Eight hundred and eighty-ninth chapter nine tripod
"Prime Minister Sun, Mr. Song, the Ming Dynasty has come to this day, and the contribution of all generations is crucial. It is just this last step. I hope you two can put national affairs first and help me do this well. Please!"
Zhu Biao actually stood up and bowed deeply to Sun Yan and Song Lian.
The two men hurriedly bowed down and said quickly: "Your Highness, please be assured that I will do my best. This matter is not only a major matter for Your Highness, but also a matter of life and fame. Don't dare to play with it!"
Sun Yan and Song Lian did not lie. One of them is the chief minister, and the other is in trouble. They are indeed at the top of the civil service. It is absolutely impossible to go forward.
The most critical thing at the moment is the matter regarding the royal property. If it is done well, it will indeed be a meritorious service for all generations. It will be praised no matter what the situation.
On the other hand, if they mess up and miss the opportunity, they will only have endless regrets in this life, and they may even be blamed by future generations.
Because of Zhu Biao's insistence and Zhang Ximeng's dealings, Lao Zhu reluctantly agreed to clean up the royal property and clearly define the property rights.
On the surface, this is just for the convenience of taxation, but the more profound meaning is endless... First of all, the royal family is no longer special, at least in terms of property, it must be bound by national law.
This article alone solves the major drawbacks of imperial power that has been rampant throughout the ages... namely, the problem of squandering national funds and squandering people's wealth and money.
There are not many emperors like Lao Zhu who can restrain themselves.
If you set up something that can be played and made troublesome, it will be easy to run out of resources and empty the treasury.
Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was like this, Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty was like this, and the emperors of the Tang and Song Dynasties, including all the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty, almost all had this virtue.
There is a question here. For example, if the emperor wants to have more than three to five million taels, live a more comfortable life, and use the strength of the country to support one person, will it really cause trouble?
Will the problem be exaggerated?
In fact, things are not that simple. For example, the emperor wants to ask for one million more taels, and orders a tax collection. When it comes to the people, it will be 10 million taels, or 100 million taels!
The Chongzhen Dynasty in history was like this... The emperor raised three taxes and killed 100,000 rebels. While singing a song of victory, he also created one million rebels and 10 million refugees... The harder he worked, the better the world would be.
It rots to the point where the earth collapses and the earth falls apart, irreversibly.
And this time the division of property was equivalent to cutting off the little hands of the emperor who later made money.
Although it is impossible to completely eliminate hidden dangers, the effect is absolutely immeasurable.
According to the proposed regulations, real estate such as the imperial palace, imperial temples, palaces, and imperial villas all belong to the imperial court, but the right to use them belongs to the Tianjia, and the imperial court cannot refuse.
The imperial court needs to be responsible for maintenance, necessary renovations, and reconstruction after damage. If it cannot be completed on time, it must compensate the royal family.
In addition, items such as crowns, armors, seals, weapons, as well as important ritual vessels and displays that demonstrate the majesty of the royal family also belong to the imperial court and similarly require maintenance.
This means that Lao Zhu's jade seal, dragon robe, armor, the main displays of Fengtian Palace, the national gifts presented by the vassal state, and even the phoenix crown and harem of Empress Ma all belong to the imperial court.
There are only some daily clothes, jewelry, manuscripts, and private collections, which belong to the royal family's personal property.
In addition, the part related to the trusteeship of Zongzheng Temple also belongs to the royal family.
It's just that this part of the industry is not considered private, but belongs to the entire royal family. The income and dividends generated every year are at the disposal of the royal family.
After all this hard work, the royal family was able to receive an official expenditure of three million guan per year. Adding in the dividends from Zongzheng Temple, it amounted to more than 4 million guan.
Overall, it is only 40% of what it was before, and more than 60% has been cut.
However, due to the maintenance of the palace and the expenses for the ceremony, they were all thrown away.
More money can be spent on palace personnel.
In the past, ordinary palace people could not eat meat a few times throughout the year, but now they can have some meat every now and then.
The ordinary eunuchs, maids, and guards were all very happy. The concubines below could also get some more money for rouge and gouache. It can be said that everyone was happy.
But things are naturally not that simple!
"Sister, we have built this brick by brick, but now we have to let it go easily. Our hearts are always empty." Zhu Yuanzhang sighed helplessly, "To be honest, we don't know what fun it is to be the emperor.
Already."
Queen Ma's health has not been very good during this period and she has been recuperating, but she is still very aware of such a big matter.
"Chongba, you had nothing at the beginning. In twenty or thirty years, you have dominated the world. Now that you have given all these away, your reputation will still be there for thousands of generations. In the annals of history, you, the Hongwu Emperor, will be the highlight.
It’s a stroke of luck. It’s an honor for me to marry you and accompany you until today!”
Lao Zhu was startled for a moment, then chuckled and said: "This sounds nice, but it's still a bit false... We still have so many children, and now we have nothing, what should we do?"
Empress Ma couldn't help but smile and said, "Chongba, you are so honest. Now that the court has allocated money to us, there is a lot of spare money in the palace. I thought about it and invested it. If nothing else, I invested it in the fourth child.
, or Zhu Ying, can we still lose money? When we have more money, it is not impossible to buy some properties for the children! It just loses the name of the royal estate, so you can rest assured.
