Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 261 was deceived, but he didn't know

"The girl Yue who was with me before has been called back home. If the prince is free, could you go and see her for me?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Cilang was stunned at first, but he immediately understood the hint hidden in the words.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince must ascend the throne when he returns this time.

To this end, not only did the officials in Yingtian begin various preparations early, but even the kings and officials who had fled to Hangzhou had returned one after another.

But, Empress Dowager Zou is still here and shows no intention of leaving.

On the one hand, this was because of her noble status and could not be touched lightly, but on the other hand, who could deny that this was not the influence of Hongguang's establishment of a false dynasty?

Zhu Cilang's legitimacy came from Chongzhen, and he had nothing to do with the small court after the southward migration. To put it bluntly, the reason why he always respected Empress Dowager Zou was to try his best to maintain the unity of the court and prevent the Tartars from taking advantage of these trivial matters.

But it’s different now.

Regardless of whether Hongguang was coerced or did it willingly, in reality his reputation became a weapon for the Tartars to disrupt Zhu Cilang's rhythm.

The Guangdong and Guangxi provinces that had just been pacified, the devastated Hunan, the powerful enemy at the side of Jiangxi, the hypocritical Fujian, and the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan that had already been devastated. The ministers in the court were not fools. How could they not understand how His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would feel when he had to leave all these behind and return to Jiangnan?

What's more, the current Crown Prince is no longer the same as before. Even if he uses this incident as an excuse to settle accounts with Hongguang, no one can stop him.

Under such circumstances, the officials were naturally unsure about how His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would treat Queen Mother Zou.

As a result, the royal family ministers rushed to Yingtian, while Empress Dowager Zou stayed in Hangzhou, and no one was even informed of the news that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had entered the city.

"My grandson has come back this time to take the Queen Mother back to Yingtian. If the Xu family girl serves her well, you can summon her after I return."

After he finished speaking, although Empress Dowager Zou's expression did not change much, the eunuchs and maids in the hall all showed joy on their faces.

Obviously they all knew very well that without these few words from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, it would be hard to tell what the Queen Mother would be like in the future, but their fate was easily foreseeable.

There is nothing much to say about what happened afterwards. After getting the promise from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Empress Dowager Zou also reciprocated by expressing her support for him as Hongguang's biological mother and the Empress Dowager of the Ming Dynasty.

Afterwards, the two exchanged a few more pleasantries, and after agreeing on the departure time, he said goodbye and left to meet several ministers he had left in Hangzhou.

Although they were called several people, in fact, only Yue Qijie and Zhu Guobi were qualified to meet Zhu Cilang. If we add Zhang Yinli, the prefect of Hangzhou who was specially summoned, then in the past, there were always dozens of important officials of the court crammed into the hall, but now there are actually only a few of them.

"Your Highness has met the Queen Mother?"

As soon as they met, everyone only had time to greet Zhu Cilang, and then heard Yue Qijie ask a tentative question.

He was a minister who had followed Zhu Cilang all the way out of Yingtian, so he naturally knew the style of his own Crown Prince.

However, the powerful enemy has now been driven back to Jiangbei, and Your Highness has pacified Guangdong and Guangxi and stabilized Hunan and Jiangxi at lightning speed.

With most of the crisis resolved, who can guarantee that His Royal Highness can still maintain his usual composure and take the overall situation into consideration? Who can guarantee that His Royal Highness will not use this opportunity to settle accounts with Hongguang?

Therefore, Zhu Cilang's attitude towards Empress Dowager Zou became extremely concerning.

"Yes, I have seen it. This time I will return to Nanjing with the Queen Mother. What a pity."

After a long tone, not only did Yue Qijie, who had just put his mind at ease, look up nervously, but even Zhu Guobi, who seemed to be indifferent, had a similar expression.

"It's a pity that you two can't go back."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yue Qijie breathed a sigh of relief.

He was really afraid of hearing words like "The Queen Mother is unwell."

If this is true, it means that His Highness will settle accounts with Hongguang. Although it may not cause much disturbance at that time, it will inevitably cause the court situation that has finally stabilized to become chaotic again.

Under such circumstances, how could he not test the Crown Prince's feelings as soon as they met?

Fortunately, His Highness is still the same His Highness, and he has not become arrogant because the situation has improved.

