That night, the Xuanshi Hall of Weiyang Palace was brightly lit.

Liu Che sat at the top, holding a wine bottle, drinking opposite the Prime Minister Zhou Yafu and the imperial censor Chao Cuo.

Gongsun Hong and his father Yanjing accompanied the last one.

Today, these two people finally have a seat in the Xuanshi Hall.

The reason lies in their political performance.

Last year, the Lord Commander's Yamen, relying on the emperor's sign and no more than a hundred people, contributed nearly 60 million to the Han Dynasty's fiscal revenue!

On average, each official of the Lord, Lord, and Lieutenant Government created an income of 600,000 yuan!

He was the one who created the most benefits in the entire Han Dynasty official office.

The income they contributed is even equivalent to a year's income from land tax and fake land tax in a middle and lower county.

Naturally, they are automatically qualified to obtain a position in the court.

Although it is just a position without a say.

But it was enough for both of them to be proud of.

There are hundreds of thousands of officials in the world.

However, there are only three to four hundred people in the world who can have a seat in Xuanshi Hall.

And they are one of those three or four hundred.

Although there is still some distance from the top of the pyramid.

However, at least, the steps at the top of the pyramid have been knocked down.

And they are all young.

Twenty years from now, who will be in charge?

This is something you don't need to think about.

Therefore, although they looked humble and bowed their heads in front of Zhou Yafu and Chao Cuo, in fact, these two people were extremely confident, or I could replace them with confidence.

Of course, neither Zhou Yafu nor Chao Cuo would care about their affairs.

The prime minister and the imperial censor are ministers of great importance, and they are in charge of military and state affairs.

The Lord Commander, at least for now, is still a dispensable yamen.

His power cannot go out of Guanzhong. Even in Guanzhong, he needs the support of the internal history, the Jingfu captain, the big farmer and the young man to walk.

Last year, more than half of the Lord Commander's income came from the horse racing tax collected by the Young Master.

Instead of caring about the lord and captain, it would be better to keep an eye on the young man who is getting richer and richer.

You know, last year, the Shaofu paid as much as 30 million in horse racing tax to the Lord Commander.

And his income from horse betting and horse racing is obviously an astronomical figure.

Last year, the Prime Minister's Office selected a horse farm address in Shangjun and planned to build a horse farm there capable of raising 10,000 horses.

But when we look back, we can see that it would cost 70 million to build this horse garden!

This does not include the cost of horses and labor.

The little money in the Prime Minister's pocket is obviously not enough.

So, he went to the emperor to complain.

After the emperor heard the report, he called the young master over without saying a word.

Then the young master raised his eyebrows: Only 70 million?

Now we allocate 10 million to build that horse garden!

As far as Zhou Yafu knew, the money was transferred directly from the racecourse in Maoling by the Shaofu.

Its huge profits are astonishing.

This made Zhou Yafu pay more attention and sent people to investigate Maoling's horse racing and related games.

You won’t know if you don’t check, but you’ll be shocked if you check.

Maoling's racecourse holds a horse racing competition every five days and a final every month.

Every horse racing day, all the aristocrats, gentry, wealthy businessmen and landlords in Guanzhong would hear the news and take action.

Especially the younger generations of these families.

Many people spend huge sums of money at every turn just for a chance to win.

And these people do have the capital to squander it like this.

Whether they are businessmen or nobles, they have all made too much money in recent years.

The output of the Jiaen fiefdom has expanded the wealth of a large number of princely families, and the annual examination has also allowed the merchants and landlords in Guanzhong to make a lot of money.

Coupled with the needs of the emerging Anton market.

It was too easy for merchants and nobles to make money.

The older generation may also have plans to save money and accumulate wealth.

But young people are already addicted to extravagance and comparison.

However, horse racing and betting in Maoling are the only legal gambling in the world now, and they are also covered with a layer of "supporting the military and national defense" construction.

Naturally, it was enthusiastically sought after.

During the monthly finals, a single bet often brings tens of millions or even tens of millions of funds into the Shaofu.

Just by betting on horse racing, the young master earns tens of millions a year.

This is still a conservative estimate.

As for this year…

Zhou Yafu heard that the betting amount for the finals in April had exceeded 50 million, and there was even a gold betting amount of more than 4,000 gold.

This made Zhou Yafu extremely wary of the Shaofu and its horse betting industry.

The Shaofu itself controls the income of Tianxiashanzelinchi, Shanglinyuan and a huge group of workshops.

At the same time, he also controlled the oral tax, the largest financial revenue of the Han Dynasty.

A government office that was not short of money is now even richer.

What will it do?

According to normal logic, it must be to expand one's power and territory, and to stretch one's hand longer and longer.

This year, the Shaofu decided to build a track from Xiaoguan to Taiyuan at the foot of the Great Wall.

This further aggravated Zhou Yafu's doubts.

Zhou Yafu will never forget who turned the tide when Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rebelled, the world was in chaos, and the Qin Empire was on the verge of collapse.

Young Mansion!

The Qin Shaofu ordered Zhang Han to send hundreds of thousands of prisoners to Lishan, form an armed army, and go out to put out the rebellion.

The army, composed of prisoners, Shaofu officials, and the Lishan garrison, destroyed Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's rebel army with overwhelming force. They also went south and defeated Xiang Liang. If it had not been defeated by Julu, it would have almost become the Qin Dynasty.

Continue life.

However, Zhou Yafu had no good way to stop the young master.

Just like today, many scholar-officials and nobles hate businessmen, but they cannot hate businessmen's money.

Zhou Yafu can be wary and wary of the Shaofu.

But he and the Prime Minister's Mansion he controlled could not refuse the Shaofu's money.

Just like that horse garden, there is no sponsorship from the young master.

The Prime Minister's Mansion will watch helplessly as that plan comes to nothing.

Not to mention that nowadays, if the Young Mansion hadn't transferred money and food to the Prime Minister's Mansion from time to time, it would probably be difficult for the Prime Minister to distribute the salaries to all the civil and military officials.

Moreover, Zhou Yafu also understood that the Shaofu's control of finances was the result of the designs of successive emperors of the Han Dynasty.

The emperor needs to hold the money bag to prevent being ignored.

The only thing that makes Zhou Yafu feel at ease is that the emperor is also watching out for and paying attention to the Young Mansion and controlling its powers.

So that it can't reach out everywhere.

Rules were also set up to prohibit people with titles below the fifth official from entering the racecourse to gamble on horses, which limited horse racing to wealthy businessmen and landowners.

It will not affect the lower levels.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yafu raised his head and asked tentatively: "Your Majesty, I heard that Cen Mai, the former Shaofu Minister, was ordered to preside over the construction of 'Lingyan Pavilion'. Now, Lingyan Pavilion is about to be completed, and Cen Mai has resigned from Lingyan Pavilion."

After becoming ambassador, I wonder what your Majesty’s plans are?”

When Liu Che heard this, he chuckled.

Cen Mai has done an outstanding job in both positions of Shaofu and Lingyange Ambassador.

At the very least, the test paper submitted is qualified.

To be fair, he should be given more important responsibilities and go to a more important position to shine.

Obviously, the more important position than Jiuqing is Sangong.

The three princes of the Han family were the imperial censor, the Taiwei, and the prime minister.

Nothing is missing now.

Liu Che is also having a headache because of this!
To be continued...