"Your Highness doesn't like flowers that smell too strong, so change them to some fresh ones."

"Yangmei wants to put rock sugar, His Royal Highness likes to drink sweeter."

"Rice wine and rice wine are soft, and the military attaches of the outer court like to drink some when they are talking, if it is too strong, it is easy to get intoxicated."

"Plum wine ......"

On the fifteenth day of the lunar month, in the Jiuquan Palace of the Qi Palace, Yang Yuanai was instructing the palace maids in the palace to make wine for the palace.

This batch of wine will be taken out and drunk during the Lantern Festival a month later, which is the old rule of the Qi Palace.

As the head of the female officials of the inner court, Yang Yuanai knows everything about the affairs of the inner court, that is, Yuan Xifei, who is the princess, and she also needs to ask her for advice when facing some problems.

For example, right now, Yuan Xifei, Zhou Sujie and others watched Yang Yuanai command hundreds of palace maids to make wine in Jiuquan Palace, with an orderly rhythm and orderly.

When everything was done, a female official walked up to her with a booklet, Yang Yuanai looked down, bowed her head slightly and signaled the female officer to leave, and she came to Yuan Xifei and others with the booklet:

"Niangniang, this is the list of palace maids who will leave the palace this year, please take a look at a few mothers."

"Out of the house?" Hearing this, North Korea's Li Shaoxi frowned slightly, because ordinary palace maids need to work in the palace for about 20 years when they enter the palace, and they will only be released at the age of 30.

However, most of the palace maids in the Qi Palace's mansion were only in their teens, so she was curious about how many people would leave the palace.

She glanced at the booklet, only to realize that there was a maid in her palace.

"Han Zhaodi is only nineteen years old, do you want to be released from the house?"

Li Shaoxi couldn't help but ask, because she used this palace maid well.

As soon as she spoke, Zhou Sujie, Yuan Xifei and others also looked at Yang Yuanai, but she nodded and said:

"This is the rule set by His Royal Highness, the palace maids in the house, as long as they propose to leave the house every year after the age of eighteen, the palace will release people."

"No wonder the palace maids in the mansion are so young......" Hearing Yang Yuanai's words, Zhou Sujie nodded thoughtfully.

As the princess, Concubine Yuan Xi didn't want to break the rules set by Zhu Youjian, so she comforted Li Shaoxi:

"You and I are both daughters, and it is difficult for daughters to find their in-laws' families after twenty, and if they don't leave the palace before twenty, many of them will not be able to find good families."

"I know that my sister uses this maid easily, but she still needs to think about it."

"What did my sister say?" Li Shaoxi hurriedly replied: "My sister is just curious." ”

Although Li Shaoxi's family background is stronger than that of Yuan Xi's concubine, in the final analysis, Yuan Xi's concubine is the main concubine, she is Zhu Youzhen's wife, and the others are just concubines.

The concubine is disobedient to the concubine, and without the support of the male owner, she will generally be cleaned up very badly, so she does not dare to contradict Yuan Xi's concubine.

Yuan Xi Concubine smiled when she saw this, and then handed the document to Yang Yuanai:

"How many people are going out of the house this year? How many are there in the house? How much does it cost? ”

She was learning how to manage the palace, and Yang Yuanai was also happy to hand over power, so she replied:

"Seventy-three people left the house, after they left, there were still two hundred and thirty-five people in the house, each of whom received a monthly salary of 900 wen, and the annual expenditure of the house was 3,000 taels for the food of the slaves and maids, and if you added the kitchen of the inner court, it would be 12,600 taels."

"The kitchen in the outer court is 12,000 taels, and there are four bureaus in the inner court, and the expenses of the four bureaus are about 11,000 taels, and the annual expenses in the house are basically about 45,000 taels to 50,000 taels."

"Why is it so expensive?" Hearing that the annual expenditure of the Qi Palace's mansion actually required 50,000 taels, the six concubines were a little surprised.

Even Wei Pingyang, who was born in the Xun Mansion, was taken aback, because the annual expenditure of the Xuancheng Bofu was only three thousand taels of silver.

In the face of their surprise, Yang Yuan replied calmly:

"Last year, it was basically about 20,000 taels, but this year, the six ladies entered the inner court, silk and satin, jewelry, gold and silver, plus monthly money and other expenses, there is an additional expenditure of 25,000 to 30,000 taels of silver."

"But His Royal Highness said that there is no need to save the expenses of the inner court, and the six ladies don't have to worry."

"This ...... How much does His Royal Highness have in his year? Zhou Sujie couldn't accept such a large expense, so she asked curiously.

