My father is Chongzhen? Then I have no choice but to rebel.

Chapter 122 It feels good to cheat your father-in-law, but you can’t kill him!

Seeing Zhu Cilang coming from afar, Zheng Xiaomei quickly stood up to greet him and asked with a smile:

"Your Highness, why are you so happy today?"

Zhu Cilang smiled and said:

"I just met with two talented people today. With them, the people of the Ming Dynasty will never go hungry again."

When Zheng Xiaomei heard this, although she didn't know what Zhu Cilang was referring to, she still smiled and said:

"In that case, I congratulate Your Highness."

Suddenly at this moment, Zheng Xiaomei thought of what Qiqige had said before, and then asked:

"By the way, Your Highness, can I go to the back warehouse to take a look?"

Back warehouse?

Zhu Cilang was startled when he heard this. He put the teacup he had just picked up back on the table. Then he looked at Zheng Xiaomei with a strange expression:
"What are you doing there?"

Zheng Xiaomei did not hide it and said directly:

"Yesterday, I went to Qiqige for tea, and she told me that the warehouse at the back of the East Palace seemed quite unusual. There were always soldiers moving things out, but no one was seen moving anything in."

"So I'm a little curious about what's going on."

Zheng Xiaomei is a smart person. She knows that with her current identity, she can certainly go to Houcang openly.

But she didn't.

Because doing so would more or less make Zhu Cilang unhappy, so in that case, it would be better to bring this matter up openly.

If Zhu Cilang agrees, then she will go and take a look. If he disagrees, then she will pretend nothing happened.

Zhu Cilang looked at Zheng Xiaomei in front of him and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Because he knew that he could hide this kind of thing from others, but he could never hide it from the person next to him.

Instead of letting her have wild thoughts, it’s better to talk it out with her.

After knowing his secret, Zheng Xiaomei can actually help him win over Zheng Zhilong better.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang directly took Zheng Xiaomei's hand, then looked at her solemnly and said:
"Little sister, you are now considered my person, so I won't hide anything from you."

"Actually, Qiqige is right. There are indeed too many things in the East Palace's back storehouse to move."

"And all this is because of me!"

When Zheng Xiaomei heard this, her expression instantly became confused, because she really couldn't understand what Zhu Cilang meant by these words?
Zhu Cilang did not explain and took Zheng Xiaomei to the back storehouse of the Eastern Palace.

But unlike what Zheng Xiaomei had imagined, the East Palace's back storehouse was empty at this moment, with only a few boxes of gold and silver scattered in the corners.

Zheng Xiaomei was even more confused. Wasn't it said that there were endless things to move in the East Palace's back storehouse?
There's nothing here?
Just as she was stunned, Zhu Cilang suddenly reached out and covered her eyes.

Zheng Xiaomei was a little at a loss for a moment, but after just a moment, Zhu Cilang let go of her hand and her vision returned to normal.

But then, the scene that appeared before her shocked her greatly.

I saw that the back storehouse, which was empty just now, was now filled with all kinds of things.

There are two mountains of gold and silver, more than one meter tall, made entirely of gold and silver.

There were hundreds of bags of white rice.

There is fresh meat that looks like it has just been slaughtered.

There are also baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables that look like they have just been picked from the fields.

The entire back warehouse is filled with everything!

At this moment, Zheng Xiaomei was completely at a loss.

Because she dared to swear that there was nothing here just now!

Everything here suddenly appeared when she closed her eyes just now!

"What the hell is going on?"

Zheng Xiaomei looked at Zhu Cilang in disbelief.

Zhu Cilang patted Zheng Xiaomei's hand and comforted her:
"What I'm going to say next may seem a little unbelievable, but I can guarantee that it's all true!"

"Actually, I am the reincarnation of the Great Emperor Zhenwu."

"Because I sensed the imminent demise of the Ming Dynasty, and in order to save it, I reincarnated as its crown prince."

