Chapter 22: The Reliable King of Jin

"I heard that this county magistrate has a good reputation, not to mention that his family is poor..."

"Poverty?" Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly interrupted him, his face showing great anger, and he wanted to pull his bare feet out of the copper basin.

Seeing this, Zhu Biao hurriedly stepped back, trying to escape.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly suppressed his anger and said in a deep voice, "Poverty? He is a county magistrate, and I give him 7 dan of rice every month, which is 1,000 catties of rice! Well, let me calculate it for you. Even if his family has 7 or 8 people, they only need 10 catties of rice every day. In this month, 300 catties are enough for the whole family to eat and drink. In addition, there is a surplus of 700 catties. At the current market price, 700 catties of rice is enough to earn 300 or 400 ounces of silver. Isn't 300 or 400 ounces of silver enough to cover the expenses of his family?"

Zhu Biao: "..."

Zhu Yuanzhang continued, "Look at your mother. She also eats simple meals and wears plain clothes. Even I, except for sacrifices and court attendance, only wear four sets of daily clothes in spring and autumn. I and your mother are like this. How can he, a county magistrate, be poor when he has food and drink? Do you know how my family lived when your grandfather was alive? At that time... let alone a stone of white rice, even if the whole family had 100 kilograms of rice, it could be considered well-off."

At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang was particularly excited, and seemed to be very sad about Zhu Biao's words: "If he is poor, then the monks and laymen in Panyu County will not be able to survive. My eldest son, your mother and I dare not advocate luxury and enjoyment. We usually eat simple meals. Don't your mother and I know how to live a good life? This is not for you, for our Ming Dynasty. Go and take a look at the annual revenue and expenditure of the national treasury, and then go to the inner treasury and look through the expenses of the palace's inner treasury. Such a dog official has thousands of kilograms of rice every month, but he is still not satisfied. Not only is he corrupt and perverts the law, but he can also arouse your sympathy. Alas..."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head: "You can't see the painstaking efforts of me and your mother, and you can't see the sufferings of ordinary people, but you feel sorry for a corrupt county magistrate. You just need to pretend to be pitiful, and you will pity him. You see that he embezzled only 79 taels of silver, but have you ever thought that this 79 taels of silver is enough to teach a county magistrate to change a case in a moment, create an unjust case, teach a whole family to be wronged, let the guilty go unpunished, and the innocent be destroyed. This bribe of more than 70 taels of silver may also teach a wealthy family to hide their population and land, so that hundreds of acres of land cannot be included in the official fish scale book, so that the descendants of this wealthy family can get hundreds of taels of silver from the court and the government!"

After hearing this, Zhu Biao hurriedly said, "I know I was wrong."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and sighed, but then smiled bitterly and said, "I and your mother have been living frugally every day, so you should make your parents suffer. In the future, I will teach you and your descendants that when the treasury is full, you can indulge in extravagance."

Zhu Biao said: "Father, you don't have to be so fussy..."

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes widened. "You're so stingy? Silver is saved bit by bit like this. It's hard to conquer the world, but isn't it hard to rule the world from the horse? If your mother and I don't wear one new piece of clothing, people in the palace will not dare to buy new clothes. If we eat one less delicious meal, people in the palace will have to eat simple meals like us. How much money and grain are saved bit by bit?"

Zhu Biao was speechless for a moment.

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed unwilling to blame him any more, so he suddenly said, "Son, I want to ask you, if this man is castrated, can he really live longer?"

"Ah?" Zhu Biao opened his mouth wide enough to swallow an egg.

The style of the painting changed so quickly that Zhu Biao was a little confused.

"It's okay, I'm just curious. Damn it, how could I really believe the nonsense of a yellow-mouthed kid?"

Zhu Biao couldn't help but become curious and asked, "Who is the yellow-mouthed boy that father is talking about?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said subconsciously: "Who else could it be? Of course it's your third brother who has suddenly gone crazy recently, and the one beside him..."

Having said this, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly fell silent.

Zhu Biao was full of concern: "What happened to my third brother?"

"He...he is now cheating people, pretending to be a doctor, and starting to treat people."

Zhu Biao: "..."

Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that his beard began to tremble: "It's bad enough that he cheated, but he even lost money after opening a clinic! What a sin, what a sin! I am so powerful, how could I give birth to such a fool." Zhu Biao: "..."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hands and said, "Let's not talk about him, let's not talk about him. He is a man, and he should have fallen down. If he really can't survive, can't he just do what I did in the past? Anyway, he won't starve to death, so he should be taught a lesson."

But even though he said this, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed still angry, so he added: "A clinic has been open for more than ten days, but it has lost nine taels of silver. Oh, I am so embarrassed. I am so ashamed!"

Zhu Biao said: "Why don't I go to Fengyang..."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand again: "Don't worry about him, just let him go, this guy, and that guy..."

Zhu Yuanzhang paused, and Zhu Biao didn't understand who the other guy was.

But then Zhu Yuanzhang said, "They are smart but lack experience. When they are young, they tend to be arrogant and ignorant. They think they can accomplish anything with their intelligence. They should be taught a lesson so that they can learn from it."

Zhu Biao had no choice but to nod and say, "Yes."

…………

At this time, Queen Ma was in her bedroom, doing needlework.

The lights were dim, and there was a twelve-year-old girl lying on a table. Under the lights, her eyes, reflected by the candlelight, seemed particularly bright.

At this moment, she was spreading out a letter. She had only roughly read it, but she was laughing: "Mother, mother, my third brother has sent me a letter."

Queen Ma frowned slightly and said, "What did you say? It's not something ridiculous, is it?"

The girl said, "That's not the case. Third brother said he had something good for me, and also said... he also said something about being extremely rich. In this world, he would only entrust his love to the woman he trusted the most."

"What exactly is wealth?" Queen Ma was confused.

The girl read the letter carefully before saying, "No."

So Empress Ma said angrily and amusedly, "Don't bother with him. He is definitely up to no good."

The girl groaned, thought for a moment, and then said, "But Third Brother also said that if I miss this opportunity, I will never get it again and I will regret it in the future. He...he said that he loves me and missed me every day when I was in Fengyang."

Queen Ma: "..."

Seeing that Empress Ma remained silent for a long time, the girl continued, "I think Third Brother only wants to be good to me and will definitely not harm me."

Queen Ma sighed, "You two should make your own decision about your brother and sister's affairs, but you have to be careful. He has been a troublemaker since he was young, and it's only in recent days that his temper has changed. You are different from him. You are a girl, so you can't follow him in his nonsense."

The girl smiled slightly on her oval face, stuck out her tongue, and then showed her innocent look, saying, "Well, my daughter knows."

(End of this chapter)