Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

"It's okay. It just so happens that your sister Hongyun is back. It's okay for her to replace your sister for a few days." Yang Zhengshan said with a smile.

Wang Yunqiao was naturally busy with the women's army. The women's army of Tenglongwei naturally stayed in Tenglongwei, but after Wang Yunqiao came from Chongshan Pass, she rebuilt the women's army in Chongshan Pass.

Some time ago, Wang Yunqiao just recruited 300 girls and is now training them.

And Hongyun used to manage the women's army of Tenglongwei with Wang Yunqiao. There is no problem for her to replace Wang Yunqiao for a few days.

"This, this~~"

Wang Mingzhe wanted to cry but had no tears. I don't want to go back with my sister. I just want to go back with Senior Brother Lin Zhan, woo woo~~

Lin Zhan didn't ignore him, but Lin Zhan was always busy with his own affairs, traveling and preparing for exams. He rarely had time to take care of him, so Lin Zhan might have given him a kinder impression.

Therefore, he was not afraid to follow Lin Zhan.

"Okay, okay, Master has something to do here. Go and prepare. Go to Anning County with your sister and Senior Brother Lin Zhan tomorrow!" Yang Zhengshan thought that Wang Yunqiao should teach this kid a lesson.

If he doesn't teach him a lesson, this kid will soon grow into a pig.

Hearing this, Wang Mingzhe could only leave with a glance back, but when he stepped out of the threshold of the hall, he couldn't help but say, "Master, I don't want to go, okay?"

"No!" Yang Zhengshan glared at him, "If you don't go, I'll let your sister take you to live for a month!"

Wang Mingzhe shuddered, and ran away without saying a word.

Going to Anning County, it takes at most seven or eight days to go back and forth, which is much better than living in his sister's house for a month.

Yu Qingyi looked at Wang Mingzhe's fast back and couldn't help laughing.

"Mingzhe is just too lazy!"

Yang Zhengshan turned around and said with a smile, "Yes, he is a little lazy, but this kid is smart!"

If he is not smart, he can play tricks with him!

It is precisely because he is too smart that this kid dares to play tricks on him.

Yu Qingyi stroked Ming Zhao's little head and said, "Your Majesty's condition does not seem to be very good. Yunxue said that Your Majesty may not survive this month!"

Yang Zhengshan's expression froze, "Who did she hear that from?"

"Who else could it be except the Marquis of Changping!" Yu Qingyi said.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly and did not ask more questions.

It is no secret that Emperor Chengping's health is getting worse and worse. Even he has received some news, not to mention the dignitaries in Kyoto.

He has been mentally prepared for a long time, and now he does not have too many feelings.

...

Kyoto, in the imperial study of the imperial city.

The prince looked at the memorial in his hand with a sad face. He was not worried about the content of the memorial, but the health of Emperor Chengping.

He wanted the throne. When he couldn't get it before, he was even willing to go crazy for it. Now that it is so close, he is full of panic.

During this period of time, he presided over the government, which was actually almost the same as sitting on the throne.

But he knew that the peace in front of him was his father's last refuge. Once his father passed away, he would face everything alone.

Is he really ready?

The prince himself didn't know.

"I didn't think my father had such a big responsibility before, but now I feel it!" The prince sighed.

The eunuch Nan Sheng, who was serving beside him, smiled and said, "I believe that Your Highness will become a wise ruler!"

He couldn't understand the prince's complicated feelings at the moment. He was only happy that the prince was about to ascend the throne, and even in his heart he hoped that Emperor Chengping would die sooner.

The prince glanced at him and then lowered his eyes.

A servant is just a servant. No matter how close he is to him, he can't confide in him.

The prince calmed down his worries and panic in his heart and picked up another memorial to read.

"What is this?" The prince looked at the contents of the memorial and was slightly surprised.

"Your Highness, this is the memorial sent by Marquis Jing'an, and there are ten ornaments sent together. I have checked them and they are all very exquisite ornaments!" Nan Sheng said hurriedly.

There are many types of memorials, such as memorials, memorials of peace, memorials of thanks, memorials of congratulations, etc., and the memorials of Beijing officials and local officials are different.

Under normal circumstances, the memorials of local officials and the memorials of the censors will be submitted directly to the emperor in order to keep confidentiality and shorten the submission time.

The memorials of the cabinet, the six ministries, the five military governors' offices and other government offices in Beijing will be submitted to the emperor after being annotated by the cabinet and checked by the Silijian.

In case of urgency, memorials will generally be submitted first, and other memorials will be checked later, or even not checked at all, and just let the Silijian record them.

