Mid-November.

The capital, which has been renovated in the Forbidden City Imperial Palace.

Recently, Emperor Zhu Youzhen had a feeling that he was not very good.

The meal is not very fragrant.

The quality of sleep has decreased.

The motivation and enthusiasm for handling government affairs have also decreased, and occasionally they will put aside government affairs and take a lazy rest, and people have become a lot lazy.

On the one hand, the weather is getting colder, and the Chinese New Year is approaching, so there is less desire to work hard, and the idea of relaxing and enjoying himself has increased, after all, this is human nature.

The second is that Zhu Youzhen is really tired, he has been the emperor for almost ten years, during which he has been diligent, never tired, and wants to make Daming better, although Daming has indeed changed for the better in recent years, but it has nothing to do with his diligence, not that he promoted Daming to become what it is today, he is the most important witness, not a pusher, and he has enjoyed the fruits brought by others.

In the end, there is frustration, a very huge sense of frustration, which makes him feel that everything he has done so far is not of much significance, the results are very limited, and even many things have been done as well as not done, and the hard work is the same as not working hard, and the money is almost the same as not smashing...... This led him to self-doubt.

And this vacillation and self-doubt began a few months ago, has been going on for many months, and has not come out of it until now.

What's going on here?

What kind of stimulus did he suffer from, and even the idea of lying flat in the Buddha system came to him.

You must know that this year is a real bumper harvest year for the royal family, and several good things have happened one after another.

For example, the income of domestic funds hit a new high, adding up to more than 22 million yuan of money and grain.

For example, the renovation and renovation of the palace was successfully completed, and the convenience and comfort of living now are no less than that of Harbour City, but the total cost is less than 5 million silver dollars, which can be described as a very cost-effective.

For example, the Chahar Mongolia outside the Saiwai, led a population of 100,000, submitted to the Ming Dynasty, and was willing to be a vassal, never to violate the Ming border again, never to stop the sword soldiers, obey the rule of the Ming Dynasty, and help establish a set of peaceful, stable and long-term order belonging to the Ming Dynasty in the grassland, their only requirement is to hope to open border markets with each other, trade materials with the Ming Dynasty, and establish fair trade cooperation...... Zhu Youzhen naturally agreed.

There is also the purpose of a super fat year this year, it will definitely be achieved, during the Chinese New Year this year, he wants to eat what delicacies of the mountains and seas, how to enjoy how to enjoy, Xujiazhuang's new 'classic radio' to buy, all kinds of luxury goods must be bought, what luxury family banquet, Guotai Min'an banquet, with the people of the feast, grace banquet, Shangyuan Festival lantern banquet and other banquets, arranged seven or eight, to spend at least 100,000 silver dollars per banquet, these banquets alone, it is estimated that millions of silver dollars will be spent.

But he Zhu Youzhen is happy! The criticism and exhortation of the civil officials flashed to me aside, and whoever dared to do more than one would be dismissed directly.

It can be said!

The days are getting better and better, more and more hopeful, more and more exciting, why does he feel unhappy, sullen, and depressed for months.

After all, why is he like this?

It can only be said that happiness and satisfaction are obtained through comparison.

If compared with the past days of the royal family, Zhu Youzhen should be happy and satisfied, full of happiness, and his smile should be on his face every day, and he will never be full of sadness.

But no, Zhu Youzhen is the emperor, the lord of the world, and he is richer in the world, of course he can't compare with himself, but with all the forces in the world.

As a result, something went wrong when compared with each other, anxiety arose, and happiness almost disappeared cleanly.

If it is not as good as Xujiazhuang, forget it, after all, Xujiazhuang is too terrifying and perverted, this year's so-called gross domestic product (GDP) reached 5.5 billion silver dollars, and Daming is only 2.8 billion silver dollars, the total difference is nearly doubled, and the per capita income is 20 times worse, that is, the value created by a villager in Xujiazhuang is equivalent to 20 Ming people, how can people believe and accept? But this is true, Xu Jiazhuang rarely makes up false data.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen did not dare to compare with Xujiazhuang, this cannot be compared, there is no comparison at all, it is just self-inflicted.

