Gu Chengyu knew that this was not something he could decide immediately. After all, this matter was thankless. Maybe he took it too much for granted.
After thinking this through and not feeling disappointed, Gu Chengyu stood up and left with a smile.
After digging a hole for the prince, he left as calmly as he had come with ease. He waved his sleeves, leaving behind a conflicted expression on his highness's face.
After Gu Chengyu returned home from work, he took out the previous excerpts and improved them again. After all, the previous writing was still too general.
Now he was waiting for the emperor's summons. He estimated the time and the emperor should be free tomorrow.
In the past two years, the emperor's health has become a little worse than before. He was not very healthy to begin with. In addition, as he gets older, his body recovers more slowly.
Due to the hot weather these past two days, the emperor's health has been deteriorating, and he did not attend the morning ceremony today.
Such situations have happened frequently in the past two years. Gu Chengyu is a little worried. How many years can the emperor survive at such an old age?
He has only been promoted from an official position to the fifth rank, which is too slow! The Hanlin Academy will be disbanded at the beginning of next year, and he will definitely be promoted to the sixth rank.
But Gu Chengyu was not satisfied with this speed of promotion. He wanted to be promoted to the second or third rank before the new emperor ascended the throne.
After all, the emperor still relies heavily on him now, but who knows whether the new emperor will continue to use him in important ways after the emperor dies?
For example, the prince, after he became an official of Zhan Shifu in the past two years, the prince did not treat him much favorably. Although this has a great relationship with the emperor, after the emperor's death, will the prince have no grudge against him?
So Gu Chengyu felt that he had to hurry up, and now the heavy rain in Jiangnan was a turning point.
If he could list out one by one the measures to prevent the dam from collapsing, and if the emperor's orders were implemented and the results would be obvious, that would be half the battle.
If you plan for others slowly, you will always find opportunities. Gu Chengyu suddenly remembered that a courtier mentioned at the court meeting two days ago that since Prince Jing went to the fiefdom of Fengqing Mansion, the taxes of Fengqing Mansion in the past two years have been much less than in previous years.
few.
Fengqing Mansion was not a prosperous place to begin with, and it could barely pay taxes before. In the past two years, it has plummeted, and it still owes the court tens of thousands of taels of tax money.
Several ministers petitioned the emperor to send officials from the Ministry of Revenue to check the accounts to see if Fengqing Mansion was really in such difficulty.
Everyone understands the meaning of these words, and it is clear that Prince Jing has enriched his own pockets, and all the tax money has been given to Prince Jing.
Gu Chengyu also analyzed that Prince Jing's life in the fiefdom during the past two years was not necessarily easy.
The separatist forces there suddenly became the jurisdiction of King Jing. Can those people stop?
Therefore, in the first two years, Prince Jing had to spend some energy to understand and resist those local snakes, and the tax money was probably embezzled by Prince Jing.
When the emperor ordered the princes to go to the fiefdom, he gave about 50,000 taels of silver to build the palace, plus the annual salary.
The annual salary of a prince is about ten thousand taels of silver. Ten thousand taels of silver sounds like a lot, but the annual expenses of the prince's palace are not small.
Ten thousand taels of silver alone is not enough to support the expenses of a prince's palace.
The prince's fiefdom had to pay taxes to the court, and the prince could only get a small part of it proportionately.
Therefore, when the prince comes to the fiefdom, he will try his best to make money from the fiefdom. Prince Jing will extend his hand to taxation, which is understandable.
In a place like Fengqing Mansion, it costs a lot of money. Not to mention having to keep up with other local snakes, which costs a lot of manpower and financial resources.
What's more, if you don't extend your hand to taxes, there will be no other place to make money.
Perhaps the emperor still felt some pity for Prince Jing, so he turned a blind eye to this matter.
In the Chengqian Palace, the emperor was leaning on the pillow, his eyes were wide open, and he seemed to be sleeping. Seeing this, De'an quickly stepped forward and covered the blanket that had fallen on the emperor's waist again.
The emperor was awakened by De'an's actions and cheered up a little.
"What time is it?" His voice was a little hoarse, and he seemed to be struggling more than before.
"Back to the Emperor! It's already the beginning of the Youshi period, are you going to rest now?" De'an carefully observed the Emperor's face and replied softly.
"It's so late? Is there any reply from Taoist Priest Tianji?" The emperor sat up, and De'an immediately stepped forward to help him.
"Not yet!"
The emperor frowned, and then yawned greatly. As people get older, their energy becomes increasingly weak!
At this time two years ago, he was still reviewing memorials, but what about now?
The more the emperor thought about it, the more he felt that he did not have many years left to live, and the thoughts in his heart became more intense.
"Go and ask Taoist Priest Tianji to come over!" The emperor pushed De'an away and lay back down.
De'an glanced at the emperor and had no choice but to leave Chengqian Palace.
The emperor waited anxiously in Chengqian Palace. Finally, half an hour later, Taoist Priest Tianji arrived late.
Taoist priest Tianji has a childlike face and white hair. At first glance, he looks like an immortal Taoist, and he walks with ease and ease.
The emperor's face suddenly beamed with joy, and he looked eagerly at Taoist Tianji's hand. But the hand was empty, which made the emperor disappointed again.
"But it didn't work out?"
Taoist priest Tianji came to the emperor and bowed in salute.
"I am a poor man, see the Emperor!"
The emperor was a little impatient, "Pingsheng! Grandmaster, is it impossible again?"
Taoist Priest Tianji stood up and then smiled mysteriously. He stroked his beard and said, "Your Majesty! What do you think this is?"
Then he took out a porcelain vase from his arms and handed it to the emperor.
The emperor was overjoyed, "This? Is this the elixir of life you mentioned?"
He was so excited, with a hint of disbelief on his face, that he was about to pick it up with his hands shaking.
Who would have thought that Taoist Priest Tianji retracted his hand and did not give the porcelain vase to the emperor.
The emperor was very surprised and a little dissatisfied. What do you mean? Did Tianji regret it?
"Your Majesty! How can the elixir of life you mentioned be so easy to make? I have been developing it for decades, but I still haven't found the method yet."
Taoist priest Tianji sighed, frowning, and there was a little helplessness in his words.
When the emperor heard this, he was greatly disappointed. Taoist Tianji had been coming to the palace to develop elixirs for more than ten years, and he had also learned the art of alchemy from Taoist Tianji.
It's a pity that I have limited qualifications and no time, so I can't find the right way to do it.
Besides, his private treasury provides valuable medicinal materials and money for alchemy every year, which costs a huge amount and cannot support two people refining alchemy at the same time.
Therefore, in the past two years, he could not help but become less concerned about it, and he had placed all his hopes on Taoist Priest Tianji.
But what Taoist Priest Tianji means now is that he has spent so much money and still hasn't reached the threshold of the elixir of life?
Taoist Priest Tianji knew what the emperor was thinking at a glance. He condensed in his heart and then said: "Although it is impossible to refine the elixir of immortality right now, Pindao has already reached the threshold. And Pindao has this bottle of elixir in his hand.
The medicine has even more magical effects that the emperor did not expect."