After sending Tian Ergeng away, Zhu Youzhen leaned back in his chair, feeling a little tired. After Liu Ru cleaned up the records, he took the initiative to walk behind Zhu Youzhen, gently kneaded Zhu Youzhen's shoulders, and massaged him to relieve fatigue.

Zhu Youzhen grabbed Liu Ruye's slender hand with his backhand and stroked it gently, Liu Ru's face was full of crimson.

Wang Chengen waited aside, ignoring everything as if he hadn't seen it.

Listening to the rapid breathing of the girl behind him, Zhu Youzhen felt a little restless in his heart, as if a flame was burning in his abdomen, and when he was about to make further movements, suddenly there was a sound of small footsteps outside, and a little eunuch walked into the hall.

"Your Majesty, Yuan Shangshu of the household department asks to see you."

Zhu Youzhen sighed, let go of Liu Ruye's hand, and sat up straight: "Xuan him in." ”

"Minister Yuan Keli pays a visit to Your Majesty."

"Excuse me, give a seat. Yuan Shangshu hurriedly came to see me, but what is the important matter? Zhu Youzhen asked directly.

Yuan Keli was stunned for a moment, feeling that there was something wrong with the emperor's tone, as if he shouldn't have come.

"Your Majesty, the household department in Nanjing has no money, and the minister wants to ask His Majesty to allocate some silver."

Zhu Youzhen said angrily: "Didn't you just allocate 500,000 taels half a month ago, and this is all over?" ”

Yuan Keli said solemnly: "Your Majesty did not allocate silver to the ministers, but to the household department. Build the palace, build the buildings in the city, organize the people to repair the river embankment, and organize the people of Yingtianfu to dig irrigation ditches, this period of time is too much expense, all of them are the accounts of the households, and the silver allocated by His Majesty has been spent, if the silver is not allocated, the rations of the craftsmen and the people will not be distributed. ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly had a headache, it was really too much money spent during this time.

The post-war reconstruction of Nanjing City, whether it was the use of craftsmen and people, or the purchase of building materials, required a lot of money and food. And even more expensive was the newly formed 100,000 Praetorian Guard. More than 200,000 taels of silver are needed every month, plus rations, weapons are purchased, weapons and armor are made, and the severance silver of the Jiangdong peasant soldiers who have just been repatriated, in order to prevent the captives from robbing all the way, when more than 100,000 captives are released, each captive is also given some money and food, as well as the salaries of many subordinate officials, and the silver is simply spent like flowing water.

Money is used everywhere, silver is required everywhere, and nearly 10 million taels of silver obtained by salt copying merchants in Yangzhou have been spent almost half of it in just two or three months.

"Okay, I'll give you another 500,000 taels of silver." Zhu You sighed. What the household department is doing now is related to the national economy and people's livelihood and is very important.

asked for the silver, but Yuan Keli did not leave, still looking at Zhu Youzhen with blazing eyes.

"What else do you have to say?" Zhu Youzhen said.

"Since Your Majesty has appointed me as the secretary of the Southern Household Department to manage the household registration tax of the Jiangnan Treasury, some ministers will say it directly."

"To put it bluntly, there's no need to beat around the bush." Zhu Youzhen said.

"The minister wants to ask His Majesty to hand over the money and grain obtained by the Yang Dynasty in Yangzhou, as well as the money and grain obtained by Hong Shangshu's raid and conspiracy against the noble gentry, to the treasury of the household department, which will be managed by the household department in a unified manner." Yuan Keli said solemnly.

Want to take all the money from me? Zhu Youzhen's eyes widened suddenly.

"Your Majesty, the household department is in charge of land, household registration, money, finance, taxes, officials and many other affairs, is the imperial court in charge of money and grain, the court income money and grain should naturally be managed by the household department, it is justified, otherwise what is the use of the minister's household book? Whether it was the seizure of the proceeds of a criminal salt merchant in Yangzhou, or the raiding of the homes of the noble gentry in Nanjing, the dirty silver obtained should be paid into the state treasury so that the household could pay for all kinds of expenses. The minister is a scholar of the household department, a member of the imperial court, and he does not want to chase His Majesty for silver all day long like a beggar. Yuan Keli was not moved by Zhu Youzhen's expression, and his tone was very tough, and he had the posture of Zhu Youzhen resigning if he didn't hand over the money.

The emperor held millions of silver taels in his hands, but the household warehouse was so poor that he could starve to death of rats, which made Yuan Keli very unhappy. In Yuan Keli's view, whether it is the land tax and commercial tax, or the dirty silver of the family, it should be handed over to the treasury for unified management, and should not be privately owned by the emperor. To put it bluntly, the money in the emperor's hands was managed by the eunuchs around him, and Yuan Keli did not trust these greedy eunuchs.

Yuan Keli was strict in his words, and Zhu Youzhen didn't know how to answer for a while. It stands to reason that the dirty silver obtained from the raid should be handed over to the state treasury, and even the emperor cannot distinguish between public and private.

