Chapter 647: Persuasion

Editor: Atlas Studios

Qi Haoran was well aware of the distinction; it was fine for all his and his estate’s money to be put into the country’s treasury, but Ah Ling’s money could not be used for this purpose. If this were to happen once, it could very well happen a second or third time. The three brothers were seeing no end to filling this hole already, so how could he drag his wife into it?

It was fine if Ah Ling’s dowry was used for their daily necessities, but it could not be used for business. He knew what Mu Yangling meant—to first use her dowry to buy the goods to be sold in the capital. If they lost money on this business deal, she would be the one to incur the loss. If they made money, it would go to the Prince’s Residence. When the time came, the money would then be used to buy the grains to be transported back to Qiannan.

However, when the grains were transported back, the soft-hearted Ah Ling would definitely keep a portion for emergencies after selling a portion. In times of poor harvest in the future, she certainly wouldn’t stand by and watch the poor starve to death.

Therefore, these grains would definitely become food relief in the end, which meant Ah Ling was bound to lose money on this deal.

With this as a precedent, they might do the same the next time Qiannan encountered problems. As time passed, Ah Ling’s dowry would be depleted.

Qi Haoran didn’t want his wife to suffer, nor did he want his family to survive on chaff in the future. Hence, he had to say no to this matter from the beginning.

After all, the land his Big Brother had conquered was a huge mess. In the past half a year, Qi Haoran and Qi Xiuyuan had investigated the situation everywhere. Only then did they know how much torment Great Zhou had put this country through.

The grain warehouse was almost emptied, and there wasn’t a single coin left behind in the treasury. Although they had found some gold buried in Minister Qin’s residence, after some calculations, it was not even half of what Minister Qin had embezzled. They had yet to find any gold, silver, and copper coins from the national treasury that had been emptied.

In addition, the Great Qi Kingdom was in ruins. Six to seven out of ten commoners were refugees who did not have a fixed place to live. Not only did their families not have a constant source of income, but they also did not have any food or clothes. If they wanted to settle the refugees down, the country would need to spend a large amount of money.

Because taxes were exempted for three years upon the establishment of Great Qi, there was no tax income that could add to the national treasury. Qi Xiuyuan could only take some from the aristocratic families and the more arrogant corrupt officials of the previous dynasty. However, those were still just a drop in the bucket. Now that the aristocratic families were suppressed to the max, there was a limit to how much more they could get from them. Most of the previously unregistered fields that they recovered were distributed to the hidden households, but it would be some time before any benefits could be gained from that. What they urgently needed now was food and money.

In the entire Great Qi, only Xingzhou Prefecture, Hanzhong Prefecture, and Jingzhao Prefecture, which had never suffered the flames of war, could squeeze out a little to help other regions.

Because the people working in the three prefectures were all Qi Xiuyuan’s trusted aides and the dynasty was newly established, they did not dare to embezzle. However, there was a limit to how much they could help. Although life in the three prefectures was better than elsewhere, there were still many people who could not eat their fill or wear dress warmly. Meanwhile, Qi Xiuyuan could not press the people in the north too much, for that was the place of origin of his dynasty.

Therefore, Qi Xiuyuan, Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin could only fill the hole with their own means. Ever since Fan Zijin started doing business, he spent very little of that money earned on himself. Other than the businesses in the north that could be used to pay the Mu family, the other profits, including the portion given to Mu Yangling, were all plowed into the national treasury.

Much money was needed to help the people settle down, build houses, measure the land, and divide the land into freehold fields. All these expenses came from the three of them. During the summer planting season, they also paid for the seeds and tools that were subsidized in Jiangnan to encourage the farmers to plant them. When winter arrived, they still had to take from Fan Zijin a portion of the silver in order to implement measures to prevent the people from freezing to death. Now, Fan Zijin was already preparing the silver for Qi Xiuyuan next spring. This was because the beginning of spring meant that seeds, farming tools, plowing oxen, and water conservancy facilities were needed, and all these required money!

Qi Haoran was a little afraid. He didn’t care how much money of his was used to fill the hole, but if he utilized Ah Ling’s dowry for this purpose, he would be a jerk.

Hence, he was unwilling to use Ah Ling’s dowry. He was afraid that once he used it, he would not be able to stop. Qi Haoran hugged Ah Ling and whispered his worries.

