The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 240 The Tragic Chongzhen

As soon as Zhu Cihong finished speaking, the three of them immediately looked straight at Hong Niangzi, and Hong Niangzi explained again: "It turns out that Uncle Fu cares so much about political affairs, so let me explain it to you!"

"No, no, the noble concubine misunderstood, Xiao Wang is not...but..." Fu Wang hurriedly shook his head and waved his hands, he hesitated for a long time, but he didn't know how to explain it. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead in anxiety, and finally he had to ask for help. Chongzhen and Queen Zhou.

The husband and wife had no choice but to pretend they didn't see it. The topic was too sensitive. Even if the emperor was her own son, Empress Zhou didn't want to create a estrangement between the two of them because of these things.

Not to mention Chongzhen.

"It's okay, Uncle Fu doesn't need to be nervous, as the saying goes, family affairs, state affairs, world affairs, care about everything!"

Seeing that he made the three of them extremely nervous, Zhu Cihong waved his hands and smiled, calming down the atmosphere, and then glared at Hong Niangzi.

The red lady also wanted to scare Fu Wang, but after being glared at by Zhu Cihong, she had no choice but to sneer, and then began to explain to the three of them.

"Father, mother, the reason why such a huge amount of money was invested in building the world's official roads this time is mainly because there are too many taxes, and many of them don't know how to spend them, so they have to use them to build official roads."

"what?"

"Too much silver?"

"This... Ying'er, are you joking? Since ancient times, how can the court have so much money that it can't be spent?"

The jaws of the three of them almost didn't drop from shock. Empress Zhou tried to say it, but Chongzhen looked embarrassed, and felt uncomfortable.

"Mother, do you know how much tax Nanzhili collected last year?"

"How many?"

Before Queen Zhou could answer, Chongzhen asked.

Everyone, not to mention Chongzhen, was curious about Nanzhili's tax revenue last year. However, in order not to irritate the gentry all over the world, only a very small number of people knew about it and did not disclose it to the public.

But everyone knows that it will definitely not be less.

"More than 500 million taels, although more than 1000 million taels of which are fines..."

"what?"

"More than 4000 million taels? Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Before Hong Niangzi finished speaking, Chongzhen stood up in shock and said loudly excitedly.

After getting excited, I also knew that I had lost my composure, and I also knew that Hong Niangzi would not lie.

But when he thought of the tax collection of more than 4000 million taels in Nanzhili province alone last year, Chongzhen couldn't keep calm and almost gritted his teeth: "I just heard from Yinger that the fine alone is more than 1000 million taels. Could it be that the big gentry in the south of the Yangtze River really paid twice as much tax honestly?"

"Look at what my father said, those big gentry are the most shrewd. If they don't pay twice, is it possible that they have to wait until five times?"

"I mean…"

Chongzhen opened his mouth, originally wanting to ask if those gentry and landlords are not causing trouble, but then thinking that today is different from the past, he had to stop this embarrassing topic.

Then I don't know whether it is excitement or emotion: "Only the province of Nanzhili can collect nearly [-] million taels of tax silver. Then add Huguang, Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi, and there will be tens of millions of taels?"

"With the addition of customs duties, it should be almost the same." Hong Niangzi nodded.

The three of them gasped again, and then Chongzhen cast a glance at Zhu Cihuang, seeing him eating food on his own, he couldn't hold back and tried to say after all: "Ying'er, even if the imperial court has enough money, it should be saved for emergencies." How can they be so reckless and profligate? What's more, the imperial court has to support millions of troops, and the annual expenditure is quite a lot!"

"That's right, even ordinary families have to save money, let alone the imperial court." Empress Zhou had no choice but to respond.

In fact, neither Chongzhen nor Empress Zhou wanted to get involved in political affairs anymore, but the [-] million taels of infrastructure construction plan proposed by Zhu Cihong was too shocking, so I wanted to ask clearly, otherwise I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep at night.

And Zhu Cihong also understood this, so he didn't care about it, and asked Hong Niangzi to explain it to the two of them, so as not to worry about it.

As for why he didn't explain it, it was because he felt that it was necessary to keep a distance between himself and Chongzhen, especially when it came to national affairs.

"Father and mother, the imperial court is different from ordinary families. If the tens of millions of taels of tax money are not spent every year, if they are saved, then within a few years, the wealth of the entire world may be concentrated in the imperial court. Backfired.

However, most of the tax revenue of the imperial court is collected from the rich, and if all of it is spent on officialdom, a large number of ordinary people need to be hired, which is the same as robbing the rich and helping the poor.

As for the military expenditure, it is indeed very expensive every year, but the silver earned by the Huangdian every year is enough to make up for the military expenditure. "

The red lady simply explained to the three of them the principle of a virtuous economic cycle, taking from the people and using it for the people.

But Hong Niangzi's own understanding is that of robbing the rich and giving to the poor, so what the three of them heard was all in the fog, and they only understood the general idea.

"Father, the imperial court's financial operation is actually the best when it can't make ends meet. That's why my son has to spend all the taxes and money he earns every year..."

Seeing that the red lady couldn't explain clearly, Zhu Cihong had no choice but to explain to the two of them what an economic cycle was, so as not to ask questions in the future.

Sure enough, Zhu Cihong's explanation was much clearer than Hong Niangzi's. This time Chongzhen finally understood it. Although he couldn't understand it, he finally didn't refute it under Empress Zhou's pleading eyes. Instead, he thought for a while and said: " Langer, if the imperial court spends all the money every year, what should we do in case of catastrophe or war?"

"Hehe, isn't there still Huang Mei's bank here? Then the imperial court will just get a loan from the bank." Zhu Cihong said with a smile.

"Okay, okay, you father and son haven't seen each other for almost two years, let's talk about your son's marriage."

Seeing that Empress Zhou had almost understood, the father and son had already had a direct conversation, so she hurriedly changed the subject, not wanting them to continue.

Obviously, I was really scared, worried that this long-lost scene of fatherly kindness and filial piety would lead to discord because of a single sentence, causing the father and son to be as fierce as before.

Chongzhen had no choice but to sigh and stopped mentioning political affairs.

But what Queen Zhou never expected was that the father and son had another disagreement about Princess Kunxing's marriage.

One wants to find a son-in-law for her daughter as soon as possible, so as not to show her face again and cause people to gossip, but the other thinks that the imperial sister is happy and cannot be forced.

"Marriage has always been the order of the parents, the words of the matchmaker..."

"Okay, okay, today's family dinner is over!"

Seeing that the two were about to quarrel again, Empress Zhou didn't care too much, she immediately stood up and announced the end of the banquet, interrupting Chongzhen, and then hurriedly said to the red lady: "Lang'er drank too much, Yinger, quickly help Honger back palace…"

"That's right, Brother Huang, let's discuss about my son's marriage later, it's getting late today."

Fu Wang also hurriedly got up to help, this banquet was too dangerous and awkward, if he was killed, he would not participate next time.

Zhu Cihong obviously didn't want to quarrel with Chongzhen again, anyway, he was the one making the decision now, there was no need to verbally argue with Chongzhen about winning or losing, so he also took the opportunity to get up and resign, and then slipped away with Hong Niangzi.

"Could it be that I, as a father, have no right to intervene in my daughter's marriage?"

After the two left, Chongzhen said with a somber face.

"Oh! Your Majesty, children and grandchildren have their own blessings, and it's not like you don't know about Lang'er's temper, so let's not worry about it."

Empress Zhou could only sigh. Although she was on Chongzhen's side in this matter, she knew that she could not help anyone.

(End of this chapter)