I'm really not doing business

Chapter 894: When you said to make Ming Dynasty great again, does that include us?

Zhu Yijun never denied the similarities between the Ming Baochao and the gold bond, but similarities aside, the fundamental purpose of the Ming Baochao was to resolve the contradiction between the shortage of Ming currency and insufficient liquidity. It was an act to adapt to the current economic development environment of the Ming Dynasty and the reduction in the inflow of precious metals from overseas, not for the purpose of war.

Spain likes to borrow money to fight wars, while the Ming Dynasty does not borrow money to fight wars, but likes to owe wages.

The Emperor and the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty certainly envied Spain for being able to borrow money, but Spain was equally envious that the Ming army, despite being owed wages, was still able to defeat the Japanese pirates and resist the barbarians in the north.

It was difficult for Felipe to understand how the Ming Dynasty could have owed wages for 170 years without causing unrest on the border. It was also difficult for the Ming Dynasty to comprehend why the West was so afraid of Felipe, who borrowed money to fight a war.

Zhu Yijun looked at Quan Tianpei and said very frankly: "These 120,000 taels of gold and the stable development of Jinshan City have solved my urgent needs. Felipe is making a fuss about raising taxes on the Ming Dynasty, hoping to worsen the shortage of money in the Ming Dynasty, thereby causing the price of goods to drop, so that the Ming Dynasty can bear the cost of the war."

"As long as he negotiates with the Ming Dynasty in the name of increasing tariffs and asks the Ming Dynasty to buy some of his gold bonds or borrow war loans from the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty will also negotiate, but he raises tariffs first and then comes back. Once I compromise, they will take advantage of me."

"To serve Qin with land is like trying to put out a fire with fuel. If the fuel is not exhausted, the fire will not go out. That is why Pedro, the Spanish envoy, was not allowed to see the emperor."

Zhu Yijun explained what had happened recently. In addition to the killings in the tribute selection case, this was the top priority of the Ming Dynasty. Even if the market could be cultivated, it would take a long time.

Without the huge Spanish market, the Ming Dynasty would be in danger of losing the power of the rich and powerful, especially the maritime merchants who mainly engaged in maritime trade, and their dissatisfaction would surely intensify.

The Ming Dynasty needed a market to consume the goods from workshops in the coastal areas, that is, the heartland of the Ming Dynasty. If the gold narrative was not convincing and domestic demand could not be established, this pain would last for a long time and would not be conducive to the Wanli Reform.

Quan Tianpei returned to the Ming Dynasty with gold, which greatly enhanced the confidence in the gold narrative and could significantly mitigate the adverse effects of tariffs.

Zhu Yijun thanked these overseas pioneers for their outstanding contributions to the Wanli Reform.

"I... haven't thought about it that much." Quan Tianpei understood what His Majesty said, but he didn't understand it completely.

He did not understand His Majesty's anxiety, nor did he understand the dissatisfaction of the coastal merchants of the Ming Dynasty, nor did he understand the Ming Dynasty's urgency to cultivate domestic demand. What was the use of the little bit of gold he brought back? It was just a drop in the bucket.

Quan Tianpei was just an astronomy student, and now he is the Earl of Jinshan. Let Your Majesty and the ministers worry about these matters!
All he knew was that the right thing to do was to bring back more gold.

"Tomorrow I will supervise the execution of 152 families at the execution platform outside Chaoyang Gate. The crimes of these people have been posted and announced. Marquis Jinshan can take a look at the contents published in the official bulletin." Zhu Yijun asked Feng Bao to arrange for Quan Tianpei, who had just returned to Ming Dynasty, to attend the execution tomorrow.

The Ming Dynasty had to maintain basic stability so that pioneers like Quan Tianpei who relied on the court could have no worries. The emperor's justified use of violence was also part of a stable order and was extremely important.

"I obey your order." Quan Tianpei bowed again and left the Mochou Lake Palace.

Only after Quan Tianpei left did Zhu Yijun walk out of the yard and see the gold piled up in the yard.

Quan Tianpei had already withdrawn the goods he wanted from the imperial court, including three five-masted ocean-going ships, flintlock muskets, tiger squat cannons, naval guns, etc. These things were more important to Jinshan City.

Twelve hundred thousand taels is actually only 7500 kilograms, which can fill half a room, so it is not much.