"It's gone up a bit this year, almost 190,000 taels of silver." Yang Yuan loves to return, and she doesn't think it's too much.

After all, she knew that the inner court's internal income was old, and compared to the internal income of three or four million taels of silver, the Qi Wangfu was indeed a little poor.

Zhu Youxiao also wanted to add some Yulu for his younger brother, but he only added it to him, not to other grades of officials, which was not suitable.

Therefore, the 190,000 taels of silver are already the result of Zhu Youxiao's addition of various official titles such as Wensan, Wusan, Wenxun, Wuxun, and official positions.

Of course, even so, the Qi Wangfu is still very "poor".

This is not to say that the palace is very poor, but that Zhu Youzhen has been relatively "poor".

Before the sixth concubine entered the house, Zhu Youzhen alone only had 600 taels of silver per year, and after the sixth concubine moved in, the food silver of the seven of them soared to 5,600 taels.

The dietary silver of the six concubines is basically 2,000 taels per year, but Zhu Youzhen often goes to "rub" rice, and the dietary silver has dropped to about 200 taels.

"This expenditure is too high, the meals of each palace, I see that there is a lot of waste in each meal, in order to save some money in the palace, the five palaces will reduce the dietary silver by one thousand taels, and the longevity palace will be reduced by one thousand five hundred taels."

Yuan Xifei has seen the meals of the five palaces, which are basically too wasteful, and she eats more than ten or twenty dishes by herself, including her longevity palace.

It was hard for her to say before, because she was not familiar with the palace, but now that she has been in the palace for two months, she has also adapted to the identity of the hostess, so she can naturally give an order.

Standing behind her, the five concubines didn't feel aggrieved, but said that they could reduce it further, after all, Yuan Xi's concubines had dropped to five hundred taels, and they were twice as many as Yuan Xi's concubines, which was too embarrassing for them.

Concubine Yuan Xi responded one by one with a smile, letting them enjoy it, knowing how to balance the harem relationship, and living up to Zhang Yan's painstaking choice of her.

In short, the six concubines talked about making trouble, and the matter was finally decided.

Not only food money, but also clothing and travel expenses have been cut.

Zhu Youzhen set them too high, and even if Yuan Xi's concubine lowered the standard by half, the six of them were still enjoying it.

However, after she descended, when Yang Yuanai sent the account book of the inner court to Zhu Youzhen, Zhu Youzhen was a little surprised by the thriftiness of the six concubines.

"They all agree?"

In the heart of the palace, Zhu Youzhen looked at the expenditure of the inner court that had been reduced from 50,000 taels to 35,000 taels, and still couldn't help but ask Yang Yuanai suspiciously.

"The six ladies are all willing, and this expenditure is not low, your Highness gave too much before."

Yang Yuanai covered her face with her hands and smiled, while Zhu Youzhen shook his head with a smile when he heard this:

"I came according to one-tenth of the standard of the inner court, who would have thought that they would not even be able to spend one-tenth of the standard of the inner court."

Zhu Youzhen was a little embarrassed, feeling that his concubines were a little "thrifty", but Yang Ru, who didn't want to practice the piano on the side, listened to it, and said helplessly:

"There are sixty-two ladies in the inner court, and there are more than 200 concubines and concubines, and His Royal Highness has only six maidens, so naturally he can't finish it."

"Sixty-two? The royal brother has added a new concubine? Zhu Youzhen frowned slightly, and questioned the number of concubines in Yang Rus's words.

If he remembers correctly, in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youxiao only had eight concubines, why is it that the older he is now, the more concubines there are.

"That was already last month, and this month I heard that Banzai canonized a few more nobles and beauties."

"I heard His Royal Highness the Crown Prince say that he now has more than seventy mothers......" Yang Ru shook his head, and her words also made Zhu Youzhen frown.

He looked at Wang Chengen, who was dealing with officialdom on the edge of the Heart Cultivation Palace, and shouted:

"Chengen, let Wang Kentang remind the royal brother not to be too indulgent."

"This ......" Wang Chengen looked up with an embarrassed face and hesitated:

"These words have been said by the imperial doctors of the Tai Hospital, but long live him...... Your Highness, you know that......"

Wang Chengen's words gradually lost confidence later, and Zhu Youzhen was also speechless.

In this world, except for what his brother will listen to, what other people say is like breath to his brother, and it is not even a fart.

It's just that in terms of color characters, Zhu Youzhen actually often reminds Zhu Youxiao, but Zhu Youxiao agrees verbally and is honest.

