You old slippery man, you want benefits but don't want to pay for them.
Zhu Bai cursed secretly in his heart and sighed: "This big snow-white rice paper costs five taels. Could it be that my pen and ink are only worth five taels..."
Li Shanchang showed a painful expression on his face: It's unheard of to ask for five taels of rice paper per piece! Isn't this just using bamboo as a drum - robbing people?
But in front of Lao Zhu, he couldn't say anything bad about King Xiang, let alone five taels of silver. Giving it to him for free would take up space.
Zhu Bai snorted: "Forget it, if you don't buy it, someone will buy it. There are many people who want this fat job."
Li Shanchang made a quick calculation in his mind: King Xiang was gaining momentum, and he could come and go from the imperial study at will.
All the generals valued him.
Forget it, just buy this little prince for twenty taels and be happy.
A dead horse is treated as a living horse.
Li Shanchang took out all the money he had and broke it into small pieces, four or five pieces in large and small sizes: "This is all I brought with me."
Zhu Bai was not sure how much it would be, but he would just accept it when it was good.
He nodded: "Wait until I write to Mr. Li."
After half a stick of incense, Li Shanchang took the words and left.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been watching silently, asked Zhu Bai: "No matter what you promised him, I will never agree."
Zhu Bai winked at Zhu Yuanzhang: "Don't worry, there's nothing I can't handle. I still have the money my father promised me."
Zhu Yuanzhang blew his beard and glared: "You little bastard, you eat my food and wear my clothes. You even charge money to do something for me. Hurry and go to Master Liu's place to take classes."
Zhu Bai sighed: "I knew it."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "You are not allowed to do anything like selling calligraphy anymore. If you don't think it's embarrassing, I still think it's embarrassing."
-----
When Zhu Bai arrived at Liu Bowen's place, he took out the money and said, "Here, I'll give it all to you. That's enough."
Liu Bowen picked up a medium-sized piece and weighed it: "This piece is enough for five taels."
"OK."
Zhu Bai nodded, swept the remaining silver into his hand, put it away, and asked Liu Bowen: "Do you still want to study today?"
However, Liu Bowen helped him sit down on his seat, and then solemnly saluted him.
Zhu Bai stood up in fright: "What are you going to do? You have something to say. Don't salute randomly."
He didn't know anything else, but he knew that he couldn't accept the elders' salutes casually, otherwise his life would be shortened easily.
Liu Bowen said: "When the minister is not in the court, please ask the King of Xiang to work with His Royal Highness to dissuade the emperor from killing."
Zhu Baihutan realized that Zhu Yuanzhang agreed so quickly because he could transfer Liu Bowen away from the court.
Without Liu Bowen, there would be no one to take the lead in arguing about enfeoffment.
He frowned and thought for a while, feeling that he was a little careless about the beginning and the end.
But the most urgent thing now is disaster relief. Even if he knows Zhu Yuanzhang's plan, he can only continue.
And in fact, he and Lao Zhu have the same needs in this matter: transfer this annoying old stick away, and everything else will be easy!!
Zhu Bai muttered: "I have to persuade you to do this. I am so young, Master thinks highly of me."
Liu Bowen twisted his beard and smiled: "Don't belittle yourself, King Xiang. Now, apart from the Queen, the only people who can persuade the Emperor are the Prince and His Royal Highness the King of Xiang."
Zhu Bai coughed uncomfortably and answered vaguely: "I know."
After being a diaosi and "that one" for more than 20 years, he suddenly became an important person, which made him very uncomfortable.
Liu Bowen said: "The emperor has lived a simple life, but King Xiang is the only one who has a warm car and a fat horse when traveling. This shows that the emperor treats King Xiang differently from other princes."
Zhu Bai tilted his head and thought for a while: It seems so. After coming back, there were even a few more guards following me.
The last time I was almost snatched and eaten by the victims, it can be seen that it left a psychological shadow on Lao Zhu.
Zhu Bai said: "There is something I don't quite understand. Please enlighten me."
