Su Rong took a sharp breath and kicked open another box nearby. Similarly, it was glittering with gold inside.
Again and again, in quick succession, Su Rong kicked open four or five more boxes. And in all of them was the glittering gold.
Not silver, but gold.
Su Rong thought to herself that if Fen Ling were here, he would surely throw himself at the gold and start chewing on it. Although she wasn’t capable of such vulgar behavior, she couldn’t help but pick up a piece of gold, passing it to Yin Yue who was standing behind Ye Guixue, "Take a bite, see if it’s real gold."
Yin Yue: "..."
He had never done this sort of thing before!
He glanced at Ye Guixue. Ye Guixue remained silent, so Yin Yue obediently took the gold piece and put it in his mouth to bite. Then he lowered his head to look at the marks left by his teeth, nodded affirmatively at Su Rong, "It’s real gold."
Su Rong took a deep breath, "Check all these boxes thoroughly, count everything in them."
Yin Yue affirmed her command.
Su Rong backed away, saying to Ye Guixue, "There are over a thousand of these boxes, by my estimation."
Ye Guixue nodded, "About that many, yes."
Su Rong stamped her foot, "We’ve struck it rich!"
Ye Guixue chuckled.
Su Rong asked, "Does Nanchu’s royal treasury have as much gold as this?"
Ye Guixue estimated, "Each of these boxes seems to contain around fifty catties of gold. There are a thousand boxes, so that’s fifty thousand catties of gold. In today’s market, one catty of gold is worth ten catties of silver, and one catty of silver is about thirteen tael. With this much gold, I suspect someone may have been secretly operating a gold mine. This amount approximates the current state of Nanchu’s royal treasury."
Su Rong did some calculations based on Ye Guixue’s estimation, and her enthusiasm seemed to wane a bit, "That’s only about six million and fifty thousand tael or so, which isn’t that much. The Emperor has assigned military provisions to Jibei and Nanping over the past three years that amount to more than this."
Ye Guixue cleared his throat to remind her, "The royal treasury of Daliang you mentioned is the wealth of an entire nation. Here, we’ve just found a hidden cache of gold."
Su Rong was thrilled again at this reminder, "Right, you’re absolutely correct."
Six million and fifty thousand tael! When she was a child, she’d made her sisters cry over just two tael of silver. Getting a string of candied hawberries for Yuewan had required quite a bit of scraping and pinching from that two tael.
She discussed with Ye Guixue, "Should I secretly help the Crown Prince with this, or should I reveal this matter? Although the Emperor happens to be my uncle, I don’t really like him. Whenever he was mentioned in front of my mother when I was young, her face would darken. Asked in private about it, my uncle Xie told me that the current Emperor is no wise ruler."
She remembered the day she met the Emperor in the palace and added, "However, he seemed to have had great affection for my mother, like a brother. As for me, his niece, he doesn’t seem to harbor any animosity."
Ye Guixue stated, "I’ve heard His Majesty mention something in this regard."
"What’s that?"
Ye Guixue carefully began, "According to His Majesty, during the attack on Daliang by Dawei, as Nanchu was assisting Daliang but also plotting deceit, Princess Zhenmin operated under the principle that she had promised His Majesty to spend her life with him and could absolutely not break the promise to get married for a diplomatic alliance with Dawei. His Majesty had then privately agreed with Princess Zhenmin about being ready to stake everything on one throw, as Nanchu was willing to share the life or death outcome with Daliang to ruin Dawei’s plot. They certainly wouldn’t let Dawei succeed, nor would they allow Princess Zhenmin for the diplomatic marriage. But the current Emperor of Daliang clandestinely sought for Princess Zhenmin’s agreement, saying that he wanted to rule Daliang and didn’t want his country to perish so Princess Zhenmin agreed eventually."
Su Rong raised her eyebrows, "Really, that happened?"
"Yes." Ye Guixue sighed, "Princess Zhenmin, who was three years older than the Emperor of Daliang, had doted on and accompanied her cousin who was like her biological brother as they both grew up. How could she refuse him when he pleaded so pitifully?"
Su Rong asked, "Who knew about this back then?"
Ye Guixue replied, "Only His Majesty knew. Princess Zhenmin still loved her cousin. Since he wanted to rule Daliang, she absolutely did not want people to belittle him and accuse him of having forced his own cousin."
Su Rong suddenly understood, "No wonder I always thought, my mother, being the person she was, had already forsaken Uncle Xie for Daliang once, how could she then agree to the Nanchu King and fix a marriage bond, only to again forsake him unjustly and ally with Dawei for the sake of Daliang."
