jdhmnovel Chapter 616 Is the son-in-law a greedy person?
Chapter 616 Is the son-in-law a greedy person?
Losing five million taels of silver for no reason is a bad thing for anyone.
Especially for Yang Shaofeng, this was far more than a loss of five million taels of silver.
This is clearly a case of being short by over a million short, ugly laborers!
It's even more heartbreaking than losing ten million taels of silver!
Yang Shaofeng grew angrier the more he thought about it, and even started to dislike the Emperor Zhu.
These days, the big shots don't step forward; they send the small ones out to fill in.
The world is truly going to the dogs, morality is collapsing, and people's hearts are no longer what they used to be.
"Tsk."
Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but want to annoy Lao Deng.
"Originally, I was aiming for ten million taels of silver."
"In the end, I was fooled by that bastard Du Shunqin."
"It's also my fault for not knowing the exchange rate between gold and silver."
"If I had known, I think I could have gotten another five million taels of silver."
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, the words "five million taels" echoed repeatedly in Emperor Zhu's mind.
Five million taels.
One-quarter of the grain from the Dengzhou market was turned over to the national treasury.
We lost five million taels of silver.
We lost five million taels of silver.
Five million taels!
If that money were used to purchase grain and weapons, Tiande and Boren would beat Hu Yuan to a pulp.
Thinking of this, Emperor Zhu became increasingly displeased with Yang Shaofeng.
How can you, you bastard, not know the exchange rate between gold and silver?
Even if you didn't know, wouldn't you have asked us beforehand?
Now that you know, you're turning around and making things difficult for us?
You bastard!
While cursing under his breath, Emperor Zhu said sarcastically, "A mere five million taels of silver is nothing to your Dengzhou border market."
Yang Shaofeng was extremely displeased and couldn't help but retort, "Does my son-in-law lack five million taels of silver? That piece of junk can't be eaten or drunk, and it's too bright to even use as floor mats!"
At this point, Yang Shaofeng felt a dull ache in his heart again.
"What my son-in-law lacks are those short, ugly Japanese laborers!"
"Five million taels of silver, that should buy at least a short, ugly man worth over 1.5 million taels of silver, right?"
"More than a million laborers! If they could be used to build roads or Dengzhou University, how much faster would the construction be?"
University of Denzhou?
Upon hearing the words "Dengzhou University," Emperor Zhu finally lost his composure.
We've lost a lot of money!
The heartbroken father-in-law and son-in-law looked at each other speechlessly.
After a long while, Emperor Zhu sighed slightly and said, "Is that Du Shunqin sure he won't cause any more trouble? I hope he doesn't end up like that idiot Ruan Rulin."
Yang Shaofeng said, "Du Shunqin is much better than that idiot Ruan Rulin."
"My son-in-law said he didn't know much about ivory, so he immediately offered 160,000 catties of placer gold."
"Much better than that idiot Ruan Rulin."
"Pity."
Emperor Zhu hummed in agreement, secretly feeling a pang of regret.
He was able to test the waters with a few ivory tusks, and once he sensed something was amiss, he could decisively offer the highest price. Then, without hesitation, he could agree to all the demands made by this scoundrel. Such cunning and decisiveness were worth cultivating, even in the Ming Dynasty.
Unfortunately, he was an Annamese.
After secretly regretting it, Emperor Zhu remembered something else.
"By the way, Tiande and Lanyu are almost in Yanzhou."
"Bo Ren is almost at Dengzhou Prefecture."
"Have you prepared all the supplies that should be allocated to them?"
When the topic turned to the supplies prepared for Xu Da and Lan Yu, Yang Shaofeng immediately perked up.
"The compressed military rations, alcohol, luncheon meat, and weapons here in Ningyang County are all ready. When the Duke of Wei arrives, he can take them away directly."
"As for Dengzhou, they have prepared even more military equipment and compressed military rations, as well as plenty of dried shrimp, dried squid, and the like, almost ten times the inventory of Ningyang County."
"The combined armaments are enough to equip an army of 100,000, and the compressed military rations are enough to meet the needs of an army of 500,000."
"The only scarce item is alcohol, and the main problem is that measuring alcohol is quite troublesome."
"The doctors and medicines accompanying the army are also ready and can set off with the army at any time."
"The manpower needed for tasks such as cement production and iron ore exploration is also ready."
"As long as they can find suitable water sources and mining sites on the grasslands, they can begin preparing to build a city."
With the city built, the Ming Dynasty had a permanent, qualitative outpost for attack on the grasslands.
The dozen or so forward outposts, working in unison, were like a noose around Hu Yuan's neck.
As the number of cities increases, the noose will tighten.
Until Hu Yuan was completely trapped in a corner.
Or it could force Hu Yuan to follow the same path as the Xiongnu and Turks.
Then?
Then it would be the Ming army chasing after Hu Yuan.
However, this meant that Emperor Zhu's original plans had to be drastically altered.
In Emperor Zhu's original plan, the fiefdoms of the princes of Liao, Ning, Gu, Su, Qing, Jin, and Yan would be the first line of defense for the Ming Dynasty facing the grasslands, and also the outposts for attack.
However, after a large number of cities were built on the grasslands, these fiefdoms of the vassal kings lost their original significance as the first line of defense, and could not even be considered outposts for attacks.
Should we push the fiefdoms of the vassal kings further outward?
What should be done with those territories that were originally intended to be fiefdoms for feudal lords?
The princes would do their best to develop their fiefdoms, because this was an inheritance that could be passed down to their descendants.
For the officials who govern the local areas, these places are just a part of their career path. Can they be as dedicated as the princes?
If we first establish these areas as fiefdoms for the vassal kings, and then change their fiefdoms once they have governed them well enough...
That's some seriously disgusting eating manners.
What's even more infuriating is that there was no homework to copy at all.
Did the emperors of the Liu family ever have headaches like this?
Did the emperors of the Li family ever have such headaches?
Old Zhu always has to deal with all these messy problems!
The more Emperor Zhu thought about it, the angrier he became, and he even started to dislike Yang Shaofeng. After a cold laugh, he said, "Bo Ren wrote us a letter saying that he plans to bring his own people to collect the portion of alcohol that is rightfully his, and he also wants to catch up with you on the way."
Yang Shaofeng was immediately dumbfounded.
Chang Heitan came to visit me to reminisce about old times.
Good heavens! If I had fallen into the hands of that black-faced Chang, I would have been lucky to escape being devoured alive. And now he wants to catch up with me?
“Um… um…” Yang Shaofeng tentatively asked, “Is it possible that I have someone deliver the alcohol to the Duke of E in Dengzhou, and then have him set off directly from Dengzhou to Liaodong?”
Emperor Zhu glanced at Yang Shaofeng and asked in return, "What do you think?"
Yang Shaofeng chuckled awkwardly, and even disliked the several pairs of ivory that Du Shunqin had sent over.
"That Du Shunqin, who has never seen the world, actually tried to bribe his son-in-law with just a few ivory tusks."
"Is my son-in-law a greedy person?"
"I'll leave this to my father-in-law. I'll take my leave now."
Emperor Zhu always felt that this scoundrel was being sarcastic and unsettling, but he had no evidence to back it up.
But thinking that he had gained another five million taels of silver for free, Emperor Zhu still snorted coldly and said, "Don't worry, Bo Ren won't do anything to you."