Liu Bowen said: "Hey, it's rare that you have something you want to ask. Just tell me."
Zhu Bai said: "What is the most profitable business in the world?"
Liu Bowen: "Yancha gold, silver, copper and iron ore. That's why the emperor wants to hold the mining rights in his hands and prohibits private sales among the people."
really……
Just like what I thought.
Everything about making money is written in the "Da Ming Law".
Zhu Bai secretly rubbed his hands: Oh, then I just need to ask Lao Zhu for one of them, and I won't have to worry about it for the rest of my life.
Liu Bowen made him understand one thing: in the Ming Dynasty, power had nothing to do with being rich.
So he has to find a way to make money.
Otherwise, if you are so poor, what kind of prince would you be?
-----
Although Liu Bowen said he would not teach Zhu Bai, he assigned Zhu Bai a lot of things to memorize.
Zhu Bai cursed and returned to the palace.
Zhu Yuanzhang told the palace officials that as soon as Zhu Bai came back, he would take him to the imperial study.
Zhu Bai was a little tired and yawned even more when he entered the warm imperial study room.
Zhu Yuanzhang chatted for a few words, probably talking about the details he had discussed with Liu Bowen and several ministers, and then asked: "What did Master Liu tell you?"
Zhu Bai suddenly woke up: Tsk, it turns out I am a double agent.
He blinked and said, "Master wants money from me."
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned for a moment: "What money?"
Zhu Bai pointed to the word "grass" on the wall: "Large white rice paper, five taels of silver."
Zhu Yuanzhang began to feel pain in his heart: "I said you kid, you usually look very smart, why are you confused now? Isn't he blackmailing you?"
Zhu Bai looked innocent: "He said he had no travel expenses."
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a moment.
Liu Bowen is very honest and he knows it.
But I didn't expect that an important minister of the country could be so poor.
Forget it, it's Li Shanchang's money anyway.
Zhu Bai made a sad face: "If adults are so poor, it will be troublesome to go out to work in the future."
Isn’t this just forcing people to commit corruption?
The living expenses that Lao Zhu gave the officials were too little.
The key point is that sometimes the national treasury does not have that much silver, so it is converted into cloth and grain.
This makes families who were not already wealthy even worse.
If officials want to survive, they can only find other ways to make money.
Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment and said: "Let's see how the situation is after the tax is levied this year. If it is okay, let's give them a salary increase."
-----
Liu Bowen has already set off to run the "food bank".
There is another great news in the palace: the Crown Princess has been pregnant for several months.
If her pregnancy was a son, then the fact that Lu gave birth to Zhu Biao's second son, Zhu Yunwen, would have been revealed.
It was a double happiness for Zhu Bai.
But Zhu Bai didn't have time to be happy for two days, because the monk official came.
Lao Zhu said that other monks will come to Beijing again next spring, and Zong Lai is the first Youshanshi and will start working immediately.
To put it bluntly, he just wanted Zong Li to seamlessly connect with Liu Bowen and help him look after Zhu Bai.
Because of the cold weather, the princes also stopped practicing martial arts in the afternoon.
Zhu Bai had to face the old monk for several hours every day, which was really painful.
Zong Lai has kind eyebrows and kind eyes, and is chubby like Maitreya Buddha. In fact, he is more difficult to deal with than Liu Bowen.
Zong Lai: "Your Highness, please copy the Heart Sutra and practice calligraphy by the way."
Zhu Bai: "I won't copy it. I'm not a monk, so why should I copy it? It's boring to death."
Zong Lai: "It's okay to copy hundreds of schools of thought."
Zhu Bai: "I'm not even interested, I don't want to copy it."
Zong Ai: "Then your Highness sits and listens to Lao Monk's recitation."
Zhu Bai: "No! I want to go out and catch sparrows."
Zong Lai: "Ah, Your Highness, please do not kill any living beings. Let me recite the 'Diamond Sutra' for salvation."