Ye Guixue nodded, "This is the knot that the king hasn’t been able to untie in all these years. It’s also the reason why he has never minced words with the Daliang Emperor. In fact, this time when I came to Daliang, I intended to hand over his decree to the Emperor, who should acknowledge your status, for your own honor and to vent a grudge."
Su Rong took a deep breath, made a decision, "Most of this gold, move it away and give it to the Crown Prince, leave a small portion to be reported to the Emperor, replenishing the national treasury. The current Daliang territory is still ruled by the Emperor, the Crown Prince, after all, is still the heir, I fear once the Emperor’s momentum rises again with all this gold flooding into the national treasury, he will suppress the Crown Prince."
Ye Guixue nodded, "That is indeed a perfect solution."
By this time, Yin Yue had already finished counting with the others, "Miss Seven, Young Master, there are 1,200 cases of gold here."
Su Rong said: "That’s 200 more than expected, take 1,000 cases and leave 200 cases.", After she finished speaking, she huffed, "These 200 cases, more than a million taels."
Ye Guixue nodded, "The secret guards are skilled, and there are many of them, carrying them down the cliff should not be an issue."
"As for where to take them ..." Su Rong thought, "The Crown Prince should have a villa outside the capital, let’s first send it to the Eastern Palace’s villa!"
Ye Guixue had no objections. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
So, Yin Yue assembled all the secret guards, each of them carrying a case, and by means of the vines, went down the cliff. They were led by the Eastern Palace’s secret guards to a villa at the foot of the Buddha Temple Mountain.
Fen Ling and Yun Ze searched all over the Buddha Temple, even the Book Pavilion, and found two secret passages, but nothing else.
Fen Ling complained to Yun Ze, "This Buddha Temple, it’s so rich, there are hundreds of thousands of taels of silver stored in the temple warehouse. It’s richer than a regular affluent family. Monks, and the offerings they received, have more silver in their hands than ordinary people, they also lead better lives."
Yun Ze said: "We shall leave some men behind, and then go meet Miss Seven and Second Young Master Ye!"
Fen Ling nodded.
In the end, they left some people at the Buddha Temple and went back to Yingzui Cliff.
When they got back to Yingzui Cliff, they didn’t see the secret guards, only saw Su Rong and Ye Guixue wandering at the bottom of the cliff in the snow. The two of them didn’t even have an umbrella and seemed to be taking a stroll in the snow, leaving a long trail of footprints.
Fen Ling didn’t understand such romance, "Sis, Second Young Master Ye, are you guys... strolling in the snow?"
Su Rong nodded with a good mood, "Yes."
She asked Fen Ling, "Have you finished dealing with your matters? Were those fifty carts full of mountain stones? Is the Rui’an King still in the Buddha Temple now?"
Fen Ling answered one by one, and said in a frustrated tone, "We’ve finished dealing with it, and those fifty carts were indeed filled with mountain stones. The head monk of the Buddha Temple said it was for constructing a platform for the Buddha, to deceive the foolish, I don’t believe them. Anyway, we searched the whole Buddha Temple with our people, and found nothing."
Looking suspiciously at the corners of Su Rong’s smiling mouth, he asked, "Sis, did you find something?"
Su Rong nodded, "Hmm, yes, we found where the gold was hidden, there are 1,200 cases of gold, each case weighs fifty catties."
Fen Ling shouted, his whole demeanor becoming lively, "Where is it? Where is it?"
Su Rong replied to him, "We moved 1,000 cases, had the secret guards take them to a villa not far from the Crown Prince, and left 200 cases behind. Your timing was perfect, you can inform the Rui’an King that we found the hidden treasure here. This place is definitely related to the Buddha Temple, so the prince might as well handle these cases together!"
Fen Ling widened his eyes, "Sis, didn’t you say that we can’t let Rui’an King take away the Crown Prince’s credit?"
"At one point in time, the situation was different. Isn’t it true that I have now secretly hidden nine tenths of this gold for the Crown Prince? The bit that remained naturally needs to be handed over to Rui’an King for the national treasury, and then he can deal with the Emperor’s inquiries and investigations."
Fen Ling suddenly realized and strongly agreed, "Sis, you did the right thing, the trouble is Rui’an King’s but the gold is the Crown Prince’s. That’s how it should be."
He turned around immediately, "I shall go inform the Rui’an King now."
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