So in addition to Xujiazhuang, there should be few forces in the Ming Dynasty that can pose a threat and challenge to the royal family, and the royal family must be the first in addition to Xujiazhuang, right?

Unfortunately not.

In September this year, the "Oriental Times" opened a column to take stock of the development of many commercial groups in Daming, and the results showed that among the top ten business groups that were counted, the royal family could not even win the fifth place!

For example, Shandong Miner Group, which ranked first, is expected to make a profit of more than 200 million silver dollars this year, and has mined a total of more than 1.8 billion stones of various ores.

Shanxi Miners Group, which ranked second, also made a profit of 150 million silver dollars this year.

The third place, Fujian Zheng's Group, is expected to make a profit of no less than 38 million silver dollars this year.

The fourth place, Guanning Military Commercial Group, made a profit of about 35 million silver dollars this year.

Zhejiang Maritime Group, which ranked fifth, made a profit of about 23 million silver dollars this year.

The sum of all aspects of the royal family's income this year, excluding the financial support given by Xujiazhuang, is on a par with the Zhejiang Maritime Group, and next year, it is estimated that the gap will be opened by the Zhejiang Maritime Group, which is still developing rapidly, and the royal family can only rank sixth.

Hahaha~

Zhu Youzhen smiled, the Ming Empire ruled by the Zhu royal family, in terms of financial resources, actually ranked sixth, and then added Xujiazhuang, that is, the seventh, and then saw the development speed of several commercial groups behind the list, it is estimated that in a few years, the financial resources of the Ming royal family can only rank eighth, ninth, and even tenth.

How could he accept this?

Money is the lifeblood of an empire, money is more important than anything else, and the royal family is so poor, how can he not have anxiety and suppressed emotions?

And what he can't accept the most is that the Guan Ningjun Business Group, which ranked fourth on the list, actually secretly developed to such a huge scale, making a net income of nearly 40 million a year, obviously belonging to the regular army of the imperial court, actually went to business, dug so many mines, opened so many factories, and made so much money, without even saying a word, let alone paying taxes to the imperial court, and asking the imperial court to send millions of money and grain to it, so that the imperial court, the 'poor', can feed them, the 'rich people'?

Wrath.

Extremely angry!

After all, if it is a Shandong miner, Shanxi miner or something, these commercial forces have nothing to do with the imperial court, they are all supported by Xujiazhuang, no matter how much they earn, there is nothing to blame, and the imperial court does not have much reason to ask.

However, the Guanning army was an imperial army, under the management of the emperor and the military department, and in the past, they were paid by the imperial grain, and they had to obey the arrangements and orders of the imperial court, even if they were sent to death on the cruel battlefield, they had to go.

But this Guan Ningjun, who must listen to the imperial court, earns more than the imperial court's taxes and is richer than the royal family! In just two or three years, it has become the fourth business group in Daming.

This phenomenon is like a restaurant where the employees who are responsible for serving food and running the hall are suddenly richer than the restaurant owner, if you are this boss, can you accept it?

Anyway, Zhu Youzhen and the civil officials in the court have a high degree of consistency in their positions, and they all feel unacceptable.

Then it is to suppress, restrict, and even divide and disintegrate, and plan to return all the commercial interests of the Guanning Army to the imperial court, so that they can honestly go to war, and stop doing their jobs.

Who knew that the public relations ability of the high-level of the Guanning Army was too strong, and they quickly settled the civilian officials, and then said that they would supply millions of silver dollars to the internal government every year, and also faintly threatened, saying that the Guanning Army had an iron bucket inside, and if it was urgent, it was likely to do something 'unbearable'.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen will not eat this set, but the Guanning army has 100,000 elite soldiers, and the royal family only has 50,000 new troops.

