Chapter 258 Let’s settle an account (ask for monthly ticket)
"Why are you so angry?"
Madam Mi pulled Zhao Yuanxi up from the ground and saw that she was still very angry. She couldn't help but feel curious. The King of Qin had many heirs, but the Queen Mother didn't seem to be dissatisfied with those children. Except for the two princes Fusu and Ziying, the Queen Mother would give rewards to other children from time to time.
The Queen Mother went to see the newly born Sixteenth Prince with her own eyes. When she came back, she said that the child was adorable and found a bunch of small toys and gave them to someone else.
Why did this child make the Queen Mother so angry?
If she was dissatisfied with the King of Qin, the Queen Mother would still ask the King of Qin to have meals with her when she was in a good mood, and she treated Hu Qizi like her own daughter. Shouldn't the Queen Mother be the happiest person that they could have a child?
Zhao Yuanxi looked up at the sky with melancholy, "I observed the stars at night, and I'm afraid this child will clash with my descendants of the Qin State."
"When did you learn the art of stargazing?" Mrs. Mi couldn't help but ask with a smile when she saw that the Queen Mother was talking nonsense again.
"Just think of it as a talent."
"Since the Queen Mother dislikes this child so much, it wouldn't be difficult to make an unborn child disappear!"
It's just something that can be solved with a dose of medicine.
Zhao Yuanxi's heart trembled, and then he said irritably, "No."
Not to mention that she couldn't be sure that the person in Hu Qizi's arms was Hu Hai. Even if it was really him, could she kill him while he was still in her womb?
If this one dies, and if another concubine becomes pregnant in the future, will the eighteenth prince become another Hu Hai?
Does that mean she should kill all the children born after Ying Zheng? Then what is the difference between her and Hu Hai?
Madam Mi's eyes softened a bit. "Don't get too angry. After all, he's just an unborn child. If you really don't like him, then just throw him away and let him be a rich and idle person. In the end, he won't be able to cause any trouble."
Hearing this, Zhao Yuanxi sighed helplessly.
"Where are you going?" Mrs. Mi saw the Queen Mother walking out with the pile of papers she had picked up without any hesitation, and for a moment she didn't react to what she was doing.
Zhao Yuanxi waved his hand without looking back and replied loudly, "I'm going to the Qin Palace."
Madam Mi finally stopped and watched the empress dowager disappear. She turned back to the hall, which was still a mess, and called the palace servants, "Clean this place up and prepare the pens, ink, paper, and inkstone again."
Ying Zheng had just received the letter from the State of Yan and was in a good mood. When he heard that the Queen Mother was looking for him, he was planning to share the good news with her, but he saw that the Queen Mother's face was so dark that ink was about to drip out, as if someone owed her gold.
He was a little confused for a moment. He hadn't done anything recently to displease the Queen Mother.
"Your Majesty."
"What happened to the Queen Mother?"
Zhao Yuanxi sneered, "You're going to be a father again."
Ying Zheng was slightly stunned and looked at Zhao Gao beside him. Zhao Gao didn't understand what was going on either and shook his head slightly.
"Hu Qizi is pregnant."
"who?"
Ying Zheng couldn't remember who this "Hu Qizi" was, so Zhao Gao quickly reminded him, "It was the Hu woman you had sex with after that banquet. At that time, you said you would just give her the title of "Qizi".
Ying Zheng then remembered the bold Hu Ji and asked with a frown, "Is there any problem with this?"
Since she was his concubine and the woman he had favored, wasn't it normal for her to get pregnant? The Queen Mother's aggressive attitude made him wonder if he had taken someone else's wife.
Seeing his nonchalant look, Zhao Yuanxi's hands suddenly itched and he sneered, "No problem, they're all your good sons anyway."
Ying Zheng was also unhappy. He had only made his concubine pregnant, so why was the Queen Mother so sarcastic?
"Okay, I'm not here to talk to you about this today. I have something serious to discuss with you."
Ying Zheng gestured for her to continue.
Zhao Yuanxi instead asked him a question, "Do you know how many concubines you have in your harem?"
He glanced at Zhao Gao.
Zhao Gao was about to answer for him, but Zhao Yuanxi glared back at him.
Ying Zheng could only say, "I have state affairs to attend to. The affairs of the harem have always been handled by the three ladies. If the Queen Mother wants to know, she can ask them."
"If you don't know, then you don't know. Why are you talking so much?" Zhao Yuanxi rolled his eyes at him and placed the information in front of him. "Take a look for yourself!"
"You currently have 3,046 concubines in your harem. 106 of them are listed in the diary. Only 27 of them have children, including those who are pregnant. I'm afraid many of the remaining 2,940 have never even seen you."
"I am very busy with government affairs. How can I go to the harem every day?"
"Then why do you support so many people?"
This sentence made Ying Zheng understand the Queen Mother's intention. "Aren't all these people summoned into the palace by me? Aren't they all——"
Ying Zheng remembered that the person in front of him was not his mother, and sat down angrily again, "It's all according to the rules of Qin."
Although he liked beautiful women, he was not a person who indulged in excessive desires. The concubines in the palace were sent by the six countries, tributes from foreign countries, and arranged by the two previous empresses. There were so many concubines selected every year according to the rules over the years.
Besides, as the King of Qin, what's wrong with having three thousand concubines?
"If you sleep with one of these people a day, it will take more than eight years to sleep with them all. Do you think you can sleep with them all?"
Ying Zheng's face flushed red. What did they mean by letting him sleep with one person a day? Those people were there to serve him, not to fulfill his husband and wife obligations.
"Your Majesty, please don't speak so vulgarly!"
"Oh, you've already fallen asleep, and you still complain that I'm being rude."
…
"What does the Queen Mother want to do?"
Zhao Yuanxi began to settle accounts with Ying Zheng. "The people in the harem, the madam's monthly expenses are at least 30,000 copper coins, the beauties 20,000, the good wives 10,000, the eighth son 6,000, the seventh son 3,000, the senior servants 1,000, and the junior servants 800."
"In total, this would cost approximately 3.92 million copper coins per month, which translates to about 5,800 taels of gold."
"If we add in the 13,760 palace servants, and just their food and daily clothing, the total would be at least five million copper coins."
"A Qin family of five spends only three hundred per month, and the taxes they pay are worth about one hundred and twenty copper coins. Therefore, the entire harem would require at least two hundred thousand people to support."
"These—are you okay with that?"
Zhao Yuanxi had only calculated the daily expenses. If there were a festival or other big event, the money would only increase, not decrease. And now that there are more and more people in Ying Zheng's harem in the future, the money will continue to grow.
"Two hundred thousand civilians can support twenty thousand troops on the front lines. If our Great Qin can deploy another twenty thousand troops, perhaps it will determine the outcome of a battle."
This directly hit Ying Zheng's heart. Five million copper coins, converted into food and fodder, would be enough to feed an army of 80,000 in peacetime.
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