"The Queen is more beautiful again." Chongzhen walked closer to Queen Zhou and grabbed her right hand.
Queen Zhou lowered her head shyly, like a peach blossom in the morning dew, which made people feel pity for her.
Just when Empress Zhou thought Chongzhen was going to push his luck, Chongzhen suddenly asked in a low voice, "Empress, how is the father-in-law doing recently?"
Um?
Queen Zhou felt a little lost.
I thought Chongzhen would care about her, but I didn't expect that he was thinking about his father.
In addition, Chongzhen had been spending the night at Concubine Yuan's place instead of the Kunning Palace for the past half month.
All these things added up to make Queen Zhou feel like she had fallen out of favor.
In fact, this cannot be blamed on Chongzhen.
If you neglect one thing while focusing on another, it will easily lead to conflicts among the concubines, and over time some unstable factors will appear in the harem.
His harem must stick together and face the outside world with one voice.
This time, letting Queen Zhou follow him out of the palace was to dispel the Queen's concerns.
"My father wrote to say that thanks to Your Majesty's blessing, business has been very good recently." Queen Zhou held Chongzhen's hand tightly with her right hand, unwilling to let go.
Chongzhen stared at Empress Zhou's face and asked, "When did the Empress learn to report good news but not bad news?"
Queen Zhou was stunned at first, but then relieved.
Now the Jinyiwei has tens of thousands of visible guards and countless secret guards.
In such a big city like Beijing, is there anything that can be hidden from one's husband?
Empress Zhou whispered, "My father said in his last letter that local officials set up many checkpoints along the canal and charged high shipping fees to merchants. Although my father had official documents from the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, and even the Ministry of Works, he was still forced to pay the shipping fee."
"He just made a few complaints in the letter. Your Majesty, please don't take it seriously." After Queen Zhou said those words, she was afraid that Chongzhen would come out to defend Zhou Kui, so she forced an explanation.
His father Zhou Kui has already received a lot of benefits from the court, so there is no need to protect the interests of their Zhou family because of this matter.
Chongzhen didn't think so.
The shipping fees collected by the local authorities were neither given to him nor handed over to the court, but were withheld by the local authorities.
Withholding funds is not embezzlement. Amid the court's large-scale crackdown on corruption, officials will not commit such crimes.
Embezzlement is putting money into one's own pocket for use by oneself or one's family.
Withholding means putting the money into the local government’s slush fund.
The money will stay in the slush fund for a while.
If the truth came out, officials could always hand over the money to the court and ask for forgiveness.
Only after confirming that there are no problems will local officials redistribute the money.
There are roughly three categories of allocation objects.
Part of it was sent to court ministers in the name of Bing Jing and Tan Jing, asking them to speak for themselves in the court.
(Bingjing is the money given to the superior to buy ice to cool off in the summer, and Tanjing is the money given to buy coal for heating in the winter. It is a more implicit way of saying bribes between officials.)
He would keep a portion for himself and his accomplices, and the last portion would be distributed among his subordinates.
There are people talking at the top, accomplices helping in the middle, and thugs doing the work at the bottom.
A perfect closed loop is formed!
But they all forgot.
They collected money from passing merchants in the name of the government and under the banner of the emperor. Afterwards, everyone got the money except the Ming emperor!!!
When Yan Song received three million taels of silver, he gave one million to Jiajing.
But when it came to Chongzhen, there was not a penny left.
This is something Chongzhen could not tolerate!
"I allow them to be greedy, but they have to give me some money!" Chongzhen muttered in an inaudible voice.
"Your Majesty, my father just complained a few words in the letter, so please ignore him." Queen Zhou thought Chongzhen really wanted to help her father vent his anger, and she panicked for a moment.
"My good queen," Chongzhen said as he grabbed Queen Zhou's hand and walked out, "Remember, the harem is not allowed to interfere in government affairs!"
"But Your Majesty..." Queen Zhou wanted to say something, but Chongzhen stopped her by shaking his head.
"Queen, change your mind," Chongzhen said, looking at a dark cloud floating in from the sky tree. "Not only does the Earl of Jiading have official documents from the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of War, he also has the status of a noble."
"Even with such strong connections, they were forced to pay shipping fees. What would the result be if it were any other ordinary merchant?"
Queen Zhou suddenly realized.
It turned out that Chongzhen did not want to vent his father's anger, but intended to take the opportunity to govern the grain transport system.
"I have misunderstood Your Majesty. Please punish me!" Queen Zhou looked apologetic and bowed deeply to Chongzhen.
Chongzhen laughed and said, "It's time to punish you!"
Queen Zhou felt even more ashamed.
While the two were chatting and laughing, the imperial carriage was already ready.
Under the escort of the guards, they slowly left the imperial city.
After leaving the city, she did not go to the banquet immediately, but at the instruction of Chongzhen, she changed her route to visit the business opened in the name of the Queen: Zhou Shang.
The group strolled around the store for a while and took away a lot of good things when they left.
In addition to antique calligraphy and paintings, there are also soaps, fine salt and tea.
Although the price of fine salt has come down, it is still unaffordable for ordinary people and is a consumable for the rich.
Before I even left the store, I could hear noisy voices outside.
Chongzhen knew that the voices were made by the onlookers, who wanted to catch a glimpse of Queen Zhou's beautiful face.
Women in the Ming Dynasty were not confined to their homes as one might imagine. In some respects, the degree of freedom enjoyed by women at that time was no less than that in the Tang and Song dynasties.
It is recorded in the Ming Dynasty historical book "Guangzhiyi".
"Everyone in the city loves to travel, especially women."
"In March, when Dongyue celebrates his birthday, people will play in the pine forest. They will gather in groups of three or five, unbutton their skirts and sit around pine trees" or "wear high hats and big sleeves, and dance drunkenly on donkeys."
Zhang Dai, a prose writer in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, also wrote in "Dreams of Taoan" that every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, the capital was filled with men and women, competing to watch the lantern boats... The men and women leaned on the railings and laughed loudly, the sound and light were a mess, and they could not control their ears and eyes.
Many women in the city walked together to busy areas to see the lights and record the incidents.
The most important thing is that in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there was already a trend among the people not to bind their feet...
Unfortunately, after the Qing Dynasty took control of the Central Plains, the wheel of history began to move backwards.
As soon as Queen Zhou stepped out of the shop, the people watching from afar couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
The nearby area had already been cleared, but that did not stop people from watching from a distance.
Queen Zhou was not only beautiful, but also had the temperament to be a model for the country.
These people who had never seen the world were instantly shocked by Queen Zhou's appearance.
They knelt down hastily to show their respect to the emperor and empress.
After the imperial carriage set off, the guards near the business also withdrew.
As soon as they left, the people rushed in.
Everyone asked the same question after entering: What did His Majesty and the Queen buy just now? They also want one.
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