Chapter 44

"Su Qiao! How dare you say Your Majesty is stubborn?!"

Su Qiao, on the contrary, looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with an air of indifference and said,

"If it isn't money borrowed by the Emperor, does that mean the Emperor cannot use it?"

Hearing this,

Zhu Yuanzhang instantly realized the truth.

"You mean find someone to go out and borrow silver, then use all that silver for the Son of Heaven?"

Su Qiao nodded slightly and said,

"Exactly!"

"Find a Eunuch in the palace, or a noble official."

"Go out of the palace like this, promise heavy profits to all the civil and military officials; the more they borrow, the higher the interest."

"Additionally, we can stage some small tricks in court."

"Don't they love to cry poverty?"

"Then let's openly organize a donation drive!"

Hearing this,

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes instantly lit up.

Once Chongzhen organizes a donation drive, these royal princes and ministers will likely still loudly cry poverty.

In this way,

this interest-bearing loan

becomes the best place for them to hide their assets!

Once this double act begins...

Hiss~!

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath of cold air.

Undeniably, Su Qiao's idea is vicious.

But it is indeed effective!

However, thinking again,

Old Zhu couldn't help but shake his head.

What kind of people are all these civil and military officials?

They are all shrewd veterans who climbed up through the imperial examinations!

Don't look at how useless they are in war on ordinary days.

But when it comes to real calculation,

there is absolutely not a single fool among them!

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted and said,

"Do you take all these civil and military officials for fools?"

"What if they don't take the bait?"

Su Qiao paid no attention to this at all.

"Moreover, for those at the very beginning, we can even pay out some interest directly."

"Like depositing ten thousand taels of silver, give them six hundred taels of interest right on the spot!"

"Collect short-term loans first, pay back both the interest and the principal to them; only by casting a long line can you catch a big fish~!"

"Think about it, those who lend money to the Son of Heaven first not only get their principal back but also earn a sum of interest; what will the people around them think?"

"Even if they know it's a trap! They will still shamelessly jump into it!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Su Qiao with furrowed brows and said,

"Didn't I say there isn't much silver in the treasury? Where can we get the money to pay them that interest?"

Su Qiao helplessly shrugged his shoulders and said,

"From the newly borrowed silver."

"New... isn't this just catching a white wolf with an empty hand?"

Su Qiao nodded slightly.

"Exactly, it is indeed catching a white wolf with an empty hand."

Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth and looked at Su Qiao, saying,

"Then there must be a time when you can't catch it, right?!"

"When you can't fool them anymore, won't our Great Ming still perish?!"

42, Su Qiao: The one who borrows money is the boss!

Catching a white wolf with an empty hand can actually be traced back to the late Eastern Han Dynasty in the Central Plains.

Especially among the common people, such things are not considered strange tales at all.

Most commoners merely treat them as topics of conversation after meals.

Zhu Yuanzhang had naturally heard quite a few of these stories.

But the endings of these stories were mostly self-inflicted traps.

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Su Qiao looked at him as if he were a fool.

"Your Majesty, why wait until you can't catch it anymore?"

"Once the wood has become a boat, even if all these civil and military officials know this silver was borrowed by the Son of Heaven, what can they do?!"

"When the court has no money, they don't respect the Son of Heaven; when the court has money, they still don't respect the Son of Heaven. Then wasn't this silver borrowed for nothing?!"

Hearing Su Qiao's words.

Zhu Yuanzhang was momentarily stunned.

Then he suddenly came to his senses.

That's right!

The Great Ming sought out the entire court of civil and military officials because it lacked money and faced national ruin.

But borrowed silver is still money!

With money, the nation cannot perish.

Would they still dare to be arrogant?

Did we give them too much face?

And Su Qiao's words were not yet finished.

"This is only the first layer."

"Once such a vast amount of silver is borrowed, the Son of Heaven need not even worry about the civil officials refusing to die in remonstrance or the military refusing to die in battle."

"If the Great Ming survives, their wealth and lives remain intact! If the Great Ming recovers in the future, they might even demand the silver back!"

"But if the Great Ming falls, the nation perishes and the debt is wiped out!"

"If Your Majesty were those Tatars beyond the pass or the refugees within, would you acknowledge this bad debt after seizing the Great Ming's Jiangshan?"

"You would not!"

"Therefore, the interest must be as high as possible! It must be so high that if the Great Ming falls, the entire court of civil and military officials will feel the pain for several years!"

"Tie the entire court of civil and military officials tightly to this broken cart of the Great Ming!"

"Only then will the soldiers fight with heart and the hundred officials die in battle!"

"In short, there is only one sentence!"

"Before the silver is borrowed, the Emperor begs them; after the silver is borrowed, they beg the Emperor. You must make it clear to the entire court of civil and military officials."

"In these times, the one who owes money is the master!"

As soon as Su Qiao finished speaking.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes immediately lit up.

Why did the Great Ming fall?

Did these Wang Hou and nobles not see that the Great Ming was facing national ruin?

The civil and military officials in court knew better than Li Zicheng when the Great Ming would meet its end!

Why were they not anxious?

Because since ancient times, even when the Jin troops marched south into the Central Plains, scouring mountains and seas, they did nothing to these nobles and scholar-officials!