The Ming Dynasty took an unconventional approach

Chapter 423 Three Places to Go
Pan Xiaohei squatted on the table, scratching his paws, and said, "Don't you humans often talk about power and money? It shows that these two things are connected. The more powerful a person is, the richer he is."

Pan Yun: "Then the emperor must be the richest, because he has the most power."

Pan Xiaohei shook his cat head and said, "All under heaven belongs to the emperor. Even you are a subject of the emperor. Of course he is the richest."

Pan Jun looked unhappy. She was still a socialist at heart. She said, "I belong to myself. I am the successor of socialism. I can belong to the country and the people, but I cannot belong to an emperor."

Pan Xiaohei shuddered and put down his claws, "You are so disgusting."

Pan Jun snorted without answering, and walked to two bright red coral trees, looking thoughtful.

When Master Yin Song and his apprentice got off work in the evening, as soon as they entered the door, they were called into Pan Yun's room before they had time to eat.

The master and disciple were silent when they saw the boxes piled high in her room, and even more silent when they saw the gold, silver and jewels in the boxes.

Also silent were Wang Cong, Miao Zhen and others who were called over together.

Even Hongyan and Xiaohong, who had just emerged, were blinded by the dazzling jewels.

Xiaohong floated to the box, squatted down, reached out and touched a handful of gold bricks, her eyes shining with gold, "I think this gold looks so familiar, was I very rich when I was alive?"

Pan Yun reached out and picked her up and put her next to the box of jewelry, saying, "Rich people wouldn't react like you after they die. Where are the jewelry?"

Xiaohong glanced at the jewels in the box, then silently moved back to the gold bricks.

Hongyan squatted beside the jewelry box, constantly holding the jewelry and accessories and gesturing at herself.

Yin Song closed his wide-open mouth and sighed, "Junior Sister, I am just a Xia Guanzheng, who can say a few words in front of the emperor. I don't have a golden medal of immunity from death, nor am I a confidant like Wang Zhen, who can act so recklessly."

Pan Yun: "Without any evidence, what are the chances that the emperor would suspect me?"

Yin Song was in deep thought.

"The world is so big, there are so many talented people, and I am so young. Today, you, Second Senior Brother, are in the palace, and I haven't been close to Wang Zhen's house. Do you think I am so strong in the emperor's heart that I can not only overcome the many obstacles set by Wang Zhen, but also take objects from a distance and hide in an instant?"

The emperor knew a lot about monks, but there were still many things he didn't know.

Even the monks themselves do not understand many things about themselves and their fellow practitioners.

Yin Song raised his eyebrows and asked, "You didn't go near Wang Zhen's house? Then how did you get this thing?"

He looked at Pan Xiaohei.

Pan Jun smiled at him and did not answer.

Pan Xiaohei raised his cold cat eyes, glanced at him indifferently, then lowered his head and continued to eat the small fish on the plate.

Yin Song's heart was burning with anger, and his gaze at Pan Xiaohei became softer. "I forgot to ask where did Junior Sister get this black cat from?"

Pan Jun glanced at it and said with disdain: "Companion."

Yin Song thought he had heard it wrongly, "What?"

Pan Yun glanced at him and said, "It was born when I was born. If this isn't co-birth, what is it?"

Pan Xiaohei meowed and added, "We were born from the same mother."

Pan Yun slapped it on the head and asked Yin Song, "Second Brother, have you found a good place to put these gold, silver and jewelry?"

"Oh, I found it," Yin Song came back to his senses and took out a piece of paper from his sleeve. "The three places that are most in need of money are: the border troops in Ningxia and Gansu, especially Ningxia. They have applied for military equipment replenishment and military salary subsidies for three consecutive years, but were rejected.

"Second, the area around Ru'ning Prefecture in Henan Province suffered from drought first and then floods last year, resulting in a 60% reduction in harvests and many people being displaced. I looked at the reports from the Ministry of Revenue and found that officials from all regions requested the Ministry of Revenue to allocate funds to resettle the displaced people. However, I heard from officials in the Ministry of Revenue that the various departments were just using the excuse of asking for money, mostly to pay for the taxes and levies that were vacant in previous years, so the Ministry of Revenue approved very little money;"

"The third is the people in Quanzhou who were affected by the Japanese pirates' invasion last year. In order to prevent them from being harassed again, the court ordered the people to retreat another 20 miles. I looked at the Ministry of Revenue's allocation and found that there was almost nothing. The court only ordered the local government to raise funds on its own and deduct 30% of their taxes this year."

Pan Yun: …

Rage rose in her heart, and she asked, "Are the swords of the Ming soldiers blunt? Would they rather relocate the people and retreat than chop down the Japanese pirates?"

Yin Song touched his nose and said, "I saw that you didn't have much money, so I only selected three most important places for you, which were far enough away from the capital to avoid Wang Zhen's sphere of influence and make it easier for you to operate. Who knew..."

He glanced at the boxes in the room, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. "These gold, silver and jewelry may only fill one room, but if they were replaced with food and cloth that the people urgently need, it could save a lot of people. I think you can choose two places."

Pan Yun frowned and thought, then asked, "Why did the Ningxia Border Army apply for military pay subsidies? Why didn't the Ministry of Revenue approve their application for armaments?"

