Are you stupid?

The small official of the Ministry of Household Affairs spoke smoothly, and regarded Shenlong as a new official, and said frankly: "Transportation and storage have losses, ranging from [-]% to as many as four or five floors. You write it down according to the actual number, and the food is wasted." Who is it? Officials who have been in the same office for three to five years can also lie about a flood or drought to plug holes and level the accounts of the grain depot. If you really catch up with that cheater, you will be transferred directly, and you will come back next time I am afraid that the officials who report their duties will be led into the ditch."

The little official taught the lesson smoothly, and after finishing speaking, he took a sip of tea from the teacup, ordered the teacup, "I'll teach you a lesson, don't fill up the water for me yet."

Shenlong suppressed the annoyed eyes of the servants, and personally held the pot to pour tea for the little official.

Xiaoguan picked up his teacup and took a sip, sighed comfortably, then twisted his neck a little bit stiffly, to see who exactly he was speaking to.

His face changed suddenly, and he almost wanted to beat himself to death under the table.

Shenlong smiled and filled the tea bowl again, "Thank you for your teaching."

"I, I have offended you so much, Your Highness please punish me." The officer shook his hand, and the writing brush fell off the edge of the table, and he lost his strength and slid off the chair, prostrate on the ground.

Shenlong directly arrested the man and said with a smile: "Sage Confucius said that 'threesomes must have my teacher', today you taught me something I don't know, it is a kindness to me, I will pour tea for you as a disciple. As it should be, how can it be regarded as a mistake.”

Shenlong noticed that the little official was still in shock, so he stopped talking, sat back in his seat, and took out the ledgers made by other people to see where they had deducted the amount of food loss.

Shenlong soon discovered from different ledgers that the courtiers uniformly set the attrition rate at [-]%.So, Shenlong recalculated his share, and finally finished the work before noon, and put all the books on Gu Jian's desk.

Gu Jian checked it with his hand, and a smile appeared in his eyes immediately, thinking that the prince is really smart.

He was sure that there was no mistake, and recorded the grain reserves calculated by his officials and Shenlong into the book, and wrote them in a memorial.

He suddenly paused, looking at the memorial he was writing with a delicate expression, the content of the pen paused.

I wrote the memorial and sent it up, and I want to show it to the prince. Instead of calling back and asking myself to explain something that the prince doesn't understand, it's better to explain it clearly in one breath while the prince is in the household department now.

"His Royal Highness stay here, I have something to play." Gu Jian got up, and ordered the little official who had spoken in front of Shenlong before to help him carry the account book of the household department to the table.He straightened his clothes, solemnly saluted Shenlong, and invited Shenlong to sit in a secret place together.

Gu Jian handed over the still ink-stained memorial with both hands, and said respectfully: "Your Highness, this is the memorial that I will present to the imperial court at the next court meeting. Your Majesty has already ordered the courtiers to hand over the matter to His Highness. I want to make the memorial first." Please explain to His Highness one or two things in the matter, so that the people in the court will not talk too much, and leave mistakes, omissions and biases to misunderstand His Highness."

Gu Jian's expression was solemn, not as if he was reporting to his boss, but as if he was facing a life-and-death problem.

After thinking about it for a while, Shenlong knew that Gu Jian couldn't make up his mind how to control the distance between him and the prince, so that he could handle things properly without hindering Emperor Taixing's eyes, and make Emperor Taixing suspect that his Gu family and the prince were united.

Gu Jian's cautious attitude made Shenlong realize that the people he will face in the future will not be people who can treat each other wholeheartedly.

You must remember to control your identity and behavior at all times, and you must not do things that are inconsistent with your identity to make people look down, and you must not be too arrogant and offend the villain.

Shenlong quietly straightened his back, put his hands flat on his legs, and had a serious face.

"Since father has given the order, Gu Shilang can speak directly. I will only approve the memorials presented to the imperial court, and not make the final decision." Shenlong opened up his bottom line openly.

The prince's situation is no different from that of an ordinary prince, the closer he is to the throne, the more dangerous the situation will be.

Even if Emperor Taixing opened up his rights to Shenlong because of temporary guilt, Shenlong would not arrogantly think that these rights could be consolidated in his own hands.Instead of waiting until Emperor Taixing found out that his rights had been usurped by his son, and couldn't bear to attack him, Shenlong would rather distance himself from rights from the very beginning.

——What Shenlong needs is the understanding of the court situation, not necessarily mastering it.

Compared with the rights that may be withdrawn at any time, the trust of the emperor is much more precious.

This idea clearly appeared in Shenlong's mind, and he suddenly realized that he had not learned nothing during the ten years of pretending to be crazy in the harem.On the contrary, he has learned too many ways to deal with Emperor Taixing by following Empress Cui!

"...Your Highness?"

Shenlong hurriedly concentrated, "Gu Shilang, please tell me."

"Sang Ji has already explained to His Highness how to calculate the amount of grain collected by the household department. The next thing I want to talk about is about the emptiness of the national treasury."

