Because this dialogue is related to major events in the DPRK and politics, Zeng Rong is ready for it.

And Zhu Wu obviously did a lot of homework in advance, not only citing scriptures, but also citing a lot of data to support his views, specifically mentioning that at the beginning of the founding of the country, the population of the Great Zhou was roughly 60 million, the land was about 37 million mu, and the total tax was about 10 million taels of silver.

After nearly 100 years of hard work, the population before the outbreak of the Tatar war reached 10,000, and the tax was more than 12 million silver, which was the best period in the history of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

However, since the outbreak of the war with the Tatars fifteen years ago, the population of the Great Zhou has returned to more than 80 million, that is to say, the population of the Great Zhou has not only not increased but has decreased by more than 10 million in the past ten years, and the tax has barely maintained at about 12 million taels of silver.

But in fact, the total number of soldiers who died in this war was less than one million, but due to years of war and loss of labor, plus various natural disasters**, resulting in starvation, the world was barren, and the Great Zhou entered a vicious circle.

For this reason, Zhu Wu came to the conclusion that it is imperative to reduce the tax, and only by reducing the tax and making the people's lives easier can the population growth be promoted.

"You have repeatedly mentioned the reduction of taxes, but have you thought about it, the household department has been in deficit for several years, if the tax is reduced at this time, how to maintain the operation of the imperial court?" Zhu Xu is still quite satisfied with the numbers listed by Zhu Wu, which shows that his son has worked hard and really has something in his head.

Zhu Wu deserved to be carefully cultivated by Zhu Xu, thought for a moment, and replied: "Back to my father, reduce the salary, relatively reduce the salary of officials, reduce unnecessary expenses, and the proportion in the palace can also be appropriately cut, for example, the proportion of the son's minister, each meal of eight dishes can be reduced to six or even four dishes, and the same is true for the mother concubine." ”

Zhu Xu nodded with satisfaction, and then asked: "This is to reduce expenditure, how to open source?" ”

Zhu Wu thought for a moment again, and proposed to open up wasteland and introduce new crops with high yields, which also mentioned the development of handicrafts.

The father and son talked for more than half an hour, until the people from the catering bureau came in and said that the meal was passed over there, Zhu Xu realized the passage of time, and was about to open his mouth to ask Zhu Wu to accompany him to eat, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of Zeng Rong in the corner.

"Girl, do you remember what you just said?" Zhu Xu asked.

He also saw that Li Ruolan was not there, and Zeng Rong was on duty alone, on the one hand, he was worried that she would not be competent, and on the other hand, he was also worried that Zeng Rong would not be able to treat Zhu Wu fairly, so Zeng Rong was admitted to the school.

"Back to the emperor, I roughly remembered." Zeng Rong retold the conversation between the two of them, and even the numbers listed by Zhu Wu she memorized, remembering them with her brain, and did not look at her notes.

"Oh, you get it?" Zhu Xu was a little surprised.

"Back to the emperor, the lower officials are only shallow in learning, and it may be difficult to understand its deep meaning, but I remember the general content." Zeng Rong was humble.

She didn't dare to steal the limelight in front of Zhu Wu, if it reached the ears of the imperial concubine, it would definitely be a curse rather than a blessing.

"If it were you, how would you answer?" Zhu Xu also suddenly remembered that this girl could adapt to this job in such a short period of time, which shows that the rumors are true, and she does have some real talent.

"Back to the emperor, you are embarrassed."

When Zhu Xu heard the word "embarrassed", several thoughts also turned in his mind, "That's it, for the sake of you, you can write down the words just now, you run errands for me and send two dishes to the Queen Mother." ”

Zhu Wu smiled when he heard this: "Father, son-in-law should run for his father, there are many people in the emperor's grandmother, and the son-in-law didn't talk to her well, and the brother-in-law, the son-in-law should also go to see him." ”

Seeing this, Zhu Xu happily patted Zhu Wu's shoulder, "Yes, after all, I have grown up and become sensible, and I know how to do my filial piety for my father." ”

After speaking, Zhu Xu led Zhu Wu to the first room in the east, Zeng Rong saw that she was not needed, and was still sorting out Fang Cai's copywriting in the corner.

When she was busy, Li Ruolan came in, and after she went to ask for leave from Liu Nei, she saw that the time was almost up, thinking that there was nothing big about Qianning Palace, so she simply stayed at the Inner Court Bureau and checked yesterday's copywriting with the two female historians, and then looked at the meal, and simply went to get her and Zeng Rong's meal.

Knowing that her portion of the dish was brought back, Zeng Rong was not in a hurry, and wanted to finish sorting out the copywriting at hand before going to dinner, otherwise, she was afraid that she would not be able to remember it after a long time.

At least half an hour passed, and when she was packing up her things and preparing to eat, a little eunuch stopped her, saying that the emperor had left her food.

It was not the first time Zeng Rong had eaten the dishes sent by the emperor, so she didn't think much about it when she heard this, she came out of the upper study and entered the first room opposite.

"See him?" Zhu Xu saw her come in, raised his eyelids and asked.

"Back to the emperor, I saw you." Zeng Rong said as he sat down at the table.

It seems that the meal was not so tasty.

She is not afraid of anything else, but she is afraid that the emperor will investigate Zhu Heng's use of guards to pick up her brother from her hometown, the emperor is reluctant to punish his son, it is inevitable that he will not cut her, and she will not dare to deny it if she really puts a hat on her face, who said that this thing really happened!

Sure enough, Zhu Xu asked again, "What did that kid say to you?" ”

Zeng Rong hesitated for a moment and said: "Back to the emperor, His Royal Highness showed the lower officials the paintings he painted in Nanyuan, and also told a lot of interesting things about his trip to the grassland, saying that he had gained a lot of knowledge. ”

"Hmph, this kid will tell you everything, but it's a pity that it's nonsense." Zhu Xu seemed to be dissatisfied and snorted coldly.

"Back to the emperor, the lower officials don't dare to agree, what is nonsense, what is righteousness? The lower officials thought that the abolition and righteousness were not in the speakers, but in the listeners. Zeng Rong retorted that she was for Zhu Heng.

These words provoked Zhu Xu, "Bold, you dare to accuse me?" ”

"Back to the emperor, the lower officials don't dare, the emperor may think that the three highnesses' words that seem to quote the scriptures are right, but in the eyes of the lower officials, it is actually a bunch of nonsense, just picking up a little other people's wisdom, and does not have any of his own insight." Zeng Rong was angry, and he didn't care about it a little.

The most important thing is that there are no outsiders in the house, she wants to have a good discussion with the emperor about this issue, and wants to correct Zhu Heng's name.

Besides, she really didn't wronged Zhu Wu.

These days, what she hears the most is about the topic of tax reduction, and the back and forth is basically these nonsense, and even the numbers listed are basically the same, Zeng Rong is tired of hearing it.