"His Majesty!"

At this moment, Jing Zhe stepped forward.

Yesterday, Emperor An brought Jing Zhe a letter, but it was about other matters. However, he had a strange sense of trust in Jing Zhe, so his eyes lit up and he was a little excited!

He has the most ingenious ideas; he'll definitely be able to help me!

"President Jing, what brings you here?"

"minister--"

"President Jing, isn't what you're doing against the rules?"

Su Xinping interrupted him coldly, "I was speaking with His Majesty and we haven't reached a conclusion yet, but you came out here directly. Do you think that's appropriate?"

"well enough."

Jing Zhe nodded, ignoring the surprise and anger in Su Xinping's eyes, and continued, "Because, although my next question is for His Majesty, the Prince of Jin's heir may know the answer better!"

"What?"

Su Xinping looked suspicious.

"Your Majesty, I would like to ask how much the Prince of Anguo receives in a month?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, everyone's expression turned somewhat strange.

Although Jing Zhe is currently very popular, no matter how popular he is, he is only a fifth-rank official. What right does he have to interfere in the affairs of a prince?

Su Xinping was even more furious upon hearing this: "You surnamed Jing, I, the young master, have given you the honor of calling you President Jing. Do you really think you're someone important? How dare you interfere in my father's private affairs?"

Jing Zhe was neither angry nor afraid. He glanced at him and said calmly, "First of all, I was asking His Majesty about a prince, not just the Prince of Jin. So please don't take it personally. After all, as far as I know, there is another prince in An Kingdom besides the Prince of Jin!"

Jing Zhe had learned about this history. Emperor An had two brothers. Emperor An was the eldest, the crown prince. The second brother was named Su Muheng, whose fief was in Ruzhou and whose title was Yu Wang. The third brother was Su Muyu, the Prince of Jin.

"Heh, even if you inquire about King Yu, it won't work!"

Jing Zhe completely ignored him and continued, "What Shizi said earlier is incorrect. Salaries are paid by the imperial court, so how can it be considered a private matter? Besides, I am the president of a newspaper, and I have the right to conduct interviews given to me by His Majesty. As long as I conduct an interview, you have to cooperate!"

As he spoke, he took out the Emperor's Sword and pointed it at Su Xinping.

"..."

Where had Su Xinping ever experienced such a scene?

His face turned green instantly!

Seeing this, Bai Qingyuan, standing nearby, breathed a sigh of relief: This time it wasn't me after all…

"Your Majesty... he... he..."

Su Xinping's hands trembled slightly as the Emperor's Sword in Jing Zhe's hand drew closer and closer. The way Jing Zhe looked at him was as if he wanted to stab him to death with the sword, which frightened him so much that he became incoherent.

"President Jing, put away the Emperor's Sword!"

Emperor An's face darkened as he pondered whether it was right or wrong to bestow the Emperor's Sword upon Jing Zhe!

Every few days, right in front of him, they would point fingers at either the Grand Tutor or the Crown Prince. Isn't that a bit too rude?

The only good thing is that it has delayed Su Xinping's desire to return to Jinxi. Now it's up to Jing Zhe to see how he manages to get through this. If he can't get through it, then he has to be dealt with!

After Jing Zhe put away the Emperor's Sword, Emperor An said, "Since President Jing asked, there's no harm in telling me!"

Then, looking at the assembled ministers, he said, "When I was setting the monthly stipends for King Yu and King Jin, I discussed it with you all, so it's not really a secret! I will take five hundred taels of silver from the national treasury and transfer it to King Yu and King Jin every month!"

Is 500 taels a month too much?

For ordinary families—or rather, wealthy families—this is a lot, but for a prince, it is not much.

Because the prince's mansion was very large and had a lot of family members, there were naturally many servants and guards serving them. Their monthly salary alone was quite a lot of silver, not to mention the various food and drink expenses. In reality, five hundred taels a month was barely enough to live on.

For someone like the Prince of Jin, whose son was in Jingzhou, he needed to bring a lot of money with him for expenses. The family only had 500 taels of silver a month, which was actually not enough to make ends meet.

Fortunately, the prince had his own fiefdom.

Especially in Jinxi, the land is vast and rich in resources, and the Prince of Jin can collect taxes through his fiefdom, which is why he can afford his daily expenses.

After listening, Jing Zhe turned to Su Xinping and asked, "Excuse me, is a monthly salary of five hundred taels a lot?"

"..."

Su Xinping wished he could smash Jing Zhe's head with a punch.

many?

I spent 180 taels of silver on a single trip to a brothel. You're telling me that 500 taels is a lot for a monthly salary?

However, he did not rush to get angry. Instead, his eyes darted around, and he used Jing Zhe's most common tactic, asking in return, "What, are you questioning His Majesty and the other officials' decisions at the time?"

Jing Zhe shook his head. "It seems that since Shi Zi says so, it means that His Majesty's monthly salary of five hundred taels is not much. Perhaps it won't even be enough for the Prince of Jin's mansion in a month?"

"..."

These words left Su Xinping bewildered. He thought to himself, the more he listened, the more it seemed that this guy was speaking up for his own family.

Emperor An, equally clueless about Jing Zhe's tactics, could only say, "If we only consider these five hundred taels, it is indeed not much, but in reality, it's not just five hundred taels!"

As soon as Emperor An finished speaking, Zhu Tong stepped forward.

"President Jing, when the monthly salary was determined, His Majesty and we took into account the size of the fiefdoms of the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Yu, as well as the taxes that could be collected each month, before deciding on this amount of five hundred taels!"

After a pause, he continued, "If there is no famine, the monthly tax revenue is almost enough to cover the expenses of the Prince's mansion. The monthly salary of five hundred taels may not seem like much, but there will actually be some surplus every month!"

After saying that, Zhu Tong went to see Su Xinping.

Upon hearing Zhu Tong's words, Su Xinping naturally felt that he was helping him, and immediately nodded, saying, "Prime Minister Zhu is right! Five hundred taels is not a lot, but because of taxes, although the Prince of Jin's mansion has enough to cover its expenses, there won't be much left over!"

After saying that, he gave Jing Zhe a smug look.

In his opinion, Jing Zhe was so bad that the reason he asked this question was probably to get Andi to cut their monthly salary!

Although the Prince of Jin's mansion had many ways to make money and didn't really care about a mere five hundred taels of silver, those were all shady dealings, so he naturally couldn't talk about them.

Jing Zhe nodded after listening, "Oh, I see!"

Then, changing the subject, he said, "Then I would like to ask you, if the Prince of Jin's mansion were to come up with four or five thousand taels of silver all at once, would it be difficult?"

"..."

Seeing all the ministers looking at him, Su Xinping calmed down and said coldly, "What are you thinking? Didn't I tell you? A monthly salary of five hundred taels of silver, plus taxes, is barely enough for the Prince of Jin's mansion. Even if there's a surplus, it won't be much, and we have to keep it because if there's a natural disaster and the harvest is reduced, the taxes will naturally decrease, and we need to prepare for unforeseen circumstances! Four or five thousand taels of silver? We simply can't come up with that!"

"..."

————