That was a full two hundred thousand taels of gold, and the Ministry of Industry made a huge fortune.
Another minister of the Ministry of Industry, Shi Pu, previously served as military counselor in the Ningyang Hou Army. After Ningyang Hou became the master, Shi Pu followed him to Nanjing and stayed in Nanjing ever since.
Today's Ministry of Industry is entirely headed by Zhou Chen.
Zhu Qiyu was not only the largest financial backer of the Ministry of Industry, but also approved the Ministry of Industry to take charge of this batch of gold, which was specifically used to regulate rivers and build ordnance.
So every time Zhou Chen looked at the emperor, there was light in his eyes. Such emperors who only know how to give but not what to ask for are hard to find throughout the ages.
Zhu Qiyu knew why the people at the Ministry of Industry supported him so much, but he still felt bitter: there were a total of 400,000 taels of gold in his entire warehouse, and the construction of the new Qi Palace had already cost 20,000 taels just to build city walls, mine white marble materials, and build some palaces. One hundred thousand taels of gold.
Next, the rest of the palace must be built, all kinds of exotic flowers and plants must be transplanted, and all kinds of household items must be added. One hundred thousand taels of gold cannot stop it, and a little extra money will cost more than 150,000 taels.
Previously, Zhu Qiyu gave Li Jin thirty thousand taels of gold and asked him to take it to North Korea to recruit slaves.
Also accompanying him were Xu Yongning, Duke of Dingguo, and Yushan, Zuocheng of Honglu Temple.
Zhu Qiyu's actions were completely different from those of previous emperors.
The previous Ming emperors also liked concubines, slaves, maids, and eunuchs from North Korea. However, these emperors asked directly from the king of Korea. Xuanzong, in particular, had to fight with the King of Korea from time to time.
Although the Korean monarchs and ministers dare not say it with their mouths, in their hearts they really hate the emperor and envoys of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Qiyu was the only one who paid such a high price since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
Moreover, Zhu Qiyu specially sent Yu Shan, who has a relatively gentle and calm personality.
Among the civil servants who came out of Nidi's residence, now only Yu Shan and Yu Gang are left.
These two people were unwilling to follow the emperor wholeheartedly to engage in disputes between concubines and concubines, and Zhu Qiyu did not reuse or win over them.
When dealing with Yu Shan and Yu Gang, Zhu Qiyu only wanted to get along with him. As for the arrangements for the two of them, Zhu Qiyu had already thought about it. Let them go through the qualifications and then go to Nanjing to serve as ministers.
Yu Shan and Yu Gang were both ministers, and in the end they were able to become ministers, which meant that Zhu Qiyu treated them well.
If you don't have the status of an old minister of Xi Di, how can you want to be a minister with the title of Juren? What are you thinking!
Hai Rui was very powerful, he was also a civil servant. When he was seventy-two years old, he barely became the right minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Nanjing. He had no real power and died two years later.
Therefore, for ministers like Yu Shan and Yu Gang who had old feelings and were not direct relatives, being given the position of minister was very worthy of them.
Jingtai in history was a bit too radical. He gave Yu Shan the position of left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and gave Yu Gang the position of left minister of the Ministry of War. This nepotism was a bit too obvious. What did other ministers think?
The key to the kindness of knowing and meeting was to this extent, but the two of them still refused to sacrifice their lives, and they all died safely.
So now Zhu Qiyu can only give the two men some less important tasks, such as this mission to North Korea.
Because of the tragic defeat of Tumubao, North Korea has become contemptuous of the Ming Dynasty.
Yu Shan's mission is to promote the prestige of the Ming Dynasty and restore the confidence of the North Korean monarchs and ministers in the Ming Dynasty.
Li Jin's mission was to buy back two thousand slaves, maids, and eunuchs with gold. Then the remaining gold is used to buy some mountain delicacies and specialties, and is shipped back to Beijing for resale.
The mission of Duke Xu Yongning is to follow the mission around and gain more knowledge.
