Early in the morning of June 17th.

Zhou Chen took Weng Shizi, the right attendant of the Ministry of Industry, to inspect the outer city of Beijing. Zhou Chen instructed everything that should be instructed inside and out.

The more Weng Shizi listened, the more he felt like he was explaining the future.

Zhou Chen smiled: "I'm over seventy, if nothing happens, I will never come back to the capital after leaving."

Another secretary of the Ministry of Works, Xu Youzhen, and Li Shulin, the left attendant of the Ministry of Works, are far away in Annan, and they will not be able to come back for a while, and the Ministry of Industry will be handed over to you in the future. ”

Weng Shizi replied: "The saint is really a little unsympathetic, why not let Lao Shangshu stay in Beijing safely, but he will be transferred to Nanjing to work hard." ”

Zhou Chen smiled and waved his hand: "You don't understand, the Holy Lord knows me, and it is a great favor to transfer me to Nanjing."

When I was young, I was also a conceited and talented person, but I stayed in the Ministry of Industry for 20 years, and no one appreciated me, let alone able to fulfill my ambitions.

Until the fifth year of Xuande, when I was fifty years old, I was recommended by Yang Rong and promoted to the right waiter of the Ministry of Industry, which is your current position, and then went to the governorship of Jiangnan Zhufu as a waiter, and the governor of taxes and grain.

After more than ten years as governor of the south, I carried out a series of tax reforms and salt law reforms. Because of the change of the law, he has been impeached many times and hindered everywhere. The policies that have been implemented have been repeatedly abolished.

The Holy Lord sent me to Nanjing this time so that I could complete the changes that year.

Although I only have a few years left to live, this time the Holy Lord has delegated power, but no one can restrain me. ”

When Weng Shizi heard this, he knew it. When it comes to the governors of Xuande and Yuanzhen, Zhou Chen's political achievements are second to none, which is also today's public opinion.

It is also a great blessing in life to be able to completely complete the changes in the past few years, so as to leave a name in history, and no regrets.

Weng Shizi was a seven-year jinshi of Yuanzhen, and was initially awarded the position of head of the household department. At the beginning, Weng Shizi's favorite thing to do was to consult old files, on the one hand, to broaden his horizons, and on the other hand, to explore the pros and cons of political affairs.

For Zhou Chen's reform in Jiangnan, Weng Shizi has studied a lot. Those reforms can be called small-scale changes.

A tax reform and a salt law reform are all hard bones in the hard bones, and they are very difficult to gnaw.

Zhou Chen regarded Weng Shizi as the successor of the Ministry of Industry, and instructed earnestly: "Zifu, the Ministry of Industry has three major events in Beijing: minting money, building armor, and making artillery guns.

In particular, coinage must be done well and no mistakes can be made.

As long as these three things are done well, there will be no major problems. I will recommend you to the Holy Lord to succeed Shangshu. ”

As the two walked, they said that they had made a big tour of the factories of the Ministry of Industry in the outer city.

Weng Shizi is in his prime, but it's nothing, but Zhou Chen is a little unbearable.

Weng Shizi proposed: "Old Shangshu, there is a morning market ahead, let's go eat something." ”

Zhou Chen didn't support it, and came to the morning market with Weng Shizi. By this time, it was past the meal, and there were not many diners.

After walking a few steps, a vendor came up to greet him enthusiastically, and the two sat down in front of the rice stall and ordered two bowls of wontons and a meatloaf.

The high-ranking officials of the second and third grades are rarely so down-to-earth on weekdays.

Weng Shizi asked, "Little brother, how is your business?" ”

The peddler replied enthusiastically: "Huike officer, the little cheap surname is Li, and he has been doing small business in the capital for more than ten years.

In recent years, this business has done a lot better. There are more and more craftsmen in the outer city, and a morning market has been built here in Shuncheonfu, where we can set up stalls as long as we pay a monthly rent.

You are looking at the lack of people now because it is past the meal. We make these ravioli, meatloaf in the morning; Stewed pork and pork ribs for lunch and dinner, two pigs a day. ”

Weng Shizi asked again: "In addition to the more guests, what has changed from previous years?" ”

When the peddler heard this, he immediately opened the conversation: "That change is a big deal, in the past, these ingredients were brought in, and they had to pay taxes at the city gate.

