The world of film and television starts from the flow of money

"Listen! Listen carefully, old minister!"

Li Ruhua's cloudy eyes flashed with a strange light: "It's a pity to use 30% of the treasury, but 60% of the national treasury is enough to accomplish ten major things!"

He counted on his fingers: "First, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River need to reinforce the embankment for 2,300 li. Based on the cost of 300 taels of silver per li, 690,000 taels of silver are needed. Second, to dredge the blocked section of the canal, 100,000 laborers will be hired and the construction period will be half a year, which will cost 1.2 million taels of silver..."

Yi Huawei raised his hand to signal him to stand up, but Li Ruhua continued as if he hadn't seen it: "Build 300 granaries in the six northwestern provinces, each storing 10,000 dan of grain. It will cost 3 million taels of silver to buy grain and build granaries. Floods are frequent in the south of the Yangtze River, so 20 branch canals can be dug, each 50 miles long, which will cost silver..."

At this point, Li Ruhua started coughing violently and reached out to hold the silver box beside him to steady himself.

"enough."

Yi Huawei interrupted him: "Let's talk about military supplies first."

Li Ruhua straightened his back immediately and calculated quickly: "There are 250,000 troops stationed in the nine borders. If all of them are equipped with new equipment: each person needs eight taels of silver for a set of iron armor, which is two million taels of silver; 50,000 musketeers each have two flintlock rifles, each costing eight taels of silver (including training ammunition), which requires eight hundred thousand taels of silver; each town is equipped with twenty red cannons, each costing three hundred taels of silver, and the nine towns need a total of 54,000 taels of silver..."

He suddenly paused, his old fingers repeatedly moving on the abacus beads: "For the military alone, at least five million taels of silver are needed! If we take into account the nine frontiers and seventy-two garrisons, the food and wages owed are 4.8 million taels. ... Military expenditures require tens of millions of taels of silver!"

Qiu Chengyun flipped open the booklet and added, "Your Majesty, the list of firearms improvements submitted by the Ministry of Works shows that the research and development of new shrapnel shells will require 300,000 taels of silver, and the construction of an iron mold workshop for casting cannons weighing more than 1,000 jin will require 800,000 taels of silver."

“And shipbuilding!”

Wang Chengen reminded him, “The Fujian Navy currently has a hundred warships. If we want to build Fujian ships that can sail to the West, each ship will cost 12,000 taels of silver, and building 30 ships will cost 360,000 taels of silver. If we want to add more artillery warships, each ship will be equipped with ten Portuguese cannons, and the cost of each ship will increase by 3,000 taels of silver…”

Yi Huawei walked to the pile of silver boxes, bent down and picked up a silver ingot: "People's livelihood and military preparations go hand in hand. Li Qing, you will immediately draw up a detailed list of expenses and present it to me in three days."

"The minister obeys the order!"

Li Ruhua almost staggered to his feet and said, "Your Majesty, it will cost two million taels of silver to repair the post stations across the country, of which 30,000 horses will be needed at 30 taels each. To transform the drainage system in the capital and dig 50 miles of underground canals, it will cost silver..."

As he spoke, he fumbled in his sleeve and pulled out a wrinkled rice paper record.

Seeing this, Qiu Chengyun stepped forward and handed over a blank account book: "Master Li, you can use this."

When the old minister took over the account book, he grasped the other's wrist tightly with his fingers: "Commander Qiu, did the West Factory find the Jiangnan salt permits when it searched the property? If the private salt is brought into the government business, the annual revenue can be increased by at least one million taels!"

Without waiting for the other party to answer, he turned to Yi Huawei and said, "Your Majesty, you can follow suit and implement the Qingmiao Law, lending treasury silver to farmers at an annual interest rate of 2%, like this..."

"Li Qing, don't be anxious. You need to proceed step by step."

Yi Huawei raised his hand and said, "Let's get the current matter done first. After the Taicang warehouse is divided into three warehouses, the Ministry of Revenue will immediately count the land deeds and complete the first batch of land measurement within three months."

