs to their old Zhu family, and it is reasonable and reasonable for their old Zhu family to contribute the money.
Now Emperor Hongzhi issued a decree and asked him to spend 20,000 taels of silver to buy some clairvoyance. He didn't know what the clairvoyance was, but he wanted 10 taels of silver each. He immediately felt like cutting his flesh, and he was unwilling to do so.
Ten thousand people are unwilling to give in.
"I don't know what this clairvoyance is, but the decree states that it is purchased from Liu Jin. You should have heard of Liu Jin. He is the one who made a name for himself on Wangyue Tower and is now helping His Majesty manage Xishan.
That young man from the coal industry.”
"He has been taught by an expert. Maybe this clairvoyance is really useful, otherwise it wouldn't be worth ten taels of silver each."
Ma Wensheng thought for a while and said that he had not seen the actual clairvoyance, and the function of the clairvoyance was not stated in the decree. He just asked himself to purchase it from Liu Jin. Liu Jin is now famous in the capital, and basically everyone knows about it.
"But these 10 taels of silver buy a clairvoyant, and it costs 20,000 taels of silver at one time... You also know that the national treasury is empty, and there is not much money left at all."
Zhou Jing shook his head, thinking of the treasury that could starve rats to death, he was even more reluctant to spend any amount of money to buy clairvoyance.
"This is His Majesty's decree, and the cabinet has approved it. We'd better follow the decree."
Ma Wensheng is different from Zhou Jing, because the money is still spent on military affairs. He is the Minister of the Ministry of War, so he is more supportive of spending money.
After all, since the Tumubao Incident, civilian officials have completely taken control of the military. The support used for military affairs has been getting less and less year by year. They can dig and save what they can, so that the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty army has also plummeted.
In the past, you could go for a walk in the grassland, but now you don't even dare to go out of the grassland. You can only shrink into the city for passive defense. A very important reason for this is that military expenditures are being reduced and reduced by the civil servants.
.
The civil servants finally took control of the power of the government, so naturally they would not give those Qiu Ba, military generals, nobles, etc. a chance to stand up. They not only suppressed the military generals and nobles, but also continued to reduce military expenditures and clung to the power of the generals.
In your own hands.
Although Ma Wensheng was a civil servant and had the same interests as the entire civil servant group, as Minister of War, he also clearly understood the importance of the military to the country.
The shortcomings brought about by the continuous reduction of military expenditures over the years have become more and more prominent. The Ming Dynasty's military strength is weak, its combat effectiveness is low, it is not uncommon to see empty pay, killing good people and taking credit for merit, soldiers and bandits working together, and armaments being ineffective, etc. are common.
There are endless problems.
Although the purpose of suppressing the military generals and nobles was successfully achieved, the literati now have the final say in the imperial court. Those generals dare not even let out a fart and have no place to talk. As for the nobles, the British Duke Zhang Mao is offering sacrifices.
He did very well in terms of etiquette and learned etiquette very well.
But a country cannot survive without a strong army. The Tatars and Oaras in the north have repeatedly invaded the country, and the scars from the Tumubao Incident have not yet completely healed.
In May of this year, the little prince went south and invaded Datong. He camped twenty miles away and the capital was shaken. Now that winter has arrived, Tatar and Oara are moving frequently again, and there is a faint tendency to move south.
As the Minister of War, Ma Wensheng is still very clear about the current situation of the Ming Dynasty's army. It would be good after all if more money can be allocated to it, and it should still have some effect.
"That's the only way it can be. It's just that your Majesty now owns Xishan Coal Industry and earns one million a year. This money should actually come from your Majesty's own funds~"
Zhou Jing thought for a while and nodded, and then thought about Emperor Hongzhi's internal money.
Soon, the joint official document from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War fell into the hands of Liu Jin. Liu Jin was still confused and couldn't figure out what happened.
"This clairvoyance should be a telescope~"
"I only made a few telescopes, and only one of them was sent by Zhu Houzhao. Why did the purchase order from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs come?"
"Could it be that Zhu Houzhao dedicated this telescope to Emperor Hongzhi, and Emperor Hongzhi knew the function of this telescope, so he decided to purchase a batch?"
Liu Jin studied carefully and quickly guessed the matter, because this was the only reasonable explanation. Other than that, he really couldn't figure out why Duan Duan came to buy a telescope.
"Ten taels of silver for a telescope, who gave the price?"
When he saw the purchase quantity and total amount of the telescope, Liu Jin immediately calculated the purchase price of the telescope. The purchase price of 10 taels of silver each was simply a sky-high price.
"Is it because Emperor Hongzhi saw that I was working hard for him in managing Xishan Coal Industry, so he specially gave me benefits?"
"Most likely they thought the glass was valuable, so they settled on 10 taels of silver each."
Liu Jin thought carefully, but soon he smiled and shook his head: "Whatever, anyway, it's 10 taels of silver for a telescope. This time I'm going to make a lot of money. The New Year is coming soon, so I can't do it now."
I’m worried about having no money during the New Year.”
Making this telescope is not too easy for Liu Jin. The glass can be burned by himself. As for polishing it, it is not difficult. Glass is not a very hard thing, so it is easy to polish. 2,000 telescopes, if you have enough manpower here.
, it can be done in a few days.
As for manpower, the most indispensable thing here in Xishan is manpower. There were originally more than 2,000 people. They have been recruiting refugees these days, and now there are almost 3,000 people. It is enough to randomly transfer some people.
A few days later, Liu Jin delivered the 2,000 finished telescopes to the Ministry of War, and proudly took away 20,000 taels of silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs.
"I would like to see what these 10 taels of silver and a clairvoyant look like?"
When he learned that Liu Jin had delivered the goods in a few days and had cut off 20,000 taels of flesh, Zhou Jing was very heartbroken and hurriedly found Ma Wensheng to come together to see what this clairvoyant was.
"It's just child's play. I bought a bunch of these things for 20,000 taels of silver~"
After carefully studying the so-called clairvoyance, Zhou Jing couldn't help but cursed, and then hurriedly pulled Ma Wensheng into the palace to find Emperor Hongzhi.