Chapter 430 The Excited Prince
"It's okay. Your sister Hongyun is back. It's no problem for her to take over for your sister for a few days." Yang Zhengshan said with a smile.

What Wang Yunqiao was busy with was naturally the affairs of the women's army. The women's army of Tenglongwei naturally stayed in Tenglongwei, but after Wang Yunqiao came from Chongshanguan, she rebuilt the women's army in Chongshanguan.

Some time ago, Wang Yunqiao just recruited three hundred girls and is now training them.

Hong Yun had previously managed the female army of Tenglongwei with Wang Yunqiao, so there was no problem at all for her to replace Wang Yunqiao for a few days.

“This, this~~”

Wang Mingzhe wanted to cry but had no tears. I didn’t want to go back with my sister. I only wanted to go back with Senior Brother Lin Zhan. Woohoo~~
It’s not that Lin Zhan ignored him, it’s just that Lin Zhan was always busy with his own things, traveling, preparing for exams, and seldom had the time to take care of him, so the impression Lin Zhan gave him might be that he was kinder.

That’s why he was not afraid to follow Lin Zhan.

"Okay, okay, Master still has something to do here, so go and get ready. Go to Anning County with your sister and Senior Brother Lin Zhan tomorrow!" Yang Zhengshan felt that Wang Yunqiao should be allowed to teach this brat a lesson.

If you don't teach him a lesson, this kid will grow into a pig.

Hearing this, Wang Mingzhe could only leave, looking back every few steps. However, before he stepped out of the threshold of the main hall, he couldn't help but say, "Master, I don't want to go anymore, okay?"

"No!" Yang Zhengshan glared at him, "If you don't go, I'll ask your sister to take you to live with her for a month!"

Wang Mingzhe was startled and ran away without saying a word.

It only takes seven or eight days to go to Anning County and back, which is much better than staying at my sister's house for a month.

Yu Qingyi looked at Wang Mingzhe's fast back and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Mingzhe is just too lazy!"

Yang Zhengshan turned around and said with a smile: "He is a little lazy, but this kid is smart!"

If you are not smart, you can play tricks on him!
It was precisely because he was too smart that this kid dared to play tricks on him.

Yu Qingyi stroked Ming Zhao's little head and said, "Your Majesty's condition doesn't seem to be very good. Yun Xue said that Your Majesty may not survive this month!"

Yang Zhengshan's expression froze, "Who told her that?"

"Who else could it be except Marquis Changping!" Yu Qingyi said.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly and didn't ask any more questions.

It was no secret that Emperor Chengping's health was getting worse and worse. Even he had received some news, not to mention the dignitaries in Kyoto.

He had been mentally prepared for a long time, so he didn't have too many feelings now.

……

Kyoto, in the imperial study.

The prince looked at the memorial in his hand with a worried look on his face. What worried him was not the content of the memorial, but the health of Emperor Chengping.

He wanted the throne, and when he couldn't get it before, he was even willing to go crazy for it. But now that it was so close, he was filled with panic.

During this period of time, he presided over the government, which was actually almost the same as sitting on the throne.

But he understood that the present peace was his father's last refuge. Once his father passed away, he would face everything alone.

Is he really ready?
The prince himself doesn't know.

"I didn't realize how great the responsibility my father had to bear was before, but now I finally understand it!" The prince sighed softly.

The eunuch Nan Sheng who was serving beside him smiled and said, "I believe that Your Highness will become a wise ruler!"

He simply could not understand the complicated feelings of the crown prince at the moment. He was only happy that the crown prince was about to ascend the throne. He even hoped that Emperor Chengping would die sooner.

The prince glanced at him, then dropped his eyes.

A slave is just a slave. No matter how close you are to him, you cannot have a heart-to-heart talk with him.

The prince calmed his worries and panic and picked up another memorial to read.

"What is this?" The prince looked at the contents of the memorial, slightly surprised.

"Your Highness, this is a memorial sent by Marquis Jing'an. Also sent along with it are ten ornaments. I have checked them and they are all very exquisite!" Nan Sheng said hurriedly.

There are many types of memorials, including memorials on state affairs, memorials of peace, memorials of thanks, memorials of congratulations, etc. There are also differences between memorials from officials in the capital and those from local officials.

Generally speaking, memorials from local officials and censors would be presented directly to the emperor in order to maintain confidentiality and shorten the submission time.

Memorials from the Cabinet, the Six Ministries, the Five Military Governorates and other government offices in Beijing would be marked by the Cabinet and checked by the Imperial Household Department before being presented to the Emperor.

Matters are divided into urgent and non-urgent ones, and memorials to the emperor are generally submitted first. Other memorials will be reviewed later, or even not reviewed at all and just recorded by the Imperial Household Department.

