Chapter 25: Our Money! New Book Seeking Collection
Old Zhu had lived for over sixty years and had never seen such a shameless person.
He was on the verge of death before, and now he’s living it up and wants to hire several maids to serve him?
If Hu Weiyong were still alive, the two of you could probably sit at the same table!
However, compared to Hu Weiyong, you are still more honest. At least you clearly stated what you wanted.
Humph, you truly deserve to die!
Old Zhu thought viciously, then said with a stern face, “Is this your reason for roaring in the Hall of Supreme Harmony?”
“No, how can this be considered roaring in the Hall of Supreme Harmony? What kind of behavior is roaring in the Hall of Supreme Harmony? Disrespecting the sovereign!”
“You still know about disrespecting the sovereign?”
“Your subject naturally knows!”
Zhang Biao argued logically, “Your subject has always kept Your Majesty in mind, but Your Majesty always puts your subject on the ground.”
“As the saying goes, at home, rely on parents; when out, rely on friends. Your subject’s parents are both deceased. Having come to the capital to be an official, I don’t have many friends. Seeing Your Majesty most often when attending court daily!”
“In your subject’s eyes, the sovereign is also a father. Therefore, your subject is loyal and devoted to Your Majesty and dares to offer advice at the risk of his life!”
“But…”
Saying this, he changed the subject and once again raised that purple notebook that read ‘Give me back my hard-earned money’ in purple, and said with tears streaming down his face, “Your Majesty doesn’t even care about your subject’s life or death, your subject is heartbroken!”
“You… you…”
Old Zhu’s voice changed as he uttered the word ‘you’, which echoed through the vast and silent Hall of Supreme Harmony for three full circles, but ultimately, he couldn’t ‘you’ out an explanation.
His chest heaved violently, his weather-beaten face turned the color of liver, and his fingers trembled as he pointed at Zhang Biao below the steps, who was holding up the tattered account book with an expression that said, ‘I’ll die if you don’t give me money.’
Perhaps it would be better to just execute him?
This thought circled in Old Zhu’s mind eight hundred times.
This bastard first poked him in the lungs with the dire warning of a fallen nation, and now he’s using a tattered account book to cry poverty and demand his salary!
He’s practically treating the Hall of Supreme Harmony as a marketplace!
And treating him, the supreme emperor, as a foreman who owes wages!
Utter humiliation! Utter humiliation!
But his words, ‘Your subject’s parents are both deceased, and the sovereign is also a father,’ were like a fishbone stuck in Old Zhu’s throat, unable to be swallowed or spat out.
It must be known that Old Zhu’s own background was also tragic. His parents died when he was young, he lived on the streets as a beggar, and even spent a few days as a monk in a temple before he could barely survive.
Although Zhang Biao’s hardship was certainly not as bad as his own, hearing Zhang Biao’s words made him recall the bitter past.
Coupled with Zhang Biao’s washed-out seventh-rank mandarin square uniform with frayed cuffs, and that purple ‘Give me back my hard-earned money’ notebook with corners curled like dried pickles…
An unprecedented sense of absurdity and a sliver of extremely faint guilt, which even Old Zhu himself was unwilling to admit, poured over him like icy water, temporarily suppressing the boiling killing intent.
“Yun Ming!!”
Old Zhu finally turned his head sharply, avoiding looking at Zhang Biao, and hoarsely roared at the fair-skinned, beardless, and effortful-to-shrink-himself-into-a-quail close eunuch beside him:
“Go! Investigate for us! Investigate the Ministry of Revenue! Investigate the Grand Storehouse! Find out clearly! How much of this damned Censor Zhang’s salary, and the salaries of those poor scholars in the Censorate, is owed! How did it get owed! Go investigate immediately—!!”
Before his words even finished, his spittle had already sprayed all over Yun Ming.
“Your servant obeys the decree! Your servant will go now!”
Yun Ming didn’t dare to wipe his face, and as if granted a great pardon, he scrambled out of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
His speed was as if ten vicious dogs were chasing him from behind.
The hall fell into an eerie silence once more.
