Chapter 39 Chapter 35 Counting Silver
When the eunuch Zhang Cheng and others reported all kinds of crimes committed by the chief eunuch Feng Bao in front of Emperor Wanli, Emperor Wanli's heart suddenly became turbulent - he hardly believed it was true, and the past also came back to his heart; He clearly remembers many scenes when he was a child. Feng Bao took good care of him, dressing, eating, bathing and combing hair all by Feng Bao; , Climb up on the ground and let him ride as a horse...
"When the horse ran around, I laughed so hard..."
Emperor Wanli thought about it, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth inadvertently. It was one of the few good memories in his childhood life, and he still had a lot of aftertaste in retrospect, and it was all brought to him by Feng Bao; Feng Bao is the "big companion". To Feng Bao, he even entrusted him with a family affection like a father and son, and Feng Bao has always been loyal and dedicated to his duties. He did not believe that Feng Bao would betray him.
However, when he glanced at the evidence displayed by Zhang Cheng again, his thoughts turned again; he remembered that when he was young, Feng Bao would report his movements to the Empress Dowager Cisheng every day. Therefore, as long as he is lazy or makes a small mistake, the Empress Dowager Cisheng will immediately know it clearly and give him severe punishment. The Empress Dowager was a secret agent, reporting his behavior to Ci Ning in detail every day, so that he would be punished for making a small mistake, especially for the middle of the night drinking incident, because of Feng Bao's small report, he was arrested. The Empress Dowager Cisheng was so scolded that she couldn't lift her head!
Thinking of this, his heart turned cold:
"He stayed with me every step of the way. It turned out that he was monitoring my every move so that he could report to the Queen Mother—this person is one thing on the surface, but another thing in his heart!"
"Since he is a person who is not as good as he looks, it is not impossible for him to pretend to be loyal in front of me, greedy for money and accept bribes behind his back, and sell officials and nobles!"
Therefore, he believed Zhang Cheng's words and the evidence before him.
However, after all, there was still a benevolence in his heart. Thinking of all the things he had when he was a child, he couldn't bear to sentence Feng Bao to death as Zhang Cheng and others asked; after struggling several times, he made a compromise; The Twelve Deadly Sins, but he was spared from death, but only dismissed from his post as a ceremonial supervisor, sent to Nanjing to live idle, and all his property was confiscated...
A month later, the execution of this order was completed, and Feng Bao set off for Nanjing alone after losing his power. Under the inevitable reaction of "humanity and warmth", none of the people who had been in power in the past came to see him off; It was counted out and sent to the eyes of Emperor Wanli.
Seeing so many gold and silver treasures as well as priceless antiques, rare calligraphy and paintings all at once, Emperor Wanli was dumbfounded. He never imagined that an eunuch could accumulate such an astonishing wealth, it is incredible!
He has always lived a very frugal life under the constraints of "Mr. Zhang". Although the palace's buildings are magnificent and beautiful, his daily life is rich in clothing and food, his treasury is full, and his country is rich, but he not only He didn't even have the freedom to splurge once in a while, and he never even used a penny himself; he still remembered that a few years ago, he wanted to renovate the palaces of Ciqing and Cining, but he gave up because of the objection of "Mr. Zhang" Yes, the Empress Dowager Cisheng wanted to build a temple and do Buddhist work, so she was exempted according to "Mr. Zhang". The Aoshan and new palace lanterns for the Lantern Festival were abolished because "Mr. Zhang" thought it was a waste. To be the crown of all dynasties-sometimes he even suspected that he was the emperor who was "rich in the world" in name, but in fact he was a penniless poor boy with no private property-especially when he was with Feng Bao Stunning wealth in comparison!
In this way, he immediately felt that it was right to punish Feng Bao this time—at least, all the wealth at present has fallen into his own hands!
As a result, he became happy. Not only did he have so many treasures and treasures on hand, but he could also put them into his private treasury and control them freely. He didn't have to go through "Mr. Zhang"'s approval for any expenses in the palace like other times. The Ministry of Accounting needs money; for example, a few days ago, the Empress Dowager Cisheng was still worrying, and the marriage of the emperor’s younger brother, King Lu, was about to get married. There is no need to worry about Lu Wang's wedding expenses at all.
He allocated some gold, silver, pearls and jade to King Lu as a wedding fee, and also gave some to the queen mothers of the two palaces. In this way, filial piety and friendship were all taken care of, and he still kept seven or eight out of ten in his hands. He began to enjoy the fun of "counting silver".
His beloved Zheng Shupin's mother's family was originally a salt merchant, and she has been highly sensitive to money and numbers since she was a child; Introduced to Emperor Wanli and said:
"The concubine's family was doing business. When I was young and bored for a long time, I loved to watch the accountant count the silver, settle the accounts, and register the accounts; if it was broken silver, I would use a piece of scale to measure the amount of money, cents, and taels. It’s really fun to weigh. It’s really fun to roll it together. The sound of jingling is really nice; it’s even more fun if it’s made into ingots of silver. Twinkling, stacking arhats and building houses, it is no more fun! Accounting is also fun, when the accountant dials the wooden beads on the abacus, there is a "click", and then he shakes his head and mutters a few times before dialing again. If it's a big business account, he can dial it quickly with one hand, and the sound of "click button click" is like a continuous cannonball; if it's just a small account of firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, he can slowly move Dial, 'button', 'button', 'button', just like an old monk taking a nap..."