"I still have important responsibilities to fulfill, so I can only congratulate Your Highness in advance."

As the words were spoken, Zhu Yue and the other two naturally prostrated themselves on the ground. However, following behind them was Zhang Yinli, who was not originally qualified to attend the coronation ceremony. Although he also prostrated himself, the embarrassment in the scene was indeed difficult to conceal.

"Get up, there's nothing to congratulate. Right now I can still lead troops outside, but I'm afraid it will be difficult in the future."

This was naturally what Zhu Cilang really thought, but as soon as he said this, he realized that the people present had no room to respond.

In this way, he got to the point of the topic, but who would have thought that before he even opened his mouth, Yue Qijie continued talking.

"Your Highness, although you are the late crown prince, the difficulties you faced earlier were no less than those faced by Emperor Guangwu. Therefore, I ask Your Highness to regard yourself as the founding emperor."

After he finished speaking, Zhu Guobi, who knew roughly what Yue Qijie was thinking, was still able to maintain his composure. However, Zhang Yinli, who was standing behind him, was so frightened by these "outrageous" words that he wanted to bow down again.

Of course, this was nothing to Zhu Cilang, but after thinking about it carefully, he more or less understood the true meaning of Yue Qijie's words.

The greatest characteristic of any founding monarch is that he possesses extremely high prestige in the army.

With this in mind, not only can the instability caused by military generals becoming too powerful and threatening the ruler be largely eliminated, but the powerful military force can also make the civil officials fearful.

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Why did Yue Qijie say this?

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but think of the first time he met Yue Qijie. At that time, he was about to disrupt the system of the Yingtian garrison. If Yue Qijie hadn't reminded him, he would not have remembered the importance of establishing a reputation.

Therefore, he felt that Yue Qijie should be a member of the establishment, and he was naturally surprised when he heard these words coming from his mouth.

But this is nothing. After all, at this stage, Yue Qijie is still one of Zhu Cilang's most trusted ministers. Since he mentioned this matter now, Zhu Cilang will not cover it up.

"What Lord Yue said is very much in line with my opinion. However, the campaigns in the south and the north will take some time. If we are away from Nanjing for a long time, we have to come up with some compromise solutions." As the two of them were sure of each other's intentions due to these words, there was no point in continuing the topic. Afterwards, they sat down and Zhu Cilang first learned about the situation in Hangzhou.

If we only talk about the city of Hangzhou, it would not be necessary for Zhu Cilang to specifically summon Zhang Yinli, but this is the starting point of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and most of the materials circulating in the south of the Yangtze River have to be transported here.

Based on this, and through understanding the various conditions in Hangzhou, Zhu Cilang was able to infer the general situation of the entire Jiangnan region to a certain extent.

Zhang Yinli was prepared for all kinds of questions from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. After citing a few important prices of goods in the Hangzhou market, he waited quietly for the next question.

In Zhu Cilang's opinion, Zhang Yinli's ability to answer such questions can be considered as diligence.

However, he did walk around the streets for a while during the day, and what he saw and heard was somewhat different from what Zhang Yinli reported, so after listening, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but ask a question.

"Mr. Zhang, as far as I know, the current price of grain is about 110 wen per dou. When was the price of 86 wen that you mentioned?"

Zhu Cilang once chatted with Xiang Rensheng in Yingtian Prison. At that time, because the enemy was approaching, the price of grain not only rose to more than 190 coins, but also changed every hour.

But after all, we are not in the future when material things are extremely abundant. The price of hard currency like food is easy to rise but difficult to fall.

Even though the first batch of grain purchased from overseas has already been distributed through Hangzhou, it will still take some time for prices to return to their previous levels.

Therefore, when Zhu Cilang heard the eighty-six coins, he couldn't help but wonder: Could it be that the grain merchants in Hangzhou deliberately lowered the price of grain because they were worried about government interference?
"Your Highness, when the grain first arrived a while ago, the price of grain suddenly dropped. I did the statistics at that time. I'm afraid the price of grain has risen again in the past few days since the grain was scattered."

"Well, food is related to the national economy and people's livelihood. You local officials must pay close attention to it."

"I have failed in my duty. I do not understand my subjects as well as Your Highness does. Please punish me."

