The doctor concubine who broke off the engagement was forced to rush to the wedding, but became the

At the court meeting on the second day, as soon as Eunuch Fu finished saying "If you have something to report, please stand up; if not, please leave," Liu Chen stood out from the team, frightening all the officials in the court so much that they froze up and turned into statues in an instant.

I don’t know who is the unlucky guy who was caught by Liu Chen today?

Liu Chen said, "I want to report the officials of Jiangnan Prefecture for dereliction of duty. They knew about the flood in Jiangnan but did not report it. Now there are refugees gathering in the suburbs of Beijing, which will bring about a population explosion, food shortages, and the risk of plague in the capital."

Everyone in the hall breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed it wasn't them.

Suddenly I became nervous again. What? There was a flood in Jiangnan?! Is it the same as ten years ago?

Officials who are middle-aged or older still remember the flood in the south of the Yangtze River ten years ago. It is no exaggeration to say that the whole country was mobilized to provide disaster relief, which almost emptied the treasury of the Jin Dynasty.

At that time, the treasury of Dajin was more abundant than it is now. Now, the treasury of Dajin cannot withstand such a natural disaster.

Emperor Jingde was so shocked that he stood up from his bright yellow throne and asked in surprise, "Liu Chen, what did you say?"

Liu Chen repeated the content of the impeachment and added: "Your Majesty, please send someone to ask the soldiers guarding the city gate to find out whether I am lying."

Emperor Jingde immediately said to Eunuch Fu: "Send someone who can walk quickly to the city gates to inquire."

Eunuch Fu sent a young eunuch who was good at martial arts and had quick legs to go there quickly. He came back about two hours later and reported: "The general guarding the city said that there are indeed refugees gathering at the east gate recently, and the number is increasing."

Emperor Jingde showed his greatest anger in the court this year, and immediately sent someone to Jiangnan with an imperial edict to escort the governor of Jiangnan back to Beijing.

But in the following days, the heavy rain in the capital did not stop. As the disaster in the south of the Yangtze River intensified, the number of refugees in the suburbs of Beijing continued to increase. Despite the daily restrictions on the number of people entering and leaving, many refugees quickly poured into the streets of Kyoto. The number of beggars, thieves, and even blatant robbers on the streets increased visibly.

Emperor Jingde was so furious that he had to order that people entering and exiting the city gates of Kyoto needed to present a reasonable certificate, such as visiting relatives or discussing business, to prevent more refugees from pouring in.

On the one hand, he hurriedly summoned court ministers to discuss countermeasures. After much discussion, the Ministry of Revenue's answer was that they could not come up with as much money and grain for disaster relief as they did ten years ago. Otherwise, the Ministry of Revenue would be short of money before the end of the year, and the ministers would not be able to pay their year-end food allowances.

For a while, the situation in the court was changing and there was a lot of discussion.

Emperor Jingde threw the memorial from the Ministry of Revenue in the face of the Minister of Revenue and said angrily: "If you don't have money, collect it from the people. If you don't have grain, buy it from the surrounding prefectures. I want you, the Minister of Revenue, to work for me and the people of the world, not to throw difficulties to me!"

The Minister of Revenue responded tremblingly, but he really had no good ideas in his mind. He just knelt in the Golden Palace with his head down and dared not say another word.

At this moment, the young eunuch came to report that the Prince of Yan had entered the palace with his wife.

Emperor Jingde remembered that Pei Yi had come to the palace three times and thought that he had come to complain to him again. He immediately shouted angrily: "Let them go! I don't have time to judge their case now!"

The young eunuch was startled, but the eunuch next to him, Fu Gong, had already received the young eunuch's report and finished the conversation to the young eunuch: "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince's Consort said that she came to give you money."

When Emperor Jingde heard that someone was sending silver, he remembered that Xie Zhichan was still the president of the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and might be able to help him out of his urgent need, so he said to the young eunuch, "Fool, why don't you go and invite him in."

After a while, Pei Yi and Xie Zhichan walked in.

After kneeling in greeting, Emperor Jingde hurriedly asked Xie Zhichan to "stand up" and asked, "How much silver does the Crown Prince's wife have?"

