A Timely Wife

Emperor Chu Cheng sat on the dragon chair, looked at Li Ruosong's movements and the expression of the little eunuch, and suddenly laughed. The emperor laughed inexplicably, but none of the Jinshi below dared to look up. Hearing the laughter of Emperor Chu Cheng, he knelt down there.Emperor Chu Cheng raised his hand and asked the chief eunuch to come over. After the chief eunuch came to him, Chu Chengdi whispered a few words to the chief eunuch and nodded repeatedly. Afterwards, the chief eunuch walked to Li Ruosong and looked at Li Ruosong. Ruosong gave him a blank sheet of paper, and Li Ruosong took the paper and continued writing.The chief eunuch did not leave, but stood at the same place and began to read the content on the first piece of paper written by Li Ruosong. The more he looked at the chief eunuch's eyes, the brighter he was. Read what Li Ruosong is writing.Li Ruosong's writing speed is naturally not as fast as the chief eunuch's reading speed. The chief eunuch smacked his lips back to Emperor Chu Cheng with some unsatisfactory expressions. The chief eunuch gave a few more instructions, and the chief eunuch returned to Li Ruosong, and took the paper written by Li Ruosong directly to Emperor Chu Cheng for him to read.Li Ruosong's answer completely overturned Emperor Chu Cheng's expectations. The main reason why Emperor Chu Cheng asked such a question was that many courtiers wrote him too many notes, saying that the biggest hidden danger of Great Chu lies in the emptiness of the treasury and the emptiness of the people. Wealth is too much, the imperial court can't even pay the military salary, and those wealthy businessmen often spend tens of thousands of taels of silver in and out. The most fundamental reason for the opposition is that the Nanlin Party is standing behind them. They naturally hope that commercial taxes will not increase.For this matter, many courtiers in the court were divided into three parts, and they were arguing every day. Prime Minister Wan wanted to increase the agricultural tax, and some of them were neutral. Hu Shangshu wanted to increase the commercial tax, and the two did not help each other. The position of prime minister, but it is difficult to completely suppress the Ministry of Household Affairs. The quarrels caused Emperor Chu Cheng a headache, but what both sides said made sense. If the commercial tax was not raised, the treasury would have to continue to be empty, but in this way, You can’t get rid of the reputation of competing with the people for profit. Even if Emperor Chu Cheng was in a daze, he would not agree to such a stupid thing as raising the agricultural tax. The north has been plagued by wars, and the development of agriculture is extremely slow. , and then increase the agricultural tax, those people will definitely turn their backs.Emperor Chu Cheng didn't have any good ideas after thinking about it, so he simply took the opportunity of the Enke Palace Examination to throw out this problem and throw it to all the Jinshi present.Li Ruosong's name entered the ears of Emperor Chu Cheng for the first time because of Miss Qingfeng, who was so famous that even Emperor Chu Cheng had heard of it. Of course, most of what Emperor Chu Cheng heard was told to him by Concubine Wan Gui. He talked about how defiant Miss Qingfeng was. Although Emperor Chu Cheng coaxed Concubine Wan Gui not to haggle over every detail with a prostitute, he actually felt that such a woman was rare.Being able to let Miss Qingfeng serve as her husband's personal maid aroused the interest of Emperor Chu Cheng, and the fact that Emperor Chu Cheng arranged for the inquirer to come back to report made Emperor Chu Cheng feel that Li Ruosong was a very interesting person. Can't get in the water, can't get in, there is no shortage of people like this in Da Chu's court.

Now the courtiers above the Great Chu Dynasty Hall are either from Prime Minister Wan or Hu Shangshu. Most of those who claim to be neutral are fools. He has only two people, but these two people have average abilities and limited structure, so it is difficult to take on the burden. Emperor Chu Cheng is too lazy to go to the court to listen to these courtiers' lawsuits, but it doesn't mean that he really doesn't care about anything. Emperor Chu Cheng After all, he is the emperor who succeeds at a young age, a group of direct ministers who are only loyal to him is a must, and this Li Ruosong obviously meets his requirements.

Li Ruosong is the first Huiyuan in the Enke Examination. During the palace examination, he has to sit in the first seat in the first row. In fact, Emperor Chu Cheng has been observing Li Ruosong. The more he looks at it, the more he feels that this is unusual. If he was watching him all the time, he would be a little flustered, but Li Ruosong was calm and calm, knowing that he was observing him, and still doing things at his own pace, this disposition has already made Chu Chengdi quite satisfied with him.

