Li Bai has a poem: Heaven and earth are the reverse journey of all things, and the time is a passerby of a hundred generations.

The traditional festivals of the Chinese all contain the truth of yin and yang, the prosperity and decline of time and things. For example, New Year's Day, Shangsi, Dragon Boat Festival, Qixi Festival, and Chongyang Festival are all based on the odd yang festival, and the occasional moon is not, which has the meaning of supporting the yang and suppressing the yin. As for the lanterns on the eve of the Yuan, the flowers on the morning and the flowers, the Mid-Autumn Festival on the moon, and the sun, there is also a reason to pay attention to the prosperity of the times.

After the twenty-four sacrificial stoves, the palace dependents and ministers will change into the palace clothes and python clothes with the gourd Jing Buzi, and then they will be the same as the people, each family will steam dim sum and reserve meat for the expenses of one or twenty days during the Spring Festival.

The people are also busy for the Spring Festival.

In the whole capital, only one person is the most special, others are busy with the New Year, but he is busy renovating the opera garden...... This person is none other than Zhu Boxu, the blessed prince.

Half of today's Ten Princes' Mansions have become his palaces, but he doesn't like to live there, preferring to live in Guanghe Building. But Guanghe Building was originally a drama garden, even if it had to be changed, what tricks could it be changed?

No, it's really changed, there was originally a three-storey stage in the north, but now the stage is still there, except for this one, the rest have all changed. After demolishing countless rooms, not only dug the pond, led the living water along the east and west rivers, but also built a lot of garden pavilions and pavilions, the names can be described as numerous, what moon pavilion, red house, flower garden, medicine garden, snow stream, ice room, warbler dock, tiger circle......

In a hurry to repair the year, the Fu Wang Ye will be in the garden every day, when others are busy with the New Year, he is busy with the literati and scholars to write poems and drink and watch plays. By the way, I will sing a few more self-made songs, such as "Ten Tunes of the Spring Breeze", "Mistaken Return Period", "Jade Langgan", "Jin'er Pills", and they are all extremely graceful tunes.

Prince Fu is in Beijing all the year round, but the princess is not as good as him, and the two of them stay in the fiefdom with the prince, and they still have to worry about their hearts every day.

Why don't you worry about it? The annual expenses of the palace are often hundreds of thousands, and they are all the most basic. Where does the money come from? In addition to the salary of the imperial court, that is, the palace and the farmland, as well as business. Of course, there are some other incomes that are not very noticeable, such as the levy of errand labor, which is also an important part of the imperial court's fiscal revenue. Since the whipping law, conscription can be replaced by levy of silver, and similarly, the errand service provided by the small people to the clan is also a considerable income for them.

Although the total number is not high, it is full of terrible uncertainty about the tax burden of small people. Although the so-called positive endowment exists, it is not as good as miscellaneous endowment, and although the miscellaneous endowment is high, it is not as good as conscription. The amount of the positive levy is written in black and white, and there is very little room for the upper and lower hands, while the miscellaneous levy and the conscription, in addition to the positive amount, the local government and the relevant persons have a high degree of discretion.

It's just that for the royal government, this is not the main source of income, and the salary is only a small part at best, and the rest is the bulk - however, it is also facing a dilemma now.

Where does this begin? Naturally, it starts with the new preferential exemption rules issued by the imperial court......

But how much momentum can this rule of exemption generate? It's hard to say yet, but the impact on people's hearts is already being felt.

Princess Fu is a shrewd and capable woman, and she is quite a man, and now she is worried about the new policy. The so-called situation is stronger than people, and once this influence is reached in a consensus, I am afraid that the life of the clan will be difficult again.

In the past, the land of the clan could be obtained from the emperor through the gift and requisition, and in addition to the collection of silver by himself, he could also enjoy the privilege of exempting from taxation and forced labor. Only with privilege can you make contributions, and even encroach on other people's land to get more land resources for yourself.

The only difference between these two ways of acquiring land is that the emperor does not really give land, but does not give land. Tian is not in the hands of the royal government, but in the hands of the local government.

The New Year is approaching, the Fuwang Mansion in Luoyang is as lively as every, the traffic in front of the palace is busy every day, and the palace officials are like rushing to usher in the send-off, and it seems that everyone is busy with their feet not touching the ground. But there's no way, whoever called the prince of the family is not there.

Fu Wang Zhu Boxu is also interesting, going to the capital is really a breeze with two sleeves, not only did he not bring any silver, but also none of the palace officials brought, all of them stayed in the fiefdom, and only a few close servants followed him. He is so free and easy, and the burden of the palace is also on the princess.

Because the prince was not there, the front hall of the palace became the place where the princess handled the daily affairs of the palace. The prince of Fu Wang had something to discuss with the princess, and came to the front hall to ask to see his mother.

The inner official led the prince into the front hall of the East Warm Pavilion, which was divided into two, the inner room was a resting place, and the outer room was arranged into a study. The princess was sitting in the study at this time, and there was a palace account book on the bookcase in front of her, and she looked very attentively with her brows locked, and she didn't notice that someone was coming.

