I'm really not the carpenter emperor

On the stone path outside the Yanxi Palace, the palace people from all the palaces are gathering here, very busy.

Hearing that Concubine Liang had gone back to her hometown to visit her relatives and suffered an accident in Daxing County, the entire harem was alarmed.

Even Concubine Liu, who has been worshiping Buddha for many years and has long been out of the world, came to visit from the Palace of Compassion and Peace. As for Zhang Yan, she rushed over as soon as Concubine Liang came back.

"Mr. Wang, you must take good care of your body, and add another heir to the Ming Dynasty, so as to extend the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty."

Concubine Liu held Wang's hand and said earnestly.

Concubine Liang's face was rosy, but she didn't see any paleness as she just recovered from a serious illness.

Even though she felt that she was in good health, she couldn't prevent such a big mess from happening, and she even blamed herself secretly for disturbing the concubine.

Standing aside, Zhang Yan also said:

"Yes, Sister Liang Concubine, you are pregnant with the emperor's heir. This is a great gift from heaven. It is inevitable that some people will feel jealous. It is better to go out of the palace less to avoid accidents."

"Sister remembers." Concubine Liang said with a smile.

Concubine Yu and Concubine Chun also stood aside, chatting about their health and well-being, after a while, there was a commotion outside the door, and then a shrill eunuch's voice came in.

"Your Majesty, drive!"

Chapter 618 A Timely Story

When the emperor arrived, the palace people hurriedly moved out of the way, and a spacious passage was cleared out of Wuyang Wuyang's palace just now.

Concubine Liu led Zhang Yan, Concubine Yu and Concubine Chun to welcome Zhu Youxiao, and said:

"The emperor is here."

Zhu Youxiao smiled slightly, even though he was extremely anxious, he still had a trace of demeanor on the bright side, and said:

"Meet the concubine."

Concubine Liu also smiled slightly, turned away and stopped talking, and Zhang Yan and the three daughters also stood aside.

The red candles were stretched high, reflecting that Mrs. Wang's face on the couch became more ruddy.

Seeing the copper basin, Zhu Youxiao carefully put his robe on the stool, then bent down, took out a hand towel that had been soaked for a long time, twisted it, and put it on her forehead.

Sitting on the edge of the couch, Zhu Youxiao stretched out his hand and gently brushed away a few strands of blue hair, and asked with concern:

"well enough?"

Wang's eye circles turned red immediately, this was the first time she felt her husband's tenderness since entering the palace.

Zhu Youxiao thought she was still suffering, and became nervous.

Seeing that Mrs. Wang didn't say a word, she leaned over and took her arm, and gently stroked her face with her hand, feeling it carefully.

"Why are you crying?" Zhu Youxiao was stunned for a moment, then turned his head and ordered: "Tell the imperial physician to come over and take the pulse of Concubine Liang."

As soon as the words fell, a palace lady had just left, and Wang's face was full of joy:

"Your Majesty, my concubine is crying with joy. If Your Majesty treats me like this every day, I wish I could faint a few more times."

"Even if someone really wants to harm me, I will die in peace."

"With me here, who would dare?" Zhu Youxiao stared at her for a while, shook his head, and solemnly promised: "No matter what the government is like, I will always miss you in my heart."

"You and our child in your belly will be fine."

When Concubine Liang heard this, she nodded heavily, then put her head on Zhu Youxiao's hand, and smiled foolishly.

Zhu Youxiao also laughed and continued:

"I have asked Jin Yiwei to investigate the matter in Daxing County this time. In time, I will definitely give you an explanation."

"With me here, no one dares to touch you."

At this time, the imperial doctor of the imperial hospital hurriedly rushed over according to the order, and before entering the door, he bowed and said:

"See, see Your Majesty! See the concubine! I have seen the empress, I have seen..."

Before the series of visits were finished, Zhu You didn't raise his head, but raised his hand and said to him:

"Go and get my robe from the stool over there, be careful."

The imperial doctor put down the medicine box in doubt, and brought the emperor's robe from the embroidered stool, which still had Yuwen's royal robe on it, and handed it to the side respectfully.

His eyes were lowered to the ground, looking at his feet, and he didn't dare to raise his head to take a peek at the faces of the emperor and imperial concubine.

Zhu Youxiao didn't pay attention to these details at all. He took the robe he wore every day and reached out to search for it in the big sleeve.

Seeing this, Zhang Yan and the others looked over with puzzled faces.

