The huge explosion of the grenade quickly attracted the patrolling soldiers around, but before that, Zhu Guixian recovered the flintlock gun in Bailuting's hand.
As expected, this thing cannot easily flow outside, otherwise it might really come back to bite him in the end. Zhu Yuanzhang's worries are indeed justified.
Zhu Gui began to think about how to control the circulation of arms.
The patrolling soldiers quickly sealed off the scene, but no one present knew what could be so destructive.
I'm afraid even the Shenji Battalion's cannons are only as powerful as this.
As for Zhu Gui, they naturally did not dare to stop him.
And Zhu Gui soon returned to Prince Dai's Mansion.
I happened to meet someone from Daiwangfu who was coming after hearing the explosion.
Xu Miaoqing was also riding a horse among the crowd.
"Prince Zhu, are you okay?" Xu Miaoqing asked with concern.
"You are the pig." Zhu Gui was stunned for a moment and then said.
Xu Miaoqing was also stunned, then quickly reacted and actually laughed.
The group returned to the palace, and Zhu Gui told Xu Miaoqing about the affairs in the palace and talked about his promotion of grains to Zhu Yuanzhang.
"If everything goes well, if the seeds are planted tomorrow, the disaster will be greatly alleviated, but..."
Zhu Gui suddenly sighed mid-sentence and did not continue.
"Just what? Isn't this a good thing that benefits the country and the people?" Xu Miaoqing asked in confusion.
"That's true, but I have overlooked one thing, that is, most of the fertile land in the Ming Dynasty is now in the hands of landlords, squires and wealthy families. Ordinary people have very little land. Even if there is high-yielding grain,
I can only barely make ends meet."
Zhu Gui explained.
"That's right. How about we remonstrate with the emperor and take back all the apprentices of the landlords and squires and then distribute them to the people, just like what we did in Yunzhou."
Xu Miaoqing said.
"You think it's too simple, but I still want to give it a try."
Zhu Gui said with a smile.
…
While Zhu Gui was still thinking about how to persuade Zhu Yuanzhang to promote land reform, the forces behind the three major families had already begun to impeach Zhu Gui in the court.
The leader was He Zhongbi, Minister of Rites.
He wrote a memorial of more than a thousand words eloquently, "profoundly" explaining the actions of Prince Dai's palace that disrupted the normal order of Nanjing, and requesting that Prince Dai be removed from his position as vassal king.
Like him, there were several other officials, all of whom were ministers of the Six Ministries. Although their perspectives were different, they all talked about the same thing. They all hoped that the emperor could control Zhu Gui so that he could no longer bring trouble to Nanjing.
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard what these ministers said, he couldn't help but fell into deep thought.
If it had been a day ago that so many ministers had impeached Zhu Gui, Zhu Yuanzhang would have sent people to arrest him.
But after what happened yesterday, Zhu Yuanzhang also discovered Zhu Gui's change.
Although he didn't know whether Zhu Gui was pretending to be in front of him on purpose, he was able to come up with a solution to the current predicament of the Ming Dynasty, which was much better than these ministers who only knew how to earn salaries but did not do much practical work.
"Besides this incident, is there anything else?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a long time, but ended up changing the topic.
This surprised all the civil and military officials present.
Because in the past, Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely angry when the topic of acting as king came up. Why was he so calm today?
He Zhongbi wanted to speak, but was stopped by Zhu Yuanzhang.
"If it's about the acting king, don't talk about it. I will handle it."
This sentence made He Zhongbi shocked and confused. He didn't know what the emperor was thinking.
Seeing this, other officials could only avoid the topic and explain the current situation step by step.
It is still the same as before, except for the Mongolian raids that often occur at the border and the relief issues caused by natural disasters.
Both of these things require a lot of money, but now the imperial court has diverted most of the tax money collected this year, but it still doesn't help.
Zhu Yuanzhang even put aside the renovation of the palace.
So he thought of Zhu Gui again.
If Zhu Gui can fulfill the 10 million taels he said, it may be possible to fill the national treasury deficit.
However, it was agreed that Yunzhou’s tax revenue would be paid next year, and it would be really difficult to ask for it now.
Zhu Yuanzhang thought about it, and suddenly his eyes lit up.
By the way, isn't that kid willing to do something that is both good and bad? Since he dares to reach out to Nanjing's business community, he must have some blood, right?
Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang's gloomy mood suddenly improved a lot.
In his heart, he already regarded Zhu Gui as a victim.
This time he must bleed hard.
…
When Zhu Gui was still teaching Xu Miaoqing how to make dumplings at home, the imperial edict suddenly arrived.
Zhu Gui was suddenly given the seventh-grade official position of "Weaving by the Ministry of Commerce" to assist the Ministry of Household Affairs in collecting taxes from Nanjing's business community.
But before Zhu Gui had time to be happy, the old eunuch who announced the decree took out a brocade box and mysteriously told Zhu Gui that this was the emperor's handwriting.
Zhu Gui took it over strangely. He didn't know why Zhu Yuanzhang didn't explain the matters in the imperial edict together.
But when he read the contents of the manuscript, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.
No wonder Zhu Yuanzhang was so generous this time. It turned out that he wanted Zhu Gui to "spend money" to buy the official position of "Weaving in the Ministry of Commerce".
And as soon as I opened my mouth, it was two million taels.
But at the same time, it was agreed that if Zhu Gui could increase Nanjing's commercial tax by 20% within the next six months, he would consider handing over all commercial aspects of the Ming Dynasty to his management.
Zhu Gui was confused for a while.
He didn't know what Zhu Yuanzhang was making. Didn't he pay attention to business? Then why did he give this job to him again?
It wasn't until Xu Guogong came to the door in person and told Zhu Gui what happened in the court that Zhu Gui reacted.
It turns out that Zhu Yuanzhang did not value business, but he did not value him either.
So I gave this unpopular job to him, an unpopular prince, and at the same time silenced all the officials. It can be said that I killed three birds with one stone.
Oh, no, you can also get a sum of money from Zhu Gui to replenish the national treasury. It can be said that everything was planned by Zhu Yuanzhang.
However, after Zhu Gui heard Xu Guogong's explanation, not only was he not angry, but he looked up to the sky and roared.
"Haha, God is really helping me. It seems that this king is really going to be prosperous."
Xu Guogong and Xu Miaoqing looked at each other, thinking that Zhu Gui was mad, so they hurried over to comfort him.
Zhu Gui asked Xu Miaoqing to take out 1.5 million taels, and then gave another 50,000 taels to the eunuch who came to announce the decree.
Then he explained it to Xu Guogong and his daughter.