Only Old Zhu’s heavy breathing remained, and the untimely, long, and loud rumble from Zhang Biao’s stomach—
“GURGLE~~~~”
The sound echoed in the silent main hall, exceptionally clear.
The corners of the mouths of the surrounding eunuchs and palace maids twitched almost imperceptibly, and then they quickly lowered their heads.
Old Zhu’s face darkened further, his temples throbbing.
Zhang Biao, however, seemed completely unfazed. He rubbed his shriveled stomach, a look of desperate hunger on his face, and gazed eagerly at Zhu Yuanzhang, mumbling softly:
“Your Majesty… my stomach… it’s protesting. Could you possibly… let me buy a sesame cake on credit for now? When Eunuch Yun finishes investigating, it can be deducted from my unpaid salary?”
“You!!”
Old Zhu almost choked when he heard this!
A sesame cake on credit? And deducted from unpaid salary?!
Has this bastard truly turned our Hall of Supreme Harmony into a breakfast shop?!
“Silence! Wait!”
Old Zhu gritted out a few words between his teeth, feeling his imperial majesty being dragged on the ground and repeatedly rubbed by this fellow.
Time ticked by, each second feeling like a century.
Old Zhu was restless, mainly out of anger.
Zhang Biao, on the other hand, simply sat cross-legged on the golden bricks of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, eyes focused on his nose, nose on his heart, trying to combat the emptiness in his stomach.
In fact, he came to demand his salary because he also wanted to die.
But seeing Old Zhu’s expression, it seemed he was determined not to kill him. There was nothing he could do but fill his stomach first.
Soon, hurried and flustered footsteps could be heard from outside the hall.
Yun Ming returned scrambling, his face paler than paper, knelt down with a thud, his voice trembling uncontrollably, “Your… Your Majesty! Your servant has investigated clearly!”
“Speak!”
Old Zhu almost roared it out.
Yun Ming swallowed, his voice choked with tears, “Reporting to Your Majesty! The Grand Storehouse managed by Minister Zhao of the Ministry of Revenue, due to the massive expenses from the Jiangnan flood last year, Liaodong military pay, and the construction of cities in the north, there was not enough income to cover expenses. The salaries of capital officials have only been paid at thirty percent since the twelfth lunar month of last year, with the rest in arrears…”
Saying this, he couldn’t help but secretly glance at Old Zhu’s tempestuous expression, his voice trembling even more, “Censorate, Seventh Rank Censor… annual salary of ninety piculs. Calculated in paper currency, cloth, pepper, and sappanwood… the actual amount paid is less than thirty percent. Censor Zhang’s statement of arrears for seven months and twenty-one days… there are indeed records in the Ministry of Revenue’s accounts.”
BOOM!
The entire hall felt as if struck by lightning!
Although he had anticipated it, hearing the words ‘actual payment less than thirty percent’ and ‘indeed recorded’ with his own ears, Old Zhu still felt a surge of anger rush straight to the crown of his head.
Ministry of Revenue! Zhao Qian! Good! I let you manage the money bag, and you’ve managed it so poorly that you can’t even pay the meager salary for a censor to eat?!
And you let this bastard come to the Hall of Supreme Harmony to demand payment from me!?
This is truly a disgrace beyond measure!
“Waste! A bunch of waste!”
Old Zhu roared furiously, slamming the armrests of the dragon throne, the golden nanmu armrests making loud bangs.
“Do I keep you all to eat dry rice?! You can’t even pay salaries! You expect officials to work for me on an empty stomach?! If this gets out, where will my face go?! Where will the Great Ming’s face go?!”
He roared, his target of anger seemingly shifting from Zhang Biao to the flayed and stuffed Zhao Qian.
After scolding for a long time, the pent-up anger in his chest slightly subsided.
But looking at Zhang Biao below the steps, whose eyes were glowing green with hunger and who was still rubbing his stomach, a sense of immense powerlessness and deeper frustration surged up.
Money! Where is my money?!
He, Zhu Yuanzhang, the dignified founding emperor, was at this moment made to appear so disheveled in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, hounded by the word ‘money’!
Seeking recommendation tickets, seeking monthly tickets
