Daming: The system rejected my request for salted fish

"You see, this middle finger is the longest of the fingers, representing greetings and diamond beauty that reach the deepest depths."

"Diamond Beauty?"

"Praise, I just slipped up."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang chuckled, then raised his hand and said to Wei Wu:

"If you keep talking nonsense to me, how about I try to praise you?"

Seeing that the middle finger of Lao Zhu's right hand was about to stand up, Wei Wu finally spoke up and confessed.

"Okay! To be honest, that gesture means to marry his mother, his wife, and all eighteen generations of his ancestors."

"Okay, stop being so funny. I called you here because I have something to ask you."

As he spoke, Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand and waved, and all the palace servants in the back hall retreated voluntarily.

After everyone left, Zhu Yuanzhang slowly revealed his intentions.

"Well, I just wanted to ask you if there's any good way to get some money. Our treasury is a bit tight."

"The pirates' silver mountain is currently unavailable, and the rewards we've given you these days have all been paid from our treasury."

"For our family, it costs more than two million silver coins every year just to support them. It's a bit too much!"

Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang sighing, Wei Wu had only one thought in his mind.

This old man is very evil and never tells the truth.

It is true that the emperors of the early Ming Dynasty basically paid their rewards to individuals from the imperial treasury.

It was not until the mid-Ming Dynasty that the emperor began to target the national treasury and tried every possible way to get money from it.

But now is the Hongwu period!

It would be fine if it was in the late Hongwu period, but the country has only been established for fifteen years.

The wealth confiscated from the homes of the previous dynasty's treasury and officials and gentry was terrifying.

At worst, the three major cases of Hongwu had already occurred, and Zhu Yuanzhang had killed countless people.

The money, land, and shops confiscated from tens of thousands of people went into the national treasury, but a lot of it also went into the imperial treasury.

Now Zhu Yuanzhang actually said that he had no money. Isn’t this nonsense!

If Zhu Di had said he had no money in the late Yongle period, Wei Wu would still have believed him.

After all, Yongle's Northern Expedition cost a lot of financial and material resources, and he was indeed too poor to afford the war.

But Old Zhu was definitely worried about the less money in his small treasury and wanted to make up for it.

It’s like Zeng Tai came to you to cry poor, and you came to me to cry poor. What have I become, the God of Wealth?

Wait, this old man is not trying to cry poor and ask me to take out the money for building the science and technology institute!

No way! No one can take the money that goes into my pocket except my wife!

While Wei Wu was complaining and being alert in his heart, he also began to think of a solution.

After a long time, Wei Wu looked at Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Uncle Zhu, if you want to talk about the fastest way, it's to rob. It's just that there are no suitable targets around."

"Those small countries are living in dire straits. If they send troops to conquer them, they might not even earn back the money they spent on the expedition."

"And those intellectuals won't give in either. After all, they only know how to chant about morality but have no sympathy for the suffering of the people."

When talking about these literati, Wei Wu felt angry. No, it should be said that he felt angry at those selfish literati.

Those literati who have changed since the Dasong Dynasty have lost their literary integrity and only care about interests.

They talk about benevolence, righteousness, and morality, but keep silent about the Celestial Empire, just because of this unrealistic reputation.

He would rather watch the people of his country live a hard life than bear the blame and make their lives better.

The reason is that they, the literati, are the vested interests, they are superior to others and live a rich life.

How were those Western countries in later generations able to maintain high social welfare for hundreds of years?

It is because they have plundered a large amount of resources and wealth from all over the world that they are able to support the people of their own country.

Although the reputation is not very good, the benefits are real and have been obtained and enjoyed.

Thinking of this, Wei Wu changed the subject and directed his attack at Zhu Yuanzhang.