Zhu Zaihou drove to Cining Palace.
In the Cining Palace, Empress Dowager Fang and Empress Dowager Du were discussing the selection of talents for the coming year.
It was already December, and when the flowers bloomed on the third day of the third month of March, the selection of talents would be held.
In the eyes of the two Empress Dowager, it was a joyous occasion to select some clean and beautiful women from the common people to enter the palace. The new Emperor had already ascended the throne, and it was time to send some of the palace maids out of the palace.
In the palace, palace maids would be sent out of the palace when they were twenty-four years old. After they left the palace, they could marry into a good family. The time they spent as palace maids in the palace would be the most glorious moment of their lives.
When they talked about the Forbidden City with their descendants, they always sighed.
All sorts of secret court history were learned from the mouths of these Li Palace maids.
Who could stand in the Forbidden City in their prime?
Who could meet the current emperor at the age of awakening love?
Perhaps the concubines in the palace were a little lonely. They had waited their entire lives to serve the Emperor.
If these palace maids were not favored by the emperor and the prince, they would leave the palace in their twenties and continue to enjoy a different life.
"Although Hou 'er is already ten years old, her body can't take it. Sister, you have to keep an eye on Hou' er. If any of the maids in the harem seduce His Majesty, you must punish them severely.”
"Don't worry, sister. Hou 'er is still young, so I'll naturally supervise him more. I won't let any palace maid seduce Hou' er.”
In the eyes of the two Empress Dowager, Zhu Zaihou was too young. If he knew about the palace too early, it would be very harmful to his body.
Just as the two empress dowager were discussing the selection of talents, a eunuch's voice sounded outside the Cining Palace."His Majesty the Emperor has arrived!"
As the eunuch announced, Zhu Zaihou entered the Cining Palace. The two Empress Dowager beamed when they saw him.
Empress Dowager Fang held Zhu Zaihou's hand and looked him up and down. Zhu Zaihou's ascension to the throne was the most satisfying thing in her life. If King Jing became the emperor, she would not be as rich as she was now.
It was not an exaggeration to say that Zhu Zaihou was the backer of the two Empress Dowager.
"In the future, I must choose a virtuous and virtuous woman who is a peerless prodigy to be Hou 'er's empress!”
The two Empress Dowager held Zhu Zaihou's hand and walked into Cining Palace.
Zhu Zaihou listened to the Empress Dowager's words and thought to himself,""It's a pity that this one is too young. If this one was a few years older, I would definitely let the most beautiful woman in the world enter the palace to serve!”
When Zhu Zaihou was accompanying the Empress Dowager in the Cining Palace, he was also thinking about the war with the Tartars. This war could only be won and not lost. If they lost, not only would the dignity of the Ming Empire be damaged, but the strength of the Ming Empire would also decline!
However, Zhu Zaihou believed that this war would be won because he had mobilized the Ming Empire's strongest troops and the five most powerful generals to fight against the Tartars.
Most importantly, Zhu Zaihou had almost emptied the national treasury and spent five million taels to build the most advanced firearms in the world and train the most brave soldiers in the world!
It was not militarism!
However, it was also a world full of soldiers!
Zhu Zaihou wanted to let the Tartars know that the empire they had angered was not an ordinary weak country. The Great Ming could not be bullied or humiliated!
Zhu Zaihou wanted to let the world know that when the emperor was angry, not only would millions of people die, but when the emperor was angry, he would also kill all the enemy countries!
In the Cining Palace, the two Empress Dowager couldn't wait to be selected into the palace.
Although they did not allow the Emperor to get close to women, they could first choose virtuous concubines for the Emperor. They might not be able to serve the Emperor now, but the Empress Dowager could teach them virtuous and virtuous, and train them as virtuous concubines for the Emperor in advance.
……
Zhu Zaihou had considered commercial reforms.
But how could business reform be easy?
A slight change in one hair would affect the whole body.
More importantly, the Tartar army was pressing down on the border. Even if they adjusted the tax rate and collected customs duties, it would be difficult for them to gather a huge amount of military pay.
Therefore, the wealthy families in the Ming Empire should also be plucked.
