Idle courtiers

Chapter 291
After returning to Baigezhuang, Zhou Nan raised his spirits and stared at the accounts, trying to find clues.

It's a pity that he has been busy for half a month, but he has nothing. The transactions in the accounts of the Armament Bureau are normal, and there is no suspicious fund flow, which makes him have nowhere to use his strength.

It's right to think about it, if the Yan Party wants to raise military expenses for the Fujian front line, it must mobilize at least several 10 taels of silver in materials.Such a big movement must be done safely, but it is not something that a small pedestrian like him can touch.

In the final analysis, the Military Weapons Bureau is just a small yamen, and it is only a nerve ending in the organization of the Ming Empire.

What I gain is my luck, and what I lose is my fate. Many things follow fate and cannot be forced.

It's just what to do with the master, is it possible to watch him being sentenced to death?

Thinking of the sad face of her mentor Wang Shizhen, Zhou Nan was so moved for the first time.

Since the last time he came to receive his salary, Li Gao, the deputy envoy, had not been to the Military Weapons Bureau again.It is estimated that this kid also felt that he couldn't beat Zhou Nan, and it was meaningless to come to the Armament Bureau to make decorations, so he simply missed work.

Li Wei and Li Gao's father and son came from a poor family. According to rumors, the future Li Guozhang even worked as a cobbler walking around the countryside when he was a child.Because of Concubine Li, the Li family prospered and became a big family of gentry in Tongzhou.It is estimated that because of the hardships in the early years, the Li family father and son are more enthusiastic about money than ordinary people.

Under the name of King Yu's Mansion, they engaged in many things outside.

Li's leather bag company has a lot of business, up and down a million every minute.Since the business of the Weapons Bureau can't be done, let's change the project and stop entangled with Zhou Nan.

Zhu Congchi finally returned to Datong, and before leaving the capital, he went to Baigezhuang to meet Zhou Nan once.I heard from him that the Li family and his son are doing a big business recently - they are in charge of King Jing's vassal affairs.

Hearing what he said, Zhou Nan was a little confused and asked, "Who is King Jing?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Zhou Nan couldn't help but patted his forehead, thinking to himself: I forgot that Jiajing still has a prince.

The history books say that Jiajing's heirs are difficult, and it is also said that "the two dragons will not meet each other." Because of this, Jiajing and King Yu have not seen each other for more than ten years.In this way, Zhou Nan preconceived that the sole heir to the throne of King Yu was the only son of the emperor.

In fact, Jiajing also has a son named Zhu Zaizhen.He was born in the 15th year of Jiajing, 25 years old this year, and was named King Jing in 18th year.

According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, when the prince was 20 years old, he would leave Beijing and take up the feudal domain.But King Jing is 25 years old and still lives in the capital.

The reason is simple, Jiajing never saw his sons.Probably because I felt guilty for the child, I never mentioned this matter.

But it's not an option to live like this all the time, the ancestor's family law is still necessary.

Just after the new year, Li Chunfang, a scholar of Wuyingdian who had just joined the cabinet, presented a play to invite King Jing to leave Beijing, saying, how can there be a vassal king who is still staying in Beijing at the age of 25? What is the dignity and legal principle?If the system is conceived, and other vassals follow suit in the future, wouldn't the country be in chaos?
The words are extremely harsh.

With Mr. Li Ge taking the lead, the imperial envoys and officials also swarmed up, and the papers to invite King Jing to Fan almost buried the imperial case.

Jiajing was really annoyed by them, so he asked the supervisor of ceremonies to approve him, and he agreed.Also thinking about the family relationship between father and son, he specially issued a decree of kindness, and set King Jing's feudal kingdom in Anlu, which is Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province in later generations.

Anlu was the former residence of Jiajing Longqian, and this time King Jing went to Anlu as his home.

The kingdom of princes has never been an easy task. It is necessary to equip the palace with a lot of officials, and all the property of the palace must be moved there.

In addition, the imperial court also needs to spend a large sum of money to purchase property support for it, which is used to purchase daily necessities and farmland.

For example, when King Fu of the later Wanli Dynasty went to Luoyang at the age of 20, Emperor Wanli took pity on his son, with a swipe of a pen, allocated millions of taels of silver, and ordered the court to give him [-] hectares of farmland to support him.

Of course, with the stingy nature of Emperor Wanli, the money would definitely not be paid out of his own pocket, and it would all fall on the head of the chief assistant Ye Xianggao at the time, forcing Ye Ge to almost hang himself.

Fortunately, Emperor Jiajing was more lenient than his grandson Wanli, and he also knew that the treasury really couldn't afford money, so even if they were forced to squeeze them, they couldn't squeeze out any money.

The so-called internal money is the small treasury of the royal family. The royal family pays salaries for eunuchs and court ladies, builds palaces, and spends on weddings and funerals.

In the Qing Dynasty, in view of the lessons learned from the Ming Dynasty's chaotic government, the Supervisor of Rituals was abolished.The House of Internal Affairs was set up, headed by the clan.

Jiajing is taboo, but he is very kind to his sons. This time, he sent King Jing to Anlu for a rare and generous time.

Royal procurement has always been a lucrative business, a worthless thing, after several links of exploitation, it becomes a sky-high price.The most typical incident is that the Empress Dowager Cixi in the late Qing Dynasty wanted to eat buns one day and asked the eunuchs to go to the street to buy them.They dared to reimburse ten taels of silver for fresh meat buns that cost two or three Wen to the palace, which shows how harsh the kickback was.Of course, this is just a folklore, and there is no way to verify whether it is true or not.

Now, King Jing's Mansion is buying real estate, which is a big business worth millions of taels, so it makes people jealous. There are many people who want to get a piece of the pie, and the Li family is also eyeing this deal.

