Chapter 1294 Expand and upgrade the palace!

Yijing, the Imperial Palace

In the study, Ye Mingsheng carefully read the plan in his hand, and his expression gradually became serious. Now it has been half a month since Ye Mingsheng became emperor, and things have gradually settled. The last emperor of the Great Zhou, Jiang Cong, and his family were also arranged by Ye Mingsheng to go to Liaoyang.

Although Ye Mingsheng had proclaimed himself emperor and turned the Great Zhou Dynasty into the Great Qian Dynasty, because Ye Ming had actually been in control of power for some time, the change of dynasty did not bring about any particularly big changes either for Ye Mingsheng himself or for the people of the world.

However, the act of becoming emperor seemed to be very meaningful to Ye Cuishi, An Miaoyi and other female family members. During this period, Ye Cuishi and An Miaoyi mentioned to Ye Mingsheng that since Ye Mingsheng became emperor, the Ye Mansion would be the imperial palace, and the imperial palace should look like an imperial palace!

The first thing to do is to expand the Ye Mansion. In addition, the decoration and appliances of the Ye Mansion should be comprehensively upgraded!
In addition to expanding and upgrading the Ye Mansion, Ye Cui also specifically talked to Ye Mingsheng about the necessity of eunuchs, saying that Ye Mingsheng was now in his prime and should have offspring to expand the family. Therefore, Ye Cui suggested that Ye Mingsheng hold a large-scale beauty pageant, and in order to ensure the purity of the bloodline, eunuchs were a necessary measure.

In fact, it was not only Ye Cui who persuaded Ye Mingsheng to select a concubine and then let a group of eunuchs enter the Ye Mansion to serve, but also Cui Shao, Gu Sansi, Li Jian and other ministers, in fact, had also submitted memorials to Ye Mingsheng during this period, arguing the rationality of the existence of eunuchs from various angles...

Ye Mingsheng was very troubled by the opinions of Ye Cuishi, An Miaoyi, Cui Shao, Gu Sansi, Li Jian and other ministers. When Ye Mingsheng made such a decision, although he realized that these decisions would cause some controversy, he did underestimate the importance that everyone attached to this issue.

The first thing is the expansion and upgrading of the Ye Mansion. Ye Mingsheng originally thought that there was no need for it. He felt that it was fine now and the Ye Mansion could fully meet his life needs. There was no need to build a large-scale building and go to great lengths to expand and upgrade it.

However, on this issue, the attitudes of the women in the harem were surprisingly consistent. They didn't want to know what Ye Mingsheng thought, but what they themselves thought. Even Pei Zhixiu, who had always been low on material conditions, was in favor of expanding and upgrading the Ye Mansion. On this issue, Ye Cui's attitude was even more firm, and she strongly supported the expansion and upgrading of the Ye Mansion.

Although Ye Mingsheng still felt that it was unnecessary to expand and upgrade the Ye Mansion, under the joint persuasion of Ye Cuishi, An Miaoyi and others, Ye Mingsheng really couldn't resist them, so he finally agreed to their idea of ​​expanding and upgrading the Ye Mansion with conditions. He also allowed An Miaoyi to connect with the Ministry of Industry to discuss how to expand and upgrade the Ye Mansion!
The plan drawing in Ye Mingsheng’s hand now was the plan drawn up after An Miaoyi and the Ministry of Industry had coordinated. Three days ago, Chen Fu from the Ministry of Industry had also reported it to Ye Mingsheng. At that time, Chen Fu talked to Ye Mingsheng for more than half an hour. Although Chen Fu explained it in detail at that time, Ye Mingsheng had never done civil engineering, so to be honest, he only understood half of what he heard...

Ye Mingsheng actually doesn’t care about the upgrades in decoration, so this kind of decoration can be done according to the preferences of Ye Cui and An Miaoyi.

One of the important reasons why Ye Mingsheng agreed to this matter was that although Ye Cui had always been in good health, she was getting older day by day, so Ye Mingsheng wanted to give the old lady a better living environment so that she could live more comfortably.

On the basis of meeting the goal of improving the living environment of the Ye Cui family, Ye Mingsheng is still very concerned about the cost of the project to expand and upgrade the Ye Mansion.

One of the important reasons why Cui Shao, Gu Sansi, Li Jian, Yuan Song, Zhao Han, He Jingyun and other important civil and military officials of the Yijing court are so eager for Ye Mingsheng to become emperor is that Ye Mingsheng will definitely be rewarded after he becomes emperor!
This is indeed the case. Ye Mingsheng spent nearly one million taels of silver on rewards this time. In addition, there were silk, cultural relics, gold, silver, jade, etc. The total value would be more than two million three hundred thousand taels!

