Yingtian, go to the palace.
Zhu Jinghong knelt at the foot of the imperial steps. On his left and right were the imperial guards from the capital, and above him were the eunuchs standing solemnly.
"If you, your parents who have suffered so much, have any conscience at all, you should not put yourself in danger and cause your mother to worry too much..."
"If you were hurt in the slightest, your mother wouldn't be hurt to the bone..."
Listening to the eunuch's oral instructions, Zhu Jinghong was really worried. Who knew whether he would be beaten again.
"I hope you can take care of yourself and save your parents from worry!"
After reading this, the oral instruction ended. The eunuch who delivered the message hurriedly walked down the steps and helped Zhu Jinghong up with a smile.
"Thirteenth Master, the ground is hard... don't kneel down, get up quickly!"
The eunuch who came to deliver the message this time was the ceremonial supervisor Suitang, known as "Nei Hanlin". He seemed to be a gentleman, and if he added a beard, he would look even more elegant.
Getting up from the ground, Zhu Jinghong immediately complained: "Eunuch Chen, what does my father mean by this? I have to get scolded even if I have done an errand?"
"In this Ming Dynasty, is there still royal law? Is there still justice?"
Zhu Jinghong made these "violent remarks", and everyone at the scene just pretended not to hear them. After all, this was not the first time.
Chen Yu had no choice but to explain: "Thirteenth Master, the Lord and the Queen love you so much that they pass this order..."
"You don't have to persuade me... I know the truth. As ministers, we have to swallow the bitter waters!"
Chen Yu laughed awkwardly twice. It was really difficult for him to answer these words.
Zhu Jinghong dispersed after eleven people, and then asked: "Eunuch Chen, why did you send someone to deliver the message this time?"
The eunuchs who serve as the Supervisor of Ceremonies are basically not sent on foreign missions. Their main task is to read the votes and then submit palm prints or pens for judgment.
"Back to Thirteenth Master... This slave is here mainly to supervise the purchase of military rations!"
"Supervise the purchase of military rations? Is there not enough military rations?" Zhu Jinghong was a little surprised.
Chen Yu replied: "Due to something happening in the northwest, the military rations that were originally transferred directly to Jiangbei were transferred to the northwest by the Ministry of Household Affairs..."
This also shows that the situation in the northwest is more important than Jinling where the Japanese pirates are in trouble.
"Your Majesty asked Jinling to raise money and food on its own, and sent a special servant to supervise it!"
Walking into the corridor, Zhu Jinghong was a little surprised and asked: "How to raise money and food by yourself?"
Chen Yu replied: "Of course let the local gentry donate!"
"This... I'm afraid it will be difficult, who is willing to take out his own money!"
"I can't take care of this slave anymore. The task has been assigned anyway!"
"Split?" Zhu Jinghong caught the key word.
Then I heard him ask: "How to divide the money?"
"The Jinling gentry will be allocated 60,000 yuan, and the Jinling salt merchants will be allocated 40,000 yuan!"
We were short of 100,000 shi of grain, which cost about 50,000 taels of silver according to the market price. Considering the increase in prices caused by large-scale purchases, 60,000 taels would be enough.
However, the result now is that Zhu Xianming not only wants to have sex for free, but also wants to make more money.
"This... old man really knows how to play!" Zhu Jinghong laughed.
"Well, you're busy!"
"The slaves are not busy at all. The chief secretary collects the money from the gentry, and the salt merchants collect it from the salt inspector. The slaves are just supervising!"
…………
It took Chen Yu five days to rush to Jinling. The urgent delivery from the Supervisor of Ceremonies arrived two days ago.
The Xue family, who was the first to receive the urgent delivery, was now arguing about it again.
Just because the Supervisor of Ceremonies meant that the Xue family would donate 10,000 taels of silver to give Jinling gentry a generous reward.
Of course, these 10,000 taels are the emperor's money, so they will not be included in the 100,000 silver.
"Brother Pan, how did you become a family? I just let you get the money last time, why are you here again?"
"Every family has saved money in recent years, but it is all earned through hard work. We can help the big family if they have difficulties, but you can't always ask us to help!"
