A deer foraged for food in the snow, using its front hooves to break through the thick snow and nibble on the dead grass beneath the snow. Suddenly, as if sensing some danger, it raised its head to the left and right, and then, as if surprised, it tried to flee, when there was a bang, and the deer fell to the ground in the snow.

The red blood stained the snow, the deer twitched in the snow, and soon there was a burst of barking, and a herd of hounds ran over, and at any moment a group of knights came.

"Your Majesty is a good gun, and a gun is in the center."

When the attendant complimented and lifted the deer onto the horse, Zhu Mingzhong smiled and loaded the bullet for the firebolt, although the attendant could load the bullet on his behalf, he was still used to doing it himself, it was not easy to load the rifled gun, and it would take a while to load a bullet.

When loading the bullet, Zhu Mingzhong didn't raise his head and asked directly.

"Dexu, how are the negotiations going on on the Japanese side?"

After making sure that the Japanese had successfully "visited" the Ming Dynasty under his own careful planning, Zhu Mingzhong also cared about them, although he was careful to prevent them from seeing the true side of the Ming Dynasty, but he was not too worried about the negotiations.

"Your Majesty, Abe Masaneng didn't insist too much on the issue of Ezo, and it seems that they didn't insist on the idea of claiming that it was Japanese territory, and it seems that if we make concessions, a maximum of 250,000 taels, we will be able to get them to agree to give up Ezo, and besides, the shogunate is now in financial difficulties, and I believe that 250,000 taels of silver may be far more tempting to them than Ezo, which is poor and has nothing to offer."

Two hundred and fifty thousand taels, it is indeed not expensive!

When he heard this number, Zhu Mingzhong looked at the forest in front of him, which was not even as expensive as this forest. In fact, this forest located in the northeast of the central capital is an artificial forest, a landscape garden for him to play and hunt, covering an area of 600 square miles, this artificial garden, in fact, did not invest much silver taels, probably that is, the royal family invested more than one million taels for the resettlement of the people here, and then took out hundreds of thousands of taels, introduced various trees and animals, but in just a few years, it has become a lush forest, but in its growth process, human intervention is still indispensable, Thousands of craftsmen planted trees here according to Zhu Mingzhong's design drawings, and artificially intervened in the types and growth of the trees.

In comparison, I bought a Hokkaido for 250,000 taels...... It's a good deal, but ...... It's too expensive!

"One hundred thousand taels!"

Zhu Mingzhong said directly.

"At most, 150,000 taels, if I'm not mistaken, now the silver content of Japan's "Ding Yin" is 64%, and the silver content of Longyang is 90%, 150,000 taels...... Basically, it was equivalent to giving them 200,000 taels, which was a lot of income for the shogunate. ”

"Obey."

Fang Zhongde, who was riding on the horse, then asked tentatively.

"Then is this silver from the inner treasury or from the household treasury ......?"

The inner treasury is royal, the household is the state, it seems that the emperor is sitting on the four seas, but if you want to use the treasury silver, there are many restrictions, and because of this, compared with the treasury, the emperor himself is simpler to use the inner treasury, there are not so many restrictions, but as we all know, whether it is the treasury or the inner treasury, there is no royal palace fullness, and the silver in the imperial palace is the emperor's own.

The reason why Fang Zhongde asked this is because the expenditure in North America is paid by the inner treasury. And this also brought another North American colony, the ownership of which belonged to the royal family, not to the Ming Dynasty, and now the Ming court can be said to be very clear about the twists and turns.

"This communicate with Gu Yanwu and them, if the household department is willing to give out, it will be by the household department, if they are unwilling, it will be by the inner treasury, if I guess correctly, they will definitely not be willing to give out the silver."

With mockery in his words, Zhu Mingzhong sneered in his heart.

From the first year of Xingqian to the present, the imperial court, which seems to be subservient to itself, actually maintains its independence, and what is the biggest dispute between the two sides? It was the dispute over financial power, which absorbed the lesson that Zhang Juzheng transferred the income of the inner treasury to the imperial court in the name of reform, which led to the inexplicable poverty of the royal family, and whenever the imperial court encountered a reason, it asked for the inner treasury, but never asked the lesson that half of the income of the inner treasury had been removed.

In the Xingqian Dynasty's internal treasury income division, racking their brains to prevent the imperial court from devouring, the largest input of the inner treasury is the official field income, this piece of income is not dissolved to the household department, is the local government directly handed over to the bank, by the bank management, the inner treasury and the household department are divided into fifty percent, if it is not a fake hand bank to collect this money, if it is handed over to the household department, to go deeper, that is, their own eyes can never see the ears, at best, they have to intercept at least half.

Last year, in order to solve the problem of insufficient use of the local government, according to the suggestion of the officials, a part of the income from the official land was transferred to the local government office.

