Zhu Youxiao turned to another question: "The matter of the treasury and money is nothing more than opening up sources and reducing expenditures. Nowadays, there is no rule in the coinage of various places, and all kinds of inferior copper coins are flooding the market, I wonder what Mr. can teach me? ”

"Your Highness once asked about the minting machine, and you thought about it, but Your Highness wants to take back the right to mint coins in various places?"

That's exactly what I mean. The coinage specifications vary from place to place, and the interest on the money obtained is all the income of corrupt officials, and the currency system is uncertain, so it is very inconvenient for the people to exchange. If you get a coinage, you can use the new system of new money, not only copper coins, but also silver coins, so that the money and interest are all obtained by the imperial court, and the people can also get the benefits of exchange. "The Ming Dynasty mainly used silver as currency, and when it was used, it was cut into small pieces, called broken silver or silver horns. This makes the exchange very inconvenient and the loss is serious, so Zhu Xiaoqi wants to issue silver coins and copper coins by the imperial court to eliminate those bad coins on the market.

"This matter must be carried out only after the delivery of the mint, and how to proceed can be prepared for a rainy day, how many mints will be set up in the country, where they will be located, the size of the coins, the fineness of the coins, the proportion of exchange between copper and silver coins, and the method of exchange between silver and silver, all of which must be pre-set and statute set up, and when the minting machine arrives, the manufacture can begin, all of which must be planned by the gentleman."

Xu Guangqi felt very strange, whether it is collecting taxes or coinage, this is the power that only the emperor can have, the tax law can also be said to be formulated first and wait for the grandson to be familiar, and the real power after the implementation, and the last time the mint missionary has said that he will go back to inquire, and will bring the machine or manufacturing craftsmen and methods to the Ming Dynasty, then the completion of the coinage machine should be completed within a year or two or even a year, and the grandson said that with the coinage machine will start manufacturing, what does that mean? Did Taisun think that he would soon become emperor? As soon as this thought flashed, he broke out in a cold sweat and quickly stopped, because no matter what the reason, it was not something he dared to delve into.

Zhu Xiaoqi didn't notice anything unusual, and continued: "The change of the currency system and the collection of taxes can actually be combined, in the land of Taixi, there is an institution called a bank, which is similar to the money village of our dynasty, and the bank manages the coin manufacturing and issuance of the mint, and the income from tax collection also enters the bank. "This is already a big official, deputy minister, I believe that Westerners will also be tempted.

The strangeness in Xu Guangqi's heart deepened, he agreed one by one, and then the two of them separated from each other. As soon as he got out of the palace, Xu Guangqi instructed the coachman to go to the Taifu Temple, and directly found his friend Li Zhizao, the Shaoqing of the Taifu Temple, Li Zhizao was playing chess with someone, first confessed his guilt, welcomed him into the study, called the servant to serve tea, asked him to wait for a while, and continued to play chess, Xu Guangqi knew that he loved to play chess and mahjong, and it would not work if he didn't finish this game, so he had to sit down and wait for him.

After waiting for half an hour, Li Zhizao finally defeated his opponent. He came in and apologized again: "Brother Zixian, I'm really sorry, you only got half of it when you came." ”

Xu Guangqi didn't talk to him either, let him retreat, and repeat what Zhu Xiaoqi said to him, he had a very good memory, although it could not be exactly the same, but the difference was extremely limited. After finishing speaking, he took a sip of tea and looked at Li Zhizao.

After listening to this, Li Zhizao pondered for a long time, and said with some uncertainty: "His Royal Highness Taisun has no position and no authority, and these arrangements are useless?" After speaking, he glanced at Xu Guangqi.