Fortunately, he is still young, and as long as he doesn't use any big tonics, there will be basically no problems.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen frowned at Wang Chengen and explained: "Don't let the Tai Hospital use tonics." ”

"Slave Commands ......"

Wang Chengen responded, and Zhu Youzhen also lowered his head to deal with the sparseness.

Seeing this, Yang Yuanai retreated, but when she just retreated, Zhu Youzhen just happened to deal with the recital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

[The minister of Jiaozhi inspected the imperial history Wen Tingzhi impeached the political envoy Mu Qiyuan, the general soldier of Jiaozhi, Wu Bikui, and Hong Chengchou of the southwest Jingluo Mansion maliciously purchased grain, which led to the soaring price of grain in the southern Cham province of Jiaozhi Province, and the rice was worth five coins of silver, and there were many people who starved to death in the Cham Po, no less than 100 people......]

"......" Zhu Youzhen frowned slightly, and as for Wang Chengen, when he looked at his face, he probably guessed which one it was.

All the music in the Qi Palace's mansion needed him and Cao Huachun to look at it before they could be sent to Zhu Youzhen, so he naturally knew what kind of music was easy to make His Royal Highness's face look bad.

"Your Royal Highness, the matter of Champa, Hong Jingluo is also to support the imperial court......"

Wang Chengen wanted to say that Hong Chengchou wanted to satisfy the six million stone rice of the household department that would cause the natives in the south of Cham to starve to death, but Zhu Youzhen didn't wait for him to finish speaking, and threw the song on the table, and he also leaned back in the chair:

"What do you think...... If Champa really starved to death, would Wen Tingzhi's recital still appear? ”

"This ......" Wang Chengen Mu Ne, but not stupid, he is well aware of Hong Chengchou's influence in the southwest, and also knows that Jiaozhi and Yunnan are the places where his influence is deepest.

If Hong Chengchou can't even buy off the officials of Jiaozhi and Yunnan, then he is not as good as an ordinary political envoy.

Not to mention, in some information from Nanzhen Fusi, this Wen Tingzhi has a good relationship with Mu Qiyuan.

Since the relationship is good, why did Mu Qiyuan be impeached? Just because of the identity of the patrol imperial history?

This is impossible, although the identity of inspecting the imperial history is good, but such a matter of impeaching a political envoy, a general soldier, and a strategy is usually done by their superiors and supervising the imperial history.

After the Metropolitan Procuratorate was reformed by Zhu Youzhen and cancelled the rumors, if the imperial historian wanted to impeach people, he had to have a certain amount of evidence.

With just one inspection of the imperial history, he can't withstand the pressure of impeaching the second and third rank members of the imperial court.

"Hong Chengchou, this guy is not honest......"

Zhu Youzhen only looked at the concert slightly, and knew that the impeachment was arranged by Hong Chengchou, and its purpose was just to test his attitude.

Zhu Youzhen likes Hong Chengchou to do things and doesn't let him worry about it, but he doesn't like Hong Chengchou's self-made cleverness and many temptations many times.

In terms of doing things, Zhu Youzhen still likes balanced people like Yang Wenyue and Wu Aheng.

They will not be like Sun Chuanting, sometimes arbitrary and alone, nor will they be like Hong Chengchou who has tried many times, basically uphold the idea of moderation and follow Zhu Youzhen's instructions.

Zhu Youzhen had already told Hong Chengchou that if the immigrants and people did not die, no matter how many natives died, they would not punish him, but he was still worried that he would be held accountable afterwards.

Although he knew that the other party was frightened because of the late Ming party dispute, he still didn't like this feeling of someone questioning him.

"In the middle of the song, let the people of Nanzhen Fusi buy a water-soaked rope in Kunming and give it to Hong Chengchou."

Zhu Youzhen lowered his head and continued to deal with the sparseness, but Wang Chengen was stunned: "The rope that gets wet?" ”

"Hmm...... If it is not wet enough after delivery, let people pour water on the rope in front of Hong Chengchou. ”

Zhu You responded without raising his head, and after Wang Chengen heard this, he got up and walked out as if he didn't understand, ready to arrange this matter.

However, after he walked out of the hall, he met Cao Huachun who was walking towards him, so he couldn't help but pull Cao Huachun: "Your Highness saw the song and asked someone to send a rope with water to Hong Chengchou, what does this mean?" ”

"Rope with water?" Cao Huachun was also stunned, but he quickly figured out the joints and pulled Wang Chengen's hand away:

"You can do things with confidence, you don't need to know the meaning."

