The first assistant of the poor family

Chapter 235 The Emperor's Mind

Xie Shen couldn't sleep all night after returning from the chief secretary's yamen to his home in Pinganfang.

Xu Guan should be a good father-in-law, but the problem is that the marriage came too suddenly.

It is now August of the eighth year of Hongzhi, and he has to go to the capital to prepare for the exam before February of the next year, which does not count the time spent on the road.

In other words, the time left for him should be less than half a year.

Get married within half a year.
Tsk tsk, this is really quite a challenge.

In the early morning of the next day, Xie Shen rubbed his eyes, got up and took a shower full of sleepiness.

After the Luming Banquet, the official banquet was temporarily gone, but some people still wanted to meet.

Ji An is the chief examiner of the provincial examination, and he had already chatted with Xie Shen last night, so it makes sense not to pay a special visit to him anymore.

Chen Fangyin is an academic officer in Zhejiang Province, and he is familiar with Xie Shen, so he naturally wants to meet him.

But Mrs. Chen seemed to be avoiding the young man on purpose. As soon as the Luming Banquet was over, he left Hangzhou City the next day.

The rest are optional, so Xie Shen went to pay a visit to Fang Shi, and then changed direction to Ning Yuanwai's residence.

Compared with these officials, Yuanwai Ning is more straightforward.

Although Xie Shen also knows that there are some other purposes behind this frankness, at least the chat will not be so depressing.

Member Ning learned that Xie Shenzhong knew Yuan, so congratulations were indispensable.

After talking on the scene, Ning Yuanwai said quietly: "The old man really did not misunderstand the person. Mr. Xie is indeed a Wenqu star descending to earth. After winning the fourth yuan, I am afraid that the whole Jiangnan will know your name."

Xie Shen smiled sheepishly and said: "Member Ning is absurdly praised, but Wansheng was lucky enough to get the first place. I have outstanding people in Zhejiang Province, and Wansheng dare not show the slightest arrogance."

Ning Yi stared at Xie Shen for a long time before sighing, "Sometimes I really can't see through you. I heard that you started planting cotton on the tidal flats along the coast of Yuyao, and the harvest was pretty good. Did the court also know about this?"

Xie Shen's heart sank.

This Ning Yi really has a lot of background, he even knows about this matter.

The imperial court has not promoted large-scale cotton planting in the southeast coast, so Ning Yi should have gotten the news from private channels.

Xie Shen didn't hide it, and said loudly: "This is all because of the command of the county lord."

Ning Yi saw that Xie Shen was having a good fight with him, and while twisting the beads in his hand, Ning Yi said calmly, "We wise people don't talk dark words, you cotton old man wants to take it."

Heck, Xie Shen's heart sank.

Ning Yi is interested in these cotton?

It stands to reason that there is no essential difference between these cottons and those grown in ordinary farmland. The special feature lies in the concept of tidal flat planting.

And Ning Yi is a businessman, and the most important thing for a businessman is profit rather than ideas.

The idea of ​​growing cotton on tidal flats may be useful to the court, but not necessarily to Ning Yi.

"Why is Member Ning interested in cotton?"

Ning Yi is a big tea merchant and a big salt merchant. These two things are far faster than growing cotton. If he puts a lot of energy into cotton planting, the other two will definitely be affected.

Of course, Xie Shen also understands that cotton has certain economic benefits, but Xie Shen's original intention to promote the cultivation of cotton on tidal flats is to attract the attention of the court and the emperor.

The nature is quite different.

"Or Eunuch Liu is interested."

Eunuch Liu?
Liu Wen, the eunuch guarding Hangzhou?

Xie Shen couldn't help being stunned.

"Why is Eunuch Liu interested in growing cotton on tidal flats?"

Eunuchs have fatal flaws and cannot pass on the family line, so greed for money has become the only way to get pleasure.From Xie Shen's point of view, this eunuch Liu is no exception.

