Although Zhu Youxiao made a three-step plan in order to save the budget, he still needed to pay 500,000 taels of silver in advance. The problem is that at present, the Ming treasury cannot make ends meet, and the 200,000 troops gathered in Japan spend as much as 30,000 taels a day, on the one hand, to maintain the stability of the Japanese political situation, and on the other hand, to move the population.

The third stage of the sunset operation is the most important, Zhu Youxiao knew that this investment could not be moved, so he had to transfer 500,000 taels of silver from the internal bank first, but the head of the internal affairs office was Zhang Yan, the queen of Ci'an, but all women in charge of the house have a common problem, that is, they are allowed to enter but not to leave, their eyebrows are dancing when they count money, and they are bitter and hateful when they spend money.

In order to please his virtuous helper, Zhu Youxiao first ordered people to distribute the Western alarm clock, astronomical telescope, short gun, navigation map, sunglasses, etc. brought by the European mission at the wedding to the concubines of each palace to play, and then took time to take Zhang Yan to the western suburbs to ride a horse for a day, and accompanied her to climb to the roof to watch the stars at night, and finally prepared to apportionment after a few days of tossing.

"Long live Lord, these Western gadgets are quite fun."

Zhang Yan looked around with sunglasses, looking cute and funny.

Zhu Youxiao saw her walking and looked at the front and back, for fear that she would fall and bump into her, so he hugged her and said:

"It's good if my wife likes it, these things are congratulatory gifts from European envoys, I heard that they are all ordinary things, but they can only be used by the royal family in my court, this is the gap!"

Zhang Yan sighed when she saw Zhu Youxiao, knowing that her husband was competitive, she mistakenly thought that he was depressed, and explained gently:

"Long live the Lord don't have to be sad, these gadgets seen by the concubines are no different from the crickets on the street, could it be that there are other uses?"

Zhu Youxiao saw her on the road, pressed her to the stool, and then patiently explained while fiddling with these things:

"Yan'er, look at this Western clock, it is exquisitely made and easy to use, far better than the hourglass and sundial outside the Imperial Palace, and the Westerners also set a day at twenty hours, which is more accurate than the traditional twelve hours. If you look at this telescope, last night we saw a lot of stars that are invisible to the naked eye, and during the day we can see the scenery from miles away, which is a very good aid for navigation and warfare. You may not have played this revolver, but I'll show you. ”

After speaking, Zhu Youxiao picked up the short gun and opened it several times before stopping, the vase in the distance was smashed, and when he turned around, he found that Zhang Yan and others were squatting on the ground with their ears covered, Zhu Youxiao said angrily and funny:

"The Europeans have already applied these technologies to navigation and military affairs, and our soldiers have suffered a lot of losses in previous naval battles, so I have made up my mind to master these techniques and gradually master them through imitation and innovation. It's just that the treasury is empty right now, and I have some helplessness to cook without rice! ”

Zhang Yan was originally an old and serious person, and after seven years of training in the palace, he was already a master of insight into snort. In fact, she understood Zhu Youxiao's mind from the beginning, but she just saw through it and didn't say it. In this way, he can stay by his side for a few more moments, and he will be satisfied as a woman. Moreover, for the king of a country, it is very common to marry a few more concubines and spend more silver, but every time the emperor has to make some seemingly funny compensation, which shows his status in his heart.

For this reason, Zhang Yan always reciprocates the favor, she knows that her husband has a deep affection for her, and the kind of spoiled tsundere is always budding. After listening to Zhu Youxiao's complaints, she comforted her with kind words:

"Long live the lord, according to the ancestral harem, you can't interfere in the affairs of the court, but the concubines are in charge of the internal affairs government by order, and I have heard some about the previous dynasty. At the beginning of His Majesty's accession to the throne, he worked diligently day and night and even forgot to sleep and eat, and successively used troops to stabilize the frontier externally, and continued to provide relief and construction internally.

In order to make up for the financial shortfall, His Majesty successively transferred more than 13 million taels of domestic silver, and the concubines had accounts for every expenditure. Now there are 27 million taels of silver in the treasury, and more than 400,000 treasures, antiques, and celebrity calligraphy and paintings, which are enough for His Majesty to carry out his life's ambitions. ”

Before Zhang Yan finished speaking, she had already thrown herself into her husband's arms, quiet and well-behaved, like a pleasing kitten. Zhu Youxiao gently cupped her cheeks, took a light sip, and then said gently:

"Yan'er, you are always so sensible, if you have a wife, what more can you ask for!"

After saying that, he picked up the beauty and walked straight to the inner room.

With a huge amount of capital investment, the Ming Dynasty is like a high-speed machine, and a wave of technology to improve production equipment has arisen in the territory, from ploughs and bricks to looms and ships, and countless skilled craftsmen meditate hard under the kerosene lamp.

In order to concentrate his efforts on major affairs, Zhu Youxiao ordered that Wang Gongchang, the Royal Academy of Social Sciences, and the Tianjin Arsenal be merged and moved to Qinhuangdao, adopting a militarized management model and prohibiting the leakage of the latest scientific research results.

The original intention of learning from the East and the West is to learn from the science and technology and culture of Europe, and take its essence to elevate Chinese civilization to a new height. At this time, the concept of science in the Ming Dynasty was still in the enlightenment stage, and the thinking of divine authority of the monarch and the thinking of agriculture and commerce was deeply rooted. In contrast, Europe's advantages are more obvious, and foreigners must be guarded against. Moreover, Zhu Youxiao's long-term goal is to compete with the European powers for spheres of influence in the ocean, and to do everything possible to win more raw material production areas and commodity markets for the Chinese nation, which will inevitably lead to trade frictions and wars. For this reason, the Ming Dynasty on the one hand adopted strict secrecy measures for scientific and technological research and development, and on the other hand, actively recruited European talents to come to the East, in the future they can only take with them gold, silver and jewelry, and knowledge and technology will always remain in China.

At the same time as the steam revolution was carried out in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youxiao began to consider the implementation of the policy of apportioning the land into the mu, and decided to officially abolish the poll tax in feudal society, so as to cooperate with the second national census conducted by Han Xi and Yang Lian. In order to prevent the feudal lords and local gentry from concealing their land and tenant farmers, the celebrant eunuch, Dongchang, and Jinyiwei were also involved. Cao Huachun supervised the household department, Wei Zhongxian supervised the vassal king Xungui, and Yu Dingbian supervised the feudal officials and local tyrants and squires in various places, and severely punished those who cheated and resisted the imperial court.

Under this high-pressure policy, many displaced people and tenants were re-entered into the records of the Ministry of Households, and the population of the interior soared from 84 million to more than 150 million. The increase in population directly promoted the increase of taxes paid by the imperial court, and also indirectly cracked down on local fraud and greed, and the salt tax in Jiangnan alone increased from 700,000 taels in the first year of the Apocalypse to more than 6 million taels of silver. At this point, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the situation of the rich gentry and merchants and the poor people of the court was finally contained, and the land annexation was once again severely attacked, and the root cause of the demise of the Ming Dynasty was finally completely solved.