Princess Zhaoyang spoke up, and the Emperor, as expected, responded with a smile.
After Princess Zhaoyang happily picked one and returned, there were only three left. The Emperor glanced around and, considering that the Third Prince was the legitimate prince, even for the sake of maintaining the stability of the Empress's palace, he had to have one. So, with a wave of his hand, he gave the Third Prince one.
Of the remaining two, Consort De's father was the Left Chancellor, the head of the civil officials, so he had to give her face and was given one. Although Consort Xian only had one daughter, her father was the General Who Pacifies the South, who was guarding the border for her, so he also had to give her a token of respect. Therefore, the last one was given to Consort Xian.
The two concubines thanked the reward and arrogantly ordered the palace servants to take the mirror back.
Those who didn't receive one were so jealous their hearts were practically bleeding. The princes weren't necessarily lacking a mirror; although the glass mirror was indeed very good, they were dignified men and naturally wouldn't look at themselves in the mirror all day. Instead, they were jealous of the favor bestowed upon them. The concubines and princesses, on the other hand, were openly and utterly envious!
Who knows how alluring a gleaming mirror can be to a woman!
The women in the imperial harem had to be photographed eight hundred times a day!
Princess Chenxi, the second princess born to Consort Xian, was alright. Since her mother had a chance to see her, she could go to her mother's place to get a picture. Princess Jinghe, the third princess born to Consort Hui, couldn't even keep up a smile. The fourth princess born to Noble Lady Jin couldn't help but cry!
Although Consort Jin and Consort Hui also wanted a mirror, those above them were either from prominent families, favored by the Emperor, or had princes by their side. It was obvious that it wouldn't be their turn. It wasn't worth incurring the Emperor's wrath over an object. In this palace, one could not live without a mirror, but without the Emperor's favor, things would be difficult!
When Consort Jin saw that the Fourth Princess was crying, she was afraid that the Emperor would be displeased, so she quickly comforted her.
Although the Emperor was high above all others, he was still a father. Even if he didn't love the Fourth Princess as much as he loved the Eldest Princess, he still felt heartache seeing the Fourth Princess sobbing. He couldn't help but say...
"There aren't many mirrors this time. If any of you don't have any, just pick a couple of cups to play with for now. We'll write to Han Zhongyu later and ask him to send over another batch. Then you'll all have them!"
Stop crying! A princess like you, crying your face down, how embarrassing!
With the Emperor's word, the Fourth Princess dared not cry anymore and went with the princes to choose their favorite tea sets!
Besides the Emperor, Empress, and Empress Dowager each keeping two sets of tea sets, most of the sets were distributed among the princes. Only five sets were kept, intended to be awarded to meritorious officials and imperial relatives!
This is even with only a few princes. If there were more than a dozen princes, there wouldn't be enough to go around!
The princesses each chose a pair of artistic water glasses, and when they wanted to select some stemmed glasses and more luxurious embossed artistic mugs, the Emperor refused.
"Alright, we should save these for your Uncle Eighteen. These are such new and exciting things; if we don't leave him a share, he'll definitely cause a scene!"
Upon hearing this, the princes and princesses had no choice but to reluctantly put down the cups they had chosen.
All that could be distributed had been distributed. Emperor Qingyuan glanced at the sorrowful expressions of the concubines who had received nothing and felt extremely troubled. He regretted not having let them come along!
This Han Zhongyu, doesn't he know what's going on in the palace? Sending in so few people, isn't he deliberately trying to make things difficult for him?
Even if he cursed Han Zhongyu a thousand times in his heart, he had nothing left to give them, so he could only pretend not to see and wave his hand.
"Alright, everyone, you can all leave now!"
Eunuch Liu, look how many pieces of glass there are?
"Keep half as a reward, and distribute the rest according to palace regulations. Set aside the glass in the Qin Zheng Hall area, and before New Year's Eve, replace all the glass in the areas that can be replaced with this glass!"
