"Persimmon, are you sure?"
Jing Zhe had a playful look in his eyes.
"Of course I'm sure!"
Su Xinping glared at Jing Zhe, thinking to himself, "You've fooled me so many times, do you think I'm still that stupid?"
Throughout history, the greatest concern of monarchs has been that their ministers and officials have become too powerful and overshadow their rulers. Princes, in particular, cannot have too much wealth or too much military power, otherwise they will be used as examples to emulate even if they have no ambitions.
That's why the laws of Da'an stipulate that princes and their sons are not allowed to own private property, and there is also a red line of two thousand taels of silver. If this limit is exceeded, it would not be unreasonable to charge them with treason.
Therefore, after hearing that Zhang Xuehou had been arrested that day, Su Xinping tried his best to distance himself from the situation, even if it meant losing all his wealth, he dared not admit it.
His father, the Prince of Jin, is currently planning something big, and he dares not cause his father any disaster because of his own mistake.
He felt that he had handled the situation very well, leaving no loopholes in Jing Zhe's "framing".
Just as he was feeling smug, Jing Zhe clapped his hands happily and said, "Good, all the officials must have heard what Shi Zi said. Now let me tell His Majesty something else!"
Emperor An still had no clue, and waved his hand.
"Speak."
"Your Majesty, before Manager Song was imprisoned, he gave Wenxiangju to me. At the time, I thought he had a change of heart, but after taking over Wenxiangju, I found that it was a complete mess!"
"Fortunately, I have some talent in business. After a few days of restructuring, Wenxiangju is much better than before!"
After Jing Zhe finished speaking, there was a murmur among the people below.
Few ministers in the court were unaware that Jing Zhe had taken over Wenxiangju. Even those who didn't know before found out after news spread yesterday that Xiong San had led people to collect debts from other people's homes.
I'll never dare to go to Wenxiangju to eat for free again!
"Your Majesty, I have discovered that the real problem hindering the continued development of Wenxiangju is the excessive amount of credit extended to customers! Manager Song resorted to such a risk precisely because of the excessive credit extended to his shop! This problem is not unique to Wenxiangju; other merchants likely face the same issue. Therefore, I would like to propose to Your Majesty that we take steps to prevent this problem from occurring!"
After listening to Jing Zhe's words, Emperor An said softly, "Borrowing money on credit has existed since ancient times. It's easy to say we should eliminate it, but very difficult to do! President Jing, if you have any good suggestions, please share them. All my ministers can listen to them. If they are good, why not give them a try?"
Jing Zhe smiled and said, "Your Majesty is right. Everyone has times when they are short of money. It is too difficult to completely eliminate credit. Therefore, I agree to credit, but the person who buys on credit must sign a written agreement and IOU with a repayment date!"
The officials below the hall discussed among themselves. At this moment, Li Haoyun stepped forward and said, "What President Jing said... actually, there are many such IOUs nowadays, but having an IOU is one thing, and not paying back the debt is another!"
As the prefect of Jingzhou, although he had only been in office for a short time, he had already encountered several similar cases, which is why he asked the question.
Jing Zhe smiled and said, "Next up is our newspaper's turn! Anyone who defaults on their debts will be featured on the front page of our newspaper, and these people will be called deadbeats!"
"A deadbeat?"
Refusing to pay a debt is what makes someone a deadbeat!
The ministers pondered the matter carefully and found it to be very apt.
"Of course, publishing the article is only one aspect. After all, many people are just too shameless. When others come to their door to collect debts, they refuse to pay. Why would they be afraid of being published in the newspaper? So, in addition to publishing the article, we will contact other businesses in Jingzhou City and tell them not to extend credit to any deadbeats they encounter!"
“Our newspaper won’t just publish it once. As long as the debtor doesn’t pay, we’ll publish it once a week. If any debtor is reported for three consecutive weeks, we’ll put them on a blacklist and all businesses will refuse to work with them!”
"Whoosh..."
The room erupted in commotion. Everyone thought the suggestion was a bit harsh, but they also felt it might work—no one, no matter how thick-skinned, would want the whole city to know that they owed money and hadn't paid it back.
Where can I put my face now?
What's more, it appeared in several issues in a row?
Seeing the positive response from the audience, Jing Zhe quickly asked, "What does Your Majesty think of my proposal?"
"Great, that's definitely the right thing to do!"
Emperor An nodded, but he was still a little puzzled because he had not heard anything about how Su Xinping was being returned to Jinxi.
At this moment, Jing Zhe spoke again.
"Your Majesty, this is not enough. I believe Your Majesty could issue another decree: if anyone owes a huge amount of money and fails to pay on time, not only should their name be published in the newspaper and they be blacklisted by the businesses, but their movement should also be restricted!"
"..."
Upon hearing this, Emperor An vaguely understood something.
Li Haoyun asked curiously, "President Jing, isn't this restriction on movement a bit inappropriate? You can't just stop someone from leaving their house because they owe money, can you?"
The others echoed his sentiments after hearing this.
"Prefect Li is mistaken. Restricting travel doesn't mean keeping people from leaving their homes—wouldn't that cause people to starve? What I mean is, if someone owes money and doesn't pay it back, we should restrict them to that place. For example, if they owe money in Jingzhou, they can't leave Jingzhou until it's paid off. Otherwise, if they leave and never come back, where are we supposed to collect the debt?"
After listening, the ministers nodded, finding it to be very reasonable.
Emperor An asked, "So, President Jing, how much debt do you consider to be a huge amount?"
Without a second thought, Jing Zhe replied, "Two thousand taels of silver!"
Emperor An nodded, "This amount is acceptable. After all, some large shops usually have transaction volumes of over a thousand taels. If it were any smaller, it might cause dissatisfaction!"
After Emperor An finished speaking, the ministers also expressed their agreement. Moreover, most of the people in the hall knew about Jing Zhe's relationship with Zhang Family Distillery. Because the price of strong liquor was very high, even a large order of five hundred jars would cost more than a thousand taels of silver. The price of two thousand taels of silver was indeed appropriate for a large merchant like Zhang Family Distillery.
Among the crowd, Su Xinping was the one who finally breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the number.
Ever since Jing Zhe interrupted him and brought up the debt, he felt that Jing Zhe was targeting him, because yesterday the newspaper staff came to his house to collect the debt, and of course he wouldn't pay.
Therefore, he was somewhat wary.
Fortunately, he only owed Wenxiangju a little over a thousand taels of silver, while Jing Zhe had set a limit of two thousand taels, which was far less than what he owed!
This dispelled his concerns, making him realize that although Jing Zhe was bad, this matter was not directed at him.
As for being featured in newspapers or blacklisted?
He doesn't care anymore!
Once he returns to Jinxi, this will be a dead end!
Jing Zhe made him lose so much money, he deserves to be taken advantage of this time!
Thinking of this, Su Xinping let out a cold laugh.
————
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