But Zhu Youzhen is also a little aggrieved, so much money, I did not use it for personal enjoyment, but used it for training and strengthening the army. If it weren't for the fact that I often raided my home, how could I have the money to train such a strong army as the Praetorian Guard, and how could I expel Jiannu and recover Liaodong?

If I hadn't started a trading house, carried out sea trade, and subsidized the imperial court with my own silver, Daming's finances would have collapsed a day!

Personally controlling money and the army is an important reason why Daming can get to where it is now. So let Zhu Youzhen give up the money in his hand, how can he be willing?

"The minister understands His Majesty's distress," Yuan Keli looked at Zhu Youzhen's expression, and his tone softened, "Your Majesty used to distrust the officials of the imperial court, and wanted to personally train an army to pacify Jiannu, so he personally controlled the money, and His Majesty did a good job in the past, and the minister also deeply admired."

However, now it is different from the past, isn't the purpose of His Majesty's establishment of the Six Divisions of Nanjing to be used to manage the prefectures and counties after Juntian? The silver handed over to the ministers is used to pay salaries to these prefecture and county officials, to distribute money, food, salaries and silver to His Majesty's Praetorian Guards, and to compensate the people affected by disasters in these prefectures and counties. ”

yes, what's not to worry about? Zhu Youzhen exhaled softly. Isn't the purpose of re-establishing the Nanjing Sixth Department to build a government department that completely belongs to itself? Whether it is Yuan Keli or Hong Chengchou and Li Banghua, from the moment they took office, they have already drawn a clear line with the Beijing court, and they have chosen to support their own reforms, and they are the real "own people", so what is the worry about handing over the silver to Yuan Keli to manage?

The silver is in his own hands, and the eunuchs around him are responsible for managing and preserving, and the eunuchs' business level is not as good as that of the professional officials of the household department.

"Okay, I will hand over all this silver to the household department, and in the future, the income from the field tax and commercial tax, that is, the salt tax, will also be paid to the household department and charged into the treasury, and all the expenses of the army will also be borne by the household department." Zhu Youzhen said slowly.

"Your Majesty Shengming!" Yuan Keli was overjoyed and hurriedly said.

"But!" Zhu Youzhen's face changed, "The profits earned by the Royal Commercial House and the Textile Workshop, as well as the Haimao Commercial Bank, have nothing to do with the household department. ”

"Your Majesty......" Yuan Keli was suddenly anxious, but he knew how profitable these businesses were, not to mention anything else, just the Royal Maritime Trade Firm, the annual income was millions of taels of silver.

"Don't say anything that the Son of Heaven should not compete for the interests of the people!" Zhu Youzhen stretched out his hand and interrupted Yuan Keli, "I also need silver, I need to feed the entire harem, and I need to reward meritorious heroes." ”

"Your Majesty, the whole world is yours, why bother with this business? If Your Majesty and the harem need anything, they can ask for money from the household. Yuan Keli also tried to persuade Zhu Youzhen to give up profitable businesses such as maritime trade firms and make them state-owned.

"Hmph," Zhu Youzhen sneered, "You feel ashamed and shameless when you ask me for money, don't I talk about face, let the emperor ask you for money at every turn?" ”

"This ......" Yuan Keli opened his mouth, not knowing how to continue.

"Don't say that the whole world is mine, if the world is true, then the property of the people in the world is also my property, but if I ask the gentry and courtiers to donate money, how many will be willing to donate silver taels?" Zhu Youzhen sneered.

"If Daming really encounters a disaster and urgently needs silver, and the treasury has no money, many people must be willing to break their homes and serve the country." Yuan Keli said.

"A lot of people?" Zhu Youzhen sneered, "I'm afraid that many people will not lend Ning Yuan's silver to the imperial court if they grow mold in the cellar!" ”

At this moment, Zhu Youzhu remembered the previous life, when the Ming Dynasty reached the last moment, the thieves were about to come to the city, and he couldn't even pay the money for the defenders of Beijing, so he lowered his face and asked the noble ministers to donate two taels of silver, but the silver donated by all the ministers was only 200,000 taels. And by the time Li Zicheng broke through the city of Beijing and tortured him, he had stolen as much as 70 million taels of silver from the homes of these noble ministers alone!

"Don't fight the idea of the Royal Merchant House and the Sea Trade Firm in the future, and I will never hand them over. There is a popular saying among the people, if you are a hero for a penny, I don't want to live like that. ”

"Ugh." Seeing that Zhu Youzhen was so stubborn and loved money so much, Yuan Keli sighed and had no choice but to leave.

Zhu Youzhen sat on the dragon chair and was very unhappy. This Yuan Ke stood up inch by inch, and he was really a little angry.

However, this is not to say that Yuan Keli is a bad person, or has ill intentions, standing in his position, he naturally hopes that the emperor will hand over the royal property, so that the treasury will have more income and more silver and two services. Yuan Keli's original intention was also for the Ming Dynasty and the people of the world, but he didn't think about himself as an emperor, which made Zhu Youzhen a little unhappy.

