The New Year of Zhengde is coming in a blink of an eye, and this year is a relatively stable and comfortable year for the Ming Dynasty, and there are no major mistakes inside and outside the court. Unlike the previous two years, major events were one after another, making the people miserable; In the past year, the wind and rain have been smooth, and the fiscal and tax revenue has increased sharply; In addition to the foreign court's achievements in the policy of cultivating fields, the open household registration system advocated by Song Nan stimulated the development of commerce in the Ming Dynasty, and the merchants were no longer confined to one place, and the silver on hand also circulated, bringing a large amount of taxes to the imperial court.

Compared with last year, this year's real estate transaction tax alone, the real estate transaction tax collected from all over the country is as high as more than 8 million taels, accounting for a quarter of all the financial and tax revenues of the Ming Dynasty this year, and the financial and tax of the Ming Dynasty this year has also exceeded 30 million taels in a record.

Although some people were not convinced, although some people were unhappy, they had to admit that Song Nan's method had an effect; Years later, the Inner Court Real Estate Management Department issued a new round of price limit and purchase restriction order, to suppress the crazy rise in housing prices again, and further refine the real estate development and trading.

In response to the previous questions raised by the public about the high housing prices in the capital and the Dazhou capital, and the fact that ordinary people could not afford to buy houses when they got married, the Real Estate Department gave a clear solution, and the imperial court provided a batch of low-cost land and handed it over to the designated real estate developer to build residences, and the completed houses were supplied to eligible people at the reserve price to live, or sold or rented with mutual wishes.

The real estate department calls it 'low-rent housing' or 'low-cost housing', and its rental and sale prices are maintained at the level before the tide of real estate development, and the real estate department organizes special personnel to assess the qualifications, and those who have housing difficulties at home are eligible to apply for purchase or rent; although in terms of location, most of these houses are remote, but this is no longer the first consideration, and it is already a great thing to be able to obtain a house cheaply.

The Song Mansion Real Estate Company officially completed all the projects of the White Paper Mill in the first month, and there is a large piece of land in the north area that belongs to the Shenshuying station and the station of the Yamen, but in fact, the development is only the one near the city wall; So it's much faster in time; With the completion of the last house, the renovation and development of the entire white paper mill came to an end, and then it was time to rest all kinds of details, plant trees and flowers, and repair roads and ditches. Zhu Fengtong's management ability during this period was quite impressive, the completion of the house here, the delivery of all the purchase agreements and money and silver there, the opening of the market and other matters closely followed, and by the end of February, everything was nearing the end.

The development of the white paper mill can be described as making a lot of money, and in the final general account, the net profit is as high as 6.9 million taels of silver, which is like a dream; Before this, who said that the development of buildings can be profitable, and everyone will be spitted on the face, but now the facts are in front of them.

Of course, people with a heart understand the truth of this, although it is never to use power for personal gain, but if it were not for Song Nan to promote the implementation of the purchase of property and naturalization system, this matter would still be a loss-making business; But no one can do Song Nan is all for his own interests, and the imperial court finances have also made a lot of money after the implementation of this policy, and it can be expected that there will be millions of taels of input every year in the future, which simply makes the officials of the household department crazy.

The profits of millions of taels are charged into the formed consortium in proportion, and the capital of the large consortium formed by Song Nan has burned 15 million taels, so Song Nan will naturally not let him be idle with such a large amount of silver; In addition to spending millions of taels of silver to invest in the Cao Yun Shipping Company to compete with the Cao Yun Shipping Company, which was monopolized by some of the nobles and relatives in central Beijing, another important plan was to spend 5 million taels to start a large-scale construction of the arsenal in Shilipo in the south of the city, so that the thousands of laborers absorbed could be used as workers for the production of Madame Soong's guns and Madame Soong rocket artillery.

Song Nan's idea was to use the money to set up a military factory, and the rocket launchers produced would be purchased by the imperial court to equip the army, and the price would be about the same as adding two or three percent, so that he could not only make money, but also ensure that the technology would not leak out. Zhengde once came to inspect once, and that time Zhengde personally promised to allow himself to open a military factory, and gave = the privilege of manufacturing firearms, which was the basic condition for realizing the idea.

