It was not that Zhuge Cheng knew nothing about Chen Xiaomu. On the day he returned to the court, he had already heard from Su Chengxuan the introduction of this legendary prince-in-law who helped Zheng Guo recover. However, after he returned, due to his age, He was relatively large, and due to the fatigue of traveling and traveling, his body suddenly fell down, so he had to report to Su Chengxuan first, then go home to recuperate for a while before entering the court to participate in politics.
Zhuge Cheng's health has improved slightly recently, but he feels uneasy. If he doesn't join the court anymore, I'm afraid Su Chengxuan will gradually become alienated from him, and his old subordinates who used to be in the court will also lose their respect for him. Hope, he has been deeply touched by these two things recently. In the days when he first returned to Xinjing, Su Chengxuan would send his princes and father-in-law to visit him every now and then. His former subordinates would go to his home to visit him. There is also an endless stream of visitors, but in the past two days it has begun to gradually become quiet, and it is not an exaggeration to say that there are only a few people.
Zhuge Chengsi thought about it and decided to go to court today despite being ill to show his presence. In addition, he had another big thing to do in court today, which was the Zhengguo army that his old subordinate Ximensong mentioned when he came to visit him a few days ago. Military pay has not been paid for nearly two months. People in the army are currently unstable. Soldiers gather to cause trouble and robberies on the streets occur from time to time. If this continues, there will be troubles that are difficult to deal with in the army. Therefore, his main purpose in going to court today is to make suggestions. Su Chengxuan thought of raising some silver and two handfuls of military pay first to appease the army. As for the method of raising money, he also thought of it for Su Chengxuan, and he could start implementing it as soon as Su Chengxuan nodded.
Wei Wen asked Chen Xiaomu to stand up in the court hall in a hurry when they heard the prince shouting, "The emperor has arrived!" Then they saw Su Chengxuan and Prince Su Muyang walking away one after another from behind the dragon riding screen. When they came out, the civil and military ministers in the court immediately stopped whispering to each other and stood in two rows, civil and military. The civil ministers were led by the Prime Minister Wei Wen, and the military ministers were originally led by Lu Qian, the Minister of War. This morning, Taiwei Zhuge Cheng came to the court. In the last dynasty, Lu Qian automatically retreated to the second position. Chen Xiaomu, the Prince Consort, could serve as both a civil official and a military attache in the Zheng Kingdom. Originally, Su Xingran's uncle Lu Jun waved to him from the opposite side and wanted him to become a military commander. Over there, Wei Wen seemed to know what he was thinking, and stretched out his hand to hold him tightly and not let go. Su Chengxuan was already standing in front of the dragon chair, looking down at the ministers standing in the court hall. , Chen Xiaomu had to give up temporarily.
A moment later, Wei Wen came out to lead the team. The civil servants and military officers in the court bowed and saluted Su Chengxuan who was standing in front of the dragon throne. They shouted like a tsunami: "Long live my emperor, long live my humble minister! Long live!" I was shocked! Chen Xiaomu, who had to go to court for the first time, had a ringing in his ears.
Su Chengxuan expressionlessly waved his hands to the ministers who were saluting in the audience, and said, "Everyone, I will love you for the rest of my life." He sat down on the dragon chair and stood next to him. The prince shouted to the ministers in a routine manner: "According to the emperor's oral instructions, if you have something to do, you will start to report, but if there is nothing, you will withdraw from the court."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhuge Cheng walked out of the train tremblingly and shouted: "My minister Zhuge Cheng has something to report to the emperor." "
Su Chengxuan glanced at Zhuge Cheng, smiled and said, "Is Zhuge Aiqing feeling better?"
Zhuge Cheng cupped his hands and said, "Thanks to the Emperor's great blessing, I have no serious health problems. It's just that I heard about something recently that makes me feel uncomfortable. I came here to report to the Emperor to ask for His grace."
''oh! "Su Chengxuan nodded, turned to the prince and ordered: "Go and bring a chair over, let Lao Aiqing sit down and talk slowly. "
The prince bowed and said, "Here." He immediately turned around and gave the order.
Soon two young eunuchs came in carrying a grand master's chair and placed it in front of Zhuge Cheng, and helped him sit down on the grand master's chair. Zhuge Cheng took a slight breath and said to Su Chengxuan: "Your Majesty, the army is the foundation of the country. , if the arrears of military pay last too long and the morale of the military is weakened, I am afraid it will be difficult to deal with it again!"
