"3.66 million acres?" Zhu Youjian was stunned when he heard this number. "Why so many? I remember that the late emperor only gave your family 2 million acres? Did your father buy another 1.66 million acres over the years?"
"This..." Zhu Yousong shook his head, looking confused, "I don't know either... I just asked someone to take out all the land deeds at home and count them."
"Long live my lord," Widow Xu, who took the list, said with a smile, "His Royal Highness, Prince Fu, cannot spend money to buy land. How can the palace spend money to buy land? The extra land is all in the name of Prince Fu's mansion. .”
"Oh, cheating to avoid taxes!" Zhu Youjian's face turned livid, "This is sucking the blood of the Ming Dynasty! The Ming Dynasty is already so poor, and you still do this... It's really unscrupulous!"
Zhu Yousong was startled by his words and fell to his knees with a plop.
Widow Xu next to her smiled and said again: "That's probably how the more than 1,000 shops came to be, right?"
"Ah, I, I don't know..."
Zhu Youjian snorted: "You don't know, I know! You princes eat the food of the Ming Dynasty and wear the clothes of the Ming Dynasty, but you are all poaching the walls of the Ming Dynasty!"
"Your Majesty, spare your life, Your Majesty, spare your life..." Zhu Yousong was trembling with fear.
Zhu Youjian glared at Widow Xu again: "Xu Ruolan, you are not a good person, you are a profiteer... You first recognized the Hakka family as your mother, and then you recognized Xu Yingyuan as your father. Isn't this also for smuggling and tax evasion? You, all of them They are all national traitors!”
This is a national traitor. Should he be beheaded? Half of Zhu Yousong's soul was frightened!
Widow Xu, however, looked unconcerned and said with a smile: "Where are the words from Lord Long Live? You and national thieves like Nu and Prince Fu will all be robbed by you in the end!"
yes! Zhu Yousong was right. He had worked so hard for so many years to save so much, but in the end, didn't it all go to you, the emperor?
Zhu Youjian was exposed by Widow Xu, but he didn't get angry. He just smiled and said: "It took me many years to understand this truth. The emperor... is also a big thief! He just wants to rob you national thieves! If Lan, the money, shop, and fields handed over by the Fuwang family have all been handed over to you...can you take care of them?"
"Those who can manage it," Widow Xu said with a smile, "The business I manage in the Bai family is much more troublesome than these!"
"But you are only one person, how can you manage such a big deal?"
Widow Xu smiled and said: "How can I be the same person? I have been the general merchant of Shanxi in the capital... Naturally, I have the means to recruit stewards and assistants."
"Are those businessmen trustworthy?"
"What's so trustworthy and unreliable?" Widow Xu smiled, "It's just about business... Since Lord Long Live can trust me, I asked him to go do business. The people in the palace can't be used by me. "
Zhu Youjian knew that Nizi was also in business at that time. Wouldn't his large business be managed by businessmen? None of the eunuchs in the palace or civil servants in the court got an errand in the Royal Chamber of Commerce.
Nizi is the richest profiteer in the Ming Dynasty, so there must be a reason for him to do this.
"Okay," Zhu Youjian nodded, "Then I'll leave it all to you!"
He paused and then said to Widow Xu: "When Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng have completed the delivery, we will set off... first to Beijing, then to Luoyang, and finally I will enter Guanzhong to quell the thieves, you stay in Luoyang Take over the properties of Prince Fu’s Mansion!”
After listening to Zhu Youjian's words, Zhu Yousong, who was still kneeling on the ground, sighed: What a miserable life! All the good family property belongs to others? How will we live in Nanjing from now on?
...
"Long live my lord, I have served as the military commander of Taomin and the governor of Shaanxi. I have always known how miserable Shaanxi is. How miserable is Shaanxi? Just one sentence, in the world, Shaanxi is the most miserable!"
The person who was complaining to Zhu You about "Shaanxi is the most miserable" was Bi Ziyan, who was about to take office in Shaanxi. He is now riding side by side with Zhu Youjian on his way south to the capital.
Zhu Youjian finally finished taking care of a lot of things in Yanshan and Daning. On the third day of June in the second year of Chongzhen, he left the newly completed Daning "Tubao" and led two regiments of cavalry and two groups of artillery (12 3-pounders). cannon) and embarked on the journey south.
With more than two thousand people...of course it is enough to put down the Western bandits who have rebelled. With a blast from the cannon and a charge from the cavalry, the slave thieves would be defeated, let alone the Western thieves?
But Zhu Youjian also knew that the chaos in Shaanxi was caused by natural and man-made disasters, and could not be put down by a few thousand elite soldiers killing for a while.
