When it comes to raising food, of course, the sooner the better. Therefore, after the court meeting in Wuying Hall ended, everyone became busy with the matter of raising food.
The assistant ministers, household ministers, etc. who were responsible for their duties quickly went to see how much food could be squeezed out. Others, especially the nobles, went directly back to their homes.
No, as soon as Xiangcheng Bo Li Guozhen returned to the house, his wife heard the sound and came out to greet him. She quickly asked with expectation: "Sir, is there anything good that the emperor has summoned?"
Since the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Li Guozhen seemed to have been forgotten. He only had a title and no real power at all. After so many years of idleness, he was really idle. Of course he thought something good was coming when he was suddenly summoned by the emperor. Therefore, before Li Guozhen went to court, the whole government was full of joy.
But at this time, when Li Guozhen heard his wife's words, he curled his lips slightly and sneered: "What good thing? If there is a good thing, can it be my turn?"
"Nothing good?" After hearing this, Mrs. Li Guozhen couldn't help but said in disbelief, "There must be something, right? If there is no good thing, is there something bad? However, we have not done anything that dissatisfied the emperor in these years, so what else can we do? What's wrong?"
At this point, she looked at Li Guozhen and said again: "If something bad happens, I won't be able to be so calm!"
Of course she has a say in what kind of person her master is.
After hearing this, Li Guozhen continued walking into the inner hall and answered the lady who was following half a step behind him: "Do you think losing money is a bad thing?"
"Loss of money?" Upon hearing this, his wife was immediately taken aback, obviously looking a little uneasy, and quickly asked, "Loss of money? Could it be that the emperor summoned the master to ask him to pay for it?"
At this point, she said to herself without waiting for Li Guozhen's reply: "This doesn't make sense. The court is not as short of money as before! How can it ask for money?"
"It's not about money!" After hearing this, Li Guozhen stopped, turned around and looked at the lady behind him and said, "It's about food!"
Without waiting for his wife to ask questions, he continued to add: "The imperial court wants to seize the opportunity to attack Jianlu, but there is no food. The emperor summoned the ministers this time to discuss this matter. The final result is that each government will have surplus food. , all donate the food!”
"Ah?" Mrs. Li Guozhen was surprised when she heard this, and then immediately said: "So that's it. How much are you going to donate? Five stones, ten stones, or fifty stones? No more!"
"I'd like to donate just one stone!" After hearing this, Li Guozhen said angrily, "But if I really want to do this, where can I put my face?"
"..." His wife was speechless for a while after hearing this. After she came to her senses, she angrily said to Li Guozhen who continued to walk into the inner hall, "What do you want to do with your face? One stone for one stone, one stone for the family, and then you will talk about the great cause of the family." Big, if you really don’t have food, you’ll have to do it!”
Hearing this, Li Guozhen stopped again, turned around, looked at his wife and said: "The emperor said that whoever donated how much will be announced on a list. You said, sir, if I really donated a stone, what would happen? The whole city knows, what do you think will happen?"
"This..." After hearing this, Mrs. Li Guozhen hesitated for a moment, and suddenly she seemed to have thought of some good idea. She said to Li Guozhen with a little surprise, "Why don't you visit Jiadingbo and see how much grain he has produced? Then we can How many kilo of food will be needed?"
Jiading Bo Zhou Kui was not only fined 300,000 taels of silver, but also deprived of his title of Earl of Jiading and was banned from reading sages' books in his mansion. Everyone knows that at this time, although Zhou Kui has regained his title, his wealth is definitely not much. If it's the same as Jiadingbo, there won't be much food.
Therefore, after Mrs. Li Guozhen said what she said, the more she thought about it, the more she thought it was a good idea, so she added: "No matter what we do, we don't have the father-in-law's relatives, right? How much the father-in-law pays, we pay as much as we can, that's all It’s my duty!”
Unexpectedly, Li Guozhen not only did not show any joy, but instead frowned and reprimanded: "Bad idea!"
"..." When Mrs. Li Guozhen heard this, she was stunned for a moment. When she came to her senses, she was a little unhappy.
Seeing this, Li Guozhen explained to her: "The emperor has asked the factory guards to investigate the grain storage situation of each mansion in advance. Do you think our mansion can be the same as Jiading Bo's mansion?"
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Li Guozhen was a little dumbfounded and asked quickly: "The emperor found out how much food our house has?"
When Li Guozhen heard this, he became depressed: "The emperor has not announced it, who knows how many have been found?"
Seeing that his wife seemed to be relieved, he knew what she was thinking, and immediately added: "Don't think you are hiding it well. The factory guards are so elusive now that they can detect major treason cases in the past. The Jianlu in Liaodong can be spied on, and the emperor is so wise and powerful, do you think you can hide it from the emperor? Or do you have the courage to deceive the emperor and say that we don't have much food left?"