As for why he had to travel thousands of miles to North Korea to buy people, the main reason was that Nuo Da's palace couldn't function without servants.
Especially after many princes and princesses are born, relying solely on the concubines to work will definitely not be enough.
Although North Korea was the closest vassal state to the Ming Dynasty, it was still three thousand miles away, and the road in between was extremely difficult.
Compared with the native slaves of the Ming Dynasty, if someone wanted to bribe or blackmail the families of these Korean slaves, the difficulty would be increased by more than an order of magnitude.
Zhu Qiyu wants to make it more difficult for those who want to harm him in every detail.
Moreover, during the construction of the new Prince's Palace this time, Zhu Qiyu also built the West Police Factory on the east side of Prince Qi's Palace. It won't be long before the West Factory will be officially established.
The inner factory, the west factory, and the east factory stand side by side, monitoring the capital in all directions without blind spots.
After thinking about it, Zhu Qiyu suddenly spoke and asked Zhou Chen: "Zhou Aiqing, have the Jingtai Tongbao cast by the Ministry of Industry been distributed to the Beijing army?"
Zhou Chen replied: "Your Majesty, the Baoyuan Bureau's old factory in the inner city and the new factory in the outer city are in full operation. The copper coins minted mainly go to three places. One is to pay wages to the people who participated in the construction of the outer city, and the other is to pay wages to the people who participated in the construction of the outer city. One is to distribute salaries to hundreds of officials, and the other is to distribute to the Beijing army as an additional reward.
Now that the distribution to the third battalion of the Beijing Army has been completed, even the soldiers at the lowest level have each received five copper coins.
His Majesty's three pro-military guards have only distributed part of it, and the Ministry of Industry is still working hard to produce the rest, which will definitely be completed before the Chinese New Year. "
Zhu Qiyu nodded and continued to ask: "How is the circulation of Jingtai Tongbao in the market?"
Zhou Chen heard this and looked at Huang Pu. I signaled that this matter is not under the control of the Minister of the Ministry of Industry. Your Majesty, you should listen to the Inspector of the Eight Prefectures.
Huang Pu replied: "Your Majesty, don't worry, the Jingtai Tongbao you designed is of excellent quality and beautiful appearance, and it was not deliberately mixed with lead, so it is very popular among the people in the capital.
People all say that this is a treasure of the prosperous age and a symbol of benevolent government, which is more than a thousand times stronger than the treasures of the Ming Dynasty. This argument has become a public opinion. As long as the casting quality of Jingtai Tongbao is maintained, it will completely replace the treasure banknotes and become the most important currency of the Ming Dynasty together with silver.
When the time comes, the people's hearts will return, and the Holy One will surely achieve the name of a benevolent king through the ages. "
Zhu Qiyu nodded and sighed heavily: "The most difficult thing is how to recycle the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes. It is definitely not possible to invalidate them directly. It would be equivalent to making fun of the imperial court's little monetary credit.
But if we recycle them proportionately, the Ming emperors had printed so many treasure banknotes indiscriminately. How many Jingtai Tongbao would have to be minted to recover them?
Can you guys tell me what should be done? "
When Zhou Chen heard this, he stepped back directly. The Minister of Industry was only interested in the specific implementation of the emperor's policies, and had no interest in formulating policies or planning strategic guidelines.
Besides, Zhou Chen is already seventy, and he will retire in a few more years, so he is too lazy to use his brain.
Zhu Qiyu looked at He Wenyuan again, and He Wenyuan also shook his head. He Wenyuan is the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and he does not want to worry about these problems that have nothing to do with the Ministry of Personnel.
Zhu Qiyu could only look at He Yi, but He Yi also shook his head.
There has been too much limelight in the past year, so He Yi doesn't want to show too much talent in front of others.
Zhu Qiyu finally had no choice but to look at Huang Pu, and indicated with firm eyes that he could not shirk.
Huang Pu was also helpless. He tossed the pot around and finally landed on his head.
(End of chapter)
