It's Hard to Be the Concubine of the Red Chamber

Chapter 50

When the Supreme Emperor was young, he went south several times. At the beginning, many old ministers under his command took over from his family and owed a lot of money to the state treasury. Among them, the Zhen family was the most outstanding.

Counting it, the Zhen family had picked him up three times, and borrowed more than one million taels of silver from the treasury just for this.Because the Supreme Emperor was sympathetic to the difficult life of the Zhen family, he authorized their family to be in power for more than [-] years in Jiangnan, the most affluent place in the world. loss of money.

But what happened was contrary to expectations, even the Supreme Emperor was very tolerant, and the Zhen family has not been able to repay half of the money owed.

The Supreme Emperor naturally thought that the Zhen family was still in some difficulties, but aside from the fact that the authorities were obsessed, bystanders could clearly see that there was something wrong. When talking about the Zhen family, it seemed that he accidentally mentioned the overwhelming wealth of the Zhen family.

Yuan Chun naturally knew what Tu Mingxun wanted to do.

Although the Zhen and Jia families are relatives by marriage, how close they are among the elders is one thing, but in the Yuanchun generation, they have never met each other. Naturally, they just talk about their intimacy, and there is actually no love in their hearts. Divided.Moreover, Yuan Chun is not of the nature of the Holy Mother, no matter what his family acquaintances are, he can't compare with his parents and brothers. The so-called dead friends are not dead poor. At this time, she would rather drag the Zhen family into trouble than just think about it He wanted to attack his natal family.

"Although my concubine grew up in the capital and never went to the other side of Jinling, she has an aunt who married into the Xue family of the imperial merchant, and she also has correspondence with her mother, so she knows a little about the prices there. The so-called merchant Goods go from north to south, and the production varies from place to place. Some things can be found in the north, but some things are special products in the south. It always costs a lot of money to get them here in the north. When the emperor went south, for The Supreme Emperor felt more comfortable, and the Zhen family spent a lot of money to find some things in the north. In addition, the garden where Yu Jia visited was naturally not shabby, and many of the rare treasures had to be worked hard. The bulk of the expenses. As for the local things in the south of the Yangtze River, although they are all high-quality things, they are not cheap in the eyes of ordinary people, but they are not worth mentioning in the eyes of officials and officials. Spending money and effort, just to give their own things a reputation. The climate in the south is warm and humid, and the gardens there are much more exquisite than those in the north, so many people like to bring some Jiangnan exquisiteness when building gardens. style, but also lacks some things from the south. Many people always like to go to the south to buy things when decorating and repairing their homes, and merchants are willing to buy and sell these to make a difference from them-but the concubines can’t go out of Beijing, this time they can save their relatives Naturally, we have to build the Chongyu Bieyuan in the capital city. After all, it is not easy to buy and sell things here, and this time there are many people building gardens, and they want a lot of things. The so-called rare is the most expensive, and the price of the building things Naturally it will go up." This is what he heard from Yuan Chun the night before, and now he only needs to change the words and sentences, and it can be used.

"Although my son has never been to the south of the Yangtze River, Concubine Xian's ancestral home is on the other side of Jinling. It is said that the climate in the south of the Yangtze River is warm and the gardens are exquisite. Now the world is peaceful, and many people in the capital also love the gardens of the Jiangnan style. It's just that for thousands of years The things that have been passed down naturally pay attention to adapting measures to local conditions. Naturally, concubines are not as good as holy cars. If we build a similar courtyard in the south of the Yangtze River, it will cost tens of thousands of taels, but in the north of us, we may have to turn it over again Dozens of times more. The son thought that the state treasury is not rich now, and his tone made the courtiers spend a lot of money to build a separate courtyard to welcome the royal concubine before borrowing from the treasury. It would be better to reduce their burden from the beginning. Grace from the Father." If any old officials don't get enough money to build a garden, and they have to borrow money from the state treasury if they don't keep it, then the state treasury will still suffer heavy losses. root.

Tu Mingjun's idea is not bad.

Although the Supreme Emperor loves to travel, he has repeatedly left Beijing for various reasons, but this does not mean that he does not know that when he travels, he will inevitably waste money and money. .

It was because he was sympathetic to the difficult life of his courtiers that the Supreme Emperor allowed his courtiers to borrow money from the state treasury.But Tu Mingxuan's suggestion opened up a new perspective for the Supreme Emperor to look at the problem.

It is a benevolent government. In addition to borrowing money, it can also help people save money from the root.

"I heard from Concubine Xian that it is cheaper to build a garden in the south than in the north. At that time, when the Zhen family picked up the driver, they also chose a lot of good things from the north to make them more comfortable. In addition to those rare things, it has become a major expense. Now it is not easy to buy things from the north to the south. The return of the left and right concubines is not as good as the visit of the holy car, and they just go back to their mother’s house. , although it should be more solemn, but in the end, family affection is the most important thing, so there is no need to put so many rare treasures in the garden. After all, as long as the garden is built, it is also for the purpose of preventing outsiders from seeing concubines. That's good, if the price of your own things is cheaper, maybe it can be built with only tens of thousands of taels. If a concubine visits relatives and only spends tens of thousands of taels to build a garden, it is not considered a waste of money, it is Even noble families can afford it, but everyone is happy." Counting the price quoted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the palace needs one or two taels of silver to buy an egg, and it is only daily expenses. Tens of thousands of taels of silver, naturally one would not feel that tens of thousands of taels is such a fortune.

