Domineering Daming

Zhu Xu tapped on the chair with his fingers, and said solemnly: "Put everything else aside, the year-end audit is about to start, and you all keep an eye on me. The three departments of the three major commercial banks are cross-checking, and any corruption or misconduct will be punished." It must be strictly eliminated, and there will be no forgiveness!"

Both of them knew that Zhu Xu hated corruption, so they immediately said in a low voice, "It's Your Highness."

This year's snow is big and short, and it comes and goes quickly.

Wei Zhongxian was imprisoned for a long time without dealing with it. The Donglin Party pursued it fiercely, especially those in the opposition. They mobilized almost all their forces. Even Ye Xianggao, Zhao Nanxing, Zuo Guangdou and others couldn't bear it anymore and wrote from all over the world. Zhezi urged Zhu Youxiao to execute Wei Zhongxian as soon as possible.

The eunuchs are like bereaved dogs, terrified all day long, those who have resigned are already preparing their luggage, and those who can't escape are closing their doors, and most of them are running all over the capital, looking for new backers.

On the palace wall of Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youxiao leaned on crutches, coughed from time to time, looked outside the palace, wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, and said with a smile: "Sir, tell me, what are they thinking?"

Sun Chengzong stood behind him in ordinary clothes, looked at Zhu Youxiao's back, knew what he was asking, and sighed softly in his heart: "Your Majesty, the will of the people is unstoppable."

"Unstoppable?" The corners of Zhu Youxiao's mouth moved, and he snorted again, and a little blush appeared on his pale face, coughing and saying: "There are hundreds of civil and military people in the Manchu Dynasty, and even one hand I can trust Countless."

Zhu Youxiao wiped his mouth, and then said: "Sir, do you see anything wrong with this matter?"

Sun Chengzong knew that the emperor was jumping into the topic, although he had already thought about it, he still pondered and said: "This matter is full of doubts, and I still can't figure it out for a while, but it should have something to do with Wei Zhongxian."

Zhu Youxiao was a little helpless, looking at the gray sky, and said: "So, you also think that this matter was instigated by Wei Zhongxian, what he wanted to do, but he didn't expect to be reported by Wang Tigan in advance, so he was exposed?"

Sun Chengzong glanced at Zhu Youxiao's side face, paused for a while, and said in a calm voice: "The emperor suspects that His Royal Highness Hui Wang is involved in this matter?"

A wry smile appeared on the corner of Zhu Youxiao's mouth, and said, "King Hui didn't participate, had no motive, and didn't get any benefits."

Sun Chengzong heard the meaning of Zhu Youxiao's words. Although King Hui seemed completely unlikely to participate, he was still the most suspicious.

He frowned, looked at the expression on Zhu Youxiao's side face, was silent for a while, and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, if King Xin wants to, you can seal it. If you take the opportunity to let King Hui and King Xin move into the Tenth Prince's Mansion, I will go there in person." Let’s take a walk and ask King Hui to donate 100 million taels to help the nine border troops."

Chapter 174 Encounter with King Xin

The ten princes' mansion is the place where the royal family is kept in captivity. Adult princes and princesses will move in. Once they enter that place, there will be eyes everywhere, which is not much better than being in prison.

Zhu Youxiao quickly waved his hands, paused for a while, and then exhaled: "King Hui is still young, and the queen is reluctant. If you believe in the king, I can still trust you."

Sun Chengzong is also clear about the emperor's mind. In his opinion, these two princes are afraid that they will no longer have the hope of becoming a vassal in this life. .

Although he felt sorry for King Hui's talent, he cared more about the stability of the royal family, and followed Zhu Youxiao's words: "The emperor said it is true. Well, does the emperor have any plans for Liaodong?"

Zhu Youxiao leaned on crutches with both hands, stretched his neck, and said: "At the court meeting, everyone recommends Gao Di to go."

Sun Chengzong frowned. When Zhu Youxiao said this, he was afraid that his mind would be hard to change, so he thought for a while and said: "I recommend Yuan Chonghuan as the governor."

"Yuan Chonghuan?" Zhu Youxiao's eyes were slightly different, he turned his head to look at Sun Chengzong, lowered his eyebrows and pondered for a while, and said, "Well, I will consider it."

Listening to Zhu Youxiao's uncertain answer, Sun Chengzong opened his mouth to speak again, but finally swallowed it back.

When it comes to the appointment of governor of Liaodong, Zhu Youxiao does not have enough courage to act arbitrarily, nor does he have the courage to bear the consequences. In the end, it has to be discussed at the court meeting.

Now that the government is chaotic and cliques are prevalent, you are good at cultivating private individuals.Once it goes to court, everything is unpredictable.

It stands to reason that at the end of the year, it should stop, and celebrate the new year with peace of mind, forget about the unsatisfactory this year, and look forward to starting all over again next year.

But Wei Zhongxian's imprisonment has been undecided for a long time, the impeachment calls of Donglin Party and Qingliu are getting louder, and neutral people are gradually joining in, every court meeting almost makes this matter the most important thing.

Unable to bear the pressure, Zhu Youxiao removed Wei Zhongxian from all his positions as the admiral and supervisor of the East Factory, and at the same time issued the other secretary, ordering Dali Temple to interrogate the crime.