"And everything here was created by me using magic!"

As he spoke, Zhu Cilang bought some more silver from the system space.

Immediately afterwards, a pile of silver suddenly appeared in front of Zheng Xiaomei, and then fell at her feet, making a crisp sound of impact.

At this moment, Zheng Xiaomei's three views were shattered!

Because before this, she never believed in ghosts and gods, and even thought that Zhu Cilang was just joking with her when he said that there were so many things in the back warehouse that they could not be moved.

She never expected that all this was true.
A moment later, Zheng Xiaomei suddenly knelt on the ground, her fox eyes filled with fear.

She really didn't know how to face the current situation.

She thought she was marrying the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty, but it turned out to be the reincarnation of the Zhenwu Emperor. How could she face this?

Zhu Cilang also felt helpless at this moment.

He actually didn't want this to happen, but there was nothing he could do!

As the person who sleeps by your side, there is no way to hide this kind of thing from her. Instead of trying to cover it up later, it is better to be direct now.

Then, Zhu Cilang helped Zheng Xiaomei up and comforted her:

"Don't worry. Although I am the reincarnation of the Great Emperor Zhenwu, I am still just a mortal. At most, I can be considered a mortal with some magic skills."

"I am still your husband, the one you want to grow old with."

At the same time, Zheng Xiaomei finally calmed down, and there was some complicated emotions in her eyes when she looked at Zhu Cilang.

A moment later, she threw herself into Zhu Cilang's arms.

"Don't worry, Your Highness! I will help Your Highness keep this secret!"

"Whether Your Highness is a prince or an immortal, I will always follow Your Highness!"

"I will never betray you in this life!"

Holding the body as soft as warm jade in his arms, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but feel proud again.

Look, this is the shock that Emperor Zhenwu brought to the ancients!
It has to be said that choosing the identity of Zhenwu Emperor as a cover was definitely the most correct decision Zhu Cilang made.

After all, there always needs to be an excuse for making all kinds of materials appear out of nowhere.

For the ancients, nothing was more convincing than the excuse of the reincarnation of gods.

At this moment, if this body had not yet fully developed, Zhu Cilang really wanted to complete his coming-of-age ceremony on the spot.

But fortunately, he can hold it in!
Time passed quickly and it was night in the blink of an eye.

After flirting with Zheng Xiaomei for a while, Zhu Cilang was just about to take a break when he suddenly received a memorial from the Ministry of Revenue.

Zhu Cilang felt that this matter was a bit strange. What was going on that couldn't be discussed tomorrow morning? Why did it have to be delivered in the evening?

Then he took the letter and began to read it.

Soon, his expression became extremely solemn.

The memorial was sent by Ni Yuanlu, the Minister of Revenue, and it talked about natural disasters.

The memorial said that there had been no rain in the Wujiang area for more than a year from last year until now, and then there was a locust plague.

Although the government has taken corresponding measures, the local rice price still soared to four taels of silver per stone.

Even tofu dregs have become a delicacy in the local area, and ordinary people eat tree chips and elm bark.

Although the government set up porridge factories everywhere, it still could not satisfy the growing number of people.

Many people fled their hometowns and became refugees, wandering around.

In addition, severe droughts and locust plagues also occurred in Shandong, Henan, Zhejiang, and Huguang areas.

Millions of people were affected!

Moreover, a large number of people have begun to come to the capital. A rough estimate is that there are at least 200,000 people!
For a moment, Zhu Cilang was speechless for a long time.

Because he knew that the real situation was often several times, or even dozens of times, more serious than what was described in the memorial!
His eyes began to become extremely complicated, and then gradually showed indescribable waves.

The flickering candlelight in the room illuminated his furrowed brow and heavy eyes, as if the dancing flames were also trembling with the sufferings of the world.

