The old man made Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaochu brothers quite uncomfortable with one sentence, Zhu Gaochi didn't know what happened to Zhu Gaochi, but he still knew about his father's side.

In the feudal era, whenever it came to money, there was a department that could not be bypassed, and this department was called the household department.

During the Yongle period, the name of the household department was Xia Yuanji.

But if you know anything about this history in the Yongle period, most of them will know Xia Yuanji.

Xia Yuanji, the word Weizhe, Hongwu 23 years of the imperial examination, into the province of Zhongshu; In the first year of Jianwen, he was relocated to the right waiter of the household department; In the first year of Yongle, Ming Chengzu (Taizong) succeeded to the throne and served as the secretary of the household department.

Xia Yuanji went through the five dynasties of Hongwu, Jianwen, Yongle, Hongxi and Xuande in his life, and his political achievements were outstanding, whether it was the prosperity of Yongle or the rule of Renxuan, he played an extremely important role.

However, this is only for the history books.

For the officials of the Yongle Dynasty, Xia Yuanji had only one biggest, most significant, and most troublesome feature.

Buckle!

Even in later generations, Xia Yuanji was recognized for his outstanding political achievements, and he was extremely good at financial management, and was even known as an advocate of economic reform in the early Ming Dynasty.

However, generally speaking, there is a feature that financial management is good at that is particularly unpopular, that is, deductions.

For example, in many families in later generations, women were in charge of money, and whenever a man asked for money, most of them said: no.

Only when it is clear that men have to do the right thing and that money is indispensable to spend will women give money happily.

This is actually not a disadvantage, the existence of such a person can make a person who is not very self-controlled save a lot of money, but people will not hesitate to spend it.

Natsuhara is this kind of person.

Whenever an official applies for money and spends money in a certain aspect, Xia Yuanji's first sentence is always no money! And no matter what you want to spend your money on, the first answer will never change.

If you can't get the money, the officials who invited you will naturally not give up, so you can only play it over and over again, and go to Xia Yuanji over and over again.

In this process, Natsuhara will first give you a number that you can't accept, and then increase it little by little.

In the end, for example, when I applied for 1 million taels at the beginning, only 600,000 or even 500,000 taels were approved.

But the money is given, you can't do it, right? In this way, the matter can be done with the least amount of money.

Let's put it this way, the Yongle period has caught up with the frontier of the Xiaoice River period, and there are many natural disasters compared to previous dynasties, and in addition to natural disasters, there are also many uprisings during the Yongle period, it can be said that there will be one every two or three years.

Think about it, in such an environment, it is often necessary to provide disaster relief and suppress peasant uprisings, which is a very large cost.

In addition, the revision of the "Yongle Canon", the relocation of the capital to Shuntian and the letting Zheng He go to the West are even more gold-swallowing monsters.

Under such circumstances, Yongle can still be called a prosperous era, and it is conceivable how much effort Xia Yuanji, who is in charge of the household department, has.

Even if these are put aside, Zhu Di's last sentence before his death in history can prove how important Xia Yuanji is.

The phrase is: Natsuhara Yoshichi loves me.

However, Xia Yuanji's excellence is not a good thing for other officials, especially for Zhu Gaoxu now.

ran four trips to the household department in two days, not counting that Zhu Gaochu would stop Xia Yuanji after every morning court, which really made Zhu Gaochu feel very irritable.

"What are you angry about?"

Zhu Zhanyan said with a smile while pouring tea for his father.

"For Xia Yuanji, it's just his own job, and people are not pure deductions, people want to spend money where they really want to spend."

"What do you mean by the place where the flowers should be? Isn't it a place to spend money on the bereavement of the fallen soldiers? ”

Seeing that his son was also helping Xia Yuanji speak, Zhu Gaoxu immediately exploded.

"Each fallen soldier is given five stones of rice and one horse of hemp, is this number too much? This is the rule set by Emperor Taizu Gao when he founded the country! ”

"I just listened to your opinion so I didn't go too far, and I didn't have the idea of arguing with Xia Yuanji, but he didn't give it at all, who else will charge bravely for Daming in the future!?"

"What's the use of telling me......" Zhu Zhanyan smiled and pushed the teacup in front of his father.

"According to the child's understanding of Xia Yuanji, he shouldn't be such a person, it should be that you are making excessive demands in other aspects, right?"

"Humph! Don't look down on that old button! Zhu Gaoxu snorted disdainfully when he heard this.

"I didn't mention the slightest excessive request, each fallen soldier was given five stones of rice and one horse, this is the rule set by Emperor Taizu Gao in the first year of Hongwu, your father and I didn't dare to increase at all."

"In addition, if the soldiers died on the battlefield, and their parents and wives could not survive independently, the imperial court should take over the burden of raising them, which was the seventh year of Hongwu, and it was also a rule set by Emperor Taizu Gao himself."

"That's it, I haven't said what your grandfather said about distributing food to the young son of the fallen soldier's family every year, if I say it, then Xia Yuanji can't be deducted?"

Zhu Zhanyan listened carefully to what his father said, and finally came to a conclusion: If his father didn't add oil and vinegar, it would indeed not be too much.

As his father said, everything proposed is reasonable, and it is a rule set by Emperor Taizu Gao long ago.

Then it's strange, according to Xia Yuanji's character, it is normal to deduct, but where money should be spent, and the proposed plan is not excessive, so it is still deducted, which is a bit unlike Xia Yuanji.

"Wait a minute......" Zhu Zhanyan suddenly thought of a question.

"Dad, what did he say after you asked Xia Yuanji for money?"

"Humph! What else can be said? Zhu Gaoxu was obviously very disagreeable with Xia Yuanji, and his tone was full of deep dissatisfaction.

"What else can he say besides the words no money? Can you still tell if the flowers are coming or not? ”

"Uh......" Zhu Zhanyan said cautiously with a black line hanging down his head.

"Have you ever thought that it is possible that the household department is really out of money?"

……

Zhu Gaoxu was speechless for a while, and he didn't know what to say.

He really hadn't thought about it.

"You think, the conquest of Annan has been going on for several years, although it has been interrupted in the middle, but it has been intermittent from the fifth year of Yongle to the present, and it can be said that it has not stopped."

"Then there was last year's grandfather's northern tour of Yingtian, which also cost some money, and the King of Shunning, the King of Taiping and the King of Xianyi, who were crowned Wara, also gave Warat a lot of rewards, and went to you Qiufu to lead the army to the north......"

"Finally, there is another point, that is, Ma Bao also set off last year, right? This one also costs money. ”

"So, the child thought, is there a possibility......"

"Of course, what the child said is possible, is the household really out of money?"