Although Emperor Zhu returned to the DPRK on the pretext of lack of money, and ruined the Beijing Project that all the confused officials in the DPRK had been waiting for, the lack of money was just an excuse!

How could the Ming Dynasty have no money now? Don’t look at who is the Minister of Household Affairs? That person is known as the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, actually the richest man in the world, and he is also Zheng Zhilong, who built a wealth empire worth hundreds of millions from scratch!

How could Emperor Zhu's Ming Dynasty have no money when he was the head of household affairs in Nanjing?

"If you have money, you have money, of course you have money! Your Majesty, rest assured that a family with ministers as household ministers will never let the court suffer poverty. In fact, since the rise of the Northern Expedition, the court's income has increased sharply year after year.

In my opinion, the debt plan is a bit redundant. There are still hundreds of millions in the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue, which is enough to meet the military needs of the North."

In the Yanshan Hall of Laoshan Palace, the one who was patting his chest and assuring Emperor Zhu that he had money to spend was of course the richest man, Zheng Zhilong.

Zhu Cihong returned to Laoshan Palace on March 25th, and then issued an edict, saying that he was tired from the journey and needed to rest for a few days and prepare for the victory parade on April 1st. Therefore, the large and small court meetings continued to be suspended and were not officially resumed until April 3rd.

However, no matter how hard he worked, he still had to see his father-in-law, so the day after Emperor Zhu returned to Laoshan Palace, he ordered Wu Xiang to be summoned, and Zheng Zhilong came. Wu Xiang was in Yangzhou because he had been released from the job of governor of Jiangbei.

So it didn't arrive so soon. It was Zheng Zhilong who entered the palace to see him on March 26th.

"etc!"

On the second floor of Dongnuan Pavilion in Yanshan Hall, in a Chinese-style living room, Emperor Zhu interrupted Zheng Zhilong who was "showing off his wealth".

Of course Emperor Zhu knew that the court was rich. He was known as the most money-loving emperor in the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years. Would he not know that the court was rich?

Before the Northern Expedition was launched, he knew that he would definitely get richer as he fought more and more! Not only because the war would stimulate demand, but also because victory in the war would bring a lot of spoils. Of course, the movable property in the spoils was easily lost, and it was very easy to lose.

It is difficult to fall into the hands of the Ming court. But real estate such as land, cities, ports, canals, mines, salt fields, forests, pastures, etc., has no place to hide.

If the industry and commerce in the southeast were underdeveloped and there was no financial system that could support a large number of real estate transactions, there would be no way to realize or mortgage the real estate acquired during the Northern Expedition.

The industrial, commercial and financial industries in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty were developed enough, so the real estate captured by the Northern Expedition could be turned into money in the two banks' books.

Even considering that most of the acquired cultivated land (flag land) will be distributed to meritorious officials, the Ming court can still obtain hundreds of millions of wealth from the remaining assets.

So what Emperor Zhu lacks most now is money!

But now is not the time to show off wealth. Now the Ming court must pretend to be poor. The backbone of the court is the exiled northerners, and they have only been away from home for more than ten years. They are all homesick and wish they could move back to Beijing! Although the gentry and wealthy merchants in the southeast

They benefited greatly from Emperor Zhu's rule, but they did not necessarily want the court to stay in Nanjing.

With the imperial court in Nanjing, it would be less easy for them to evade taxes!

Don't let a financial expert like Zhu Cixi become the emperor. An emperor like Chongzhen, who grew up in a deep palace and didn't know much about the outside world, would only know that there are many evil gentry and profiteers like you in the south of the Yangtze River if you leave the Forbidden City in Nanjing and conduct a private visit on the Qinhuai River incognito.

Got money.

Why was the Song Dynasty so rich in history? Isn't it because Bianliang itself was the economic center during the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Jiangnan region where Lin'an is located was the most prosperous and wealthy region in the world during the Southern Song Dynasty.

If you still can't get paid like this, the emperor is really a fool!

"Mr. Quan Guo," Zhu Cixi lowered his voice and looked at Zheng Zhilong with a solemn expression, "Does Prime Minister Wei know that we are rich? Do the other ministers in the cabinet know that the imperial court is extremely rich?"

