Emperor Tianqi is only more than two years older than Gao Jie, and because he reads less, he does not pay attention to the courtesy of monarchs and ministers, plus Gao Jie comes from later generations, unlike people in feudal society, they have the concept of monarchs and ministers, casual and casual, and the two teenagers get together, but they are very deed.

Gao Jie is a clever person, and he has been asking how these exquisite furniture are made and what characteristics they have, and the Emperor of the Apocalypse is full of excitement, and he keeps explaining without the slightest hint of fatigue or impatience. The two of them chatted speculatively, which put Wei Zhongxian and Luo Sigong on the side.

Luo Sigong lacked interest in fighting for power and profit, and he was a martial artist, so he had no ill feelings towards Wei Zhongxian, an illiterate eunuch, and the two of them talked in a low voice while watching Sheng Shang and Gao Jie discuss furniture technology at the door of the room.

Through Zhu Youxiao's introduction, Gao Jie learned a lot about furniture, and also noticed the differences between ancient furniture and modern furniture. Modern furniture pays more attention to packaging, the so-called gold and jade outside, ruined in it, the appearance of the paint is bright and the wood is smooth, in fact, the interior of the furniture is very rough, the wood is not smooth, full of nail traces do not matter. The furniture of the Ming Dynasty is connected with mortise and tenon joints, in fact, it is stronger and more beautiful, every piece of wood must be planed flat and smooth, and each interface must be connected with mortise and tenon joints tightly, and some mortise and tenon joints should be coated with fish maw glue.

The so-called fish maw glue is made of the swim bladder of marine fish, because the sea fish swim bladder is more viscous. The production of fish maw glue needs to go through several processes such as selection, soaking, filtration, and drying. After selecting the swim bladder of the sea fish, the clean swim bladder taken out by the plunium is soaked in warm water for one and a half to two days until the swim bladder is completely softened; the next thing is to smash the swim bladder, as the name suggests, put the soaked swim bladder in the iron helmet, smash it with an iron pestle, and smash it with warm water until it can pull out the sticky wire; after smashing, boil it little by little with a special pot, and then filter it through the copper yarn after boiling, and then take advantage of the fact that the fish bladder glue in the container is not completely solidified, pull it into small strips with a knife, hang it up and dry it, and the fish bladder glue is ready. Ancient craftsmen generally made fish maw glue in autumn or winter. This kind of bladder glue should be soaked in warm water when used, and then boiled for more than 3 hours after soaking before it can be used. Moreover, the consistency of fish maw gum in different seasons is also different, generally according to the principle of "winter to make thin, summer to thicken, spring and autumn to make the future". The biggest benefit of using fish maw glue is that it is natural and environmentally friendly. For hardwood furniture, fish maw glue as an auxiliary to the mortise and tenon structure, can be disassembled and repaired, unlike the current chemical glue, which cannot be opened when glued. It is also better than latex because latex melts when exposed to cold water, while fish maw gum needs to be soaked in hot water to dissolve.

Because the cost of iron nails was too high in ancient times, it was better to use mortise and tenon joints to connect, so the Emperor of the Apocalypse could not even see a single iron nail in these furniture, and the mortise and tenon joints were connected firmly and exquisitely, which was worthy of being an excellent carpenter master.

However, in the process of inquiry, Gao Jie still copied the characteristics of some furniture in later generations, and put forward his own "unique and novel" insights and ideas, from the production of sofas, sliding cabinet doors, to the loose pages on doors and windows, door locks, etc., all of which were drawn on paper one by one and explained their uses. Emperor Apocalypse was inexplicably surprised by these whimsical ideas, and praised him, looking like he had met a soulmate, and hated that he couldn't get to know the magical boy in front of him earlier. Not only was the Emperor of the Apocalypse amazed, but even Wei Zhongxian and Luo Sigong couldn't figure out what the structure of this Gao Jie's brain was, and he was able to come up with so many strange things, and even began to wonder whether his father was a hunter or a carpenter.

Soon more than an hour passed, and the Emperor of the Apocalypse finally thought that there was Luo Sigong waiting, and while suppressing his excitement and inexplicable mood, he said apologetically: "It's all bad to blame me, just talking about these furniture, but leaving Luo Aiqing aside! Xiaojie, let's go, let's go out and talk!" After speaking, he carefully rolled up Gao Jie's hand-painted "masterpiece" and handed it over to Wei Zhongxian for safekeeping, and then took Gao Jie and the others to a room on the second floor to sit down and drink tea.

Gao Jie had a dry mouth chatting with Zhu Youxiao before, and he buried his head in drinking tea at this moment, but Luo Sigong didn't drink tea, and asked respectfully: "I don't know what Your Majesty has to call Weichen to come and say?"