Of course, Li Wei and Li Gao couldn't wrap up the 100 million business either.Now they are not foreign relatives, and they cannot be on the platform of the Ming Empire's dignitaries, so they can only make some leftovers to make ends meet.

Among them, gold and silver utensils and jewelry making are the most profitable businesses.

Li Wei begged to go to Huang Jin, the seal of the supervisor of ceremonies.

Huang Jin is a modest person. Although he is under one person and above ten thousand people, in everyone's mind, he is a very talkative and nice man.

Seeing Li Wei coming to beg, he nodded.

During this period of time, Li Gao was busy with this matter, how could he have time to come to Baigezhuang as a clay sculpture and woodcarving.It's just an official position with a salary of two taels of silver per month, and he has to be looked down upon by his superiors and colleagues. Student Li's self-esteem can't bear it.

"Zimu, guess how much benefit Li Wei can get from this deal." Probably because he knew that Zhou Nan would not buy things by himself, Zhu Congchi stretched out two fingers: "At least [-]."

He looked envious, and then sighed: "We are all clan relatives, why are people so different!"

Zhou Nan thought, who told someone to give birth to a good daughter, if you have the ability, give birth to one too, and marry the emperor!No, they are all surnamed Zhu, which is not in accordance with the etiquette system, but you have no chance in this life.

He smiled and said: "Don't envy Li Wei, everyone has his own life. Besides, you made a lot of money from the "Drinking Water Collection" we made. In the future, you will publish a few good books, and you will have everything. gone."

"Why don't you ask your mentor for this manuscript?"

"Don't talk about this matter again. Master, his old man writes novels just as a hobby, and he doesn't want to publish books or make money."

Zhu Congchen: "Why don't you write a Fengyue book, with your current fame, under my management, it will definitely sell well."

"Tell me to write Fengyue books, don't even think about it." My lord can't ruin his reputation!If you lose something like integrity, you can't pick it up again. I am determined to be a Jinshi.If you have a reputation for being obscene, stealing, and corrupting people because of writing Fengyue novels, you should not be in the scholarly circle in the future: "Besides, my writing is not good, I can't write such things."

"No, your writing is good. Brother Yu has read the papers for the additional examination in Zimu Shuntian Mansion. It is simple, straightforward, lively and interesting, and even people who don't read much can understand it. This is what Fengyue novels want. Be sure to read it. It’s better for everyone to understand.” At this point, Zhu Cong’s eyes lit up: “Besides, Zimu’s reputation has risen recently. Fame is money, so we will publish this Fengyue book under your banner. Think about it, Duan Tixue spread it everywhere, saying that your articles are thick and vigorous, and that you have explained the righteousness thoroughly, and you are simply praised as a simple gentleman. Now that a book like this is suddenly published, can it not be a sensation? Can others not pay for it? Can I buy a copy to see if I can get a clue?"

"Zimu, in your words, it's just creating gimmicks and topics. Get a copy and hand it over to the bookstore. While I'm not in the capital, you can manage it yourself. If you get the money, we'll divide it between six and four."

Zhou Nan was furious: "Stop talking, I'm not a lunatic, so how can I defile myself? If you talk nonsense, don't do it as a friend of yours."

After ruthlessly rejecting Zhu Congzhu, Zhou Nan felt very strange and asked, "Brother Zhu, am I very famous now?"

"Zimu, you really have become deaf in the suburbs of Beijing, but you don't know that your reputation has risen now. After the additional test, first Changping student Xu Yangda printed your papers and distributed them around, and then Duan Tixue again Come join in the fun, now your background can be said to have been turned upside down by the people in the capital."

Zhu Congchi went on to say that after investigation by officials and scholars, they were shocked to find that Zhou Nan's life experience was so rough and bizarre.Moreover, he is also a good poet, and he is a representative of the younger generation of Lianghuai literary circles.

"How much hate the west wind blows, and the eyebrows can't be blown away." "It seems that this star is not from last night, for whom the wind and dew will stand at night."

I also thought of Mr. Xu Jiu's "Life is just like the first time I saw it." The styles of the two are so similar, they are perfectly matched, as if they were created by one person.

It is indeed a blessing for the poets that I came out of two masters of the Wanyue School in one breath in the Ming Dynasty.

Some people have already praised that Mr. Xu Jiu is Li Yi'an, Zhou Nan is Zhou Meicheng and Zhou Bangyan.

After finishing speaking, Zhu Congjin's eyes lit up again: "Zimu, after the Fengyue novel is finished, you will be troubled to produce a collection of poems."

Zhou Nan was speechless for a while: "You are pulling all the hair from a sheep, you would rather die than follow."

Who is Zhou Bangyan, a great writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the concubine of Li Shishi, the concubine of Song Huizong.

When the emperor was sleeping with Li Shishi, this guy was so frightened that he hid under the bed and listened to live eroticism. He has a bad reputation in history.

It's not a good thing to be compared to Zhou Meicheng. Zhou Nan wants to be famous, but she doesn't want to be famous like this.

When Duan Ti learned to brush up his reputation, he helped Zhou Nan brush it up, and Mr. Zhou vaguely felt that there was something wrong.

After biding farewell to my friend Zhu and making an appointment to meet again during the Spring Festival next year, a yamen servant came in with a film: "My lord, a man named Chen Hong invited you to a banquet in "Su Yu Lou"."

"I've never heard of this person!" Zhou Nan thought that a merchant who came to do the pig iron business wanted to please him, so he picked up the post and threw it into the wastebasket, ready to return.

But at this moment, his heart suddenly jumped, and he quickly bent over to pick up the famous thorn, looked at it for a moment, and walked out the door.

(End of this chapter)