Xie Zhichan said: "The Prince of Yan's Mansion is willing to donate all of its cash, 100,000 taels, to help the court resolve the disaster in Jiangnan." There were originally 300,000 taels, of which 200,000 had been urgently exchanged for food and medicinal materials in the past few days when the disaster in Jiangnan had not spread and prices had returned to normal.

When Emperor Jingde heard that there were only 100,000 taels of silver, he was immediately deflated. For this disaster, the court could only take out 500,000 taels of silver in cash at most, plus the 100,000 taels from the Prince of Yan's Mansion, it was only 600,000 taels. However, the cost of purchasing food and supplies for the flood in Jiangnan ten years ago, as well as post-disaster reconstruction, totaled no less than one million taels.

Xie Zhichan immediately saw the trouble of Emperor Jingde, and said: "Although the Prince of Yan's Mansion only has 100,000 taels of silver in cash, the Prince of Yan's Mansion is willing to sell all its properties in the form of shares, 20,000 shares, 10 taels of silver per share. As long as the merchants or common people who buy shares can participate in the distribution of 10% of the profits at the end of the year, or resell them. If all can be sold successfully, it can help the emperor collect another 200,000 taels of silver."

After hearing this, Emperor Jingde praised it and said, "This is a very good idea!" In this way, money can be raised from the people for legitimate and reasonable reasons.

Xie Zhichan said, "I heard from the prince that the flood in Jiangnan ten years ago cost about one million taels of silver, so there is still a shortfall of two hundred thousand taels of silver. I heard that although the emperor dismissed the Luo family from the position of president of the Chamber of Commerce and confiscated all the cash of the Luo family, he did not confiscate the Luo family's property. I think regarding the sale of shares, the emperor can let the Luo family and the Prince of Yan's Mansion jointly sell them, and the one million taels of silver will definitely be raised."

Emperor Jingde said, "Just as you said, I will immediately issue an order to let the officials in the court take the lead in purchasing shares. Officials above the third rank must buy at least ten shares, and officials above the fifth rank must buy at least five shares. Princess, what do you think of this?"

Xie Zhichan said: "If the emperor can let all officials follow suit, the shares we issue will definitely have more credibility among the people. The emperor also needs to let the government offices of each state issue a proclamation to explain the reason for this share and how it will be operated. Only then can the properties of the Prince of Yan's Mansion and the Luo family outside the capital be converted into shares and sold."

Emperor Jingde responded to all of them.

In the following days, the most discussed topic in Kyoto was the shares issued by Prince Yan's Mansion and the Luo family.

With the guarantee of the imperial edict and the government's proclamation, officials in the court took the lead in purchasing, so the promotion among private merchants was relatively smooth.

Some businessmen pursued caution and only purchased a small number of shares, while some businessmen always had a gambler mentality and bought a large number of shares at once. These shares, added together, soon raised enough silver for disaster relief and solved the big problem of Emperor Jingde.

Pei Yi had never expected that the Luo family would be so supportive of this matter. Not only did they not make any trouble in the issuance of shares, they also did not hide anything and used all of the Luo family's major industries to issue shares.

While the maids were packing their luggage for the trip to Jiangnan in the room, Xie Zhichan and Pei Yi sat on the swing in the yard and chatted.

Pei Yi curiously asked Xie Zhichan, "How did you get Luo Wanjin to agree? Doesn't he hold a grudge against you for pulling him down as the president of the Chamber of Commerce?"

Xie Zhichan said: "Luo Wanjin cherishes his daughter the most, but it's a pity that his daughter is so devoted to the prince that she even wants to go to the East Palace to be a maid. I just made her disillusioned with the prince."

Pei Yi raised his eyebrows slightly: "Oh? How did you do that?"

Xie Zhichan said: "Just tell her not to just think about him sitting on the crown prince's throne, but also to think about him sitting on the toilet and unable to poop."

Pei Yi frowned after hearing this: "What kind of strange principle is this?"

Xie Zhichan said: "For a girl of her age, love mostly stems from the beautiful fantasy in her mind. She imagines the other person to be like an immortal who is not affected by worldly affairs. How can she not fall into the trap of being bewildered?"

Pei Yi probably understood what he said. He looked at Xie Zhichan. Although Ayuan was also a "girl of this age", her feelings for him should not be based on beautiful fantasies in her mind, right?

Thinking this way, his relationship with Ayuan should be relatively stable——