Sometimes there were a lot of memorials such as memorials of peace, memorials of thanks, and memorials of congratulations. If the emperor was very busy, he naturally would not have the time to read them one by one, so he would let the Imperial Household Department record them, and the emperor would just look at the records.

But at the moment, Yang Zhengshan's memorial was actually a memorial about matters, so Nan Sheng only knew that Yang Zhengshan had sent ten ornaments, and he was not clear about the contents of the memorial.

After the prince finished reading the memorial, his expression changed slightly, and he ordered, "Bring all those ornaments here!"

"Yes!" Nan Sheng responded and immediately asked a group of eunuchs to move the glass ornaments to the imperial study.

The ten glass ornaments are of different sizes, but each one is flawless and of top quality.

Among them was the golden Buddha statue that Yang Zhengshan had been amazed by before.

The bright sunlight shone into the imperial study through the carved wooden window and fell on the golden Buddha statue, making it shine brightly.

The prince looked at the Buddha statue with surprise.

He has seen all kinds of ornaments.

He has seen a lot of porcelain, wood carvings, stone carvings, colored glaze, jade, bronze, etc., and all those that catch his eye are fine products.

But he had never seen an ornament as shiny as the glass ornament before him.

"Glass! Colored glaze?" the prince asked in surprise.

Colored glaze and glass are very similar in appearance, but the composition of colored glaze is more complex and the production process is complicated and delicate. In comparison, the production process of glass is much simpler and easier to make.

Of course, glass is not as good as colored glaze in some aspects. Colored glaze has various colors and different levels, while glass has obvious levels between colors due to its production process.

For example, the golden Buddha can be clearly seen to be layered.

Colored glaze can also be fired artificially, but the cost is very high, so colored glaze is a precious decoration in Darong, especially large and complete colored glaze products, which are even more precious than jade.

In comparison, glass can only be described as cheap, so cheap that the prince even suspected that Yang Zhengshan was lying.

This is clearly colored glaze, how could it be glass?
The prince picked up Yang Zhengshan's memorial again and started reading it.

He read it twice, word by word, very carefully.

After he finished reading it, a shrewd light flashed in his eyes.

This is not glass, it is a mountain of gold and silver!
The prince looked at the glass ornament in front of him as if he were looking at a rare treasure. It looked very similar to colored glaze, but the manufacturing cost was less than one percent of that of colored glaze.

"If this glazed golden Buddha is sold, how much silver can it get?" The prince blinked and asked Nan Sheng.

Nan Sheng looked at the Buddha statue with salivating eyes and said, "Your Highness, the surface of this glazed golden Buddha is transparent as if there is nothing inside, and the inside is shining with golden light. When placed in the sun, it is like a golden Buddha descended to the world, not like an ordinary thing!"

Well, he also mistook this glass Buddha statue for a colored glaze Buddha statue, and even mistook the shortcomings of the glass Buddha statue for its advantages.

This is normal. Yang Zhengshan thinks this is a shortcoming because he has a clear understanding of glass.

Nan Sheng had no idea what glass was and mistook it for colored glaze. Naturally, he thought the glass Buddha statue was of unique craftsmanship and extremely exquisite.

"If we sell it, this Buddha statue might be worth a fortune!" Nan Sheng said affirmatively.

He has always liked these precious objects, such as glass, jade, porcelain, etc., he likes them very much, so he knows the market price of glass very well.

Therefore, the value of a thousand taels of gold he mentioned was not an imaginary value, but referred to one thousand taels of gold.

A thousand taels of gold is equivalent to ten thousand taels of silver.

"Ten thousand taels of silver!" The prince took a deep breath and then looked down at the memorial in his hand. It clearly stated on it that the production cost of the Buddha statue was two taels of silver, and Yang Zhengshan planned to sell it for five hundred taels of silver.

In fact, such a Buddha statue is not easy to make, mainly because there are almost no flaws in this statue.

But even if it has flaws it is not worthless.

Those with defects are sold cheaper, and those without defects are sold more expensive. As long as the defects are not too big, they are considered finished products. Therefore, the yield rate of manufacturing such glass Buddha statues is still very high, and the cost will not be increased due to the low yield rate.

Yang Zhengshan said that the cost of the Buddha statue was two taels of silver, which is actually not accurate, because current glass workshops do not produce glass Buddha statues in large quantities. If they were produced in large quantities, the cost price could be reduced by 20%.

The prince looked at the memorial, then at the Buddha statue, and was silently calculating in his mind.

If he does as Yang Zhengshan said, how much money can he earn!
Hundreds of thousands of taels?

Several million taels?

Far more than that!

I'm afraid I can make several million taels a year!

