"This...this is not allowed to be said!" In a hurry, Zhu Cilang ignored the etiquette between teacher and student and covered Ni Yuanlu's mouth with his hand.
If Ni Yuanlu's words got out, he wouldn't be able to save her even if he wanted to.
What is this behavior called?
Pretend to be the emperor's will!
Why does the divine will need to be guessed?
Because emperors rarely express their ideas clearly, most of the time they only say ambiguous words and pretend to be mysterious.
Fear comes from the unknown!
The ministers could not see through the emperor's mind, so they became afraid.
In order to explore the emperor's mind, the ministers could only guess.
If you guess right, you will be successful; if you guess wrong, you will die in disgrace.
Ni Yuanlu's answer was so scary that Zhu Cilang didn't dare let him continue.
Ni Yuanlu calmly patted Zhu Cilang's arm, and after he let go, he continued, "Your Highness is the crown prince, the future emperor! You can pretend to be kind in front of others, but you can't really be kind."
“Some people sometimes view kindness as weakness, and take advantage of it.”
Zhu Cilang's face turned blue and red when Ni Yuanlu said what he was thinking, looking a little ugly.
Ni Yuanlu continued to speak without restraint: "Your Highness, have you forgotten what happened five years ago?"
"At that time, bandits were rampant and the treasury was empty. Your Majesty went everywhere to raise money for the military pay! But the wealthy nobles and ministers in the court refused to give a penny. For this reason alone, they deserve to die!"
"When His Royal Highness first arrived in Nanjing, he was short of money. How many of them offered help?"
"Later, the Jiannu were unable to enter the pass and the silver from the capital could not be transported to Nanjing. Your Highness had no choice but to use Qian Qianyi for 300,000 taels of silver, risking being reprimanded by His Majesty!"
"Isn't this enough?"
Ni Yuanlu's words completely ignited Zhu Cilang's anger.
From the time he moved south to now, he has suffered a lot of injustice.
For the sake of overall stability, he dared not vent his anger and could only endure it silently.
Now the bandits have been pacified and the overall situation has been settled.
He's had enough too.
Zhu Cilang took a few deep breaths to calm his turbulent heart.
After his heartbeat slowed down, Zhu Cilang suddenly remembered something and asked with a worried look, "Excuse me, sir, who should I kill?"
Ni Yuanlu shook his head and corrected: "It's not His Highness who wants to kill someone, but His Majesty who wants to kill someone."
"Then sir, do you know who my father wants to kill?"
"The nobles are the main ones, and the civil officials are the auxiliary ones!"
"W-why?"
"Your ancestors have made great contributions to the court. Your Majesty's killing of Zhu Chunchen and Xue Lian has had a huge impact, so Your Majesty has stopped. As the crown prince, Your Highness should relieve the king's worries."
"My father has stopped, so I can't kill him!" Zhu Cilang said worriedly.
"Your Majesty, if you kill someone, the nobles will mistakenly believe that they are being liquidated. Not only will this lead to a counterattack from the nobles, it will also affect the loyalty of the generals who lead the troops."
"Your Highness is not the emperor. The killing is purely a personal grudge and will not rise to the level of class conflict."
"So these people must be killed by Your Highness!" Ni Yuanlu said shockingly.
hiss--
Zhu Cilang took a breath of cold air.
He was completely shocked by Ni Yuanlu's remarks.
"Then..." Zhu Cilang was shocked and asked again: "It would be enough to just kill the nobles, why do we have to kill the ministers?"
"The power of the Nanjing court is composed of nobles and ministers. If one declines, the other will grow stronger. In order to maintain the balance of the court situation, we must kill a few ministers at the same time as the nobles." Ni Yuanlu said calmly.
"Nobles...Ministers..." Zhu Cilang repeated it softly several times and his eyes gradually settled.
It’s just killing people, just kill them!
After confirming this idea, Zhu Cilang asked again: "There are so many noble ministers in Nanjing. How do you find the treacherous ministers among them?"
Ni Yuanlu laughed: "No need to look for him deliberately, the traitor will show himself!"
"How do you know they will jump out on their own?"
Before Ni Yuanlu could answer, footsteps were heard outside the hall.
As the sound came closer and closer, Zhu Cilang's study companion, the eunuch Qiu Zhizhong, appeared in their sight.
Behind him followed a burly man in tight clothes, with a military demeanor in his every move.
"Your Highness, a secret letter from the capital." Qiu Zhizhong spoke first.
The burly man in tight clothes bowed, handed the letter to Zhu Cilang, and turned to leave.
After reading the contents of the secret letter, Zhu Cilang's expression became even more solemn than before.
"What's wrong, Your Highness?" Ni Yuanlu asked.
"My father wants to mint new coins. These coins are not traditional copper coins, but silver coins. Each coin weighs one ounce and is called the Ming Yuanbao. At the latest, in half a month, the mold will be transported from the capital to Nanjing to start minting coins. My father asked me to find someone to be in charge of this matter."
"The letter also said that the Fujian Jinyiwei might need a lot of money in the next few months and asked me to find a way to raise the money."
"Also... my father tried to collect mining taxes in Yangzhou Prefecture in Southern Zhili, and the first mining supervisor was Wang Zhixin."
After listening to this information and analyzing it for a while, Ni Yuanlu said seriously: "I suggest that we find two or three nobles to be responsible for minting coins and give them opportunities to make mistakes."
"What about the ministers? We have to give them opportunities to make mistakes! Sir just said that we need to maintain a balanced situation." Zhu Cilang asked.
"Minister... hehe." Ni Yuanlu said with a smile on his face, "Your Highness, don't worry, Wang Zhixin will take action!"
Yangzhou Prefecture.
Gaoyou Prefecture.
To the west of Dadong Village, Baoying County, a group of people were digging holes in the fields using various tools.
More than a hundred officers and soldiers in uniform were on guard outside with weapons in hand.
The farmers who got up early to weed the fields soon discovered something was wrong. An old farmer came up and asked, "What are you doing, Master?"
"Go away. Don't ask questions that you shouldn't ask."
The old farmer didn't dare to stay and left quickly.
He first pretended to go back to the field to shovel some grass, then ran back to the village and shouted, "Hurry up, the government troops are destroying the fields! The government troops are destroying the fields!"
The head of the village and the villagers were quickly called together.
Led by the old farmer, more than a hundred people rushed to the scene.
After arriving at the scene, the village head was afraid that someone would be killed, so he walked towards the alert government troops alone.
"What do you do?" the soldier asked.
"To answer your question, I am the head of Dadong Village."
"What's the matter?" the soldier asked again.
"I have something to say," the village head said, straightening his back. "These are all the fields of Mr. Zhang in Yangzhou Prefecture. We are tenants who farm for Mr. Xu. May I ask why you want to destroy Mr. Xu's fields?"
"Master Xu? Which Master Xu?" the soldiers asked cautiously.
"Master Xu Yifan, the doctor of the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel!"
Upon hearing that the other party's backer was a fifth-rank official of the imperial court, the soldiers did not dare to continue to stop them and brought the village head to Wang Zhixin.
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