Emperor Apocalypse also drank a cup of tea before he spoke: "Yesterday, Luo Aiqing led Xiaojie and a young man to defeat the Mongolian envoy in the competition, which really greatly boosted the national prestige of my Ming Dynasty, and I was very relieved.

Luo Sigong hurriedly hugged his fists and said: "This is the duty of Weichen, don't dare to take credit!"

Emperor Apocalypse nodded and said: "Luo Aiqing is the elder of my three dynasties, loyal and loyal, and has made countless miraculous achievements, I am clear. I have only been on the throne for two years, and I am young, and many things in the DPRK and China still need Luo Aiqing's help and guidance, I hope to bother more!"

When Luo Sigong heard this, he didn't know what the Emperor of the Apocalypse meant, so he didn't dare to answer easily, and couldn't help but glance at Wei Zhongxian, who was standing aside.

Wei Zhongxian hurriedly smiled and said: "The meaning of the Holy Lord means that if the confrontation between the monarchs and ministers in the court occurs again yesterday, Lord Luo can still firmly support the Holy Lord and uphold the monarch's authority!"

Luo Sigong suddenly knelt on the ground, kowtowed, and said: "Weichen doesn't know the government, he only knows how to be loyal to His Majesty, if you dare to offend Long Wei, you will come forward, please rest assured!"

Zhu Youxiao nodded with satisfaction, and quickly asked Luo Sigong to get up and speak.

When Gao Jie heard this, he couldn't even drink the tea, and looked at Zhu Youxiao in a daze, as if he wanted to reacquaint himself with this so-called "carpentry emperor".

Zhu Youxiao paused for a moment, and then said, "Aiqing, I am drawing up a plan for tax reform, and I want to hear your opinion!"

Luo Sigong said solemnly: "Your Majesty, please make it clear that although Weichen is a martial artist and does not understand government affairs, he will definitely do his best to share the worries of the saint!"

Emperor Apocalypse was relieved: "I have known for a long time, and I have not seen the wrong person. In this way, Wei Dada, you can roughly tell Luo Aiqing about the content of this plan, I just chatted with Xiaojie speculatively, my mouth is dry, let's drink a few more sips of tea first!"

Wei Zhongxian took the order, thought about it, and simply explained a tax reform plan that Emperor Tianqi was secretly preparing.

Gao Jie also listened carefully with his ears, and gradually had a general understanding of the current situation of the Ming treasury and the tax system.

When the Ming Dynasty was founded, it was an economy dominated by agriculture. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's taxation system was completely formulated around agriculture, and almost all the state's expenditures were borne by the peasants. At that time, the distribution of land was relatively fair, and after the war, the population was relatively sparse, and those who were willing to cultivate the land were basically able to find a piece of land to cultivate. Therefore, the country's tax is mainly based on the poll tax, and the cost of collection is low for how many people pay how much tax. However, with the development of the economy, there are two trends, one is land annexation, more and more land in the hands of the royal family and nobles and big landlords, and more and more peasants who have lost their land, at this time and then according to the capitation tax, it will be seriously unfair, many landless peasants have become homeless, not in the household registration book, and they will not pay taxes, at the same time, the big landlords still pay taxes according to the capitation, so that the country's tax revenue has been seriously reduced; the second is that with the vigorous development of handicrafts and commerce, the trade and commerce in the south of the Yangtze River and the southeast coastal areas have become very prosperous, there are more and more giants, and the merchants are very rich in their hands, but there is no commercial tax in the financial system of the Ming Dynasty, or basically not very much. As a result, a large number of wealthy merchants paid little taxes, while the poor peasants had to bear the main tax burden of the state.

The phenomenon of the state treasury not making ends meet made the emperors realize that the tax system must be reformed, so there was a "whip law" carried out by Zhang Juzheng, that is, to re-measure the land of the whole country, collect taxes according to the amount of land occupied, and put all kinds of agricultural taxes on the land, and the treasury was immediately full, but as soon as Zhang Juzheng died, this reform was abolished after the big landlords united with the aristocratic officials of the court and the central government to protest, and the tax was sharply reduced. Later, Emperor Wanli ascended the throne and began to send eunuchs to all parts of the country to collect taxes on various commercial activities, opening a new source of commercial tax, and the Ming treasury was sufficient again.

