Zhang Zhou returned to his yard. As soon as he entered the backyard, he saw Wang Mingshan surrounded by several women from his family.
Wang Mingshan had just put on the clothes prepared for her as a royal guard of Qianhu, and the flying fish embroidered spring knife was worn on her daughter's body for the first time, which made Jiang Pingyu and Han Qing look particularly fresh.
Fei pulled her and let her show her off.
Wang Mingshan doesn't have any scheming ideas. When others ask her to show off, she is like a movable clothes hanger, spinning her around wherever she is told.
Zhang Zhou looked from a distance and felt that there was something new on Wang Mingshan's face that had never appeared before, and there was a light and brisk lift between her eyebrows.
It seems to be fun too.
Faced with such a girl who has a bit of innocence and innocence.
Zhang Zhou suddenly felt that some facts were too cruel.
Until now, Wang Yue's death was still a secret to the court, but Zhang Zhou did not want this secret to remain between him and Wang Mingshan.
If there is, there is, and if there is nothing, there is nothing.
Facing a girl like Wang Mingshan, whose eyes were full of transparency and innocence, Zhang Zhou really couldn't think of any need to complicate a simple problem.
To make her understand the gray things in the world, she needs to be exposed to the sinister nature of people's hearts.
"master."
When Jiang Pingyu and others saw Zhang Zhou, they all came over to greet him.
After Zhang Zhou nodded, he let Jiang Pingyu and Han Qing go into the backyard first, leaving Wang Mingshan alone.
Wang Mingshan thought Zhang Zhou also liked to use her as a clothes hanger, and then she walked around in front of Zhang Zhou, probably to let Zhang Zhou judge whether her clothes fit her.
"Do you like this outfit?" Zhang Zhou asked.
Wang Mingshan was startled for a moment, then handed the knife in her hand forward.
The meaning is obvious.
She didn't feel anything about the clothes, but she liked the knife very much.
"Come here." Zhang Zhou called her and asked her to come to the stone bench.
Zhang Zhou was sitting, and she was standing next to Zhang Zhou as before, like a loyal guard, but she didn't have this style before, and it was not formal enough.
Zhang Zhou stretched out his hand.
Wang Mingshan put the knife in Zhang Zhou's hand, but Zhang Zhou put the Xiuchun knife on the stone table. When he reached out again, Wang Mingshan naturally put his hand over.
When holding hands together, Zhang Zhou could also feel the warmth on the hands of a girl with a cold heart.
This kind of warmth was probably brought to her by him and this family.
It was something she had never felt before.
Zhang Zhou looked at the hand in front of him. The skin on the back of the hand was quite delicate, but the palm was slightly calloused. From this, Zhang Zhou knew how hard Wang Mingshan had worked to practice martial arts since she was a child.
Unlike other women in Zhang Zhou's backyard, Wang Mingshan did not object to Zhang Zhou holding her hand. In other words, she did not think it was appropriate or inappropriate, nor was she shy or grudge. In her eyes, there was a big difference between the relationship between far and near.
Obviously, she was not wary of the people in the yard, but when she walked outside she was like a female leopard, always alert.
"Mingshan, I don't want to hide it from you. Your grandfather passed away two days ago. He passed away peacefully. It will probably take ten days before your family mourns."
When Zhang Zhou said this, Wang Mingshan's arms suddenly tightened with a natural reaction.
After a brief absence, she looked at Zhang Zhou again and shook her head, feeling that this did not seem to be what really happened.
Zhang Zhou sighed.
He knew that in Wang Mingshan's heart, Wang Yue's image was too majestic.
That is the flag of the Wang family. The situation of the Wang family in the past few decades is most directly related to Wang Yue. Once it was glorious and fell into decline, the whole family was homeless, and then came back... Wang Yue resisted everything that the Wang family has experienced in the past few decades.
Everything, when Wang Yue collapsed suddenly, for the Wang family, it was no less than the sky falling.
In the heart of a simple-minded girl like Wang Mingshan, how could the sky fall?
The sky should always be above our heads, and the wind, frost, rain and dew that the Wang family has experienced should always be under the protection of the sky...
Zhang Zhou took her over.
I wanted to say a few words of comfort, but found that it was all in vain.
It was different from the sadness on Wang Shouren's face.
Wang Mingshan didn't believe it, or she was...at a loss. She didn't know how to face this situation.
Probably she also knows that this is no less than the sky falling for the Wang family, but she also feels that she has married into the Zhang family and has nothing to do with the Wang family. So does the Wang family's sky mean anything to her?