Quan Tianpei felt that he had made a lot of money!
The imperial court sold a five-masted ocean-going ship to the West for 250,000 silver coins. It did not have any firearms or gunpowder, and one had to spend extra money to buy them. The gold, which was neither edible nor drinkable, could be exchanged for such direct violence, and the Ming court also granted him a title and support. It was such a great profit.

Such a small amount of gold was indeed a drop in the bucket for the Ming Dynasty's economy and money shortage, but the continuous supply of gold greatly enhanced confidence.

The Ming Dynasty now has two places that can provide stable supplies of gold, which is the foundation for the gold narrative to continue.

Whether it is bonds or treasure notes, they all need the support of confidence. People must believe that it is valuable. If people do not believe that it is valuable, it is worthless.

"Gold bonds and Ming treasure notes look the same, but they are completely different." Marcus said sincerely. He found that he had misunderstood. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was much more reliable than Felipe.

In front of His Majesty, Felipe acted like a child who was yelling, "I don't want to play with you."

"Your Majesty, Felipe may become angry and close the passage to the Strait of Magellan, which may cause great trouble to the Ming Dynasty's global merchant ships." Marcus talked about Felipe's possible actions to put further pressure.

Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "He has closed the Strait of Magellan. I can only split the global trade into two lines, Pacific trade and Western and Atlantic trade. There is no need to worry too much."

The Ming Dynasty never truly regarded anyone as a friendly country, because there were many uncertainties within the Ming Dynasty itself. How could it expect overseas countries to remain unchanged?
Therefore, for the Ming Dynasty's global trade caravans, the worst that could happen is that they would be split into two routes. Without the Strait of Magellan and the Sino-Japanese Canal not being built, the Ming Dynasty still had a way to achieve global trade, it would just be much more troublesome.

"The Ming Dynasty is good at planning before making decisions." Upon hearing this, Marcus put aside his concerns.

Antonio sent him here, not only to properly convey his opinions, but also to do one more thing, the most important thing, which was to confirm whether the Ming Dynasty's goods could arrive in Lisbon as scheduled.

"We must be careful of Felipe's desperate actions. If Portugal starts selling gold bonds, he will definitely bribe people in the palace to assassinate Antonio. As long as Antonio dies, Portugal will be in a short period of unrest, which will prevent the gold bonds from collapsing quickly."

Zhu Yijun looked at Marcus and said, "It's not like Felipe hasn't done this before. Three leaders of the Netherlands were assassinated. We must be careful of a small group of ambitious people."

"I will follow your instructions." Marcus bowed his head again. Felipe has never been a good person, so Antonio was naturally on guard.

Antonio's solution was to hand over the security of his palace to the coastal defense inspectors sent by the Ming Dynasty! They behaved more like a vassal state than the vassal states of East Asia.

Antonio understood very clearly that if the Ming Dynasty did not support him to be king, he would be doomed as long as the goods were not allowed to be distributed in Lisbon. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's coastal defense inspectors were trustworthy in Antonio's eyes.

There is a long-standing and widespread custom in the West that palace guards are often mercenaries from other countries.

The news of Jinshan City spread quickly.

The Ming emperor also placed the 120,000 gold in the imperial farm. Feng Bao specially used a lime blowtorch to shine in the window to make the gold sparkle, telling everyone that there was another place in the Ming Dynasty where they could get gold.

The progress of the Wanli Reform will not change because of the reduction in silver inflows.

The next morning, the emperor got up early and went to Chaoyang Gate to supervise the execution. This time, heads rolled down the field and blood flowed like a river, but the emperor still had no intention of putting down his butcher knife.

As one of the five major cases in the Wanli period, the Nan Ya tribute selection case attracted widespread attention from the Nan Ya scholars. Soon, the tribute selection case was linked to the North and South List case in the 30th year of Hongwu.

Everyone suddenly discovered that this tribute selection case and the original North-South List case seemed to be completely unrelated, but in fact they were essentially the same!

Monopolizing the imperial examination system, monopolizing the channels to obtain political power, and thus monopolizing political power.

With this connection, everyone became more accepting of the tribute selection case. After all, countless people lost their lives in the North and South List cases. The scale of the tribute selection case now seems a bit petty.

Your Majesty has just killed a few people without implicating any other people. The Emperor has been very merciful.

The powerful and wealthy people, local celebrities, gentry, and scholars in the Southern Court chose to reconcile with themselves and comfort themselves that Your Majesty is more lenient than Emperor Taizu Gao.