That's it, if Yuan Keli wasn't such a person, he would never reuse him. It is right for the ministers to think about the court and the people, and it cannot be said that they are disloyal. Zhu Youzhen explained himself.

Let Yuan Keli make such a fuss, the silver obtained from the house in his hand is gone, Zhu Youzhen suddenly found that he had no money again, and he couldn't help but panic.

Although you don't have to worry about all kinds of expenses in the future, the feeling of not having money is unpleasant, and you always feel that there is something missing.

If you think about it carefully, all you can count on now is Haimao silver.

Now that it is February, it is said that the maritime trade fleet that went to the Japanese country should also return. I wonder how much money I can earn this time?

At this moment, the sea trade fleet that Zhu Youzhen was thinking about was sailing on the vast ocean with the north wind.

Last summer, taking advantage of the southeast wind, Mao Liangzhe and Zheng Zhilong once again set off for the Wa Kingdom with the sea trade fleet.

This time, the fleet was unprecedentedly large, with fifty three-masted ships loaded with all sorts of goods.

Because in the past few years, the Fujian Navy Division has completely extinguished the pirates on the southeast coast, Li Kuiqi was killed, Liu Xiang fled to the South Seas, and there are no more large pirates in the entire Daming Sea. And under the deterrence of the powerful Fujian sailors, even the Dutch red-haired ghost fleet did not dare to rob the Daming maritime merchants in the Daming Sea.

As for the local naval divisions in Guangdong and Zhejiang, their combat effectiveness is weak, and they cannot be compared with the Fujian naval divisions at all.

It controlled the entire Daming Sea area, and naturally controlled the entire maritime trade. Whether it is Guangdong, Fujian or Zhejiang, if you want to go to sea to trade, you must get the consent of the Royal Maritime Trading Company, otherwise it is illegal, if you are found, you will face the confiscation of the sea vessel and all goods and the punishment of heavy fines.

When a seagoing vessel goes to sea, it will receive a certain amount of silver taels according to the cargo it loads. The less is a thousand taels, and the more is three or four thousand taels of silver.

Just by collecting protection fees, the Royal Sea Trade Company can also earn millions of silver taels every year.

However, the collection of protection fees naturally did not make money by doing business in person, after all, selling a shipload of goods to the Wa Kingdom could earn 10,000 taels of silver casually. With a large number of sea ships and control the routes of the Japanese Kingdom, Mao Liangzhe Zheng Zhilong naturally will not let go of the opportunity to make a lot of money.

Under the operation of Mao Liangzhe, the Royal Maritime Trade Company opened more than 20 trading companies in Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Hangzhou and even Suzhou, specializing in the purchase of various maritime trade goods.

And now, the gentry engaged in maritime trade were all subdued, under the strong deterrence of the Fujian sailors, no one dared to confront the Royal Maritime Trade Firm, so last year the purchase of goods was very smooth, fully purchased the goods of 50 sea ships, of which Guangsheng Silk received as much as 5,000 quintals, and other goods were countless, almost occupying four-fifths of the trade of the Japanese state. Of course, the gentry engaged in maritime trade in the provinces were also very angry at the domineering behavior of the royal maritime trading firm, and they did not dare to resist on the surface, so they secretly made evil.

For example, a number of gentry from Fujian and Guangdong united to secretly support the rebels in Jiangxi, trying to set off civil strife within the Ming Dynasty and overthrow the rule of Emperor Chongzhen. Only then did Zhu Yousong be promoted to the prison state, and Yuan Chonghuan led an army of 200,000 down the river to attack Nanjing.

Because of the large number of goods purchased, the time to go to the Wakoku was a little late, and it was only in the early autumn that I arrived in Nagasaki.

And then throughout the autumn and winter, it was being shipped. With such a large amount of goods, it will take a certain amount of time to sell them all. And in order to sell at a high price, even if there are Japanese merchants to buy in large quantities, it is necessary to ship little by little, making it look like there are not many goods, so that they can be sold at a high price.

It took three months to get all the goods sold. However, he couldn't go back empty, so he stayed in Nagasaki for a while to buy goods from the Wakoku Kingdom.

There were really no good things in the Wa Kingdom, and there were not many things to show except for fans and katanas, so Mao Liangzhe ordered to buy red copper, refined iron, saltpeter sulfur and other things, and buy as many as you want. In addition to these, a lot of century-old trees were also bought, and they were brought back to the Ming Dynasty to build ships in the future. Even Mao Liangzhe ordered the purchase of grain at a high price.

The Japanese country has a large population and few fields, and the grain is not rich at all, and the common people of the Japanese country cannot eat enough food on weekdays. And even so, in order to make money, there are still many Japanese feudal lords who choose to sell their grain. After such a toss, it is not known how many poor people in the country will starve to death in the coming year.