"Then why didn't you wait until Concubine Tian was already pregnant before you came to tell me? If she hadn't fainted today, and Imperial Doctor Li hadn't diagnosed that she was pregnant, I'm afraid I wouldn't know until her children were born. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info" may have felt a trace of sincerity in Xiao Mu's words just now that he regarded her as a companion of the traverser and the only person he could trust, and Lin Yi finally responded positively to Xiao Mu's question.

Xiao Mu continued to explain in a hesitant manner, "I really can't remember what happened at the time, but by the time I became conscious, it had already happened, and I didn't expect it to be ......."

"You didn't expect that Concubine Tian would be so pregnant by chance?" Lin Yi spoke the rest of his words for him.

Although Xiao Mu insisted on talking about this matter, he was also extremely embarrassed at this time, especially after the words he wanted to say but didn't know how to say were said by Lin Yi for himself, which made him feel very embarrassed.

"Why do you have to explain it to me?" Xiao Mu was speechless for a moment, so Lin Yi continued, "Even if it is a companion traverser, isn't it normal for each other to have a little personal privacy? The relationship between me and you is just a nominal husband and wife, and the name is not decided by the two of us, but the matter of the original Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou. ”

"But ......" Xiao Mu still didn't know what to continue to say for a while, and only said two words, and heard Lin Yi continue to speak, "As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty now, isn't it normal for you to have a concubine?" Besides, no one but me will know your identity, and you can rest assured, and although I know your identity, I am not qualified to stop you from being good with any woman and not being good with anyone. ”

Lin Yi said for a long time, probably the meaning of "you are you and I am me, and you are not my person" - although objectively speaking, this is the actual situation, but Xiao Mu and Lin Yi also know that the relationship between them is obviously not as simple as Lin Yi said.

"Anyway, I'm willing to share my privacy with you, my fellow travelers, even if you don't like to hear me." Xiao Mu then continued to insist, "As for your privacy, if you don't want to tell me, of course I won't care. ”

"Okay, I know, since you've already shared, I already know what's going on, all in all, I didn't know what happened between you and Concubine Tian at the time, now you can always let me have a good rest, right?" Lin Yi replied, "I'm really tired. ”

"Okay." Xiao Mu saw that Lin Yi did look a little tired, and he also knew that there was no point in continuing to persevere, after all, even he didn't know what else to say, "Then I'll go first, you have a good rest, and I'll come back to see you tomorrow." ”

"Got it." Lin Yi walked in the direction of the bed, waved his hand with his back to Xiao Mu, signaling that he could leave quickly, "I think you will also go to see Concubine Tian's situation tomorrow." ”

……

A few days have passed, Xiao Mu feels that the relationship between himself and Lin Ye is still very delicate, but there is no good way, and he is not just worried about this matter these days, in fact, Xiao Mu feels more and more anxious these days - in other words, the more Xiao Mu understands the government affairs of the Ming Dynasty, the more he wants to personally participate in doing something, the more anxious he feels.

For example, what he agreed with Lin Yi last time that he must try his best to increase the revenue of the treasury in order to help the people who have no food to eat because of the failure of the harvest in the next disaster year, which is very important, and it is also a strategy that will play a decisive role in the situation of the Ming Dynasty in the next few years, but it is a veritable "easier said than done".

In fact, everyone knows that the more full the treasury, the better, and I wish there was so much silver in the treasury that there was no place to store it, but it was not easy to really increase the income of the treasury, because if there was really a way to fill the treasury so easily, the original historical Chongzhen Emperor would have used it a long time ago, or it would not have been the turn of the Chongzhen Emperor in the original history, his predecessor, the previous generations of emperors may have already adopted it.

Xiao Mu discussed several times with the cabinet presided over by Lai Zongdao and Bi Ziyan, the head of the household department, and finally came to the same conclusion, and it was depressing - that is, judging from the current situation, not only could not find a way to increase the revenue of the national treasury, but because the year was not good in many areas this year, a large reduction in crop production would inevitably affect the tax revenue of the imperial court, and in the end, the income of the national treasury was likely to be less than in previous years, and it was not enough to maintain the operation of the imperial court and the border army, just like giving relief to the victims who had no food to eat.

Xiao Mu was naturally not satisfied with this conclusion, but Lai Zongdao, Bi Ziyan and others had no other way, and "it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice" appeared in Xiao Mu's mind again. In the end, they said that if they wanted to increase the revenue of the national treasury, there was only one way, and that was to raise taxes - Xiao Mu was undoubtedly even more dissatisfied with this method, because even if he had no political experience, he knew that raising taxes was undoubtedly equivalent to drinking water to quench his thirst, and in the end it would only lead to more serious problems.

So Xiao Mu finally discovered a strange circle about the income of the imperial treasury: that is, the more the imperial court needed silver to help the victims in the disaster year, but the treasury income in the disaster year was less than in normal years, and the money and food that could be used to help the victims would be much less.

And the income increased by the imperial court's tax increase cannot be fully relieved even by these new victims, after all, there will inevitably be losses in the process of taxation. Or even in an ideal state where there is no wastage, it is obviously meaningless to take the grain from the people's homes and then use the same grain to help them who have no food.

In the past, the only way to solve this strange circle was that the imperial court could accumulate a certain amount of money and food in the usual good years, and when the disaster came, it could use these previous savings to read the difficulties, but unfortunately, for the Ming Dynasty, which was now difficult to even pay the salaries of the border army, the savings of previous years undoubtedly did not exist, or even if they existed, they had already been used up.