"Your Majesty, do you have any methods to increase revenue and reduce expenditure?" Empress Zhou turned to look at the other concubines, then turned back and continued, "I, I, must obey!"
"Please express your Majesty's decree!" The other concubines listened and agreed.
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen was not polite and said directly: "Starting from next year, each palace will have to reduce its expenses, as well as palace maids and chambermaids. Those who are not necessary or are not accustomed to use will be selected. I will arrange for them separately. In this way , the palace can still reduce some expenses."
When he said this, he had already thought about it, not to embarrass his wife and children, but to fight against the civil and military officials of the dynasty and the royal family and nobles next. Although he was preparing to push Cao Huachun, Xue Guoguan and others in front of the stage, he only had one life, so he should be careful no matter how careful he was.
This is not unfounded worry. Let’s not talk about things that have no real evidence. Let’s just talk about Emperor Jiajing. He was almost strangled to death by the maid next to him. This is a historical fact.
Learn from the past and have to be careful!
With fewer people in the palace, it is easier to check and monitor and improve your safety.
In addition, there is another benefit to doing this. It is to prove to the world that as an emperor, he is very poor. He really has no money, and he has become this poor!
Of course, even if you do this, you can't stop the rumors spread by people with impure intentions. Emperor Chongzhen remembered that there was a rumor in later generations, saying that Emperor Chongzhen in history was a miser, stingy, and the country was about to fall. He refused to take out the internal funds. In the end, Li Zicheng took advantage of him and took out more than 30 million taels from the palace. silver.
Anyone with a normal IQ would not believe such rumors; but the key point is that some people with abnormal IQs, and even some with normal IQs, deliberately believed it just to discredit Emperor Chongzhen. In this case, the Ming Dynasty fell, and of course it was not worthy of sympathy!
Such an emperor is stingy and stingy, and such a dynasty does not care about the life and death of the people. It should have been destroyed long ago!
Emperor Chongzhen now does not want the royal face, and does things that truly increase revenue and reduce expenditure, just to prove to the world that he has no money, to minimize being maliciously smeared, and to let the people in the world know that the imperial court really has no money, and he, the emperor, really has no money!
Why the emperor is rich all over the world? In this Chongzhen Dynasty, especially in the last years of Chongzhen, it is really a big joke!
Emperor Chongzhen also had another intention in doing this, which was to give them one less excuse when they borrowed money from civil and military officials, relatives and nobles in the near future.
Of course, what he wants now is not only to reduce expenditures, but also to increase revenue.
For example, he looked at Queen Zhou and said, "I remember that the Queen can weave, right?"
Queen Zhou was stunned for a moment, then she immediately came back to her senses and nodded: "I used to be from a poor family, and I know how to weave and so on."
Zhou Kui is a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. In his early years, he made a living by practicing medicine and divination on the streets. It can be said that he lived a hard life for a long time. Therefore, during those years, Empress Zhou was just like girls from ordinary families, capable of sewing, weaving and so on.
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen told her: "After the new year, when the queen has free time, she will lead people to do some weaving work to subsidize the expenses of the palace!"
Hearing this, everyone in the hall who was qualified to eat was immediately stunned. Each of them was a little stunned, thinking that they heard wrongly.
Let the queen subsidize palace expenses through textiles? This... this is simply appalling, right?
It was Empress Zhou who was the first to come to her senses. It was related to the Ming Dynasty and the country. When she had no money, she had to tighten her belt and live a life. For her, who had always been virtuous, it was not unacceptable. She nodded and said: "I have written it down." !”
"Mother!" Prince Zhu Cixi couldn't help shouting at this moment, "How unbecoming is this? You are my Ming Dynasty..."
"Prince!" When Empress Zhou heard this, she quickly glanced at the emperor, then immediately interrupted her son and said seriously, "It is precisely because you are the queen mother that you need to set an example in the palace. Your majesty is busy with state affairs, so the queen mother can only Do something like this to relieve His Majesty's worries! Do you understand?"
After all, Zhu Cixiang was only a child under ten years old. He grew up in the palace and was named a prince at birth. In his opinion, both the queen and the prince were the most respected people in the world, so how could they do such a menial job?
Therefore, he did not understand the meaning of his mother's words, but continued: "But these things can be done by the maids and chamberlains, Queen Mother..."
Having said this, he turned to look at Emperor Chongzhen and said with a sincere face: "Father, I think that my mother does not have to do such lowly things personally. If word spreads, it will damage my mother's reputation!"
The original Emperor Chongzhen doted on his son because of his life experience. Therefore, the prince is not so afraid of his father.
At this moment, everyone turned their attention to Emperor Chongzhen to see how he would reply?
Queen Zhou knew in her heart that something was wrong, and quickly defended her son: "Your Majesty, the prince is very filial, he..."
Before she could say anything, Emperor Chongzhen stretched out his hand to stop her. Then he looked at Zhu Cixiang. He was neither angry nor happy. He just asked lightly: "Your mother doesn't think this is a despicable thing. Why?" Do you think this is a despicable thing? Who told you that the queen cannot do work like weaving?"
After hearing this, Zhu Cixiang finally felt that something was wrong and lowered his head and did not dare to speak.
"Taizu was born in a humble age. What kind of hardships has he never suffered? Is it possible that some people in the world think that Taizu did a lowly job, and some people look down on Taizu?" Emperor Chongzhen's voice slowly became colder and his voice became louder. After one o'clock, he suddenly shouted sharply, "You are the prince. If you have such thoughts, how can I trust you to entrust the Ming Dynasty to you?"
After he finished speaking, he suddenly stood up, waved his hands and left.
Zhu Cixiang was so frightened that he left the table and knelt down to plead guilty, but failed to retain Emperor Chongzhen.
Seeing this, Queen Zhou glared at her son with a bit of hatred, and hurriedly chased Emperor Chongzhen.
Outside the palace, Queen Zhou caught up with Emperor Chongzhen and explained nicely: "Your Majesty, that's not what the prince meant. He really is just filial."
The cold wind howled, and there was a half-circle cold moon in the sky. Emperor Chongzhen stood still, looked up at the sky, and said angrily: "You don't need to say anything, I don't know him yet, and I don't know the sufferings of the people. How can I be a good emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the future?" "
"Your Majesty!" Queen Zhou became anxious upon hearing this, and quickly knelt down and said, "It's because I failed to teach you the right way. If Your Majesty wants to blame me, just blame me. The prince is still young, so I will try my best to teach him."
Emperor Chongzhen heard the noise and turned around to help her. But after thinking about it, he said cruelly: "You can't be blamed for this matter. I was also negligent. I will consider this matter again."
After saying that, he ignored Queen Zhou who was kneeling on the ground, turned around and walked away in a stride.
The New Year’s Eve dinner ended on an unhappy note!
