Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Si was fiddling with some small objects, and he didn't have the heart to take care of the affairs of the court at all, and several eunuchs on the side were working hard to write, Zhang Zuo got up from time to time and went over to use the seal, and then turned back to Zhu Si to bring a few relatively important pieces of notes, so that Zhu Si could read them, but Zhu Si basically waved his hand, which means that you look at the disposal.

"By the way, is Jingdao gone?"

Zhu Si finally had enough, stood up, stretched his waist and asked.

Zhang Zuo said: "I didn't leave." ”

"Are you still in the West Mountain? Lu Song was saved, took him to the south, and let Lu Song do something for him? Do you want to go together to level pirates and pirates? ”

Zhu Si thought for a while and asked, his tone calm.

Zhang Zuo hurriedly said: "The slave doesn't know. ”

Zhu Si sighed: "Before Jingdao leaves, let someone send him some things, and then let him come back early." You want to save a little bit too, right? ”

Zhu Si looked at the group of eunuchs who were busy, and suddenly thought that those nights in Sixianju, with Zhu Hao there, one person could solve the problem, unlike now, a group of people still have to rely on the vote of the cabinet to complete the matter, although judging from the results, the stability of the court has not changed, after all, it is not Yang Tinghe when he was the first assistant.

But Zhu Si still felt that it was better to have Zhu Hao here.

Zhang Zuo said: "Your Majesty may be able to keep ......"

"I can't keep it, his heart to go south is very urgent, since he wants to find the elixir, let him go, I won't stop him!" Zhu Si yawned, "I'm tired, go to bed first, if I can't get up tomorrow morning, I'll tell the minister that I'm sick, this daily court meeting is really boring!" ”

"Yes."

Zhang Zuo was also very embarrassed.

Without Zhu Hao supervising by his side, Zhu Si's heart as an emperor has become more and more slack, and now he doesn't look like a Ming Jun at all, except that he is not as nonsense as Zhu Houzhao, and he is becoming more and more similar in other aspects.

They are all not interested in court affairs, and they only think about how to have fun.

……

……

Not surprisingly, Zhu Si did not go to court the next morning.

The ministers were circled again, and now they are basically used to it, three times they have entered the palace, maybe twice the emperor will not appear in the court, although there are also ministers who ask the emperor to take care of the court affairs, but the emperor gave a good reason for replying.

Now that the Ming Dynasty is peaceful and peaceful, and there are no major disasters, it does not involve the audit at the end of the year and the budget for the coming year, etc., if everything has to be dealt with, then why do you want your ministers to do?

With this reason as a shield, the ministers could not do anything but sigh, and perhaps there was a hint of joy...... Before, the emperor was too tight on court affairs, and the tasks were pressed down layer by layer, forcing everyone to turn in succession, but now the emperor relaxed the court affairs, allowing them to relax their minds at the same time, and most of the pressure on their shoulders was also discharged.

However, this kind of thinking can only be kept in the hearts of the courtiers, and they still have to express some feelings about the emperor's neglect of government, so as to reflect the appearance of loyal ministers.

"Elder Fei Ge, Your Majesty has not been to the court for the past three days, this is not a good sign." The Ministry of Rites Shangshu chased a few steps, approached Fei Hong and Liu Chun, and whispered to ask Shoufu's opinion.

Fei Hong looked at Xi Shu sideways, probably saying, you are a member of the Rites faction, and you are close to the emperor, do you think that the emperor has done something inappropriate recently, why don't you go to the concert in person to advise and come to tell me?

Liu Chun saw that Fei Hong didn't want to take care of the book, so he took the initiative to take over: "Why don't you play together, please Your Majesty be diligent in government affairs and go to court every day?" Anyway, the spring festival is about to start, should I also ask for instructions, especially the Ministry of Rites needs to plan in advance to see if His Majesty will bow down? ”

Xi Shu said: "Elder Liu Ge, I heard that there has been chaos in the northwest recently, and some things seem to have been suppressed by the local government, and this matter has not been taken seriously by the imperial court. ”

At this time, there had not yet been a mutiny in Datong, but there were already signs of it, small desertions, evasion incidents occurred frequently, and the number of robbers in the northwest increased significantly, and the Tatars also invaded the border several times, although they did not achieve any decent results, but also made the northwest rumor.

Liu Chun said: "Hasn't Zang Feng already set off for the northwest?" Don't worry about that. ”

Fei Hong finally couldn't help but speak: "The Ministry of Rites Shangshu is in charge of the affairs of the Ministry of Rites, and it is not appropriate to interfere in the Ministry of War or military-related matters, you might as well ask others." ”

While speaking, Fei Hong deliberately glanced at Yang Yiqing, who was not far behind him.

Compared with him, who only has Xi Shu nagging here, there are more people around Yang Yiqing, as if Yang Yiqing is the one who can make decisions for the courtiers, and the ministers of the six ministries seem to have no scruples about their dealings with Yang Yiqing, and even the imperial historians are moving closer to Yang Yiqing.

Xi Shu couldn't help but look back, he could probably feel the crisis that Fei Hong was experiencing, and he wanted to say something but held back.

……

……

Households.

As soon as Huang Zan came back, Zhang Zuo came from the palace to discuss the matter of rebuilding Taiqingguan.

In fact, the emperor reached out to the household to ask for money, and now it is different from when Yang Tinghe was at the helm, what kind of silver did the emperor want to spend at that time, the emperor always figured out his own way and relied on Zhu Hao to raise it, but now Zhu Si feels that the world is all mine, why should he use his own purse to spend money?