Before she could finish her words, Emperor Wanli's childlike innocence had already been aroused by her, and he shouted happily:
"Is there such a fun thing? Why didn't I know about it before?"
Zheng Shubin covered her mouth with a smile and said:
"You are the Lord Long Live, who dares to let you play tricks of these little people?"
Emperor Wanli smiled and said:
"No one can control me now, I can play as much as I want..."
So, the two played a game of "counting silver" in the palace-weighed the silver in Feng Bao's family property one by one, recorded the weight, and recorded it in the account book; Whole pieces of silver ingots can’t enjoy the crisp sound of broken silver, but they can replace building blocks and be used to stack arhats and build houses...
In this way, after playing the game of "counting silver" for half a year, all the silver was calculated and registered; while Emperor Wanli was having fun, he named Zheng Shupin a "virtuous concubine" after drinking water; Concubine Zheng De, who had received such a great favor from the emperor, also tried her best to repay Emperor Wanli. In addition to guiding him to play the game of "counting silver", she also continued to do her best to guide Emperor Wanli to count jewels, gold, antiques, calligraphy, paintings, jade and ceramics. ——Fortunately, she grew up in a wealthy family of salt merchants, and she is no stranger to all luxury goods. She often heard the Wanli Emperor who grew up only reading classics and history in a few words, "opening her ears". He is a country bumpkin who has never seen the world, and he is amazed at how much Concubine Zheng De has seen and heard.
It seems that once, the two of them enjoyed a blue and white flower plate made by the official kiln in the Chenghua period. The exquisite and delicate features of the "Chenghua Kiln" are fully displayed on this plate. The inner bottom, inner wall, and outer wall are all decorated with sunflower leaves and buds. The painting is natural, vivid, smooth and delicate. The overall shape is elegant and elegant, and the texture is delicate. Zheng Defei immediately praised it:
"This is the best of porcelain! Chenghua official kiln, a few years ago, the private resale price of one piece has reached 100,000 yuan!"
Emperor Wanli was even more surprised when he heard it, and praised her repeatedly, saying:
"It's hard for you. I know all these things. As an emperor, I don't know as much as you do!"
Therefore, this subtle feeling was added to his love for her, and the love became deeper; moreover, he also got something other than love from this love, that is, the taste of life-this is The taste of life that he never enjoyed in the past, and everything classified by "Mr. Time to enjoy these pleasures.
Although he was still afraid that the Empress Dowager Cisheng knew that it would be inconvenient to stop the early court and ignore state affairs; but he always tried his best to find opportunities, take advantage of them, and try his best to buy time to stay in the palace with his beloved Concubine Zheng De. Play all kinds of games and live a life like a fairy family.
But Nurhachi, who played at the same time, was busy all day long.
The days of heavy snow in midwinter are a good time to hunt bears and minks. He understands that these two prey are very precious things in the eyes of the Han people, and they are useful for making medicinal materials, dishes, and clothing. He sold it at a good price in front of the Han people, so that he could buy back many necessary materials for the construction of Jianzhou Zuowei; Some small animals who couldn't stand the biting cold and were tempted by them to warm up and ran out. They also never refused to come. They will send troops to attack Zhaojia City in the beginning of spring, and it is necessary to store more food!
In addition to hunting, he stepped up to practice tactics - most of the troops he is now commanding are soldiers from Tulun and Jiaban City, and most of these people surrendered without a fight in these two battles, making him I deeply realize that although there are hundreds of people and they have basic riding and archery skills, they are just a group of mobs without strict military training. When they really go to the battlefield, it is easy to surrender without a fight, and they will not be able to perform at all. What effect; for this, he specially intensified the training of the soldiers' willpower, the spirit of obedience, and the concepts of "fight to the death", "discipline", and "team"...
In particular, he set an example and practiced with the soldiers in the blizzard every day. Whether it was fists, weapons, bow and archery, or equestrianism, he all shouted slogans and demonstrated in person, and he continued, day after day. ——For a period of time, his hard-working spirit won the admiration of all the soldiers, and also affected everyone's aspirations...
But in the dead of night, he often fell into deep thinking alone, or held a meeting with E Yidu, An Feiyangu and others; the most recent thing he thought about was the plan to attack Zhaojia City Of course, this kind of life is definitely not sitting on the beautiful jade couch at this moment, with a warm stove made of pure gold in front of his knees, holding Concubine Zheng De in one hand, and a golden bottle of fine wine in the other, with his nose full of wine. Suffering from the fragrance of powder and wine, he murmured: "It will be snowing in the evening, can you have a drink?" Emperor Wanli could only imagine.
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