"Since it is Rushengwan, I wonder if Yuma can make the emperor's son take it?"
As soon as Xu Lingjiu said this, Li Wenjin's expression immediately changed. His hand holding Rusheng Pill shook and he almost dropped the pill.
Then he calmed down, held the pill and showed it to Xu Lingjiu, and said, "Do you want our family to feed this pill to the emperor's son? Okay, but... you eat it first and let us eat it." How about taking a look at home?" Then he handed the pill in his hand to Xu Lingjiu.
"Hahahaha." Xu Lingjiu laughed, then took the pill under Li Wenjin's stern gaze, threw it into his mouth, his throat rolled, and it seemed that he had actually taken it.
But Li Wenjin obviously didn't believe it. He was also a man who had seen the world, so he deliberately asked: "How does Mr. Xu's medicine taste?"
Xu Lingjiu smiled and said, "Medicine is medicine, and it naturally tastes like a holy pill."
Li Wenjin snorted softly and said: "If this pill is like that pill, the emperor's son would have to take it for several days. It is enough for the imperial hospital. Why should Mr. Xu be so eager?"
At this moment, Li Wenjin could tell from Xu Lingjiu's words that he had indeed swallowed the "Rusheng Pill" alive, which showed that the medicine should be non-toxic. However, from the perspective of purpose, there must be something wrong with this medicine. Otherwise, why would you want to change the medicine?
"People don't tell secrets, Mr. Xu, since you and the people behind the scenes want to cooperate with our family, you naturally know that our family is almost always willing to accept money, but our family must also say it first... No matter it is Our family must know the details of any kind of transaction, and we can't help others count the money after being sold." Li Wenjin stared at Xu Lingjiu and said coldly as before.
Xu Lingjiu still looked harmless, raised the porcelain bottle in his hand, and said: "Yu Ma should have noticed that this medicine is exactly the same as Rusheng Pill. No matter the shape, color, smell, or taste, they are all the same." No difference and no toxicity.
Of course, Yu Ma has doubts in his heart, which I can understand. Today I might as well explain it more clearly: Even if this medicine is handed over to the Imperial Hospital for testing, or if any ordinary person is allowed to try the medicine, it will never cause discomfort, let alone Talk about poisoning. "
Li Wenjin's mind was racing, and at the same time, he subconsciously reached out for the porcelain bottle again, poured out the Rusheng Pills inside, and observed it carefully in his hand.
He looked and smelled it, not only pinched it, but even cut one in half with his nails and looked at the cut surfaces carefully, but he still couldn't see anything wrong.
Then he thought about it again and finally realized that Xu Lingjiu's words just now were very suspicious - "Or let any ordinary person try the medicine."
Why did Xu Lingjiu insist on specifying "ordinary people" to take it? Is it safe for ordinary people to take it, but children with jaundice should not take it?
If this is the case, then other pharmaceutical ingredients must have been added to this pill. Otherwise, how could it change the properties of the medicine and turn Rusheng Pill, originally used to treat jaundice, into a drug that cannot be taken if jaundice occurs? However, it is obvious that the added ingredients do not require a large dose, and are likely to be colorless and odorless, so that the fake ones can be mistaken for the real ones.
Li Wenjin suddenly felt that the power involved behind this matter was so great that he, a man who often prided himself on being bold, felt a chill on his spine. The probability of newborns developing jaundice is indeed very high, but it would be overly calculated to prepare newborns with seemingly common but actually different drugs to harm them.
It can only be said that the person who promoted this conspiracy must have been preparing for this matter for a long time. The plan is not only interconnected, but also difficult to distinguish between true and false.
They had previously used themselves to obtain Kunning Palace's garrison defense plans and time rotation schedules, thus dragging themselves onto the pirate ship. After they were already involved in it and it was impossible to distance themselves from the relationship, they launched another "cooperation" and gave this specially made "Rusheng Pill" to the emperor's legitimate son to take to achieve their goal.
Since this bottle of "Rusheng Pills" is of great importance, they also know that they will definitely have concerns, so they have already planned to make the pills so fake that even the hospital may not be able to detect any problems, so everyone All suspicions were dispelled.
Under this situation, even if the incident comes to light in the future, since the cause cannot be found out in the end, then even if the emperor's legitimate son dies, it will probably be regarded as an accident and God's will, and no one will be responsible for it.
The only problem is...
"Mr. Xu, we don't care what happens to this bottle of medicine for now, but we must remind you: you must know that the emperor's legitimate son will call us uncle no matter what."
"Two hundred thousand taels." Xu Lingjiu didn't hesitate at all, and actually made a quotation directly.
Li Wenjin's heart skipped a beat, but he snorted, turned his head, and said indifferently: "As far as our family knows, the palace has already prepared everything for the crown prince's canonization ceremony."
"Two hundred and fifty thousand taels," Xu Lingjiu said.
"Our family also heard that the emperor was very satisfied after asking Gao Rixin to help build the three main halls. Now he is planning to ask Gao Rixin to help rebuild the Zhongcui Palace so that the crown prince can have a separate life in a few years. You don’t have to stay in Kunning Palace all the time.”
"Three hundred thousand taels." Xu Lingjiu said again.
Li Wenjin smiled and calmly said: "I remember, the imperial concubine went to bed yesterday..."
