Because of the unique firing process, these gold bricks are extremely hard, costing half a tael of gold per piece. His father paid special attention to this mausoleum. When the mausoleum was built, all the places that needed to be laid with floor tiles were paved with this kind of gold bricks. This alone cost a huge amount of money. But the owner just stood on it for a while, and this extremely hard brick became like that.
If I had had a slightly different intention at that time, I am afraid that it would not have been the gold brick that was broken, but my own head. Fortunately, after following him into the Lengen Hall, I had always been cautious and did not do anything untoward. Otherwise, how can I be famous enough to get out? And his subordinates were right. He had murderous intentions in his heart, but he still had a faint smile on his face.
As soon as he remembered that the Lord was chatting and laughing with him, he already had murderous intentions in his heart. But the faint smile on his face didn't even drop. This is the smiling tiger, nothing more than that. No wonder my father, who had never put the Supreme Emperor in his eyes during his lifetime, valued this person so much. In the end, he was defeated at the hands of this person. This kind of scheming was far inferior to that of my father during his lifetime.
After leaving the extremely luxurious mausoleum built for himself by the false emperor during his lifetime, Liu Jinli couldn't help but look back and take another look. Thinking of my father's ambitions during his lifetime, they have now been completely wiped out. The palace has been glorious for hundreds of years, but now it is like these royal tombs, which have been blown away by the rain and wind. No matter how strong-tempered Liu Jinli was, he not only burst into tears, but also felt endless pain in his heart.
Returning to the annex of Jingjiang Mansion, he was faced with subordinates who were worried about his own safety. Some wanted to protect him from leaving, while others asked him what he had talked about with the emperor. Liu Jinli comforted him first, worried that he would be exposed, and insisted on not letting him enter the city since before returning to the city: "Don't worry, the emperor won't kill me now. As long as we don't take the initiative to cause trouble, he won't even touch us."
"The navy and merchant fleet left by the palace are my biggest support now. They are also the biggest support we can rely on to stay safe in Jingjiang City. Our young emperor has quite a lot of ambitions. . And he doesn’t completely trust the Fan family. He uses the Fan family, but he is also on guard against the Fan family. He will never allow the Fan family to become the second Guilin County Prince."
"That's why he didn't kill us all. He wanted to keep us to check and balance the Fan family, because he knew that if the Fan family reached the stage before us, the threat to the court might not be smaller than ours. The Fan family's financial resources are not Second to us. Coupled with their status in the world, it is not difficult to regain the monopoly, and it may even be shorter than us."
"Now that we have this prerequisite, we may not have any bargaining capital. I have two bottom lines. One is my father's body, which must be returned to us. Secondly, the navy and merchant fleet will not go ashore. We will hand over Ryukyu to the imperial court, but we will do so according to the imperial system. We will pay tribute every year. We will also follow the example of the Fan family and pay the full amount of money and food according to the amount of trade with overseas countries every year."
"We will ensure fair competition with other overseas merchants and not embarrass those overseas merchants. As for the Wang Zong who has fallen into their hands now, if the court can trust us and hand it over to us, we can take them all. If the court needs to hold them hostage, they The monthly money and food can be paid by us in one lump sum at the beginning of each year. We guarantee that they will not have to spend a penny or a grain of rice."
But after he finished speaking, one of his subordinates said with some hesitation: "Third Master, I'm afraid the emperor is eager to drive us all away. If you propose that he will only surrender without going ashore, can he agree? Even if we need to check and balance the Fan family, But he may not be able to tolerate us being alone overseas and not under his control. Looking at this emperor, he has been a very controlling person since he was the prince overseeing the country. "
"What's more, there are thousands of Wang Zong who are being escorted to the capital now. If we bear all the money, the money and food they need every month will directly crush us. Before, the palace could support those Wang Zong because the palace alone On Guangnan West Road, there are hundreds of thousands of acres of paddy fields. The grain harvested every year alone is enough to feed those royal clans. But the paddy fields cultivated in Ryukyu now are far less than that."
"The food produced every year is only enough for the people in Ryukyu today. If part of it is transferred to China, it may be difficult to support. Moreover, the royal family's annual income does not only rely entirely on overseas. There are also the Guangnan East-West Second Road. There are millions of acres of paddy fields, sugarcane fields and orchards. There are also a large number of tea gardens, porcelain kilns, and silk mills all over Suzhou, Songjiang, and Zhenjiang on the roads south of the Yangtze River."
"These annual incomes are equivalent to about 40% of the royal palace. The porcelain, silk, and tea we sell overseas have basically no cost. Now these silk workshops, porcelain kilns, and tea gardens have all been confiscated by the imperial court. Sell. We can say that we have already lost our largest source of goods. Even if the trade route is reopened, our operating costs will increase."
"We have to face competition from the Fan family and other merchants. Third Master, we have to tighten our belts now and live a hard life for a long time. At this time, if we can supply all those Wang Sects, It is really unaffordable for us now. Not only have we lost 40% of our income, but we also have a large number of originally cost-free supply channels, and almost everything has to start again.”
