Raising chickens and pigs and digging for wild vegetables, the county magistrate's promotion wa

Chapter 801 Are you, Zhu Chong, pretending to be stupid?

When Huailiang said he would "go to the beach himself," Gu Chengzhi almost laughed himself to death.

You, Huailiang, a mere short and ugly prince, wouldn't even be able to stand at the front during the grand court assembly of the Ming Dynasty. Where do you get the nerve to use the word "personally"?

And you want to "meet that crazy Yang"? Crazy Yang is a Duke and a good son-in-law of Zhu Chongba's son-in-law Ma family. He always stands at the front of the court and the grand court assembly. When he happens to be at the royal family banquet, he can sit at the same table as the son-in-law Ma family. Why would you want to meet crazy Yang?

If it weren't for the fact that Yang the Madman is determined to kill you this time, under normal circumstances, it would be a miracle if Yang the Madman even gave you a second glance!

Gu Chengzhi was internally ranting and raving.

Huai Liang frowned and said, "There are still three questions."

"One is 200 million taels of silver."

"Although Japan has silver mountains, it does not have two hundred million taels of silver. Moreover, that madman Yang wants to take away the silver mountains. There is no way Japan can come up with two hundred million taels of silver."

"The second is 100,000 Japanese pirates."

"Let alone whether he can gather 100,000 Japanese pirates, even if he could, it would be a disgrace for him to be publicly killed on the coast of Japan."

"The last question is whether the Ming Dynasty will send a regent to Japan."

This problem is even more serious than the previous two.

To put it bluntly, although it's not easy to raise 200 million taels of silver, if we prolong the repayment period, spread it out over several decades, play the victim, try to minimize interest payments, and ultimately make the Japanese people suffer, then it's not impossible to repay 200 million taels of silver.

This also applies to the 100,000 Japanese pirates.

If we can't gather 100,000 real Japanese, can't we at least gather 100,000 fake Japanese?

Anyway, the commoners and samurai in Japan all look pretty much the same.

It's likely that even Yang the Madman couldn't tell the difference between the real and the fake.

But the Kanpaku is different.

Is this some kind of Kanpaku (a high-ranking official)?

No.

This is a shackle around Japan's neck, a living father that has been assigned to Japan.

Kikuchi Takemasa, that idiot, might not care, but how could I, a prince, not care?

Huai Liang's expression was ashen, while Gu Chengzhi lightly waved his feather fan, striking a pose of confidence and appearing just like Zhuge Liang.

"As the saying goes, if a man does not work for himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth."

"No matter how righteous the Ming Dynasty's officials and scholars may have been, they were actually all greedy and lustful."

"As long as His Highness the Prince is willing to give up some benefits, things will be pretty much the same on the surface, and these people will be happy to have some peace and quiet."

……

Emperor Zhu is having a lot of headaches lately.

First, the Assistant Magistrate of Dengzhou Prefecture submitted a memorial, saying that a certain scoundrel and His Highness the Crown Prince went directly to the Dengzhou Navy upon arriving in Dengzhou Prefecture. Then, apart from leaving a few warships to guard the base, the entire fleet, including two treasure ships, more than sixty passenger ships, warships, horse ships, grain ships, water ships, and the like, set sail together, heading straight for Japan.

Then Zhou Jingxin, who was visiting his family, submitted a memorial, saying that there were an unusually large number of pregnant and childbirth women in Ningyang County this year. Workshops that used female workers, such as the compressed food workshop and the lighter workshop, were experiencing a shortage of manpower. It was expected that other prefectures and counties with a large number of female workers would also experience similar situations, and the court should make preparations in advance.

Then, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun sent back reports saying that a certain scoundrel's good student was burning, killing, and looting on the grasslands, committing almost every kind of evil. However, more and more Mongols were following him to "rob money, rob grain, and rob grasslands." This guy even intercepted and killed Borjigin Ayushiridara when he rushed straight to Buyur Lake and sent him to the Hu Yuan harem at Buyur Lake.

