Tianxiang never expected that after planning for so long, she finally returned to Prince Qi's Mansion in Guqi Prefecture and returned as the head of the family.
As a result, the treasury of Prince Qi's Mansion actually had no money.
Not a single copper is left!
The original King of Qi liked to issue various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. After all, the old King of Qi was used to extravagance. If he could not steal the mines in the north, he could only exploit the people in his fiefdom.
After the death of King Qi, Duke Sun Guogong not only emptied the treasury of King Qi's palace to raise troops, but also intensified his efforts to exploit the people of Guqi Prefecture.
Nowadays, every ten households in the village in Guqi Prefecture are empty. What is left to Tian Xiang and the young prince is nothing more than a piece of barren land and a group of impoverished and hungry people.
When Tian Xiang learned about this reality, she didn't know whether to cry first or pack up and run away. She could only come to Hua Jin with red eyes, hoping that Hua Jin would find a solution for her.
Hua Jin patted the treasury account book in her hand, indicating to add some fragrance.
"You are just a concubine. Now that you have no living expenses, of course you have to ask the main concubine for it."
All the money was taken away by Sun Guogong. Now Sun Guogong is not in the capital, but Princess Qi is here. It is only right that the father's debt should be paid by the son.
Inspired by this, Tian Xiang quickly wiped away the tears on her face, went back and changed into the simplest clothes, and ran to Sun Guogong's mansion crying, asking Princess Qi for money to live.
Princess Qi, who was under house arrest in Sun Guogong's Mansion, became furious when she saw Tianxiang. She smashed the thin tea cup in her hand to the ground and said angrily:
"I am trapped in Sun Guogong's mansion now. Where can I get the money for you? You bitch, haven't you been hooked up with King Xiao Li for a long time? King Xiao Li has countless mineral veins in the North, and you are still missing a few.
Selling oneself for money.”
These words are as vicious as they sound.
Tianxiang cried louder,
"What are you talking about, your Majesty? I am innocent of all crimes with Prince Xiao Li. I cannot slander people like this. Moreover, I am on good terms with Princess Xiao Li. If these words reach the ears of Princess Xiao Li, it will be for nothing."
Why is it necessary for Princess Li to cause trouble?"
Princess Qi sneered when she heard this,
"You also know that this is causing trouble for Little Princess Li? Then you bitch, if you have the ability, don't hide behind Hua Jin. Why, now that you are short of money, Little Princess Li won't protect you anymore?
If I had known this, what would you have done after you gave birth to the young prince?"
She is in such a predicament now because Tianxiang refused to give her the young prince. If Tianxiang was willing to adopt the young prince into her name, wouldn't there be so many problems?
At least, Princess Qi had already taken the young prince to the imperial capital, so why would she be under house arrest in a shabby place like Guqizhou.
Tianxiang continued to cry,
"My queen, you are the concubine of the King of Qi. Now the Prince of Qi's palace can't even afford a grain of rice. You are the mistress of the house. If I don't come to you to find a solution, why should I reach out to outsiders to ask for money? Your Majesty, you can't afford it.
But he is the pillar of our Prince Qi Palace."
In just a few words, Tian Xiang managed to get Princess Qi to stand up. Princess Qi was the real concubine, and it was Princess Qi's father who emptied the palace of Prince Qi.
No matter how this matter is said, Princess Qi is bound to shoulder her responsibilities.
But where does Princess Qi have any money?
She had been married to the King of Qi for many years, and she did not know where the money in Sun Guogong's palace was kept, and Sun Guogong would not tell her these things.
Princess Qi slapped the table angrily,
"Shut up. You are considering that I can't kill you now, so you dare to come to me and cry, right? Not to mention that I have no money, even if I have money, I won't
For you bitch."
"Then, what should I do with the young prince?"
Tianxiang knelt on the ground, with a sad look on her face that she didn't know was true or false.
"In the next few days, the young prince will hold a ceremony to attack the king. I have been writing posts these days. I am afraid that the princes of the fief next to me will be on their way to attend the ceremony. If they come, they will see our Prince Qi's Mansion like this
You look so impoverished, it’s your Princess Qi’s face that you’ve lost.”
"Don't even think about threatening me. The post you wrote shows that you are now the biological mother of the young prince. What does the guest you invite have to do with me? Get out!"
Princess Qi felt panicked when she heard this. If the young prince was in her name, at least she would be the one worrying about these things today.
Looking at Tian Xiang kneeling in front of her, although Tian Xiang's posture was very respectful, Princess Qi did not feel that she was respected at all. Instead, she just wanted to strangle Tian Xiang to death.
However, Tian Xiang did not leave. Behind her, Hua Jin walked in with a ledger. She did not salute the princess, but just sat on the Eight Treasures Couch and said:
"The young prince of Prince Qi inherited the throne. This is a big event. Why are you crying?"