Gu Jian struggled to finish the first sentence, and the rest of the sentence suddenly became so difficult to say, "The folk solicitation for beauty, the mobilization of officials who examine their identities, and the soldiers who protect beauties into Beijing, all need to pay extra money as a pension. , Therefore, even if the number of people exceeds once every five years, even if they are finally sent back home, the alarmed families will have to deduct exorbitant miscellaneous taxes and corvee.”

"Due to the sharp decrease in the number of women in recent years, it is difficult for folks to marry and marry, and the number of children of ordinary people has also decreased. The poll tax part has naturally been reduced." Gu Jian continued to move his fingers backwards, clearly pressing on a series of numbers later.

"And because a large number of women enter the palace, the consumption of cosmetics, food, and monthly money in the palace will increase greatly. The more folk women enter the palace, the more people will be exempted from corvee. There are fewer people who can be recruited for dredging mud.”

"In order to ensure that the river will not be blocked by silt during the next year's farming, we have to hire civilians to clean the river. This is another waste. Non-local officials are incompetent, but they have no other choice." As the content of the speech increased. , Gu Jian's complexion sank again and again, and finally it was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

The corners of his mouth were pursed into a straight line, and there was deeply suppressed dissatisfaction in his eyes.

Gu Jian announced in an exceptionally deep voice, "If Your Majesty does not reduce the expenditure of the inner palace, the treasury can only reduce the military expenditure."

"What? Reduce military expenditure!" Shenlong stood up from the stool in shock. He blinked repeatedly and stared at Gu Jian, hoping that the other party was just scaring him, but seeing Gu Jian's extremely heavy face, Shenlong quickly abandoned it. Such an unrealistic fantasy.

Shenlong clenched his fists and directly dismissed the proposal of "reducing military expenditure", "Soldiers put their lives on the battlefield, so we must not treat them harshly."

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and only those who control the machine of violence can control the world.

If you don’t feed the stomachs of the soldiers in the army now, will the soldiers go all out on the battlefield in order to treat their kings harshly in the future?

This is a fool's dream!

In any case, Shenlong does not allow military expenses to be withheld.

A look of surprise flashed across Gu Jian's eyes.

The common people can live a peaceful and beautiful life by guarding an acre of land. The children of the high school regard it as a beauty to point out the country and stimulate the writing.

For this reason, there is a saying among the common people that "good iron does not make nails, and a good man does not serve as a soldier", and there is a lot of contempt for those in the army.

Even in the army, many generals look down on their soldiers, treating them like consumables or their own cattle and horses.They withheld the salaries issued by the imperial court, and did not even allow the soldiers to have a full meal.

Some literati and refined scholars even referred to the country as supporting too many soldiers, calling it "military arrogance" and "military disaster". Harsh people.

Because many emperors dare not spend too much money on the army even if they want to support the soldiers in the army as the backing of the country.

The prince grew up among the brocade brocades since he was a child, and he never tires of food and food, and always wears silk and satin as the first item on his body, and even the shoes on his feet are never decorated with gold, silver and jewelry.The most important thing is that he suffered serious brain trauma when he was young, and he has always been cared for by Empress Cui.

For a child with so many experiences, it is a blessing from the ancestors if he does not grow into a big-eyed and empty-hearted dandy, and the crown prince can be the first to reject the option of reducing military expenditures without any thought!

Gu Jian finally understood what his son meant when he said "the prince is very human" before he went home to prepare for the exam.

Da Zhou's little prince is indeed impressive.

Gu Jian didn't want to show embarrassment to the honest little prince, and he didn't want to embarrass the prince, but he still had to tell the truth: "If the expenses of the inner palace are reduced, His Majesty may not agree."

Shenlong looked at Gu Jian in bewilderment for a while, then replied in a muffled voice, "Whether folk women are remarried, divorced, divorced, or their husbands died, remarriage is very common."

"The women that His Majesty has been blessed with are different from ordinary people." Gu Jian actually felt that Emperor Taixing tied up so many young and beautiful women in the palace, forgetting to sleep with them would be very cruel, but the one the emperor slept with It is called "Lucky and favored", and it is still different from the common people.

No matter how many women outside the palace can share with their men, and the emperor holds the power of life and death, who dares to say such words that challenge Emperor Taixing's face, use his own neck to test the steel knife outside the palace gate to the end Not hard yet.

"You haven't tried it, how do you know that the father is not willing?" Shenlong curled his lips, and unceremoniously pointed out the biggest problem of the women in the harem, "Even if the father is lucky enough to pass, do they have a place? In the past few years, the women he favored have already filled the positions. Therefore, in the next ten years or so, no matter how high the status of the women who enter the palace, they are just maids with no name or distinction."

After the emperor died, concubines had to be widowed by the emperor honestly, but the court ladies were different. They could follow the rules and regulations of the palace and return home when they were old.

There are so many women in the harem that the palace is almost full - not only are there those who have been called "empresses" by Emperor Taixing, but each "empress" has at least one servant girl assigned to them.

In this way, the demand for women in the palace is not extraordinary.

As long as this part is resolved, the national treasury will be saved.