"Cousin, it stands to reason that the father will be back soon, right?" Zhu Gaochi asked in a low voice.
Xu Jingchang smiled happily, "I received a letter from home yesterday, and my wife left a small footprint on the back. It's small and very cute."
"Little footprints? My godson's?"
Xu Jingchang immediately widened his eyes and said warily: "What did you say? I'm telling you, don't covet my family. If you have the ability, give birth to her yourself!"
Zhu Gaochi hummed: "Let's give birth to each other. I already have five, and I'm not greedy for yours. I'm just a little worried, afraid that you won't be able to teach me."
Xu Jingchang stopped being fooled, "If you are afraid, take Zhu Zhanji away and don't let him learn from me. Wouldn't it be better to find a better master?"
This time Zhu Gaochi had nothing to say. He was pinched and could only say: "Father is happy and happy, and the country's prestige has greatly increased... I think he must be satisfied and triumphant."
, I can live a more honest life."
Xu Jingchang blinked and said nothing. Zhu Gaochi continued: "As long as my father doesn't make trouble and doesn't cause us trouble, we can be more stable, don't you think?"
Xu Jingchang chuckled twice but still didn't say anything.
Old children, young children, Zhu Di is really the most difficult child to take care of. It is a bit difficult to expect him to be honest.
Zhu Gaochi also understood this. He scratched his head in distress, "Cousin, can you guess what my father will do next?"
Xu Jingchang finally chuckled: "I'm not a roundworm in His Majesty's belly, how can I know what he's thinking?"
Zhu Gaochi said: "I don't want you to know, I want you to guess. Just tell me, what will my father do?"
Xu Jingchang said: "Now I only know that Zhu Gaosui follows His Majesty all day long, and Zhu Gaosui keeps saying good things about the farm in the newspapers. As for what will happen next, I don't know."
Zhu Gaochi was also troubled this time, "I asked you just because I knew about this. The second and third sons are as bad as you. If they encourage my father and cause something to happen, I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it."
Stay!"
Xu Jingchang snorted, "That's your family's business, it has nothing to do with me."
Zhu Gaochi was anxious, "I said, surnamed Xu, aren't we a family? Don't go too far. You are also the general envoy now, and you are still a first-class official. You can't avoid things in the court. What if my father makes trouble?
If anything happens, you must shoulder it with me!"
Xu Jingchang sighed helplessly. In fact, he could guess what Zhu Di could do. It was not difficult.
The hard part is how to pretend to be confused!
For example, in his hand, there is a letter from Xia Yuanji... Although Lao Xia hates Xu Jingchang, especially the tax zone system, it makes Xia Yuanji grit his teeth. But when something fatal happens, Lao Xia still has to inform Xu Jingchang
One sound.
Because without this letter, if something happened later, Xu Jingchang would be able to hide completely.
"Your Highness, how is your relationship with the Crown Princess?"
Zhu Gaochi was startled, "What's going on? We are loving each other, so everything is fine! Don't you know that the three generations of our Zhu family are all affectionate and righteous. We can learn from it every day."
Xu Jingchang looked at Zhu Dazhuang seriously. Although he was confused, he couldn't say anything. He just said, "Does the princess have any business in her family? Or what is she running?"
Zhu Gaochi was a little cautious, fearing that something bad would happen.
But when Xu Jingchang asked, he still said honestly: "Her family runs a silk workshop, but it's not as big as the second family's. It only has a thousand looms... What do you want to do?"
"No, I don't want to do anything... I just want to remind you that you can do business and make money, but don't go against the government and pay attention to the direction of the wind to avoid falling into it."
Zhu Gaochi was puzzled and asked: "Tell me the truth, what is going on?"
Xu Jingchang shook his head, "I can't say too much, but it's better to be careful."
Zhu Gaochi thought about it again and again, and when he saw that Xu Jingchang would definitely not say anything, he had no choice but to say goodbye and leave.
After returning home, he found his wife, and the couple got together to discuss it carefully... Zhang was indeed a hero among women. She listened carefully and kept analyzing.
The second and third sons circle around Zhu Di, and what they can do will naturally be beneficial to them.
And Xu Jingchang can keep this matter secret, which shows that the matter is very big and the consequences are unimaginable.
"Your Highness, what's the saying? It's called being strong without desire. In the worst case, I'll let the head of the family stop the business and sell it at a reduced price... If the second brother wants it, give it to him."
Zhu Gaochi was shocked, "How can you take advantage of him?"
Mrs. Zhang chuckled and said: "Whatever is cheap or not, we are all a family anyway. As the eldest brother, it's okay to suffer a little loss. As for me, you don't have to worry about me."
Zhu Gaochi frowned, "What are you talking about! If I can't even take care of your family, how can I stand in court with dignity?"
When Mrs. Zhang heard this, she actually laughed, "Your Highness has this intention, that's enough. Whether it's a loss or not, in the long run, I don't care. And I'm thinking that Duke Dingguo has always been a shrewd person. If it's true,
No, he should find a way to stop the father. He has no intention of doing so now. Instead, he reminds us to be wise and protect ourselves. I guess he wants to watch the excitement. But what I said may not be right. His Highness can just think about it for himself."