Zhu Cilang closed his eyes, and in an instant, tragic scenes emerged in his mind:
Countless people were forced to leave their homes where they had lived for generations. The elderly were staggering, the children were crying, and the women were in tattered clothes. Their backs were full of helplessness and despair.

Along the way, farmlands were barren and granaries were empty, so people had to beg for food to fill their stomachs.

Their frail bodies were swaying in the cold wind, and some even resorted to cannibalism. It was not only an instinct for survival, but also the distortion and wailing of human nature in extreme distress.

At this moment, Zhu Cilang's heart was torn apart by these scenes.

He felt an unprecedented heaviness and powerlessness.

He originally thought that after defeating Li Zicheng and the Jiannu, the promotion of sweet potatoes and potatoes would be almost completed, and by then there would be no more victims in the world.

But he overlooked a very serious thing!
That is, before he completes these things, the natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty will continue!
There will still be people who continue to starve to death, and there will still be people who choose to join Li Zicheng's peasant army because they cannot afford to eat.

And all of this is what he will face now!

After a moment, Zhu Cilang opened his eyes and shouted towards the door:

"Somebody come!"

Ma Bao rushed in quickly.

"The slave is here!"

Zhu Cilang said coldly:

"Go and call the Minister of Revenue, Ni Yuanlu, and the Chief Minister, Xue Guoguan, to come to me."

After a pause, he added:
"Let Zheng Chenggong come too!"

"Slave, you obey!"

Ma Bao agreed and then left quickly.

Zhu Cilang won't be able to sleep if they don't come up with a solution to this matter tonight.

Not long after, Zheng Chenggong arrived.

His current position is the General of the Eastern Palace, responsible for the protection of the Eastern Palace. He has not yet changed shifts, so he came very quickly.

Although Zheng Chenggong didn't know why Zhu Cilang suddenly came to see him, he keenly felt that the atmosphere in the room was a little strange as soon as he entered. Just as he was about to pay his respects respectfully, he was interrupted by Zhu Cilang.

"We are all family, no need to be polite, take a look at this first."

Zhu Cilang said this and handed the memorial to Zheng Chenggong.

Zheng Chenggong didn't hesitate to take the letter and started reading it.

But after just a few glances, his brows furrowed.

Zheng Chenggong lived in Fujian since he was a child, and his family was wealthy, so he had never experienced any disaster.

But the tragic situation described in the memorial still frightened him, and his breathing became rapid.

After a long while, he finally came to his senses and said to Zhu Cilang:
"Your Highness, I can make a donation on behalf of my father to help the court with relief efforts for the victims."

Regardless of whether Zhu Cilang meant this or not, Zheng Chenggong felt that he should express his opinion.

However, when Zhu Cilang heard this, he shook his head.

"I did ask you to come here because of the food issue, but I didn't ask you to donate food."

"I want to purchase a large amount of grain from overseas. No matter how much, I will accept it!"

"I would like to hand this matter over to your Zheng family's caravan."

"From now on, in addition to necessary trade, I hope that your Zheng family can use all remaining merchant ships to transport grain from overseas to the Ming Dynasty."

"Of course, I will also pay you silver according to the price of the grain."

"I can't say anything else, but at least within three years, the Ming Dynasty will need a lot of food. This number is definitely beyond your imagination."

"Do you think this deal is possible?"

If all that was needed were a few million or tens of millions of shi of grain, Zhu Cilang might have accepted Zheng Chenggong's kindness.

After all, this amount of food is really nothing to the Zheng family.

But it is obvious that what the Ming Dynasty needs now is not just a few million or tens of millions of shi of grain, but hundreds of billions or even trillions of shi of grain.

Because only these foods can save the people of the Ming Dynasty, so that they will no longer starve to death or eat their own children.

Moreover, the influx of a large amount of grain can also stabilize the grain prices within the Ming Dynasty and make the Ming Dynasty's market stable.

In addition, the promotion of sweet potatoes and potatoes will take at least three years to complete.

