On New Year's Eve, Wang Yuan was called to the palace for dinner.
Because there is a curfew, I definitely can't go home. I can just sleep in the Forbidden City at night.
This is not a special treatment for Wang Yuan. There are special "guest rooms" in the Forbidden City, ready to rest at any time for important officials who work too late.
"Prince Prime Minister, farewell!"
"Everyone please!"
The cabinet ministers walked out of Wenyuan Pavilion humbly, and the people working in Zhongshushe on both sides were also beaming with joy.
Since the new emperor came to the throne, although disasters have occurred from time to time, there have been no major disasters that have affected several provinces. Even if overseas income is not counted, the central government's finances have been continuously replenished, and the official money alone has made a lot of money.
Therefore, the rewards during the holidays have become more and more generous.
Today is just New Year's Eve, and people in the middle school house who are not high-ranking can also receive anywhere from two cents to five cents of silver.
Corners and cents are both units of measurement for silver.
Before there were standard silver coins, silver had to be cut and weighed for payment, hence the saying "a dime of broken silver".
In addition, one tael is equal to ten coins or one hundred cents, and it all depends on weighing the silver.
In order to facilitate private payment, today's Ming Dynasty coins and silver dollars are divided into three types.
One is worth one tael, nicknamed "big silver" and called "one dollar".
One is worth five cents, nicknamed "little silver" and called "five cents".
One is a coin worth one penny, nicknamed "unitary silver" and called "a dime". This silver dollar has more impurities and is only slightly smaller than a five-cent coin. This is for the convenience of casting and to prevent accidental loss.
The currency value of copper coins is 0.002 taels of silver, that is, 1 tael of silver is equal to 500 Wen coins.
When the Zhengde Dynasty first minted coins, one tael of silver was still floating between 600 and 700 coins. Nowadays, the import of silver continues to increase, but copper materials are becoming increasingly scarce, and the price of silver has fallen.
In order to facilitate tax collection and unify the conversion of silver coins and copper coins, the imperial court ordered that 1 tael of silver was fixed to 500 wen.
That is: 1 yuan = 10 cents = 500 Wen.
When buying fried dough sticks, if you take out a dime of silver, the boss will have to make up for it with dozens of copper coins.
In this way, daily transactions are very convenient. Common people no longer need to observe the quality of copper coins, and merchants do not need to ask old people to study the purity of silver.
Except for counterfeiters, all walks of life applauded the currency reform.
Even in developed areas, some merchants requested that large silver coins be made to make it easier to count and settle accounts, but the court just pretended not to hear it.
In cities such as Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Suzhou, and Tianjin, bill numbers have begun to appear. As commercial credit tokens, "money bills" have once again participated in the circulation of commodities. However, not long after the Ming Dynasty Baobao was abolished, merchants and common people had lingering fears about paper bills. Merchants
Using money orders is also very scary.
Private post offices were also born, which only provided business in some provinces and were only responsible for delivering letters. Their main customers were merchants and scholars.
The postal service in coastal areas is extremely developed. Letters are delivered by sea-going ships. You pay half of the money when sending the letter, and then the recipient pays the balance.
There are many social changes brought about by Wang Yuan, such as the football league, which has spread to the north and south of the Yangtze River, and there are huge crowds of spectators for football matches in developed cities. Another example is newspapers, commercial newspapers have emerged along the coast, and newspapers publish a large amount of business-related information.
Ordinary newspapers are also becoming more and more popular, publishing novels, poems, and operas. Wang Yuan is using newspapers to promote reforms, and retro-style literati are the main force of propaganda.
Over in Nanjing, a "Shilin Monthly" appeared recently, and it was a weird and yang-yang opposition to the reform. There was no explicit opposition, but it was said that officials in a certain place used the excuse to clear land, but in fact they were killing the people and quietly pocketing the land. They wrote articles again.
He praised Kong Wenshao and said that the previous generation Yan Shenggong was so kind, but he was deprived of his title for offending the powerful.
This kind of fabricated article deceived many young scholars, and Wang Yuan gradually became a traitor.
There is no way, who made Nanjing the stronghold of the opposition, and countless frustrated officials were pushed there. Even more than half of them were squeezed out by Yang Tinghe. Now the hatred value has turned to Wang Yuan, who told Wang Yuan not to recall them to Beijing? ?
To put it more vividly, there are all opposition parties over there, and they will criticize whatever the central government does!
"Old Wang Ge, please come into the carriage!"
Not far from Wang Yuan's exit from Wenyuan Pavilion, there was a eunuch guarding the imperial chariot to greet him.
Wang Yuan smiled and declined: "It is inconvenient for me to sit in the royal chariot."
The eunuch did not force himself and followed Wang Yuan into the palace on foot.
If Zhu Houzhao were still the emperor, Wang Yuan would have taken the throne directly. But the young emperor Zhu Zaiyi was a man of rules, and Wang Yuan could not take the lead in breaking the rules, otherwise he would be known as arrogant and domineering.