However, he did not agree with Bi Ziyan's statement. How could Shaanxi be the most miserable? Zhu Youjian said: Obviously it is me, the great emperor of tomorrow, who suffers the most... Although I can't be hungry or cold, I feel miserable in my heart! In his previous life, he had worked hard for the country and the people for seventeen years, but in the end he was betrayed by his relatives and separated from his relatives, and a traitorous son took over the power.
And in this life, I have to suffer twice more and suffer twice...and my heart is even more miserable than in the previous life!
In my previous life, I was so confused that I didn’t know that those around me were either traitors or traitors, traitors or corrupt officials! Now that we know everything, can we not be miserable?
Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian turned his head and glanced at Li Zicheng and Li Jin, who were riding their horses and carrying guns.
Li Zicheng, a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty who didn't know how bad he was, also noticed Zhu Youjian's gloomy eyes.
Li Zicheng said seriously: Is the emperor angry with Bi Ziyan? The same goes for Governor Bi. How can he tell the emperor that the people are suffering? It must be said that the country is peaceful and the people are safe!
"Li Zicheng," Zhu Youjian said angrily, "You are from Shaanxi. Tell me, are the people of Shaanxi miserable?"
"This..." Li Zicheng asked immediately and was a little confused.
In front of Bi Ziyan, he couldn't say that the people of Shaanxi were rich and the land was fertile! Isn’t this the old slap in Governor Bi’s face?
"Of course it's hard!" Li Jin saw that Li Zicheng was silent, thinking that this uncle didn't know how expensive firewood and rice were, so he said, "Shaanxi has five towns in one province. The weather is dry and the land is barren. Looking around, there are all The loess is quickly drying into sand, and even if the weather is good, the Ming Dynasty can only afford a few buckets of food... But now the drought is like this, it doesn't allow people to live!"
That's not my fault! I don’t care if it rains! Zhu Youjian looked at Li Zicheng gloomily, "Li Zicheng, it must have been hard for you in Shaanxi, right?"
"It's okay, I have a job as a postman," Li Zicheng said with a smile, "I can't be hungry after all, it's just that I don't have a wife."
"What if I don't have the job at the inn?" Zhu Youjian asked with a smile, "You don't know how to farm, how can you survive? Are you about to start a rebellion?"
"Ah, that's..." Li Zicheng said it smoothly. Only when he said the word "yes" did he realize something was wrong, and quickly changed his words: "No, no, no... How could I rebel? I am the most loyal! I will starve to death. It’s impossible to rebel!”
Bullying you again! Zhu Youjian sighed and thought: I am so easy to deceive, and I was driven out of Beijing by you, a traitor, in my last life!
Seeing Zhu Youjian's expression of disapproval, Li Jin quickly tried to smooth things over for his uncle who was talking nonsense, "Your Majesty, even if our uncles and nephews cannot be your servants or post soldiers, they can still survive. .....Even if Shaanxi suffers from drought for many years, our uncles and nephews can still make a living. Moreover, the emperor is a benevolent king, and he will definitely spare our Shaanxi people from the imperial grain and extra stipends."
Li Zicheng nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, as long as the emperor is free from food for three years, we can live!"
Food-free for three years? Why does it sound so familiar? Are we still going to welcome King Chuang? When Zhu Youjian frowned, Bi Ziyan was already shaking his head, "No, no, no... we can't skip food!"
Why? Zhu Youjian was stunned and said to Bi Ziyan: "Why can't it be exempted? How much land tax is there in Shaanxi per year? It's just more than one million shi, right? I got 2.8 million taels of silver from King Fu. With this silver, I can You can be exempted from Shaanxi’s imperial grain for two years!”
"Long live my lord," Bi Ziyan shook his head, "Shaanxi does not have money and food from Beijing. Only the additional Liao salary of more than 200,000 taels was allocated to dissolve the ministry. It has been exempted since the third year of Chongzhen. And the people of Shaanxi Province The money and grain collected are all grain for the democratic movement sent to the five towns of Yulin, Gansu, Ningxia, Lintao, and Guyuan. The grain for the democratic movement in the five towns must not be dispensed with! The severe drought in Shaanxi is not only affecting all prefectures and states, but also Yulin, The five military towns in Ningxia, Lintao, Guyuan, and Gansu are suffering from drought and lack of rain! There are hundreds of thousands of military households in the five military towns, and the number of soldiers is not small... and the local military villages are not enough. Moreover, we have been suffering from droughts for many years. If there is no grain support from the democratic movement in Shaanxi, what will the border troops in the five towns eat?"
