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Chapter 20 The Royal Exposition

The area around the Daming Gate has always been the most prosperous area in the capital of Daming. This area is full of merchants, shops are dazzling, and there are also a large flow of people. From above, officials and nobles to peddlers and pawns, people from south to north gather here, and goods from Tongzhou are basically gathered here.

Zhu Houzhao now asked someone to build a high platform in front of the first floor of Qipan Street, which has the most traffic in Daming Gate. A red carpet was laid on the platform and a gilded dragon chair throne was placed.

Zhu Houzhao sat on the dragon chaise, wearing a yellow robe and a mourning clothes, with a kind face and a smile.

Even before Liu Jin could shout at this moment, the people of the Ming Dynasty who came and went were attracted by the scene, because even if they had never seen Zhu Houzhao, they knew who could sit on the gilded throne and wear yellow dragon robe except the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Majesty, that's the Your Majesty!"

Some people shouted in surprise.

Then, more and more people gathered here consciously.

The Ming Dynasty is still popular with the people, and the people have even taken the initiative to kneel down:

"Long live my emperor!"

"Long live my emperor!"

"Long live my emperor!"

Although these people don’t know why the emperor appeared here, worshiping is always right, just like meeting a Bodhisattva who doesn’t know what kind of Bodhisattva it is, but worshiping is always right.

Those who had already walked away noticed that the emperor was here and rushed out.

Those who were having dinner and drinking in the teahouse and wine shop also checked out and hurried out.

Even the scholar who hugged the girl in the brothel put down his confidante and rushed over. Some even their confidantes ran over with them.

"The emperor is here at Daming Sect, go and see it!"

"Oh my God, why did the Emperor come here!"

"This is really the sun hitting the west, and I, the Ming Emperor, actually appeared at the Ming Gate!"

...

For a time, people had already spread it word by word of mouth, so more and more people were hearing that Emperor Ming Dynasty Zhu Houzhao appeared in the Ming Dynasty. Some businesses even closed their stores just to see the Emperor Ming Dynasty.

When Zhu Houzhao saw the people who had more than ten floors inside and outside the half-meter-high front, he kowtowed to him and kowtowed to him, he couldn't help but laugh. He felt like a star star in later generations, and when he appeared, it caused countless people to scream and make people empty.

Liu Jin stood up at this time, holding a brass horn made by the Royal Industrial Laboratory and shouting: "Everyone! Please be quiet, as you see, the one sitting in front of you is my Emperor Ming Dynasty! It is our emperor! Now please speak to us, and you will be with us and shout long live our family!"

"Long live!"

"Long live!"

"Long live!"

Liu Jin's yell made the excited Ming people again get slaughtered, and he hurriedly shouted long live the mountain again!

Zhu Houzhao stood up, smiled and made a hand-pressing position, and then took the brass horn from Liu Jin's hand: "My people, please be quiet!"

When Zhu Houzhao yelled, all the people stopped shouting and looked at Zhu Houzhao seriously, because this opportunity was too rare. After all, for ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty, it would be difficult not to say that they could only listen to the emperor or the county magistrate.

"I am not here outside the Ming Dynasty today to attend the court and listen to the people's voices, but to hold the first Royal Expo that will continue the past and open the future of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Houzhao said that, signaling Wei Bin and Qiu Ju to pull the red curtain behind him.

then.

Wei Bin and Qiu Ju began to slowly open the red curtain.

The people in the audience stared at the slowly opened curtain intently. They were a little surprised when they heard the emperor say they were going to hold the expo, thinking about what the expo was, but when the red curtain opened, they couldn't help but exclaim when they saw the huge glass wall and the five gilded characters presented in the center of the glass wall.

"Oh my God, it's really a royal style! I, Xu Jing, are very knowledgeable and have never seen such a large piece of glass! And it's so pure and colorless!"

A middle-aged Confucian scholar named Xu Jing exclaimed.

"Not only that, the craftsmanship of the imperial craftsmen in the palace is different. How are the golden characters embedded in the glass? It's so amazing!"

Other people were also talking about Xu Jing.

"This is better than Western-style glass. As the name suggests, the expo should be to display some objects for us to see. Now this glass can be seen as a rare thing!"

