Capital.

Recently, Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen has lived a good life.

I ate three meals a day, slept well, and gained a few pounds.

Although the country is declining, the situation in various parts of Daming has not improved significantly, and there is still more bad news than good news.

But the most difficult moment, barely survived, the Liukou who were raging in Shanxi was resisted by the governors of various places, and the Jiannu outside the gate did not move, this year, you can live a little more stable.

Of course, in fact, the most important reason is that Chongzhen has a little spare money in his hands, and he doesn't have to live so poorly, even if he encounters something terrible, he can also eat something delicious, or spend money to invite the troupe to sing a few scenes for Concubine Liu, Chongzhen also listens to it and joins in the fun.

There's no way, the pressure on Chongzhen is too great, and he is also a human being! It also needs to get some positive stimulation or encouragement, just like many people in modern society often use alcohol to relieve their sorrows, or have a serious addiction to smoking.

He occasionally eats a delicious meal, invites the troupe to sing to Concubine Liu to show filial piety, and brings the queen concubines together, happy and happy, and by the way, he also improves his mood, is this too much?

What's more, it doesn't cost a lot of money.

However, this relatively easy little life may have passed for less than a month, and Chongzhen's most worried ministers advised him not to be overly extravagant.

The head of the household, Bi Ziyan, entered the palace to meet him, and as soon as he opened his mouth, Chongzhen was startled.

"I heard that a merchant lent His Majesty a large sum of silver, as much as a million taels?"

"No, it can't be, how can I borrow the merchant's money."

Zhu Youzhen immediately came to deny the three times, waved his hand and said: "This is purely a rumor, there is no such thing!" ”

The reason why he subconsciously denied it was, on the one hand, he was a king with a good face, and it really damaged the royal face to borrow money from merchants; Secondly, the court is short of money everywhere, and once the officials know that he has some money in his hand, he is afraid that he will immediately ask for it and use it to fill the loopholes everywhere.

However, in the face of the emperor's denial.

Bi Ziyan did not continue to ask, but knelt on the ground and shouted with a wail: "Your Majesty, the household department has no money, and it has owed more than 7,874,000 taels of military expenses to the nine borders, more than 2,430,000 taels of arrears to the clan, and the officials of the capital have been in arrears for three months to half a year...... Your Majesty, allocate a little silver to the minister from the inner hand, the minister is almost out of place. ”

Faced with this series of data thrown out by Bi Ziyan.

Zhu Youzhen was almost smashed on the spot, and said hesitantly: "I, my inner secretary has no money." ”

"Your Majesty, on September 28, the convoy of Xujiazhuang transporting money and grain entered Beijing, and many people in the capital saw it, and the minister did not ask for much, 800,000 taels, as long as he gave the minister 800,000 taels, he could barely support it for a while." Bi Ziyan said.

"I really don't."

Zhu Youzhen still flatly denied it.

"Your Majesty has recently had meat, his complexion is excellent, and the dragon robe has been replaced with brand new, how can you make the ministers believe that Your Majesty has no silver? Your Majesty, please be a wise and holy monarch, if you have a million taels of silver but ignore the country, take the interests of the Ming Dynasty and exchange it for silver from the hands of merchants, this will make the officials gather to advise. ”

Bi Ziyan had to give advice, or it was just a subtle threat.

Zhu Youzhen was surprised by his shamelessness, eating some meat with him, wearing a dragon robe without patches, and having a little money in his hand, he became a dumb king? Will it cause the ministers to play and admonish? How is this reasonable? The standard for becoming a Ming Jun is too high, and if he is a little lax, he will become a faint king?

"I don't have any money......"

Zhu Youzhen still denied this set of rhetoric, but he really couldn't stand Bi Ziyan's mouth, and he poured all kinds of sage teachings into his ears.

In the end, he had to compromise.

After some bargaining, Bi Ziyan left the palace with 500,000 taels of silver.

The cash flow in Zhu Youzhen's hands was suddenly cut in half.

But that's not the end, it's just the beginning.

The next day, Liang Tingdong, the secretary of the military department, and Li Shouqi, the commander of the Beijing camp, came together to ask for an audience, Zhu Youzhen vaguely guessed their purpose and didn't want to see them, but the two waited from the morning to the afternoon and had no intention of leaving.

