Bright Spring

Qi Tai said: "Maybe. Your Majesty has always been far-sighted, and can always prepare for a long time. Like An Nanguo's plan, His Majesty's preparations can be traced back to the Yongle period. Otherwise, where did the Empress Dowager Chen and Chen Zhengyuan come from?"

Ru Yu sighed, and said in a deep voice: "I really didn't expect that the sage was in his thirties and was born as a soldier, so he would have such a strategy for the city."

"Me too." Qi Tai said calmly, "But a general who is truly miraculous in using troops must be very resourceful. Ru Butang loves to read military books, why don't you read "The Daily Life of the King of Han" written by the noble concubine?"

Ru Yu clasped her fists and said yes.

After the two of them finished talking about their business, they sat quietly on the futon for a long time.

At this time Qi Tai said: "There is still a while before lunch. There is a game of Go here, shall we play two games?"

Ru Ting smiled and said, "Being respectful is worse than obeying orders."

After a while, the faint sound of "Tuk Tuk Tuk" came from nowhere, and the sound of chanting scriptures followed.The simple vegetarian room was surrounded by Sanskrit sounds, and the atmosphere changed suddenly. Qi Tai immediately felt an aura of indifference to the world.However, playing chess is also a kind of struggle.

……

(It's the last day of this month. If you have a monthly ticket, don't waste it. Please vote for me and help me win the top [-] on the monthly ticket list. There will be a monthly ticket award, thank you all.

Also, the book should be almost finished.The time interval between the end of this time and the opening of a new book will be relatively short, and there will be no skipping.Because I have debts, only by continuing to code recently can I maintain my life like this. )

(Tianjin)

Chapter 855 The Brocade Story

The bathing holiday is an ordinary holiday for the imperial court, with one day off about every ten days.It means that officials pay attention to their appearance, so they spend a day bathing and changing clothes every once in a while; however, it is not necessary to wash all day in the bath, and the bathing holiday is just a more elegant way of saying it.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't show up either, and went out of the palace to the Shen Family Pear Garden by the Qinhuai River.

This time the person in charge of security is not Zhang Sheng, but Du Erlang.Du Erlang is a fan of operas, he often goes to Liyuan to listen to operas, and he is very familiar with that kind of place.The person who received Zhu Gaoxu was Shen Xu himself. It is said that she does not come here often, because the business of the Shen and Xu families is far more than just one pear orchard.

Today's theaters and restaurants are very lively, and there are a large number of officials and scholars in the capital, which coincides with the holiday and is the time to make friends and play.

Zhu Gaoxu heard that Li Louxian would not be on stage today, so he didn't go to the theater, and went to the private room near the Qinhuai River with Shen Xushi.

Shen Xu was wearing a dark blue satin loose gown, the style of her clothes was like that of an elderly lady of the landowner.However, she was born with weak bones and strong muscles, fair skin, and a very delicate appearance. Such a dress has a special style, as if it restrains her beauty.Or maybe it's a woman's appearance, not what she wears.

Shen Xu said: "Nowadays, Li Louxian's name is not as famous as it was in Kunming City. On such a good day as Mujia, the shopkeeper of Liyuan will not arrange for her to appear on stage, and leave it for more popular people to show up."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said casually: "The capital market is bigger, and every industry is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Shen Xu said with a smile: "It's not that Li Louxian can't sing as well as others. She is getting older and her appearance is weakening. Skill is important, but beauty is also important. If the Holy Majesty likes her singing, I will ask her to accompany her Let’s sing it for the Holy Spirit.”

Zhu Gaoxu said: "Forget it, there is no need to be so troublesome."

After hearing this, Shen Xu said: "Anyway, she has nothing to do today, and I will call her over in a while."

At this moment, there was a sound of "duk tuk tuk" from the door, Shen Xu stood up and opened the door, and saw that it was Du Erlang.After the two greeted each other, Shen Xu walked out of the room and gave instructions to another person in the corridor.Du Erlang entered the door, stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, I have seen Xia Shangshu."

Shen Xu, who had just returned to the elegant room, said, "Our people didn't recognize it."

Zhu Gaoxu said: "What a coincidence. But don't pay attention to Xia Butang, if he sees you, just say hello, and don't need to tell him that I'm here too."

Du Erlang clasped his fists and said, "I take orders."

Zhu Gaoxu turned his head to Shen Xu and said: "Mrs. Shen's place is like a private club | a place for personal friendship. Xia Butang and I have not reached the point of personal friendship, but we are embarrassed to meet each other in such a place. How about not see."

Shen Xu agreed.

Zhu Gaoxu asked again: "Mu Sheng also lives in the capital now, does he still come here?"

Shen Xu turned her head and shook her head slightly, and said, "What are you drawing?"

"It makes sense." Zhu Gaoxu said thoughtfully.

At this time, he reached into his bosom, took out a few pieces of paper, and said, "I'm here today, I really have some serious business."

Shen Xu put down the teapot in his hand, took it, turned it over and asked, "What is it?"

"Standards." Zhu Gaoxu thought for a while, and then explained, "Workshop products need a set of strict and unified standards. Let's formulate them first. In the future, all workshops at home and abroad can only use our rules. Let's start with measurement. start."

