Hua Ji was chilled by the looks from Wu Mei and Li Zhi. He finally steeled his heart and said in Li Hong's tone, "Why the hell did you come here? Did my father or mother ask you to come? What's that in your hand? An imperial edict? What, you want to announce it again? Give it to me."
Hua Ji looked at Li Zhi and Wu Mei fearfully, and saw that their faces were somewhat embarrassed and pale, while Lanling, Xincheng and Chengyang, all three of them were trying hard to hold back their smiles.
"Go on." Wu Mei's mind was full of black lines and she said in a cold voice.
"Then His Royal Highness the Crown Prince snatched the imperial edict from my hand and threw it on the table..."
"Didn't you see it, little idiot?" Li Zhi asked in surprise, his eyes almost popping out.
"Uh... Your Majesty, the Crown Prince certainly didn't watch it." Hua Ji's face looked like he was about to cry, and his knees went weak and he knelt down.
"And then?" Li Zhi was very angry. He glared at the three princesses who were trying to hold back their smiles and continued to look at Hua Ji.
"Then His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked me to help him...help him...write a letter to you and the Queen, so I did it. If I didn't, he wouldn't let me come back..."
Li Zhi snatched the letter from Wu Mei's hand, took a look at the disgusting letter, and asked with trembling hands: "Did you write this for him? Nonsense, outrageous! Come, take him out and beat him with a hundred sticks! No, two hundred!"
...
...
Li Zhi slammed the letter on the table and said angrily.
"Your Majesty, I am wronged. I have not finished speaking. But while I was writing, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was also writing. The letter in your hand was indeed written by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince himself. The one I wrote was thrown away by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
"Did he tell you to say that? Did you actually write this letter? Don't think I don't know. Your handwriting is very similar to his!"
"Your Majesty, I am truly innocent. I would never lie to you even if I had a hundred times the courage." Hua Ji knelt on the ground, wanting to die.
All of this was planned by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. He knew that His Majesty and the Queen would certainly ask him for details, and he would definitely have to mention the matter of helping to write the letter. It was obvious that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was trying to kill someone with a borrowed knife.
But you want Hua Ji to say that the Crown Prince wants to kill him? Hua Ji himself doesn't believe that the Crown Prince wants to kill him. It's just that the Crown Prince wants to take revenge on his servants and report him to the emperor and the queen.
Wu Mei looked at the letter in her hand silently, then frowned and said calmly: "Your Majesty, the little idiot did this on purpose. He wanted to punish Hua Ji through you. He knew you would definitely ask Hua Ji this question, so he planned this."
Wu Mei's face was filled with melancholy and helplessness. She didn't know whether it was a blessing or a nightmare for the Tang Dynasty to have such a rubbish prince.
"Why did you plan all this?" Li Zhi was still angry and asked Wu Mei with a puzzled look on his face.
"Needless to say, my royal brother? You and the Queen have asked Hua Ji and others to monitor Li Hong from time to time. Naturally, he is taking revenge on these people." Xin Cheng explained, looking at Hua Ji who was kneeling on the ground with grievance.
"Yes, Your Majesty, it is true. Even if I had a hundred times the courage, I would not dare to write a letter to you privately from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Hua Ji bowed his head to the ground, took over Xincheng's words, and hurriedly explained.
"Hmph, wait until he comes back and see how I deal with him. Yang Wu, draft the imperial edict. Now I'll scold him first." Li Zhi's expression completely relaxed. He sat down to drink tea, then looked at the women with some anger still on his face.
So he asked curiously, "What's wrong with you? Is there anything difficult that you need my help with?"
"You can't help." Lanling sighed.
"I can't help? I am the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, the supreme ruler..."
"That little idiot wants to liquidate the Ministry of Revenue, Taiyi City, and all those workshops that we called cooperation with him. Can you help with this?" Wu Mei glanced at Li Zhi. Now the Ministry of Revenue seems to be an independent government office that is about to be separated from the Tang Dynasty, and you, the emperor, have not seen any problem with it.
"It's the Ministry of Revenue's business. You guys can talk about it. If you have any questions, go to Li Hong. He's in charge of it." When Li Zhi heard that it was the Ministry of Revenue and that little idiot's business, he simply pushed it aside and ignored it.
"You can ignore it, then just wait for the ministers in the court to cry to you." Wu Mei rubbed her painful forehead. She felt uncomfortable when she thought about this. Her palms itched and she wanted to beat up the little idiot immediately.
Li Zhi was shocked when he heard Wu Mei's words, and asked hurriedly: "Can the Ministry of Revenue's affairs affect other officials?"
Wu Mei sighed, and seeing that Bai Chun had not arrived yet, she simply handed another document in her hand to Li Zhi.
Li Zhi took the letter curiously, thinking to himself, the little idiot was quite considerate, he didn't just trick his father, the Emperor, but it looked like he was also tricking his mother during this trip to the Western Regions. He instantly felt a sense of balance in his heart.
