When night falls, the Qianqing Palace appears to be brightly lit.

A skinny and beautiful palace maid tiptoed out of the East Warm Pavilion and was about to go to prepare new sandalwood, when she met a girl with a cat hugging a little song.

"Sister Mengmeng, where did you just go?"

"I'm going to the queen's house, what's wrong?"

Niu Mengmeng's figure has slowly grown, a cute and beautiful goose egg face, and a faint beauty mole at the corner of his mouth, which still looks very lively.

Luck, it's a very mysterious thing.

Niu Mengmeng relied on his strong luck, and now he has been promoted from the palace maid in charge of the Dongnuan Pavilion to the palace maid in charge of the Qianqing Palace, even if he is already a famous person in the entire palace.

"Your Majesty just asked where you are, Your Majesty may be looking for you!"

"Huh? Okay, I got it! ”

Niu Mengmeng was startled at first, then nodded heavily, then reached out and patted the restless tiger in his arms, and then hurriedly walked towards the Dongnuan Pavilion.

Although she has become the palace maid in charge of the Qianqing Palace, she still raises cats for the emperor part-time, so she often has to go out with the cat for a while.

The special queen and the two concubines both have cats, and she needs to often bring the little tiger over to play with the cats of her compatriots, so the range of activities is very large.

For the entire Forbidden City, the Qianqing Palace is actually a small kingdom.

Except for the emperor and a few eunuchs and palace maids with heads and faces, the rest of the eunuchs and palace maids could only live in this large courtyard almost every day, and their only mission was to take care of the emperor's daily life.

Dozens of eunuchs and palace maids have a hierarchical order, and they are waiting for Zhu Youzhu recently, and there are not many eunuchs and palace maids who can enter the Dongnuan Pavilion.

The floor heating under the East Warm Pavilion has been quietly running, the lights in the room are on, and wisps of faint sandalwood are curling up from the copper furnace.

Zhu Youzhu is far from the age of growing a beard, but now he deliberately retains a few sparse beards under his chin, and reads information from all over the country here after taking a bath as usual.

Although officials from the two capitals and thirteen provinces have sent them up, in this era of good news but not bad news, many things are destined not to be reported truthfully, and even the emperor is difficult to see the whole picture.

Fortunately, the intelligence system has become more sophisticated, giving me a more complete picture of what is happening in the local area.

Zhu Youzhi usually gives priority to reading the situation overseas, but recently the East China Sea and the South China Sea have been relatively calm, but there is a bit of turmoil in various places, especially the endless bandits in some areas.

Although the Ming Dynasty ruled over the two capitals and thirteen provinces, some provinces were located in remote areas, and there were always some evil forces. Like the Tusi problem in the southwest, it is actually the result of a compromise between the imperial court and the evil forces.

As for the bandits in some remote areas, they are somewhat similar to the situation in southern Gansu, and they are often the inevitable product of regional barrenness and government corruption.

After all, it is impossible to be a water town in the south of the Yangtze River everywhere, and once you encounter a barren place to support a parent official who wants to make money, there will often be a group of people who can't survive.

Zhu Youzhu knows that this kind of problem is actually difficult to solve, even if the productive forces of later generations can appear "hidden in the dust" of sadness, and today's productive forces cannot guarantee that everyone is fed.

Even in this period of relative peace, there was actually no shortage of turbulent areas in the Ming Dynasty, and although Gannan had been properly resolved, the most concerned at the moment was the peasant rebellion led by Ye Wanggang, which began in the twentieth year of Chenghua.

This force appeared in the 20th year of Chenghua, and then traveled to many places, from the original Kuizhou and Xinning in Sichuan, to Zhushan and Zhuxi in Huguang, and then to the Sichuan-Shaanxi border such as Hanzhong and Pingli in Shaanxi.

Last month, the matter was finally resolved.

Ye Wang Gang led his troops over Daba Mountain to frantically rob Pingli, Zhushan and other counties, and was arrested by the soldiers of Sichuan and Shaanxi under the command of Dai Shan, the governor of Yunyang, resulting in Ye Wang Gang and more than 1,000 bandits arrested.

Although it is true that in some areas, local officials and gentry have oppressed the people, but the Ming Dynasty as a whole has not been completely corrupted, and the defeat of Ye Wanggang has long been doomed.

Even though it has been many years since Ye Wang Gang rebelled, Ye Wang Gang's subordinates have actually not increased but decreased, and it is actually a matter of time before they finally go to destruction.

Originally, with Ye Wang Gang and all his subordinates arrested, this matter had already been settled, and it would not attract Zhu Youji's special attention.

It's just that after this matter was completed, Dai Shan, the governor of Xunyang, only asked the imperial court to execute the bandit leader Ye Wanggang in the book of crimes, and the rest of the troops were punished with coercion.