But shouldn’t eunuchs prefer to get involved in the weaving and salt industry? Cotton farming is definitely not as fast as that.

"Do you need the old man to explain more clearly? This is what the palace means."

In the palace?

In other words, it's not just eunuch Liu who wants to swallow the fat, but the emperor's order?

If you think about it carefully, it may not be possible.Before the emperor issued an edict to praise Xie Shen, he ordered the internal supervisor to send a message to report the method of growing cotton on the tidal flat.

Later, the matter was left alone, and the imperial court did not grow cotton on a large scale along the southeast coast, which was unreasonable.

At first Xie Shen thought that it was Emperor Hongzhi who was competing for benefits with the people because of his bad face, but now it seems that the emperor is still reluctant to give up this piece of fat to Xie Shen, just because he doesn't want to appear too ugly by the court.

No matter from which point of view, there is no difference between the imperial court directly taking over and robbing.And if Liu Wen, the guarding eunuch, came forward in his personal name to cooperate with Xie Shen and Ning Yuanwai, it would be a good guarantee for the royal family's face.

The guarding eunuch was originally set up for the emperor to control the place, so the guarding eunuch's income from growing cotton will definitely be sent to Beijing intact.

And there is another advantage to doing this, that is, if something goes wrong in the future, you can still lose the car and protect the commander and directly pull out the guarding eunuch as a scapegoat to calm public anger.

It means that Emperor Hongzhi found a back-up man to come forward, while he himself was hiding behind the scenes to control.

Tsk tsk, as expected of the master of Ming Dynasty Zhongxing, this scheming is so deep that people have to accept it.

Of course, eunuch Liu would not make any promises to Xie Shen in the name of the court, at most it was eunuch Liu's personal promise, which was insignificant.

It seems that Ning Yi has some kind of friendship with Eunuch Liu, so Liu Wen asked Ning Yi to be the lobbyist and partner.

So, is he going to take up the conversation?
Since the court did not make things clear, Xie Shen can naturally pretend to be confused.

After all, on the face of it, he just offended Eunuch Liu.

But this is a violation of the emperor.

It is true that Hongzhi is a Mingjun, but Mingjun also eats whole grains, and also has joy, anger, sorrow and joy.

It is not a good thing for the emperor to worry about it like this.

But just agreeing like this is tantamount to taking the blame with Eunuch Liu. If something happens to Eunuch Liu, he can't afford to walk around, and it's hard for Xie Shen to have good results.

Member Ning seemed to see what Xie Shen was thinking, and said with a faint smile, "You don't have to reply to the old man right away, let's have a light meal together, if you figure it out, the old man will go with you to guard the eunuch's mansion."

Uh.
Xie Shenzhi was very helpless, didn't this force him to jump into the pit?

At any rate, the Imperial Merchant still had an imperial presence and a promise.

In this way, he planted cotton in his own name, and then handed over the profits to the emperor. He did all the dirty work, just to make a good impression in the emperor's mind?
Xie Shen ruled the history of the Ming Dynasty in his previous life, so he naturally lamented the tax issue of the Ming Dynasty.

Except for Wanli who is relatively good at making money, the financial problems of other dynasties are very tense.

This is of course a problem with the system of the Ming Dynasty. Now Emperor Hongzhi secretly let eunuchs take jobs in order to make money?
Xie Shen really didn't know whether it was gratifying or sad.

Hongzhi did not make any fundamental changes in the 18 years of the first dynasty, and the framework built by Zhu Yuanzhang also restricted the hands of future generations.

This kind of exploration by Emperor Hongzhi was also a last resort, but whether it can be regarded as the norm is still open to question.

　ps: Thanks to the book friend 5kkkkk_, the monthly ticket of the book friend who is dark and dusty, and thanks to the book friend who has my reward ^O^
　　Thank you for the monthly tickets, two hundred monthly tickets plus more, already 85 votes, please ask for monthly tickets ^O^
　　
　
(End of this chapter)