Wanli Youming

Chapter 519 Gu Xiancheng: Our Gu family is finished!

Chapter 519 Gu Xiancheng: Our Gu family is finished!

The closer New Year's Eve gets, the stronger the New Year's atmosphere.

Rao is the heavy snow, which always falls over and over again, turning the huge capital city into a crystal glass world. On the contrary, there are many more people shopping than before, and there are crowds everywhere.

The new red window grilles and peach charms also replaced the old and faded window grilles and peach charms, and under the eyes of the elderly and children, against the backdrop of the white eaves and jade ground, it looks quite bright, as brilliant as a blooming red plum.

Shen Shixing also came to the Forbidden City on New Year's Eve in a shoulder car, wearing a big red python robe, and was going to report to the emperor at the end of the year. After the report was over and he received the emperor's reward, he would put aside his government affairs and go home. Spend the New Year with my family.

Because the price of silver had finally stabilized and Shen Shixing was in a good mood, so when he arrived in front of Zhu's gate in the inner court, before the little servant came to help him, he lifted his foot out of the shoulder, and when he saw the handprint of the supervisor of ceremonies The eunuch Zhang Honghou took the initiative to greet him, held Zhang Hong's hand step by step, and said with a smile:

"But enter the palace as usual, why should the inner minister greet you in person?"

"Master Shen has worked hard for the country, and our family should welcome him in person."

Zhang Hong said with a smile.

Because the imperial court has obtained nearly 2000 million taels of silver from the Wa Kingdom, the loans lent from the internal funds to the treasury of the foreign dynasty can undoubtedly be repaid by the treasury. The imperial court did not cause trouble, and took the initiative to stabilize the silver price as an excuse to increase the share of silver rewards this year, so Zhang Hong was in a good mood, so he became more respectful to Shen Shixing.

And Zhang Hong said again: "Just now I saw that Master Shen is so old and healthy, I think it will not be a problem to serve His Majesty for another 20 years."

"If you work for another 20 years, you will really be enemies all over the court! When the ten-year period comes, you have to ask His Majesty for a break, so as to give future generations a chance."

Shen Shixing said with a smile.

Zhang Hong didn't answer Shen Shixing's words, but only looked at the silver-gray sky, and said with a smile: "Next year will be a good year! This year has finally persisted until now, no major disturbances occurred, no one died of starvation, and no head fell to the ground."

"Yeah, now that I think about it, I don't know how this year came about. It was thanks to His Majesty's blessings that Uncle Shuozhou went to conquer that Mao Lihuiyuan's territory first, and found a big silver mountain."

"The Japanese's mouth is also very strict, and they have never said anything about it."

Shen Shixing also said with a smile.

"Master Shen, go in. The emperor is waiting, and the young master is also here. At your old request, let me meet you first."

Zhang Hong said with a smile.

The young master is Zhu Changzhen, the eldest son of the emperor.

Zhu Yijun was worried that if the eldest son of the emperor took Zhu Changluo's fate like Zhu Changluo in history, he changed his name.

But now, Zhu Yijun asked the eldest son of the emperor to meet the first assistant, it was Shen Shixing himself who asked him to, and agreed to him.

Obviously, Shen Shixing had set his sights on the eldest son of the emperor.

Zhu Yijun didn't refuse because the eldest son of the emperor is now five years old, and it's time for his foreign ministers to show courage.

After seeing Zhu Changzhen, Shen Shixing burst into tears, and then bowed to Zhu Yijun and said, "The eldest son of the emperor is really worthy of His Majesty, and I look forward to him like seeing auspicious clouds."

Zhu Yijun smiled slightly: "The master is too famous."

Then, Zhu Yijun chatted with Shen Shixing about other matters, and also listened to his report.

After Shen Shixing left, it was already snowing and dawn, and his steps became more steady and powerful, and after returning to the mansion, Qi Jiguang, Zhang Xueyan, and Wang Xijue hurriedly came to ask him: "Have you seen the eldest son of the emperor?"

Shen Shixing said: "See you, Long Zhang Feng Zi!"

All the ministers were happy.

Shen Shihang then went home.

And when it got dark, his family all came to kowtow to him with smiles.

Because Zhu Yijun asked Shen Shixing and other ruling ministers to help the court stabilize the price of silver dollars by buying national bonds, the family members of Shen Shixing and other ruling ministers did have a lot of grievances, knowing that their property was not given to the court for nothing by the patriarch.