According to Dai Shan's handling method, this time only Ye Wang Gang was executed, and the other more than 1,000 people were only sentenced to one charge of coercion.

An accessory to coercion refers to a criminal who is coerced into participating in a criminal activity. In view of the fact that coerced accomplices are not willing, have scruples, and are often forced to engage in criminal activities, the coercive accomplices are given lenient punishments.

Zhu Youzhu has never been a bloodthirsty king, if he can not kill, then the result of this treatment is actually acceptable.

It's just that this force, which has lasted for so long, cannot be self-sufficient in the supply of food alone, and where can these "military rations" come from?

What's more, the robbery of Pingli, Zhushan and other counties this time, it was recorded in the report that many people died under the knife of this rebel army, but it made him wonder.

Although in the original history, Dai Shan was a virtuous minister on a par with Liu Daxia and other gentlemen, he wanted to know the whole beginning and end of the counterinsurgency incident, and whether Dai Shan, a courtier, was a military talent or a pedantic official.

It is precisely because of this that he did not immediately adopt Dai Shan's method of disposal, and also suppressed several copies of the performance for Dai Shan, but he specially ordered the Sichuan side to conduct a secret investigation.

The lights at the entrance flickered gently, and a girl with a cat in her arms came in from the outside.

Meow!

When Huzi saw Zhu Youji, he seemed to be well-behaved and spiritually screamed.

Zhu Youzhu gently put down the secret report from Sichuan, looked up and saw his pet appear, so he motioned Niu Mengmeng to send his pet over.

In the original history, it was Dai Shan who solved the Yewanggang rebellion, and because of this merit, he was promoted to the squire of the Criminal Department in one fell swoop, and then formed the mainstay of the Ming Dynasty with Liu Daxia, Ma Wensheng, Liu Jian, Xu Pu and others.

According to the evaluation of history, this kind of virtuous minister is undoubtedly to be reused.

Zhu Youzhu stroked the cat slowly, his eyes stayed on the information sent by Sichuan, but there was no joy in his heart, and he was thinking about things silently.

As an emperor, he is not afraid that the courtiers below will form gangs and factions against him, but he is afraid that the courtiers below will be difficult to distinguish between loyalty and treachery.

"Your Majesty!"

"What's the matter?"

"Slave maid...... It's okay! ”

Niu Mengmeng thought that Zhu Youzhu was looking for him, so he said hello tentatively, but found that he seemed to be thinking too much, and couldn't help but spit out his pink tongue secretly.

Zhu Youzhu found that this woman seemed inexplicable, but he suddenly remembered something: "The day before yesterday, you said that the palace maid of Qingning Palace suddenly came to you to cry?" ”

"That's right! The slave maid didn't pay attention to her, she was a palace maid, and the slave maid was also a palace maid. No matter how much the Empress Dowager Zhou bullied her, slave ...... What can the slave and maid do, the slave and maid have been in the palace for so long, and they haven't heard any palace people dare to arrange the rights and wrongs of their masters, so the slave and maid feel that this thing is a bit weird! Niu Mengmeng said his judgment seriously.

Don't look at her usual smugness, but in fact, she is quite careful and very sensitive to some potential crises.

Hey?

Liu Jin's brows frowned slightly, and he looked at Niu Mengmeng, who liked to talk about things, with complicated eyes.

He didn't think there could be anything here, people had been wronged in Qingning Palace, and it was reasonable to complain to you, the red man around the emperor, right?

Zhu Youzhu believed in Niu Mengmeng's sixth sense, so he told Liu Jin next to him seriously: "You send someone to investigate this palace maid and check if there is anything abnormal!" ”

"Slaves obey!" Although Liu Jin didn't think there was anything wrong with things, he still said respectfully.

Zhu Youzhu returned the cat to Niu Mengmeng to take care of, and after thinking for a long time, he finally had to make a decision, so he made a new instruction on the secret decree to the officials: "Dai Shan, the governor of Yunyang, has made meritorious efforts to eliminate the traitors of Ye Wanggang, and has been promoted to the right attendant of the Nanjing Criminal Department!" ”

The governor of Yunyang was an official position established during the Chenghua period, stationed in Yunxian County, Yunyang Prefecture, and later evolved into a military and civilian position in charge of the military and civilian affairs of the five provinces and eight prefectures in the adjacent areas of Hubei, Henan, Sichuan and Shaanxi.

Now he has been changed from a governor in charge of the military and political affairs of a large region to the right attendant of the Nanjing Criminal Department, which seems to be an official position, but in fact it is a typical bright rise and secret demotion.

Zhu Youzhi knew that he had ruined the career of a historical virtuous minister with his own hands, but Dai Shan's methods of doing things this time were very gentlemanly, but he was not satisfied.

