Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 97, it's just child's play

Emperor Hongzhi's order was quickly conveyed to Ma Wensheng, Minister of the Ministry of War, and Zhou Jing, Minister of the Household Department. The two were at a loss when they received Emperor Hongzhi's order.

"What is this clairvoyance? It costs 10 taels of silver each, and 2000 of them are purchased. The 2 taels of silver are used to purchase this clairvoyance?"

The telescope in Zhu Houzhao's hand is naturally still in Zhu Houzhao's hands, so Ma Wensheng and Zhou Jing have no idea what this clairvoyance is and what it does.

As the Minister of the Household Department, Zhou Jing has always been a famous miser. It is more difficult to get money from him to do things.

There is no way, only the head of the family knows the difficulty of being the head of the family, especially the Ming Dynasty has been very poor since the founding of the country. Although there are a lot of grains, cloth, silk, tea, etc. collected every year, the money is still a year. Less than 300 million taels of silver.

The 300 million taels of silver are basically depleted once the salaries of officials in the court are paid. In times of famine, it is difficult for the court to provide silver for disaster relief.

So another unique skill of Zhou Jing is to cheat Emperor Hongzhi, trying every means to cheat Emperor Hongzhi's internal money, anyway, this country belongs to their old Zhu family, and it is reasonable and reasonable for their old Zhu family to pay for it.

Now Emperor Hongzhi ordered him to pay 2 taels of silver to buy some kind of clairvoyance. He didn't know what the clairvoyance was, but he wanted 10 taels of silver. Ten thousand are not reconciled.

"I don't know what this clairvoyance is, but the decree says that it is to be purchased from Liu Jin. You should have heard of Liu Jin, the one who made a big splash in the Mochiyue Tower, and now he is helping His Majesty take care of Xishan The young man in the coal industry."

"He has been taught by an expert, maybe this clairvoyance is really useful, otherwise it wouldn't be worth 10 taels of silver."

Ma Wensheng thought for a while and said, he didn't see the real object of the clairvoyance, and the function of the clairvoyance was not specified in the decree. He just asked his side to purchase from Liu Jin. Liu Jin is now well-known in the capital, and basically everyone knows it.

"But the 10 taels of silver to buy a clairvoyance will cost 2 taels of silver... You also know that the national treasury is empty, and there is no money left at all."

Zhou Jing shook his head, thinking of the treasury that could starve rats to death, he was even more reluctant to spend so much money on clairvoyance.

"This is His Majesty's will, and the cabinet has also passed it. Let's do it according to the will."

Ma Wensheng and Zhou Jing are still different, because the money is still spent on the military. He is the Minister of the Ministry of War, so he is more supportive of spending money.

After all, since the Tumu Fortress Change, the civil servants have completely controlled the military power, and the support for the military is getting less and less every year. If you can pick it, you can pick it, and you can save it, so that the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty army also plummeted.

In the past, I was able to walk around the grasslands, but now I dare not even go out of the grasslands, so I can only hide in the city for passive defense. The important reason for this is that military expenditures have been reduced by civilian officials. .

The civil servants have managed to grasp the power of the government. Naturally, they will not give those Qiuba, generals, nobles, etc. a chance to stand up. They not only suppress the generals and nobles, but also continue to reduce military expenditures. in their own hands.

Although Ma Wensheng is a civil servant and has the same interests as the entire civil servant group, as Minister of the Ministry of War, he also clearly understands the importance of the military to the country.

The disadvantages brought about by the continuous reduction of military expenditure over the years have become more and more prominent. The Ming Dynasty's military strength is weak, its combat effectiveness is low, it is not uncommon to see empty pay, killing good men and taking meritorious service, a family of soldiers and bandits, and a lack of military equipment. There are endless problems.

Although the goal of suppressing military generals Xungui was successfully achieved, now the literati have the final say in the court, and those generals dare not even say a fart, and there is no place to talk. As for Xungui, the British public Zhang Mao is offering sacrifices I have done a good job in terms of etiquette, and I have learned etiquette very well.

But a country can’t do without a strong army. The Tatars and Oirats in the north have repeatedly violated the border, and the scars from the Tumubao incident have not fully healed yet.

In May of this year, the little prince went south and invaded Datong with soldiers. The battalion was [-] miles away, and the capital was shaken. Now that it is winter, the Tatars and Oirats have changed frequently, and there is a faint tendency to go south.

As the minister of the Ministry of War, Ma Wensheng is still very aware of the current situation of the Ming army. It is still good to transfer some more money, and it should be able to play a role to some extent.

"That's the only way to go. It's just that His Majesty now owns the Xishan Coal Industry, with an annual income of one million. The money should actually come from His Majesty~"

Zhou Jing thought for a while and nodded, and then thought about Emperor Hongzhi's inner money.

Soon, the joint document notice from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War fell into Liu Jin's hands. Liu Jin was still in a daze, unable to figure out what happened.

"This clairvoyance should be a telescope~"

"I only made a few telescopes, and only one was given to go by Zhu Houzhao. Why did the purchase orders from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households come?"

"Could it be that Zhu Houzhao dedicated this telescope to Emperor Hongzhi, who knew the function of this telescope, so he decided to purchase a batch?"

After careful study, Liu Jin quickly guessed the matter, because this was the only reasonable explanation. Besides, he really couldn't figure out why he came to buy the telescope when he was doing well.

"10 taels of silver for a telescope, who set the price?"

When he saw the purchase quantity and total amount of the telescope, Liu Jin immediately calculated the purchase price of the telescope. The purchase price of 10 taels of silver is simply sky-high.

"Could it be that Emperor Hongzhi saw how hard it was for me to manage the Xishan Coal Industry for him, so he specifically gave me benefits?"

"Probably because they think the glass is very valuable, so they set 10 taels of silver for each glass."

Liu Jin thought about it carefully, but soon shook his head with a smile: "Whatever it is, anyway, 10 taels of silver is a telescope, and this time I'm going to make a lot of money. Seeing that the Chinese New Year is coming soon, I can't do it now." Worry about having no money during the Chinese New Year.”

Manufacturing this telescope is not too easy for Liu Jin. The glass can be burned out by itself. As for polishing, it is not difficult. Glass is not a very hard thing, so it is easy to polish. If there are enough manpower for 2000 telescopes , can be done in a few days.

As for manpower, the most indispensable thing here in Xishan is manpower. There were originally more than 2000 people, and they have been recruiting refugees these days. Now there are almost 3000 people, and it is enough to recruit some people.

A few days later, Liu Jin delivered the completed 2000 binoculars to the Ministry of War, and happily took away [-] taels of silver from the Ministry of Households.

"I really want to see what a clairvoyance with 10 taels of silver looks like?"

Knowing that Liu Jin delivered the goods in a few days, Zhou Jing was very heartbroken when he cut off the 2 taels of meat, and hurried to find Ma Wensheng to see what this clairvoyance is.

"It's just child's play. I bought a bunch of these things for 2 taels of silver~"

After carefully studying the so-called clairvoyance, Zhou Jing couldn't help cursing immediately, and then hurriedly dragged Ma Wensheng into the palace to look for Emperor Hongzhi.

　Please collect, please collect~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)