"Three hundred and fifty thousand taels."
"By the way, does Mr. Xu know that Queen Mother Rensheng has been in disharmony recently? Although she has not improved in the past few days, she goes to Kunning Palace to see the emperor's legitimate son every day. As soon as she comes out of Kunning Palace, she is in high spirits. It will be very good..."
Xu Lingjiu said without blinking: "Four hundred thousand taels."
Li Wenjin's breathing was obviously a lot heavier. He thought about it for a while and finally said: "We remembered something again..."
"Li Yuma." Xu Lingjiu shook his head and waved his hand to stop him: "Let's do it. The price is five hundred thousand taels. Can't we say more?"
"Deal!" Li Wenjin slapped his thigh: "Our family will accept this matter - are you sure this drug really can't be found?"
Xu Lingjiu showed a confident smile: "If it can be found out, Li Yuma, you are in a bad situation, but aren't I and the princes behind me even more doomed?"
"Well, that's the truth." Li Wenjin nodded and agreed with this statement.
He really thought so, because this medicine was so similar to Rusheng Pills. Even if the incident really came to light, he could still pretend that he had taken Rusheng Pills for the emperor's son. Given his special status, saying this might really get rid of suspicion. In the end, the worst case scenario would be that "although he is exempted from death penalty, he will not be able to escape living crime."
For Li Wenjin, as long as the death penalty can be avoided, "living crime" is not a big deal. As long as his sister, Queen Mother Li, is still in Cining Palace, this living crime can at most have some symbolic meaning and will not make him suffer at all. How painful.
Five hundred thousand taels! What is this concept? An ox in the capital costs only eight taels of silver, and the monthly salary of a first-rank official in the imperial court only costs more than sixty taels. [Note: But if you have more officials, you will get more. Taking Gao Pragmatic as an example, he can get a salary for each of his posts such as Taifu, Wenhuadian Grand Scholar, and Hubu Shangshu. Of course, among them, the bachelor's degree is only of the fifth rank. Although their status is high, their salary is very low. ]
If this kind of "small money" comparison is not interesting, then it may be more obvious when you look at the warships of the Beijing-China Liangyang Fleet: a single armed transport ship costs 55,000 taels, a single second-class cruiser costs 120,000 taels, and a single first-class cruiser costs 16 Ten thousand taels, a single third-level battleship costs 240,000 taels... Even Jinghua's current most expensive battleship, a second-level battleship, costs only 350,000 taels.
With half a million taels, nine armed transport ships can be built, which can be directly formed into a sea trade fleet. The firepower is even so powerful that it does not need escort in 99% of the sea areas of the East and Southeast Asia - unless the two ocean fleets want to beat it.
If we add the previous two hundred thousand taels, we can build almost thirteen armed transport ships. How can I describe this scale... If we were to go to Japan now, the Japanese navy, which was crippled in North Korea, would probably not dare to fight.
In order to bribe Li Wenjin, the Jiangnan chaebols actually spent 700,000 taels, which shows how huge their investment was this time. Such a huge investment also shows that they are really determined not to give up until they achieve their goals this time.
At this time, Gao Pragmatic didn't know that the emperor's legitimate son was in danger, and he had a lot to do now. Let’s not mention the public, private and private aspects of the three strategic directions. As the year draws to a close, the Ministry of Accounts has to clear its accounts and make next year’s fiscal budget. Both revenue and expenditure have to be done. The workload is huge.
Although clearing accounts and making budgets do not require a highly pragmatic and hands-on approach, in terms of income, he always has to explain a lot of changes that may occur next year, which requires totaling them one by one with the officials below. As for the expenditure budget, it is even more troublesome. We have to argue with each ministry and government office one by one.
Every yamen hopes that its budget will be bigger and bigger, but the Ministry of Accounts will do the opposite, giving as little as possible, lest the revenue will not be as large as the expenditure and create a deficit.
Although the financial system of the Ming Dynasty has gone through several rounds of highly pragmatic reforms, it is obviously still far from the level of later generations. In essence, it is still based on the principle of "living within your means". Therefore, for things like deficit, it is the same as It's almost like seeing the God of Plague. You can avoid it as far as you can.
Being pragmatic in managing finances also has something in common with war. They like to keep enough "reserve teams", that is, try to keep enough flexible funds to prepare for emergencies. This means that at the end of every year, the Household Department always has to argue with other ministries. Many officials in the Household Department are now making rapid progress in the skill of eloquence. They are all able to quarrel with the scholars, and they also have a bit of "Although there are thousands of people, I It’s over” momentum.
On this day, he had just led some of his subordinates to argue with the Ministry of Works for two hours. It was already lunch time, and he was about to take a temporary "truce" to fill his stomach, when he suddenly received a secret report from his servant.
When he opened it, Gao Pragmatic couldn't help but frown.
I saw only one line written on the secret report: The royal horse came to Guangjinfang again this morning, for a total of one hour and two moments, and his face was happy when he came out.
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Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "This year? How long?" for their reward support, thank you!
Thank you to book friends "cxxmp", "seamche", "小生不了", and "在 solo Zhao Bixin" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
ps: This chapter was a bit difficult to write. At first, I looked up the prescription for a long time... Then I thought that if I made a mistake, it would be better not to write it, so I scrapped the 1k+ draft. In the end, I thought that it would be less.