That is to say, within these three years, the Ming Dynasty needed a large amount of grain shipped from overseas to fill the food gap.

This is a huge sum of money, and even the Zheng family cannot afford it alone.

So Zhu Cilang declined Zheng Chenggong's kindness.

In his opinion, as long as the Zheng family is willing to mobilize all merchant ships to transport grain from overseas to the Ming Dynasty, it would be a great help to him!
When Zheng Chenggong heard this, his expression was somewhat moved.

But soon, he made up his mind.

"Your Highness, since that's the case, I won't say anything more."

"I will immediately write back and instruct the Zheng family's caravans to change all cargo, except for some necessary trade, to grain starting this month."

"Besides, the price of this grain when it is collected will be the same as the price when it is transported to the Ming Dynasty!"

"All transportation costs will be borne solely by the Zheng family!"

"Although the Zheng family is descended from pirates, they are also citizens of the Ming Dynasty and subjects of His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

"When the country is in trouble, the Zheng family has no choice but to help!"

When Zhu Cilang heard this, his expression was inevitably moved.

This brother-in-law is really awesome!
You should know that the price of grain in the Ming Dynasty has soared to three or four taels of silver per stone.

But according to what Zheng Zhilong said before, the grain from overseas was less than one tael of silver per stone, and the cheaper two taels of silver could even buy three stones.

In addition, the Zheng family is willing to bear all the transportation costs, so the price of these grains is four or five times cheaper than the local grain prices in the Ming Dynasty!
This is a price difference of four or five times!
Coming back to his senses, Zhu Cilang walked over and patted Zheng Chenggong on the shoulder, then said with a look of relief:

"Brother-in-law, I thank you on behalf of the people of the Ming Dynasty, but should I discuss this matter with my father-in-law?"

The eldest brother-in-law is very capable, but it seems that he cannot be the head of the Zheng family for the time being, so Zhu Cilang is not sure whether his eldest brother-in-law's words count.

It’s not that he doesn’t trust his father-in-law, but the interests involved are too great.

He estimated that if what Zheng Chenggong said was really done, the Zheng family would lose at least two million silver coins for every ten million dan of grain transported to the Ming Dynasty.

The more grain they transported, the greater the losses the Zheng family suffered.

Although it feels good to cheat your father-in-law, you can't kill him all at once.

After all, we still rely on my father-in-law’s navy for maritime trade in the future!
However, upon hearing this, Zheng Chenggong smiled and said:
"Your Highness, please rest assured. This master and his subjects can still do this!"

"Besides, the Zheng family has saved a lot of money through maritime trade over the years. It's time to repay the Ming Dynasty!"

Although he had only spent less than three days with Zhu Cilang, Zheng Chenggong was completely impressed by Zhu Cilang's actions.

He knew that the prince in front of him would become the most wise monarch of the Ming Dynasty in the future, so he was willing to do something for the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Cilang.

What's more, his sister has already married Zhu Cilang, so their Zheng family can be said to have boarded the Ming Dynasty.

So no matter what, they must help the Ming Dynasty to move forward.

Moreover, before leaving, his father Zheng Zhilong also warned him that as long as Zhu Cilang's requests were not excessive, he should agree to them all.

So Zheng Chenggong felt that he had full control over this matter!

Seeing this, what else can Zhu Cilang say?

After a moment, Zhu Cilang finally spoke:

"In that case, I won't be polite. However, the Zheng family is so loyal, it would be stingy if the court didn't reward them."

"How about this, I, on behalf of my father, appoint several of my brothers-in-law as fourth-rank guerrilla generals and grant them the Flying Fish uniform?"

Zheng Chenggong was slightly stunned, then smiled bitterly and said:
"Your Highness, I don't think that's possible! Because I have six younger brothers!"

Zhu Cilang smiled.

"So what? The Zheng family is so loyal, they deserve such a reward!"

When Zheng Chenggong heard this, he no longer delayed.