Zhu Yijun did not pay much attention to this change in public opinion, because the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan Shen Li submitted a memorial in which he systematically explained to the Emperor why Philip II could borrow money to fight the war, but the Ming Dynasty could not.

In the past hundred years, with the continuous expansion of Spain and Portugal at sea, especially the mining of rich silver mines, a large amount of precious metals poured into the West.

During this hundred years, a strange phenomenon occurred in Thailand. An evil wind swept across Thailand, and even the Ottomans were not spared.

The main characteristics of this evil wind are: rapidly rising prices, rapid currency depreciation, the emergence of various counterfeit currencies, and rampant speculation.

Shen Li cited Portugal, which the Ming Dynasty knew best, as an example. In a hundred years, the price of a pound of grain increased twelvefold. In the Ming Dynasty's Southern Court, a stone of grain cost only three cents of silver, while in the West, a stone of grain cost as much as three taels of silver.

Felipe did not share the glory of the sun never setting with the poor laborers. The huge profits from the great voyages, that is, gold and silver, were controlled by a few people, but the soaring prices of various goods in the market suffocated everyone.

Then something ridiculous happened.

In the absence of a need for more food, land, goods, or population, all meat-eaters in the West have to consider one issue, which is to supply more goods, increase supply, reduce prices, and prevent riots and unrest caused by "poor people who can't afford it."

At this time, the West had fallen into a contradictory state of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Extreme wealth meant that a large amount of precious metals poured in, but were in the hands of a few people. Extreme poverty meant that the poor and laboring people could not afford any goods, not even the most basic salt, food, and clothing.

Distribution is not just a problem for the Ming Dynasty, and the silver dam is not a phenomenon unique to the Ming Dynasty. Wealth is concentrated in metropolises, and goods are also concentrated in these metropolises. People began to move spontaneously, while urban management in the West has been very poor since ancient times.

Population mobility has further aggravated the gap between the rich and the poor, and has also exacerbated the decline in the farming population, abandoned land and reduced grain production.

The evil wind known as the price revolution is sweeping across the West.

The two groups of people who suffered the most were the poor laborers who did not have the power of distribution and could not enjoy the benefits of the great voyages. Whenever there was any disturbance, they were the first to bear the cost.

The second category is the feudal landlords who collect fixed monetary rent in the traditional way.

The actual income of these old landlords was greatly reduced due to currency depreciation, they had to reduce rent to keep the serfs, and the need to transport goods to big cities but with meager profits due to fierce competition, leading to poverty and bankruptcy.

The above characteristics show a high degree of similarity with the social contradictions after the Ming Dynasty opened up the sea.

The interests of the old landlords were substantially damaged, and for various reasons, they were unable to make a stunning turnaround during the Wanli Reform. The fear of being abandoned by the tide of the times urged the old landlords to take risks.

The Yang Wei case, the Tian Yijun case, the tribute selection case, and the Chizhou Prefecture ship hijacking case were all based on the outbreak of this fear.

In the West, currency was depreciating rapidly and the wind of speculation was blowing across the West. The game of passing the parcel around like gold bonds had a sufficient historical background.

If at this time there appeared a kingdom of God on earth that "urgently needed a large amount of precious metals, could provide almost unlimited goods, and most importantly, could provide luxury goods such as silk and tea", it could save the West from the water and fire.

Because all of this is due to the contradiction caused by too many precious metals.

This is also the reason why Felipe wanted to impose tariffs on the Ming Dynasty arrogantly and send envoys and large sailing ships to the Ming Dynasty to purchase goods. Because if the Spaniards did not come, the Portuguese, French, Dutch and English would come to the Ming Dynasty.

England knew very well that the Ming Dynasty hated it, but it still sent envoys every year. It knew very well that it would not be received by the Ming Emperor, but it still tried its luck, just waiting for Felipe to make one stupid move after another so that it could take the opportunity to replace Spain's status as an ally.

The damn French seem to have taken the lead and created this weird thing called the Great Light Religion to curry favor with the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty!

"Mr. Shen's understanding of contradictions is better than mine. I don't see Felipe's urgency." After reading the first half of the memorial, Zhu Yijun was quite impressed with Shen Li.

The Galleon trade was based on demand, not just executive order.

