Liu Tan glanced at Lu Xuan and asked, "What brings the Prime Minister here?"

Huo Guang, who had just been fined, was filled with questions: "Didn't His Highness summon me?"

Liu Tan was stunned for a moment before he remembered that he wanted to discuss something with Huo Guang.

He had forgotten about beating people and said quickly, "Then let's go to the study first."

When he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped and turned to look at the embroidered messengers who were being beaten.

The embroidered-robed messenger had just breathed a sigh of relief, but when he saw him turn around, he couldn't help but tense up.

Liu Tan said with some embarrassment: "Miao Rui, these people have done their job conscientiously, no one rewarded them with three gold cakes."

The embroidered messengers were instantly cheered up, knowing that it was the King of the North who was trying to comfort them.

To be honest, as subordinates, even if the King of the North really beat them without saying a word, they would have no choice but to sigh that they were unlucky and had been caught in the crossfire.

Feudal society has no regard for human rights.

Now… these embroidered messengers were eager to ask one more question: Did you enjoy the beating? Do you want another two punches?

Liu Tan didn't intend to beat them to death, he just wanted to teach them a lesson, so he held back when beating them.

And those were three gold cakes. Gold cakes are different from horseshoe gold and unicorn gold. The latter two can only be used as decorations to show off, and basically cannot be regarded as real property. Their symbolic significance is greater than their economic value.

But they can spend the gold cakes however they want.

It can be said that these embroidered robe messengers suddenly became extremely rich.

Liu Tan took the lead and walked ahead. Lu Xuan said, "I'm going to study."

Huo Guang glanced at him and sighed in his heart. Considering the little Kunmi's eagerness to learn, it was no wonder that the little Wusun was where it is today.

At the same time, he was quite impressed with Lu Xuan's ability to understand current affairs.

Liu Tan carefully observed Lu Xuan's expression and found that Lu Xuan did not seem unhappy at all. He looked at Huo Guang again, thought seriously, and finally leaned over to kiss Lu Xuan's chin and said, "Go ahead. I'll come and play with you after this is over."

Lu Xuan kissed him on the lips without hesitation. Although it was just a touch of lips, the shock it brought to Huo Guang was no less than their face-to-face French kiss.

Liu Tan blushed, nudged Lu Xuan and said, "Go quickly, Bigao, follow Kunmi and serve him well."

Bi Gao thought to herself that it was clear that she should just treat him like a queen.

After Lu Xuan's figure disappeared into the dense vegetation, Liu Tan turned back to glance at Huo Guang. Noticing Huo Guang's expression, he immediately said sternly, "I came to see the Prime Minister mainly to discuss how to speed up the progress of Shuofang City."

Huo Guang took a while to recover, and now he asked rather weakly, "Why is Your Highness so anxious?"

Liu Tan explained, "Father will be visiting Shuofang on his eastern tour. The Crown Prince mentioned it in the letter he wrote to me, so it should be finalized. Although he hasn't set off yet, according to the established plan, he should arrive in Shuofang in October. It will only take four months at most, so we need to quickly build Shuofang."

Huo Guang perked up: "Your Majesty is coming?"

Liu Tan gave him a sad look and said, "Yeah."

Huo Guang pretended not to notice and said with a frown, "In this case, it's not just Shuofang City that needs to be anxious."

Liu Tan waved his hand and said, "Put everything else aside for now. We can take our time. Father may not go everywhere. Just finish building Shuofang City first."

Huo Guang looked at Liu Tan with deep sorrow and said, "Your Highness, the most important thing now is the imperial palace."

Liu Tan was confused: "What?"

Huo Guang asked, "Will you still let him stay at the inn when your Majesty comes? Or will you let him stay at your palace?"

This is not appropriate. When Liu Che was on tour, he might camp on the road, but those fixed places basically had palaces.

Liu Tan stammered, "The palace... isn't that possible?"

Huo Guang said, "Since Your Majesty has come once, he may come a second time. Your Highness, do you want Your Majesty to stay in the palace this time? And in your house?"

It was too much for the emperor to arrive in a place without even a new palace.