Yin Song said: "Don't think that all the officials in the Ministry of Revenue are bad people. They have a hard time too. The treasury has little money, and each one has to be spent in half. The people in these three projects have a hard time, but there are many who have a harder time than them. The Ministry of Revenue can only give priority to more important places and people." He said: "The Ningxia border troops were originally required to be replaced every six months, but then the border situation became tense, and the northern captives such as the Oirat invaded the south from time to time, so the replacement was changed to every three years. But in fact, there are many soldiers who have not been replaced for four or five years. The soldiers are tired, so the army recruits military dependents to guard against them. In some families, five or six people are on the border, and military equipment is urgently needed."

Pan Jun opened his mouth slightly and muttered, "Why does it sound like the whole family has been exiled?"

Yin Song smiled bitterly and said, "Almost the same. Apart from not having the reputation of being exiled, their situation is even worse than that of some officials who were exiled to the army."

"For example, your father, brother, and uncle, you have support, but they don't. Not only that, they have to save their own military pay and send it back home to support their parents and raise their wives and children."

"Not only do I have a hard life, my family also has a hard life. There is no strong labor force, and all my sons and grandsons are at the border. If something unexpected happens..."

Pan Yun pursed his lips, lowered his eyes and said, "This is not something that can be solved with a little money. If we want to change it fundamentally, we have to modify the rotation time."

"Yes, but I am just a Taoist priest," Yin Song spread his hands and said, "This is the Ministry of War's business. The Ministry of Revenue's refusal to allocate funds may have forced the Ningxia Border Army to force the Ministry of War to reform, but at present..."

He paused and said, "The only person in the Ministry of War who can change this system is Wang Ji."

Pan Yun felt heartbroken for a moment. Although she wanted to send part of the money to Ningxia, she still shook her head and said, "Send the money to Henan and Quanzhou. The border troops... we can't get involved."

Yin Song sighed, "I know that too, but I just couldn't bear it, so I chose to come in and let you choose."

Yin Song threw it quickly and asked immediately, "How are you going to pay?"

Pan Yun was in a daze for a moment before replying, "One part for food, one part for distribution and one part for resettlement. The three parts should be combined into one part. We need to find a trustworthy person to distribute it. It is spring now, so if they return home now, they can still catch up with the spring ploughing."

Yin Song: "What should we do if those who have no permanent property in their hometowns do not want to return home?"

Pan Yun: "This is not something I can solve. This should be something the emperor should solve."

Yin Song raised his eyebrows and looked with her at the coral tree that could not be converted into cash, and the jewelry that was difficult to convert into cash.

Pan Jun snorted twice and said pettily, "Send the coral tree away, the jewelry..."

She looked at Wang Cong: "Can it be exchanged for money?"

Wang Cong pondered, "It is possible, but the price will be discounted."

"That's money too. If it reaches us, it reaches the people. But if it reaches the palace, it may not be the same."

Yin Song: "What are you going to do?"

Pan Yun looked at Wang Cong.

Wang Cong assured: "Give me the things, and I can find a merchant to exchange them for food and cloth, or I can exchange them for a large amount of copper coins."

"So many gold bricks, do you have a way to exchange them?"

Wang Cong smiled and said, "Master Junior, Jiangnan is known as the land of fish and rice. Sanqing Mountain is originally in Jiangnan, and I often travel between Henan and Jingchu. These three places are currently the places with the most grain production in Daming."

"These three places account for 90% of the grain production of the Ming Dynasty. The people here are suffering a lot, but the rich are also richer than you can imagine."

"You think these boxes of gold and silver are a huge fortune, but you forget that they are just a small amount of property bribes taken out by a very small number of people. If they are distributed, they will be just a drop in the bucket for those wealthy people and are not worth even a glance."

Therefore, Wang Cong was very confident that he could not only exchange all the gold, silver and jewelry for food and cloth, but also make it so that no one would notice anything unusual.

Pan Yun: "The Jinyiwei also can't notice it?"

He said, "There are many secret transactions. If the Jinyiwei could detect and investigate them, how could there be so many chaos in the world?"

He counted on his fingers, "There are pirates from the outside, northern captives, and southern barbarians, all of whom smuggle food, salt, tea, silk, and even weapons such as swords and bows from the country, not to mention the various shady transactions inside. It's not that the waves are turbulent, but at least they have never been calm. I am just a drop of water in this countless waves. What's so eye-catching about it?"

"This drop of water is not small," Pan Yun said, "It was taken from Wang Zhen. It will be passed around in front of the emperor."

“Isn’t this better?” Wang Cong said, “It’s like we’ve found half of the way. As long as the emperor is willing, they won’t investigate further. If they are unwilling and insist on investigating, at most I will be exposed, but Wang Zhen…”

Wang Cong became more and more excited as he spoke, but Pan Jun was not happy. She slapped him on the head and said, "Why are you so happy? Can that bastard Wang Zhen compare to you? Do you still want to exchange yourself for Wang Zhen?"

Wang Cong immediately became obedient and said with his head down, "I understand. I will be very careful and not let anyone touch me."

Yin Song sighed and asked Pan Yun, "How are you going to send these two coral trees to the emperor?"

"Just send them in directly. Is it difficult to enter the palace?"

(End of this chapter)