Mu Yangling patted his shoulder and said, “Since the dowry is in my hands, surely you’ll have to seek my permission before using it? Don’t worry, I’m not that generous. Look, other than the money from Zijin, when have I ever lost money in business? Although I help people, I’ve always only helped within my limits. I still have you and Little Bear to support. Now that our family doesn’t have much money, all the more I wouldn’t throw away money to do good deeds for free.”

Qi Haoran thought about it and felt that her words made sense. Ah Ling had indeed done many good deeds, but it seemed like she had never lost out.

She’d opened a nursery in the north and fed the children well. She’d even hired a teacher to teach the kids skills. However, the benefits gained from the land registered under the children’s names were also considerable. It was said that the value of the grains harvested could not only offset the cost of running the nursery, but also make a sizable profit.

Even if the fields were returned to the children when they grew up, because many orphans who were given land kept joining the nursery, not only did the scale of the nursery not decrease, but they even managed to open another nursery.

Because the influence of the nursery was too great, it was still under Mu Yangling’s name. Now, other than Bowen, no one in the Mu family was involved in the operations of the nursery.

It was the same for opening a grain store in Jiangnan. She had taken out so much grain to reduce the price of grains, lowered the price of corn seeds, and let customers buy the grains on credit. Outsiders assumed that she would incur a huge loss, but they did not know that although she did not earn much money, she actually did not lose a single cent.

This was because she had taken the grains from the land leased to the nursery, and paid for them according the wholesale price of grains in the north. After factoring in the transportation cost to transport the grains to Jiangnan, she would earn one to two copper coins per catty. Although 1,000 catties of grains might not even earn her two to three taels of silver of profit, at the very least she did not lose money, right?

Tempted, Qi Haoran pinched Mu Yangling’s hand and said, “Then if I make a mistake in the future and ask you to give Big Brother money to fill up the hole, beat me up.”

Bursting out laughing, Mu Yangling said, “My dowry doesn’t include the fields under the nursery. The farmstead in Jiangnan and grain stores are only worth tens of thousands of taels of silver in total. It’s not even enough to fill the gaps between Big Brother’s teeth. Zijin’s Jiangnan restaurants can earn that much in just one month. I’m pretty sure Big Brother doesn’t care about this bit of assets that I have.”

“That’s true. You have too little money.” Seeing how relaxed Mu Yangling was, Qi Haoran was in the mood to joke with her. Smiling, he said in jest, “You and Zijin are both businessmen. But why is he making a fortune every day while you’re not?”

Mu Yangling couldn’t help but kick him. “Geez, if you’re a businessman, won’t you be making huge losses?”

“That’s why I never do business. You still refuse to admit that you’re stupid. Later, I’ll get our shopkeeper to learn from Zijin’s shopkeeper. This way, hopefully we will earn more money.”

“You want to snatch business from Zijin? It’s too tiring. If you want to go, go by yourself. I’m not going.” Mu Yangling said lazily, “I just want to earn a little money.”

Qi Haoran responded by saying that she had no ambitions, then the couple bickered for a while before falling asleep in each other’s arms. After some pushing and pinching, they finally fell asleep in a daze.

The next day, Mu Yangling went to the Miao stockade energetically to discuss the tribute with Chen Jiacai. In order not to let anyone know that they were sending food to the Emperor, she specially invited them to an empty place to discuss. Who knew that Chen Jiacai would reject her after hearing her opening words? The reason was very simple—they could not afford to lose face by offering such a cheap thing to the Emperor.

Although Chen Jiacai was on the Miao stockade’s side, he still revered the Emperor. Seeing how casual Mu Yangling was, he could not help but get angry.

Mu Yangling immediately gave up on the prideful Chen Jiacai and went to look for Chief Ji’an instead. At first, Chief Ji’an was also hesitant. However, when he heard Mu Yangling say that she wanted to take the opportunity to sell these “local specialties” of Qiannan to the capital and buy grains back, his eyes lit up.

Mu Yangling poured herself a cup of water and continued, “…With His Majesty advertising for us, there will be people who will want to buy these things even if they’re not considered precious. What’s more, they can then be sold for a good price. Since the grain prices in Jiangnan are cheaper than in Qiannan, we can definitely exchange the items for a lot of grain.”

Ji’an was tempted. “Can these local specialties really be sold?”

Chapter end