When Chongzhen saw Zhu Cixiang's calm and calm appearance, he thought he would be worth tens of thousands of taels of silver at most.

He casually glanced at the numbers above, his expression suddenly froze, and his mouth opened wide:

"This this……"

It turned out that Zhu Cihong actually gave him five million taels of silver as holiday expenses.

What is the concept of five million taels of silver?

During the years of Chongzhen's reign, the annual tax revenue was only more than four million taels of silver.

With more than four million taels of silver, a Liaodong army's salary was basically all used up. You can imagine how short of money Chongzhen was!

Now Zhu Cixiang actually directly gave him five million taels of silver as a New Year's Eve allowance. At that time, Chongzhen wanted to scold his mother...

Empress Zhou saw something wrong with Chongzhen's expression and hurriedly stepped forward to check. When she saw the numbers above, Empress Zhou laughed:

"Your Majesty, you can't make such a joke with your father, it will scare him..."

Zhu Cixi knew that his father, the emperor, and his mother were poor, so he didn't believe it when he saw so much money.

The emperor has given him everything now, so five million taels of silver is nothing.

Even if his father abdicates, Zhu Cixiang will give him five million taels of silver every year for his retirement, not to mention that he still needs his father's support now.

The biggest source of income for the father, the emperor and his mother was the imperial village, but now the emperor's estate has been distributed to the soldiers by Zhu Cixiang.

In the future, if the palace's huge expenditure suddenly cuts off its financial resources, Zhu Cixiang will certainly not ignore it.

"Mother, the emperor is not kidding, all this is true, the Ming Dynasty has no shortage of money..."

Queen Zhou was shocked and hurriedly refused:

"Your Majesty... where did you get so much money? The victims of the Ming Dynasty are still waiting for relief. My father, the emperor and my queen cannot ask for so much money..."

Chongzhen also calmed down at this time. Unlike Empress Zhou, he knew that Zhu Cixiang would not joke with him.

"Your Majesty, how much money did you steal from the eight major Shanxi merchants? Is it more than five million taels? My father doesn't believe it..."

Zhu Cixi smiled:

"One million eight hundred taels of gold, more than 70 million taels of silver, plus other property and real estate, the total value is estimated to be more than 200 million taels of silver..."

Before Zhu Cixi finished speaking, the tea cup that Chongzhen had just picked up fell and shattered into pieces!

"Click..."

Chongzhen's moment of shock was unparalleled. He spent a long time sorting out his words before saying a few words:

"This...how is it possible...this group of damn profiteers...it turns out that all the Ming Dynasty money is with them..."

Queen Zhou fell down on the imperial chair and couldn't say a word for a long time.

Her mind was filled with the scene of her husband being short of money and unable to sleep at night... It was so easy for the emperor to make money...

Zhu Cixi snorted coldly:

"Not all the money of the Ming Dynasty is with Shanxi merchants. There is still a lot of money from the officials and nobles of the capital. Half of the money is from Jiangnan nobles and gentry consortiums, as well as clansmen and salt merchants...

Part of the Shanxi merchants' silver came from buying and selling slaves and plundering valuable items from the Ming Dynasty, and some came from selling national wealth.

And the clan members, nobles, corrupt officials, salt merchants, etc. eat steamed buns made of the blood of the common people.

The way to make money for the wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River was through smuggling. They tried every means to prevent the imperial court from opening the sea, just to make money quietly by going to sea for themselves.

They earned most of the Ming Dynasty's money, but paid little or no taxes. Sooner or later, the emperor will ask them to spit out all their capital and profits."

When Zhu Cixiang said this, Chongzhen felt a burning pain on his face.

The commercial tax was abolished by the civil servant group who tricked him. How could he know that wealthy businessmen were so rich?

Chongzhen did not refuse Zhu Cihong's money. After all, he was still the emperor, and he would definitely not be able to do it without money in his hands.

"Okay, my father will save this money for you for the time being. If you need money in the future, just ask!"

Zhu Cixi smiled:

"Okay, the emperor has something to discuss with his father. The Ming Dynasty officials' Xiangyin is too low. It is difficult for many officials to survive if they are not greedy. The emperor plans to increase the Xiangyin for them. Please fulfill it..."