If Ye Mingsheng had not made a fortune in Jiangnan, he would not have been able to get this reward. This reward for Ye Mingsheng can be said to be a huge loss, which made Ye Mingsheng very painful. The wealth that the Ministry of Households had just accumulated was basically emptied out!

Although Ye Mingsheng spent so much blood, it was still worth it this time. Except for a few individuals, almost everyone was taken care of this time, which made everyone very satisfied.

Ye Mingsheng also used this reward to unify the voices within the Yijing court, and once again emphasized to everyone that reform is inevitable and necessary. How to deepen the reform will be the focus of the Daqian Dynasty’s work in the next few years...

After this great reward, although the Ministry of Revenue still had some silver left, all of that silver was used to support the normal operation of the Yijing court.

Therefore, although the Ministry of Revenue supports the plan to expand and upgrade the Ye Mansion, it is largely just verbal support and it is difficult to implement it in terms of silver, unless an additional bond is issued and the borrowed silver is used to expand and upgrade the Ye Mansion.

This suggestion of the Ministry of Revenue was directly rejected by Ye Mingsheng. Not to mention whether it would sound good if the news of borrowing money to build a house were spread, Ye Mingsheng had already decided to split up the Dadongsheng Company. Although Ye Mingsheng ordered the news to be kept secret, Ye Mingsheng felt that the Dadongsheng Company was so large that even if someone wanted to keep it secret, it would not be able to keep it secret for long!
So when the news of the split of Dadongsheng Company really got out, in order to avoid causing unnecessary panic, Ye Mingsheng asked the Ministry of Revenue to prepare to redeem some bonds in advance to appease some creditors of Dadongsheng Company. The Ministry of Revenue also reserved a special fund of 300,000 taels of silver to do this.

Therefore, under such circumstances, Ye Mingsheng felt that issuing an additional bond to build a house for his family would have a very bad impact!

Although it is always said that the emperor is the common ruler of the world and the whole world belongs to the emperor alone, this world is a family empire. Ye Mingsheng does not want to increase the burden of the Ministry of Households because of the expansion of his family and the construction of a house...
This is not to say that Ye Mingsheng has noble character, but it is because after this great reward, the wealth that the Ministry of Revenue had originally accumulated was once again used up!

If the Ministry of Revenue still has 700,000 or 800,000 taels of silver, Ye Mingsheng would not be polite and would directly ask Cui Shao to take out 200,000 taels of silver to expand and upgrade the Ye Mansion.

After this reward, Cui Shao, as the Minister of Revenue, had a lot more white hair, so Ye Mingsheng really didn't want the Ministry of Revenue to squeeze out extra money for him in the already tight budget!
In order to meet the needs of Ye Cui, An Miaoyi and others to expand and upgrade the Ye Mansion, Ye Mingsheng's idea is to take out all of his personal piggy banks. However, because of the previous expenses, there is not much money left in Ye Mingsheng's personal piggy banks, so Ye Mingsheng also strictly controls the amount!
In the report that Minister of Works Chen Fu made to Ye Mingsheng yesterday, Chen Fu stated that his construction plan would only cost a total of 150,000 taels of silver to complete!

Although Ye Mingsheng didn't know much about civil engineering, he had some understanding of the land prices in Yijing. He felt that 150,000 taels of silver might only be enough to buy the two plots of land next to the Ye Mansion.

At that time, Ye Mingsheng realized that Chen Fu might have concealed the construction amount, but Ye Mingsheng did not make it public. He also knew that Chen Fu was an honest man who only knew how to work. Even if the concealment was true, Chen Fu was forced to do so under pressure from someone. For this reason, Ye Mingsheng handed the matter over to Ye Cheng and asked Ye Cheng to find several professional construction experts to evaluate the project plan. Before a stick of incense, Ye Cheng handed the evaluation report to Ye Mingsheng...

The conclusion of the evaluation report is that this engineering plan is perfect and highly professional, but in order to complete all the contents of this engineering plan, it will cost at least 390,000 taels of silver, and if the cost control is not so good, even 500,000 taels of silver may not be enough!

Seeing the figure of five hundred thousand taels of silver, Ye Mingsheng was a little confused. He knew that this engineering plan was put forward by Chen Fu from the Ministry of Works according to An Miaoyi's needs, so Chen Fu would definitely report the actual cost of this engineering plan to An Miaoyi. Therefore, since Chen Fu was able to present this plan to him, it meant that An Miaoyi must agree!