Emotional bond?
In the first ten years of her life, as long as she can remember, the Wang family has been homeless. Her mother and female elders around her are absent, and no one takes care of her. She can only learn martial arts. No one has ever cared about her, and she can't even recognize a word.
A few people had told her about filial piety and etiquette, but those things were too far away or too unreal for her.
Even she and Zhang Zhou were given as "gifts" by the family, without even consulting her...
"If you feel a little unhappy, go practice sword practice, sweat it out, and take a shower. Go look at the few weapons I gave you to see if there is anything you can use. If you are still unhappy, go and talk to your two sisters.
Talk to them and ask them to help you with advice on clothes and jewelry. If you like the glass beads, I will bring you some more later..."
Zhang Zhou discovered that it was actually quite easy to comfort Wang Mingshan.
No need to coax.
She looks dull, but in fact she is so obedient and sensible that she seems to be a person who is not a human being.
There is no need to think about what she is thinking in her heart. Maybe she just emptied her head of all thoughts and didn't think about anything.
"Um."
Wang Mingshan nodded, and when Zhang Zhou put the Xiuchun knife in Wang Mingshan's hand again, Wang Mingshan walked towards the inner courtyard with the Xiuchun knife.
But just when I passed through the moon gate.
Wang Mingshan still looked back at Zhang Zhou. This time, Zhang Zhou could see the same kind of attachment in Xiao Nizi's eyes, which made Zhang Zhou feel that she was not heartless.
Zhang Zhou gave her an encouraging smile.
Wang Mingshan also nodded slightly, and then she walked towards the inner courtyard wearing the decent Feiyu suit, her sleeves fluttering.
Only at this moment, Zhang Zhou felt that Wang Mingshan's heart felt a little warmer, thinking that one day the ice might melt.
…
…
After Zhang Zhou watched Wang Mingshan enter the inner courtyard, he didn't think about doing anything.
When Wang Yue died, he was not too sad or regretful, but more felt a sense of powerlessness that "God's will cannot be violated".
Not long after, someone came to visit, but it was Jiang Dezhong who shamelessly came to visit, and what he mentioned was just a bid for rebuilding the wood and stone materials of Piantou Pass.
"...I didn't win, and for some reason, so many bidders suddenly came out this time, and the prices were not as good as others. I can only watch the business fall by the wayside." Jiang Dezhong sighed in front of his son-in-law.
Zhang Zhou narrowed his eyes and said, "You don't want me to help you get your business back, do you?"
"No." Jiang Dezhong said, "I am willing to admit defeat, but I bought a batch before. It seems that the wood and stone materials in the capital are going to plummet again, so I will use them to honor the imperial court."
Zhang Zhou had no intention of discussing this with Jiang Dezhong.
"Xian son-in-law, I'm just curious. With your current identity and status, it's easy to win that business. If you don't make any money, why bother?" Jiang Dezhong said, "But you are taking advantage of the merchants from the south. However,
Many families are bidding together this time, and I heard that some of them have accumulated a lot of wood and stone materials, and they may suffer heavy losses all of a sudden."
Zhang Zhoudao: "You don't have to focus on the coal mines in Xishan, but you always want to do some side business and cause trouble for me, right?"
"Haha." Jiang Dezhong was also quite embarrassed.
Obviously he also knew that he had caused a lot of chaos to his son-in-law.
Jiang Dezhong said: "My dear son-in-law, actually I'm here. There's someone else I want to ask you. It's the Chen family who sells salt in the south of the Yangtze River. It has nothing to do with you, right? I heard that the Chen family has recently been using the banner of Chengguo Gongfu.
We are very close to the merchants from Huizhou, and there is an Anbian Marquis recently born in Duke Cheng’s family, and I heard he is one of yours.”
Zhang Zhou frowned and said, "Did she steal your business?"
"Hey, no." Jiang Dezhong said with a sarcastic smile, "So I said this woman would not have any good results if she came to be the head of the family. I heard that she would go out to buy wood and stone without losing her fortune, but the price was still too high. She didn't win against the Huizhou Chamber of Commerce.
People, the Huizhou Chamber of Commerce really spent a lot of money this time, they didn’t even make a profit, it seems they just wanted to send money to the imperial court."
"I didn't steal your business, why did you ask her?" Zhang Zhou said coldly.
Jiang Dezhong said: "I thought that since we had done business before, it would not be aggravating for each other, but if she has nothing to do with you, then I have nothing to avoid."
Zhang Zhou frowned and said, "So you are planning to add insult to injury?"
