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Chapter 31 No Money

Zhu Yuanzhang announced that from now on, when he and the prince visit their concubines, the eunuch in charge of the palace will be responsible for them, and detailed records will be recorded.

Whenever Zhu Biao held Lu Lian'er and wanted to do something, a eunuch would come out and wait with a notebook and a pen.

He suddenly lost all interest and fell asleep.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked the eunuch in charge to take a look at the record book that day. Zhu Biao had not visited anyone for several days. He called Zhu Biao and asked: "But the woman I gave to the emperor is not what he wanted? Don't you really like Lu?"

?”

Zhu Biao replied in a muffled voice: "My son likes Lu Lian'er, but there are people standing aside and watching, and he really can't arouse his interest."

Even a disabled eunuch can't stand it!

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment.

Some people in the corner were really unhappy because Zhu Biao was young and thin-skinned.

There is no comparison to him. Back then, he could do it in the horse pen, behind the bushes, and under the counter.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while and called the eunuch in charge over again and said: "Let's do it this way. I won't listen to the wall anymore. Let the female historian of the dormitory record it afterwards, and I and the prince will sign for confirmation. If you are in a hurry and have a token, you can make a supplementary record.

Forget it. Since it is a book that I hand-appointed for recording, let’s call it the “Qinlu Book”.”

When Zhu Bai heard this, he said, eh, this won't work. Lu Lian'er has another chance.

But since he was caught from the tree and sent back to the palace that day, he couldn't come out at night at all.

And if you always use this method to make Zhu Biao really hate him, then the gain outweighs the loss.

He was racking his brains to come up with ideas, so much so that he didn't even notice the quarrel in the courtroom was so loud today.

It turns out that the Supervisor Tiansi calculated the auspicious day and said that the fifteenth day of May next year would be the auspicious day.

Then Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed and said that he would take good care of Zhu Di and asked the Ministry of Household Affairs to prepare 500,000 taels of silver.

Civil and military officials launched a lively discussion.

Li Shanchang said: "Fifty thousand taels is too little. After all, it is the marriage of His Highness King Yan and Mr. Xu's daughter. It needs at least one million taels of silver."

Last time he persuaded Xu Da to break off the engagement. I wonder if Xu Da was jealous of him. Anyway, it didn't cost him any money to get married. If he kept his mouth shut and held a grand wedding, Lao Zhu would be happy, Zhu Di would be happy, and Xu Da would be happy too.

Why wouldn't he do it?

The imperial censor said: "The world has just been decided, so we should not be so extravagant and wasteful. Five hundred thousand is enough."

The Minister of Industry said: "The palace of King Yan needs to be repaired, and five hundred thousand taels will definitely not be enough."

Another imperial censor said: "Then add another fifty thousand taels. No more."

In this way, you and I went back and forth, and finally the two parties settled on a total of 600,000 taels in a happy and peaceful atmosphere.

Zhu Yuanzhang was quite satisfied, the number was more than he expected.

Then Lao Zhu said to Ru Taisu, the Minister of Hubu, "Let the Hubu prepare it."

As a result, Ru Taisu came out of the queue, spread his hands and said, "I don't have any money."

Then the court fell into a deathly silence.

Zhu Bai was wandering in his thoughts, but was successfully brought back to his thoughts by this seemingly absurd but very realistic sentence.

Damn it, the majestic Ming Emperor couldn’t even get out a mere six hundred thousand taels of silver?!

Are you kidding me?!

He was very interested and looked back at the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, the short, fat, middle-aged man who looked a bit like a robot cat.

After thinking about it carefully, I don't actually blame the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance.

Lao Zhu was born in a poor family, and he did light work and low taxes. He emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, so the taxes collected were all in kind.

Therefore, there were piles of grain, mulberry, linen, and various utensils in the treasury, but there was not much money.

The money we have now was all stolen from the houses of corrupt officials in the past few years by Lao Zhu, and is still used for the daily expenses of the palace and for paying salaries to the officials.

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally knew it, and snorted coldly: "Isn't it that I support you just so that you can think of ways to share my worries? Isn't this year's tax confiscated? Besides, there are still a few months, and the Ministry of Household Affairs hastily used the money from the national treasury.

Exchange your things for money!"

Ru Taisu shook his head: "I am incompetent."

Just kidding, even if the tax comes in this year, it will be in kind, not cash.

Two shi of rice are exchanged for one tael of silver. 600,000 taels of silver are sold for 1.2 million shi of rice. Where can I find such a big merchant?!

Zhu Yuanzhang clenched his fists. He did not expect that Hu Bu would refuse so simply.

In fact, he wanted to kill again, but he also knew that killing would be useless. Besides, killing someone to arrange a wedding for Zhu Di would not be good for Zhu Di.

He looked at Li Shanchang.

Li Shanchang lowered his head.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Liu Bowen again.

Liu Bowen also frowned and said nothing: the shortage of silver in the national treasury is not something that happens in a day or two. Lao Zhu exempted taxes here and taxes there to allow the people to recuperate and recuperate. It is a good thing that is beneficial to the country and the people. We cannot suddenly increase taxes.

.

If taxes are not increased, where can we raise so much money in such a short period of time?

Zhu Yuanzhang had no intention of asking Zhu Bai.

All the civil and military officials in the dynasty were useless, but to ask a seven-year-old child, it really hurt Ming's face and made him angry.

Zhu Bai didn't intend to come up with any ideas, so he looked around with his hands folded.

He has several principles in life, one of which is to stay out of anything that has anything to do with money.

-----

After the court was over, Lao Zhu was still depressed and did not speak. He returned to the imperial study from Fengtian Palace with his hands behind his back.

From a distance, I saw Queen Ma and several palace attendants bringing freshly woven cloth.

Even after becoming a queen, Empress Ma was still very frugal and often took the palace people to weave cloth to support herself.

Zhu Yuanzhang's face improved slightly when he saw Queen Ma.

Empress Ma asked: "What worries the emperor?"

Zhu Yuanzhang told the story again just like pouring beans through a bamboo tube.

Queen Ma smiled: "What's the difficulty? There are countless gold and silver jewelry in the palace. I exchanged them for silver first and helped the fourth child arrange the wedding. After the Ministry of Revenue slowly exchanged the grain from the treasury for silver, I took the jewelry back.

Just return it to the palace servant."

In fact, Zhu Bai also thought of this method, but he thought it was too shady.

In Lao Zhu's eyes, everything in the world belongs to him, let alone the harem.

As long as someone reminds him, he will definitely do it.

Moreover, anyone who came up with this idea would be scolded by the people in the harem, but it didn't matter if Queen Ma, the head of the harem, said it.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded repeatedly: "This is good, this is good."

The jewelry that Lao Zhu and Queen Ma gave to the princes and concubines are all recorded.

Moreover, there are clear regulations in the palace that palace-made jewelry cannot be taken out of the palace. They are rewarded here and there. In the end, the left hand is handed over to the right hand, and they keep walking in circles in the palace.

Now we just need to take it back according to the records, and then issue it back according to the records.

Empress Ma has already ordered the palace officials to send orders to all palaces, saying that they must be collected within three days.

Zhu Bai thought it didn't matter, as all the gold and silver in his palace were kept. Besides, he basically couldn't leave the palace now, so he had no chance to spend money.

But out of the corner of his eye, he saw panic flash across Zhu Biao's face. He was immediately attracted to his attention and turned his head to look at Zhu Biao with interest.

Zhu Biao noticed that Zhu Bai was looking at him, clenching his fists and lowering his eyes, with nothing strange on his face.


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