"That's it?"

"That's all..."

In Xu Qin Palace, Zhu Youjian was in a daze holding the account book sent by Wang Chengen.

He thought of many ways to pay taxes next year, and finally decided to start with Yumajian. After all, Yumajian still had quite a lot of pasture land.

However, he waited for another half month, and only after the national funeral was over, did Wang Chengen deliver the account book to him.

Originally he thought his family was rich, but after seeing the various pastures and acres in the ledger, he instantly didn't know what to say.

"There are 424,600 acres of pasture, 687,423 acres of fields, and 1,465,520 acres of Huangzhuang..."

Zhu Youjian murmured the various Royal Horse Supervisor data in the account book, and wanted to slam the table in anger.

He was not the Qi Control Horse Supervisor, but thought of another department that was also responsible for raising horses, Taipu Temple...

It also raises horses. The Royal Horse Supervisor nourishes horses for Si Weiyi, while Taipu Temple is a horse breeding institution run by the imperial court.

Horse administration was a national event in ancient feudal dynasties, and horses were an important military weapon. Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Youjian's ancestor, once said: "Horse administration is the most important thing of the country."

Xia Yan, the chief minister of the cabinet during the Jiajing period, also said: "The important affairs of the country depend on the army, and the important affairs of the army depend on the horses."

Taipu Temple, like the Royal Horse Prison, not only raises horses, but also makes money.

As one of the important sources of national finance in the Ming Dynasty, Taipu Temple held a large amount of national financial resources for the purpose of managing horse affairs. Since the fourth year of Chenghua, it has built a warehouse specifically to reserve fiscal revenue "horse price silver"...

Chang Ying Ku.

After the mid-Ming Dynasty, with the reform of "taxes and services in exchange for silver" and the development of silver monetization, the financial resources controlled by Taipu Temple were also converted into silver income.

Therefore, starting from the Longqing period, Taipu Temple's horse administration system gradually changed from physical management to monetary management.

The originally simple horse administration agency also derived the function of financial management, which also has the nature of a financial agency.

If Zhu Youjian remembers correctly, during the Hongzhi period, Taipu Temple had more than 680,000 horse breeders and more than 16 million acres of farmland.

However, for Taipu Temple, which had ten times the amount of fields as Yumajian, Zhu Youjian remembered that the highest tax payment per year was only 780,000 taels, and during the Wanli period, it was only more than 400,000 taels all year round.

This amount is not as good as the Royal Horse Supervisor in Zhu Youjian's hands, so it is not difficult to imagine how greedy these guys are!

Zhu Youjian was so angry that he wished he could take the people from the Royal Horse Prison to raid the Taipu Temple. Maybe they could get a few million taels.

But this kind of thinking is just thinking about it, but it is impossible to do it.

There was no other way, so he could only hold his breath and ask Wang Chengen: "Are all the raided mansions sold out?"

"Sold part of it and got 48,600 taels of silver. There are still 218,600 taels in the imperial horse prison treasury."

"More than two hundred thousand taels..." Zhu Youjian was a little depressed. He couldn't do anything with this little money.

Thinking like this, Zhu Youjian could only stand up and said: "Let's go to the Ministry of Industry and see how they want to build the imperial mausoleum."

"Yes." Upon seeing this, Wang Chengen quickly asked someone to arrange a carriage.

After all, it is a national mourning, and elephant carriages are not allowed to be used, but horse-drawn carriages and human-powered sedan chairs are still allowed.

Soon the eunuchs and royal guards of Xu Qin Palace were ready, and Zhu Youjian also got on the carriage, preparing to go to the Ministry of Industry outside the imperial city.

Although the prince's trip is a national mourning event, the pomp and ceremony still needs to be taken care of.

Fifty royal guards wearing crimson costumes with wild goose feather sabers on their waists stood guard on both sides of the carriage. Wang Chengen personally inspected the carriage for Zhu You.

Soon, they walked out of the Ciqing Gate of the East Palace. After being checked by the Huben left guard on duty in the East Palace, they were let go after their waistbands were checked.

At this time, a large square and high walls came into Zhu Youjian's sight.

He glanced at the high wall of the Forbidden City, and then glanced at the Wenhua Hall not far away, thinking that his dear brother was still attending classes at the Wenhua Hall.

He closed the window and sat in the rickety carriage for a few minutes. After a while, the carriage stopped.

When he opened the car window and took a look, the general on duty at Donghua Gate who was about to inspect was immediately startled and quickly compiled:

"The general didn't know that His Highness Five was out of the palace, so I offended His Highness. Please forgive me."

"It's okay, hurry up and check. I'm still waiting to leave the palace and go to the Ministry of Industry." Zhu Youjian didn't care. The stricter the inspection, the more comfortable he would be living in the palace.

When the general on duty saw this, he quickly checked the token and let people go.

Zhu Youjian's carriage quickly walked out of Donghua Gate and onto the street.

At this time, there began to be some fireworks, but those who lived around the imperial city were all official residences, so there was nothing to see.

The pomp and circumstance of Zhu Youjian's trip can be said to be grand during the national mourning period. People walking on the street couldn't help but look at them.

During the late Ming Dynasty, the people no longer paid much attention to the etiquette stipulated by the imperial court, but Zhu Youjian did not care, but looked at these people.

They were not as skinny as firewood and in rags as in the photos of the late Qing Dynasty. On the contrary, some of the people carrying firewood and pushing carts were all well-dressed.

Even if they are not new clothes, they have been washed carefully.

All this is because the severe drought in Xiaoglacier has not yet come. In the current Ming Dynasty, people can still survive even in the remote northwest and southwest regions.

Zhu You interrogated a palace maid from Yunnan. According to her, in some counties in Yunnan, one can earn fifteen or six cents for a day's work.

Fifteen or six cents can buy two catties of rice, half a catty of beef and mutton, and still have two or three cents left at the end, which is really good.

Similar to the capital city, whether it is Shuntian Mansion or Yingtian Mansion, the salary is about thirty cash per day, and the maids and eunuchs who work for the royal family can occasionally get fifty or sixty cash.

Although prices are a bit higher than in Yunnan, they are not much higher.

Zhu Youjian became interested and asked a uniformed guard general: "Hey!"

"His Royal Highness is called humble?" Zongqi was stunned for a moment, and quickly walked away while compiling a response.

"Well, let me ask you something." Zhu Youjian said with a smile:

"What are the current prices in this capital? Is your salary enough to live on?"

"Um...this..." Zongqi smiled bitterly and returned to Zhu Youjian:

"Back to Your Highness, if we, the Imperial Guards, take the humble position of serving as the Commander-in-Chief, and are of the seventh rank, we can receive a salary of eighty stones a year, which can be converted into about forty taels of silver."

"Forty taels a year, the monthly salary is 3 taels and 3 qian."

"For example, there are six people in Beizhi's family. Only one person, Beizhi, works for the court. My father and his brother barely make a living on two acres of Susukino fields."

"This monthly salary of three taels of silver will be enough for someone in a humble position as long as they don't look for flowers."

"Right now, a pound of rice costs 4 Wen in the capital. A pound of top-quality pork only costs 20 Wen, top-quality mutton only 15 Wen, beef 16 Wen, and a live chicken only 40 Wen."
Chapter completed!