"Exactly!" Jiang Dezhong said with disdain, "You want me to add insult to injury at this time? The prices of wood and stone materials this year are really up and down, and I have to find a way to push out the wood and stone materials quickly, so that I won't do this business again!
As for the Chen family... those who love it to death, I don’t bother to take care of it."
"Yeah." Zhang Zhou nodded.
Jiang Dezhong smiled and asked: "But it is said that the coal produced is very good. Can we also sell a batch indirectly?"
Zhang Zhoudao: "I am the owner of the coal mine. You only mine it for me. Everything must be allocated by me. Father-in-law, let me make it clear to you. If I find out that you are using coal in private, I will not show any mercy. Your Majesty, please
I'm mining coal in Xishan, and it's a huge profit. Do you think you asked me to move the coal mine to my house? It's all used for making cannons for the court. While we are making money, we must take into account the interests of the court."
"Okay, okay." Jiang Dezhong suddenly became very talkative again.
This also made Zhang Zhou feel that Old Jiang was just a philistine businessman.
There is no need to give Old Man Jiang a good look. The more he adopts a condescending attitude, the more comfortable Old Man Jiang will feel in his heart. Instead, he will look at his face and feel uncomfortable when he comes to the door.
…
…
After Wang Yue's death, there was no movement in the court today.
Liu Jian and Ma Wensheng obviously kept the secret from the outside world. They could not tell whether they told the people close to them, and the ministers in the DPRK did not even think about the incident at Piantou Pass.
After that, Zhang Zhou attended two court meetings, and did not mention anything about the Piantou Pass. However, once Zhu Youtang directly proposed to increase the expenditure on cannon casting.
It was originally agreed that Zhang Zhou would be casting cannons while the household department would be doing the expenses and settlements, but it seems that Zhu Youtang changed his mind and felt that this was not stable enough... In fact, this also showed that Zhu Youtang was uneasy in his heart. , after all, after Piantouguan lost Wang Yue, the entire northwest also lost its "spiritual leader." At this time, just bringing Qin Hong back would not be able to play Wang Yue's role at all.
When Zhu Youtang mentioned the matter of casting cannons in the court hall, he almost revealed his inner thoughts.
Fortunately, Liu Jian came forward to propose further discussion.
Only then did Zhu Youtang stop talking.
After the court meeting, Zhu Youtang called Zhang Zhou to Qianqing Palace, mainly to ask about the current progress of cannon casting.
"...Bingkuan, Zhijie and the others have been away from Beijing for four or five days and have not arrived yet. After much thought, I still feel that it is more appropriate for you to go to Pianguan to take charge of the overall situation. But I am actually indispensable in Beijing. You... I've been in a state of confusion these past two days. Sometimes I suddenly feel an inexplicable anger over the matter in the northwest, and I can't contain it..."
Zhang Zhou thought to himself, are you so angry?
Especially if you are not satisfied in some aspects and start to feel a little... restless? You also say that you are not short of women to comfort you?
If there was only one Queen Zhang, who would be the woman to comfort you?
Or do you want to make you angry?
Zhang Zhou said: "Your Majesty, you will get angry occasionally. This is because you are restless in your heart. In fact, you don't have to worry too much. The walls of Piantou Pass are already under construction, and the Tatars will not dare to invade the territory easily. Even if they invade, the Ming Dynasty The garrison is strong enough to defend against the invading enemy."
"Yeah?"
Zhu Youtang breathed a sigh of relief.
Probably only what Zhang Zhou said could comfort his heart that was like a deer stumbling around.
Zhang Zhou said: "I usually have some inexplicable anger, but fortunately I have a way to deal with it, so I don't take it all to heart."
"Bingkuan, what method did you use?"
Zhu Youtang seriously discussed with Zhang Zhou how to adjust his mood.
Zhang Zhou smiled and shook his head, meaning he couldn't say it.
Dai Yi said anxiously: "Mr. Zhang, why are you so secretive?"
Zhu Youtang raised his hand to interrupt Dai Yi's words and sighed: "Bingkuan, actually, if you don't tell me, I probably know it, so I can only say that it's a family-by-family situation."
Zhu Youtang is still very flexible when it comes to this kind of matter, and he is not a dim-witted person after all.
He could also guess that Zhang Zhou would definitely tell him if he had a method. Since he didn't tell him, it meant that Zhang Zhou's method was not suitable for him... And what did Zhang Zhou have that he, the emperor, did not have? They also had a son and a daughter. , the lifestyle is not fundamentally different!
The biggest difference is that Zhang Zhou's house is very lively, while he only has one Queen Zhang.