Sometimes there are many memorials such as memorials of peace, memorials of thanks, and memorials of congratulations. If the emperor is very busy, he naturally has no time to read them one by one, so he asks the Imperial Household Department to record them, and then the emperor just needs to look at the records.

At present, Yang Zhengshan's memorial is actually a memorial of affairs, so Nan Sheng only knows that Yang Zhengshan sent ten ornaments, and he does not know the content of the memorial.

After reading the memorial, the prince's expression changed slightly, and he ordered: "Bring all those ornaments here!"

"Yes!" Nan Sheng responded, and immediately asked a group of eunuchs to move the glass ornaments to the imperial study.

The ten glass ornaments are large and small, but each one is a flawless and top-quality product.

Among them is the golden Buddha statue that Yang Zhengshan was amazed before.

The bright sunlight shone into the imperial study through the carved wooden window, and fell on the golden Buddha statue, making it shine.

The prince looked at the Buddha statue with a surprised expression.

He has never seen any ornaments.

He has seen a lot of porcelain, wood carvings, stone carvings, colored glazes, jades, bronzes, etc., and all that catch his eye are fine products.

But he had never seen an ornament as bright as the glass ornament in front of him.

"Glass! Liuli?" the prince asked in surprise.

Glaze and glass are very similar in appearance, but the composition of colored glaze is more complex and the production process is cumbersome and delicate. In comparison, the production process of glass is much simpler and easier to make.

Of course, glass is not as good as colored glaze. Colored glaze comes in a variety of colors and has different layers. However, due to the production process of glass, there is an obvious sense of layering between colors.

For example, in the Golden Buddha, you can clearly see that it is layered inside.

Glaze can also be fired manually, but the cost is very high. Therefore, colored glaze is a valuable decoration in Dayong, especially large and complete colored glaze products, which are more valuable than jade.

In comparison, glass can only be described as cheap, so cheap that the prince even wondered if Yang Zhengshan was lying.

This is obviously glass, so how could it be glass?

The prince picked up Yang Zhengshan's memorial again and read it.

He read it twice in a row, word for word, very carefully.

After he read it, his eyes shone with shrewdness.

This is not glass, this is a mountain of gold and silver!

The prince looked at the glass ornaments in front of him as if he were looking at rare treasures.

It has a very similar appearance to Liuli, but its manufacturing cost is less than one percent of Liuli.

"If this glazed golden Buddha were sold, how much money would it fetch?" The prince blinked and asked Nan Sheng.

Nan Sheng looked at the Buddha statue with salivating eyes and said: "Your Highness, the surface of this glazed golden Buddha is as transparent as if it were nothing, and the golden light is shining inside. When placed in the sun, it looks like a golden Buddha coming to the world, unlike any ordinary thing!"

Well, he also regarded the glass Buddha statue as a glass Buddha statue, and he also regarded the shortcomings of the glass Buddha statue as its advantages.

This is normal. Yang Zhengshan thinks this is a shortcoming, because he has a very clear understanding of glass.

Nan Sheng, on the other hand, had no idea what glass was and regarded glass as colored glaze. Naturally, he felt that the craftsmanship of this glass Buddha statue was unique and exquisite.

"If it were sold, this Buddha statue would probably be worth thousands of gold!" Nan Sheng said with certainty.

He originally liked these precious objects, such as colored glaze, jade, porcelain, etc. He liked them all very much, so he knew the market price of colored glaze very well.

Therefore, when he said that it was worth a thousand gold, it was not a false value, but a thousand taels of gold.

One thousand taels of gold is equal to ten thousand taels of silver.

"Ten thousand taels of silver!" The prince took a breath, then looked down at the memorial in his hand. It clearly stated that the production cost of the Buddha statue was twenty taels of silver, and Yang Zhengshan planned to sell it for 500 taels of silver.

In fact, it is not easy to make such a Buddha statue. The main reason is that there are almost no flaws in this Buddha statue.

But even if it has flaws, it is not worthless.

Those with defects will be sold cheaper, and those without defects will be sold more expensive. As long as the defects are not too big, it is considered a finished product. Therefore, the yield rate of making such glass Buddha statues is still very high, and it will not be lost because of the low yield rate. High cost.

Yang Zhengshan said that the cost of the Buddha statue is twenty taels of silver, which is actually not accurate, because the current glass workshops do not manufacture glass Buddha statues in large quantities. If they are manufactured in large quantities, the cost price can be reduced by 20%.

The prince looked at the memorial and then at the Buddha statue, thinking silently in his mind.

If Yang Zhengshan said what he said, how much money could he earn!

Hundreds of thousands taels?

How many million taels?

Far more than that!

I'm afraid I can make millions of taels a year!