However, the big landlords and wealthy businessmen naturally did not bow their heads, supported the interests of the spokesman in the imperial court, and opposed the tax reform for two reasons: The first is to "hide the wealth from the people," and the state should not compete with the people for profit, because all the wealth of the country theoretically belongs to the emperor, and what is the difference between the emperor's expropriation and that of the people? The ancestors of the Ming Dynasty formulated a system of taxation only to the peasants. And the spokesperson of the interests they support is the Donglin Party's readers. Most of the Donglin Party members were born in wealthy and noble families, some of them have thousands of acres of fertile land, and some of their families are rich and wealthy giants, and these tax reforms directly infringe on their own interests, so they use these two articles as a theoretical basis to resist the central government's taxation, and their specific methods are mainly two: one is to vigorously publicize the corruption of the eunuchs who levy taxes, and they are not as honest and honest as the Shidafu clique represented by the Donglin Party; the second is to vigorously publicize the introduction of commercial taxes to make the people's livelihood miserable and increase the people's burden. I can't help but admire that the energy of these so-called scholars is really huge, they can not only speak well, but also master the tools of propaganda and speech, so that the commercial tax of Emperor Wanli finally failed.

After Emperor Tianqi ascended the throne, he found that the state treasury was shabby, and he could not even pay the full amount of military salaries to the soldiers at the front, and many soldiers could not eat enough, so how could they resist foreign enemies? It's just that he knows very well that now that the Donglin Party is in control of the cabinet and has six powers, if he wants to really implement it, he may be like sailing against the current, and it will be difficult to reach the sky.

After Wei Zhongxian finished speaking, Gao Jie suddenly realized that his previous feeling was right, this Emperor of the Apocalypse was by no means as simple as it seemed on the surface, he was actually a very thoughtful and ambitious emperor, but his current strength was not enough, and it was not enough to compete with the ministers who controlled the six ministries of the cabinet, so he urgently needed powerful reinforcements and helpers, and Luo Sigong was one of the important people he wooed.

After listening to this, Luo Sigong fell into deep thought, and only after a while did he reappear on the ground and kowtow, and firmly stated: "There is no other minister, only loyalty and courage, the saint has an order, and the minister will never obey!"

Emperor Apocalypse stood up excitedly, stepped forward to personally help Luo Sigong up, and said with relief: "Fortunately, thanks to Luo Aiqing, I can boldly bring out the new and eliminate the old, and rebuild my prosperous Ming Dynasty!"

Wei Zhongxian's voice was choked, tears were in his eyes, and he said sincerely: "It's not easy to be a saint, it's not easy!"

Emperor Apocalypse smiled slightly, turned around and patted him on the shoulder and said, "Wei Dada, it's not easy for me, but it's even more difficult for you!"

When Gao Jie heard this, he was shocked, as if he had figured out something, and then looked at Wei Zhongxian's eyes and finally no longer had any vigilance, but were full of respect.

Emperor Apocalypse sat down again, looked at Gao Jie and said with a smile: "However, this plan must not be rushed, it must be planned slowly, and the time is not right, and it must not be leaked, so as not to cause accidents! Xiaojie, do you understand?"

When Gao Jie heard Zhu Youxiao's question, he immediately understood what he meant, and hurriedly replied: "Xiaojie understands that the emperor's business is my business, if it weren't for my young age and lack of knowledge, I would definitely do my best to help!"

Emperor Tianqi smiled: "I haven't read many books, Wei Da is even more illiterate, Xiaojie, you are from a poor background, I am afraid that you have never gone to private school, in the eyes of some people, we are like their puppet playthings, even if I am today, I may not be put in their eyes!

Gao Jie chuckled lightly and said: "Xiao Jie thinks that the most important thing for a person is not whether he has read a book or not, but whether he has good thoughts in his heart, and whether he is willing to seek well-being for the common people in the world! A scholar doctor who is full of wealth but only values self-interest, in Xiao Jie's eyes, is not as good as a farmer who works diligently in the fields! Therefore, Your Majesty must not take himself lightly, you just need to grasp the general direction, find the right useful person, and then be like the helmsman of a big ship, take care of the rudder, and the other things will be handled for you by your own courtiers!"

Emperor Tianqi slapped the arm of the chair in surprise and praised loudly: "Well said! Xiao Jie's words are very similar to Wei Dada's meaning, as a king, you should do the duty of a king, as long as there are capable courtiers around you, the specific things will be handled by them!"

Gao Jie clapped his hands and said: "This is extremely true! Your Majesty is an outstanding son of heaven, Xiao Jie admires! If everything is done by Your Majesty, even if you are as powerful as Guanyin with a thousand hands, it is difficult for you to be thorough in everything!" After speaking, he looked directly at Zhu Youxiao and said seriously: "In fact, in any country, there is the same phenomenon, and the vast majority of wealth is concentrated in the hands of a very small number of people. The people's hearts are like water, water can carry boats and overturn boats, these people at the bottom will not have to worry about food and clothing, society will be stable, and the prosperous era will come! Although Xiaojie does not understand the emperor's tax reform plan, he can feel His Majesty's heart of being close to the people and loving the people!"

Gao Jie's impromptu words suddenly shocked the three people present and stood on the spot, and there was silence in the room.