Zhu Gaochi was suddenly startled. He thought for a long time and patted his forehead hard.
"I understand, I understand!"
Xu Jingchang is not a person who refuses to save anything. If the loss is really too great, he will find a way. In other words, what happened this time may not be bad...
"Okay, I'll watch the show carefully, as long as we don't disobey our father."
Mrs. Zhang took a long breath and nodded secretly.
Finally, you are not confused. As long as you are still the prince and sit on the throne in the future, even the world will be yours. What loss do you have to worry about!
Zhang is truly a hero among women, and she can see it more clearly than Zhu Gaochi.
But both of them were also curious and wanted to see what was going on and whether it was fun to watch?
Just ten days later, Di Bao first disclosed that the imperial court would take measures to divert grain from the north to the south to ease the pressure on grain prices in the south!
This article was published and immediately caused commotion in the southern provinces.
So fresh!
In previous years, grain was transported from the south to supply the north, but now it has been transferred from the south, and the north has begun to transport grain to the south. Could it be that the person who wrote the article drank too much and was talking nonsense?
"Dong Guo Gong, what do you think, does the imperial court require written verification?" Hu Yan asked proactively.
Xu Jingchang smiled and said: "Of course I have to write it down, but I think even if there is food shipped, the scale will not be too big, tens of thousands of shi, hundreds of thousands of shi, it is just a drop in the bucket. I think the main purpose is for your majesty to show off the development results of Peking. You
See if that’s what you mean?”
Hu Yan thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "If that's the case, it's true that the lower official is overly worried."
After Hu Yan went down, official documents still had to be issued, but they were only placed in the ordinary category... Normally, this kind of official documents had to be shipped to Peiping in batches along with the ordinary ones. The quantity was huge and the speed was extremely slow.
It will take at least a month.
Then after signing over there, they will be sorted into categories, put into the Yamen in Peiping, and sent to the warehouse.
The guys are not the handlers of official documents, they are just the carriers of official documents.
There are so many things going on in the imperial court that it is really impossible to cover everything.
If something really happened, and this official document is there, it can be said that it was not unhandled, it was not concealed, and there was no issue of malfeasance.
There is no doubt that Xu Jingchang is the master among them.
With his pressure, things became a little unusual... In just ten days, the price of food in Yingtian dropped by 20%.
This time, even Jian Yi was alarmed. Xia Yuanji was not in Yingtian, and he, the official minister, had to remind Xu Jingchang.
"Mr. Dingguo, the price of food is extraordinary. Do you want to ask about it?"
Xu Jingchang said with a serious face: "Jian Tianguan, I don't know what's the problem here... Every time the autumn harvest comes, the price of food is on the market, and the price should be reduced. When the harvest is gone, the price of food will rise again. Is there any problem?"
Jian Yi thought for a while and saw that Xu Jingchang had no intention of lying, so he said: "It's like this. In recent years, there have been many workshops in Yingtian and other places. The number of craftsmen is very large, and they need to purchase food in large quantities. Moreover, in the areas south of the Yangtze River, there are many
In the situation of changing from rice to mulberry, the current grain has to be purchased from Jiangxi and Huguang. Since it comes from these two places, it must be purchased in advance. Nowadays, the price of grain has plummeted too much and it is unprofitable. I am afraid that there will be chaos.
Understand the market situation.”
Xu Jingchang nodded hurriedly, "Jian Tianguan, this matter is very important. Although I know a little about finance and taxation, I really don't know about food. Let me prepare some information, and we will hold a political meeting in three days to discuss it.
This matter."
Jian Yi hesitated a little, but didn't know what to say.
Just like that, another three days passed.
The price of food on the market in Yingtian is still falling.
This thing presents a strange situation...the cheaper the food price, the fewer people buy it. Those who stocked up on food in a big way in the past have begun to hesitate this year. Maybe it can be cheaper. Let's wait and see.
In this way, waiting parties appeared everywhere.
If you don’t buy it and I don’t buy it, the price of food can still be reduced by 200!
Xu Jingchang looked at everyone present. Except for Xia Yuanji, the Minister of Household Affairs, and Huang Guan, the Minister of Rites, all the other important ministers were present. Even Xie Jin, who was responsible for taxation, also came.
"I don't know much about food. You can talk freely and see what we can do."
Xu Jingchang showed a humble posture as soon as he came up. He didn't say anything, but the courtiers quickly started arguing, such as Luo Qian, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Fang Bin, the Minister of the Ministry of War. They strongly demanded that Changpingcang must purchase grain as soon as possible.
Raise food prices.
"Ding Guogong, food is the lifeblood of the country. Low grain hurts the farmers, while high grain hurts the people. This has been true since ancient times. The imperial court established Changpingcang for this purpose."
Xu Jingchang nodded and looked at the others, "What do you think?"
Xie Jin pondered for a while, then suddenly whispered: "All the people's surplus grain was bought by big grain merchants in advance. The court also allowed the people to pay taxes on grain. At this time, the price of grain has come down, so it can't be said to hurt farmers! After all, those who don't farm
