Coming out of Cining Palace, Kangxi was in a very good mood and asked Yuzhu with a smile: "How about having dinner with Mama?"
Yes, the old emperor asked this, what can Yuzhu say?
"嗻."
When the weather was hot, the old emperor liked to eat in the Zhai Palace on the east side of Qianqing Palace.
After arriving at the Zhai Palace, the old emperor ordered to go down and prepare a small table for Yuzhu, just to the left of the emperor...
On both sides of the Zhai Palace, there were several long tables, which were filled with royal dishes.
As usual, the daily meals of the emperor and the empress dowager consisted of 108 dishes.
Of course, it is impossible to eat so many dishes, but the problem is that Tianjia's cards must be carried.
It was cold last time, so the dishes were completely cold when they were served, so Yuzhu was naturally not full.
This time, the old emperor took special care of Yuzhu and ordered people to add some stir-fried vegetables to Yuzhu's small table from time to time.
To be honest, the cooking skills of the imperial chef are quite good.
However, there is simply too much greasy fish and meat, which is very detrimental to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health.
After dinner, the old emperor took Yuzhu to the Yangxin Hall to drink tea.
Yuzhu drank a few sips of tea and waited for the old emperor to speak.
The longer Yu Zhu spends time with the old emperor, the more he understands that the old emperor's thoughts are extremely deep and he is a master who takes one step at a time.
Today, the emperor took Yuzhu to see the empress dowager again. He also offered a meal and invited her to drink tea. It was obvious that he had an ulterior motive.
"Liang Jiugong, take the copy from Guangdong Customs and read it to Yuzhu."
The old emperor also knew Yuzhu's temperament very well. Even in private, it was impossible for Yuzhu to read unreviewed memorials.
This child knows the rules very well and knows what's appropriate. He is not a domineering person who is proud of being favored!
After listening to the memorial of the Guangdong Customs Supervision, Yuzhu understood it instantly without Kangxi saying a word.
Hehe, the emperor dislikes the fact that Guangdong Customs makes too little money!
The huge Guangdong Customs only collects hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year. Those idiots are really greedy!
Today, in the Qing Dynasty, there are four customs offices, namely Jiang Customs House, Guangdong Customs House, Fujian Customs House and Zhejiang Customs House.
Fujian Customs is under the jurisdiction of the Fuzhou General, while Jiangsu Customs and Zhejiang Customs are under the jurisdiction of the governor of the province.
The most special thing is Guangdong Customs!
The Guangdong Customs Supervisor, like the Chongwenmen Supervisor, is actually the emperor's confidant who collects money from the imperial envoys.
Nominally, the Guangdong Customs is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs. In fact, it is also an official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent by Emperor Jian to collect foreign taxes in Guangzhou.
Since the imperial court valued scholars over merchants, Guangdong Customs did not deal directly with foreign merchants, but collected foreign taxes indirectly through the Thirteenth Bank of China in Guangzhou.
The year Nalan Xingde died, which was the 24th year of Kangxi, Guangzhou Thirteen Lines was officially born.
Guangzhou No. 13 Bank, commonly known as Tianzi Nanku, is a foreign goods house with franchised import and export trade rights and a semi-official and semi-commercial foreign trade monopoly organization.
In the Qing Dynasty, the three major merchant groups, the Lianghuai salt merchants, the merchants of the Thirteenth Bank of Guangzhou and the merchants of Shanxi and Shaanxi, were the richest merchant groups.
In a word, like the nature of Chongwenmen supervision, Guangdong Customs is the imperial customs office that makes money for the emperor.
The old emperor also understood that ransacking homes to make money was actually killing the chicken to obtain the egg, and it could not last long.
But the problem is that after Yuzhu took advantage of his monopoly on the city gate and opened a rice store and a vegetable store, the Chongwenmen Supervisory Yamen could collect more than 8,000 taels of live money every day.
This is incredible!
There are more than 8,000 taels a day, which is close to 3 million taels a year!
What is this concept?
Well, the expenses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the entire year last year, including the money for garden repairs, were only over two million taels.
Hey, the old emperor laid the trap early, and gave him enough benefits and dignity in advance.
If Yuzhu dares to act stupid now, he will definitely be in trouble.
"Old man, if I were to be the supervisor of Guangdong Customs, I would still follow the old rules and I would have full power to have the final say."
Since Yuzhu became the supervisor of Chongwenmen, he has been bargaining with the emperor, subtly making the emperor adapt to his errands regulations
I'll help you earn the money, but the sole power must be given to me. Otherwise, I really can't do it!
"Okay, two million taels of silver per year, no less than one tael. If you can do it, I will rely on you." Kangxi was also used to the lion asking Yuzhu for money with his mouth wide open.
To be honest, Kangxi was very shrewd. Even the Chongwenmen Supervisory Office could make so much money, let alone doing monopoly business with foreign businessmen?
Yuzhu shook his head and said seriously: "If you can't control smuggling at sea, you will definitely not be able to collect so much money."
Kangxi's eyes flashed slightly. When Yuzhu mentioned the word smuggling, he thought of the Guangdong Navy that had been abolished.
At present, the established Guangdong Navy no longer exists.
However, there is still a naval battalion stationed on Shanghengdang Island in the heart of Humen to inspect smuggling. The officer in charge of the naval battalion is a green battalion general who is under the control of the Guangdong Admiral.
Before the First Opium War, there were two forts, Hengdang Platform and Yong'an Platform, built on Shanghengdang Island.
It was a pity that when the British army attacked, the Qing officers and soldiers of the two forts fled in the face of the wind and collapsed without a fight. The national hero Guan Tianpei, who was the admiral of the Guangdong Navy at the time, died heroically for his country.
