Although Lord Lu was surprised at Zhou Qiongyue's straightforwardness, he still accepted it with a smile and praised Zhou Qiongyue, saying that she was sensible and a woman who was as capable as a man.
Zhou Qiongyue responded with a smile, then sat down and started drinking tea and eating snacks, with no intention of being polite at all.
The ministers in the hall originally thought that there would be more verbal battles before Princess Fu'an was willing to hand over such a large estate.
What no one expected was that Princess Fu'an readily handed it over as soon as the emperor said so.
The gentlemen, judging by their own experience, were skeptical of Princess Fu'an's straightforward attitude.
But Zhou Qiongyue didn't care what they thought. After sitting down, she told the emperor something and asked someone to go out and bring in all the account books and other things, including a pile of various deeds.
When Zhou Qiongyue saw these, she realized belatedly that these could not be prepared in a short time.
It seems that Yuan Chaokang is ready to get rid of this burden at any time.
What is rare is that the emperor and Zhou Qiongyue have the same idea at this time. They think that since his cousin has brought so many things with her, it seems that she really doesn't want to take care of it.
Thinking of this, the emperor felt that his guilt was much less.
The emperor felt that since his cousin didn't want to get involved because it was too troublesome, and now there were people in the court who wanted to get involved, it was the best of both worlds.
Zhou Qiongyue drank a cup of tea and ate a few snacks in front of everyone. Then she stood up, bowed to the emperor, and asked seriously:
"Your Majesty, the things are all here. You can't have every adult look through them, right? Which adult does Your Majesty want to ask to take over? I will hand them over to him directly."
Zhou Qiongyue’s meaning was very clear. These things were considered the emperor’s private property. It was impossible for everyone to know what the emperor’s private property was, right?
The emperor and his ministers set up this plan today just to get Zhou Qiongyue to agree to hand over the property.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Qiongyue was so quick to hand over the power directly, and the emperor had not yet chosen the person to take over.
The emperor could only look at the ministers present, "What do you think? Let me make it clear first, my private treasury cannot be mixed with the national treasury. I cannot give future generations the opportunity to use the money from the national treasury and squander it."
Of course, the emperor would not say that he did not want to incorporate these into the national treasury, so he could only find a high-sounding reason for the sake of the Li family's future generations.
As soon as the emperor said this, all the old foxes in the hall knew what he meant. Except for the Minister of Revenue, who was still thinking of privately approaching the emperor to try to get him to transfer part of his property to the national treasury.
The rest of the people gave up this idea. After all, no matter what, this money would not go into their pockets. It was just put out in the open, and they could place their own people in other places to make some money.
In the eyes of most people, it is better not to return it to the national treasury. Then everyone will rely on their own abilities, and there is no need to worry about the impact on the court affairs and the people.
Anyway, even if they don't take the emperor's private property, it will be spent on the concubines and princes in the future.
Most of the adults still felt that this was an opportunity, and they all came out to volunteer, willing to manage these industries for the emperor.
The most conspicuous among them is Mr. Li, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Originally, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue was an official of the second rank. His surname is Li, which means he is a distant relative of the royal family.
Even the emperor did not expect that the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue would stand up, but when the emperor took a look at the people who came to ask for orders, he did prefer Lord Li.
The emperor pondered for a while and made a decision. Since his cousin was willing to hand it over so readily, he would have someone take over and stop bothering his cousin.
"Then let Li Aiqing take over! From now on, Li Aiqing will still hold the position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, but he is not allowed to participate in any of the Ministry's affairs. Li Aiqing will no longer be under the supervision of the Minister of Revenue, but directly under my supervision."
When Lord Li heard that the Emperor had chosen him, he was extremely happy and immediately knelt to express his gratitude. Although he had not yet been promoted, Lord Li felt that it was good to have direct contact with the Emperor.
The emperor selected a few people on the spot and formed a team for his private treasury.
The handover began under the supervision of the emperor and his ministers.
Zhou Qiongyue carefully pointed out to them which were the account books, which were the land deeds, and which were the personal deeds. There was also a small box of silver notes, which contained exactly 350,000 taels of silver.
These people were obviously a little disappointed when they saw the amount of the banknotes. They thought it was at least several million taels.
"I want to ask the princess, with such a large estate, you only have so little money left?" Lord Li's face was full of two words: 'disbelief'.
Zhou Qiongyue didn't want to waste time talking. She stood up and walked over to the pile of account books. After flipping through them for a while, she found the account book for border expenses and placed it in front of Lord Li with a smile. "Lord Li, if you don't believe me, just take a look for yourself!"
Lord Li picked up the account book doubtfully. The more he flipped through the pages, the more excited his expression became. It was truly millions of silver being taken out!
Lord Li was so surprised that he blurted out, "Can a war cost so much?"
Zhou Qiongyue remained calm in front of everyone. Instead, she sat on a chair, calmly shaking a cup of tea. "Then Lord Li will have to ask the Emperor and the Grand Emperor. After all, matters like this are not something that can be decided by a concubine."
"You..." Lord Li has always refused to acknowledge women's talents. He does not believe that women can be as capable as men, so he was publicly confronted by Zhou Qiongyue at this time.
Lord Li's face turned red with anger, and he kept saying "you" for a long time but couldn't explain what was going on.
Lord Li could only turn around and kneel down to where the emperor was, "Your Majesty, that's not what I meant."
The Emperor's face turned sour when he saw his chosen person was so unpresentable. He stepped down from the throne room, took the account book from Lord Li, and carefully flipped through it, carefully checking the time and amount. It was indeed his order.
The Emperor immediately turned to Lord Li with a stern face and reprimanded him, "Lord Li, just look at the account books carefully. The rest is not your responsibility, so don't worry about it."
After the emperor finished speaking, he smoothed his sleeves and went back to sit on the dragon throne.
Lord Li looked at the emperor's reaction. Even if he was stupid, he knew that the silver was indeed what the emperor and the emperor wanted. Lord Li could only hurriedly agree with great fear.
After Lord Li made this scene, the subsequent handover was much more pleasant.
Although there wasn't much cash, everyone present still gasped when they saw the stacks of land deeds.
So many ministers accompanied them from day to night. When the handover was completed, Zhou Qiongyue and the other officials left the palace and saw the carriage of Prince Fu'an's mansion waiting outside the palace.
In fact, it was Yuan Chaokang who saw that his mother had not returned yet, so he took food and a cloak and went to wait at the palace gate.
Later, when Yuan Chaochang left the palace after school, he saw the carriage in the mansion. He asked and learned that it was waiting for his mother, so he waited with his brother.
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