Li Jue entered the main hall amidst the attention of the crowd.

However, among these gazes, apart from Li Er's eagerness, the rest were filled with gritted teeth.

Even masters like Yuchi Jingde and Li Jing were not immune to this.

Because their retirement savings were also put into Zhaoguo Temple to lend money at exorbitant interest rates!

"Grandpa, the money in Zhaoguo Temple has been cleared out!"

"Tell me quickly, how much is it!"

"Reporting to Grandfather, there are 2.4 million taels of gold, 13 million taels of silver, and 6 million catties of copper coins..."

"hiss……"

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin gasped in shock, realizing that the amount was far greater than he had anticipated.

If all this money were put into the national treasury, the Tang Dynasty would not be short of money for three to five years!

But he can't do that. If he really dared to do it, the entire court would be furious with him on the spot!

"Cough cough..."

"How much money do officials in the imperial court have?"

"About half!"

"Here are the detailed accounts; please take a look, sir!"

Li Jue walked straight to the dragon throne and handed the accounts to Li Shimin.

Li Shimin eagerly took it and carefully flipped through the pages, occasionally looking up at the crowd...

"Yuchi Jingde, your family has quite a lot of money, you actually have over ten thousand taels of gold?"

"There's a lot of silver too, a full 360,000 taels!"

Upon hearing this, Yuchi Jingde immediately knelt down.

"Your Majesty, I am a useless person. It is only through Your Majesty's favor that I have managed to earn some money for my descendants. I beg Your Majesty not to make things difficult for this old minister. Waaah..."

"snort!"

"Li Jing's family is quite wealthy!"

"80,000 taels of gold, 460,000 taels of silver, and 300,000 catties of copper coins!"

Upon hearing this, Li Jing disregarded his leg pain and hurriedly knelt down to beg for forgiveness.

"Your Majesty, my campaigns against the Turks and Tuyuhun have been very fruitful. These are all the spoils I accumulated on the battlefield back then..."

"If Your Majesty wishes to punish me, I have nothing to say..."

Li Shimin rolled his eyes at Li Jing, then turned his gaze to Chu Suiliang.

"Chu Suiliang, I always thought you were an honest official, but I never expected this..."

"Tsk tsk, ten thousand taels of gold, thirty thousand taels of silver, plus thirty thousand catties of copper coins..."

"Don't tell me this is your salary from all these years?"

Upon hearing this, Chu Suiliang was utterly terrified and immediately knelt on the ground, burying his head deeply in the earth.

"Death penalty!"

Li Shimin continued to look through the documents, and frowned slightly when he saw Ma Zhou's family background.

“Ma Zhou, you’ve been working in the Secretariat for many years now, how come you’ve only saved up this little money? It’s not even half of what Chu Suiliang has.”

Upon hearing this, Ma Zhou blushed instantly and then knelt on the ground in shame to beg for forgiveness.

"Your Majesty, I am not good at managing a household. My wife manages all the money, and I have no idea how much money we have..."

Li Shimin nodded upon hearing this, indicating his agreement with Ma Zhou's words.

But when he raised his head again and looked at Changsun Wuji in the crowd, his gaze suddenly turned piercing.

"Changsun Wuji!"

Do you know how much money you have in your ledger?

Upon hearing this, Changsun Wuji quickly distanced himself from the matter.

"Your Majesty, I do not know..."

"The amount of money you have in your ledger is five times that of Yuchi Jingde's family!"

"You really know how to make money! It's one thing to guard the profits from salt and iron, but you even go so far as to take advantage of usury. You've completely disgraced the imperial family!"

Upon hearing this, Changsun Wuji had no choice but to kneel and beg for forgiveness. However, he remained completely calm, for he knew that the princesses and princes of the imperial family were lending money at even higher interest rates!

Li Shimin reprimanded them one by one, and then passed the buck to Li Jue.

"Li Jue, what do you think we should do with these people?"

Li Jue was stunned when he heard this. He thought to himself that he couldn't be the villain all the time. He had to let Li Er be the bad guy at least once.

"Grandpa, I'll do whatever you say!"

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin humbly waved his hand.

"I have no idea about this matter either. You should tell me. As long as it's not excessive, I will agree to whatever you say!"

"this……"

In fact, Li Shimin had a plan in mind, but he didn't want to say it and wanted to see Li Jue's opinion first.

After all, this matter was started by Li Jue. If it is not handled properly, it would be bad if it upsets that bastard.

Furthermore, if Li Jue's words were too harsh, the emperor could still offer a discount and try to win back the loyalty of the officials.

Li Jue pondered for a moment before speaking.

"The laws of this dynasty explicitly prohibit usury. Therefore, I suggest that the interest earned from usury be turned over to the imperial treasury, and the principal be returned to all the officials!"

Li Shimin nodded in satisfaction upon hearing this.

In this way, not only can he make a fortune, but others won't be too jealous.

After all, allowing them to get their money back is already an act of leniency.

"Can!"

Let's do it this way!

"Oh right, what about the money for Zhaoguo Temple?"

Upon hearing this, Li Jue's eyes darted around.

"Your Majesty, I suggest that all the privately funded usurious loans at Zhaoguo Temple be confiscated as a warning to others!"

This time, Li Shimin hesitated. He really wanted to confiscate everything, but he was afraid of arousing the dissatisfaction of monks throughout the land.

If he offended these monks, who would draw little figures to curse him every day, even the emperor would be in trouble.

"Cough cough... It's too heavy."

"Let's confiscate half of it..."

"Your Majesty is wise!"

"However, I believe that Zhaoguo Temple is a place outside the realm of civilization, and it is very inappropriate to let them control such a large amount of wealth. Therefore, I suggest that Your Majesty send officials to Zhaoguo Temple to supervise how they use the remaining silver."

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