Zhu Zaihou took some time to design a business tax to increase the wealth of the Ming Empire as a whole!
……
Outside the Forbidden City.
Chief Assistant Wang Shouren and Minister of Personnel Li Mo had invited many important officials to the cabinet office.
These important officials of the imperial court had a common characteristic: they came from noble families.
Lu Tang, the Lu family. The Lu family had many descendants, and the Lu family was a large family.
Kong Huaili was a descendant of the Kong family in Shandong. The Kong family in Shandong had been passed down for more than two thousand years and had flourished for a long time.
Li Maolin, the Li family of Zhao County. During the heyday of the Great Tang, the Li family of Zhao County was known as the Five Surnames and Seven Wangs!
Longxi Li, Zhao Jun Li, Boling Cui, Qinghe Cui, Fanyang Lu, Xingyang Zheng, Taiyuan Wang.
Wang Shouren and Li Mo looked at these high officials and said,""Fellow colleagues, the soldiers of Great Ming are fighting outside. Although we can't personally go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, we can still do something within our abilities!”
When these important officials heard the words of the chief assistant and the Minister of Personnel, their hearts skipped a beat. They had also discovered the problem.
The officials that Wang Shouren had gathered were all officials with big family backgrounds. Those high-ranking officials from poor families had not received an invitation from the cabinet.
Now that they heard Wang Shouren and Li Mo say such words, they immediately understood that they were able to reach a high position. None of them were good-for-nothings.
As soon as Wang Shouren and Li Mo spoke, they immediately understood the thoughts of the Chief Assistant of the Cabinet and Li Mo, the Minister of Official Personnel Affairs.
They had to pay for this war.
The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty had sacrificed their lives in the war against Tartar. As the officials of the Ming Dynasty, they had to contribute as well. Since they couldn't go to the battlefield, they had to pay.
With Wang Shouren and Li Mo's warning, these officials immediately understood.
"Ministers, three days from now, we will still be in the cabinet. I hope to see your sincerity.”
Wang Shouren decided to punish the bad guys to the end. His Majesty had instructed them to do this, but they couldn't say it. They had to take it on themselves.
Otherwise, it would be their greatest dereliction of duty if they disgraced His Majesty's reputation.
……
In the dead of winter, the weather was freezing.
These officials from wealthy families handed a letter to their families. In the letter, they wrote clearly the use of silver.
The Ming Empire was at war with the Tartars.
The noble families of the Ming Empire could not stay out of it.
If the Ming Empire was defeated and the Tatars entered the Central Plains, the noble families of the Ming Empire would not be spared.
The wealthy families in the Ming Empire heard the news and moved.
The cabinet was the emperor's tongue.
Although the cabinet did not say that the Emperor wanted money, anyone with discerning eyes could see that the person who wanted money was the Emperor of Ming!
In order to show their loyalty to His Majesty, these noble families had also paid a huge price!
The cabinet became lively.
Every day, many officials would enter and leave the cabinet.
The 10 million taels of silver that the cabinet had gathered under His Majesty's orders were also rapidly accumulating.
Three hundred thousand taels…
Five hundred thousand taels…
1.2 million taels!
……
Five million taels!
Seven million taels!
The Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, Wang Shouren, the Minister of Civil Affairs, Li Mo, and the Minister of Justice, Yu Maojian, all exclaimed.
In just a few days, they had gathered seven million taels of silver.
They suddenly understood something.
No wonder those corrupt officials had to take bribes. It turned out that money came so quickly.
Wang Shouren and Li Mo realized that once the gate was opened, there would be an unstoppable force.
More and more aristocratic families were paying, and the amount of money they paid was also getting more and more generous.
Compared to Wang Shouren and Li Mo's amazement, the Minister of Revenue Fang Dun appeared much calmer. While Wang Shouren and Li Mo were exclaiming about the wealth of the aristocratic families, Fang Dun smiled and said,"Lord Wang, Lord Li, Great Ming's aristocratic families have existed for a thousand years. The heritage of the aristocratic families is not something we can speculate on…"
"This wealth is unimaginable to the two sirs, but it is only a drop in the ocean for a thousand-year-old aristocratic family!”
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