Although Ye Mingsheng knew that An Miaoyi had been living a rather luxurious life during this period, he still underestimated her level of extravagance. She actually wanted to use 500,000 taels of silver to expand and upgrade the Ye Mansion!

That’s five hundred thousand taels of silver!

What is this concept?
The annual tax revenue of Liaoyang is less than 500,000 taels of silver!
Ye Mingsheng felt it necessary to have a good talk with his queen about this matter. Although he agreed to expand and upgrade the Ye Mansion, it was completely unnecessary to spend so much silver!

In addition to this matter, Ye Mingsheng also planned to have a good talk with An Miaoyi about the selection of concubines and whether the palace should use eunuchs.

Ye Mingsheng is planning to participate in the talent show, but that doesn’t mean that Ye Mingsheng is so lustful. Ye Mingsheng is already in his thirties, not a young man of twenty. Although Ye Mingsheng is unwilling to admit that he is old, he has to admit that he doesn’t have as much energy as when he was young...

Ye Mingsheng counted the number of wives and concubines on the day he proclaimed himself emperor. He now has a total of thirteen. If this number is for an ordinary person, it would definitely be a lot, but for someone of Ye Mingsheng's status and position, it is not much. Before him, Zhao Fuqu, Gao Zongchang and others all had twenty or thirty wives!

Ye Mingsheng was very restrained with thirteen women, and this was basically his limit. If there were too many, Ye Mingsheng would basically not be able to take care of them all. Therefore, the reason why Ye Mingsheng participated in the talent show was not to satisfy his own selfish desires, but a ZZ mission!

Ye Mingsheng plans to recruit a few ladies from well-off families to win their hearts, but the number of people he recruits will not be large. Ye Mingsheng plans to keep the number of his women under no more than twenty.

Ye Mingsheng still did not want to use eunuchs. He believed that this was a backward, ignorant and inhumane behavior. As for the issue of blood purity arising from this, Ye Mingsheng's idea was very simple. Now with the birth of Ye Jingyan, he had a total of eight children, which was already a considerable number. Moreover, if things went their natural way, the number would definitely exceed ten in the future!
Therefore, Ye Mingsheng believed that he already had enough offspring, and there was no point in having too many. If he had dozens of children, he might not be able to recognize them all. Moreover, since he had children, he would have to be responsible for them, which would increase the burden on the court and the people. Therefore, Ye Mingsheng did not plan to have too many children.

These are the issues that Ye Mingsheng plans to discuss with An Miaoyi. Although Ye Mingsheng does not allow An Miaoyi to interfere in government affairs, these issues are all problems concerning the female members of the harem, and An Miaoyi is the queen and the master of the harem, so Ye Mingsheng still plans to respect An Miaoyi’s opinions on these issues····················
In addition to dealing with An Miaoyi, Ye Mingsheng also hopes that An Miaoyi can deal with Ye Cui. Although Ye Cui really puts herself in his shoes and Ye Mingsheng is very moved, unfortunately, the mother and son have too different ideas, and it is difficult for Ye Mingsheng to convince Ye Cui, so Ye Mingsheng needs An Miaoyi's help.

After finishing his own family affairs, Ye Mingsheng was about to deal with the memorial submitted by the cabinet. At this time, Ye Cheng came over and reported to Ye Mingsheng:

"Your Majesty, Director Wang of the Coordination Office has something important to report!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly without thinking much. Seeing this, Ye Cheng also led Wang Xuecheng in.

"I, the king, have completed my studies and am here to see Your Majesty!"

Ye Mingsheng, who was reading the memorial, did not look up. He just waved his hand to signal Wang Xuecheng to stand up, and then asked:
"What happened?"

Seeing Ye Mingsheng's nonchalant look, Wang Xuecheng took a deep breath and said loudly:

"Your Majesty, I have received news that Marquis Changning He Jingyun is dissatisfied with his reward and has been disrespectful to Your Majesty and is planning a rebellion!"

Ye Mingsheng was also shocked when he heard this, and at this time Wang Xuecheng also handed a memorial to Ye Mingsheng respectfully and reported in a deep voice:

"Your Majesty, everything recorded here is the original words of Marquis Changning!"

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng also flipped through the pages with a serious expression. Looking at the words like "kill the donkey after it has done its work", "demolish the bridge after crossing it", and "the dog is abandoned after the rabbit is dead", Ye Mingsheng did not feel very angry in his heart. Instead, the expression on his face became a half-smile.

Seeing the change in Ye Mingsheng's expression, Wang Xuecheng on the side was very confused and didn't understand why Ye Mingsheng was like this...
(End of this chapter)