Chapter 259

Su Qiao watched Zhu Yuanzhang's mouth twitch slightly.

Then he suddenly said,

"I could explain..."

Just as all the officials were preparing to hear Su Qiao's explanation,

Su Qiao suddenly let out a long sigh and said,

"But I give up."

Explain?

Do you even understand it, so why explain it to you?

The matter is already like this.

You, Old Zhu, love to beat and kill.

Anyway, I have already done my best.

Looking at Su Qiao, who stood stiff-necked amidst the ruins,

Zhu Yuanzhang's old face couldn't help but drop.

Old Zhu knew.

Since Su Qiao said it this way,

it meant that doing so must have deep significance; the greater the cost, the greater the gain.

Just like the twenty thousand members of the Imperial Clan perishing in Liaodong.

How great was the cost!

More than half of the Imperial Clan and royal relatives left no heirs!

But the effect of uniting people's hearts cannot be achieved by spending money.

Zhu Yuanzhang was not a foolish emperor.

He knew the principle of trusting those you employ and not employing those you distrust.

Old Zhu took a deep breath.

Then he suddenly said,

"Good, good! We will trust you one more time!"

Xu Huizu looked at Zhu Yuanzhang in disbelief.

"Your Majesty... I..."

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately gritted his teeth and roared,

"What are you shouting? What is the relationship between your father and us? Could we harm you?"

"If this boy cannot give us an explanation, we will be the first to chop him."

"But..."

Xu Huizu's lips moved.

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately spoke up,

"Then if this mansion collapses and he himself cannot stand up, what can we do?"

"Let him stir up trouble! We will just watch from within the palace!"

All the officials in the court stared in shock at Zhu Yuanzhang and said,

"But Your Majesty, if so, where shall we lodge?"

Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath and snorted,

"Go outside the city, mobilize the Beijing Garrison, and set up tents to live in first!"

The group of civil officials looked at each other in silence.

"Tents..."

Old Zhu immediately changed his expression.

"What? We give up the Forbidden City, and you come crowd into the palace with us?"

The group of officials hurriedly waved their hands repeatedly and said,

"We dare not."

Tents it is, then.

It is better than being stranded on the streets!

Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and looked at Su Qiao, saying,

"Su Qiao, you had better be clear in your heart."

"This time, if you mess it up, we won't even be able to save you!"

Su Qiao stood firmly in place, completely unconcerned.

He simply said calmly,

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty."

Having said that, Zhu Yuanzhang, under the gaze of the ministers,

walked off towards the distance on his own.

"Go! Back to the palace! Back to the palace!"

In the end, Old Zhu still chose to ignore what he did not want to see.

And just at that moment,

the entire Jin Ling was undergoing violent changes.

Three days later.

On Chengtian Sect, Zhu Yuanzhang stood staring blankly at the ruins of Jin Ling.

Jiang Huan arrived before Zhu Yuanzhang holding a memorial.

"Your Majesty, something has happened."

Zhu Yuanzhang's brows remained furrowed.

He fixed Jiang Huan with a piercing stare and asked:

"What's wrong?"

"This is the recent fluctuation in the exchange rate of Jin Ling's treasure notes."

"When Master Su forcibly demolished the Wei State Duke's residence, the treasure note once reached one guan per 1,010 wen."

Zhu Yuanzhang drew a deep breath and asked Jiang Huan:

"And now?"

"At this point, one guan of treasure note is worth less than 900 wen."

Zhu Yuanzhang's brows tightened further; he clenched his teeth and asked:

"Is Su Qiao still hoarding treasure notes?"

"Yes."

"With so many commoners, won't they overwhelm the Treasury of Circulation?"

Jiang Huan shook his head and said:

"Not yet."

Zhu Yuanzhang clenched his Yaguan, staring fiercely at the Treasury of Circulation across Chengtian Sect and asked:

"Then where is this boy getting so much silver and gold? Has he tapped the imperial treasury?"

"No grain has been allocated from the Ministry of Revenue, the imperial treasury, or the Grand Granary."

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's brows tightened further.

Could this boy truly possess the power to turn stones to gold?!

150, Su Qiao has failed!

The price of Jin Ling's treasure notes continued to plummet.

Yet across Jin Ling, a great transformation was quietly unfolding.

When Zhu Yuanzhang captured Jin Ling in the sixteenth year of Yuan Zhi Zheng, the entire city held only 95,000 people.

But by the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu:

The registered population of adult males alone had reached nearly 1.2 million.