You must know that the price of everything bought in the palace is exploited layer by layer. Once the price difference between several layers is revealed, everything has to be counted as a sky-high price.It's just a pity that the harem of Tu Mingjun is different from the previous emperors. Although the concubines in his backyard also have official daughters, there are not many delicate girls who are really unreal, and there are even slaves and poor families in it. As long as Tu Mingxuan is willing to ask about the twists and turns in these prices, that's all.

It's just that others are worried that breaking the old rules in the palace will lead to some bad endings and dare not speak up. At least Yuanchun here is a ruined boat and has nothing to fear.She explained clearly the twists and turns of her own family, and she could allude to the problems in the palace by seeing the details.We must know that although the price of buying in Rongguo Mansion is several times higher than that in the market, it is still ten or twenty times lower than that in the palace.

Counting this point, even the Supreme Emperor may not understand better than him.

Fortunately, Yuan Chun also said that this kind of thing should not be done without authorization, and the Supreme Emperor has become more and more soft-hearted since he got old, and it is impossible to allow him to easily break the rules of the ancestors, so he did not talk about the problems inside.But he didn't forget to agree the price in front of the Supreme Emperor in advance, so as to save the last layer of exploitation and pay a sky-high price of several million taels of silver.

You must know that this is not alarmist talk. The Grand View Garden of the Jia family in Cao Gong’s original work spent all the huge wealth left by the Lin family’s five generations of single inheritance, and at least half of the family property of the Xue family in Jinling, which had a good year and heavy snow, was built. Understand.The cost here is far more than a million taels can stop.

Even Jia Yuanchun, a virtuous concubine who only thinks of the prosperity and wealth of her natal family, has never dreamed of the scene of "it's like eating all the birds and throwing them into the forest, leaving a piece of white land so clean". The extravagance is too much, which can be seen.

----split line----

What Tu Mingxun did was not a secret, even if Yuan Chun had no intention of inquiring in series in the harem, it would still not take long to find out the news.

Yuan Chun naturally agrees with Tu Mingxuan's idea. Although he can't take advantage of the gap between the construction of the family-saving villa to earn more money, it can be regarded as filling the national treasury in disguise by preventing the people below from going to the treasury to borrow money.Even, in order to show support, Yuan Chun went to the Supreme Emperor to make a small suggestion under the premise that he and Tu Mingjun had reported in advance, which was specially used to deceive the Zhen family.

"The Zhen family on the other side of the south of the Yangtze River is naturally second to none, and they also took over. Naturally, they are more familiar with the affairs here, so it will be more worry-free for them to start these things. It's just that the Zhen family was originally promoted by the Supreme Emperor. Very loyal, only willing to give the royal family better things, but the Zhen family doesn't want to make money, and only calculates it according to the cost price, and the price is much more expensive than ordinary things. It's a burden, but it's not good if you do something bad with good intentions. Besides, the concubine Luanjia is different from Shengjia. If you follow the old rules, I'm afraid there will be a risk of overstepping the rules. It's better to send one or two people to go to the south of the Yangtze River in low clothes. Don't disturb anyone, just look at the almost usable garden and pretend to be an ordinary wealthy businessman and ask a few words to know the approximate price. The selling price of this garden can't be lower than the cost of construction, at most add another The price of [-]% to [-]% saves trouble, and it seems that the emperor is too considerate." Yuan Chun actually has a lot of connections in the palace, and if he goes out with a big price, he can buy one or two people close to the emperor—although The people around the Supreme Emperor are loyal, but there are always people who are willing to speak up about things that can show the Supreme Emperor's benevolence and virtue.

Yuan Chun just chose a tight-lipped person among such people who would not disclose this matter to Concubine Zhen.

After all, Yitu Mingxuan's idea was obviously to defraud the Zhen family, so she naturally did not hesitate to add fuel to the fire.

"The concubine's family is not doing well now, but the concubine's great-grandfather and grandfather are considered to have outstanding military achievements. Naturally, the trophies that the generals fought on the battlefield belong to the leading generals. No matter how rich it is, it is not uncommon. And the great-grandmother of the concubine was not yet rich at the time, and she married the daughter of a wealthy businessman in the south of the Yangtze River. The foundation is still there, even if it is richer, it is always reasonable. Only the Zhen family did not have the blessing of the Taizu Emperor in the early years, and it is only because the Taishang Huang cared about the face of the old Madam of the Zhen family that he made his fortune. The foundation is actually not deep. But the Zhen family is doing well, and of course there is no need to mention the other side of the imperial concubine. Isn’t the current princess of Xining County also a girl of the Zhen family.” Regarding things like cheating teammates, Yuan Chun did nothing. No pressure, although I did not directly say that the Zhen family is full of private pockets, but I am not polite at all, "The concubine Tai is probably here because the emperor is nostalgic for the past, but the fact that a future county princess can be produced probably shows that the life of the Zhen family is not bad. We live in different places, regardless of background, if it wasn't for my natal sister who is particularly outstanding, I wouldn't dare to open my mouth to protect this kind of matchmaker for my natal sister."

If it is true that the Zhen family is innocent, even the Supreme Emperor will not believe it, but if it is really too much, the Supreme Emperor may not be able to bear it.