Having said that, Zhang Yinli knelt directly on the ground. However, in Zhu Cilang's opinion, even if he did not report the prices accurately, he still did the work. Under such circumstances, if he continued to demand perfection and criticize him, he wondered how many ministers in the court would be useful.

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Zhu Cilang was not aware that the various data mentioned by Zhang Yinli were not obtained by his statistics, but came from the records of "Wanli Accounting Records".

This book was first edited by the Ministry of Revenue in July of the sixth year of the Longqing reign, and was completed on February 26 of the fourth year of the Wanli reign.

This financial book, which took several years to create, not only records the court's revenue and expenditure, but also records the price details of the entire Ming Dynasty at that time.

Of course, Zhang Yinli, who only read books of sages, naturally did not have the time to read these things, but the aides he hired at a high price were quite familiar with many of them.

After an earlier meeting in the military tent, the advisers felt that His Highness seemed to be extremely interested in numbers and the like. When they heard that Zhang Yinli was summoned, they picked out some key figures from the above and made some adjustments based on the current situation before letting their boss remember them firmly.

In this way, Zhu Cilang would feel that there were some differences when he heard the data reported by the person, but it seemed more credible.

Yes, the Crown Prince Regent of the Ming Dynasty was deceived by this submissive minister.

But then again, who in this world can escape this?

"No problem, no problem. Just be more careful next time." Facing this diligent minister, Zhu Cilang praised him a little. After he stood up, he continued, "You don't have to pay too much attention to how much money each family gets from selling grain. I only ask that you sell as much as you bring back from overseas. But if you hoard grain, you have to be careful of military law."

"Wei Chen understands."

Zhu Cilang understood clearly that based on the price of grain overseas, even if it was only sold for forty or fifty cents in Jiangnan, there would still be money to be made.

Based on this, as long as he ensures that each household has a steady supply of grain, then after only three or two trips, the price of grain in Jiangnan will surely fall to a level that is easily acceptable to ordinary people.

Under such circumstances, his most critical task is to ensure that food is not hoarded. Forcing down prices will lead to a shortage of food flowing in.

After asking a few more questions, Zhang Yinli answered them all smoothly.

Seeing this man's performance, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but feel that he seemed to have underestimated the Hangzhou prefect, and then he began to think about testing him further.

At this point, all questions concerning Hangzhou had been asked, and after Zhang Yinli left, the meeting entered its real topic.

Due to the obstruction of the Tartars and the war, before Zhu Cilang returned, the small court was not very clear about the detailed situation there, except that it knew that the Tartars had not yet occupied the entire Jiangxi province.

Therefore, when formulating the offensive plan, they neither took into account the possible existence of friendly forces nor the variables brought about by these friendly forces.

Ultimately, the plan was focused solely on opening up connections between the East and the West, but no one thought that there would be more to gain.

In this case, it is extremely necessary to make some major adjustments.

"Your Highness, I'm afraid we can't afford this battle."

When Zhu Cilang expressed his intention to completely retake Jiangxi in one battle, Yue Qijie, the Governor-General of Jiangxi, had not yet spoken, but Zhu Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo who was in charge of organizing military supplies, put the difficulties on the table first.

"Can't afford to fight? Didn't we rob a few big clans?"

"Your Highness, you don't know that although those big families are all long-standing families, their assets are mainly farmland. A total of 1.4 million taels were seized from their houses," Zhu Guobi said, glancing at Zhu Cilang's expression. Seeing that he was frowning in thought, he continued, "Plus, the money and grain in Yingtian have been spent, and the court's expenses for the past two months have all been paid from this money."

Faced with such statements, Zhu Cilang did not delve into it further.

It is now impossible to determine how much wealth those families had. After all, the people sent to confiscate the properties were all from Hangzhou, so it was inevitable that they would take advantage of the situation.

As for what Zhu Guobi said next, it is not difficult to imagine that the bigger the business, the greater the expenses.

The most crucial thing is that all the circulation channels of silver and money are full of large and small termites. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that money flows like water.

"If I want to mobilize 100,000 troops, how long can the money here support me?"

After thinking for a long time, Zhu Cilang finally decided to make opening up the east and west the top priority. However, who would have thought that Zhu Guobi's subsequent words would force him to have other ideas.

"About 40 to 50 days."

(End of this chapter)