The head of the household is still my person, of course, to take what he wants.

"Why does Your Majesty want to cultivate Taiqingguan? Didn't you say that Zhu Shangshu had already gone to Nanjing? ”

Huang Zhan was surprised.

The only place he had heard of was that Zhu Hao had been a Taoist priest in it for nearly a month, and he couldn't imagine that Taiqingguan could have any connection with the palace or even the emperor.

Zhang Zuo said with a smile: "Your Majesty intends to recruit Taoist priests from all over the world, especially those who are profound, can measure the heavenly phase, and can also see the future, preferably Heavenly Masters who can refine pills." If these people enter Beijing, they always need to have a place to resettle, Taiqing Temple is a large view in the south of the city, outstanding people, and it is very suitable to renovate it to place them. ”

Although Huang Zan has always been good at greeting, he is practical after all, but anyone who is good at living a good life will feel that the reason given by the emperor is too nonsense.

"Daoist? I'm afraid I can't do anything......"

Huang Zan almost wanted to say that those Taoist priests were all swaggering and deceiving gods, and whoever believed them was stupid.

Zhang Zuo said: "Huang Butang, our family is not here to discuss with you whether this matter is feasible, but to inform Your Majesty's dictation, even if someone has an opposing opinion, you must implement it in the slightest, right?" ”

"This ......"

Huang Zhan was speechless.

"We just want to ask Huang Butang, if you rebuild Taiqingguan, can the household come up with 50,000 taels of silver?" Zhang Zuo directly said the number.

This scared Huang Zan a lot.

What Taoist temple should be repaired with 50,000 taels of silver?

Why don't you just grab it?

Fifty thousand taels can repair several palaces, doesn't the imperial court calculate the cost before repairing the Taoist temple?

But just as he was about to give his opinion, he suddenly saw that Zhang Zuo's expression was wrong, and he immediately understood...... It didn't take so much silver to rebuild the Taiqing Temple, and the emperor just found an excuse to transfer money and grain from the household department, or use it somewhere else, and it might even be deducted by Zhang Zuo and other specific handlers for personal use.

"Fifty thousand taels, that's too much."

Huang Zan said bluntly, "At the beginning of the year, the Xuanfu currency was only 120,000 taels, which is the most in recent years. If you add the transfer to the three sides and other places, the total amount of money and grain will not exceed 300,000 taels of silver, and the whole court is now thrifty, and the rice of each royal palace has not been distributed for half a year. ”

Huang Zan showed the difficulties that the imperial treasury is now facing.

Now the imperial court is not making smooth progress in open source, and the imperial court still has to build railways, trains, and ships...... Although most of those expenses were raised by Zhu Hao, after the emperor took charge of the government, he had asked the court for silver many times, in the name of building railways, but in fact, after the silver was transferred by the palace, no one knew what it was used for.

Recently, the palace has purchased a lot of things, and there is also a large amount of expenditure, that is, to rebuild the Xingwang Mansion in Anlu Prefecture, Jiang has been reincarnated in Anlu for nearly half a year, and has been staying there recently to build a large number of buildings.

Zhang Zuo's face was a little unhappy: "Fifty thousand taels of silver is too much?" Your Majesty hasn't said 80,000 taels or 100,000 taels yet! Huang Butang, you are a capable person, if you can't get this bit of silver, Your Majesty will be very disappointed, you see...... Do you want to find a way to solve it? Within ten days, okay? ”

Huang Zan pondered for a moment, is the emperor asking me for money privately?

Could it be that I am buying an official?

Zhang Zuodao: "I heard that Huang Butang has always wanted to be promoted to the secretary of the ministry, you see ......"

Huang Zan didn't understand it very well, but no matter how dull he heard this, it was clear that the emperor just asked him to pay out of his pocket, so that he would be given the position of secretary of the ministry, so that he could enjoy the glory.

In order to make room for Yang Yiqing, Shi Xuan retired from the cabinet as the secretary of the ministry, almost everyone in the court knew that he would not work for long, and they were all thinking about who the next secretary of the ministry would be, Huang Zan had fought for it before, but he didn't spend any money during the event, mainly because of Yang Yiqing's relationship.

Probably because of this, the emperor was annoyed, and the emperor was now going to give him a problem.

Huang Zan said: "The imperial court can allocate 30,000 taels...... Other than that...... You can find 20,000 taels from other places......"

Zhang Zuo said with a smile: "There is always a squeeze of silver, if it involves the official position of the official secretary of the ministry, 50,000 taels is a bit less, why do you want 60,000 taels, what do you say?" ”

Still with an extra size?

Huang Zan thought about it, if he let himself give 60,000 taels of silver, he would definitely not be able to take it out, and now he didn't count how much silver Su Xigui could provide him, but if it was 30,000 taels, then there would be no problem at all, and he would be able to take it out himself without Su Xigui's move.

"I'm willing to try it in the future." Huang Zan said.

"That's good, just ten days, 60,000 taels of silver, if you want good official silver, 30,000 taels are nominally used to repair Taiqingguan, and the remaining 30,000 taels you don't need to report in the court, our family will send someone from the inner government to contact you, if you have any doubts, directly mention it to Huang Jin Huang Gonggong of Dongchang."

Zhang Zuo's meaning, let's count this as a "private transaction".

Don't let the courtiers know, otherwise the courtiers will suspect your intention to take out 30,000 taels of silver from your personal pocket.

"Yes."

Huang Zan was glad in his heart.

Anyway, I have the opportunity to be the secretary of the ministry, but I don't know if this thing is reliable.

Is the emperor openly selling his official beard?