Now the members of Shen's family still gave Shen Shixing New Year's greetings from the bottom of their hearts, so they kowtowed seriously, even the family members kneeling under the eaves did not perfunctory.

"Father, can the court really pay back the money it owes us?"

"There are a lot of people talking about it, saying that the court may not be able to pay it back."

But the family members of these ministers in power are still worried about whether the national debt will bring benefits. After all, it is true that money is expensive and valleys are cheap, so Shen Yongjia couldn't help asking Shen Shixing this day.

Shen Shixing took out the printed Tang newspaper from his sleeve, and handed it to Shen Yongjia: "Take it and circulate it to your family members. If you can't read, read it to them! Let them take advantage of this while visiting relatives and friends. Publicize the matter, make it big, exaggerate, help the court to stabilize people's hearts, and make this New Year really happy, so as not to worry about it."

"So much silver?!"

Shen Yongjia took a look at the printed copy of the Tang newspaper, and was dumbfounded, then immediately said yes, and walked out quickly.

"Have you heard?"

"Bo Shuozhou defeated the Japanese chieftain named Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and stole more than 2000 million taels of silver!"

"No, I remember it was 3000 million taels. I heard from Yuanfu's bearer."

"No! It's 5000 million taels! It is said that the Japanese slaves are very rich. One is that they robbed a lot of silver when they plundered the southeast of me, and the other is that they have as much silver as we have stones here, so there is only so much. I am I heard from Da Sinonong's boy that he was drunk, so he leaked the news, saying that he only paid 2000 million taels, for fear of letting others know that the Wa country is very rich!"

"How did I hear it was [-] million?"

……

All of a sudden, all kinds of news about the imperial court getting a large amount of silver in the war against Japan spread wildly in the market.

Moreover, these news are being spread more and more exaggerated.

But in this era, the level of communication is limited, and there is still a lag in the complete spread of news.

Therefore, what most ordinary people still firmly believe for a while is the anecdotal news that the price of silver will continue to rise.

As a result, at the end of the year, many people were no longer willing to use the silver they obtained through participating in infrastructure construction to buy high-quality assets sold cheaply by powerful bureaucrats, and they also began to hoard silver dollars.

"Don't buy it! Now silver dollars are worth more than anything else. New clothes and shoes and socks are not important. Maybe next year the eldest son can use these accumulated silver dollars to marry a wife."

Zhang Sanwu, a mason in Daxing County, grabbed his wife Tian Shi who was going to the market to buy cloth for new year clothes.

Tian also returned back: "Then do you want to buy some meat?"

"Don't buy it either!"

"In short, if you can save a penny of silver dollars now, even if you don't do anything, you can earn a penny, so why bother spending it, it's better to count on silver dollars to make money."

Zhang Sanwu said.

After hearing this, Tian said: "All right, no wonder the rich man next door is so willing to sell his silk at a low price, saying that he can buy three silks for one cent of silver. The silver dollar idea."

In short, by the end of the 15th year of Wanli, even if the powerful and bureaucrats were willing to sell it at a low price, the common people were unwilling to buy it and began to hoard silver.

But at this time, there are more silver dollars put into the market, so more silver dollars are in circulation, and the price of silver dollars begins to drop rapidly. At least the official store has lowered the price of silver dollars and raised prices. Many private shops have also started to have more people. At first, they just wanted to spend some silver dollars to buy necessities, such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, etc., but found that the prices of these necessities started to rise. At first, they thought it was Chinese New Year. The reason turned out to be rising again after the year, but it was later discovered that this was not the case, and the relative price of silver dollars continued to fall!

"Fall again?"

Gu Xiancheng asked Gu Yuncheng who had just returned from investigating the situation.

Gu Yuncheng nodded: "We have to stop selling property at a low price now, right? However, not many people are willing to buy it."

"Stop it."

Gu Xiancheng nodded.

But a few days later, Gu Yuncheng hurriedly came to Gu Xiancheng's place, and said in a panic, "Brother, it's over!"

Gu Xiancheng's heart tightened, and he asked, "What's the end?"

"Our domestic slaves who were doing business in the country of Wa brought back news that the country of Wa was defeated, and a steady stream of silver was brought back!"

"In addition, I just happened to find out that some people who claim to be slaves of the New Party have indeed earned tens of millions of silver back from the imperial court!"

Gu Yuncheng said.

After a while, Gu Xiancheng said to himself: "Our Gu family is finished!"

(End of this chapter)