The more the New Year passes, the more things happen, as if the things of the year are concentrated in the days before the year to complete.

"See the concubine."

The princess raised her head when she heard the voice, and when she saw that it was her son coming, her tense face eased slightly, "The prince is here, sit down." ”

The palace people moved the pestle to let the prince sit down, and there was a fragrant tea served inside, and when he was young, he brought a pot of charcoal fire and put it in front of the son's feet to keep warm. Because the prince is absent all the year round, except for the princess's bedroom, the rest of the palaces have not been burned since last year, and this year is still the same. The front hall is like this, as long as the princess doesn't come, it's rare to even see a figure on weekdays, let alone burn the floor heating.

The prince glanced at the brazier and saw that it was the kind of red charcoal in the palace, so there was no sound. His nose was sensitive and he couldn't smell the smoke, and he couldn't stand the smoke from the slightest charcoal burning.

In fact, whether it is the palace or the palace, only the charcoal used for heating and dining in winter is a large amount of expenditure every year.

For example, the firewood used in the palace has a piece of firewood, shun firewood, poplar firewood, horsemouth firewood, white charcoal, solid white charcoal, and red basket charcoal. The most inferior is a piece of firewood, which is the largest amount, and the best is red basket charcoal, which is used exclusively for the royal use. Horsemouth firewood is dedicated to the dining room, each one is about three or four feet long, pure white without black spots, and there are two mouthfuls engraved at both ends, so it is called horsemouth firewood. Its value is extraordinary, and the food used in the palace dining room must be carefully selected.

The red basket charcoal is a diameter of two or three inches, about one foot long charcoal section, selected hardwood is burned, and then scraped off the floating skin, water mill, and then loaded into a wattle basket to transport to the capital, so it is called red basket charcoal. Its cost is so high, and the palace has to choose one out of ten, can you imagine how much it is worth? Every year, the palace consumes more than 10 million catties of red charcoal and horsemouth firewood.

The same is true of the royal palace, which can rebuild half of the palace every year with the expenditure on charcoal alone.

The princess knew that the prince had something to look for her, so she first retreated left and right, and then asked, "Is there something wrong with the prince?" ”

Shizi thought for a while and said: "Just now the child asked Changshi, saying that this year's royal salary Henan Mansion still has to be owed, or like last year, last year paid the year before last, this year paid last year, and next year will pay this year's salary." ”

"Humph!" The princess snorted, she had expected this.

"The silver was only paid to the king."

When the princess heard this, her eyes turned and asked, "Changshi didn't say anything?" ”

Shizi shook his head.

The princess put down the ledger in her hand, leaned back, leaned on her head, and held the table with both hands, as if she was tired of taking a break, her eyes were completely empty, although she looked at a certain place in the room, in fact, she was not focused.

After a while, the princess said with a hint of teasing: "I thought they wouldn't give it......"

"Is there something wrong with this Henan Mansion?" Shizi also brought some annoyance.

"Questions? Hehe," the princess smiled: "The mother concubine was looking at the account books of the palace just now." ”

Shizi was stunned: "Could it be that there is a real problem?" ”

"There is something wrong with Henan Mansion, I don't see it for the time being, but I think that the number of fields and grains of silver recorded in the account book is ...... It's a little different from what I imagined. ”

"In and out? Concealed, or less? Shizi was surprised when he heard this.

The princess locked her brows again, looking puzzled, "It's hard to say if the account is not detailed, anyway, I don't think it's right." Maybe the mother is too sensitive, or overthinking...... Moreover, I don't quite understand what is the purpose of Henan Mansion for so long? ”

"The mother suspect that the silver that should have been paid to the palace in October is a problem with delaying the payment until now?"

"That's something I can't figure out...... By the way, Shizi, have you ever asked about Beppu, is it the same situation as us? ”

"I haven't heard of it, but since the mother asked, the child wrote it down and inquired."

"I still have to write to your father and tell him what he thinks."

When the prince heard his mother and concubine mention his father again, his face turned a lot colder, this father ...... He didn't want to show that he was dissatisfied with his father, but in his heart, even if he found various reasons to excuse him, he couldn't deceive himself.

"Does my father plan to stay in the capital for the rest of his life and not return to the fief?"

The princess looked at her son, and she couldn't hear the resentment in his words, "Alas, child, you still don't know your father. ”

The prince smiled slightly: "Okay, then please tell the mother concubine, what kind of prince is the child's father?" ”

The princess shook her head, feeling helpless, "Child, there are some things that I want to talk to you about now, but it is not appropriate. It's just that you are now half the master of the palace...... Your father is not a prince who is willing to be restricted by all kinds of regulations, regulations, and prohibitions. He has his ambitions in his heart, but he is limited by his clan identity and cannot carry them out, and he also has resentment and hatred in his heart......"

She paused for a moment and continued: "This should not be said in the palace, just look at this palace, although it is the mansion of King Fu, except for a few old people who know the roots, the rest, there are no officials, military attachés, still