He strode into the palace. Along the way, the guards, eunuchs, and maids stopped to salute Wang Yuan.
In the Qianqing Palace, the emperor had prepared wine and food. Queen Mother Gu and Queen Zhang were waiting together, waiting for Wang Yuan to come for the New Year's Eve dinner.
Waiting and waiting, Zhu Zaixun felt something was wrong. How could his son, his wife, and his mother wait for his father to come home for the holidays?
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty the Queen Mother, Your Majesty the Queen Mother, the Prince is here." said the accompanying eunuch.
Zhu Zaiyi said happily: "Please come quickly!"
Wang Yuan walked in, bowed respectfully, and offered a seat to the south.
Zhu Zaiyi asked the eunuch to pour rice wine, pointed to the table and said: "Teacher, this is the imperial roast duck from Jinling. I heard it tastes the same as the authentic Nanjing one. Try it quickly."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Wang Yuan said.
Queen Mother Gu asked: "On New Year's Eve, inviting your husband to the palace for a banquet will not delay your celebration, right?"
Wang Yuan said: "The Queen Mother is worrying too much."
Not only did Huang E return to Sichuan to attend the funeral for his father, the consort and the princess also received preferential treatment and went to Sichuan to express condolences to their grandfather. Song Ling'er took Wang Ce and went to Luzon Island to conquer the country, leaving only a few concubines and a group of children at home.
Zhu Zaiyi and Queen Mother Gu were both very happy and only talked about some interesting things that appeared in the newspapers.
Today, the newspaper with the largest circulation in Beijing is a tabloid founded by a businessman, called "Yanjing Xun Bao". It invites established scholars to write novels and operas, and then publish some trivial and interesting things, and then mix it with special pages of business information , common people and merchants loved it very much, and even palace maids and eunuchs would spend money to subscribe.
Empress Zhang was indeed dignified, demure, and boring. She smiled and observed etiquette from beginning to end and didn't say a word. No wonder she couldn't win the favor of the emperor.
Concubine Shu is pregnant, but the queen's belly is silent.
Empress Dowager Gu asked: "Sir, have you read "Journey to the West"? Although it comes from the drama of the previous dynasty, it has a unique flavor when written into a novel."
Wang Yuan was a little surprised: "Who is the author?"
Queen Mother Gu said: "I am from Sheyang Mountain."
This novel "Journey to the West" was originally published in "Huai'an Monthly" and was stolen to Nanjing's "Shilin Monthly" and then to "Yanjing Xunbao". The poor author only got one copy. The remuneration, I don’t know how many times this post has been stolen.
The same goes for Huang E's "A Chinese Ghost Story". The novel even spread to Southeast Asia, but no one paid the royalties honestly.
Get rid of piracy!
After chatting for a while, Zhu Zaiyi suddenly said: "I heard that King Zheng asked to reduce the vassal state. What is the opinion of the cabinet?"
Wang Yuan said: "I have invited the Ministry of Rites to discuss it, and I think we can take the opportunity to reduce the vassal status."
Zhu Zaiyi said with a smile: "The little imperial uncle from Henan is rare to be so generous and diligent in learning. Even if the title of prince is cut off, he must make up for it well, and don't want to chill the hearts of the clans in the world."
"It should be so." Wang Yuan said.
King Zheng Zhu Houtan was Zhu Zaiyu’s father. He was a truly wise king.
Historically, he was deposed as a commoner by Jiajing because he advised Jiaqing not to engage in feudal superstition and to be diligent and caring for the people and to be an emperor.
For the clan, Fengyang High Wall is a very scary place, just like the Jinyiwei Prison is for officials. Many clans who have been deprived of their titles directly choose to commit suicide as soon as they hear the name of Fengyang High Wall.
But Zhu Hounan, relying entirely on his own memory, painstakingly studied the classics and history, and the yin and yang skills. He lived in Fengyang Gaoqiang for seventeen years, and he tortured Emperor Jiajing to death, and then returned home to continue to be King Zheng, and by the way taught a
An amazingly talented son.
Now, Zhu Hounan is only fourteen years old and has inherited the title for five years. But he is not married yet. If he goes to take the imperial examination, he wonders whether his butterfly wings will blow away Zhu Zaiyu.
Wang Yuan said: "King Zheng is willing to distribute the land to the Zheng Fan clan, leaving only one thousand acres for himself to support his mother and concubine. I suggest that I reward King Zheng with a thousand taels of silver and appoint him as the Imperial Son Supervisor, so that he can directly participate in the capital examination."
This can become a regular rule. Princes and princes who voluntarily reduce their vassal status will enter the Imperial College to study and can directly participate in the imperial examination."
However, Zhu Zaiyi had his own ideas and said: "I think that those who are invited by the prince to reduce the vassal status can directly participate in the palace examination and do not occupy the quota of Jinshi. This is the real reward."
"Yes, your majesty is wise." Wang Yuan praised sincerely.