Ming Dynasty: Tanks blocked the door and you said to me, "Long live Ming Dynasty"

"Although three hundred taels of silver may not seem like a lot, this is dealing with the imperial court. If it's more, those wealthy merchants will be nervous."

"After all, people believe in not showing off their wealth, and they are also afraid of being targeted."

"Don't forget that although Xu Guangqi worked in the Ministry of Works, his position was in the Ministry of Revenue."

"That stingy guy Guo is always thinking about where to get some tax money to fill the hole!"

"Your Majesty is really amazing. You can see through things like this at a glance."

Liu Yue looked at him with admiration, her hands still busy.

Zhu Youxiao didn't say anything else, just lay there with his eyes closed.

He now has only one idea!

This emperor is really not a human being!

I really want to go out and have some fresh air...

Staying in the palace every day would make even a good person sick.

In the past, when I went out, Prince Xin was the regent. But in the spring of next year, once Prince Xin left, if I wanted to go out again, there would be no one in the court to take charge.

So sad!

Thinking of this, he reached out and picked up a memorial from the bedside.

That was the list of cabinet additions drawn up by Wen Tiren.

Expanding the cabinet is imperative!

After all, only when the cabinet is stable will he have enough confidence to be a hands-off boss.

Hi!

Why think about these things!

When facing a beautiful woman, the most important thing to do is to enjoy it, right?

He threw the letter aside and looked at Liu Yue.

In this situation, a poem came to his mind.

There is bright moonlight in front of the bed.

Suspected of frost on the ground.

Look up at the bright moon.

Lower your head and tear...

Chapter 574: Only million, not much indeed

In the severe winter, there are fewer trivial matters.

Some minor matters were naturally handled by Wen Tihen and others. Apart from attending court once every three days, Zhu Youxiao spent all his time lingering in the various palaces in the harem.

Gentle massage in the Yanxi Palace.

In Jingren Palace, Rong Fei and Qing Yu were in love.

They all made him intoxicated and he didn't know the way home.

How does the saying go?

A thick quilt is not as good as skin touching skin.

Zhu Youxiao deeply understood the essence of this sentence.

For this reason, under Zhang Yan's repeated requests, he finally entered the Chuxiu Palace and stayed there for four days.

Concubine Feng, Concubine Hu, and Qiu'er, who had served in the emperor's bedchamber when he went south last year, all lived here.

A threesome will make me wet and is also very interesting.

Before he knew it, the eighth year of the Tianqi era had come to an end due to his debauchery and immorality.

December 19th is the last court meeting before the New Year. After it is over, the entire Ming Dynasty court system will enter the New Year holiday period.

Since the beginning of December, the Ministry of Revenue has become the busiest department in the capital, without a doubt.

December 10th.

A transport team consisting of thirty oxcarts came from the south and stopped outside Chaoyang Gate, which was closest to Lumi Warehouse.

Zhu Youxiao was also invited.

At this moment he was sitting on the Chaoyang Gate, drinking tea, looking at the crowds of people below, and smiling at Guo Yunhou.

"My dear minister, this year you are planning to let the court officials have a prosperous New Year."

Guo Yunhou stood behind the city wall with a calm expression, as holy as a Buddha.

"Your Majesty, you are joking. For the commercial taxes of the two capitals and thirteen provinces, I have only collected taxes from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Huguang, and Guangxi."

"All together, it's less than 30 million taels of silver."

Zhu Youxiao almost spit out the tea he had drunk.

Damn it!

According to the intelligence sent by the Western Factory some time ago, the tax silver collected by the Ministry of Revenue was only more than 10 million taels.

It has doubled in less than two months?

Sure enough, commercial tax is the big part!

But the minister pretended to be indifferent. As the emperor, it was not appropriate for him to show too much surprise.

He forced himself to swallow the tea, then took a sip from the pipe.

"Oh, only 30 million, it's really not much."

After saying that, he turned and looked at Wang Chengen on the side.

"Wang Banban, how much money does the Ministry of Revenue owe now?"

Wang Chengen came over with a flattering smile on his face and said, "In reply to your Majesty, if we can settle the debt before the end of the year, we will only need 28,110,000 taels."

As soon as these words were spoken, both the master and the servant looked at Guo Yunhou in unison.

I thought the old guy would be embarrassed, but in the end, nothing happened to him and he still looked nonchalant.

However, Meng Shaoyu on the side became nervous.

