He has been an official for decades and has never seen such a precious string of beads.
"What does this mean, King Zhao?"
Zhao Rui looked at the map hanging on the wall rather casually.
"I remember that it will be the boss's birthday in a few days. This thing can be regarded as a congratulatory gift from the king."
Sima Shang laughed a few times: "I'm so old, what's the point of having a birthday! Nowadays, the big merchants have just left the northern frontier, and competing in the Central Plains requires a lot of money and food. It's my wish to put these things into the national treasury!"
Zhao Rui was a little helpless. Sima Shang had been an upright official all his life and had never been greedy for a penny. When he was too young in Nanjun, he even used his salary to distribute it to the poor people.
And his whole family often eats bran-thick vegetables.
Sometimes Zhao Rui couldn't stand it anymore, and even gave a secret order to let Sima Shang be a little greedy, even if he reported one or two hundred more people when reporting the city, it would be fine to get some free money.
But Sima Shang completely turned a deaf ear to all this and didn't listen. He still went his own way.
In desperation, Zhao Rui could only increase Sima Shang's salary, but he did not give money for the increase. Instead, he gave him some firewood, rice, meat, oil, salt, and a large amount of supplies.
You can't let a dignified second-rank official in the imperial court lead his entire family to eat bran-thick vegetables every day.
Unexpectedly, half of the supplies that were distributed were distributed to poor people by Sima Shang.
Later, the Liang Kingdom was overthrown and the imperial court moved its capital to Luocheng. In addition, there were many vacancies for officials in the Nine Ministries, and there were still no suitable candidates for several ministers.
Zhao Rui simply found a fairly large house in Luocheng, hung a plaque of Shangshu Mansion on it, and then gave Sima Shang the positions of Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households.
Originally this was just an idle job!
The specific affairs of the Ministry of Works were handled by the Shizhongshilang below. The specific projects were completed by the recruited migrant workers and the mobilized army. The officials of the Ministry of Households just followed and took the money.
Shangguanmu has always been directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Zhao Rui's original intention was to let Sima Shang take a good rest and just stay in the house to drink tea and spend time with his family.
Who would have known that Sima Shang took it seriously and took over a lot of work from the Ministry of Accounts and the Ministry of Works, checking the accounts there every day to see if anything was wrong or there were any loopholes.
Judging from his appearance, as soon as he finished processing the official documents on the table, he would go to Huangfu Xin to communicate with the Ministry of Commerce.
"Lord Sima, this string of beads is a reward from me and your majesty. Even so, do you still have to turn it over to the national treasury?"
Sima Shang finally gave up and shouted to the door.
"Wen'er, come in and take off this string of beads."
Not long after, a man in his late thirties with a heroic face walked in quickly.
As soon as he picked up the bead string and prepared to leave, Zhao Rui stopped him.
"This young master is Lord Sima's son?"
Sima Shang nodded: "It's Quanzi!"
Zhao Rui looked Sima Wen up and down, his face full of appreciation.