That is, the Guanning Army cannot be solved by military force.

Nothing.

After accepting the offer of one million silver dollars, Zhu Youzhen had no choice but to do so.

Then I have been depressed and depressed until now, and it has never been relieved.

So is there any way to solve this heart disease of his, no longer be anxious and depressed, so as to have a cheerful and sunny mood?

Think about it for many days.

Zhu Youzhen thought of a very good way.

That is to make money, to establish a royal business group, to make more money, to earn more money than all the business groups on the list of the top ten business groups in the Ming Dynasty, and even surpass Xujiazhuang one day - although this possibility is zero, Zhu Youzhen dares to think so.

But the question is, how can you make more money?

Factories.

That is to start a factory.

Zhu Youjian sent a large number of capable Jinyi guards to conduct an in-depth investigation of the top business groups in the Ming Dynasty, and finally found a common law of why they could make so much money, that is, mining and setting up factories.

There is no need to think about the mines, although the emperor is rich in the world, none of the mines belong to the emperor.

There is only one way to set up a factory.

In the past two years, out of the need for efficient development, Xujiazhuang has not only sold a large number of low-end machine tools, but also sold cement firing technology, brick kiln factory technology, soil acid and alkali production technology, ore washing technology, refining technology and even glass firing technology, allowing all commercial forces to open a large number of cement factories, brick kiln factories, glass factories, food processing factories, furniture factories, canning factories and other factories, so that these factories bloom everywhere.

After the introduction of advanced equipment and technology in Xujiazhuang, even if it is an ordinary brick kiln factory, its profit margin is not less than 20%, and there are many finished and semi-finished products, Xujiazhuang will place huge orders, unlimited purchases, so the profit of the factory is very amazing, and it is easy to earn three or five hundred thousand silver dollars a year.

And the larger the scale of the factory, the more amazing the profits, as long as the production line is running, just like the land that grows crops all the time, as long as the raw materials are sufficient, it will not be affected by weather, rainfall and other factors, and can produce all year round, and the development ceiling is extremely high.

This made Zhu Youzhen also want to introduce Xujiazhuang's advanced technology and set up several royal factories.

For example, the profit of glass is more than 50%, and he especially wants to set up a royal glass factory.

There are also soap factories, furniture factories, toilet paper factories, etc., and the money situation is very good.

It's just that the construction of plants, the purchase of machine tools and equipment, the introduction of technology and other aspects need to be invested, and Xu Jiazhuang needs to nod and agree, otherwise there is no way to open the factory.

The more money you make, the more you can't achieve it.

Therefore, it is necessary to do a good job in the relationship with Xu Jiazhuang, strive to get the technology for free, buy the equipment at a preferential price, and preferably borrow an interest-free loan of several million silver dollars from Tianxiatong Bank, so that he does not have to use the precious cash on hand.

But Xu Jiazhuang is not a philanthropist, it is impossible for you to give whatever you want, and the consequence of treating others as fools is that you will be fooled.

Zhu Youzhen planned to send the empress to Harbour City again to negotiate with Xujiazhuang to see if he could get favorable conditions to open the royal factory.

So he expressed his thoughts, hoping that Empress Zhou, as the royal negotiator, would set off in a few days and go to Harbour City again.

"Your Majesty, let me go to Harbour City."

Empress Zhou nodded and said: "But it is not so easy to take advantage of Xujiazhuang, even if it is an ally, we have to be prepared for the royal family to come up with some quid pro quo and pay some price, otherwise it is useless to say that it is useless, and it is impossible for the royal factory to be set up." ”

"I know that I agree to the appropriate concessions, and it is okay to spend some money, but I still hope that you can get the best and most favorable cooperation terms for the royal family, right!"

Thinking of one thing, Zhu Youzhen suddenly said in his heart: "This time, you also bring the imperial sister-in-law, with the imperial sister-in-law here, let her go to Xu Yuan to talk, maybe it can work a miracle!" ”