After passing the regulations of the nobles' management, the nobles with a frustrated face planned to leave. But Feng Chenghou picked up the mallet on the table and knocked on the table and said, "Everyone, go slowly, I still have one more thing to say here." ”

Xiangcheng Bo Li Shouqi sat back in his seat, and said weakly to Fengcheng Hou: "What else do you have to talk about?" Even if we have to hand in the title deed, we have to wait until we go home to find the title deed, who will take the title deed with us. ”

"That's it..."Several nobles immediately echoed Xiangcheng Bo.

Fengcheng Hou straightened his color and said, "Quiet, be quiet." Everyone in the hall looked at the hateful teeth of Chongzhen's minions in their eyes, but they had to sit down quietly.

Fengcheng Hou said at this time: "Before Shunyi had a mutiny of smelling incense, and then there was a mutiny in Beijing, the people of Gyeonggi and the capital suffered great losses, and this year's winter was particularly cold, Your Majesty could not bear the people to die of cold and starvation, and wanted to provide disaster relief."

As the saying goes, 'one person is not prosperous when he collects firewood, and the flame is high when everyone picks up firewood', this disaster relief can not be achieved by the imperial court alone.

For example, although Wu Qingbo is not good at hand, he would rather sell Tsinghua Garden to save the people of Gyeonggi, this behavior is worth learning from. His Majesty has a will to award Wu Qingbo a 'Medal of Benevolence' as a reward. ”

Seeing Wu Qingbo step forward and take over an egg-sized gold medal from Fengcheng Hou's hand, although this brand can be hung on his chest, but thinking that this brand has actually changed to a Tsinghua Garden, many nobles feel distressed for Wu Qingbo.

Wu Qingbo controlled his emotions for a while, so that he didn't let himself fall because of worrying, Chongzhen exchanged a sign for a garden for him, although he had comforted himself many times, but now there is still a kind of heart-wrenching discomfort, but there is a casual expression on his face.

However, when he returned to his seat, looking at the ugly faces of the nobles around him, he found that his mood had somehow changed for the better.

After Li Chengzuo, the Marquis of Fengcheng, finished speaking, he first donated 10,000 taels of silver, and the horse Wang Yu also donated 3,000 taels, Yongkang Hou Xu Xiyin finally did not delay this time, gritted his teeth and donated 3,000 taels.

With Wu Qingbo's donation first, Fengcheng Hou and others donating on the spot, even if the other nobles were unhappy, they could only helplessly take out the money.

However, the most was only 800 taels, and the less was 150 taels. In addition to the Marquis of Fengcheng and other 3 people with Wu Qingbo, the other 32 nobles donated a total of 9,600 taels.

Although the donations of Fengcheng Hou and the other three were as high as 16,000 taels, they could be converted into half of the silver with Chongzhen's permission.

In other words, in addition to Wu Qingbo's donation, there are only 17,600 taels of so many nobles in the House of Nobles, which is less than the group of pirates of Eighteen Zhi, who donated at least 18,000 taels.

Feng Chenghou felt that his temples were twitching, and for the first time in his life, he felt how shameless this group of nobles was.

"Your loyalty to Da Ming is really considerable, and I believe that Your Majesty will be inexplicably moved by your loyalty." Li Chengzuo said sarcastically.

The nobles turned a deaf ear to Li Chengzuo's sarcasm, as if the Marquis of Fengcheng did not say it to himself.

Li Chengzuo did not stop there, but ordered a servant to bring in a stack of documents.

After waving his hand to let the servants retreat, Li Chengzuo picked up a document and said: "Everyone, this is a stock issued by the Four Seas Commercial Bank to develop Taiwan, a total of 100 shares, each worth 10,000 taels of silver.

Now that the Ming Dynasty is in the autumn of the end of the three emptiness, His Majesty believes that you are all the nobles and nobles who are resting with the country, and now you should also share the difficulties.

Considering that you already have preferential fields, Your Majesty means to use this share of the Taiwan Reclamation Company to compensate you for your future success. ”

The nobles in the hall immediately discussed, 10,000 taels of silver is a lot of money, but is it worth offsetting the future Juelu.

Xing'an Bo Xu Ruxiao first couldn't hold his breath and asked: "What does this mean to offset the future Juelu?" Does it refer to the current title of knighthood until the next term? Is it also included in the official position? ”

Li Chengzuo replied calmly: "In the future, the meaning of Juelu is literal, which means that after accepting this stock, there will be no more Juelu in the future, but you will not be counted as an official position." ”

The duke's age of the Ming Dynasty is 5,000 to 2,500 stones, and the age of the marquis and earl is 1,500 to 1,000 stones.

After reaching the middle and late stages, three points of true color and seven points of folded color. And because of the lack of treasury revenue in the middle and late periods, the household department often used silk or cloth to fold colors.

A horse of silk is converted into seven coins of silver, and a horse of cloth is discounted into three coins of silver, in fact, even if it is a duke's annual salary, it is only more than 700 stone natural rice and more than 500 taels of silver.

This amount of money and rice is not enough for them to reward their subordinates, but their old rice is white grain, and to transport white grain from the south to Beijing, it will cost at least 10 times more than the travel fee per stone.