"He is standing on the dry shore, and he can speak without any hesitation, because he is not the one who makes the final decision." Feng Bao often flirts with Ming officials, and he can say bad things, but never good things, so that His Majesty will not misunderstand that he is in cahoots with the literati. It is His Majesty who should shoulder the historical responsibility, not Shen Li. Shen Li can naturally use the contradiction theory to consider the problem with the rationality of a bystander and discuss the contradictions behind the phenomenon.

Your Majesty, as the person involved, it is not contradictory to say that the repair is not good, but your emotions are influenced by the events and affect your judgment.

The second half of Shen Li's memorial mainly considered another issue: gold is limited, silver is limited, but the Ming Dynasty's demand for gold and silver is unlimited.

It is better to plant than to rob. This is His Majesty's basic instruction on national policy after the opening of the sea. Shen Li pointed out that the profound meaning behind this holy instruction is that the scale of precious metals flowing into the Ming Dynasty is in line with the improvement of the Ming Dynasty's productivity.

Using traditional Confucianism to explain the problem of the price revolution in the West is that the virtue of the West is not worthy of the position, and the virtue of the West is not worthy of so much gold and silver. Using the production diagram to explain it is that the increase in productivity cannot even meet the growth of precious metal currency, which has led to this evil wind.

The influx of silver into the Ming Dynasty was mainly based on trade rather than plunder, which led to the increase in Ming Dynasty's productivity and the increase in silver, and also led to Ming Dynasty's endless demand for precious metals.

Only by deeply understanding the hadith that it is better to plant than to rob can one understand how the large-scale influx of precious metals into the West and into the Ming Dynasty led to two completely different results.

Yao Guangqi even created the Sun Shangli Index to measure price increases.

Even in Songjiang Prefecture, where silver is extremely scarce, the prices of grain, salt, and other things have not doubled in recent years. In fact, the price of grain has shown a trend of falling relative to silver due to the influx of imported grain.

"This memorial of Zongbo Shen, especially the second half, is full of flattery and he often cites the emperor's teachings." Zhu Yijun agreed with Shen Li's point of view, but did not approve of his memorial style which was almost flattering.

They just talked about the matter, making Zhu Yijun shine like the sun, and the same went for Shen Li, who was not afraid of sunburn.

This is a very dangerous signal. On the surface, the phenomenon of young ruler, suspicious country and disloyal ministers has completely disappeared, but in fact it means that Zhu Yijun has been surrounded by flowers and applause, and a new information cocoon is being steadily constructed and will become more and more stable.

Feng Bao immediately said, "That's because your Majesty is right and concise. He made the matter clear in just four words, while he wrote nearly ten thousand words to make it clear."

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "You are wrong. I just summarized the past history. His memorial is completely his own understanding. Flattery and quoting the teachings of the Lord will only alienate his contribution."

"Then, cross out these flattering words and send out the official bulletin."

Zhu Yijun crossed out nearly four thousand words of flattery, making the memorial finally much more pleasing to the eye. Out of a total of ten thousand words, Shen Li wrote four thousand words of flattery!

When Wan Shihe was in power, at most one or two hundred words of flattery would be contained in a memorial of a thousand words. Even so, Wan Shihe was already accused of being a flatterer, and the flattery content in Shen Li's memorials soared to as much as 40%.

In Shen Li's description, Zhu Yijun was undoubtedly the greatest king in ancient times.

You are gifted with great judgment and wisdom, you can be like Yao and Shun, or even like Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu. You can be as diligent as Emperor Xuan of Han, as graceful and magnanimous as Emperor Guangwu, as brave and invincible as Emperor Taizong of Tang, as benevolent and forgiving as Emperor Renzong... Under your Majesty's leadership, the Ming Dynasty will always be victorious, and that kind of nonsense.

"Your Majesty, there is indeed too much flattery in Zongbo Shen's memorial, but the four words 'it is better to plant than to rob' are still important." Feng Bao felt a little ashamed.

Feng Bao was a eunuch, but he was outdone by the ministers in even flattery!

I don't know how Shen Li, a straight-talking official, could write so many different flatteries. This is a 4,000-word piece of flattery. It's simply a fart!

There are so many theories, but if you want to summarize them accurately, it is still better to be concise and clear than to plant them. However, Shen Li explained the deep meaning behind them very clearly, and it is indeed a new theory.

"That makes sense." Zhu Yijun nodded, wrote a comment in red, sent it to the cabinet, and sent it to the Northern Yamen.