One pig will receive twenty-five wen, and two pigs will be fifty wen. This month, we have to pay 1,500 yuan in taxes just to buy pigs.

If you exchange this for silver, that's more than one or two.

The Holy One was sympathetic to the people and loved the people like a son, and exempted this tax and silver.

With the tax money for buying pigs alone, we saved more than fifteen taels of silver a year.

Taxes on groceries, noodles, and ingredients are saved. Add all of these together, and after the Holy Lord's tax exemption, our family can save an extra twenty taels of silver every year.

With this money, the villain's son will have a wife and children in the future, which is really a great grace of the emperor. ”

Zhou Chen and Weng Shizi nodded with a smile, and Weng Shizi asked again: "Is there still a treasure banknote now?" Are copper coins minted in the imperial court easy to use? ”

When the peddler heard this, he clapped his hands and replied happily: "Guest officer, you can be regarded as asking, the Holy Lord's coinage is a great good government."

You see, we charge you three cents for a bowl of ravioli, and five cents for a meatloaf. Two bowls of wontons and one meatloaf, a total of eleven texts.

There are five kinds of copper coins in the imperial court: small flat money, two money, three money, five money, and ten money.

You can give eleven small flat coins, or you can give one as ten coins, plus a small flat coin.

In this way, it is very convenient for both buyers and sellers.

The most important thing is that we can save this money directly at home or exchange it for silver coins.

For example, if you save 20 taels of silver this year and take it out next year, it will still be worth it.

But it's not the same with treasure money, you save 200 treasure money, for example, it can buy two stone rice. After a year, if you take out these two hundred treasure bills, it will only be able to buy one stone of rice.

No matter how much money I earned before, I couldn't save it, and it kept depreciating, making people unable to even sleep.

Now that the saint has replaced the treasure money with copper coins and silver coins, the villain can finally sleep peacefully, and no longer have to worry about waking up, and the treasure money has become even less valuable.

My Emperor Shengming, the villain bows to the prosperous age, which is really a blessing from ten lifetimes of cultivation. ”

Zhou Chen and Weng Shizi nodded in agreement, and followed the hawker to praise the emperor.

Especially Zhou Chen, I am very gratified that the Ministry of Industry has worked hard to make money over the years, and it is still quite effective. When the time comes, he will also be able to touch the light of the saint and leave another mark in the history books.

……

In the Qingliang Palace, Zhu Qiyu sat up from the bed almost noon.

This emperor should come and go, and Zhu Qiyu is more and more convinced of Li Shimin's theory of vertical arch rule.

If there is any work for the ministers to do, the emperor is only responsible for the central regulation.

Regardless of whether Li Shimin really ruled back then, anyway, Zhu Qiyu must firmly believe that he really did it.

Once the theory of vertical arching is untenable, then Zhu Qiyu himself can compete for the second person in the lazy government among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

The first person in lazy politics is Wanli, and no one can compete for this. Zhu Qiyu's opponent was the carpenter emperor Zhu Youxiao.

Zhu Qiyu asked himself, my ridiculous emperor is really not much more diligent than Zhu Youxiao, the carpenter emperor.

Seeing Zhu Qiyu get up, Qianxue hurriedly handed over the joint recital of the cabinet and Honglu Temple: "Husband, take a look, the peace regulations with the Kamakura shogunate have been drafted. ”

Zhu Qiyu's eyes widened and asked curiously, "What does it mean that it is drafted?" ”

Qianxue's eyes widened, and she replied curiously: "Drafted means drafted, Xu Wenfang can understand this kind of words, what are you so surprised about?" ”

"I just finished talking with the envoy yesterday, and today you told me that it was drafted?"

"Whether it's the envoy of the Muromachi Shogunate or the envoy of the Kamakura Shogunate, they're all in a hurry. The envoys of the Kamakura shogunate were in a hurry to reach a peace agreement and then go back to buy grain.

The envoy of the Muromachi shogunate was in a hurry to return to report the news, so that Ashikaga Yoshimasa could prepare for a decisive battle as soon as possible.

The envoys of both sides are urging, hoping that the husband will approve the peace agreement today, and then the envoys of the two sides will leave Beijing together today and return by boat. ”

Zhu Qiyu read the peace agreement carefully, and then nodded: "Then the edict will be approved." ”

(End of chapter)