"Yeah... this year is not very peaceful. It's just that business is not doing well. Even the harvest in the farm is not very good. I really can't get any money out!"
"Brother Pan, it's not that we as elders don't help you, we are also in trouble!"
Everyone said something to me, but in summary they all mean the same thing: money is not available.
The Xue family has 120,000 yuan in internal funds. The last purchase of food and military supplies cost 100,000 yuan. Theoretically, the Xue family still owes 20,000 yuan from internal funds.
This time I wanted to donate 10,000 yuan, but I was still short of 10,000 taels of silver.
According to Baochai's intention, the remaining 10,000 taels might be needed by the royal family at some point, so it would be better to collect them all together this time.
So this time Xue Pan summoned his clan members and allocated 20,000 taels of silver as soon as he opened his mouth.
As the eldest son, Xue Pan was considered an honest man. He accepted five thousand taels of silver, and he had to share the remaining fifteen thousand.
"You said so much, but you just don't want to give...right?" Xue Pan was extremely impatient.
Of course everyone has this thought. They have turned their money into land and houses, and now they are not willing to spit it out again.
In order to raise money last time, this group of people sold a lot of land for shops, which was already considered a "breakdown".
If you take out the money now, it will really empty your family's wealth, and you won't want to leave it to anyone.
"Okay... Anyway, the father-in-law of the Supervisor of Ceremonies is still in Yingtian. I will only pay five thousand taels of silver, and I will report the rest truthfully!"
"Anyway, I have been commended by the Crown Prince, and I recently saved Master Thirteenth's life. Even if the Holy Emperor punishes me... I can still save my life!"
"As for you... just keep your money and use it to buy a coffin!"
Having said this, Xue Pan stood up straight away and walked out with a confused look.
This guy broke the jar, which really scared everyone in the hall. Before he could walk out of the courtyard gate, someone in the hall chased him out.
"Brother Pan, a discussion is a discussion, and it must be discussed to achieve results..."
"That's right, you are already a grown man, how can you be so restless!"
The person who had been silent just now stepped out to be the good guy and pulled Xue Pan back.
After returning to the hall and sitting down, Xue Pan stopped talking and waited for everyone to express their opinions.
Today's method was Baochai's idea, and Xue Pan was just a tool to implement it.
To be honest, asking for another one or two thousand silver for each house is really uncomfortable for them. Who is willing to sell the house, shops and fields, they are all things that can be passed down to the family.
"Second uncle, please say something...it's useless to waste time!"
"The deadline will be up in two days. If you try to raise money then, it will be too late!"
Xue Yucheng sighed and replied: "Brother Pan, what you said makes sense, we should put together the money!"
Now that Xue Pan has made good friends with the two masters and speaks naturally and forcefully in the clan, Xue Yucheng can clearly see the general trend and his thoughts of seizing the big house have dissipated.
If the attitudes of Zhu Jinghong and Zhu Jinghong are not considered, no matter how good Baochai's method is, it will not be of much use in court... This is called the situation being stronger than the person.
"The second bedroom offers three thousand taels, please tell me...is this fair?"
To be honest, the second wife paid three thousand taels of silver, which was more than they should have paid. In addition, Xue Yucheng was an elder, so no one dared to comment.
With Xue Yucheng taking the lead, the rest of the houses started to speak out one after another. After some wrangling, the 20,000 taels of silver were finally apportioned.
Xue Pan went into the inner house to announce the good news, but Aunt Xue was not happy.
"Now the money gap has finally been filled, but our family is almost empty, and we will have to live a hard life in the future!"
Aunt Xue's so-called hard life is of course different from what ordinary people think. It's just that the Xue family has less money on their books.
When it came time to really use the money, I sold off all the Liangtian shops and exchanged them for tens of thousands of taels of silver.
I saw Aunt Xue saying earnestly: "Pan'er, we have to go to Beijing to make up for the vacancies and clear the accounts on the way, we have to do it as soon as possible..."
Xue Pan casually said: "Mom, this time it happened, let's go to Beijing!"
(End of chapter)