The four cabinet ministers Zhang Juzheng, Wang Chonggu, Shen Li and Zhang Xueyan were not in the palace, but there was a garden next to the Mochou Lake Palace called Juxianlin, which was their office in the Southern Court and also their residence. As cabinet ministers, they were protected by the Imperial Guards when they traveled.

"Master Qi is fishing again?" Wang Chonggu said with a smile on his face, "Master Qi is also very elegant. Yuejiang Tower is indeed an excellent fishing spot."

"It's not just a fishing spot." Zhang Juzheng shook his head and said, "Yuejiang Tower is where Emperor Taizu Gao ascended to look far into the distance, detect traitors and enemies, and observe Chen Youliang's army formation. Whenever there is any change in Nanjing, General Qi can lead the Beijing troops to rush down."

The Yuejiang Tower has been completed and has become the general's residence.

Since the emperor arrived in Nanjing, Qi Jiguang has been fishing in the renovated Lion Mountain Yuejiang Tower, which is close to the Yangtze River and is indeed a good fishing spot, but it is mainly for quick response.

Wang Chonggu said sincerely: "The reason why these scoundrels in the Southern Court dare not act rashly is because General Qi is still leading the Beijing Camp. Otherwise, how could they be so obedient? They have learned to reconcile with me, putting the tribute selection case and the North and South list case on the same level, convincing themselves that Your Majesty is lenient."

Wan Shihe said that the barbarians have always been like this. They don't understand human language and just need to be beaten up. They will reconcile with themselves, and those who don't reconcile will disappear in the long river of history.

These gentry in the Southern Court are a bit despicable. When His Majesty spoke kindly and tried to negotiate with them, they pretended to be stupid and deaf and dumb. But when the Emperor's earth-shattering fist came down, they all started to sing praises.

Wang Chonggu was also born a rebel, but the difference between him and these despicable people was that when His Majesty spoke kindly to him, Wang Chonggu really listened to him.

"If the emperor doesn't show his power, people will think that he has a good temper and bullies honest people." Shen Li finished reading the memorial with the emperor's red seal, handed it to Zhang Juzheng and said, "Sir, your majesty has changed the memorial beyond recognition. How can the Ministry of Rites do its job just like that?"

The Ministry of Rites currently has three important tasks: the first is the Dinghai school system, the second is the narrative of Ming Dynasty’s gratitude, and the third is to build Ming Dynasty’s winning school.

Shen Li put a lot of thought into writing this memorial, but the emperor rejected it and deleted all the parts about favors and winning. With such deletions by Your Majesty, it is really difficult for the Ministry of Rites to do its job.

"I think I should retire and return home. Gao Qiyu is quite ambitious, so let him come!" Shen Li shook his sleeves, rubbed his forehead, and said helplessly.

This position of Grand Master is really difficult, whoever wants to do it can do it, but isn't Gao Qiyu desperately trying to make progress? This is the one!

"Ah." Zhang Juzheng looked at the long sections of blacked-out content with a somewhat helpless look on his face. He understood his disciple. The Emperor was very resistant to narratives about favors because he was writing the fourth and fifth volumes of Theory of Class.

The first three volumes of Class Theory are about class, distribution, and struggle. The natural inference of the fourth volume is the demise of the imperial system. Zhang Juzheng was so shocked when he saw only the fourth step that he didn't even dare to write the second volume.

From His Majesty's words, deeds and teachings, Zhang Juzheng saw the fifth volume, the volume of continued struggle.

Exploitation and oppression will present a historical spiral of upward movement, a cycle of negation and repetition of negation. Even if the monarchy is eliminated, exploitation and oppression will still exist. Violent struggle must continue until complete victory and the complete elimination of exploitation and oppression.

How could His Majesty, who has class theory in his mind and regards class theory as the guiding principle for governing the country, accept a narrative of favor?

"Your Majesty really cares about the people of the nine provinces in his heart. For the sake of these people, he even ignores himself." Shen Li spread his hands. He knew the root of the problem. His Majesty cares about class theory in his heart, which is actually about the people of the nine provinces.

It's not just scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, but also tenants, hooligans and other poor laborers.

Let the Ming Dynasty be great again. This Ming Dynasty is not just the Ming Dynasty of the ruling class, but of all the people of the Ming Dynasty.

The imperial power was constantly slipping away during the process of Wanli opening up the seas and establishing governor-general's offices overseas. This was the situation seen by the ministers, and of course Your Majesty also saw it, but Your Majesty didn't care at all.