"this……"

Why do officials need to add silver when they are so rich?

Chongzhen wanted to say, "Your Majesty, you cannot waste your family. As soon as you have money, you will lose it all."

But thinking of Zhu Cihong's method of making money, he thought for a moment and did not refuse.

"Your Majesty, it's up to you! Don't waste your family. The Ming Dynasty wants money everywhere. Tens of millions will come soon..."

Of course Zhu Cixi knew this, otherwise he would not have gone to Shanxi merchants and bowed down to pay tribute to the emperor:

"Thank you very much, Father. I would like to express my gratitude to Father on behalf of all the officials. I will temporarily retire and come to celebrate the New Year with you tonight..."

After Zhu Cihong said that, he turned around and left the Nuan Pavilion.

Chongzhen looked at Zhu Cixi's leaving figure and couldn't help but praise:

"What a good boy, you are worthy of being my dragon species, just like me..."

Chongzhen's words left Queen Zhou speechless for a moment. She really couldn't see the shadow of Chongzhen in the prince...

It was already the New Year, and Chen Wen, the director of the Ministry of Industry, looked at the bag of pepper in the hall with a sad face.

Although the Prince Supervisor has carried out drastic reforms this year, they are still as short of money as in previous years.

The New Year's fee they paid was another bag of pepper.

Xiangyin has been in arrears for half a year, food prices have soared, and the family's money has been shining brightly by selling food.

If a family of six wants to have a good meal during the Chinese New Year, they must sell this bag of pepper.

But there was no money, no power, and there were many officials in the yamen. Almost all they distributed were pepper and other items.

Who needs pepper during the Chinese New Year? It’s not easy to sell a bag of pepper.

"Father, my son is hungry. I want to eat rice..."

At this time, the six-year-old son looked at his father with a face full of expectations. His request was very simple: to have a good meal of rice during the Chinese New Year.

Without hesitation, Chen Wen touched his son's little head, picked up the pepper and went out to sell it.

But there were many officials selling pepper and other spices on the street, but no one bought pepper at all.

No one even asked about the price for half a morning, so Chen Wen had no choice but to return home.

Seeing his son's eager eyes, he wanted to find a mouse hole to crawl into!

"Forget it, let's be shameless and go find colleagues with better conditions to borrow some money to buy rice, and try to return the money to them after the year."

Chen Wen put down the pepper and muttered to himself and walked out, still thinking about which of his colleagues had money.

At this moment, a voice suddenly came:

"Are you Mr. Chen?"

Chen Wen hurriedly looked up, only to find two guards wearing bullfighting uniforms walking into his home.

Chen Wen was shocked. Now Jin Yiwei has really made all the officials frightened. They are inspecting and raiding every professional household!

I heard that the crown prince confiscated the homes and exterminated the eight powerful Shanxi merchants again. Now almost everyone in the capital is in danger.

"I'm Chen Wen. I don't know what the two adults have to do with Xiaguan. It seems that Xiaguan has never done anything illegal..."

Jin Yiwei smiled slightly and said:

"Your Majesty, you are serious. We are all following orders. Coming to your house today is also an order from the Crown Prince!"

Chen Wen trembled when he heard this. He thought that he was done playing and someone must have killed him.

Chen Wengang wanted to ask who had wronged him, but he saw a guard in Jinyi took out a piece of silver and handed it over:

"The Crown Prince has an order to help investigate the land officials in the Gyeonggi area. Each person will be given ten taels of silver as hard work fee. Please accept it. We have to go to the next one..."

"What? Ten taels of silver for hard work?"

Chen Wenwen thought Jin Yiwei was here to arrest him, but unexpectedly he came to give him money.

At first, the crown prince said that there would be rewards after the land inventory was completed, but no one believed it.

I didn’t expect that the Crown Prince would send ten taels of silver on New Year’s Eve. This was really life-saving money!

Chen Wen burst into tears with excitement and hurriedly took the silver with both hands.

At this moment, the Crown Prince suddenly became a great god in his heart, no longer the little evil star.

Looking at the heavy silver in his hand, Chen Wen suddenly knelt down and kowtowed in the direction of the palace:
Chapter completed!