The market for glass ornaments is much larger than that of telescopes. Every wealthy family has dozens of ornaments.

If the price of a glass ornament is several thousand taels of silver, the market may not be too big. After all, there are not many people who are extravagant enough to spend several thousand taels of silver to buy a piece of ornament.

But what if it’s a few hundred taels or dozens of taels?
You can afford it from any merchant, and it is not a problem for a wealthier merchant to buy dozens of them and display them at home.

This will be an extremely huge market.

And there are not only ornaments, but also tea sets, wine sets, tableware and other kinds of utensils.

The prince felt as if his heart was going to jump out.

Who doesn't like silver?

The prince also likes silver, and the emperor also likes silver.

There are so many places in the court where money is spent, and the prince gets a headache every time he sees a memorial asking for money.

His Eastern Palace also needs money. When he ascends the throne in the future, there will be more places to spend money in this huge imperial city.

"You~~" The prince couldn't wait to make a lot of money according to Yang Zhengshan's plan, but when he saw Nansheng looking at the Buddha statue with greedy eyes, the words that were about to come out of his mouth stopped.

"Go and call Xiao Anzi!" the prince ordered.

"Here!"

A moment later, Nan Sheng found Xiao Anzi.

Xiao Anzi is actually not young. His name is Wang An, and he is now over 30 years old. Because he is an old man in the City Prince’s Mansion and was only a teenager when he entered the City Prince’s Mansion, the prince is used to calling him Xiao Anzi.

"Your Highness, may you be well!" Wang Anxing bowed.

The prince sat at the desk, wrote a few words on the memorial, then handed it to Wang An and said, "Take this memorial and go to Chongshan Pass immediately. Once you get there, you must obey Marquis Jing'an's arrangements. You must do whatever he tells you to do, and you must do whatever he tells you to do and who he tells you to bring back. Do you understand?"

"I understand!" Wang An said as he took the memorial.

The prince still felt uneasy, so he took off the jade pendant from his waist and said, "Go to the Imperial Stables and ask for 300 soldiers to go with you. Remember to seal their mouths on the way, and tell them that if anyone dares to leak any information, they will all be executed!"

Wang An's heart sank when he heard this, and his face became solemn, "I will definitely shut their mouths!"

Nan Sheng standing next to him nodded and lowered his brows, hiding the greed in his eyes for the glass golden Buddha.

"Hmm!" The prince thought about it for a while, and thought it should be okay, so he said, "Go!"

Yang Zhengshan somewhat underestimated the importance the prince attached to glass, or rather, he underestimated the importance the prince attached to silver.

He thought that the prince would definitely support his plan for the sake of money, but he ignored the fact that the court was short of money and also ignored the fact that the prince was short of money.

The annual tax revenue of the Darong court was about 20 million shi of rice and wheat and 10 million taels of silver, in addition to various silks and cotton worth one million taels of silver.

The prices of rice and wheat fluctuate with the market and vary from region to region. For example, the price of grain in Liaodong generally remains at around two taels of silver per dan, while the price of grain in Kyoto is around three taels of silver per dan.

If there is a natural disaster or man-made disaster, food prices will skyrocket, and it is normal for them to triple or quadruple.

Therefore, rice and wheat are difficult to convert into silver and money. The salaries of officials consist of grain and money, with grain as the main form.

If rice and wheat must be converted into silver, then Dayong’s annual tax revenue would be between 50 and 70 million taels.

It seems like a lot, but for such a huge dynasty, this money and grain is not enough.

Why didn’t the court allocate military pay to Chongshan Town before?
Isn’t it because the Ministry of Revenue has no money?

Liaoxi suffered from the war at the hands of the Wuliang army, but the court took 500,000 taels of silver from Yang Zhengshan to provide disaster relief in Liaoxi.

There were so many places where the court needed money, including military pay for border towns, salaries for royal nobles and officials, expenses for various government offices, river defense and conservancy, construction of palaces and government offices, sacrificial ceremonies, disaster relief and so on.

In the past decade or so, Dayong has not been peaceful, with frequent natural disasters and constant wars.

Take Yang Zhengshan’s experiences over the years as an example. First, there was a severe drought in Chongshan Town, followed by several battles with the Donghai Hu tribe. The Donghai Hu tribe was destroyed, and King Keqing rebelled again, and the Wuliang Hu tribe invaded Liaoxi.

Each of these things required the court to spend a huge amount of money and grain.

This is just Chongshan Town, and Chongshan Town is just one of the nine border military towns of Dayong.

A town like Beiyuan is a real gold-devouring beast.

Therefore, it is natural that the court is short of money, and it is also understandable that the prince is eager to earn money.

(End of this chapter)