"..." Although Mrs. Li Guozhen is a woman and rarely goes out, she still knows about the fact that the capital has chopped off the heads of several people who were guilty of bullying. Therefore, after hearing Li Guozhen's words, he was immediately speechless.
Seeing this, Li Guozhen sighed and said, "Just donate as much as you can, otherwise, it would be a shame to be remembered by the superiors!"
Hearing this, Mrs. Li Guozhen sighed with great reluctance: "Oh, life is really hard!"
In the original history, Li Guozhen was very popular with Emperor Chongzhen because of his good eloquence, so he was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Beijing camp and trained in the Beijing camp. As a result, when Li Zicheng came to the door and Emperor Chongzhen wanted to use the Beijing camp, he was told by Li Guozhen that there were no troops available.
In the history books, there is a lot of controversy about Li Guozhen. Some say that Li Guozhen was loyal and brave and cried bitterly in front of Chongzhen's corpse; some ancient books say that after being captured, Li Guozhen was submissive and licked his stinky face to survive. No matter which way, at least Li Guozhen, as the commander-in-chief of the Beijing camp, failed to lead the Beijing camp well, which was a serious crime. Moreover, the military pay for the Beijing camp is provided every year, so this will not be less! Where did all this military pay go?
At this time, after listening to his wife's words, Li Guozhen remembered something and comforted his wife: "The emperor said that he will pay back the food when the food from the south arrives."
"Is this Liu Bei's borrowing money from Jingzhou?" Mrs. Li Guozhen didn't believe it when she heard this, "It's really a waste of money and disaster!"
Under the current power of Emperor Chongzhen, the head of the Xiangcheng Prefecture really did not dare to deceive, so he could only hand over the excess grain based on his estimate of his own grain storage.
Just like that, the capital quickly became lively.
Notices about borrowing grain were posted all over the city. The royal family, nobles, civil and military officials and other government offices began to issue grain one after another. Suddenly, on the streets and alleys of the capital, carts of grain could be seen from time to time, going to the warehouse of the Hubu Yamen on the other side of the water gate under the banner of their respective houses.
As long as someone hands over grain, an update will be announced on the wall next to the warehouse, saying how much grain has been handed in by such-and-such a house. A large group of people were also watching the notice and commenting on the food delivered by each government.
On the first day, this was basically the situation. That night, when Emperor Chongzhen received the memorial on the grain borrowing situation, he was quite satisfied with it after reading it, and there was nothing unexpected about it.
On Zhou Kui's side, Queen Zhou sent someone to remind him early in the morning. It may be that he has learned the lesson from before, or it may be that Emperor Chongzhen's prestige is too high now. Zhou Kui did not dare to make any more mistakes, so he used all the food in the house. , I handed over the food in the morning.
On this first day, basically all the royal family and nobles, civil and military officials who participated in the discussions at Wuying Palace handed over the food. The next few days will be more critical. Let's see how many people will respond to the imperial court's call and follow up to hand over food to support the war to annihilate the Jianlu.
Whether there are many people who follow up and how much food they pay will determine how many troops the imperial court can send to Liaodong and deal a devastating blow to Jianlu when he is at his weakest.
Based on this situation, the next day, Emperor Chongzhen left the palace incognito and went to the warehouse in person. He drank tea in the private room on the second floor of the restaurant next to the window and watched what was going on. He wanted to see the food delivery in person. Case. If the situation on site is not ideal, he doesn't mind throwing in a little catalyst to liven up the atmosphere of the capital handing over food.
What Emperor Chongzhen didn't expect was that he had almost finished drinking a pot of tea, but he didn't see many people bringing food. Suddenly, his face looked a little ugly.
When Wang Chengen who was waiting at the side saw him, he quickly comforted him and said: "Your Majesty, it is still early and there are not many people on the street. I estimate that the various governments will wait until there are more people on the street before sending it here!"
Emperor Chongzhen heard this and couldn't help but stare at him. I have to say that Wang Chengen has indeed grown a lot in the past few years since he became the admiral of Dongchang. If it were him in the past, he probably wouldn't be able to say this.
"Why didn't you say that they were busy collecting food, so they had to deliver it later?" Emperor Chongzhen felt better and said to him with a smile.
When Wang Chengen heard this, he looked as if he suddenly realized it, and quickly replied: "Your Majesty, your Majesty is wise, my mind is dark!"
"Hahaha..." Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but laugh after hearing this, and his mood became a little better.
While they were talking, there were slowly more and more pedestrians on the street. Sure enough, we also saw that there were convoys from various prefectures on the streets delivering food.
Good guy, every one of these food delivery teams is as lively as a wedding. Either gongs or drums were played, and there were signs, either held by servants or inserted on grain carts, which said how much grain a certain house had lent in response to the court.
Needless to say, this situation was actually guessed by Wang Chengen.
It is understandable that these governments are sending food, and Emperor Chongzhen did not care.
After watching for a while, Emperor Chongzhen thought about it. When he was about to return to the palace, the situation suddenly changed unexpectedly.
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