Palace.

Emperor Xiang Yanran flipped through the chapters reported from all over the country.

The Great Chu Dynasty was too big, three or four thousand miles from east to west, north and south, and there were disasters and famines, floods, and even plagues everywhere for three days, and the hungry people were everywhere.

The county guards in various places often reported to the court, begging the court to allocate money and food for disaster relief.

In addition, new dikes were built on the Yellow River, ditches were renovated to irrigate farmland, and new schools were built.

The treasury spends money like water.

It's a headache.

Xiang Yanran rubbed his forehead.

Money!

There is a shortage of money and food everywhere.

However, there is only so much money and grain in the treasury every year.

He also had to save money, leave a large part of it, and form an extremely large army of Great Chu cavalry, two or three hundred thousand cavalry, ready to fight - cut off the princes and conquer the Xiongnu in the north.

Preparing for war is the top priority he has been preparing for for more than a decade.

After solving the more than ten arrogant and domineering princes and kings of Great Chu, and destroying the Xiongnu, a great northern disaster with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, the Great Chu Dynasty could enjoy a few days of real peace.

The crown prince Xiang Tiange doesn't have to be as hard as his father.

...

Cai and the chief eunuch waited on the sidelines, watching the emperor review the recital.

"By the way, what have you been doing lately? How is the prince's studies? ”

Xiang Yanran asked casually.

The emperor asked casually, and Cai and the great eunuch didn't dare to deal with it at will.

Cai and the great eunuch knew the emperor's thoughts, and looked closely at the crown prince and the little dusk marquis, and immediately took a book from his sleeve.

"Your Majesty, the Marquis of Xiao Duan is in the Princely Academy, with a group of Jinshi and students, doing new knowledge, studying new arithmetic, trigonometry, light, and buoyancy. This is the textbook of the Princely Academy!

The prince has studied quite hard... However, it is also a lot of fun. In the past few days, before dawn, he ran to the princely college. ”

The Emperor took it over with great interest.

On this thick textbook, there are a bunch of ghost drawing symbols, 1~10, +-*=... Various calculation formulas.

Without a teacher explaining these things face-to-face, it's hard to understand what's going on.

"What?"

The emperor looked at it a few times and frowned.

I couldn't understand it at all, and I quickly lost interest and threw it aside.

These things work, but they work slowly.

Without one or two decades of deep cultivation and accumulation, it is impossible to see great results.

"Your Majesty, these things invented by the little dusk marquis are incredible, and the vision is extraordinary... He's not like a gentleman... Will...? ”

Cai and the great eunuch wondered.

Ambitious?

But he didn't dare to say it explicitly.

After all, no evidence was found, and there was a suspicion of sowing discord.

However, he couldn't help but mention such a sentence, otherwise the emperor would think that he was not careful and spying on those princes and nobles.

Xiang Yanran said lightly: "Although Xiao Duhou is a gentleman, after all, he has been inherited for eight hundred years, his family is knowledgeable, and he is still very capable.

However, Xiucai rebelled, and it didn't work out for three years... As long as he has no sword or soldier in his hand for a day, there is nothing to worry about. ”

Xiao Duanhou's father-in-law, Pingwang Li Rong, as a captain, can mobilize the world's soldiers and horses.

But it also requires a tiger talisman given by the emperor to transfer troops, and there are only a few hundred Li family guards on weekdays, and it is impossible to rebel.

Moreover, the Li family's gate valve is loyal to the Xiang royal family, and he enjoys the princes of Great Chu, and has little to do with the Chu family.

If the Li family really wants to have different intentions, they will only rebel for the Li family, and will never rebel for the Chu family.

Therefore, although the Li and Chu families are in-laws, they can't go together.

If Xiao Duhou wants to rebel, he must first raise tens of thousands of soldiers and war horses, and also build the swords and leather armor needed for tens of thousands of soldiers and horses.

And tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, huge consumption of grain and grass, it is impossible to hide, before this, it will definitely be detected.

At the feet of the Son of Heaven in Jinling City, no powerful family can be so hidden.

In contrast, the more than ten princes and kings who held the financial power of the county and county lands, and each had tens of thousands of troops, were more threatening.

Combined, the princes and kings had at least hundreds of thousands of troops, more than the central army of Great Chu.

Solving these princes and kings is the trouble of the henchmen.

Now that the Gengzi New Deal of the Great Chu Dynasty is being implemented, the reform of the imperial examination for the selection of court officials has been basically completed, and the results of the selection are still very good.

Just keep it going every year.

Those mediocre and unmotivated gate lords, if they don't study hard, they will rarely be able to enter the jinshi.

There are not even many Confucian scholars.

The group of jinshi in the examination are all extremely pragmatic and hard-working talents.

It is also time to begin preparations to depose the princes and kings of these divided parties.

If you want to abolish the princes, you must first cut off the way to wealth.

Only with money can you raise an army.

""The policy of prohibiting the private minting of copper coins", Xiao Duhou can offer this policy in the palace test, which shows that he is loyal and sincere, and has no ambition!

Let the Marquis of Xiao Duan write this policy in the early dynasty and hand it over to the ministers for consultation.

cut off the wealth of the princes and kings, and also cut off the road of those careerists. ”

The emperor smiled and said.

This is a good thing.

Those princes were so rich that they were so rich that they minted a large number of copper coins in their fiefdoms, and the money was almost inexhaustible.

It is estimated that one-third of the princes' wealth came from the minting of copper coins.

Another third comes from the lucrative trade in salt, iron, wine, etc.

Finally, from the commercial tax, the grain paid by the people.

If you have a lot of money and raise soldiers, you can't lose it.

This strategy is a method of drawing salaries from the bottom of the kettle, and the finances of the princes and kings are dug up by two or three percent at once. If the princes and kings dare not rebel, then they can only reduce their troops and reduce their government.

"Yes!"

Cai and the great eunuch were shocked.

Fierce move!

It's finally coming!

Let Xiao Duhou publicly offer this policy in the early dynasty.

This would be a great blow to the princes and kings.

By the way, it can also hit the financial resources of the world's gate lords, princes, nobles, and powerful families, and greatly increase the financial resources of the central court of Chu.

It is not only the princes and kings who privately mint copper coins.

Those royal grandchildren, princes, princesses, county lords, gate valves, and powerful people, but all those who have fiefs and mountains at home, and there are copper mines in the fiefs, will mine and mint copper coins.

The copper coins minted by the imperial court are less than half of the copper coins in the world. This revenue alone will at least more than double the fiscal revenue.

As soon as this strategy came out, this was to provoke the angry scolding of the kings and grandsons of the world.

This big black cauldron that attracts people's revival, the emperor himself will definitely not carry it.

You can only let the minister carry it.

Since it is the palace test strategy of the little dusk marquis, then the little dusk marquis will carry it.

The infamy of the world is all directed at Xiao Duhou.

In this way, it is even more unlikely that Xiao Duhou will have the slightest possibility of rebellion. The world is strong and hateful, who else will support Xiao Duhou?

Thinking of this, Cai and the big eunuch couldn't help but feel some sympathy for the little faint marquis.

After all, the emperor is old and spicy, and between the clouds and rain, he governs the world in an orderly manner.

As for the little dusk... Anyway, before the name of Jinling, he was scolded by scholars all over the world for more than ten years, and it didn't hurt to be scolded by the nobles and powerful people a few more words.