The industry controlled by the Shen Xu family is generally called the Shen Xu Merchant Gang.It looks like it’s just a private business gang, but in fact, there are Xungui (Yao Fang’s family) and the royal family’s shares; in addition to the shares of the shopkeepers of the Shen family and the Xu family, the Shen Xu family owns a large number of shares. The heir is Concubine Zhuang Shen Baoyan, It will also become the property of the royal family in the future.

Therefore, in Zhu Gaoxu's eyes, the Shenxu Merchant Gang is not government-run, but it is also an integral part of the court's industry and commerce.The Zhu family will slowly eat up Shen Xu's property, but the eating is obviously much gentler than dealing with Shen Wansan and Xu Fujiu back then.

Zhu Gaoxu moved a position, walked from the opposite side to the chair next to Shen Xushi and sat down.Shen Xu gave him a sideways glance, then acquiesced.

He approached Shen Xu, pointed to the symbols on it and said, "This is Indian numerals (Arabic), which are used to keep accounts and forms, and are more intuitive and concise than Chinese characters. Chinese characters can be used in total to increase the difficulty of alteration.

Here is a formula that sets the density of water as a unit of measurement; that is, 'per cubic foot' of water weighs one catty.The volume of water per cubic foot is one liter.

In the past, there were many differences in size, and the size of construction, land measurement, and tailoring were also different, and there were differences in different places.However, the Iron Works of the South Department of the Shouyu Division has unified the size. From now on, we will all use the size of the iron works, based on the decimal inch, chi, and zhang.

The original weighing is more complicated, and it is in hexadecimal, which also varies from place to place.The weights of jin, liang, qian, and fen should be changed to decimal, which can be more accurate and unified in the measurement of the workshop system. "

At this moment, Li Lou knocked on the door first and came in.She stepped forward to kowtow and salute, and Zhu Gaoxu made a gesture of supporting her, telling her to excuse her.I saw that Li Louxian was indeed a little older than when she was in Yunnan. She had heavy makeup on her face, but the skin on her neck had indeed lost its luster and fine lines were obvious.Zhu Gaoxu felt that Li Louxian was also a pitiful person, but luckily Shen Xu treated her with kindness and did not abandon her.

Shen Xu received the manuscript and said: "What the Holy Majesty wants me to do, I should follow."

Li Lou saw that the two were still talking, so he sat next to him knowingly and started making tea.

Shen Xu said again: "When my concubine was discussing matters with the two clans, I also mentioned the emperor who was different from the past. Everyone didn't quite believe it. How could the emperor support the businessman?"

Zhu Gaoxu had a flash of inspiration and said, "I remembered a joke. Once upon a time, there was an emperor who wiped it with brocade after going to the toilet..."

Shen Xu suddenly showed an embarrassed smile.And Li Louxian, who was doing it, had too much makeup on her face, and she couldn't see her face, but she couldn't help but secretly glanced at Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu ignored them, and continued: "Later, the emperor thought that he should be simple and frugal, and decreed to cancel this fee. Unexpectedly, it caused dissatisfaction among many people. The brocade workers said that they had no wages, and those who planted mulberry and raised silkworms Farmers said that there is a backlog of silkworm cocoons, and they have been busy for a year."

Shen Xu's eyes shifted, and then the eyelids drooped slightly. She thought for a while, and said, "Forgive me for speaking out. If you continue to make brocades...no one will benefit. The money that weavers and farmers get is all Some of the taxes collected by the county magistrate from elsewhere will also be withheld. If the people originally had ten renminbi to buy things, but if the ten renminbi is gone, nieces and farmers can only spend five renminbi. In this way, the county For merchants who do business, things are even more difficult to sell, and business taxes are also paid less."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said: "It makes sense, madam is very knowledgeable."

Shen Xu said with a smile: "Your Majesty is also very good at telling stories, no wonder he can work with King Ning to write a playbook for Concubine Shu."

"Thank you for your praise." Zhu Gaoxu said with a smile.He continued calmly, "Then let's change the story. The emperor who likes to use brocade in the toilet is the emperor of another country; but that country can't make brocade by itself, so it has to buy it from our country."

Shen Xu said: "This is a good thing for us."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said: "If this ten-cent coin is minted by our mint, then in order to buy this brocade, other countries need to sell grain or other things in exchange for ten-cent coin. After the coin leaves the factory, it will go everywhere It happened once; as a result, I had a batch of foreign feudal goods on the market, and at the same time, ten coins flowed to the peasant households, Weaver Girls, and the county government, and everyone's life was easier."

Shen Xu said softly: "What the Holy Majesty said is absolutely true."

Zhu Gaoxu went on to say: "If there is no trade, the brocades produced by weaver girls and farmers are useless, and they will not get any benefits. Will they still work in the future?

The monarchs and ministers of all dynasties, emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, had another set of ideas.Let’s ignore other reasons, just think about the governance of the country. Those people want to protect the number of people who grow food, increase food production, and in turn promote population growth. Merchant trade itself does not produce food and expenses, so it is useless.However, there are loopholes in this set of ideas. Those in power ignore the enthusiasm of the people to work. "

He paused and continued: "It is said that during the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, a large number of common people were slaves, and the monarchs and ministers forced the slaves to work, and they could simply take away all the remaining food and goods.