Dali Temple Minister Xu Zhiji is Wei Zhongxian's henchman, and Zhu Youxiao personally hinted that Wei Zhongxian was sentenced to ten major crimes and sentenced to ten years in prison!

This kind of crime is obviously light, and the Donglin Party wants to use this to clean up the members of the Eunuch Party, but Zhu Guozhen, the chief assistant, tried his best to reconcile, Gu Bingqian, Wei Guanghui, and Donglin military bosses Sun Chengzong, Yuan Keli, etc. Negative treatment, this matter had a rather reluctant ending at the end of the year.

On New Year's Eve, Zhu Youxiao did not call the "family" again for dinner because he fell ill again.

Yao Qingqing went to Bi Mansion, Cao Wenzhao had a family in the capital, and even Cao Huachun had several nephews as his family. In the huge Jinghuan Palace, except for some maids and servants sent by Queen Zhang, there was only Hui Hui who was alone. His Royal Highness.

Sitting in the study, Zhu Xu was bored flipping through the New Year's greeting letters from Zhou Yingqiu and others, as well as the letters of apology from Ni Wenhuan and Wang Shaohui, but he just glanced at them and threw them aside in boredom.

"It's been a bad year..."

Zhu Xu sighed, took out the account book, and prepared to use money to dilute the emptiness and loneliness in his heart.

The account books are all organized by Fu Tao, and each item is written in a neat and standardized manner according to his requirements, and there are evidences for coming and going.

Huitong Commercial Bank, after more than a year of expansion, in addition to the head office in the capital, there are already [-] branches from south to north. From Fujian in the south to Shanxi in the north, branches have been established in important places.

Thanks to Huiyun Shipping Company and Huimin Chamber of Commerce, the savings and cash savings alone have exceeded 2000 million taels, and the profit has exceeded 200 million taels.This is still unfamiliar with the business, and because it has just started, once it matures, the profits will grow rollingly!

Huimin Chamber of Commerce, pasta is still a sharp tool to open up channels, but the profit is meager. The main profit comes from the glassware, matches, soap and other things that the workshops in the east of the city continue to export. According to preliminary calculations, the profit exceeds 50 taels.

Huiyun shipping company has a strong policy monopoly, and the goods traveling from south to north, various additional fees, and profits have exceeded 30 taels.

The most important thing is the sale of private salt. Zhu Zonghan did have means. Houjin’s salt market was almost monopolized by him alone. Although Houjin also mobilized salt from various places to stabilize the high price, it was either from Mongolia or North Korea, with little success.Judging from the account books, the recovered cash alone exceeded 500 million taels!

Such a good deal, plus other odds and ends, this year's income will definitely exceed 1000 million taels!

He picked up a brush and wrote the big words "1000 million" on the white paper. After looking at it for a while, his mood suddenly improved a lot.

Listening carefully, the firecrackers outside the palace were rumbling, mixed with laughter and laughter. Zhu Xu put down his pen, tapped his fingers on the table, and said to himself: "It should be possible to give a part to the court, but how should it be given..."

Thinking of Zhu Xu, he became worried. The annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty was only 250 million taels. If he gave too much, he would attract attention, but if he gave too little, it would not work.

Zhu Xu leaned on the chair, squinted and thought, and fell asleep after thinking about it.

For some unknown reason, he became a handsome young man in his dream, walking alone through the sea of ​​lights during the Lantern Festival, and vaguely saw a slender lady with a maid trying to guess riddles on the lanterns. The strange thing was that he waved his fan and sang that the West Chamber is about to... Hook up in the past.

Before he could pay attention, the scene changed, and he appeared on the Qinhuai River again, watching the flower boats rippling by, he slapped a big hand, and went out with thousands of taels of silver, holding a charming and affectionate woman as the oiran.Afterwards, he lifted the curtain and stepped into the boudoir, surrounded by fragrant clouds, he heard faintly: "Your Highness, wake up, Your Highness..."

He raised his hand in a daze, only to hear a slap, and woke up suddenly.

Zhu Xu sat on the chair, staring straight ahead, not far away, the oil lamp was beating suddenly.

After a long time, he woke up, touched his face, then wiped his saliva, looked up, and sighed long and long: "What are you singing about the Great Western Chamber, it's really boring..."

"Your Highness, the empress is here to invite you." Suddenly, a maidservant's voice came from outside.

Zhu Xu was startled for a while, and then he came to his senses completely, and picked up the account book while shouting: "Got it, come here."

Walking to the door, he straightened his clothes, rubbed his face, looked up at the sky filled with stars, he felt relieved immediately, and walked towards Kunning Palace.

In any case, he was not alone this New Year's Eve.

Because Zhu Youxiao was ill, the Kunning Palace was not decorated too much, and several red lanterns were hung to illuminate the way.

"Xiao Yongning, the emperor's uncle is here, just say yes when you miss me, oh... oh..."

Zhu Xu paused as soon as he stepped into the threshold, and froze there with his mouth open.

In the face is Zhu Youjian sitting upright on the stool, looking at him expressionlessly.