Chapter 298

But as the Little Ice Age grew increasingly severe.

The cake is no longer enough for so many people to eat.

Even if it were divided more fairly.

People would still starve to death.

The court's military rations are all old, stored grain.

The soldiers at the border eat military rations that smell of mold every day.

What can these common people possibly get a share of?

Su Qiao, realizing he had lost his composure, shivered involuntarily.

Then he clasped his hands and said,

"This subject has been improper."

Zhu Youjian did not hold it against him, but said calmly,

"Mr. was born in the prosperous Hongwu era; naturally, you have not seen these things."

Only at this moment did Su Qiao slowly raise his head and look toward Xingshan in the distance.

Even though Su Qiao had long since prepared himself mentally.

But when Su Qiao truly witnessed all this before his eyes.

The corpses of the imperial clan had long since begun to be sent back in batches to their fiefs for burial.

A full two hundred thousand corpses!

Far more than Great Ming could transport away in three or five days at this time!

And right at this very moment, Su Qiao could still see the valleys and pits before him filled with corpses! Three.

165, Su Qiao: I know your intentions are good, but I advise you not to set out!

Just as Su Qiao was still gazing at the corpses before him in a daze.

Zhu Youjian suddenly knelt down before Su Qiao.

Wang Chengen, seeing this from a distance, was instantly stunned and hurried forward to help him up.

"Your Majesty, you must not!"

Zhu Youjian looked at the corpses in the distance and said through gritted teeth,

"The one who can save Great Ming is Mr. Su alone!"

"Mr., accept this one bow from the Emperor!"

Having spoken, Zhu Youjian knelt solemnly before Su Qiao.

Su Qiao is not a subject of Chongzhen.

He came by order of Zhu Yuanzhang.

Seeing this bow from Zhu Youjian, Su Qiao's heart was also stunned.

Even a man's knees hold gold, let alone the Son of Heaven!

"Your Majesty, this is..."

Zhu Youjian said in near despair,

"Last year, the Northern Tartars invaded the border; our Great Ming's troops were exhausted and grain cut off, ministers stood helpless. Without Mr.'s strategy, Great Ming would likely already be in a season of peril and ruin!"

Su Qiao looked at Zhu Youjian with gritted teeth and said,

"Your Majesty, you need not do this."

"I am also Han; the Rengjiu Society would certainly not sit idly by while the Northern Tartars invade Great Ming."

Su Qiao helped Zhu Youjian, who was kneeling on the ground, to his feet.

All this time.

Su Qiao had faced only such a powerful Son of Heaven as Zhu Yuanzhang.

Suddenly encountering an Emperor like Zhu Youjian.

Instead made Su Qiao panic.

Zhu Youjian struggled to rise from the ground, tears and snot streaming down his face as he pointed at the corpses in the distance and said,

"If twenty thousand sons of the Zhu family have died, and yet the Tartars still entered the pass, I fear I would have no face to meet the Liezulie Sect even in death."

"Mr., rest assured; in the entire capital, you may tear down whatever you wish, as long as it makes the people of Great Ming prosperous and strong."

"I will surely do my utmost to assist!"

Hearing Zhu Youjian's words.

Su Qiao was stunned.

Then he shook his head, sighed, and said,

"Your Majesty, Great Ming today is not comparable to the Hongwu reign."

"Relying solely on mansions, I fear, cannot support Great Ming's paper currency."

Hearing Su Qiao's words.

Zhu Youjian, who had just risen from the ground, felt his heart tighten involuntarily.

Looking at Su Qiao in disbelief, he asked,

"Does Mr. mean that even you cannot save Great Ming?"

Su Qiao did not know.

The moment those words left his mouth.

Not only Zhu Youjian, but the hearts of all the Great Ming Emperors in the chat group instantly rose to their throats.

Su Qiao let out a long breath.

Looking at Zhu Youjian, he asked.

"Your Majesty, the national treasury must not lack silver now, but in the vital capital region, what is the price of grain?"

Hearing Su Qiao's question.

Zhu Youjian's expression inevitably dimmed.

"One shi of rice costs five taels of silver... yet We (the Emperor) have already sent people to stabilize prices."

Hearing that one shi of rice costs five taels of silver.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang could not help but draw in a sharp breath of cold air.

"Why is the grain price still so high?"

Zhu Youjian sighed.

"The court certainly did get some silver from those ministers."

"Once that silver is used to buy grain from various regions, with little grain and much silver, naturally the grain price surges."

"We (the Emperor) used both sea transport and canal transport, and even sent people to Jiaozhi to buy some grain; only then was the grain price suppressed to this level."

The essence of silver is, after all, just stone.

It cannot be eaten nor drunk.

Once there is too much.

The price will naturally fall.

During the Hongwu reign.

The world was prosperous.

The crux of the people's hunger and poverty lay in distribution.

The root cause in the Chongzhen reign was the shrinking of the cake.

A cake that was already insufficient to share.

Even if cut into flowers.

It would have no effect.

More importantly.

In the Hongwu reign, Great Ming had only sixty-five million people!

But in the Chongzhen reign, that was a solid hundred million people!

Su Qiao took a deep breath and said slowly.

"There is only one way to break the Chongzhen reign."

"But I do not know if Your Majesty is willing?"