Bai Minghe and his father Bai Chongxi didn't say a few words, and there were many officials who came to talk to Bai Minghe after retiring from the dynasty. Especially the generals of the British Gongyi faction, almost everyone came over to say a few words to Bai Minghe.

There is nothing important either, just say hello and ask for a word or two of gossip by the way.

One of the biggest gossips is that when Bai Minghe left Beijing last time, he said that he wanted to marry a princess to the British duke, so will this matter have a result, although the British duke will be thirteen years old after the New Year, and he may be young from marrying a wife, but it does not affect the gossip of these generals who were born and died with the old British duke.

Bai Chongxi didn't embarrass Bai Minghe, and quietly stepped aside.

"If the third brother enters the court as an official, I'm afraid he will soon get used to it. I think a few months ago, I was very embarrassed to see Minghe once as a second uncle. It's not that Minghe doesn't see me, it's just that many officials in his house are queuing up to see me, and I don't want to embarrass Minghe! ”

Bai Chongyuan is not a complaint, but just a fact.

"I'm wondering, will Shira-nathan Crane go home after his wedding?"

"Definitely not back." Bai Chongyuan gave a very positive answer, and then explained: "I have been an official in the court for so many years, although I am only a small official among the Beijing officials, but I also know the situation in the capital in the past two years, Minghe is a person who has done great things, even if he wants to go home, he is afraid that he is not allowed to go home, even if he is long-lived, the hundred officials here will not let him go home to save his relatives!" ”

Bai Chongxi sighed, as if this son had become not his own.

Bai Minghe laughed with the familiar officials as he walked towards the Donghua Gate.

When he arrived at Donghua Gate, Jin Ying sat in the outpost of the forbidden army, and a cotton tent was set up outside the outpost, and the white crane could hear the sound of talking inside. It seems to be arguing about something.

Seeing the arrival of the white crane, Jin Ying greeted him with a smile.

"You have some minor troubles, the twelve eunuchs in the palace, except for me, the celebrant eunuch, that is, the imperial horse eunuch did not come. But I asked you not to forget them, it's about to be the New Year. It's rare to have a surplus year. ”

Bai Minghe glanced at the tent, and just as another eunuch wearing the color of the chief manager's uniform walked in. From the crack in the door, I saw that there were more than ten people inside: "Father-in-law Jin, there seem to be more than 20 people inside." ”

"Ah, there is!" Jin Ying replied with a smile: "In addition to the twelve eunuchs, there are also four divisions and eight bureaus, as well as the chief eunuch of the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces, and the chief of the Empress Guifei's Palace. The rest of the concubines ......" Jin Ying pointed to a warehouse inside the Donghua Gate: "Look, there are still dozens of people there." ”

The white crane is a little dizzy.

Jin Ying approached Bai Minghe and lowered her voice and said, "Long live let me sue you." Don't be so generous. If you let go this year, it will increase every year, and the expenses in this palace will be too much. Let's not talk about how much it costs, but I'm afraid that the imperial envoy will be impeached. The most troublesome thing is that we still have so many clans in Daming! ”

Bai Minghe pointed at himself: "Let me sing white face and be a villain?" ”

"That's right!" Jin Ying nodded very seriously: "What about me, and the mud, of course, I will also be a good person with a red face by the way." ”

"Where's Xingdu?" Bai Minghe asked where Xing'an was going.

"He's going to help you kill someone. Cao Jixiang broke his leg last night, don't say you don't know. Jin Ying replied very sternly. Bai Minghexin said that he really didn't know, maybe it wasn't a big deal, so Dongchang didn't report it to him.

After Jin Ying took Bai Minghe into the cotton tent, he learned that the tribute that was originally going to be sent to the palace was stopped by Jin Ying, and now it is piled up in a warehouse outside Beijing, only saying that Bai Minghe borrowed the warehouse. It is not said that the palace received something.

After entering, this place is full of eunuchs with functions, although the identity is not as domineering as Jin Ying, but in the part that he is in charge of, he also has the absolute right to speak.

There is only one person in this who Bai Minghe knows and is familiar with. Cheng Jing. Cheng Kai's father, the current chief eunuch of the inner palace, is mainly in charge of purchasing the utensils used by the emperor, such as screens, beds, tables and cabinets. What kind of role he played this time, Bai Minghe couldn't guess.

The big eunuchs got up and first gave Jin Ying a salute, after all, Jin Ying was the first eunuch in the Ming Dynasty at the moment.

Then he gave Bai Minghe a salute, which was regarded as giving Bai Minghe and Jin Ying a face.

Jin Ying sat on the top, Bai Minghe sat on the left side, Cheng Jing sat on the right side as the chief eunuch of the inner palace, and then sat down at each level in turn, each holding a booklet in their hands, this is the list of goods that Bai Minghe brought back this time that he copied overnight, but the list has no quantity.

"Lord Bai, speaking of which, you are on the side of the celebrant supervisor, and this is the first time that the Ming Dynasty in charge of the East Factory is in the hands of officials. But it's our own people, and the miscellaneous family is not polite. This time, I came for public and private reasons. How to say it for the public, Wang Cheng of the miscellaneous family is in charge of the palace supervisor, and from the public said that the Taimiao and the temples are about to celebrate the New Year, should they be renovated and add some objects. Take this incense as an example, the incense in the palace is good, but the miscellaneous raw materials naturally want to ask for some. ”

After Wang Cheng finished speaking, he looked at Bai Minghe's reaction.