The market for glass ornaments is much larger than that of telescopes. There is no wealthy family without dozens of ornaments.

If the price of glass ornaments is a few thousand taels, then the market may not be too big. After all, there are not many people who are luxurious enough to spend thousands of taels on an ornament.

But what if it’s a few hundred taels, or a few dozen taels!

You can afford it at any merchant, and even a slightly wealthier merchant can buy dozens of them to display at home.

This will be an extremely huge market.

And not just decorations, but also tea sets, wine sets, tableware and other types of utensils.

The prince felt so proud that his heart seemed to beat out.

Who doesn't like silver?

The prince also likes silver, and the emperor also likes silver.

There were so many places to spend money in the court, and the prince would get a headache every time he saw a memorial asking for money.

And his East Palace also needs money. In the future, when he ascends the throne, there will be more places to spend money in this huge imperial city.

"You~~" The prince couldn't wait to make a lot of money according to Yang Zhengshan's plan, but when he saw Nan Sheng looking at the Buddha statue with eyes full of salivation, he stopped talking.

"Go and call Xiao Anzi!" the prince ordered.

"Here!"

After a while, Nan Sheng found Xiao Anzi.

Xiao Anzi is actually not young. His name is Wang An, and he is now in his thirties. Because he is an old man in the palace of the city and was only a teenager when he entered the palace, the prince is used to calling him Xiao Anzi.

"Bless you, Your Highness!" Wang Anxing said in obeisance.

The prince sat at the desk and wrote a few words on the memorial, then handed it to Wang An and said: "You should immediately take this memorial to Chongshanguan. After arriving at Chongshanguan, everything must be subject to the arrangements of Marquis Jing'an. , do whatever he asks you to do, and do whatever he asks you to bring back, do you understand?"

"I understand, little one!" Wang An said after taking the memorial.

The prince still felt uneasy, so he took off the jade pendant from his waist and said, "Go to the Royal Horse Prison and ask for three hundred soldiers to go with you. Remember, I sealed the mouths of these three hundred soldiers on the way. Tell them if Anyone who dares to leak any information will be executed!"

When Wang An heard this, his mind sank and his face was solemn, "Young man will definitely seal their mouths!"

Nan Sheng, who was next to him, nodded and lowered his eyebrows, removing the covetous sight of the glass golden Buddha from his eyes.

"Yeah!" The prince thought about it for a moment and thought it should be okay, then said: "Go!"

Yang Zhengshan somewhat misjudged the importance that the prince attached to glass, or perhaps underestimated the importance that the prince attached to silver.

He felt that the prince would definitely support his plan for the sake of money, but he ignored the fact that the court was short of money, and he also ignored the fact that the prince was short of money.

The annual tax revenue of the Da Rong court is about 20 million stone rice and wheat and 10 million taels of silver. There are also various kinds of silk floss that can be converted into one million taels of silver.

The price of rice and wheat fluctuates with the market, and also varies by region. For example, the price of grain in Liaodong is generally around two taels of silver and one stone, while the price of grain in Kyoto is about three taels of silver and one stone.

If there is a natural or man-made disaster, food prices will skyrocket. It is normal to triple or even triple the price.

Therefore, it is difficult to convert rice and wheat into money. Officials' salaries are composed of grain and money, with grain as the main component.

If one had to convert rice and wheat into money, Da Rong's annual tax revenue would be between 50 million taels and 70 million taels.

It seems like a lot, but for this huge dynasty, this money and food are simply not enough.

Why didn't the court allocate salary to Chongshan Town before?

Isn't it because the Ministry of Finance has no money?

Western Liaoning suffered a disaster from the Uliang army, but the court took 500,000 taels of silver from Yang Zhengshan and went to Western Liaoning to relieve the disaster.

There are many places where money is needed for the court, including soldiers' salaries in border towns, salaries of noble officials of the royal family, expenditures of various ministries and offices, water conservancy of rivers, construction of palaces and offices, sacrifices and celebrations, disaster relief, etc.

In the past ten years or so, Da Rong has been far from peaceful. Natural disasters have occurred frequently and wars have continued.

Let's talk about Yang Zhengshan's experience in these years. First, there was a severe drought in Chongshan Town, followed by several battles with the Hu tribe in the East China Sea. The Hu tribe in the East China Sea was destroyed, King Keqing rebelled again, and the Uuliang Hu tribe invaded western Liaoning.

Each of these things requires the court to spend a lot of money and food.

This is only Chongshan Town, and Chongshan Town is only one of Darong's nine-sided military towns.

Like Beiyuan Town, that is the real gold-swallowing behemoth.

Therefore, it is natural that the court is short of money, and it is reasonable for the prince to be eager to earn money.