This prince is going to heaven

Chapter 698
Southern Chu.

Flowing Cloud City.

The imperial study room.

Mu Xiqiu, who was dressed in a black imperial robe, was sitting upright behind the dragon table, holding a book in his hand and reading it with great interest. After a long time, he turned to the last page and finished reading, then gently placed the book on the table superior.

"The writing is quite tear-jerking."

Mu Xiqiu chuckled, then got up and walked slowly to the window with his hands behind his back, silently looking at the palace buildings not far away, the sun shines on his body through the window, reflecting the hair on his forehead It also gradually turned golden yellow.

His eyes were not far away, but his thoughts drifted to nowhere.

The whole person stood quietly beside the window, just like the person in the painting.

I don't know how long it took before an old eunuch with gray temples opened the door and walked in, bowing and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Shen, Lord Sima, Lord Zhao, Minister of the Household Department, are here."

Mu Xiqiu nodded with his back turned, and said, "Xuan."

After saying this, he shook his head slightly and walked to the dragon case again and sat down.

Soon Prime Minister Shen Yaochen, General Sima Zongheng, Minister of the Household Department Zhao Shicheng walked in together, the three of them were about to salute but were interrupted by Mu Xiqiu's hand: "Excuse me."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" The three said in unison.

Mu Xiqiu looked up at Sima Zongheng and asked straight to the point: "General Sima, how is the conscription going?"

They naturally knew the purpose of Mu Xiqiu calling the three of them here today, and they only heard Sima Zongheng said in a deep voice: "Return to Your Majesty, it has been two months since the conscription started, and five of the seven states have sent letters. So far, these five prefectures have recruited 13 soldiers in total. Among them, Yuezhou and Nanzhou are a little far away from the capital and have a vast land and a large population. Chu Zheng captured 20 soldiers."

Mu Xiqiu nodded: "The Ministry of War did not trick me this time."

Sima Zongheng didn't answer.

"Qing Zhao."

"The minister is here." Hearing Mu Xiqiu calling him, Zhao Shicheng hurriedly bowed to answer.

"Don't be restrained, just relax."

"Yes Yes."

Mu Xiqiu's words caused cold sweat to break out on Zhao Shicheng's forehead.

"How many taels are there in the treasury now?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, the original treasury had a total of 480 cents in silver. This time, 640 taels were allocated to the Ministry of War according to His Majesty's orders, leaving 1000 taels."

He was interrupted by Mu Xiqiu before he finished speaking: "Okay, okay, there's no need to be so clear, the treasury probably has less than 500 million taels of silver, right?"

"That's right." Zhao Shicheng couldn't help wiping the cold sweat off his forehead.

In fact, it can't be blamed that he calculated too carefully, and he didn't want to be so troublesome, but he didn't dare!

The former Minister of the Household Department was dismissed because His Majesty asked him how much money was left in the treasury, but he couldn't give a specific figure.

Hey, the former Minister of the Household Department is almost 60 years old this year. Just such an old man with half of his body buried in the soil has endured [-] court battles. Although he didn't die at the time, according to others' inquiries, he probably won't live long. .

Mu Xiqiu's wrist is so iron-blooded, how can Zhao Shicheng not be afraid?
But Mu Xiqiu didn't care about the ups and downs in his heart at all, but went on to say: "Yesterday I gave the Ministry of Industry a sketch and asked them to make a new weapon according to it. You will transfer 30 taels of silver to the Ministry of Industry in a while." , Let them batch build a batch and send it to the Ministry of War!"

"The minister obeys the order."

Hearing the words "new weapon", General Sima Zongheng's gaze changed slightly, and he cupped his hands towards Mu Xiqiu and said, "Your Majesty, what kind of new weapon is that?"

Mu Xiqiu chuckled, and said: "A short and powerful continuous-fire hand crossbow, if the general is interested, he can go to the Ministry of Industry later, I believe they should have produced a lot by now, just go and try the power how!"

"The continuous-fire hand crossbow? Did His Majesty come up with it himself?"

Mu Xiqiu shook his head and smiled, and said: "I also stole this from someone else, the power is actually pretty good, you'll know after a while."

"The minister obeys the order."

After saying this, Mu Xiqiu turned his attention to Prime Minister Shen Yaochen, and said, "Shen Qing?"

"The minister is here."

Compared with Zhao Shicheng, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the performance of Prime Minister Shen Yaochen was much better, his expression was neither humble nor overbearing, and he had the demeanor of not changing his face when a mountain collapsed in front of his eyes.

"Have you issued my recruitment order?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, the fifty recruitment orders have now been issued to all states and counties. The officials of each state and county, the squire Shihao, personally recommend the local sages, and let them compete in various places. Only the winner in the end is eligible to take The recruitment order to enter Beijing will be assessed by His Majesty himself."

Mu Xiqiu nodded.

In fact, he was the one who came up with this method at the beginning, but later Shen Yaochen changed the rules a little bit. In Mu Xiqiu's mind, this matter is even more important than conscription!

Since he ascended the throne, he has beheaded almost half of the people in Nanchu's officialdom. Although it is not a pity for those people to die, they have vacated positions after all, and these positions are naturally occupied by capable people, so It was Mu Xiqiu who came up with this method.

With such a vast territory in Southern Chu, why can't the great country not find fifty talents?Mu Xiqiu didn't believe it!
And after discussing these important matters, Mu Xiqiu suddenly picked up the book in front of him, pointed the title of the book at Shen Yaochen and the three of them, and said with a light smile, "Have the three adults read this book before?"

Sima Zongheng directly shook his head, Zhao Shicheng was startled for a moment, then secretly looked at the Prime Minister Shen Yaochen beside him, and he nodded quickly after seeing him nodding.

"Shen Qing and Zhao Qing have both seen it? What do you two think?"

Shen Yaochen said calmly: "The plot of the story is rich and tear-jerking, and the writing technique is quite clever. The author of this book does not live up to his reputation as the world's most talented man."

Shen Yaochen's evaluation was extremely high, although everyone knew that the author of this book was Wen Ruyan, King Jing of the Great Zhou.

"Oh? What about Zhao Qing's opinion?" Mu Xiqiu asked Zhao Shicheng again with a smile.

Zhao Shicheng didn't have the guts to praise Wen Ruyan in front of Mu Xiqiu. Now that everyone in Southern Chu has a high official position, who doesn't know that Wen Ruyan is His Majesty's lifelong enemy?And who doesn't know that His Majesty has been defeated many times by Wen Ruyan, King Jing before he succeeded to the throne.

How dare Zhao Shicheng praise Wen Ruyan?

He pondered for a moment and then said: "I think that although the author of this book has some writing skills, a man born between heaven and earth should be able to stand up to the world with a three-foot sword. How can he stay in the world all day?" Indulging in this love between a man and a woman? It seems a little heroic to be short-tempered for the love of children."

(End of this chapter)