"Zhenzhi thinks, the same as the foolish brother, His Royal Highness Taisun is smart, and the things he just said about collecting taxes, minting money, and banks should be visible, but why don't he know that such things are not something he can do? Why is there such a big difference between the two? ”

Li Zhizao nodded, suddenly his heart moved, and he looked at Xu Guangqi, only to see that Xu Guangqi was also looking at him, his face was full of incredulity, and he hissed: "Is it ......?" Then immediately shut down, Xu Guangqi nodded: "I also suspect this, so I will consult with Zhenzhi." It's just that how does the grandson know that he will soon be the son of heaven? ”

Both of them are religious believers, and they don't believe much in the theory of gods and ghosts. And the grandson wants to ascend to the throne soon, which is impossible according to common sense, because there are still two people in front of him, even if Wanli will soon return to the arms of God, there will be the crown prince. It's impossible for the crown prince to die soon after he ascends the throne, right? Both of them thought of this, but there was one more question, even so, how did Taisun know?

The two discussed for a long time, but they couldn't come to a conclusion, if it weren't for Zhu Xiaoqi being too young and having no human rights, both of them would have suspected that he was ready to usurp the throne and stand on his own. In the end, I can only think that Taisun is extremely smart, but it is limited to the understanding of things, and the understanding of personnel should still be ignorant, in fact, the two of them know from Taisun's words that this is impossible, but there is no way to explain it, so they have to lie to themselves first.

After putting this matter aside, Xu Guangqi asked Li Zhizao to help design the coinage charter and design the tax collection by himself, and as for the bank's charter, it still needs to be discussed with the missionaries and with people who know the money bank, and then he can start to formulate it.

Li Zhizao himself is interested in arithmetic, and cooperated with Matteo Ricci to compile China's earliest Western arithmetic translations "Tongwen Arithmetic Fingers" and "New Algorithm Book", so the formulation of the coinage charter is not difficult for him, so he readily agreed, not to mention, when His Royal Highness Taisun really ascends to the throne, then these things are all credits.

Xu Guangqi said goodbye and went home, and his family handed over a letter, which was sent from Macau. The letter was written by Brother Jinnige, who asked if His Highness could invite the new missionaries to visit the Beijing Division, and of course, the travel expenses should be borne by himself, and only in the name of His Highness.

The next day, Xu Guangqi presented the letter to Zhu Xiaoqi, Zhu Xiaoqi thought for a while, this was a good thing, so he asked him to reply to the letter, mainly indicating these meanings: first, the imperial court wanted to buy a large number of Hongyi cannons, indicating that it was a cannon weighing a thousand catties, or a new type of Franc machine gun; The second is that the priest who is proficient in the manufacture of telescopes and cannons, as mentioned last time, should bring this material with him, and carry as many books and translators as possible; Third, if the information and craftsmen of the watchmakers and mints have arrived, they must come to Beijing with the priests. As for the money for the purchase of artillery, it will be paid when it arrives in Beijing. If His Highness is satisfied, he can support the priests in building churches in Kyoshi and allow preaching among princes and ministers.

Xu Guangqi muttered again in his heart, can His Highness be the master of this matter? The latter two are nothing, and the name of the invitation is not important, but the matter of buying a cannon is not a trivial matter. After hesitating for a long time, he brought it up: "Your Highness, I'm afraid it's not good to buy artillery." Zhu Xiaoqi thought about it for a while and felt that it was also, but when the artillery was transported to Beijing, he should have already taken the position, and everything would be easy to say at that time, but how to say it in the name now? It can't be said that His Royal Highness Taisun wants to hunt.

"Well, the first one doesn't talk about buying artillery, but about asking them to cast more guns and sell them to us when they have a certain amount, and the other two conditions will be the same." It's a few months late, I can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, Jiannu wants to eat cannonballs, and there should be more opportunities.

"On the other hand, we must emphasize the third point, the importance of the minting machine, I am afraid that it is still above the artillery. Make them feel that if there is a minting machine, we will help them more. He felt that the principle of the mint machine should also be used in other machinery, and that it was too slow and too poor in precision to be made entirely by hand, and that it was not suitable for mass production.