"Stop talking! This kind of glass is worth at least a thousand taels of silver."

"It's more than a thousand, but in my opinion, it's less than ten thousand taels!"

...

The people below looked at the Ming Dynasty Emperor Zhu Houzhao and the glass wall behind him with curiosity.

At this time, Emperor Zhu Houzhao shouted again: "You all think I am the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. I must be rich all over the world, but I tell you the truth, I am poor! I have been poor for two months and have not eaten big cakes."

Some simple people didn't know that Zhu Houzhao would not eat big cakes, and one of the butchers made a casual statement: "So miserable? I, a pork seller, can have enough cabbage and meat cakes, and I can eat better than the emperor?"

"It was still one winter, the snowflakes were falling, and people were trembling with coldness. At that time, I was the crown prince and the emperor was the emperor of the Great Travels. At that time, my father saw that I was very cold, so he asked the eunuch to find me a thick cotton coat to wear. But the court was poor and could not find a thick cotton coat. Fortunately, my father was still alive at that time, and except for the colder winter, he lived carefree."

Zhu Houzhao began to complain, constantly making up how miserable he had lived before, and then wiped his tears and said, "But who thought that the father suddenly died, just like your ordinary children who died, no one cares about me anymore, wuwu! I have no money to eat and buy clothes, and now I have to marry the queen when I grow up, that is, like you people, I have to marry a wife! But I have no money to marry the queen!"

"Also, I have to spend money to buy coffins for my father to repair the tomb and bury it. Even if your parents are old, I have to do so. Besides, I am still the emperor, but I have no money. My father has not been buried yet. I also have to spend money to repair it in the Qianqing Palace in summer and winter. I have to spend money to repair it. In short, I am poor!"

"So, I want to hold a Royal Expo today. The purpose is to take out some treasures from the royal family for you to see. If you can afford money, buy these treasures back. It is equivalent to helping me, the emperor, and it can be regarded as helping me, the Ming Dynasty. I don't want to earn money by adding taxes from the people to marry my wife and bury my father. I can only do this. If you say that I am a prodigal emperor, just say that I just have to bear it. As long as I don't let my father be buried, I can't let the queen be!"

The people in the audience were surprised. They didn't expect that the Ming Emperor was so poor, so poor that he wanted to sell his treasures from his family to marry the queen and bury the late emperor.

The people of the Ming Dynasty were not as numb as they did during the Qing Dynasty. Now that I heard the emperor say this, some people with high sympathy have begun to wipe away their tears. I just didn't say that the emperor should stop talking. We didn't expect you to be miserable.

In addition, Gu Dayong also sent someone as a child caregiver as Zhu Houzhao's instructions, and said to the people: "This is really touching. You guys are the good emperor of the Ming Dynasty. You would rather sell your royal treasures for the sake of your family than increase taxes!"

"Isn't that? Moreover, our Ming Emperor sells his treasures just to marry the queen and buy coffins for the late emperor to bury it! It can be seen that my Ming Emperor is not only a good emperor but also a filial son, but also a man of mine. He doesn't know if those husbands are blind or a fool. He insists that our emperor is a foolish monarch. If such an emperor is a foolish monarch, then what good emperor is there in the world!"

Some people agreed with this discussion.

Of course, there are also people who are unwilling to believe. One of the merchants questioned: "How is this possible? We pay a lot of taxes every year. Only nearly 30% of my family's income is handed over to the court. That is thousands of taels of silver. No matter how the court does, it can still charge millions of taels. How can we be so poor?

Gu Dayong, who pretended to be a child caregiver, hurriedly shouted in a sharp voice: "That's not what corrupt officials have been corrupt! The emperor is a good emperor, but these officials in the world may not be good officials. Therefore, the officials in the court are all rich, eating delicacies every day, buying maids and slaves to buy land. It's pitiful that our emperor is clearly a good emperor, but these corrupt officials have become foolish tyrants who do not care about the people!"

The people at the bottom all had natural fantasies about the emperor. Even many peasant uprisings only called for the name of corrupt officials in the early stages of the uprising. In their eyes, those who made them unable to survive were corrupt officials, and the emperor who did not directly exploit them would be sympathized with at least they were not so bad.
Chapter completed!
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