Bai Minghe nodded: "Speaking of which, I am also a clan." Princess Yongqing has not been in the palace for more than ten years, and now returning to the palace to give him is also the grace of the ancestors and long live. It's easy to say about spices, 100 bottles of various essential oils, 10 catties of agarwood, and 10 catties of various herbs, I don't know if it's appropriate? ”

Wang Cheng silently calculated in his heart, these things are not low.

Those essential oils of the white crane, to be honest, turned into incense and burned, it is a pity, whether it is used as a perfume for the body, or to make zuò sachets are good things. Vanilla refers to a variety of granular spices, according to the catalog to see dozens of varieties, these things add up to more than 1,000 catties.

It's just that right now, the palace is in a big check. The prisoner didn't dare to detain some more without permission, this was a loss of head.

Wang Cheng could only continue: "This public lord has nothing to say about the number of adults, and it is not a problem for each temple to use it for a year." It's just that at present, the officials are also strictly checked, and all kinds of materials are counted. But our apprentices and grandchildren always have to celebrate the New Year, and they also have to give some rewards. So I had to ask for a favor. ”

Jin Ying spoke at this time: "White name crane, this hundred officials in the capital also have a clean silver, originally those of us who were slaves, after having an identity, there are more or less rewards from the Lord of Long Live Lord, but many new apprentices and grandchildren who enter the palace only have two taels of silver and six hundred dollars a month, and then there are two buckets of rice, even the miscellaneous family is only eight taels of silver and eight buckets of rice per month, and then there is a lot of money and four hundred Wen." ”

Bai Minghe said in his heart that the eunuch's silver is really not much.

"When Wang Zhen's house was raided, there were 40 treasury of silver, 10,000 horses, thousands of houses bought, and 10,000 acres of land. This is the result of greed, he poured the eunuchs who were implicated by him, and just punished them to guard the emperor's mausoleum and the forage field, and there were thousands of people who became miscellaneous servants, and more than 100 people were killed. ”

The amount of a library of white cranes knows that a library of thousands of gold is 10,000 taels of silver.

"This ......" Bai Minghe hesitated, and he also understood what Jin Ying meant. Even the eunuchs also want a piece similar to the silver that raises honesty, because this time the killing is too ruthless, many greedy eunuchs have been killed ruthlessly, and it is estimated that more than 100,000 eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty will at least kill or degrade.

"Father-in-law Jin, you don't know how to do it with one stone of silver a year?" Shira-Ming Crane asked tentatively.

Jin Ying smiled indifferently, but did not speak. The heart said that Bai Minghe, you are really ruthless, you really dare to bargain. He is already the peak of the Ming eunuchs, with an average of only more than a hundred taels of silver a month, this number is really very little, very little.

Compared with Yu Qian's silver for a year, this is not even one-tenth.

Wang Cheng interface: "Jin Gonggong has one stone a year, too little." ”

Cheng Jing also said at this time:

"Although it is said that food and clothing are prepared in the palace, who does not have a little private money. Since he is serving the Lord Banzai in this palace, his duties are different, and he is somewhat up and down. Who doesn't have a friend, who has a meal and a drink in private, always has to settle the bill by himself. And the most important thing is that everyone has an old day, and when the old man is out of the palace, he must always have some silver to buy a household outside the palace and have a place to retire. ”

Cheng Jing's words caused a chorus of echoes.

"And, the ladies of the palace. Some of the serving masters have richer families and can give a little. Otherwise, you will always have to spend money to buy this rouge gouache. You also have to save some money, after the age of twenty-five, even if there will be a subsidy in the palace to get married, who doesn't want to give yourself more private money! ”

"Silver, double!" The white crane gritted his teeth.

Cheng Jing smiled:

"Lord Bai, the miscellaneous family also knows that your doubling is not a decimal number. The minions inside and outside the palace add up, and you spend millions of taels of silver a year. ”

"Not only that, I have calculated, it is estimated that there are not tens of millions of taels that will not be able to get down. I have already been on the book, all the internal officials and palace maids of the Ming Dynasty, except for those in the clan, as long as they are directly under the inner hall, all the money and rewards are paid by the inner family. I checked the roster, and the total number is 20,000, plus the palace maids, there are 25,000. ”

According to Bai Minghe, it seems that it really costs tens of millions of taels of silver.

There is a record in the history of the Ming Dynasty that there were 100,000 eunuchs during this period.

In fact, the real number is that there were 100,000 people in the Qing Dynasty who talked nonsense when the Qing Emperor was talking nonsense, and it was only said that the Qing Dynasty was better than the Ming system, but in fact, many things that were originally done by eunuchs were handed over to ordinary miscellaneous servants.

Based on the calculation of 20,000 people, each person has an average of money, rice, and silver a year. also use forty taels or less, which is 800,000 taels. If the eunuchs are not greedy, then they also need a piece of incorruptible silver, according to the real life of the eunuchs, Bai Minghe estimates in his heart that it is about ten times that of this Yulu.

Of course, there is also the palace maid's share.

The palace maid is not called a nobleman, but a reward.

"Father-in-law Jin, it's better than this. It is impossible to call the palace to raise incorruptible silver, and those who have a job are called a job subsidy. If you don't have a job, you can't pay it on a monthly basis, that is, there are several big festivals every year, big joys, and there are always some rewards for the New Year. Silver, according to your old standard, the total reward of two stones of silver in a year must not be more, and the rest will be topped with things. (To be continued......)

PS: Once again, the Matthew effect is confirmed.

Streaking next week.