"Now, for every kilogram of tea we sell to foreign businessmen, we have to buy one kilogram from the tea gardens in the south of the Yangtze River. The current tea production in Ryukyu is less than 100,000 kilograms per year. This is not enough for several ships to transport. And the quality is beyond compare. Compared with the original tea produced by the royal family in the Jiangnan tea garden, that is, compared with the tea produced in the tea gardens on Dongxi 2nd Road in Huainan, the quality is far different, and it is difficult to obtain the original high price."
"Third Master, we have transported a large amount of gold and silver from the palace, but these gold and silver cannot last a lifetime. Even if the emperor agrees to let us resume trade, it will take at least a long time for us to recover. Old Prince Before the incident, the inventory hoarded in Ryukyu will be exhausted in at most half a year. It is simply unsustainable and we can restore the supply of supplies that have been cut off."
"We all understand your thoughts, but we have to do what we can. Now we are supporting those who are detained in Jingzhao Mansion, as well as those Wang Zong who are now being detained in the palace. We can't even bear half of the burden. Third Master, Even if you want to give in, my subordinates really can't support this. Instead of doing this, we might as well directly hand over a sum of money to the court, such as two hundred thousand taels of silver."
"As the imperial court, it will be used to deal with the aftermath of Jiangnan. Although it is an extra sum of money, it is still better than your idea. To raise those royal clans, one month does not count weddings and funerals, nor does it count as newborns. It is necessary Fifteen thousand shi of fine grain and 150,000 gu of money. It was really not a burden before. One year's worth of grain can be fully afforded by the palace's fields on Guangnan West Road alone."
"Also, what are the royal clans in the palace like? It's not that you don't know. Because of the child, not only can you get a reward, but you can also increase your monthly salary every year. In order to get more money and food, those royal clans work hard to make a living. Children. Especially those children born from concubines, because they are not allowed to hold any official positions in the palace, they can only rely on their monthly salary and get rewards by giving birth to children."
"The number of royal sects is already large enough now. If another twenty or thirty years pass, it may double again. Third Master, even if you don't think about yourself, you have to think about future generations. We You can't afford it now. When those royal sects multiply in the future, how can your descendants be able to afford it? Third Master, I advise you to think twice before you act, and don't be too kind."
Liu Jinli fell silent after hearing the words of his father, a confidant who was a master of financial management in the palace during his lifetime. Then he said helplessly: "How can I really not know about the virtues of the Wang Zong mentioned by the gentleman? It is said that the clan fishes the common people, and there are all kinds of strange ways to make money. But these Wang Zong are not bad either. The only difference is that in the past dynasties, The ancestors strictly controlled it, but the common people would not dare to do it.”
"But if you think of ways to extract wool from the palace, it's no better than those clans. But what can I do? If the imperial court only keeps the Koneda Prince clan as a hostage in their hands, it will be far away. Return all the branch king sect to us. If we send all these ancestors to Ryukyu, wouldn’t it be a disaster for the whole place? My authority in the palace is not enough, and it is far less strict than my father’s control during his lifetime.”
"Let those royal sects always be in awe of their father and not dare to do too much. Putting them in the hands of the court can also make them feel a little afraid. If they are all taken to Ryukyu Island, those people will have to be lawless? The reputation I have accumulated over the years among the Ryukyu people and the Ryukyu native tribes will probably be lost in a few years."
"Putting them in the hands of the court, we will pay to support them first. At least they don't dare to mess around in the capital. We have some scruples in dealing with them, but the court has no scruples in dealing with them. That Lord can kill a count in Zhengzhou In addition, there were more than a hundred officials and scholars. The people killed in Ningxia Mansion were like rivers of blood, and the Pingxia tribe of the Tuoba clan was killed to pieces, and it is impossible to recover."
"I'm afraid he won't even blink an eye if he kills a few rebellious relatives who have done evil. These royal clans are a burden to us, and why not to the court? They really thought that the emperor selected the successor Princess Shen from among them. And Princess Ding, because of the palace’s reputation among the people, she still has taboos against them and can continue to do evil in the capital, which is a big mistake.”
"The Lord, I guess he is also having a headache now about how to deal with them? Scholars, farmers, merchants, craftsmen, soldiers, what do you think they can do? Most of them can do nothing except cheating, sneaking, eating, drinking, whoring and gambling. During the day, except for where to go, he will think about almost nothing. If they run wild in Jingzhao Mansion, I guess the master will not be lenient at all when he takes care of them. "
"Spending a sum of money every year is indeed a big burden for us. But it is better than taking these people away to harm Ryukyu. What's more, today's palace is no longer the palace of the past. Continue Naturally, we will not support them according to the past standards. If you want to make more money, go out and figure it out on your own. If you accidentally violate the national law, no one will save them."
After Liu Jinli explained this, several close subordinates present were stunned. They always thought that if the imperial court really didn't want to kill all Guilin County Prince's Mansion, those people would never let go. Because keeping them in their hands is an excellent bargaining chip and hostage for the imperial court. Even if there is really something strange here, at least it won't be as unscrupulous as when the old prince was here.
But now that I think about it, it’s really just that. It was enough to be taken to the Wang Zong in the capital, with hundreds of close relatives as hostages. For example, the third master's nephews, nieces, and a group of younger brothers and sisters, plus a few uncles, uncles, and aunts are enough. Those who have released the third server are not only almost useless, but also a big burden.