With that, he turned around and continued to walk into the hall, leaving only Wang Chengen with a puzzled face, and after staying for a while, he turned around and left.

At the same time as he left, Cao Huachun also entered the hall, and presented a few books, and said respectfully:

"There is news from the Governor's Mansion and the Household Department of the Five Armies that the military rations of the Northern Expedition have arrived in Liaoyang, Jingcheng and Zhenjiang, and they will only be transported to Yidonghe City and Taining City outside the Guanxi after spring."

"After the storage and consumption, this batch of grain should still have 9 million stones when it comes to the beginning of spring, and counting the transportation consumption, it is about 8 million stones, which is more than expected."

"Are you ready?" Zhu Youzhen raised his hand to take the song and looked at it at a glance.

"Two million stone beans and 20 million bunches of forage are ready, enough for military horses, horses, and horses to eat." Cao Huachun responded, but said with a little regret:

"It's a pity that although the big horses (Shire horses) are bred by thousands, those horses are only foals for a few months."

"If we can use them in this battle, it will be much easier to pull the artillery or something."

"The big horse has a lot of strength, a big body, but a big appetite, it's all about the same." Zhu Youzhen put down the note of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies and opened the note of the household department.

Cao Huachun saw him open the household music, and hurriedly continued:

"Since the beginning of winter, grain prices in the north have risen a lot, basically by about 20%, which is higher than Bi Shangshu estimated."

Cao Huachun talked about Bi Ziyan's estimate, but he was actually talking about Bi Ziyan and Zhu Youzhen's estimate.

For the sake of the Northern Expedition and disaster relief, Zhu Youzhen and Bi Ziyan estimated that the grain price in the north would rise by 10 percent, but the facts gave them a resounding slap in the face, and the grain price in the north rose by 10 to 30 percent.

"What did Bi Ziyan say?" Zhu Youzhen's face was flat, and Cao Huachun hurriedly responded:

"Bi Shangshu wants to hire workers in Shandong, Hexi, Duogan, and Henan provinces to carry out roadbed construction in the four provinces in advance, so as to alleviate the burden on the people."

Hiring workers in advance and building in advance is, to put it bluntly, a disguised form of "work for relief", but if you don't do it in the mountainous land, the people will starve to death, and if you don't do it in these four provinces, the people will starve, but they will not die.

The wages of the hired workers are considered to be a job for the vast number of peasants and the people at the bottom, so that they will not go hungry after the spring planting and before the autumn harvest.

Even if it's only six months' wages, it's better than starving and waiting at home.

"How much does it cost? How much is it to hire? ”

"Fifteen wen a day, 300,000 laborers per province, for a period of six months, it is estimated that five million taels of silver and material silver will be paid."

Zhu Youzhen asked, Cao Huachun replied, and in order to let His Royal Highness know better, he also said the approximate amount of silver to be distributed.

In this regard, Zhu Youzhen thought about the income of the imperial court this year, and was a little anxious:

"Is the imperial court's deposit enough to be issued?"

"After selling grain for disaster relief in Shanxi, it should be enough, ...... from now on"

Cao Huachun said, and also gave Zhu Youzhen a general overview of the financial situation of the imperial court.

In this year's annual income, more than 30 million taels of cash are still in storage, waiting for the Zhengdan Festival to be issued after the court, but the gap is still there.

Therefore, after the autumn harvest, the Tianfu rice wheat and Juntun rice wheat of the imperial court were transported to Shanxi and Jiangnan respectively to stabilize grain prices.

Half of the more than 60 million stone rice and wheat have been sold, and more than 16 million taels of silver have been collected, and 15 million taels should be collected in the future.

The first batch of grain silver that has been sold has been allocated to the Ministry of Industry for the construction of roadbeds, and it has been deposited in Taicang to prepare for the distribution of a part of the money, and about 2 million taels can be mobilized.

However, by the beginning of spring, one-third of the follow-up silver should be collected, but it is estimated that it will be used for cash-for-work in the four provinces.

In other words, counting the follow-up silver, after the Lantern Festival next year, the silver deposit in the treasury will be about 12 million taels.

This kind of positive fiscal situation has not been seen for many years.

A major drought caused the Ming Dynasty's annual income, which should have reached 50 million taels, plummeted to 39 million.

Now the drought has only subsided slightly, and even if it is not overseas, Daming itself has reached a situation of income support.

Counting Yingzhou, Jiaozhi, Jiugang, Nanzhou, Ryukyu and other places, this achieved a profit of 12 million taels.

Cao Huachun thought of the recession of the drought, and he couldn't help but rejoice in his heart.

