Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed drunk that night.
He was drunk and kept talking nonsense to Zhu Yunwen.
During this period, he repeatedly mentioned that he would pass the throne to Zhu Yunwen, which left Zhu Yunwen feeling helpless.
He naturally didn't take Zhu Yuanzhang's words seriously when he was drunk.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was so drunk that he couldn't stay in the back, simply had the eunuchs take him away.
The two girls had almost finished off the food on the table.
It was already quite late, so Zhu Yunwen went to rest.
The next morning, Zhu Yunwen arrived at the morning court as usual.
Zhu Yunwen has not attended court for a long time. It is said that he is in the Eastern Palace, enduring hardship and reflecting on his past mistakes.
But no one knows what bad thing they're planning.
Upon arriving at the imperial court, Zhu Yuanzhang rubbed his forehead. He first glanced at Zhu Yunwen, then revealed a wry smile.
Zhu Yunwen smiled and thought to himself, "I told you to drink less last night. You didn't believe me. Your head still hurts after you slept, right?"
Of course, he couldn't mock Zhu Yuanzhang like that in the imperial court.
Zhu Yuanzhang paused for a moment and then said:
"My dear ministers, is there anything you wish to say? I'd like to go back and get some rest today; I drank too much last night."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Yunwen wanted to laugh, and the officials only mentioned a few ordinary things, nothing major overall.
At this moment, Minister of Revenue Zhao Mian stepped forward and said:
"Your Majesty, the construction of a palace for Prince Zhu Yunwen of Wu will require a great deal of money, totaling nearly 200,000 taels of silver. I need to report this to Your Majesty."
Two hundred thousand taels of silver is a lot of money, because an ordinary person might only earn twenty taels of silver a year.
If Zhu Yunwen's mansion were to be built according to the original plan, it would indeed require a considerable amount of money.
However, Zhu Yunwen did not believe that it was really possible to spend 200,000 taels of silver.
After all, given the scale of Zhu Yunwen's Prince's Mansion, although it was very large, it already had a mansion as its foundation.
In reality, his palace was just an expansion, which saved some costs.
In other words, according to Zhu Yunwen's speculation, perhaps tens of thousands, or at most one hundred thousand taels of silver, would be enough to build the Prince's Mansion to the scale and luxury required by Zhu Yuanzhang.
The Ministry of Revenue quoted 200,000 taels of silver, which seemed reasonable to most officials, and even Zhu Yuanzhang himself didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
However, Zhu Yunwen revealed a cold smile. The Ministry of Revenue quoted Zhu Yuanzhang such a high price, but in reality, the amount actually spent on building the house was pitifully small.
So much so that even the head of the Ministry of Revenue, who was in charge of the Wu Prince's residence, could only use the lowest wages to hire the elderly, children, sick and disabled, and cut corners to squeeze their labor in order to achieve the goal.
However, this Minister of Revenue dared to ask for 200,000.
It could be said that at this moment, they were truly walking straight into Zhu Yunwen's gun barrel.
Zhu Yunwen has already told the head of the Ministry of Revenue that there is no need to expand the original mansion; it is sufficient to simply renovate it.
In other words, according to Zhu Yunwen's wishes, the money that the Minister of Revenue gave to the head of the Ministry of Revenue was already sufficient, as Zhu Yunwen requested.
However, the Minister of Revenue actually openly reported to Zhu Yuanzhang in the imperial court that he needed 200,000 taels of silver.
This is undoubtedly like lifting a rock only to drop it on one's own foot.
Zhu Yunwen hadn't even thought about resolving this matter, but he never expected that the Minister of Revenue would actually dig a hole for himself.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the Minister of Revenue and said:
"Would 200,000 taels of silver be enough to repair the Prince of Wu's residence?"
The Minister of Revenue said, "Two hundred thousand taels of silver should be about right. If that's not enough, a few tens of thousands more taels wouldn't be a problem."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "Good, the Ministry of Revenue will handle everything. Remember to build the Prince of Wu's mansion to be quite grand."
The Minister of Revenue replied earnestly, "Your subject obeys the decree."
Throughout the entire process, Zhu Yunwen remained silent, only wearing a strange smile on his face.
After the court session, Zhu Yunwen simply followed the Minister of Revenue, chatting and laughing all the way to the Ministry of Revenue's offices outside the imperial city.
Upon arriving at the Ministry of Revenue, Zhu Yunwen saw the official in charge of the ministry.
The Minister of Revenue said to Zhu Yunwen:
"Your Highness, this Steward Zhang is in charge of the construction of your Wu Prince's Mansion."
Zhu Yunwen pretended to be meeting Zhang, the steward, for the first time and said:
"I'll leave the matters of the Prince's residence to Steward Zhang."
Zhang, the steward, naturally understood Zhu Yunwen's meaning and nodded with a smile, saying:
"What I did was only what I should do."
Minister Zhao of the Ministry of Revenue then said to Chief Clerk Zhang:
"You must take the construction of the Wu Prince's Palace very seriously. Make sure it's done well and completed on schedule, do you understand?"
Manager Zhang nodded:
"Your Excellency, I understand."
Zhu Yunwen smiled and said, "I trust the Ministry of Revenue to handle things very well."
The Minister of Revenue then cupped his hands and smiled, saying, "In that case, I will not accompany His Highness the Imperial Grandson any longer."
With that, Zhao Mian left to go to his office.
The moment he turned around, Zhao Mian's smile vanished, replaced by disdain and contempt.
Zhu Yunwen then looked at Steward Zhang and said cryptically:
"Remember, record for me every single penny of the money he gave you, exactly what you did with it. When the Prince's Mansion is completed, I'll take your records and stand in the imperial court to confront this two-faced Minister of Revenue, and see where the 200,000 taels of silver he claimed went!"
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