Zhu Youzhen had to see them, and asked with a straight face: "What is the matter with the two of you coming?" ”

Liang Tingdong knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, the Shanxi Liukou is raging, and the governors everywhere urgently need the imperial court to support money and food!" ”

Li Shouqi also knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, the Beijing camp is weak, the combat power is worrying, it is really difficult to use, it is urgent to replenish the young and strong soldiers, and supplement the good horse ordnance to enhance the ability of the Beijing division to defend the palace, but this requires a large amount of silver taels!" ”

"I don't have any money, you go to the head of the household to ask for money." Zhu Youzhen said with a calm face.

"Bi Shangshu's 500,000 taels have already been spent, and it's useless for me to wait for him."

"Your Majesty, the Beijing camp is the power of the center of the Ming Dynasty, no matter what, the money and food used to strengthen the Beijing camp cannot be saved, 300,000 taels, as long as you give the minister 300,000 taels, give the minister half a year, the 100,000 weak soldiers in the Beijing camp will definitely be able to become 100,000 elite soldiers, and Jiannu dares to enter the Kou again, without the need for the king of Qin from all over the country, the Beijing camp will be able to win the battle! Ling Jiannu didn't dare to despise me anymore. ”

Li Shouqi drew a big pie for the young king.

Zhu Youzhen immediately glared at him viciously: "Uncle Xiangcheng, do you also want to learn from Yuan Chonghuan?" ”

"Don't dare!"

Li Shouqi knelt on the ground in fright, trembling, but still insisted: "Your Majesty, no matter what, you must take out some silver to strengthen the strength of the Beijing camp." ”

More than an hour later.

After some indiscriminate bombardment by these two courtiers, Zhu Youzhen had to compromise again and gave 150,000 taels each.

The cash flow in hand is subtracted by 300,000 taels.

And in the next month, Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen almost didn't have a day of peace, and every once in a while, there were ministers who entered the palace to ask for a meeting, no matter what major matters were discussed, in the end they would ask him for the silver in the inner house, and they would open their mouths for 500,000 taels or 300,000 taels at every turn, and kneel down to advise if they didn't give it, or pull many officials to play together, and even fight to anger the emperor to be punished, and there is only one purpose: the silver in Zhu Youzhen's internal guard.

Fifty thousand taels.

Thirty thousand taels.

Twenty thousand taels.

10,000 taels ......

added up one after another, and this month his inner marshal was taken away by the ministers 200,000 taels.

plus the 500,000 of the household department Shangshu Bi Ziyan, and the 300,000 of Liang Tingdong and Li Shouqi, it is just one million.

That is, the one million taels lent to him by Xu Jiazhuang were all spent, and they were taken away by the ministers and hundreds of officials, and he Zhu Youzhen didn't spend a penny.

By the way, there is also a batch of lazy rice sent by Xujiazhuang that only has more than 40,000 stone left, and 6,000 taels of silver.

The 6,000 taels of silver had already been spent, and the remaining tens of thousands of stone rice, except for a small amount, were all sold through the imperial store and sold at the market price of one stone and three taels, and finally got about 100,000 taels of silver.

And this money Zhu Youzhen can't compromise anymore! There will be no more illusions in the courtiers.

He has to spend this money for himself, for the people he loves!

The troupe invited to Concubine Liu had to be invited for a month at a time, costing 5,000 taels of silver.

The gold and silver jewelry bought for Queen Zhou, the customized phoenix crown and xia veil, cost about 20,000 taels of silver.

There is also a glass mirror of Xujiazhuang that Tian Guifei has been thinking about, buy it! There are also soaps, shower gels and other products, which cost 25,000 taels of silver.

and a bicycle bought for the prince Zhu Cihong, which cost 10,000 taels of silver, although his son is still young and can't use it temporarily, but he will use it when he grows up.

And so on and so forth.

In short, after a period of frenzied consumption.

By mid-December, Zhu Youzhen, the Chongzhen Emperor who had spent money like water, began a frugal life of eating meat only once in two or three days and having patches on his dragon robe, and became a poor egg again.