They always try their best to control financial power, because everyone knows where the real power is, that is, finance!

Why Zhu Mingzhong was able to suppress the imperial court was not only because he was strong, but also because he controlled the income of 42 million taels of inner treasury. As long as he holds this money, the imperial court will always be firmly in his hands.

"Your Majesty, the hundreds of officials in the court are like this, and it is also because of the consideration that those places will be divided in the future, so I hope that I can save expenses, after all, ......"

Fang Zhongde's explanation was exchanged for Zhu Mingzhong's laughter.

"After all, once it is divided, those places are the sect, right? It's not a big deal. ”

Zhu Mingzhong, who knew that what Fang Zhongde said was also the truth, did not expose another fact - the imperial court was red-eyed in the inner treasury, and tried every possible way to "hollow out" the inner treasury, but they knew that the money could not be spent.

In recent years, many seemingly "extravagant moves" are just investments in the future for Zhu Mingzhong, just like this garden located in the suburbs of Beijing, hundreds of years later, the land price of this place is really valuable, and it will be expanded here next year.

"Okay, you don't have to explain to them, where the court now uses silver, how can I not know that there is a difference between inside and outside, it is the law of the court, you tell them that since I bought Ezo with silver, then in the future, what will be produced there has nothing to do with the court!"

Zhu Mingzhong is not joking, of course, Ezo is not only the best pasture in the North Pacific, but it will also be the most important whaling base. The whaling industry is an industry that must be developed by the Ming Dynasty, not only because of the profit of whale oil, whale oil can be used for lighting, but the more important use is as a machine lubricant, which is also the main reason for the prosperity of the whaling industry after the industrial revolution, and even until the fifties and sixties, whale oil as a high-grade lubricant has not been replaced. For Daming, who has been accustomed to vegetable oil lighting for thousands of years, the main use of whale oil in the future is to be used as a machine lubricant.

Unlike historical European and American countries, whale meat can also be an important meat protein, it is inexpensive and a substitute for meat. Whales are large and grow freely in the sea, so there is no cost of stocking; On the contrary, the pigs, cattle and sheep raised on the farm have a long cycle, small size, large cost and huge labor cost. Whale meat instead of pork, beef and mutton can solve the problem of insufficient meat supply in China.

Of course, other parts of the whale's body also have commercial value, such as whale intestines can be processed into bowstrings for playing cotton, whale skin can be used for leather, and whalebone can be used as decoration and agricultural fertilizer.

Coupled with the output of that natural pasture in Hokkaido, the future Ezo land can be called a treasure land, but the princes of the imperial court are too hostile!

"Your Majesty, if Your Majesty intends to invest in Ezo in the future, Xia Guan will definitely follow the investment."

Fang Zhongde said with a smile, no one in Daming will doubt His Majesty's ability to make money, and even in the eyes of many officials, as long as they follow His Majesty's investment, they will definitely get rich returns.

"You...... Let's go and keep hunting with me to see if we can catch a tiger! ”

The other party Zhongde smiled, Zhu Mingzhong, who had already loaded the fire gun, clamped his legs, the spurs on the heel of his boots stabbed the horse's belly, and the Arabian horse under his crotch ran towards the distance, and for a while, the forest was full of the barking of hunting dogs......

There are indeed tigers in this park, not artificially stocked, but naturally migrated, as early as two years ago, the traces of tigers have been found, no one can say where they came from, but there are tigers, wolves and other fierce beasts in the garden, but it also makes Zhu Mingzhong want to try the feeling of hunting tigers.

After all, in later generations, tigers are protected animals.

It's just that he was disappointed that he didn't even see a tiger hair after hunting in the garden for half a day. Seeing His Majesty's disappointed look, Fang Zhongde said on the side.

"Your Majesty, if Your Majesty wants to hunt tigers, you can go to the Northeast when you have the opportunity in the future, and I heard my father say in a letter that there are many tigers in the mountains and forests of the Northeast, and as long as you go into the mountains to hunt, you will definitely be able to meet tigers."

Fang Zhongde's words made Zhu Mingzhong smile, and then shook his head and said.

"I just thought for a while, this hunting should also pay attention to not hurting the heavens and the peace, not to hunt too much, even if it is a tiger and other beasts, it should be so, if you don't hunt them all, it will also be a good thing, just like the Luzhou area from time to time there are wild boars down the mountain to harm the land, it is that the beasts hunt too much, the balance of destruction, there are no tigers, wolves and other beasts to hunt, then the wild boar will naturally be flooded......"

When the words fell, he realized that talking to them about these things now seemed a little too advanced, Zhu Mingzhong looked at the sky, and the sky seemed to be a little overcast, so he said.

"Let's go, hurry back, it seems to be raining this day."