Chapter 203: The Grand Prince
The Grand Prince's Mansion.
The Grand Prince's steward is talking to someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The steward bows his waist and keeps smiling.
This May, after Emperor Deyuan's birthday, the Grand Prince will leave the capital to be a vassal. The prince who leaves the capital to be a vassal cannot return to the capital without being called.
When the time comes, the Grand Prince's Mansion will be taken back.
Tan Taiji's mother, Wu Danying, was originally a little palace maid with no background. She got pregnant after being favored by chance.
Wu Danying was also lucky. When Emperor Deyuan was still in the Qiandi, the Prince's Mansion did not have the various abortion drugs in the palace. Wu Danying did not know that she was pregnant. She only found out when she was about to give birth, and the Grand Prince was able to give birth smoothly.
Although the eldest prince is the eldest son of the emperor, he is not favored because of his ordinary qualifications and appearance.
He has experience in the Ministry of Works, and his political achievements are mediocre. He is not very prominent.
Even when he was given the title of a king, he was only given the title of a county king.
The fiefdom is not big, sandwiched between the King of Zhennan and the King of the Southeast. If he offends the two princes, he will die without knowing how. It is better for him to stay in the capital.
The eunuchs in the Ministry of Internal Affairs are naturally not in a good mood towards the manager of the prince's mansion.
After the steward dealt with the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he returned to the study and reported: "Your Highness, Lord Li from the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that there is a shortage of funds recently and there is really no extra money. Please bear with your Highness. After the spring, when the Ministry of Revenue allocates money, we will definitely repair your Highness's mansion first."
There was a heavy snowfall a year ago, and the branches of the trees in the garden of the prince's mansion were blown off, damaging several rooms.
According to regulations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs should provide manpower and money to repair the prince's mansion, but when this matter was reported, the Ministry of Internal Affairs kept making excuses to shirk.
In fact, their words were even more unpleasant. Why don't the second prince, the third prince, and the fourth prince have so many things to do, but how many times a year does the eldest prince's mansion have to be repaired?
They are all leaving, so what else is there to repair?
As long as the main room is not damaged, just live there.
Just bear with it and it will pass.
How could the eldest prince compare with the second, third, and fourth princes? The second prince was born to the empress, the third prince's mother was from the Cheng'en Mansion, and the fourth prince was born to the royal concubine Yan Guifei. The
eldest prince's mother was of humble origin, and his mother was demoted from a concubine to a concubine and banished to the cold palace. Tan Taiji knew without asking that the group of people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs who were always bullying others would not spit out ivory.
Tan Taiji's nose was high and prominent, like a knife, and his narrow forehead made him look a little bit bitter.
"Write down who came from the Ministry of Internal Affairs!"
Dare to mock me, I will not let any of them go! After
the steward agreed, he left the study.
In the study, there were three staff members.
The three staff members looked at each other, and one of them said, "Prince, let's forget about such a trivial matter." When
it comes to repairing the Prince's Mansion, which is a trivial matter, the other princes are too bothered to pay for it themselves, but the eldest prince is the one who takes the money. He knows that the people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs are not easy to deal with, but he always goes to them with a thick face.
Now he still holds a grudge.
The eldest prince has been training in the Ministry of Works since he came of age. Although the Ministry of Works is the lowest among the six ministries, it has many projects and is the most profitable place. The
eldest prince has made a lot of money in these years and his family is rich, but he is reluctant to spend a few dollars on repairing the house.
"Sir, you don't know the difficulties of this prince." The eldest prince sighed.
He has no support from his mother's family, and every step is on thin ice.
It is best to save as much as possible.
The eldest prince picked up the account book of maritime trade and flipped through two pages: "How come the profit has decreased by nearly eight times in just a few months?"
The staff: "Your Highness, maritime trade is inherently risky. Last month, a ship hit a reef and sank."
The eldest prince frowned: "Sunken? Why didn't you send someone to salvage it?"
That was a ship full of porcelain, jewelry and jade!
The ship was damaged, but the jewelry and jade could not be damaged.
The eldest prince was heartbroken.
The staff: "..."
That's the sea, Your Highness, how to salvage it?
Do you think it's the small ditch in the prince's mansion? !
The eldest prince's mansion has a small ditch.
At first, the eldest prince saw that there was a lake in the fourth prince's mansion, and asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to dig a lake like the one in the fourth prince's mansion.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs was too troublesome to dig a small pond, but the eldest prince refused to spend money to maintain it, making things look weird.
The eldest prince: "Even if a ship sank, the profit can't be reduced so much?" It
was reduced by 80% in a flash!
That's 80%!
The staff: "Maybe more people know that the maritime industry is very profitable. There are many more ships recently, so our profits have been diluted."
Maritime trade is very profitable, and it's not an exaggeration to say that it is very profitable. The eldest prince's family can't swallow this pie.
The eldest prince turned the copper coin in the mouth of the golden toad in his hand: "Who intervened?"
Maritime trade is a big business, and ordinary people can't intervene at all without strong capital. Those who can intervene are all well-known people.
The staff stretched out his hand and made a four.
The eldest prince gently placed the golden toad on the table, frowning: "That paralytic is so rich, why is he competing with me?!"
The fourth prince's fiefdom is rich, dozens of times larger than his own, and his mother's family is powerful, why would he do maritime trade? !
He made so much, but couldn't give birth to a son to inherit, I don't know what he's working so hard for? !
The eldest prince was helpless when the fourth prince intervened.
He threw away the account book: "By the way, where is Luo Shuirong who I asked you to check? She's about to give birth, right?"
The staff lowered their eyelids.
Only the eldest prince could let someone else raise his pregnant concubine.
They knew that the eldest prince was stingy, but they didn't expect him to be so stingy.
"Your Highness, Luo Shuirong is not in the Jinyang Marquis' Mansion." The staff said.
The eldest prince: "Not here? Then where did she go?"
The staff: "Luo Shuirong was taken to the residence of Pu Jingyi, the Duke of Dongchang."
The eldest prince: "What happened?"
Staff: "Your Highness, Luo Shuirong is actually the niece of Eunuch Pu."
The eldest prince stroked the pattern on the back of the golden toad, "Eunuch Pu?"
Pu Jingyi, the prince of Dongchang, was a big shot in front of the empress dowager. It would be a good thing to have a relationship with him.
Although Eunuch Pu was the third prince's man, Concubine Xian died suddenly, and the third prince was reprimanded. The third prince was in decline. Now it's a good opportunity to pull him.
Staff: "Your Highness, according to the investigation, Eunuch Pu wanted the child in Luo Shuirong's belly to inherit the Pu family business."
The eldest prince's head shrank back an inch.
What, let my offspring be the son of a bastard? !
The five fingers tightened, and the copper coin in the mouth of the golden toad made a crisp "click" sound.
Staff: "Your Highness, do you need to send someone to contact Luo Shuirong?"
The eldest prince: "Please put this on hold for now. I have more important things to do tonight."
~
After sending away the staff, the eldest prince took out a set of night clothes from the cabinet.
He put the night clothes into the basket and asked someone to prepare the horse: "I want to go to the palace to see my mother."
Today is Wu Danying's birthday. When his son visits his mother, he is about to leave Beijing, so it is reasonable for him to talk more and stay in the palace.