Among all the Jinshi who participated in the palace examination, there are not many who can write so quickly, and even fewer can write quickly and clearly. After the paper, Emperor Chu Cheng was very curious about his answer. As a person who didn't pay much attention to rules, Emperor Chu Cheng naturally asked his confidants to go directly to Li Ruosong's answer. , not only failed to calm himself down, but made himself even more curious, thinking that he would be marking the papers by himself anyway, so Emperor Chu Cheng simply asked the chief eunuch to collect Li Ruosong's papers and see for himself that Li Ruosong's handwriting is extremely good. With a strong character, Emperor Chu Cheng's first reaction was that his writing was like his person, his name was like his person, every word Li Ruosong wrote was like a pine on a cliff, straight and sharp, but still stable, just reading the words, Chu Chengdi was very impressed. Li Ruosong's favorability has increased again. In addition, Li Ruosong only married a righteous monarch. He had no concubine before marriage and no concubine after marriage. Even if his husband was pregnant, he never took a concubine. He feels that Li Ruosong is very similar to himself in this aspect, he only loves one person, and no matter how good the rest of the world is, it is just a floating cloud to him.

The beginning of Li Ruosong's answer sheet wrote: Junfu is the wealth of the imperial court, the wealth of the imperial court is the wealth of Da Chu, and the wealth of Da Chu is the wealth of the country. "Hide wealth in the people" and "hide wealth in the country" are the way of governing the country and the strategy of rejuvenating the country.However, whether it is better to "hide wealth for the people" or "hide wealth for the country" is better. The benevolent sees benevolence, and the wise see wisdom. There is no consensus. For thousands of years, many sages have debated this. ", "benefiting the people" point of view, "Book of Changes" has "damaging the upper and benefiting the lower, and the people say no boundaries". The wealth of the country, the imperial court should put the wealth of the people first. In Song’s view, that’s not the case. It is the relationship between "source" and "flow" - a small river is the source, a big river is the flow, and if there is water in the small river, the big river will be magnificent.The opposite is also true, small rivers are indispensable, but if the big river has no water and the small river is dry, only the big river has water and the small river can flow continuously. There should be no distinction between the priority and the wealth of the country, but there should be a distinction between who comes first.

When the imperial court does not have enough military pay, no surplus treasury, when there are threats of strong soldiers outside, and when there are hungry people disturbing inside, the country's wealth should be given priority. Only by being rich to the people can the country be truly rich and the people strong, and the country strong and the people safe.

When Emperor Chu Cheng saw this, he didn't care that he was sitting on the Hall of Virtue and Government, and directly cheered loudly: "Okay, okay, okay, Li Huiyuan's article won my heart, well written, well written, Wen An, look at it!" Is Li Huiyuan's article finished? If it is finished, he does not need to be named. Tomorrow, he will directly read it to the courtiers in the court hall, and let them listen carefully. Those who claim to be upright officials and Confucian scholars, and those who disagree with the increase of business tax, should read this article carefully. A first-class champion for the palace examination."

As soon as this remark came out, the entire hall was shocked, and many people even looked at Li Ruosong on the spot, but Li Ruosong seemed to have heard nothing, and his subordinates kept writing down their thoughts and thoughts. Finally, Li Ruosong held up the second answer sheet with both hands, knelt on the ground and said: "I thank the emperor for his grace, long live the emperor, long live, long live."

The Chief Eunuch Wen An came over with a smile, took the answer sheet that Li Ruosong held high above his head, and returned to Emperor Chu Cheng and handed it to Emperor Chu Cheng. What you think and what you say must be kept in your heart, the future of Da Chu still depends on you young people."

Li Ruosong was slightly surprised in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face, and said respectfully: "My minister respectfully obeys the holy order."

"Be flat, since you have finished answering, don't stay here anymore, Wen An, send Zhuangyuan Lang out of the palace." Emperor Chu Cheng ordered.

Wen An responded with a bow: "Shu."

"Li Zhuangyuan, follow our house." Wen An said while pointing in a direction.

Li Ruosong bowed three times and kowtowed nine times, and then walked behind Wen An towards the outside of the Hall of Virtue and Government. Little things, for Li Ruosong's performance, Chu Chengdi's affection for Li Ruosong increased a little in his heart, and he also felt that his vision was good. Chu Chengdi had already thought about digging out such a potential talent. During the banquet, we must arrange a good job for Li Ruosong, and we cannot let this person be buried in the Imperial Academy. This kind of person must be put outside, and he will hone his skills outside for a few days, and wait until he makes some achievements in office, at most three to five In [-], this person can be transferred back to Beijing, and he can definitely become a humerus minister of the imperial court.