"It's difficult, it's difficult for everyone, so just do it reluctantly." Zhang Juzheng suddenly understood why Shen Shixing liked to be a master of keeping things balanced, because most of the time, one can only do things reluctantly.

Wang Chonggu said bluntly: "Lu Shusheng said that Yuan Keli was a young man and that young people's blood is hot. This is absolutely true. Your Majesty is still a little young."

How can an ideal country be so easy to build? There are so many wise and holy rulers in Chinese history. If it were really easy to build, the world would have been united long ago.

It is a good thing that young people are full of energy, but the laws of historical development are so ruthless.

Zhang Juzheng thought for a moment and said, "In fact, your majesty's goal is not high. The Wanli Reform only has five goals."

"The Dinghai school system provides universal education, a medical system that trains enough professional doctors and not-so-professional rural health workers, free movement with convenient transportation and reduced travel costs, and a commodity economy with free employment production relations, so that everyone can have enough to eat."

Education, health care, transportation, production relations and having enough food to eat.

“Isn’t it high?” Wang Chonggu said in shock: “Yuan Fu, listen to these five goals yourself, aren’t they high?! The easiest one to achieve is to have enough food, and that’s the simplest one!”

"The road to Shu is difficult, harder than climbing to heaven. These five goals are even more difficult than the road to Shu."

There were only 130 million people in the Ming Dynasty. When the new policy began to benefit everyone, explosive population growth was foreseeable. The goal of having enough food was almost impossible to achieve. However, this was already the simplest thing in the five large tiled houses.

It can’t be said to be a dream, it’s a daydream!

"Let's give it a try. What if, what if it works?" Zhang Juzheng rubbed his hands and said uncertainly.

Wang Chonggu clenched his fist and said, "Yes, what if it comes true? You, me, and everyone here will be great contributors who will be remembered for generations to come! The founders of the great harmony of the world, wow, just thinking about it makes me excited!"

As an important contributor to the Wanli Reform and the one who topped the list of contributions, Wang Chonggu, probably no one will care about his past mistakes in the future.

"What is the Grand Tutor busy with? Why doesn't he say a word?" Shen Li discovered that Zhang Xueyan had been silent the whole time, concentrating on his work with a pile of memorials in front of him.

Zhang Xueyan said without even looking up: "The merchants of Shanxi donated 10 million silver to the Dinghai school system, and the powerful and wealthy people in Jiangnan who had lost their way and returned to the right path donated 15 million silver. Together with the proceeds from the confiscation of property, the total was 55 million silver."

"Your Majesty has promised that the 55 million silver coins will be used entirely for the Dinghai school system after they have been transferred from the imperial treasury."

"In the next five years, I will have enough money to pay for the Dinghai education. You can talk about it. I have a lot of work here, and it's all hard-earned money. I have enough money to pay for the five-year Dinghai education."

"If you have nothing else to do, then go on a southern tour. It's good to go on a southern tour!"

Zhang Xueyan didn't care at all about what other cabinet ministers were discussing. This time, the tribute selection case resulted in a school salary of 5500 million silver dollars!
The Ministry of Revenue must quickly record the funds and send them to the imperial treasury, which will then be invested in the construction of the Dinghai school system. At least within the next five years, there will be no need to worry about the money for the 18 universities and normal schools in the two capitals and 15 provinces.

Zhang Xueyan said with a relaxed look, "Your Majesty is wise. You can use the treasury to pay out so much silver. During the Jiajing period, the Emperor and the Cabinet argued for five years over 200,000 taels of silver for the Yongshou Palace. During the second year of the Longqing period, the late Emperor and the Cabinet argued for four months over 100,000 taels of silver."

"Your Majesty is faithful. Felipe is a scoundrel who goes back on his word and ignores what he said."

Zhang Xueyan had no doubt that His Majesty would go back on his word. The money would go into the treasury and after a round of circulation, it would definitely be invested in the Dinghai school system.

Your Majesty's credibility is firmly recognized even by the rebels. The Ming Dynasty court has no credibility at all and is entirely supported by your Majesty's personal prestige.

Shen Liyi reached out and took the account book, looked at it for a long time, and said confidently: "Then it will be easier for our Ministry of Rites to work. This is a huge favor!"

Your Majesty does not approve of the narrative of favors, but your Majesty's behavior meets the needs of the narrative of favors.

(End of this chapter)