In just a moment, Zhu Youxiao spread out his palm, but inside were two tribute birds' eggs from Saipan. I don't know what kind of bird they were, but they were small and delicate, and he could hold two in one hand.

Zhu Youxiao looked at Wang and said with a smile: "This is a tribute from Xifan. It is used to wipe the hair. It is better than egg white."

"For you."

Wang was stunned, she had never seen such a small and transparent bird egg like rough jade, she didn't move for a while.

Zhu Youxiao didn't have much patience, so he directly stuffed the egg into her hand, saying:

"This thing, Xifan only pays eight tributes a year, and I will share two with you every year, so you can save some money."

"If you really like it, I will issue an order to ask Fanbang in the west to pay more tribute. They dare not disobey my words."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youxiao's eyes gradually moved down, and for some reason, he saw Wang's chest lying on him.

Although Wang's beauty is not as good as Zhang Yan's, she is also the most beautiful girl in the country, otherwise she would not be caught by Zhu Youxiao among the many beauties in the third selection process.

Such a woman, very few men will not be moved when they see it.

Although her hometown is in Jifu, she always likes to comb the hairpins of Jiangnan women. Her hair is loosely tied like a black cloud, and her chest rises and falls with her deer-like thoughts.

After a while, I was so moved that I cried again.

Zhu Youxiao put away the smile on his face, and said seriously:

"Decree from the Ministry of Rites, canonize the Wang family as a good noble concubine, shade her father and brother, still live in the Yanxi Palace, and choose a day to hold the grand ceremony."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Wang did not recover from such a surprise for a while, holding the bird egg given to her by the emperor in her hand, her face was full of joy as if she had found a treasure, more like the shyness of a girl in a boudoir when she first heard a love poem.

After some tossing, bad things turned into happy ones.

For the next half a month or so, the palace was busy preparing for the canonization ceremony, and the Ministry of Rites set the ceremony as an auspicious day on the first day of next month, so they were extremely busy.

As for Zhang Yan, Concubine Yu, and Concubine Chun, they were all happy for the Wang family who was about to be promoted to Concubine, and they got together to chat every day.

The "Beijing News" Yousi quickly published the anecdote between the emperor and the prospective imperial concubine. The literati and poets gathered together to write a poem, which was circulated among the market, and it became a good story for a while.

……

Shanxi, Taigu County.

Cao's mansion was busy, and a distinguished guest was about to come, Cao Sanxi was overjoyed, and wished he could go out of the city ten miles to meet him.

The Qi Gang was originally the most powerful of the Jinzhong business gangs, and the major merchant gangs gathered around the Qi Gang, and there were few imperial merchants and foreign merchants in Jinzhong.

In the first half of the fifth year of Apocalypse, the death of the Fan family shocked the whole country, even the emperor in the Forbidden City.

Immediately, Dongchang began to get involved in the case, and Fu Yingxing, the head of the stall, was personally responsible for tracking down the wealthy business gangs in Jinzhong.

In addition, Jin Yiwei also dispatched Tian Ergeng, one of the four thousand households, to be responsible for rectifying the supervision departments in various places in Jinzhong.

The factory guards intervened, tyrants came out everywhere, and large-scale arrests, liquidation, and recovery of stolen goods began, which directly led to the fact that civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty no longer dared to act rashly in the case of surrogate death.

In June of the fifth year of Apocalypse, the Ming Dynasty announced the establishment of Tainingwei.

Soon, various letters between the Jinzhong merchant gang and the captives outside the customs were published in the Beijing News and exposed, causing public outrage.

Thirteen wealthy merchants, including Qujia in Taiyuan, Chang's in Yuci, Fan's in Zhangjiakou, and Kang's in Qingyuan, were successively liquidated by Dongchang.

It is conservatively estimated that the total number of people implicated and recovered by Dongchang this time is more than 3000 people.

The Qi Gang, which has flourished since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, has declined like this.

With the decline of the Qi Gang, Dongchang's vicious reputation became even more prominent. Wherever it went, everyone avoided it, from local officials, landlords, tyrants, to poor people.

The surrogate death case was finally over, and since then, the decline and collapse of the Jinzhong Business Gang has become an irreversible fact.

Fortunately, people in this era witnessed the rise of another merchant group in Jinzhong, namely the Taigu merchant group headed by the Taigu Cao family.

Cao Sanxi soon made a high-profile announcement that he would lead the Taigu Merchant Gang to join the Imperial Chamber of Commerce after Qu's family and other thirteen Shanxi merchants were successively liquidated by Dongchang.