Therefore, the imperial court has spent a huge price, and the expenditure is far from satisfying these nobles. Basically, the nobles' expenses came from their own farms, as well as the tax evasion trade carried out by Cao Yun, and the expenses that were embezzled when they held official positions.

10,000 taels of company stock to offset the future Juelu, this deal does not look very bad.

Some young nobles who prefer cash can't help but ask tentatively: "We don't want stocks, can we just take the silver?" ”

"Of course not?" Li Chengzuo did not hesitate to dispel their delusions.

Li Shouqi, the uncle of Xiangcheng, thought about it for a while, and then asked, "Then when will this stock be exchanged for 10,000 taels of silver?" ”

Li Chengzuo said thoughtfully: "After a while, in the mansion next door to us, there will be a trading house called the stock exchange, and you can sell this stock in the exchange at that time." ”

"For sale? Are you saying someone is going to buy the stock? Taining Hou Chen Wenli was a little curious about Fengcheng Hou's statement.

Li Chengzuo said cautiously: "I mean that stocks can be listed for sale on the stock exchange, but whether anyone will buy them depends on the price you want to sell, right?" ”

Taining Hou Chen Wenli suddenly said in disappointment: "Isn't that the same as the official stickers of Lumi received by those officials, if you want to sell it at a discount in the market, you can only get three or four discounts when it is low, and it is only seven or eight discounts if it is high." This 10,000 taels of stocks, if you don't get it, it will only cost 3 or 5,000 taels of silver, which is not worth it. ”

Cheng'an Hou Zhang Zuojiu frowned and thought for a while, before he suddenly said: "Isn't this Four Seas Commercial Bank the one that just bought the Changlu Salt Farm?" With this stock, can you get the dividends of the salt farm? ”

Hearing Cheng Anhou's words, the nobles in the room suddenly became a little high, but Li Chengzuo poured a basin of cold water again.

"No, this stock has nothing to do with the Changlu Salt Farm. This is the stock of the Taiwan Reclamation Company, and Sihai Commercial Bank is just one of the shareholders of the company, just like you. ”

Cheng'an Hou Zhang Zuojiu asked with some doubts: "What does this Taiwan reclamation company do?" It's worth 1 million taels? ”

Li Chengzuo immediately picked up the stock in his hand and read: "The company is committed to the development of Taiwan's local resources, and has obtained 30 years of preferential terms of land tax exemption, in addition to the right to explore Taiwan's mineral resources. ”

"Fengcheng Hou, where are you talking about Taiwan?" Some nobles who knew nothing about geography finally thought of the crux of the matter.

"It is what we call the Great Ryukyu, a big island across the sea from Fujian under the Little Ryukyu." Li Chengzuo, who had made up for some geographical knowledge, explained to these ignorant colleagues with contempt.

"If you sow the land for thirty years, you can grow a million taels of silver? Aren't you deceiving us? A noble suddenly said dissatisfied.

The discussion in the hall soon turned into the question of whether these stocks were worth 10,000 taels. Most people think that it will take 30 years to wait for these stocks to be worth 10,000 taels, so it is better to continue to hold their own Juelu and flow for a long time.

Seeing that Xungui gradually reached a negative position, Li Chengzuo had to use the last resort.

"If you don't want to use this stake to offset your own knighthood. In order to alleviate the burden of the people of the Ming Dynasty, His Majesty asked everyone to go to the south after the beginning of spring, collect Yulu in Nanjing, and not return to the capital without His Majesty's order. ”

Several young nobles are very interested in Li Chengzuo's statement, Jinling Qinhuai River is the most famous place in the world, the green mountains and green waters in the south of the Yangtze River and gentle and beautiful people, that is not better than this thick and oppressive Beijing city.

But these young nobles were soon taught a lesson by the elders on the side, and leaving Beijing was equivalent to being banished from the imperial court.

Isn't it because they have been isolated from the emperor's field of vision and don't know anything about the political trend of the imperial court, so they don't dare to offend them, who have been staying by the emperor's side.

Without the trust of the emperor, what is the point of having a knighthood? Juelu alone could not support the brocade and food of a noble family, and they needed the emperor's trust to obtain various high-ranking military appointments in order to maintain the wealth and glory of the family.

Lee's threats were effective, and most of the nobles were reluctant to lose the opportunity to stay with the emperor because of a knighthood that was meant to be a symbol.

Wu Qingbo once again played the role of the leader, and then the nobles accepted it one after another, and the shares of the Taiwan Reclamation Company worth 10,000 taels.

After receiving the stock, the nobles left with a muttering dissatisfaction. Li Chengzuo's heart that had been tense relaxed at this time, and Wang Yu, the horse beside him, said with some resentment.

"Various places in the Ming Dynasty were affected by disasters, and the imperial court couldn't even take out the money for disaster relief, but these people were still thinking about what to do to their own benefit. Don't they know that without the people, will their money fall from heaven? ”

Li Chengzuo sorted out the things on the table, and said unsurprised: "In their opinion, the sky is falling and the court is also supporting it, how can there be troubles in this world that the court can't solve." In that case, why should they allow themselves to suffer? ”