The reason why Savage Gang was able to lead the peasants to rebel was naturally unable to rely only on personal force and a slogan, and he must still have his own personality charm.

In the face of the encirclement of the Ming army, the wild man actually knew that he was at the end of his rope, so he made a gentleman's appointment with the supreme commander Dai Shan.

Dai Shan was indeed a gentleman, and after the incident, he only held Savage Gang accountable for his crimes, and did not pursue the other instigated people and Savage Gang's loyal subordinates.

Although an accomplice is also guilty of a crime, the punishment is greatly weakened, and some people can even be sent home with a beating.

Zhu Youzhu knew that no matter how good the starting point of the rebels was, in order to solve their own food and clothing, they would not only loot the people's property, but also probably kill people in the process of looting, and some people even took pleasure in killing people.

He believed that some of the people might be coerced accomplices, but Ye Wanggang's old department had become bad people even if they were good people, so Dai Shan's disposition actually smelled of compromise.

Zhu Youzhu didn't like this way of solving the problem, and even the famous virtuous ministers in history decided to abandon this kind of good man and gentleman.

There are also some drawbacks to the large territory, after all, the capital and Sichuan are separated by thousands of rivers and mountains, so it is difficult to convey the will smoothly if you want to correct the error.

Now it is likely that there are people who have been coerced into it, and now Dai Shan can't properly handle this matter, and he can't overdo it, but he has no choice but to acquiesce in Dai Shan's conviction plan: "Anyone who has followed the wild man for just a month will be sent to the river to serve as a servant to atone for their sins; Whoever has followed the savages for more than a year will be punished again! ”

Although millions of victims in Henan have been resettled in Jianzhou, the Yellow River's dam burst has inevitably caused some changes in the course of the river, which has directly affected the canal, so it is now necessary to spend a lot of effort to control the river.

Even if Zhu Youzhu wanted to use more than 1,000 servants as servants, it is estimated that as many as 300,000 servants will be used in the latest river repair project.

In fact, whether it is Dai Shan or Ye Wanggang, it is actually a small problem of the Ming Dynasty, and the biggest problem today is always the finance of the Ming Dynasty.

300,000 people is not only a number of personnel, but also a huge expense.

Since Taizu implemented a thirty tax and one tax, and he did not plan to levy and levy more, it was destined to be difficult for the empire's financial revenue to grow rapidly all at once.

Although the revenue from the salt administration and grain tax has increased a lot, it is only that last year it fought the Li Dynasty in Annam, and this year it has launched a heavy attack on Jianzhou, spending a lot of military expenditure, but it still has to control the Yellow River.

Zhu Youzhu was really in this era, running the country as an emperor, and only then did he realize that the Internet he saw in the early days was a lie.

The financial problem is far more complicated than imagined, but it is not a small amount of money that can be made with a shake of wisdom, but various expenditures are still emerging one after another.

If there is no disaster in the Yellow River, I am afraid that there will be other disasters as well, and it is difficult for an empire to increase its revenue, but there are countless places that want you to spend money.

In the future, for example, an unexpected infectious disease is enough to empty the local finances, not to mention that there are still too many needs of the people to be solved.

Although Daming successfully recovered Jianzhou, it still took many years of operation to build a state to generate economic benefits and let Jianzhou bring income to Daming's finances.

Nowadays, it takes money to build a state, and it takes money to control the Yellow River, and the clans, civil and military officials, and relatives also need to distribute Lu rice every year.

Seeing the end of the second year of Hongzhi, Zhu Youzhu knew that he was looking forward to the third year of Hongzhi.

Although several major things have been done this year, the financial problems have not been completely resolved, but have become more serious.

Zhu Youzhu knows that the best solution is to turn on the money printing machine, but if he wants to take this step, he can't naively think that such a whimsical development is enough, but it needs to have the thinking of equivalent exchange.

Faced with the most urgent financial problems of the Ming court, after repeatedly flipping a large circle of the map, he did not limit his eyes to the country, but set his sights on the east side of the South Seas.

Unlike the agrarian countries of Indochina to the west, this is mainly an island country that lives on fishing and hunting, and the state here mostly exists in the form of tribes.

Zhu Youzhi knows that if he wants to open up the situation in the east of Nanyang, he needs to find a suitable talent, and he also needs to find a suitable reason or opportunity to intervene.

As the night wore on, it was time for the emperor to go to bed.

Zhu Youzhu was not very interested in the territory, and always cared about economic plunder, so he knew that the relationship between Nanyang and Nanyang still had to set up a Nanyang company.

It's just that when he saw that it was late, he ended the business at hand, and then returned to the residence behind the East Warm Pavilion, and when he saw the bed, he suddenly had a surprise that his heartbeat increased.

(End of chapter)