Li Ruhua straightened his hunched back, his gray hair trembling slightly with excitement: "I will work tirelessly! If we can sort out the hidden fields of the 370 families in Jiangnan alone, the annual land tax can be increased by at least 20%! There is also the mining tax. If the Yunnan copper mine and the Shanxi iron mine can be mined by the government, we can get more silver every year..."

Li Ruhua spoke too quickly and suddenly started coughing violently.

Yi Huawei frowned slightly: "Li Qing, please take care of yourself. You can ask the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue to assist you with these matters."

"His Majesty!"

Li Ruhua's cloudy eyes flashed with fanaticism: "I have waited for this day for twenty years! Back then, Zhang Taiyue was determined to reform the country, but he died halfway through, and his plan failed. Now, Your Majesty is wise and should inherit the will of the former prime minister and start a new policy! I am willing to serve as a vanguard, even if I die, I will let my Ming Dynasty regain its prosperity!"

Yi Huawei raised his hand and pressed it lightly, looking at Li Ruhua's slightly hunched but still straight spine, and his tone was rarely slowed down: "I will remember the sincere heart of Li Qing's family."

He raised his hand to call for his attendant and said in a deep voice, "Take my box of Changbai Mountain old ginseng and prepare ten boxes of Guben Pills newly made by the Imperial Hospital, and send them to Li's house immediately."

Seeing Li Ruhua was about to thank him and stand up, Yi Huawei stretched out his hand to stop him, and then instructed Wang Chengen beside him: "Pass my oral order, Ping Yizhi enters the palace, if you can take care of Li Qing's body properly, I will reward you handsomely."

After saying that, he looked at Li Ruhua again, with a helpless smile on his face: "Mr. Li, please don't let me down. When you recover, there will be more new policies to be carefully planned with your family."

Li Ruhua knelt on the ground and said: "Your Majesty is so kind, I can't repay you even if I die!"

"I love you!"

Yi Huawei raised his sleeves and lifted Li Ruhua up.

Luo Sixian suddenly knelt down and said, "I request an additional 50 taels to rebuild the Jinyiwei secret archives."

Qiu Chengyun coughed lightly and said, "The West Factory needs 20 taels to place an informant."

Yi Huawei nodded and said, "Approved. I will not be partial, and will allocate another 200,000 taels to the East Factory, but each expenditure must be accompanied by three verification documents - one for each of the Ministry of Revenue, the Imperial Guard, and the East and West Factories."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Wang Chengen, Luo Sixian and Qiu Chengyun bowed at the same time.

Yi Huawei nodded slightly: "Stand up!"

At this moment, a young eunuch came to Wang Chengen's side with a hunched back and hurried but well-mannered steps. He stood on tiptoe, his lips almost touching the earlobe of the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, and said eight words in a whisper that only the two of them could hear: "Inventory of the second warehouse, the account is consistent with the actual situation."

Wang Chengen's gray eyebrows did not move at all. He took a half step forward, bent his back into a perfect arc, and performed a standard eunuch's salute. His voice was neither too high nor too low, just enough for the emperor five steps away to hear clearly: "Your Majesty, the inventory of the second warehouse has been completed according to the order of the Thousand Character Classic, and the account books and the actual objects have been checked one by one."

"Lead the way."

Yi Huawei nodded: "Let's go and see what treasures there are."

The corridor leading to the second storehouse is six feet wide, and the floor is paved with non-slip bluestone bricks, each brick surface is chiseled with fine diamond patterns. Every five steps on the wall, there is a pigeon egg-sized night pearl embedded, emitting a cold blue light in the dim passage.

Wang Chengen walked in front of the emperor on the left, holding a sheep-horn lantern. The flame of the lantern swayed slightly with his steps, casting a distorted shadow on the wall.

"Your Majesty, we are here!"

After walking for two minutes, Wang Chengen stopped.

Yi Huawei's eyes fell on the two elm doors covered with iron sheets in front of him.

The door is three meters high, with the four characters "Gold Gives Birth to Beautiful Water" from the Thousand Character Classic engraved in negative script on its surface, with the depth of each stroke filled with cinnabar.

Wang Chengen took out a three-inch-long ivory key from his right sleeve. The tail of the key was engraved with a coiled dragon pattern. When he inserted the key into the lock, twelve muffled sounds of gears engaging came from the lock core. For each sound, his wrist turned fifteen degrees clockwise.