"Yes, sir!"
After giving his instructions, Emperor Qingyuan left. Eunuch Liu asked a young eunuch to bring him the counting book and glanced at it. There were two hundred pieces of glass. The Qinzheng Hall only had twenty-six windows. Subtracting these twenty-six pieces, there were one hundred and seventy-four pieces left.
If half is kept, then the palace will only have eighty-seven coins available. According to the rules, ten coins will go to the Emperor, eight to the Empress and Empress Dowager, six to Consort Chu, four to Consort De and Consort Xian, two to each of the two concubines, and one to each noble lady with offspring.
The third prince received four pieces, the eldest princess received four pieces, the other princes and princesses received two pieces each, and the remaining five pieces were placed in the imperial study.
After calculating the distribution within the palace, Eunuch Liu instructed the Imperial Household Department to expedite the installation. He then drafted the reward amounts for several important officials and imperial relatives and submitted them to Emperor Qingyuan for verification.
At this moment, Emperor Qingyuan recalled the memorial submitted by Han Zhongyu a few days ago, which proposed to use the name of the government office to allocate a piece of land to invest in the estate of Lord Jingde, and then use the dividends to make up for the tax burden, thereby reducing the taxes of the local farmers.
At the time, he thought that a small place like Yuquan Mountain Villa, with such a small area, could not possibly produce anything. Even if there was a mine, it could not fully drive the local economy, let alone offset a portion of the tax revenue!
At the time, I just thought Han Zhongyu was being delusional, so I ignored him. Anyway, the whole valley was only thirty or forty acres, and even with the ten acres that Han Zhongyu transferred as a share, it was only fifty or sixty acres. It was such a small place, was it really worth writing a report to him to tell him? He must have nothing better to do!
Emperor Qingyuan spent the entire day reviewing memorials. They were all about shortages of silver or grain, about a country plotting rebellion or needing military supplies, and even included greetings from officials across the country along with local specialties. They were all rambling nonsense, or just a single sentence.
"These are lychees from Lingnan / These are mangoes from Hainan / The weather here is great this year!" He had to reply to each and every one of these kinds of meaningless platitudes.
"I understand!"
They've wasted so much precious time!
Emperor Qingyuan was so annoyed he wanted to curse. Han Zhongyu was bothering him with this trivial matter again. He was so angry that he threw the memorial into a corner and told Han Zhongyu to do whatever he wanted!
But he never expected that Yuquan Manor would produce such a magical thing as glass!
As the emperor, he saw the potential of this glass at a glance! Not to mention the royal family, high-ranking officials, and wealthy gentry of his own country, even the dignitaries of neighboring countries, once they saw this thing, could they resist buying it?
It just so happens that the Empress Dowager's 60th birthday is on February 19th next year. Originally, he planned to have his own court officials go to the palace to accompany the Empress Dowager in the festivities, but now he has changed his mind. He will send invitations to various countries to broaden the horizons of these bumpkins and make some money off them!
This is a living money bag!
Even if Han Zhongyu wanted to invest, he had to invest too!
Emperor Qingyuan imagined the shocked, bumpkin-like expressions on the faces of foreign envoys when they saw the glass, and felt more energetic than if they had taken an elixir. He picked up his pen and quickly wrote back to Han Zhongyu.
The gist is
"I saw the glass you sent, and I like it very much. Everyone in the harem likes it too. Hurry up and send some more, I don't even have enough to go around."
You mentioned that local government offices can use land as shares and use the dividends to offset part of the agricultural tax. I think this is feasible. Go ahead and do it, but you have to include me!
I will invest 30,000 taels of silver and give Xie Yushu a token of imperial merchant status. The net profit will be split 40/60 between me and the rest of the company. You will get 60%, I will get 10%, and 30% will go into the national treasury!
"There's nothing I can do. I have too many wives and sons; they're almost emptying my private treasury. And people from all over the country are constantly reaching out to me for money. It's so hard for me!"
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