Chapter 882 885. Headache
Hua Zhang sat in the imperial study with a dazed look on his face, and he didn't even notice the ink from his pen staining the rice paper.
The palace maids and eunuchs waiting on the side did not dare to remind them. They lowered their heads and tried to minimize their presence.
Hua Zhang came back to his senses, threw away the pen in his hand, and led people directly to the harem to find Queen Dowager Zhou.
"How come the emperor has time to come here today?" Empress Dowager Zhou fiddled with the bonsai on the table and trimmed away the excess branches.
"Mother..."
"Is there something I can't figure out?" No one knows a son better than his mother. After hearing the emperor's hesitation, Empress Zhou asked, "Is there another minister causing trouble?"
Hua Zhang, "Mother, do we have to distinguish between the Hua family's private treasury and the national treasury?"
In his opinion, this was all the Hua family's world. The retired emperor had previously kept the private treasury tightly guarded, but now he had to take it out and use it for the people.
Queen Mother Zhou put down the scissors in her hand, and a maid came up with water to wash her hands. After she wiped her hands dry, she said slowly, "Your father did a good job in this regard. No matter what he does, he must hold the trump card in his hand.
The late emperor passed away suddenly that year, leaving your father with a huge mess.
Your father had to deal with the ministers while slowly taking back the military power, but natural disasters happened one after another. At that time, your father could not sleep at night, for fear of mob riots and the people's suffering again.
Fortunately, with God's help, these difficulties gradually subsided.
But what was left behind was a court full of holes.
Being an emperor is not as simple as everyone thinks. I believe that my son has experienced this deeply these days."
Queen Mother Zhou glanced at the silent emperor and then continued, "The previous emperor conquered the country, but all the treasures he obtained were placed in the national treasury. He had no private treasury. All the expenses of the palace had to be allocated from the national treasury. And the country was in crisis. Can you imagine how difficult it was for the harem back then?
But my son, you have never suffered from hardship since you were a child, and it is all because your father set up this private treasury. At that time, some court officials reported the matter to the emperor and asked him to stop competing with the people for fame and profit.
What these court officials said sounded nice, but which one of them didn’t have business outside their house?
Speaking of this, your father is better than you in one respect. When you are an emperor, you should not take your face too seriously. Sometimes, like him, he occasionally..., the court officials can do nothing about him.
In this way, your father's private treasury gradually became richer, and these people started to complain again, always wanting to merge the private treasury into the national treasury for various reasons, but your father insisted. "
Hua Zhang, "Then why did Father do this time...?"
"Why didn't they hand the private vault over to you directly?" Looking at Hua Zhang's expression, Queen Mother Zhou guessed correctly again, "Your father is doing this for your own good.
To put it nicely, the private vault is your father's personal property. If that day really comes, do you think you can take it over?
Not to mention the court officials, don’t your brothers want to get a piece of the pie?
Even ordinary people have a certain proportion of distribution, let alone the prince. "
Hua Zhang looked ashamed, he was too greedy.
“You must remember your father’s kindness. He has arranged all this now, so you can avoid many disputes in the future.
Besides, he uses his private treasury for the benefit of the people, which helps build a good reputation for the royal family, and your throne will be more secure."
Hua Zhang was ashamed but also a little curious, "... Your son, I will teach you. Mother, have you ever been to your father's private vault?"
Queen Mother Zhou: "…Mother is not so blessed…"
Hua Zhang, "..."
&
The blessed Gu Wenheng did not want to be treated like this. Looking at the crowded warehouse, he felt a headache.
The emperor has no ability to keep accounts and likes to do it himself. Look at what he has recorded, it is a mess and things are not organized.
Besides, even if you are busy with government affairs, you can still order the eunuchs under you around, right?
Just pile them up like this and lock the door, is that the end of the matter?
Among all those piles of lists, the boxes of gold and silver were the easiest to liquidate.
I wonder what this emperor was thinking? He thought the whole world belonged to him, but he didn't trust the banknotes under him. He exchanged all the silver notes he got into gold and silver and piled them in the warehouse.
Gu Wenheng touched his nose. This was somewhat similar to the couple. They only kept the banknotes for emergency use and exchanged the rest for cash.
"Eunuch Le, how many warehouses like this are there?" Gu Wenheng turned around and asked Le San who accompanied him.
Le San had long been accustomed to the mess in front of him. It was not that they, as servants, wanted to be lazy, but the emperor did not allow them to get involved.
Whenever the emperor was in a bad mood, he would come over to take a look, and he would feel much happier.
"There are five more, big and small, most of which are rare things collected from maritime trade in recent years," Le San said this and glanced at Gu Wenheng, because as soon as the maritime trade in Lucheng was opened, there would be a steady stream of things sent to the palace.
Except for some money used for rewards, the rest was piled up here by the retired emperor.
Although these are imported products, they are very popular among the nobles of the Rong Dynasty. What's more, the items sent to the retired emperor are the most precious ones.
Gu Wenheng naturally knew the value of these things. "Isn't it a bit too much to put them here casually?"
Le San pointed to the innermost corner and said, "When the first batch of items were delivered to the palace, the emperor specially prepared shelves to place them. But later on, there were more and more items, and the emperor was busy with his duties, so he couldn't take care of them all. He just let people place them randomly, and later on, he couldn't take care of them anymore."
Le San was reluctant to speak too clearly about some things. He had made suggestions before, but the emperor was very persistent.
Gu Wenheng, "..."
"Master Gu, how about I ask some young eunuchs to come and help you sort out your things?" Le San looked at the mess inside and felt a bit of a headache. He felt a little sympathetic towards Gu Wenheng.
Gu Wenheng, "In that case, please trouble Eunuch Le. Once all these things are collected, we will have to make an estimate of their value."
What gave him the biggest headache was converting these into cash as quickly as possible. If it was just this one warehouse, it would be easy, but Eunuch Le just said that there were several others.
If such a large quantity is sold at the same time, it would seem a bit cheap.
Judging from the attitude of the retired emperor, he is planning to clean out all the private vaults in a short period of time, which is really a big problem for him.
If it were a few months ago, he could have persuaded his wife to accept these first, and with his shops in various places, he would have been able to sell them off quickly.
But now, apart from the restaurant and the escort agency, all the other businesses have already been closed down, so I really can’t help.
"Please ask Eunuch Le to find some careful and patient people to come here," Gu Wenheng pointed at the dust on these items and said helplessly, "They need to be cleaned again and arranged according to categories. These are all valuable things. Don't bump them."
The more he thought about it, the more headache he had. Gu Wenheng called the Ministry of Revenue official who was following him and said, "You guys should form a group and make a detailed registration of every item."
(End of this chapter)
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