Shen Tingyun was not angry, but smiled and said: "Don't be anxious, Minister Zhou, please listen to what I have to say."

"Under normal circumstances, the Ministry of Rites doesn't have the luxury of spending so much money. But things are different now. Under the Ministry of Rites, there's a department that spends a lot of money, and that's the Imperial Academy."

"This Imperial Academy in the capital is merely a pilot program, as all the ministers present must be aware. It's been almost a year, and you must have witnessed its effectiveness. This time, the imperial court admitted a total of 296 candidates, 76 of whom were from the Imperial Academy in the capital. This demonstrates the educational impact of the Imperial Academy in the capital, and also demonstrates the merits of Your Majesty in establishing it."

"Since the results are so good, we naturally need to open more. The Ministry of Rites has decided to establish royal academies in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. We will build another one in the capital, two in Nanjing, and one in each of the other provinces."

"If we follow the current practice of building two imperial academies in the capital and Nanjing, a total of sixteen imperial academies will need to be built. Building the academies, purchasing various supplies, and hiring teachers all require expenses. Three million taels is already an understatement."

Everyone looked at Shen Tingyun helplessly.

This guy really has a reason. However, this time the incident with the Shandong Kong family broke out, His Majesty must have valued the Royal Academy more. If it were to be expanded, His Majesty would definitely be very willing. So Shen Tingyun's reason really left everyone speechless.

But three million taels of silver is too outrageous! Why would they want three million taels of silver?

It's just to build a few royal academies, why does it cost so much money?

This is clearly an exorbitant demand!

But everyone also knew that Shen Tingyun was giving the court room to cut the price. He clearly needed one million, so he asked for three million. Even if the court cut two million, it would still be enough. If the court only cut one million, then I would make a profit.

"I'm afraid this matter isn't that urgent, is it?" Sun Chengzong took a step forward and said, "Natural disasters are frequent across the Ming Dynasty, and the northern border is also unstable. The court should spend more of its money on this matter."

"In Liaodong, wild boars are running rampant. How long has it been since the soldiers at the border were paid in full? The border commander's troops are cold, and we can't let them go to war hungry, right? This time the northwest earthquake damaged many passes, and they need to be repaired, right? As for the construction of the Royal Academy, in my opinion, we can just build one academy at a time."

"Master Sun, what you said is not true." Feng Congwu, the Minister of Rites, stepped forward and said, "This time when Shandong rebelled, countless people followed. What was the reason?"

"The reason is that they actually believe in the Smell the Fragrance Sect, which shows that the education in various places is insufficient and the people are not enlightened."

"If the people are educated and know the proper etiquette and morality, they will naturally not do such things or fall for such tricks. In this way, how much money can be saved for the court and the army? Education is of paramount importance, how can it be considered trivial?"

Everyone turned around and saw that it was Feng Congwu, the Minister of Rites and the President of the Royal Academy.

This matter was extremely beneficial to Feng Congwu. Once the Royal Academy was expanded, his power would greatly increase. Under such circumstances, he naturally supported it.

Naturally, there were many people who supported Sun Chengzong, so the two sides started arguing.

This incident caused a very loud quarrel. Everyone was talking at cross purposes and it became a huge uproar.

Zhu Youxiao sighed helplessly. The competition was indeed fierce when it came to money.

"Okay, stop arguing." Zhu Youxiao looked at everyone and said in a deep voice.

Zhu Youxiao's authority was growing, and naturally he was no longer the same as before. Now, whenever he opened his mouth to speak, the crowd would instantly quiet down.

Everyone took a step back, waiting for the emperor's decision.

"What you two ministers said makes sense, but Lord Sun, we are discussing the affairs of the Ministry of Rites now, and we will talk about the Ministry of War later. Don't mix the two things together, it will cause chaos." Zhu Youxiao said in a deep voice.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Sun Chengzong agreed quickly.

Zhu Youxiao nodded, then looked at Shen Tingyun and said, "As for what the Ministry of Rites said, it should indeed be done. However, three million taels is too much. When doing things, we can't always focus on the money. We have to find a way. We have to do things whether we have money or not."

Zhu Youxiao looked at everyone and said slowly, "Which of you, my dear minister, has a solution to this problem? I will not hesitate to reward you."

After these words came out, everyone fell silent.

Everyone understands that if you want to make this thing successful, you have to spend money; if you don’t want to spend money, you have to use some dirty tricks.

However, it is probably not easy to think of such a dirty trick, and even if someone could think of it, not everyone would dare to say it.

"Your Majesty, I have a plan."

At this time, someone stood up.