hsntnovel Chapter 2266: 1 Table 5 Guan
Chapter 2266: 1 Table 5 Guan
Thinking of Wei Zheng, Li Shimin suddenly felt a little regretful. Why didn't he make Concubine Wei pregnant and give birth to Li Shen earlier?
If he had visited Concubine Wei more often, would he not have been bullied by Wei Zheng for so many years?
Li Shimin laughed for a long time before he spoke:
"My dear ministers, your praise is unmerited. Prince Ji simply enjoys pleasure and lives a somewhat extravagant life. In my opinion, this is a bad habit.
It just costs a bit of money, and business is still a minor matter after all."
"Your Majesty, His Royal Highness Prince Ji is exceptionally talented and has made considerable achievements in business, a feat unmatched in the world.
Although commerce is a minor path, King Ji used it to enrich the court and the people, truly benefiting the present generation and future generations."
Tang Jian stood up and responded.
The others nodded repeatedly at this point, and what Tang Jian said was indeed true.
"Forget it, let's not talk about Prince Ji. He is a junior, and you are all his uncles. It is natural for you to eat some of his food. There is no need to praise him so much.
It's just food, not worth much money." Li Shimin waved his hand and said indifferently.
"Haha, Your Majesty, although this old minister may be somewhat limited in knowledge, I know that this table of delicacies is worth a lot of money."
Li Jing laughed twice and spoke.
"This... I don't know either. Wang De, can you tell me, my dear ministers, how much this is worth?" Li Shimin smiled and shook his head.
It is obvious that Li Shimin knew what was going on, but he could not show off like this himself. He would only save face if others told him.
Having been master and servant for many years, Wang De naturally understood Li Shimin's meaning and immediately bowed and said:
"Your Majesty, Duke Weiguo, I heard from Wang Hongfu of Prince Ji's mansion that this table of delicacies is worth five thousand strings of cash."
"Five thousand strings of cash?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"So expensive?"
Sure enough, as soon as Wang De finished speaking, it immediately had a shocking effect, and even Li Shimin widened his eyes.
He just knew it would be expensive, but he didn't expect it to be so expensive.
Five thousand guan per table? Half of the officials present received less than five hundred guan a year.
Now the salaries of Tang Dynasty officials have been reformed. This is the first decree issued independently by Li Chengqian after he became regent.
In fact, it is also to win people's hearts.
In the past, officials’ salaries were divided into several parts, including salary, rice, firewood, pens, ink, paper, inkstone, silk, servants, etc.
The calculation is extremely complicated.
After Li Chengqian became regent, he merged the salaries and abolished all the salary parts because of the inflation caused by Li Shen.
It was changed to direct salary payment, that is, direct payment of money, and also a salary increase.
But even so, five thousand strings of cash is not a small amount. Except for the prince, no official's salary is up to five thousand strings of cash.
For a fifth-rank official, even if his salary tripled, five thousand strings of cash would still be his salary for more than ten years.
"Is this... this table really worth five thousand strings of cash?"
Li Tai looked at the table full of delicacies from land and sea, and finally couldn't help but ask.
He is just Li Shen who is rich, but isn’t he too rich?
But no matter how rich you are, it's not a reason for you to eat at a table costing 5,000 guan.
Everyone looked at Wang De with disbelief, thinking that Wang De was talking nonsense.
Seeing this, Wang De quickly explained:
"Everyone, I was also very shocked when I heard this, but Wang Hongfu said that the cheapest thing here is these meats.
The most expensive ones are the deer antlers, ginseng and seafood.
Deer antlers come from the Mohe people, and ginseng comes from the sacred Taibai Mountain, and both are over a hundred years old.
It is thousands of miles from Chang'an to the far north, and the cost of this journey is countless.
Besides, these seafood are even more precious. They all come from the coastal counties of our Tang Dynasty and are caught with great difficulty.
Some came from Liaodong Road, some from Laizhou, some from Fuzhou, and even from Yazhou in the South China Sea.
In order to transport it back to Chang'an faster, they had to ride at full speed day and night. Not only that, they also had to use ice to keep it fresh.
For this purpose, Prince Ji's Mansion set up post stations along the way to store ice to ensure that the food could be transported to Chang'an City fresh.
The cost of the trip is more than ten thousand guan. The five thousand guan I mentioned is just for reference. If it were sold outside, this table of seafood would be worth at least ten thousand guan."
After Wang De finished speaking, the scene fell silent again. Everyone was shocked by the actions of Prince Ji's Mansion. Just to have a taste of seafood, they actually set up an inn along the way?
This is a bit too ridiculous.
You have to know that post stations are very expensive. The imperial court maintains more than a thousand post stations across the country, and the annual cost of maintenance is over a million strings of cash.
The main expense is on horses, and personnel are secondary.
It turns out that Prince Ji’s Mansion has such abundant financial resources, but it’s a pity that Prince Ji didn’t spend them in the right places.
Many people are thinking that if Prince Ji had a little more ambition and such financial resources, perhaps the situation of the Tang Dynasty would have changed.
The Wei family especially thought so.
Regardless of the sighs of the crowd, Li Shimin had already had enough. He picked up the wine glass and said loudly:
"My dear ministers, I am very pleased that you have come to visit me today. With you, my Great Tang will be able to prosper.
Only then can I safely hand over the country to the prince.
You are all loyal ministers of the Tang Dynasty. I offer you a toast and hope that you can assist the Crown Prince well in the future.
Let the Tang Dynasty last for thousands of years."
"May the Tang Dynasty prosper for thousands of years."
"May the Tang Dynasty prosper for thousands of years."
All the officials stood up, holding their wine glasses and shouting "Long Live the Emperors".
As Li Shimin drank it all in one gulp, of course there was no scene of throwing the cup after finishing the drink, as everyone knew that the cup was too valuable.
If the cup was broken, they wondered if they would end up owing a huge sum of 100,000 yuan, just like Cheng Yaojin.
By then they won’t be able to pay it back in their lifetime.
Everyone sat down again, and Li Shimin poured another glass of wine.
"My dear ministers, I recently heard that Xizhou was attacked by rebels. Your properties were plundered and you suffered heavy losses.
I am deeply saddened. I never expected the rebels in Xizhou to be so rampant.
Don't worry, I have already issued an order, ordering Prince Ji to send troops to suppress the rebels and give you, my dear ministers, justice.
In addition, I have decided to exempt you from taxes this year. What do you think, my dear ministers?
Li Shimin glanced at everyone present and asked.
He was testing whether they would agree to pay one year's taxes.
"Your Majesty, I find this matter quite strange. The rebels have not dared to attack the workshop for several years, but why are they so bold this time?
There must be someone who has instigated this, or is colluding with others to profit from it.
I implore Your Majesty to dispatch the Ministry of Justice to investigate this matter thoroughly and bring justice to us."
Shangshu Zuocheng Lu Chengqing stood up and saluted, saying that he represented the Fanyang Lu family and the other three surname groups.
Li Shimin wanted to use just one year's taxes to settle the matter, but they naturally could not agree.
"Your Majesty, I agree with what the Left Chancellor of Donglu has said. I request that Your Majesty send the Ministry of Justice to investigate this matter thoroughly."
Cui Renzhi immediately stepped forward to report.
(A tree of red flowers illuminates the blue sea, a ball of fire emerges from the water, the coral tree is red in spring, and its flowers bloom in the wind and waves.)