Su Chengxuan nodded thoughtfully. Lu Jun, Ximensong and others had also reported to him what had happened recently in the army. It could be said that except for the team led by Chen Xiaomu, the other armies were more or less the same. There are these incidents of theft and robbery by low-level officers and soldiers, and these incidents are happening more and more frequently nowadays! But now he really has no other good idea. The key to saying a thousand words and ten thousand is money. Without money, empty words and white teeth will not solve the substantive problem. His only way now is to issue national bonds proposed by Chen Xiaomu at that time. The method is a good one, but it also takes time to raise enough money.
Su Chengxuan lowered his head and thought for a long time, then raised his head and said to Zhuge Cheng: "Old dear, although the national treasury is empty now, the salaries of the ministers have been temporarily suspended, but fortunately, Prime Minister Wei and I have already discussed a plan There are ways to raise money, but it will take at least a month or two to collect the money and distribute it to the officers and soldiers."
"Your Majesty, we really can't put off the matter of military pay any longer!" Zhuge Cheng stood up from the Grand Master's chair and said anxiously: "Officers and soldiers in the army join the army and serve the country without even caring about life and death, but their salary is to support their families. Their life-saving money is what they use to make ends meet, but now they can’t even make ends meet for their families, so how can they think of serving the country!”
Su Chengxuan's head was pounding, and he had no choice but to say to the civil and military officials standing in the court: "If that beloved minister can raise 800,000 taels of silver within ten days, I will give him a heavy reward." !”
"My dear, we need to raise 800,000 taels of silver in ten days. I'm afraid I won't be able to grab so much if I just grab it! Is the emperor going crazy for money?" The officials below only dared to mutter in their hearts, but No one dares to make trouble with this!
"It's okay if we can raise 500,000 taels in ten days!" Seeing that no one came forward, Su Chengxuan not only lowered the requirement for the amount of money raised, but also decided to increase the amount of rewards. He smiled and said: " If I can raise the required amount of silver on time, I can make him the hereditary Marquis of Cicada City, and my first wife the title of Lady Haoming. How about it? It’s a rare opportunity to make my wife Yinzi, would you like to give it a try?"
Su Chengxuan was very anxious. He really wanted to get rid of this serious problem in the army that could break out at any time as soon as possible! Therefore, he did not hesitate to lower his face to seduce the officials, and unknowingly even started advertising.
Chen Xiaomu stood behind Wei Wen and looked at his father-in-law on the throne. With his dignified status, he was like a street vendor, shamelessly inducing others to buy his things. He couldn't help lowering his head and covering his mouth with his hands. Don't let yourself laugh out loud.
However, the temptation thrown by Su Chengxuan this time is indeed not small. As soon as the words were spoken, the civil and military officials below started to commotion, like a pool of stagnant water being blown up by a slight ripple. But since the person who can stand in the court, that person You are not a human being, let alone not being able to raise these five hundred thousand taels of silver in a short time. Even if you have a way to raise these silvers within ten days, who dares to stand up and say it now? I suspect that you are taking advantage of others' danger. Although you can get some benefits at the moment, but in the future, the emperor will bear a grudge. Will you be able to reap the benefits?
Su Chengxuan saw that many of the ministers below were whispering to each other, but no one dared to step forward to take over the job. He felt extremely disappointed and thought to himself, what are these ministers who are so called loyal ministers in national calamity? ?
Zhuge Cheng sat on the Grand Master's chair and looked back and forth. Seeing that no one was interested in stepping forward, he slowly stood up, cupped his hands in front of Su Chengxuan and said, "Long live, I have an idea, I don't know whether to say it or not." ?”
Su Chengxuan no longer has any hope? When he suddenly heard Zhuge Cheng's words, he was like a person who was about to drown. Suddenly he found a life-saving straw. He stood up from the dragon chair and said urgently: "Old love, it's okay!"
Zhuge Cheng paused and then said: "I have a good friend who came to visit me at my home a few days ago. Through talking with him, I learned that he is now traveling around various countries doing business, and he is doing a lot of business. Da, he also accumulated a lot of money in his hands. At that time, the old minister was thinking, why not lend some of the money from him to solve the urgent needs of the court. "
''Oh, what did he say? "Su Chengxuan immediately became energetic when he heard about it.