Today, there are only a few thousand people and a few dozen wooden boats in the Humen Naval Camp. Compared with receiving an extra two million taels of silver into the inner treasury a year, what could Kangxi be reluctant to part with?
If Yuzhu was a Han official in the south, Kangxi would have hesitated for a while.
The problem is, Yuzhu is a serious Manchu nobleman under the banner of Xianghuang. He is a member of the Qing Dynasty, so why should he be worried?
The garrison generals from all over the country, along with the Eight Banners soldiers, monitored the Han officials nearby. This had long been custom-made by the imperial court.
"It's up to you. After you finish presiding over the provincial examination, you will also serve as the supervisor of Guangdong Customs. At that time, the Humen Naval Camp will also be under your control." Kangxi readily agreed to Yuzhu's bargaining.
"Wei Zhu, go and get my decree." Following Kangxi's instructions, Wei Zhu brought over the secret decree that had been drawn up long ago.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! When Yuzhu opened the secret edict, he felt horrified and broke into cold sweat all over his body.
Obviously, Kangxi had long expected that Yuzhu would want the military power of the Humen Naval Battalion. Therefore, the secret decree that had been drafted long ago had given Yuzhu the power to control the Humen Naval Battalion.
The old emperor is definitely not an ordinary person, his thoughts are unfathomable!
Accompanying you is like accompanying a tiger, sincerity will not be deceived by me!
Starting from Aobai and continuing to Suo'etu, everyone suffered a great loss for despising Kangxi. As a result, one was trapped to death and the other was starved to death. They all suffered retribution.
Yuzhu suppressed the shock in his heart and deliberately exclaimed: "Old man, you know exactly what I am thinking."
"Little monkey, how many bowls of dry rice can you eat? You and I know it all."
Yuzhu's flattery was so perfect that Kangxi couldn't help stroking his beard and chuckled.
Wei Zhu on the side had other thoughts in mind.
Except for Crown Prince Yinreng, Long Live Lord is already much closer to Yuzhu than the other princes and elder brothers.
Today's old emperor is really inseparable from Liang Jiugong and Wei Zhu.
However, Wei Zhu could neither help Long Live Lord make money, nor could he play chess with Long Live Lord.
More importantly, Yuzhu can help Long Live Master restrain the growing ambition and power of Lao Ba and the Crown Prince.
Wei Zhu couldn't do any of these things. He could only watch Yuzhu rising up in front of Long Live Lord.
"Old man, I'm thinking that if I want to earn two million taels of silver every year, I should buy a large Western ship and form a caravan to do business in the Western Sea." Yuzhu deliberately tested and discussed with Kangxi, but did not even dare to mention shipbuilding. .
Kangxi waved his hand and said with a smile: "The cotton, linen, silk, tea and porcelain of our empire are in short supply in the West, so why should we personally send people to do business in the West?"
Yuzhu knew it well, and this was a typical British conservative trade thinking.
In addition to the great contribution of Churchill's prodigal son, the decline of Britain was due to the closed and monopolized colonial market, which led to long-term stagnation in the level of production technology.
Because the big businessmen in the UK have made a lot of money just by sitting down, so where can they find the motivation to engage in technological innovation?
The essence of World War I was that Germany's high-quality industrial products could not enter the colonial market controlled by Britain.
The old emperor has said this, and most people must not dare to say anything more.
But the problem is, Yuzhu is not an ordinary person.
Yuzhu said with a smile: "To be honest, old man, I also want to use your power to build a few ships and sail to the West to earn some pocket money."
"Oh, that's it." Kangxi was not a mean Yongzheng. The logic of governing the country he believed in was that if the water is clear, there will be no fish, and if the people are careful, there will be no disciples.
Most people do it secretly, lest the emperor find out about it.
Yuzhu was different from everyone else. He blatantly asked the old emperor for the privilege of going to sea and building ships.
In this era, the merchant ships of the Qing Dynasty were only close to a hundred tons at best.
Kangxi thought that Yuzhu built this kind of merchant ship, so he nodded in agreement.
There was no way, Kangxi was a man, not a god, and he had never seen what a real Western sailing battleship looked like.
The gaps and gaps in his thinking made Kangxi fall into Yuzhu's plot invisibly.
"At most three boats, no more." Kangxi, as before, drew a circle for Yuzhu that he could not cross.
Yuzhu knew very well that he could only eat food one bite at a time, and he must not be impatient.
In this era when patent rights were not rigorous, commissioning foreigners in Macau to spend a lot of money to hire British shipbuilders to help build three three-masted sailing merchant ships of several hundred tons could actually train Yuzhu's own shipbuilding team.
.
The old emperor went around in a big circle, asking for more silver.
As for Yuzhu, he played a cat-and-mouse game with the old emperor. When the cat felt comfortable, the mouse also succeeded.
In his later years, the old emperor just liked to arrange errands in a roundabout way, making a lot of foreshadowing and hints in advance, and letting Yuzhu figure it out on his own.
To put it bluntly, this is because I have been an emperor for too long, and I am tired of the boring monarch-minister showdown.
In history, except for a very few diligent emperors such as Zhu Chongba and Yongzheng, most emperors were in a state of neglect or fatigue in their later years.
The boring and fixed governing process that has been going on for decades is very difficult for the emperors to endure even with their self-control!
Didn't Qianlong know that He Shen was greedy?
But the problem is, without He Shen, who is both good at making money and doing things, Qianlong in his later years will not be able to be lazy and enjoy happiness.
(PS: It’s the end of the month. Monthly votes will not give birth to small monthly votes. Let’s reward Yuzhu who writes wonderful stories with heart.)