"What a great idea! What a great idea!"
Emperor Xiao Ming clapped his hands and sighed again.
His burning gaze fell on several ministers in the imperial study, as if suggesting that they should speak up quickly and follow Lord Luo's method to set an example of being willing to step forward and accept rewards.
The ministers in the imperial study were in a dilemma.
Who among the officials who have reached their position wouldn’t have some extra money and food?
Those who are more "greedy" in private, even if they are not rich enough to rival a country, at least they can easily come up with a fortune of ten thousand taels of gold.
Donating food for disaster relief is a no-cost business...
No matter how much you give, it will all be wasted, and at most you will get a useless compliment.
What's the point of this praise?
What is given out is real money!
Furthermore, if the donations were really large, it would make the family appear to have a lot of wealth, which would be another kind of trouble. Although Emperor Xiaoming's words sounded nice, if he really found out which family had a lot of wealth, he would inevitably become suspicious.
If you are unlucky, it is possible that your property will be confiscated on some pretext, like the Wei family and the former Tianshi Mansion.
They would never do something that would do more harm than good.
Only a fool would be the first to do this!
At the top, Emperor Xiaoming's expression, which had just eased, showed a tendency to darken again. At this moment, Lord Luo spoke again, "Your Majesty, I have few people in my family, but I do have several farms. My wife manages them in an orderly manner and produces a lot... I am willing to donate 100 dan of grain to support Ji and Ding states."
Even with all the preparations laid before, Emperor Xiao Ming still thought it was a huge amount of money.
Unexpectedly, there were only 100 dan of grain.
However, Lord Luo has always been honest and upright. It is said that his house is decorated quite simply, and his family property is only a few dowry farms of his old wife. It is really hard to blame him for taking out less food.
Emperor Xiaoming made a few symbolic compliments.
In the imperial study, several other ministers, as if inspired by Lord Luo, spoke up one after another and voluntarily donated a batch of grain, ranging from hundreds to thousands of stones.
The most generous among them was the second prince's father-in-law, the Minister of Personnel, Lord Sun, who donated a full 2,000 dan of grain.
It sounds like a lot. The grain donated by the ministers in the Imperial Study alone adds up to more than 6,000 shi.
But compared to what King You took out, it was still far behind...
I'm afraid it will be difficult to overshadow King You.
However, there are not only a few ministers in the imperial study in the court. The mansions of dukes and marquises are even richer. Together, they can probably gather at least 100,000 shi of grain, let alone 10,000 shi.
Just as Lord Luo said, in addition to donating money and grain, this is also a good opportunity to gain fame.
In this case...
…
"Noble Concubine Ling donated 10,000 dan of grain in the name of herself and the Second Prince to the two states of Ji and Ding, which were the hardest hit by the disaster?"
Wei Yunlan couldn't help but smack his lips when he heard what Zou Yun shared about the latest situation in the capital.
"Yes, a total of 20,000 dan of grain. I heard that Concubine Ling specially melted down a large pure gold Buddha that she had collected for many years, and used the melted gold to buy grain in large quantities to support the disaster area."
Nowadays, the price of grain in the capital has risen to about six or seven coins per dou of silver.
One stone is worth six or seven taels of silver.
For ordinary people, it is a considerable burden.
But for Concubine Ling, who has been favored for many years and has a considerable fortune, it really means nothing.
Even if the price of 20,000 dan of grain were raised, it would only be equivalent to 120,000 to 130,000 taels of silver.
The headgear that Concubine Ling has costs more than ten thousand taels of silver per set!
There was no way she couldn't come up with just a few hundred thousand taels of silver.
You also need to melt the golden Buddha before you can collect the grain.
"She just put on a good show. She wants the world to remember that she melted her treasured collection over the years in order to raise food for disaster relief." Zou Yun curled his lips, looking quite disdainful.
"Who cares where the money for buying grain comes from?" Wei Yunlan raised the corner of his mouth slightly, "Anyway, real money has been spent, and the money and grain will eventually be delivered to your master."
I don’t know whether this was the idea of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince or Mr. Xiao.
After hearing this from Zou Yun, Wei Yunlan couldn't help but exclaim "excellent".
This trick is really brilliant.
Without spending a single soldier, Emperor Xiao Ming was forced to raise money and food and send them to the disaster area.
By the time Emperor Xiaoming realizes what's happening in the future, the Crown Prince will probably have already taken the disaster-stricken area for his own use, and has all the money, food, and manpower in his hands.
…
Wei Yunlan was not the only one discussing the issue of donating grain at the same time.
Under the leadership of Concubine Ling, all the concubines in the harem and the nobles in the court donated some amount. Even if it was a small amount, some donated 100 dan of grain like Lord Luo, or the silver equivalent to 100 dan of grain.
Most of those who donated more did so because of their family titles and official positions. On the one hand, they felt embarrassed to lag behind their colleagues or people of the same status. On the other hand, they were afraid of being blamed by Emperor Xiaoming if they donated too little. Therefore, they had to donate thousands or even tens of thousands of shi of grain.
Many families made donations with gritted teeth.
For example, the Jinyang Marquis Mansion, whose pockets are almost cleaner than their faces these days.
Concubine Ling took out the golden Buddha to collect the silver just for show, but they really did pawn a lot of the last valuable things left in the mansion.
Even two sets of headgear that came as a dowry from the Marquis' wife, Qin, were taken out.
The silver they exchanged was barely enough for them to donate 1,000 dan of grain like other marquisates.
For this reason, they privately complained a lot about Concubine Ling, who set an example and took the lead in donating 20,000 shi of grain.
Like them, there are many families who privately complain about Concubine Ling.
But they had no idea that Concubine Ling was also swallowing her anger and was very upset about this matter.
Over the years, she had never given away any of the money and treasures she had earned, and this time was not an exception.
In the past, she only needed to talk to Emperor Xiaoming and he would generously pay the money for her. But this time, for some reason, Emperor Xiaoming refused to listen.
Even though she said that she wanted to melt the golden Buddha that she had treasured for many years to raise the silver, Emperor Xiaoming did not speak to stop her.
That’s more than 100,000 taels of silver!
Even though her savings over the years were far more than hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, it still hurt to take out so much at once.
What worried her most was not the money, but Emperor Xiaoming's current attitude.
When persuading her to set an example and take the lead in donating money and grain, Emperor Xiao Ming said that he wanted her to set an example so that the people of the world could see her kindness and benevolence, and in this way, when she was given the position of queen in the future, people in the world would not have any objections.
If it happened in the peaceful times in the past, it would be fine.
There have been many disasters in recent years. If something like this happens once, there will be a second time, a third time...
No matter how much money she has, she can't afford to spend it like this.
We have to think of other ways to make up for the shortfall.
Leaning on the couch, Concubine Ling turned her eyes and said,
"The guy in the second outer courtyard is said to be a man of some clever ideas and good at making money. Bring him to me."
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