"In that case, I would like to thank His Royal Highness on behalf of my brothers. I will immediately return to write a personal letter and send it back to Fujian. The grain transportation will also be started immediately."

Zhu Cilang shook his head.

"Let's wait until tomorrow. Although the grain transportation is urgent, it's not that urgent."

"Go back and write the letter tonight. When the imperial edict for the canonization arrives tomorrow, take it with you and send it to Fujian!"

Zheng Chenggong naturally had nothing to say, so he nodded and said:

"Then I will take my leave first!"

"Go."

Zhu Cihong laughed.

In this way, the future food problem of the Ming Dynasty was finally temporarily solved!

Before sweet potatoes and potatoes were promoted in the Ming Dynasty, these overseas grains were the life-saving food of the Ming Dynasty!

Of course, Zhu Cilang could actually buy it directly from the system space, but the price of food in the system space was not cheap at all.

All in all, it costs three taels of silver per stone, and this money is enough to buy four stones of grain from overseas.

Therefore, Zhu Cilang would rather buy silver directly from the system space and then use the silver to buy food from overseas, rather than buy food directly from the system space.

Of course, if the Ming Dynasty really doesn’t have enough food by then, Zhu Cilang won’t be able to care about so many things.

He just hoped that things wouldn't develop to this point!
Not long after that, Minister of Revenue Ni Yuanlu and Chief Minister of the Cabinet Xue Guoguan finally arrived.

Ni Yuanlu naturally knew why Zhu Cilang summoned him, after all, it was he who delivered the memorial tonight.

But Xue Guoguan didn't know this, and he was somewhat confused at the moment.

Zhu Cilang didn't waste any words. Without waiting for them to salute, he waved his hand, indicating that they didn't need to be polite, and then handed the memorial directly to Xue Guoguan.

"Take a look at this first!"

Xue Guoguan opened the letter and took a look at it, then frowned.

As the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, he certainly knew that disasters were happening everywhere in the Ming Dynasty, but he did not expect them to be so serious.

What was even more unexpected was that 200,000 disaster victims were heading towards the capital.

If we don't do something about this, it will be bad.

"Do you two have anything to say?"

At this moment, Zhu Cilang asked.

"We must come up with a solution tonight, otherwise I won't sleep tonight, and neither will the two of you."

Ni Yuanlu hesitated for a moment before speaking:
"Your Highness, the imperial court has its own procedures regarding disaster relief. I have nothing to say. Just follow the court's previous regulations."

"In addition to transporting grain and opening warehouses to release grain, the Ministry of Revenue still has sufficient silver. We can purchase some grain from merchants and wealthy areas, which should be able to solve the current difficulties."

When saying this, Ni Yuanlu was still very confident.

After all, Zhu Cilang had just allocated 30 million silver coins to the Ministry of Revenue not long ago.

You know, the Ministry of Revenue hasn't been so generous for more than a hundred years.

So in Ni Yuanlu's opinion, although this natural disaster involves a large area, it should not be difficult to solve.

What's more, everyone knows that in addition to the 30 million taels of silver in the Ministry of Revenue, there are nearly 100 million taels of silver lying around in the treasury!
With so much money, what can't be done?

However, Zhu Cilang shook his head when he heard this:

"Things aren't as simple as we thought. Whenever there's a disaster, the price of grain will inevitably rise. Now it's risen to four ounces of silver per stone."

"How much food can we buy with this money?"

"Although there is plenty of food in the capital now, how long will it last if we want to provide relief to all the victims?"

"Also, I feel that this natural disaster may last for several years, but how long can we sustain it with this food and silver?"

Upon hearing this, Ni Yuanlu and Xue Guoguan fell silent at the same time.

Because they really didn't think so much, they just wanted to solve the current problems first.

As for what happens in the future, we’ll have to wait and see!

But it is obvious that Zhu Cilang is considering more than just the present!

But the future of Ming Dynasty!
(End of this chapter)