.”
Zhu Yuanzhang said with a sullen face, "You are right, but we still can't let go of this name! Girl, do you think we can live without fame and wealth for the rest of our lives?"
Empress Ma pondered slightly and hummed: "Well, Zhu Chongba, you are just greedy for fame and fortune, right?"
Zhu Yuanzhang widened his eyes and argued: "How can you talk like this? Coveting for fame and fortune is coveting what does not belong to you. We, the majestic emperor, once belonged to us, how could we become a villain who covets fame and fortune?
Already?"
"Who said you are a villain? Who said that?" Queen Ma was also anxious, "How dare you slander someone named Zhu, right?"
Now Lao Zhu was embarrassed, "We, we didn't mean that, don't talk nonsense!"
"I can't speak anymore, why don't you find someone who can?" Queen Ma stretched out her hand to push him.
Lao Zhu was extremely embarrassed, "We are already an old couple, why are you still so unreasonable!"
"Okay! Zhu Chongba! Do you dare to call me old? Okay, you can find young people. There are many in the palace and outside! You have the ability to imitate Sima Yan and build a harem of tens of thousands of people and drive a sheep cart."
, Go wherever you like! Don’t let me wrong you!”
After saying that, Queen Ma actually pushed Zhu Yuanzhang, leaving Old Zhu with no idea and could only run away in confusion!
"You are so good at bullying others!"
Zhu Yuanzhang left in a hurry. As soon as he left, Zhu Biao quietly came out from behind and said, "Mother, please talk to your father. Why are you arguing with him if you have nothing to do?"
Queen Ma rolled her eyelids, sat down with a heavy breath, and snorted coldly: "Biao'er, you are an idiot too! No matter how much I waste my efforts on this kind of thing, it still won't work. Your father doesn't dare to argue with me.
But he may not necessarily listen to me."
Zhu Biao was startled, "Mother, you can't persuade my father, who can? Isn't this a bad thing?"
Queen Ma stared at her son and suddenly laughed, "You are such a fool! Who else can do this besides your master?"
"Master?" Zhu Biao was stunned, "Queen Mother, you can't even convince me. What does my master have in mind? Is he closer than you and your father?"
"Rebirth of the Great Era of Fighting Waves"
Empress Ma smiled, "I don't know whether we kiss you or not. Anyway, your master is full of evil ideas, and Your Majesty can't defeat him." After a short pause, Empress Ma continued: "To be honest, I never imagined that Mr. Zhang would be prepared to do this this time."
Just wait and see how to convince His Majesty! His skills are enough for you to learn for a lifetime."
Zhu Biao naturally recognized it. Zhang Ximeng was indeed clever, but taking the matter at hand as an example, he had no idea how to make his father happy. He just didn't know what he was going to do!
…
"My lord, why are you drinking alone? Just get some peanuts and two more dishes, and I will drink with you!"
Zhu Yuanzhang raised his head, glanced sideways at Zhang Ximeng, and snorted: "No need for anything else, this poor wine has a special taste. If you want to drink, just sit down! If you don't want to drink, just leave!"
Zhang Ximeng could only smile, sat opposite Lao Zhu, poured himself a glass, and drank it all in one gulp.
"Lord, do you still remember something?"
"What's up?"
"Even though I said at the beginning that it is not necessary to pass on the national jade seal, it would be good to collect gold from various places and cast a gold seal!" Zhang Ximeng said with a smile.
Indeed, when the Northern Yuan Dynasty was wiped out, Zhu Yuanzhang was obsessed with finding the jade seal. If there was no national jade seal, it would mean that there was no official establishment. Lao Zhu was naturally unwilling to accept it.
At that time, Zhang Ximeng encouraged Lao Zhu, saying that conquering the territory, collecting gold from various places, and casting a gold seal would be enough to command the world, and it was more meaningful than passing down a jade seal.
Of course Lao Zhu remembered this, "Sir, why are you bringing this up? Our seal has returned to the imperial court and is no longer our private property. Don't you know?"
Zhang Ximeng said with a smile: "Of course I know, I just saw that the amount of gold and silver overseas is too large, much more than that of the Ming Dynasty...I suddenly thought, can I cast Jiuding?"
"Jiuding?"
"Yes, it is the Jiuding cast by Dayu. However, it was made of bronze at that time, and the Jiuding has been lost... After thinking about it, I think that if the Jiuding can be recast and made of gold, it will surely be passed down to future generations and be famous forever!"
As Zhang Ximeng spoke, he stood up and strode to the front of the Kunyu Ten Thousand Kingdoms Map. He pointed excitedly, "Lord, please see, there are so many huge pieces of land in this world. We took gold from various places and cast nine huge golden tripods."
, displayed in the Ming Dynasty Ancestral Temple, to show the orthodoxy, wouldn’t it be more glorious and great than when Qin Shihuang unified the world?”
Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and couldn't help but walked over, "Sir, do you mean to use this nine tripods to symbolize the unification of the world and the return of all surnames?"
Zhang Ximeng nodded repeatedly, "That's true. The nine tripods, plus a golden seal, represent the supremacy of China and will be passed on for generations to come. What do you think, lord?"
Lao Zhu stared at the map closely, his eyes contracted slightly, and then released, a strange light flashed in his eyes!