"This...!" Zhuge Cheng hesitated, lowered his head and said nothing.
Seeing the embarrassment on Zhuge Cheng's face, Su Chengxuan advised: "My dear, do you have anything to say between you and me, the monarch and my ministers? Let's do this! You can't speak nonsense, and I can't listen! How about that?"
"Okay, Your Majesty, what shall I say?" Zhuge Cheng seemed to have made up his mind and said: "My good friend told me that he can give one million taels of silver directly to the Emperor, but he just wants to The emperor only needs to promise him two things! "
Su Chengxuan smiled, nodded and encouraged: "Ai Qing, keep talking."
Zhuge Cheng secretly observed Su Chengxuan's face and continued: "His first condition is that he hopes that the emperor can grant him a title and allocate a piece of territory to him!"
The smile suddenly solidified on Su Chengxuan's face, and he thought to himself: "This bastard's tone is quite serious!" He endured it without saying a word, waiting for Zhuge Cheng to make the second condition.
Zhuge Cheng also risked his life today, otherwise he would have lost that store after passing this village. He gritted his teeth and said: "The second condition is that he spends another one million taels of silver to buy our Zhengguo salt franchise license for ten years. right!"
"Haha!" Su Chengxuan sneered and sat back on the dragon chair without saying a word.
At this time, Prime Minister Wei Wen walked out of the train, raised his hands to Su Chengxuan and said, "Your Majesty, I feel that Lieutenant Zhuge cannot agree to either of these two conditions."
''Oh, Prime Minister Wei, tell me! "Su Chengxuan turned to Wei Wen.
Wei Wen said: "Your Majesty, looking at all the countries today, there is no country where the titles are awarded to meritorious ministers who have made immortal contributions to the country. They cannot be bought with money. If it is because of money, Granting a title to a philistine businessman would not only chill the soldiers of Zheng if word spread about it, but would also become the laughing stock of all countries! Who will take our Zheng seriously in the future? Besides, we also need to enfeoff land. According to the county man with the lowest title, the food fiefdom requires two thousand households and one household has ten acres of land. It is really inappropriate to have twenty thousand acres. As for the second condition, it is only one million taels. The money will buy out the ten-year salt franchise of Zheng State. This is purely an evil act of taking advantage of others and taking advantage of others. Nowadays, the salt tax of our Zheng State is between 150,000 and 200,000 taels every year, not to mention the annual salt tax. The income is still increasing, so using one million taels to win Zheng’s 100,000 salt tax is really a good calculation!”
Zhuge Cheng blushed when he heard this and argued: "Master Chief Assistant, I don't settle the accounts like you do. If the army's salary arrears cannot be resolved in the near future, the final chaos in the army may endanger the emperor's country and the country." , and will be taken advantage of by other countries. This is the so-called lesser of two evils!"
Wei Wen spoke impassionedly for a long time but Zhuge Cheng blocked him back after saying a few words, yes! The reality is that you don’t have money, no matter how much you talk about it with red lips and white teeth, it’s just like farting.
''Your Majesty, what do you think? "Su Chengxuan suddenly looked at Chen Xiaomu, who was standing silently behind Wei Wen, and called him by name.
Chen Xiaomu was stunned. At first, he thought Su Chengxuan was calling Su Muyang, who was standing next to him. It wasn't until he saw Su Chengxuan waving to him that he realized it. Then he walked out of the train under the watchful eyes of all the civil and military officials in the court.
"Your Majesty, do you have any good ideas for today's plan?" Su Chengxuan looked at Chen Xiaomu and asked.
Chen Xiaomu bowed and replied: "Father, I think Prime Minister Wei is right. The title should not be awarded easily. Otherwise, no one will value the glory brought by the title in the future. The salt franchise must not be given up easily. Salt It is a matter of great importance to the health of the people of Zheng, and if someone takes advantage of it, the consequences will be disastrous!"
''Chen Duwei, you are right, we all understand! Zhuge Cheng couldn't help but stepped forward and said: "But the top priority is to stabilize the army with money. Our country of Zheng has just returned to the country, and its foundation is basically unstable. If the army is in chaos again, the consequences will be unimaginable!" "