It's just that compared with his optimism, Zhu Youzhen is optimistic with some anxiety.

If he remembers correctly, the drought will be worse next year than this year, and it will not even be able to affect the entire territory of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, and can only affect the south of Hetao, north of Guanzhong, west of Ningxia, and east of Taihang, and there will be no major drought or flood in the rest of the provinces.

These places, especially in Shaanxi, have actually become a no-man's land in northern Shaanxi, and the population of Shaanxi is concentrated in the Guanzhong Plain, the Hanzhong Plain, and the Hetao Plain, which are three plains that are not short of water.

Therefore, next year, the people of Shaanxi will finally get rid of the predicament of the six-year drought and disaster, and although there are many people in Shanxi and they are also affected by the disaster, it is unlikely that the number will exceed 4 million.

These four million people are counted as one million families, and Daming only needs to pay one million people in cash.

Compared with more than four million families in the north and south this year, and seven or eight million families who need to be supported in the previous two years, next year will be the best year for Daming since the seventh year of the Apocalypse.

This is Zhu Youzhen's optimism, and it is also a reason why he chose to plow the court and sweep the holes.

However, his anxiety also stems from the victims.

In the eleventh year of the Apocalypse, the people's lives will be better, but from the twelfth year of the Apocalypse, the great drought in the north will continue to decline, but the great drought will break out again in the south.

This was the beginning of the second round of drought, which lasted for 12 years and spread to the north and south, and Zhu Youzhen was not sure whether there would be another major drought in the future.

Because the 12th year after the history is the 17th year of Chongzhen, because Chongzhen hanged himself, Li Zicheng failed, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, so the world was turbulent, and many literati did not record various droughts and disasters from this year to the Kangxi period.

In the past 10 years, whether the drought has disappeared or whether the people no longer care about the drought because of the war and turmoil, the population has decreased, and the abundant arable land has caused the people to no longer care about the drought situation, these are all factors that Zhu Youzhen needs to consider.

He had to be ready for 12 years, and he had to be ready for 22 years.

The matter of relocation cannot be stopped, and it is imperative to develop the northeast, the old port, and the southern state after ploughing the hole.

"Next year's immigration, except for the migration of the feudal domains of India and the Qi State, the immigration within the other imperial courts will be suspended."

The cost of immigration is high in a stable year, and the cost of immigration is low in a famine year.

Next year, the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty will be very good, and it will even reach 30 million taels of silver deposits by the end of the year, as well as more than 90 million taels of silver deposits from the mint.

But this does not mean that Daming can spend money lavishly, on the contrary, Daming has to tighten its finances, and all immigration tasks except for cash-for-work must be stopped.

The train cannot be stopped because it will be related to the problem of people moving after the second round of drought.

Once a drought breaks out in the densely populated three provinces south of the Yangtze River and the harvest fails, the Ming Dynasty will not be able to get enough food to feed 70 or 80 million people.

The population of this place must be moved, even if the migration will lead to the withering of local commerce, Zhu Youzhen must do so.

The great drought in the south of the Yangtze River, if Zhu Youzhen remembers correctly, basically began to break out one after another in the sixteenth year of the Apocalypse, and the front can only affect a few provinces, and the latter is the impact of one province.

He had six years, whether it was sea or land transportation, whether it was moving to the Northeast or moving the old port and Qi country, in short, he needed trains and steam engine ships.

Compared with Zhu Youzhen's blueprint, Daming's industrial speed was too slow, especially the steam engine.

"How is the Armaments Institute studying steamships?"

Zhu Youzhen asked about the steamer, and Cao Huachun nodded hurriedly after hearing it:

"The branches of Denglai and Tianjin have launched 3,000 steamships, which are basically operating normally, and are now conducting research on 6,000 steamships."

Zhu Youzhen is not surprised by the speed of the Armaments Institute, because this is a study of merchant ships and cargo ships, not warships.

In addition, the current naval fleet of the Ming Dynasty is sufficient to deal with all kinds of wars east of the Cape of Good Hope, and there is no need to build battleships to inspire the Europeans at this time.

Only when the war is scorching, can the Ming Dynasty release technology that transcends an era to end the war.

"Research on steamships has intensified, and if there is insufficient funding, even if it is allocated, there is no need to ask me."

After knowing the recent situation of the Armaments Institute, Zhu Youzhen gave Cao Huachun a final order, and then waved his hand to signal him to go out.

"The slave and maid quit ......"

As Cao Huachun withdrew, the hall fell into calm again......

The second watch was around 10 p.m

(End of chapter)