Hua Jin raised her hand and said to Tian Xiang in front of Princess Qi:
"Concubine, it's better to get up and talk. Why is this family so at odds with each other? They are not mentally retarded, and what words can't be said clearly?"
Upon hearing what Hua Jin said, Tian Xiang immediately stood up, found a seat and sat down, then wiped the tears on his face and looked at Princess Qi.
Princess Qi patted the small table on the Eight Treasure Arhat's couch and said angrily to Hua Jin:
"You are younger than me, how dare you be on an equal footing with me?"
He pointed at Tianxiang again and was so angry that he
"Who asked you to get up? I am the royal concubine of Prince Qi's Mansion, and you are just a concubine. Who asked you to get up? Kneel down quickly!"
Tianxiang didn't move, but looked at Hua Jin, as if Hua Jin was her royal concubine.
Hua Jin, who pursed her lips and smiled, put the account book in her hand on the small table and looked at Princess Qi,
"Didn't Princess Qi just say that you don't care about the affairs of Prince Qi's palace? Since Princess Qi admits that she is the official concubine, then let's make everything easy. After all, I am an outsider. Regarding the ceremony for your heir to inherit the throne, I will not
Involved."
As she spoke, she opened the ledger on the table.
"It's just that a few days ago, a canal was built in the north of Guqi Prefecture to divert water from our north to Guqi Prefecture. Does Princess Qi have to settle the water bills, labor costs, construction fees, etc. for our north?"
"What's the water bill?"
Princess Qi grabbed the account book and asked for more money for water? She had never heard of it.
After taking a closer look at the account book, she was so angry that she threw the account book to the ground.
"Hua Jin, don't go too far. I don't know anything about the canal repair. His Highness Prince Qi spent money to find laborers from the Ministry of Works in the North. Now that the canal has been repaired, you come to me."
I need money... you, you, forget about everything else, even if you bring water from your north, you still need money, you, you!!!"
The accounts are not unclear, but they are too detailed. Various items are even as detailed as the use of a piece of stone or a steel pipe, which are all recorded in this thick account book.
He only repaired the canals in a few villages, and the debt was already as high as hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.
Where did Princess Qi get so much money and return the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver from Beidi?
She took a few steps forward, pulled Tian Xiang up from the chair, and looked at Hua Jin.
"Just go find her. Aren't you on good terms with each other? Her son is now the crown prince and will soon become the King of Xiao Qi. In the future, this Guqi Prefecture will belong to her son. She will pay you back the hundreds of thousands of taels."
Princess Qi doesn't care anyway.
She also has no ability to manage this account.
There were still tears on Tianxiang's face, and she resisted,
"Your Majesty, you are not joking. How much money can I have? Now there is not a single copper coin in the treasury of Prince Qi's Mansion. I, the Young Prince, and the Young Princess all borrowed money from Princess Li for their food and clothing expenses.
, are all still waiting for the mistress of the house to return it."
After saying this, she also made a forced smile, showing that she was really miserable.
"Then what should I do? I have no money, you have no money and I have no money either!"
Princess Qi waved her hand and sat directly on the chair, looking at Hua Jin with an expression like an old man,
"What can you do to me? I am a concubine of the royal family. Like you, I have been awarded a jade certificate. You can't just chop me off."
Regardless of whether Sun Guogong is ambitious or not, and regardless of whether Princess Qi wants to kill Hua Jin, if Hua Jin forces Princess Qi to death because of extorting debts, Hua Jin will not be able to live with it.
At least as far as the clan is concerned, Hua Jin can't explain it.
Hua Jin played with her nails, looking very well groomed.
"What predicament the Prince of Qi is in now, Princess Qi has seen it herself. I have said that your family affairs in the Prince of Qi's mansion will be solved by yourself. I only want the wages that Gu Qizhou owes Beidi. It is written in black and white on the employment contract.
The royal seal, this money cannot be defaulted."
Tianxiang stood up with a sad face and looked at Princess Qi,
"Your Majesty, I, the Young Prince, the Young Princess, mother and son, have already had enough to eat. My Majesty, as the Princess, you need to think of a way."
The two of them, one strong and the other weak, sandwiched Princess Qi one behind the other, which almost destroyed Princess Qi's mentality.
She shouted,
"I have no money, so I was robbed by you, and I don't even have any money!"
"Okay, with Princess Qi's words, that's all."
Hua Jin suddenly stood up and waved, and Lian'er and Yue'er led a group of King Qi's troops into the house.
Princess Qi, who was still in a state of collapse, didn't understand what happened, so she just listened to Hua Jin's instructions:
"Search the Duke Sun's mansion to see if there is anything valuable that can be pawned. All of them were found and pawned."