"Mr. Guo, when did the Ministry of Revenue owe so much money?"

However, Guo Yunhou rolled his eyes at him without any hesitation.

"Nonsense! If I don't owe you money, what will you use to build a school?"

"If my information is correct, the Ministry of Rites has built more than 600 schools so far, right?"

According to the standards given by Zhu Youxiao, a school must be able to accommodate at least 200 students at the same time.

In addition to teaching, there must also be dormitories, canteens, libraries and other supporting facilities.

As for the playground, there is no need for it.

Each school will allocate 500 acres of arable land and 20 oxen, and all the students' extracurricular activities will be carried out in the fields.

In this way, we can achieve self-sufficiency and strengthen our body.

More importantly, there will no longer be fools among the scholars graduating from the school who cannot tell the difference between wheat seedlings and leeks.

However, all of these require a large amount of financial support at the beginning.

According to this standard, a school would require an investment of nearly three thousand taels of silver.

Six hundred colleges would cost 1.8 million taels!

After being rebuked, Meng Shaoyu retreated into the line of officials with his neck shrunk, and dared not say a word again.

There is no way, whoever invests money is the boss.

We are still more than halfway to the five-year goal of 1,500 schools. If Mr. Guo withdraws his investment, we will be in trouble.

Seeing this, Wu Chunfu patted him on the shoulder twice and consoled him, "Don't bother with this stingy old man. Didn't you see that Eunuch Wang is waiting to collect the debt? It would be strange if he had a good face."

After saying this, he smiled at Guo Yunhou in a very unkind way.

He had the same idea as Zhu Youxiao and really wanted to see Guo Yunhou suffer a defeat.

But Guo Yunhou's indifference today is really puzzling!

When he heard that he had to pay back the money, he didn't refuse at all. Instead, he pointed to the silver driveway below.

"Eunuch Wang, please send someone from the West Factory to take an inventory."

"We can settle the account between us today!"

Wang Chengen was stunned for a moment: "Master Guo, you are not going to purchase the goods for the westward journey after the New Year?"

Guo Yunhou smiled faintly, bowed and clasped his fists towards him, and said, "Thank you for your concern, Eunuch Wang. I need to purchase goods for the westward journey, but I won't need this money."

Wang Chengen wanted to say something else, but when he saw that the silver had already been unloaded from the truck outside the city, he could only apologize to Zhu Youxiao and leave.

It was the first time in the Ming Dynasty that fire bulls were used to carry cargo, and on such a large scale.

The thirty bullock carts, filled with wooden boxes, made the onlookers extremely curious.

When Wang Chengen opened the first box, everyone present gasped.

"hiss........."

"Oh my goodness, it's all silver!"

"This box must be worth several thousand taels, right?"

"Not only that! Look at this box, it's made entirely of nanmu wood and reinforced with steel plates. With thousands of taels of silver, you wouldn't do that."

"........"

The common people stood in the distance and pointed and talked, but the Jinyiwei were standing guard between them and the fire bull carts with great tension.

A guard from the Western Factory counted the box of silver and immediately shouted at the top of his voice.

"Twenty thousand taels of silver! Deposit it into the account!"

"Record it and enter it into the account!"

As soon as he finished speaking, his companions came over with account books and brushes, shouting and drawing marks on the box.

Each box is one meter long, fifty centimeters wide and seventy centimeters high.

And the cart behind each bull cart was loaded with forty-eight such boxes.

Six horizontally and eight vertically!

It is very cold in winter, but seeing such a scene, no one seems to feel cold anymore.

It was the first time for the people to see so much silver. When the box was opened in the sunlight, the bright white light was blinding!

Thirty bullock carts, a total of 1,448 boxes, and a total of 28.88 million taels of tax silver!

After deducting the debt owed by the Western Factory, there was still a surplus of 690,000 taels of silver.

Almost all the officials from the six ministries are here, and some are already privately calculating how much reward they will get by the end of the year.

Six hundred and ninety thousand taels may not sound like a lot.

But fly legs are also meat, right?

Chapter 575: Corruption is fun for a while, but it leads to a mass grave afterwards

Some people are happy and some are sad.

Some officials looked at the silver boxes being unloaded one after another, and their teeth were almost broken with hatred.

All this silver is commercial tax!

Although merchants are of low status, finding a pair of white gloves is not a difficult task.

Which noble family doesn't maintain a few caravans secretly?