Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 30: A Loser, a Loser

Seeing that Prime Minister Liu Jian refused to invest in the Royal Bank and even lectured him in front of him, Xu Jing had no choice but to leave.

After all, although he is now a close minister of the emperor, he does not force the prime minister to do anything.

When Prime Minister Liu Jian saw Xu Jing leaving, he did not see him off and just smiled coldly: "I can't let you, Zhu Houzhao, spend my money in vain!"

Xu Jing then found the Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng and explained his purpose to him.

Ma Wensheng also sighed and said, "Your Majesty, it's not easy. I understand, but I haven't saved much money in all these years as an official. I only have five thousand taels. You can take it. There's no need to talk about investment. Although I don't know what investment is, if Your Majesty needs it, just use it. Don't think about making money. Your Majesty should focus on government affairs."

Xu Jing thanked Ma Wensheng and left, and then found the Minister of War Xu Jin.

Xu Jin directly ordered someone to take 30,000 taels to Xu Jing. After Xu Jing left, Xu Jin's chief steward couldn't help but ask, "Master, giving the emperor 30,000 taels of silver directly, although this silver is still yours, why do I feel that it means that it is gone without return. What kind of investment is this? I think you are just using your money to do business. What if you lose money?"

"It's a loss, so be it. As long as Your Majesty doesn't go hawking on the streets anymore, I'll give him another ten thousand to make up for the loss!" Xu Jin said helplessly.

Xu Jing then found Jiao Fang, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Jiao Fang also gave him 10,000 taels directly, thinking to himself: "This silver will definitely be gone forever. Your Majesty is not cut out for business. He can't even be an emperor, let alone a businessman. But it's good that your Majesty lost this 10,000 taels. This way, he will owe me a favor, and I can get promoted in the future."

Xu Jing continued to contact many nobles and officials, some of whom were willing to give and some who were not. Those who were reluctant either remained skeptical and could only say that they were honest and had no money to give to the Royal Bank, or they really did not want to get a bad reputation for being dishonest. Those who were willing to give were mostly afraid that the Emperor would embarrass the court because he had no money to sell things on the streets, and they did not really think that the Emperor could make them money.

It is worth mentioning that Xu Jing later found the Minister of Revenue Wang Hua.

Wang Hua saw Xu Jing asking him if he was willing to invest in the Royal Bank. After listening for a long time, he finally understood what Xu Jing meant and asked hesitantly, "Isn't the treasury directly under Your Majesty's control? Why do you need to ask the officials for funds?"

"Master, why do you have to ask again? Attendant Xu, I have understood what you mean. Specifically speaking, this share subscription is not about raising money. It is about His Majesty granting us wealth, right? It means that whoever pays more money will get more money. I will give it to you right away!"

Wang Yangming, who was standing by, did not wait for Xu Jing to answer Wang Hua's question, and asked his accountant to take out his wife's 30,000 taels of dowry and his family's 5,000 taels of cash in Beijing:
"Attendant Xu, this is all the silver I can take out right now. Your management method is mentioned in the economic supplementary lecture notes of His Majesty's Outline of Governing the Country. I am very optimistic about it. If possible, I would like to continue to add silver."

Because Wang Hua was not used to worldly affairs, Wang Yangming treated the capital as his own home and could naturally give the money directly to Xu Jing.

But Wang Hua was shocked when he saw this. If Xu Jing and others were not present, he would have beaten Wang Yangming. But at this moment, he could only pat the back of the chair and said, "You prodigal son, this is all the savings of the family. You gave it all to Attendant Xu. What are we going to eat?"

"Master! Believe me, this is definitely a good thing. Besides, you don't want His Majesty to sell royal treasures on the street again. If that happens, you, the newly appointed Minister of Finance, will have to resign. So even if His Majesty spends the thirty thousand taels, it doesn't matter."

Wang Yangming said. Wang Hua thought so too, so he waved his hand and said, "Well!" At the same time, he sighed in his heart, "One loses his family, the other loses his country. The prosperity of the Ming Dynasty is really coming to an end!"

……

"The revival of the Ming Dynasty has just begun. In the future, the empire will be ruled by us, and the empire in our hands will surely rule the entire universe! The Royal Bank is not to allow me to gain enough wealth to enjoy, but to allow me to have more wealth to feed back to the people and build a strong army, so that the empire will no longer have border troubles or internal worries, and the people will not know hunger and will become more and more prosperous, including you and myself."

At this time, Zhu Houzhao was telling the "Eight Tigers" and Xu Jing about the political significance of his royal bank. For the "Eight Tigers" and Xu Jing, it would be a better thing to make the Ming Dynasty stronger while making money for themselves. After all, only when the Ming Dynasty is peaceful and prosperous can they enjoy wealth and glory. Therefore, they did not reject and agreed with the political vision expressed by Zhu Houzhao.

"Xu Jing, how much silver have you raised from the officials now?" Zhu Houzhao asked Xu Jing at this time.

Xu Jing hurriedly took out the account book and said, "Your Majesty, the total is two hundred and thirty-six thousand two hundred taels." After saying that, Xu Jing smiled a little embarrassedly.

He was deeply afraid that Emperor Zhu Houzhao would be angry about this, because there were so many officials in the court, and they could only collect a total of more than 230,000 taels. Even though Xu Jing had just entered the officialdom, he knew that it was a little too little. After all, as far as he knew, the officials in Beijing collected no less than this amount of ice and charcoal tributes every year.

However, Zhu Houzhao was not angry. He just smiled secretly and thought that it was better than Chongzhen. He didn't know whether the ministers in the late Ming Dynasty were poorer or the ministers in the 18th year of Hongzhi had more affection for him as the emperor.

"It seems that my ministers are still very honest."

On the surface, Zhu Houzhao still found a way to save the officials, and asked Xu Jing and the "Eight Tigers" to start investing. As for how much they were willing to invest, it was up to them. It is worth mentioning that Xu Jing directly invested a huge sum of 100,000 taels! This surprised Zhu Houzhao and the "Eight Tigers".

"Xu Jing, you have spent a lot of money, why are you still so rich?" Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ask.

"Your Majesty, I dare not hide the truth from you. My family has nothing but a lot of money, but we are only a second-rate family in Jiangnan." After Xu Jing said this, Liu Jin and the other eight tigers showed unbelievable expressions. Zhu Houzhao also asked:
"I do believe you have money. I heard that when you and your sworn brother Tang Bohu went to Beijing to take the imperial examination, you paid for his secret meetings with beauties, and you also paid for his connections to go to Beijing. But if Xu Jing and you are considered second-rate, then I am really a pauper."

"I am really not deceiving Your Majesty. Most of the wealth in the world belongs to Jiangnan. The truly wealthy families in Jiangnan have millions and tens of millions of dollars. I only have some savings accumulated by my ancestors," Xu Jing said with a smile.

Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao could only sigh and said, "It seems that my Ming Dynasty is really the poorest court!"

Keep moving forward and persist in creating, even if you are not optimistic.

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(End of this chapter)