"Bingkuan, I have one more thing to do here. It involves the salary of the past few years. I asked people to check the warehouses of the inner palace and found that there are still a lot of spare silk cloth, tea leaves and other tributes. Most of them have been accumulated over the years. There is no use staying in the palace."
"The imperial court has spent a lot of money in the past two years, and the military pay in the northwest cannot be guaranteed. I heard that many officials in the capital are having trouble making ends meet. I want to use the surplus money in the treasury to pay salaries and give them favors. you."
Zhang Zhou thought to himself that this was the emperor's favor to help him win over the ministers.
The salary of the Ming Dynasty was divided into salary meters and salary notes. Especially after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the "color-folding method of salary notes" was implemented.
The true color is salary rice, which can be received basically every month. The true color is divided into monthly rice, folded silk rice, and folded silver rice.
The moon is equal to one stone regardless of the size of the official.
Fold silk, and one piece of silk is worth six coins of silver.
Six cents of silver are equivalent to one stone of rice.
The folding colors are divided into natural-color banknotes and silk-folded banknotes. For silk, twenty shi are folded per meter, and for cloth, ten shi are folded per meter.
For first-class ministers in the imperial court, only 30% of their salary is paid in real terms, which means that only 30% of their monthly salary is paid in real terms. The remaining salary... may be in arrears for several years, and may not be paid even after returning home.
But to live in the capital, officials have official residences, which is not a big problem. However, not everyone has an official residence. They still need to rent a house, especially those who bring their families and have to support them.
Parents'...
The cost of living in the capital is so high. It is good to be able to barely support a family with just a few rice per month. But if you want to buy a new official uniform, or go out to socialize... you are really stretched.
Officials of the Ming Dynasty did not openly bribe bribes such as Bing Jing and Tan Jing. There were private bribes, but one Li Guang's bribery could affect such a big case. This also shows that the Ming Dynasty strictly controls corruption and bribery. In addition,
Many people who work in government offices do not have much real power, so naturally few people offer bribes.
Zhang Zhou said: "Your Majesty, you pay salaries to your officials, what do you have to do with them? I dare not accept this kind of favor."
Zhu Youtang smiled and said: "It's better to give it to you. In fact, these can be folded or not. I originally had to wait for the Ministry of Household Affairs to fold the salary notes, but now that the internal government has more than enough, I will give it to you. Dongchang has already sunk it.
I have done an inventory, and will first use the backlog of salary bills from the past few years to make a difference. If there are any deficiencies... wait until later. Don't take it too seriously, just treat it as an errand for me."
"yes."
…
…
Zhu Youtang wanted to sell Zhang Zhou a favor, and Zhang Zhou accepted it.
At the court meeting the next day, Zhu Youtang directly asked Dai Yi to announce the matter: "... use the Jiazi and other warehouses in the Neifu to store various sundries and give them to the civil and military officers in Beijing, and they will be folded in the seventh to eleventh year of Hongzhi.
Salary money."
The general meaning is that this time it is only the salary before the first year of the discount, not the salary in the twelfth year of Hongzhi.
The officials present were very happy when they heard this.
To be an official in the Ming Dynasty was to give you a bunch of bad checks that could not be cashed. Now that the bad checks are suddenly about to be cashed, I am as happy as picking up money. No matter how righteous and upright I am when I talk about morality, the money I get is actually real.
of.
After the court meeting is over.
Xiao Jing, who was arranged to receive the discounted salary bills, was immediately surrounded by the ministers.
"Eunuch Xiao, I wonder how much the discount can be?"
The ministers also know that it would be great if they can redeem it now. Don't expect to get 10%, even if it is only 10%, you will still make money.
Someone else is asking: "If I transferred my salary money before, can I still get it back?"
Xiao Jing first answered the question from the last "dear brother": "Those who want to exchange salary bills must first have the salary bills in hand, otherwise there will be no need to discuss it."
"How many percent? How many percent?"
A group of people are still asking questions.
Xiao Jing said: "As I said, we will wait until the warehouse inventory is completed before making a decision. Who knows how many there are in total? Each family also reported the number of salary banknotes to be exchanged, and they will all be exchanged according to the proportion. At that time, in addition to rice, silver will be exchanged.
The salary banknotes and the rest that cannot be exchanged must also be brought. It does not mean that you can get more benefits if you report more."
Zhang Zhou watched from the side.
I thought to myself, luckily I am just selling favors, and the specific contact depends on Xiao Jing.
If you ask me to do everything...it will exhaust me to death.