However, the development of things took a turn for the worse, and on the seventh day of the first month of March, Song Nan was imminent because the preparation of the military factory was imminent, so when he met Zhengde to finally ask for permission, Zhengde's attitude became ambiguous.

"I think this matter can be relieved for a while, firearms are indeed powerful, but if you build firearms, can the imperial court finance afford to purchase equipment? I think it's a problem. I asked the Ministry of Household about this year's armament budget, and the total amount of food, salary, belts and equipment was only 9 million taels; Half of the food and salary of my Ming Dynasty's hundreds of thousands of troops will be spent, the replacement and maintenance of armor and weapons, the purchase of war horses, and the construction of walled forts in some border towns will cost millions of taels; If the procurement of firearms were to be added, it would not be sufficient. I don't think it's okay if you don't make this firearm. ”

Song Nan argued with reason, but Zhengde was rarely impatient, and finally left Song Nan alone in the study and left on his own.

Song Nan felt that something was wrong, not because of Zhengde's attitude today, but because of some strange things that happened in the past few months that made him feel a little strange. After the year, the Queen Mother took Princess Kangning to Nanjing's old capital to revisit, and after the Shangyuan Festival, the Queen Mother returned to the capital alone, but left Princess Kangning in Nanjing, which is a bit incredible.

And Zhang Yong passed the news to himself from the palace that it was rumored in the palace that the queen mother chose Zhou Shao, the son of Zhou Zhong, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, as the concubine for Princess Kangning, saying that the princess and Zhou Shao seemed to be very eye-to-eye, so the princess was left in Nanjing to have more contact with them; He also said that this time the matter would be finalized no matter what.

Song Nan didn't believe such nonsense, the night the princess left, he went to see her, and he couldn't see any signs of empathy for the princess, not to mention that he ran to Nanjing and saw another person.

Then there are some of Zhengde's recent remarks that make Song Nan feel that there is something in his words, such as often asking Song Nan intentionally or unintentionally, 'Is there a person with ill intentions like Liu Jin in the court now?' 'Is there a person with different aspirations like King Anhua in the Ming Dynasty?' or asks 'Is I a good emperor and will the Ming Dynasty be destroyed in my hands'.

The most recent speech was even more strange, Zhengde asked Song Nan if he felt overburdened by himself by commanding the Shenshu Battalion and the Second Outer Army and the Jinyi Wei General Yamen, and whether he needed to find someone to share the burden, and there was a strangeness in his words, and his expression was not very natural.

Don't let the military factory be opened, this matter is very strict, this means that Song Nan's plan died halfway, this is not only a personal money, but a matter of the combat effectiveness of the imperial army, Zhengde reversed, in Song Nan's opinion, it is very unreasonable, no monarch will see that there is a greatly improved military strength of firearms and equipment and indifferent, they will choose to equip the army as soon as possible, the other can be postponed, and the finances will be completely tilted, because this is the capital that a country can stand on. But Zhengde's behavior can only say that he is not a fool, but he has something to think of himself.

Song Nan originally planned not to think about it, but now he couldn't help but respond, Zhengde's refusal did not make Song Nan flinch, he ordered people to actively prepare for the factory, prepare all the raw materials and facilities for the manufacture of firearms, and on the other hand try to figure out the root cause of Zhengde's recent abnormal behavior.

Starting with the investigation of the suspicious princess's trip to Nanjing, Song Nan sent Li Daniu and Zheng Da to partner in Nanjing, to inquire about the princess's whereabouts, and at the same time to find out whether there was indeed something between the princess and that Zhou Shao; If it is true, Song Nan will naturally not interfere, after all, the princess is also benevolent to herself, and she always has to figure out what the situation is.

One evening at the end of March, Li Daniu's servants rushed back from Nanjing, bringing back a tightly wrapped handwritten letter; After Song Nan read the letter sent back from thousands of miles away, he finally realized that he had a sudden understanding.