When Jia Yingying saw Su Ruojin asking about her, she raised her head slightly and said nothing. The maid behind her said, "My young lady is the legitimate daughter of the Minister of Revenue."
Zhao Jingning added quietly from the side, "She is Jia Yingying, the legitimate daughter of Minister Jia."
Oh~
The daughter of the Minister of Revenue, right?
Su Ruojin raised an eyebrow and said, "As the daughter of the Minister of Revenue, you should know a little about the imperial tax system. Miss Jia, do you know how much of Yunqi's tax revenue comes from noble families like yours, and how much comes from merchant families?"
"If it weren't for merchants, how could you, Miss Jia, be so adorned in gold and silver? What gives you the right to look down on merchants?"
Jia Yingying never expected that after "Miss Zhao" learned her identity, she would not only not kneel down to apologize, but would also dare to question her.
She instinctively retorted, "My father takes care of everything I wear and use. He serves the court and receives a salary. He doesn't need your filthy money."
Su Ruojin laughed, "Stinky money? Then may I ask Miss Jia, where does the Minister of Revenue's salary come from? Does it fall from the sky?"
Jia Yingying smiled arrogantly, "It is naturally by order of the Emperor."
"Then where does His Majesty's money come from?" Su Ruojin continued to ask.
Jia Yingying was taken aback, "From, from..."
In her mind, the emperor had an inexhaustible supply of money, but she never really thought about where the emperor's money came from.
Seeing Su Ruojin's mocking gaze, Jia Yingying stiffened her neck and said, "His Majesty is the Son of Heaven, blessed by Heaven, and has countless mountains of gold and silver. How could he lack money?"
As she said this, Jia Yingying's eyes darted around. Just a few days ago, she had heard her father sigh at home, saying that the national treasury was empty, the border war was tense, the Ministry of War was urging for military pay, and the Emperor was putting pressure on the Ministry of Revenue.
But he was just the Minister of Revenue, not a god. The national treasury was empty, so he couldn't conjure money up.
"Oh~, according to Miss Jia, the Yunqi national treasury must be incredibly full." Su Ruojin looked at Jia Yingying with a half-smile.
Did Yun Hao ever mention to her that the Third Prince used expensive medicinal herbs to make medicine for the Emperor, and that he had diverted a lot of money from the national treasury to buy them?
This year, the northern part of Yunnan and Qiqihar is suffering from drought, and grain production is less than one-twentieth of that in previous years. People are not getting enough to eat, and many are starving to death.
Local officials repeatedly petitioned the imperial court for disaster relief funds.
In addition, the constant border clashes between Yunqi and Xiaoyue meant that military pay was another major expense.
These expenses caused Emperor Yunqi a great deal of headache.
In her anger, Jia Yingying didn't notice the difference in Su Ruojin's tone and replied matter-of-factly, "Of course."
Before Jia Yingying could react, her words were already considered to be making irresponsible remarks about state affairs. A female voice rang out first, "In that case, I will definitely ask my father to petition the Emperor when I return to the manor, so that Minister Jia can quickly allocate the funds needed for the border army."
A woman dressed in a red outfit, with black sleeves tied around her wrists, and her hair pulled up high with a simple white jade hair crown, stepped out from the crowd. She looked dashing and heroic.
When Jia Yingying saw the person who came and heard what the woman said, her face instantly turned bright red.
"Xing Yue, what's this to you? Why are you meddling in this!"
"This is Xing Yue, daughter of General Xing Qin, who has loved playing with spears and sticks since she was little, just like a boy. The Xing family doesn't have a good relationship with the Minister of Revenue. It's said that once when General Xing led troops into battle, Minister Jia kept delaying the delivery of provisions to the front lines, causing many soldiers to starve to death," Zhao Jingning whispered to Su Ruojin.
In fact, Zhao Jingning rarely had the opportunity to come into contact with these noble ladies, but Zhao Guangtao had already shown her their portraits and given her a general overview of the various families in Yuncheng and some major events in the city, so that she could better assess the situation when managing the Zhao family's businesses.
Xing Yue glanced at Jia Yingying: "As the daughter of Minister Jia, you must know a lot of inside information. Since Miss Jia has said so, how can I not believe you? Otherwise, wouldn't Miss Jia be a person who talks nonsense?"
"You...you're the one talking nonsense!" Jia Yingying was so angry that her body trembled slightly.
She was just going along with what "Miss Zhao" said, since a merchant's daughter wouldn't understand anything about the imperial court anyway.
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