"yes!"
The troops of the King of Qi responded in unison and scattered in all directions to search Sun Guogong's mansion.
In the hall, Princess Qi stared blankly at the vase on the shelf, which was being moved out by King Qi's army. After a while, she came back to her senses and screamed angrily,
"Hua Jin, what do you mean? Are you searching my natal family?"
"It's a terrible word to talk about a search. Didn't it come from Princess Qi? If you don't have enough money, you pawn what you can."
Hua Jin sat back in her seat again, looking at Princess Qi lazily and leisurely,
"You said it yourself, you are the wife of the clan, and it is impossible for me to really pawn Princess Qi. Naturally, I looked at what valuable items Princess Qi had at home and helped to pawn them."
Following her words, another jade screen was moved out by Qi Wangjun.
Princess Qi had no time to argue with Hua Jin and hurried out the door, shouting,
"Stop, you all stop, who allowed you to search the Duke's Mansion? Stop!"
She stepped forward and grabbed a Qi Wangjun. This Qi Wangjun was holding an inkstone in his hand. When Princess Qi saw it, she said angrily:
"This is a purple jade inkstone, a priceless treasure. It belongs to my father's study. Who allowed you to enter my father's study?"
She was so angry that she even forgot to call herself "my concubine" and reached out to grab the priceless purple jade inkstone.
She turned her head again and saw a Qi Wangjun walking behind her holding her dowry.
Princess Qi didn't have time to worry about the purple jade inkstone and rushed over to grab her dowry.
"This is mine. It's full of my jewelry. What do you want to do? Let me go!"
This dowry contains the deeds to many of her shops and several private residences in the imperial capital. Hua Jin must not be allowed to use it as a pawn.
However, how could she, a woman who was used to being pampered and pampered, win over King Qi's army?
What's more, a steady stream of clothes, silk and property were unearthed from the inner house. Officials from the Northern Ministry of Household Affairs stood in the yard and began to price each item.
"Twenty pieces of smoke and yarn, one thousand taels of gold."
"A water mist screen costs four thousand taels of gold."
"One hundred catties of purple bamboo rice paper, ten thousand taels of gold..."
Because there were too many belongings to be moved out, even an official from the Ministry of Household Affairs could not calculate the price, so the Ministry of Household Affairs temporarily sent several more officials.
All the property that had been valued was moved out and transported to the treasury of Prince Li's Mansion in the North to offset the labor costs of repairing canals and water bills in Guqi Prefecture.
There are also some gadgets that officials from the Ministry of Revenue have never seen before, let alone their prices.
For example, a red jade coral that is taller than a human being, a dagger that blows and breaks hair, etc.
These will be gathered together and moved into the treasury of Prince Li's Mansion for storage. When the value is known later, the water bill can be offset.
As one peerless treasure after another was moved out of Sun Guogong's mansion, Princess Qi looked like she wanted to cry without tears.
She ran back to her room and found that her room was empty. Even the Lingluo bedspread on the bed had been pulled off by Qi Wangjun to pay for it.
"Oh my god, my god, is this really going to make people alive?"
Princess Qi turned around and ran towards the hall with her eyes red with anger.
Hua Jin in the hall listened to the calculations made by the Ministry of Revenue officials one after another, made a rough calculation, and said with a cheerful smile:
"A government can actually offset all the debts and still have a lot of extra money. This money can cover the entire Guqi Prefecture's canals. That's enough."
There was also a joy that could not be concealed in the corners of Tian Xiang's eyes.
She had reached an agreement with Hua Jin a long time ago. She, the young prince and the young princess enjoyed the household tax of Guqi Prefecture, which was the tax paid by one family. The more households there were, the higher the household tax would be.
Apart from that, everything is managed by Huajin.
In addition, Tianxiang, the young prince and the young princess can also have their own private property.
Now the private property of Prince Qi's residence belongs to Tianxiang, and will be inherited by the young prince and the young princess.
As long as Guqi Prefecture can develop and the water canals are repaired, the fields can resume production.
When the population of Guqi Prefecture increases, the household tax will naturally increase, and Tianxiang and his children will be able to live a more prosperous life.
Therefore, the water canals in Guqi Prefecture must be repaired, which can fundamentally solve the problem of Guqi Prefecture’s increasingly sparse population.
Tianxiang immediately expressed his position,
"As long as you can leave some money for me and the children to live, everything will be decided by the queen alone."
Hua Jin said "hmm" and was about to speak when she saw Princess Qi rushing in with her hair disheveled.
She jumped directly on Hua Jin's body and shouted in a crazy state:
"Give me the money, Hua Jin, you bitch, you took away my family, my father will not let you go, give me the money!!!"