"The Ministry of Revenue doesn't suffer much loss. It just asks for money. What's more, the Ministry of Revenue is also paying money according to the annual plan formulated by Li Hong himself and the budget allocated by the Ministry of Revenue to the Four Towns of Anxi every year. It will not affect the court officials." Li Zhi said easily after reading it.
Wu Mei was furious. No wonder Li Zhi was so relaxed after reading this. Was this all planned by the little idiot before he left? Wasn't it also planned when he discussed cooperation with her and others?
If Wu Mei knew at this moment that Li Hong not only took money from the Ministry of Revenue, but also asked for people from the Ministry of Works, and had already cheated her father once, perhaps she would feel a little more balanced.
Bai Chun was still wearing snow-white clothes, and her hair was tied behind her head all year round just like Li Hong. She had never been seen with her hair tied up.
"I, Bai Chun, greet your Majesty, the Queen, and Princesses Xincheng, Chengyang, and Lanling." Bai Chun's temperament became more and more calm and composed. Her previous charm had long since disappeared, and what replaced it was a sense of purity like the snow lotus on Tianshan Mountain.
Wu Mei and the three princesses looked at each other, and then Wu Mei asked, "When we signed the contract with Li Hong, it was indeed stipulated in this way. But today I summoned you here to ask if it is feasible for me and others to only give that little idiot half of the money if we do not follow the contract?"
Wu Mei summoned Bai Chun not because Bai Chun was so important in her heart, nor because of Bai Chun's transcendent status in Li Hong's Taiyi City.
It was because Wu Mei believed that, apart from herself as a mother, Bai Chun was probably the only one who knew Li Hong best. Moreover, when it came to money matters, Bai Chun was probably even better than herself.
So she summoned Bai Chun to find out if it was feasible to not follow the contract signed with Li Hong, but to follow her will and only give Li Hong 20% of the money? Would it be possible to prevent Li Hong from counterattacking the four of them?
"Your Majesty, this may be a difficult matter. Before I came here, I carefully read over the contract that you signed with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. It will be of no use if you change the contract." Bai Chun took out a contract from her handbag and handed it to Wu Mei respectfully.
Then he took the gifts prepared for Wu Mei and others from the hands of several eunuchs who followed him and presented them to them one by one.
Wu Mei casually flipped through the contract written in black and white, and found that it was exactly the same as the one in her hand.
Wu Mei frowned and thought about it, but she didn't know what Li Hong could do if she forced him to pay half of the money according to the contract.
"Then tell me, what will he do if I only give him half of the money?" Wu Mei felt a little painful when she thought about giving Li Hong 40% of the money directly according to the contract.
Just now she discussed with the three wealthy women in Chang'an City. If the four of them paid according to the contract signed with Li Hong, it would be equivalent to giving 60% to 70% of the money for building the Daming Palace to Li Hong for free.
This money is the total amount they earned in the past four years after signing the contract with Li Hong.
As for the remaining 60%, according to what the little idiot said at the time, half of it was the cash that the four of them actually paid out of their own pockets, and part of it was borrowed from the royal bank.
The other half was what the four of them were vaguely aware of, and was redeemed by using some real estate as collateral, as Li Hong had said. In short, it was mortgaged from the Royal Bank.
At first, the four of them thought that Li Hong had finally stopped talking about his own people and was finally willing to do business with them sincerely, but now it seems that this is not the case.
Bai Chun looked at the Queen and the three princesses, and felt reluctant to hit them, but thinking about Li Hong's behavior, he told them the truth: "If you only give 20%, then your manors in other parts of the Tang Dynasty will belong to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and you will automatically lose the right to continue to manage and operate the cooperative workshop."
"What?" Lan Ling was the first to stand up. He slapped the table and asked with beautiful eyes, "Are you saying that if we don't pay, then all my manors will belong to Li Hong?"
"Your Highness, to be exact, it belongs to the Royal Bank," Bai Chun explained.
"What's the difference? The money house belongs to Li Hong alone. What's the difference between giving it to the money house and giving it to him?" Xincheng couldn't sit still anymore and stood up to question.
"Uh..." Xin Cheng's question stumped Bai Chun. Bai Chun thought for a moment and said with difficulty, "To be exact, there is indeed no difference. However, according to the documents, these manors should be under the name of the bank, not the personal name of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
"Is this the difference?" Cheng Yang even felt that his voice had changed.
"That's true." Bai Chun said.
Chengyang, Xincheng, and Lanling had signed contracts with Li Hong to produce cotton clothes, etc. Every year, the Ministry of Revenue would allocate funds to them based on how they provided cotton clothes to the border soldiers.
But Li Hong doesn't want any of the shares here. However, there is a mandatory requirement in the contract that 40% of the sales volume must be paid to Li Hong in one lump sum in four years.
As for the purchase of manpower and other equipment, the three princesses could not come up with so much money at once, so Li Hong persuaded them to squeeze the manor into the royal bank and borrow money from the bank to build the house.
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