The moment the door of the storehouse opened, a chill rushed out, and twelve glazed palace lanterns lit up at the same time, with the wicks making slight crackling sounds. The ambergris powder mixed in the lamp oil evaporated when it was heated, and the aged scent of the camphorwood box permeated the air.

"Look at the calligraphy and painting first."

Yi Huawei's eyes swept across the twelve tin freezers lined up on the west wall. On each door was a bronze plaque engraved with the name of the collection and the year it was stored.

Two eunuchs wearing brand new deerskin gloves, one holding the handle of the freezer, the other holding the bottom of the door, opened the top door in a completely synchronized movement. After the cold mist in the cabinet dissipated, a red sandalwood box was revealed, the edge of the lid was wrapped with silver, and the middle was embedded with an ivory-carved title. Wang Chengen took out the wooden box, placed it on the yellow pear wood table that had been prepared long ago, untied the knot with his fingernails, and opened the lid. The plain white silk cloth wrapped the scroll layer by layer, and dried jasmine petals were placed between each layer of silk cloth.

Yi Huawei unrolled the scroll very slowly, pausing every three inches to let the silk fall naturally. When the scroll was unrolled to half a meter long, the pattern of the armor of the Heavenly King in "Heavenly King Delivering a Child" was fully revealed.

His index finger gently stroked the lines of the figure's sleeves, feeling the subtle bumps on the silk. The auspicious clouds painted with cinnabar in the painting were still bright, but the azure color of the king's belt had faded a little. His fingertips slowly slid across the surface of the silk, pausing at the folds of the king's sleeves in the painting. He pressed his fingertips down a half inch, feeling the changes in the density of the warp and weft of the silk.

"The ink line penetrates three-tenths of the silk, which is indeed a double-thread silk from the Tang Dynasty. Wu Daozi's iron-wire drawing, Emperor Wuzong offered a reward of ten thousand taels of gold but failed to find this painting."

Yi Huawei retracted his finger, and there was a little cinnabar powder in the cracks of his nails: "According to the records of the Imperial Household during the reign of Emperor Wuzong, this painting was processed using the gravel polishing method."

Li Ruhua leaned forward and stopped when his nose was six inches away from the painting: "I see gold powder reflecting in the lines."

Qiu Chengyun, who was standing by, immediately handed over a magnifying glass. Under the lens, the iron wire drawing was interspersed with tiny gold foil fragments, each no thicker than a hair.

"Put it away. Send it to the mounting room in Wenhua Palace for relining."

Yi Huawei looked at it for a few seconds and then put it back into the wooden box, turning his gaze to the jade carving beside him.

A jadeite carving of "Night Revels of Han Xizai" is placed on a specially made mahogany frame. The twelve pieces of icy jadeite are as thin as cicada wings, and there are almost no visible gaps at the joints.

Yi Huawei stopped three inches away from the jade and squinted his eyes to observe the woman playing the pipa in the painting. On the jade piece the size of the woman's fingernail, there were five strings as thin as hair, and the curvature of each string was slightly different.

"It's a silver thread embedded in the pupil."

Yi Huawei raised the corner of his mouth and pointed to the eyes of the jade figure.

Seeing Li Ruhua's eyes wide open and a look of confusion, Yi Huawei waved his hand. Qiu Chengyun stepped forward and handed him a magnifying glass that was tribute from the West.

Through the lens, you can see that there is indeed an extremely thin silver thread running through the pupil of each jade character, and there are even finer spiral patterns engraved on the surface of the silver thread.

“It’s truly an exquisite work of art!”

Li Ruhua put down the magnifying glass and sighed: "The skilled craftsman must have spent at least three years on this pair of eyes."

"These guys are really wasting natural resources, letting such talented people make these vulgar things with strange and lewd skills."

Yi Huawei waved to Wang Chengen:
"Get the tweezers."

"Yes!"

Wang Chengen took out silver tweezers from the gilded tool bag at his waist. Yi Huawei used the tweezers to gently pluck the little finger of the Pipa girl's right hand, and the jade nail was immediately lifted up, revealing a rice-sized gold shaft underneath.