Zheng Zhilong was stunned for a moment, and then understood what Emperor Zhu meant, and immediately smiled and said: "Your Majesty, of course they know that the income of the imperial court is enough to cover expenses, but they don't know how much money they have. The account books of the imperial court are placed in front of them, and they don't know.

I don’t know where the money is!”

They are all great scholars who are familiar with the books of sages! How do you know the ability of profiteers to make false accounts?

And Zheng Zhilong is not stupid, and he is not worried that the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue will be fired. This job will be a burden for him, and it is better to get it! So he will not sugarcoat the report to put pressure on himself.

Therefore, the famous prime minister Zhu Cihong chose, Wei Zaode, who was "even better than Zhuge Liang", was a prime minister who didn't even know that the Cabinet Office he was responsible for was rich, and Zhu Cihong was also bad, but he didn't tell Wei Zaode that the imperial court was rich.

"That's good," Zhu Cixiang smiled, "Old Taishan, you have to hide the court's money and don't let them find it. We can't show our wealth, we have to pretend to be poor!"

"Pretending to be poor?" Zheng Zhilong thought about it and understood again, "Is the Emperor worried about the proposal to move north?"

Zheng Zhilong was one of the few important ministers who opposed the move of the imperial court to the north. The reason for his opposition was not that he was willing to pay more taxes, but that he hoped that the imperial court could work harder at sea!

With the full development of exchanges between China and the West, Zheng Zhilong, who always looked at the world with his eyes wide open, has fully understood the importance of the ocean.

In his opinion, Zhu Cihong invested too many resources in the Mongolian territory of the Yellow Sect. If these resources were used to develop the navy at sea, there would be an "Invincible Fleet".

With the "Invincible Fleet" as the backing, the Zheng family can carry out maritime trade to the Spice Islands, India and the Ottoman Empire!

This is a big business that brings in huge amounts of money!

Zhu Cixiang nodded: "In the next ten or twenty years, the theory of moving north will not go out. After all, the homesickness of people moving south is not so easy to resolve. They will have to wait until their children grow up in the southeast before they can truly integrate.

Southeast, you won’t be able to leave by then!”

In fact, for many years after Zhu Di moved north, moving south had been a hot topic in the Ming Dynasty. Until one month before the death of Ming Renzong Zhu Gaochi, he wanted to move the capital back to Nanjing.

Zhu Cihong paused and then asked: "Does the Ministry of Revenue have any thoughts on the unofficial property in the north? Should we set up a yamen and send a smarter official to take charge of this matter?"

Zheng Zhilong thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, there is a large amount of unofficial property in the north. It must be dealt with carefully. If it is done well, hundreds of millions can be recovered! However, ordinary officials may not be able to do such an errand. I have a candidate.

.”

"Who?" Zhu Cixiang looked at Zheng Zhilong with interest. He wanted to know who Zheng Zhilong wanted to dump this blame on?

Zheng Zhilong said: "Minister of Beiyang, Marquis of Chongming Shen Tingyang!"

This is the "Second Rich Man of the Ming Dynasty" (not counting Zhu Cixiang), and he will be the next after Zheng Zhilong!

Zheng Zhilong developed his career in maritime trade and finance, while this one benefited from the manufacturing industry. Due to the demand created by the three-year Northern Expedition, large-scale manual workshops such as Shanghai Sunken Steel, Shanghai Sunken Vehicle, Shanghai Sunken Shipbuilding, and Shanghai Sunken Powder (Gunpowder) were established.

Make a lot of money!

Moreover, in order to open a handicraft factory in Shanghai, Shen Tingyang also purchased a large area of ​​land located in or near the Shanghai Commercial Port. In recent years, land prices in Shanghai Commercial Port have continued to rise, and the Commercial Port itself has expanded again and again, including a lot of land near the Commercial Port. Go in, so Shen Tingyang issued another vote in the process of land appreciation.

"Shen Tingyang" Zhu Cixiang actually thought of this man, because he was the only one among the super capitalists of the Ming Dynasty who had invested heavily in the north and achieved success.

"Is he willing to take this job?" Zhu Cihong asked, "It seems that he doesn't even want to be the Minister of Beiyang anymore, right?"

Shen Tingyang is now a great meritorious official. He has been granted the title of Marquis of Chongming in Kenan and is already ranked as a first-class noble. With or without the actual position of Minister of Beiyang, it will not have a negative impact on the Shen family's business activities.
Chapter completed!