The Imperial Chamber of Commerce was established in Suzhou, and its sphere of influence has successively covered Shandong, Hangzhou, Fujian, and Shanxi. This is the result of Zhu Youxiao's behind-the-scenes fueling.

The day when the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, which obeys the imperial court, leads the National Chamber of Commerce and controls domestic and foreign trade and supplies is not far away.

Chapter 619 Two Years of Spring and Autumn

"The governor is here!"

The servant outside the door exclaimed, and Cao Sanxi, who was in his thoughts, was also shocked, and got up quickly, only to see that the governor of Shanshan and Shanxi, who was dressed in dust and dust, had already entered the main hall.

"How can the governor not ask someone to report the birth, so that Xiaomin can go to greet him in person in advance, how can I let you come to the door!"

Cao Sanxi took a few steps forward, seeing what that meant, he wanted to give up the main position.

Zhu Xieyuan came here because he had something to do, and he didn't have much intention of being polite. After a few words of pleasantries, he sat down on the guest seat and said:

"Cao Dong's family doesn't need to stick to etiquette. This governor is here to ask for something."

In fact, Cao Sanxi had already guessed seven or eight times. In the third year of the apocalypse, the imperial court added the post of governor of Shanxi and Shanxi to lead the military and political power of the two provinces.

The power of this kind of position has far surpassed that of a local governor. Unless there is an important task, it will not be set up a few times in the Ming Dynasty.

It is the first time that the governor of Shanshan and Shaanxi has been established so far, and it is the governor Zhu Xieyuan who has a long history of military exploits. In this regard, the emperor's thoughts are obvious.

Zhu Xieyuan stayed in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces for two years.

In the middle, a war broke out between Daming and Chahar because of the invasion of the bandits. Even if Emperor Tianqi made an exception and used the little-known Shanhaiguan soldier Sun Chuanting, he didn't have the slightest intention to call Zhu Xieyuan back to take charge of the overall situation.

This is enough to show how important the so-called "official duties" Zhu Xieyuan has done in the past two years are enough to make countless civil servants, military generals, wealthy businessmen and gentry in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces break out in cold sweat.

Now that Zhu Xieyuan didn't go to the Three Treasure Hall for nothing, he came as soon as he said it, and he must have something to do for himself.

Cao Sanxi has always been very sensitive to this kind of matter. It was the same when the court wanted to run thirteen Shanxi merchants last time, and it is still the same now.

His thoughts are flying, his face is not moving:

"Since the governor is here, why are you still talking about 'begging', but whatever the lord asks, the little people will obey!"

Zhu Xieyuan nodded and said:

"Since that's the case, the governor will get straight to the point."

He clasped his hands together, bowed to the capital, and said in a solemn voice: "Thanks to your majesty's kindness, you asked me to rectify the military camps of the Shanshan Guards. Up to now, there have been some plans."

"Ninety-nine out of ten of the thousands of acres occupied by the Shanxi Guards are occupied by local guards, and the remaining [-] to [-] percent will be divided up by landlords and civil officials."

Speaking of this, Zhu Xieyuan's voice has become a little angry. He looked at the shocked Cao Sanxi and said:

"Since the governor has been ordered by the emperor to rectify the army, he should enforce the law impartially and act seriously!"

Cao Sanxi finally understood why the emperor asked Zhu Xieyuan to stay in Shanshan, a rotten place where no shit.

This is another big move, a big move that has been brewing for an unknown amount of time!

The military settlements in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces only accounted for less than one-third of the world, and they were just a microcosm of the corruption of the guard system.

And Zhu Xieyuan's achievements in rectifying the army in Shanshan and Shaanxi for two years now directly determine whether the guard system can be completely reformed!

In this matter, unless the emperor made up his mind to reform the guard, no one in the world today would have such ability!

Cao Sanxi realized the seriousness of the matter, so he didn't dare to say anything for a while.

That's right, it's okay to rectify the military settlements, but rectifying the military settlements will only be the beginning of a bigger move. When the matter rises to the reform of the guards, the nature of everything will change.

At that time, it was against almost everyone!

This is a big cake that has lasted from the early Ming Dynasty to the present. How to cut this cake, who will take the big cake, and which class can only be oppressed have been decided a long time ago.

From top to bottom, civil servants, military generals, landlords, gentry, and even an ordinary general who leads the army, everyone is the beneficiary!

To fight against so many people, even the current emperor, Cao Sanxi, who already holds great power, has to sweat for him.

What worries him most now is not whether the emperor can have the courage, but whether the so-called "imperial party" has the strength to completely reform the guard.