“It’s a movable joint.”

Yi Huawei turned the gold axis, and his jade fingers made a plucking motion: "Each jade piece is no thicker than half a grain of rice. The diameter of the silver wire is about one thousandth of an inch, and the spiral pattern on the surface turns a hundred times per inch."

He turned to Qiu Chengyun and said, "Find out which craftsman in Jiangnan has this skill and bring him to the palace. I want to see him!"

"According to the order!"

Seeing that Yi Huawei emphasized the word "escort", Qiu Chengyun nodded heavily, then followed Yi Huawei's footsteps and walked towards a coral.

A huge blood coral was placed on a nanmu base in the northeast corner. The coral branches were dark red, and the shell fragments stuck to the top had a fishy smell.

Yi Huawei opened the file book presented with the tribute. The edges of the yellowed rice paper had become brittle, but the words "In November of the twelfth year of Wanli, King Zhongshan and King Shangning presented tribute" were still clearly visible.

He drew the sword from his waist and tapped the coral trunk with the tip of the scabbard. The coral made a sound similar to a chime, and the echo echoed in the warehouse, hitting the lead wall and then returning, and it completely dissipated after seven times.

A gilded Buddhist pagoda was placed in the center of the green jade table. The pagoda had seven floors, and golden bells the size of rice grains were hung on the eaves of each floor.

"This is a gilded pagoda from the Liao Dynasty that was seized from the third floor of the Fan family cellar in Jiexiu. It is two feet and three inches high and is inlaid with forty rubies."

Qiu Chengyun used his dagger to scrape off the black dirt on the bottom of the pagoda, revealing the inscription "Made in the Imperial Household in the Third Year of Xuanhe". He turned the pagoda half a circle, and with the tip of the dagger, he opened the secret compartment on the back of the pagoda, which contained a yellowed palm leaf with the words "Welcome the Buddha's Bones" written in Sanskrit.

"During the Jingkang Incident, the Bianliang Imperial Palace was looted. It's a stroke of luck that this tower has been preserved until now!"

"Check the Fan family genealogy."

After a pause, Yi Huawei put down the palm leaf and said in a cold voice: "Let's see who has been to Bianliang in the second year of the Jingkang period."

"Yes!"

Luo Sixian was startled and subconsciously bowed to accept the order, while silently lighting a few candles for the Fan family in his heart.

"Ok!"

Yi Huawei nodded slightly, his eyes swept across the pagoda, and was attracted by the Hetian jade mountain painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" next to it.

The jade mountain is six feet long and two feet high. Yi Huawei reached out and touched the jade surface. His fingertips could clearly feel the woven texture of the tarpaulin of the Bianhe canal boats. When he counted to the seventeenth boat under the Hongqiao Bridge, Li Ruhua had already dialed the abacus three times.

"According to the price set by Suzhou Weaving Bureau,"

Li Ruhua's voice trembled a little: "This piece of jade can offset three years of taxes."

"Take a closer look at this man,"

Yi Huawei did not look up, and continued to scratch the pole of a peddler on Yushan Mountain with his fingernails. Suddenly, he repeatedly scratched the center of the pole with his fingernails:
“Even the wear marks of the carrying pole are carved out.”

Qiu Chengyun looked closely and saw that there was indeed an almost invisible dent in the middle of the shoulder pole, as if it was caused by years of bearing weight.

"My dear friends."

Yi Huawei suddenly spoke up: "What do you think, if this jade craftsman were to supervise the manufacture of military equipment, could he carve the rifling of a musket thinner than a hair?"

Li Ruhua was stunned for a moment, then reacted: "I dare to speculate that if such a skilled craftsman can be exempted from the artisan registration, he will surely be able to create a firearm that is unparalleled in the world."

After saying that, he secretly glanced at the emperor's face. Seeing that he seemed to be thinking about something, he dared to continue: "It's just..."

"Just what?"

"But if such a talent is recruited by someone with ulterior motives..."

Before Li Ruhua finished speaking, Yi Huawei nodded and said, "At the morning court tomorrow, let the Ministry of Rites draft a charter to recruit skilled craftsmen from all over the world." (End of this chapter)