"Damn it, none of them are easy to deal with."

Emperor Zhu rubbed his forehead and muttered, "Those two bastards are one thing, but this Zhou Jingxin is really infuriating."

"And he even reminded the imperial court to prepare for a response in advance?"

"Doesn't he ever think about how the imperial court should deal with the common people having children?"

"We can't keep complaining about a manpower shortage while preventing people from having children, can we?"

"And that Li Mingchen, he's just a seventh-rank county magistrate, earning such a meager salary each month, yet he's determined to become the Marquis of Champion!"

"Robbing money, robbing grain, robbing grasslands—how could he come up with such a disgusting slogan!"

"What's even more infuriating is his luck—why did Ayushiridara send his harem to the Lake of Fisheries in the first place? Now look what's happened, Ayushiridara's wife and children have all been taken away, and we still have to reward that bastard."

Empress Ma continued doing her needlework, completely ignoring Emperor Zhu.

Isn't Zhou Jingxin infuriating?

Isn't Li Mingchen going too far?

But how are you, Zhu Chongba, any better than them?

Zhou Jingxin's memorials were disgusting; you should have just given them to Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen.

Li Mingchen led his troops out of the pass without authorization and ambushed the Hu Yuan harem. You scolded him a few times and fined him three months' salary, but then you immediately gave him the title of Krupp and a lot of gold, silver and silk as a reward, enough for a year's salary.

So why don't you, Zhu Chongba, call them back and teach them a lesson?

Is it because you don’t want to?

Also, Zhu Chongba, are you really unaware or are you pretending to be stupid?

Your good son-in-law and your good eldest son, they were alright when they were apart, but when they got together, they became a source of instability. Before you sent them to Dengzhou Prefecture together, didn't you think they would go to sea?

Now you've come to my Kunning Palace, sighing and seeking comfort?

You are dreaming!

Seeing that Empress Ma was ignoring him, Emperor Zhu felt embarrassed and simply chuckled awkwardly, looking at Empress Ma and saying, "Sister, sister?"

Empress Ma rolled her eyes and gave a soft snort. Emperor Zhu continued, "Actually, those two scoundrels, and that scoundrel Li Mingchen, their affairs are all easy to handle."

"Right now, we're figuring out what to do with Zhou Jingxin's memorial."

"This now involves more than just people having children; it also involves the increasing number of workshops and the growing manpower shortage."

"Can you give us some advice?"

Empress Ma chuckled and looked at Emperor Zhu, saying, "Back when you and Tiande and Boren were fighting on the front lines, who took care of all the affairs at home?"

Emperor Zhu chuckled and said, "Of course, it was my sister who took care of it for us."

Empress Ma hummed in agreement and then continued to ask, "When your good son-in-law first took office as the prefect of Dengzhou, the administrative affairs of Ningyang County were handled by the assistant officials of Ningyang County, but who handled the miscellaneous affairs involving the people of Ningyang County?"

"Also, who's handling all the miscellaneous affairs at the Dengzhou Navy, since our Biao'er and your good son-in-law secretly went to Japan this time?"

Emperor Zhu chuckled again and said, "We know, it's those two girls, Jin'er and Yu'er."

Empress Ma was almost brought to tears by Emperor Zhu's stupidity.

I've seen stupid people, but I've never seen anyone this stupid!

“Back when you, Tiande, and Boren were fighting on the front lines, I took their wives and children to my side to take care of them. I also arranged for people to take care of the wives and children of the other soldiers.”

“Jin’er and Yu’er did this in Ningyang County, and they did it in Dengzhou Prefecture as well.”

"What?"

"It's so that my husband can be away without any worries."

"It would be similar for ordinary people as well."

"You can set up almshouses and children's homes, and you know how to run community schools, so why can't you open a kindergarten?"

"Is it so difficult to find a few women from the countryside who know how to take care of children, so that people can focus on farming with peace of mind?"