Liu Tan gasped and immediately said, "Build, build, build! But what will it look like? We can... design the palace as we please, right?"

Huo Guang reminded him, "That also has to be done according to your Majesty's preferences."

Liu Tan wiped his face and said, "Is it too late for us to go to the Xiongnu and rob another group of people now?"

Huo Guang's mouth twitched, but he didn't say anything. The main reason was that there were too many projects that needed to be done in Shuofang City.

He thought for a moment and said, "Your Highness will issue an order to each county governor to recruit labor service, but they must follow the principle of proximity. The rest is up to the county governors."

At this time, the two of them had already arrived at the study. After sitting down, they said, "I hope they will cooperate."

Huo Guang smiled and said, "They won't refuse to cooperate. Your Majesty is here. As your subordinates, you can summon them to come before the Emperor. Of course, that also depends on your mood. I'm sure they know it very well."

Liu Tan suddenly realized that there were not many opportunities to show off in front of the emperor, let alone the county magistrates in remote areas. Even ordinary county magistrates could only do so once or twice a year.

What if I perform well and get promoted?

Liu Tan touched his chin and said, "Is that so? Then let's just use this as a carrot to dangle over them and see who dares not to work properly."

Huo Guang silently gave Liu Tan a thumbs-up, then heard Liu Tan say, "This may not be enough, but let's do this for now. Here in Shuofang City, the commercial areas of each block belong to the imperial court. I'd like to trouble the Prime Minister to urge them to do so. Then, as for the houses... Well, I'll write a written order later. When the people originally registered in Shuofang City build houses, the bricks and tiles used will be calculated at 80% of the original price. The rest will be subsidized by the national treasury. There's still money in the treasury, right?"

Huo Guang nodded: "This is enough, but the palace..."

"I'll pay for the palace and build a house for my father. I don't need to use the national treasury." Liu Tan paused and turned to look at Miao Rui. "There's still money in the treasury, right?"

Miao Rui immediately said, "Your Highness, Princess Dangli has sent some money, which is enough to support us."

Not only can he hold on, Curry can hardly let it go, but he won't say that in front of Huo Xiang.

Liu Tan was a little surprised: "Princess Dangli sent money? What money?"

Miao Rui said, "Princess Dangli wrote you a letter and said it's all in it."

Liu Tan suddenly realized, yes, Princess Dangli also wrote him a letter. He was just shocked by Liu Ju's letter and had forgotten about Princess Dangli's letter.

But we can put this aside for now. Since he has the money, he can pay for it himself.

Huo Guang did not argue with him, but he was a little worried. Other vassal states had one person supporting each country, but in their Northern Border Kingdom, it was different, one person supporting an entire country. If this continued, even if their prince was very powerful, he would not be able to hold on.

Then he heard Liu Tan say, "Well, there's one more thing. Please write it down later. Starting from August this year, every block will have to pay property management fees."

Huo Guang was stunned for a moment after hearing this: "Huh?"

Liu Tan nodded confidently and said, "In the future, the court will organize special personnel to clean and provide various services within each block, as well as maintain the various facilities within the block. The property management fee will be used for this purpose, and it will be charged according to the area of ​​the garden and house. We will discuss it later and see how much is cost-effective."

Liu Tan had this idea suddenly, but he didn't think it was a bad idea. He always felt that there were too many levies and taxes, or rather, too many levies and taxes on the common people at the bottom, but he didn't dare to cut them rashly. The financial revenue of the Northern Border Country was not very good to begin with, and if it was reduced further, it would easily cause problems.

Thinking of this, Liu Tan added, "Well, don't rush to spread the news about the property management fee. Let's talk about it after the house is built, hehe."

There were subsidies from the imperial court before, and Liu Tan actually didn't sell the land at a high price, which gave some benefits to the people of Shuofang City. So there will definitely be people who will work hard to build bigger houses, and then they will have to pay more property fees!

Huo Guang pondered for a moment and suddenly said, "Property fees are not counted as taxes. This way, some of the money does not need to be submitted to the court. Your Highness, this is a very good plan."

Liu Tan: ??? I'm not collecting property management fees to evade taxes! Why are you focusing on something so bizarre?