Since the angel Han Xizai completed the first task of announcing the decree, he began to work on the second important thing, welcoming King Zheng back to the capital.
Speaking of which, Li Yuan and the court seemed to have reached a tacit understanding. With Prince Zheng's previous "sincere" handwritten letter, and Liu Jiangsheng's lively performance in front of the emperor, it was a foregone conclusion that Prince Zheng would return to Beijing. A large amount of gold, silver, money and food taken out from the treasury to reward Li Yuan for his rescue efforts and victory in the war are also on the way, and will arrive in Langzhou via waterway in the near future.
With the idea of "taking money with one hand and handing over people with the other", although Li Yuan was lucky enough to succeed, he still gave the court enough face. He happily agreed to Han Xizai's request to go to the post house to visit the master and servant who were in constant panic. Then he turned around and took care of Wuping's daily official affairs, waiting only for the arrival of the carriages and ships escorting money and grain from the court.
In the past few days after returning to Langzhou, Li Yuan lived a leisurely life. After handling official matters at the Governor's Mansion, he finally had free time to enjoy the good time with his wives and concubines, and took them to visit the places of interest in Langzhou City. . While soothing your body and mind, you can also calm down and carefully consider every step ahead.
Then, after discussion between his adoptive mother Liu and his wife Zhou Ehuang, they finally chose October 26th as an auspicious day. On that day, Li Yuan officially accepted Wang Jingyao and Peng Qingying as his concubines. A big event in the whole house.
Everyone in the family was actively involved in this matter. For example, Wang Jingyao, who was originally the least visible and low-key person in the family, naturally became the focus of the family's attention after her marriage, and was taken care of in every possible way. With his formal status, Li Yuan can naturally get the best of both worlds, and he often goes to visit and care for her. However, Wang Jingyao's state is of course excited and hesitant.
This period of time can be regarded as the most comfortable and leisurely period that Li Yuan has lived since traveling through time. Sitting in the high position of the Governor of Langzhou, he has a lovely wife and beautiful concubine in the house, and all the affairs in Wuping Festival Town are going smoothly, whether as a time traveler or a real person of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. , such a life can be considered a successful life.
Of course, this is how it seems to outsiders, but in Li Yuan's opinion, this is not enough. Because Li Yuan knows everything that is going to happen in the future, and some upcoming changes may easily destroy everything he owns, so Li Yuan has to tense up and deal with it actively.
On October 29, a problem that had to be faced was finally brought to the table for discussion. That night, Mrs. Liu and Emperor Zhou E suddenly called the whole family together to discuss the family's financial matters. Li Yuan, who had never paid attention to housework, was also asked to participate in the family meeting because this matter was related to Li Yuan's actions.
"Today my mother and I have called everyone together to tell you something. This matter should not have caused such a stir, but my mother and I both feel that this matter requires your husband to express his position in public, so Please come and bear witness together." At the beginning of the meeting, the words of Zhou Ehuang, the principal of the house, suddenly made the atmosphere tense, and everyone who didn't know what was going on looked at Zhou Ehuang in confusion.
Li Yuan was holding a teacup and drinking tea. He was stunned when he heard this and frowned: "Why is it so serious? It seems to have a lot to do with me."
Zhou Ehuang smiled softly and pursed his lips towards Qiu'er.
Qiu'er was Zhou Ehuang's personal maid, a confidant, and recently became a steward of the palace. Her status in the back house was extraordinary. At this time, she quickly bowed to Li Yuan respectfully and explained: "Grand Governor, I'm asking you to get up today. The old lady allowed it."
Mrs. Liu sat on the main seat, her eyebrows kindly and she nodded.
Li Yuan chuckled and said, "No need to beat around the bush, just tell me what happened at home."
Qiu'er smiled awkwardly, reached out and picked up one from the pile of account books in front of her, raised her eyebrows and said: "This is the general account of the inner treasury of the house. Everyone here can take a look at it. I have something in my heart." number."
"Qiu'er, let's not look at it. Just say it. Is it something related to the family's accounts? We'll just listen." Peng Qingying said with a smile.
"Just say it directly. It doesn't matter whether you look at the account books or not. Can't we trust you?" Wang Jingyao also smiled.
Qiu'er glanced at Zhou Ehuang, who nodded slightly. Qiu'er coughed and said, "Okay, I'll forgive you for telling the truth. Recently, I have been favored by the Grand Governor and the mistresses, and I have the honor to be the steward of the mansion, which also includes the affairs of the inner treasury. The inner affairs of our family are There are three gentlemen in charge of the treasury. Generally, money coming in and out requires the permission of the old lady and the madam, so the accounts in this area are very clear.
It has been seven months since the Grand Governor officially arrived in Zhenlang Prefecture. In March, the money and gold and silver in the internal treasury accounted for 6,239,000 guan. I wonder if the Governor still remembers this number? "
Li Yuan smiled and said: "Remember, most of them are Ma Xi'e and Liu Yan's furniture. Hey, my mother and Ehuang discuss and decide the family's accounts. I don't care about money, but you come to ask me What to do?"
Qiu'er nodded and said, "Just remember it, the Governor. If you put more than six million guan in any big family, you will have enough to eat and drink for dozens of lives. This amount can even feed the entire town." Well... I even calculated that from top to bottom in our house, even if we include more than a thousand mouths of personal guards, we will only spend a fraction of the money on food, clothing and travel.
But I didn't expect that the money would be spent so fast. In the blink of an eye, millions of dollars had been spent, especially the huge expenditures in recent days. This page is the money recorded in today's account. Today's account alone is Then he withdrew 30,000 yuan. "
"What?"
"How can it be?"
"This goes too fast."
Everyone was surprised that so much money had been spent in just over half a year. Even Peng Qingying was surprised. You must know that she is Peng Shichou's daughter and Peng Shiyu's sister. She is naturally a rich woman, but in such a short time, she spent a lot of money. She couldn't understand losing millions of dollars.
"After calculating the accounts with the gentlemen in the accountant, our family's wages, food, clothing, housing, transportation, maids, servants, and various expenses have never exceeded 3,000 guan. In seven months, our normal expenses for the house were less than 25,000 guan. .Three thousand guans per month is already considered a lavish spender. If you follow the slave's ideas, the house's monthly expenses can be controlled within 2,000 guans.
But the Grand Governor once said, don’t be too tight on spending money. After all, we are a big family, and it’s not that we don’t have money, so just open it up and use it. Therefore, our family has never been economical in terms of household expenses. But under the current circumstances, I have no choice but to bring this matter up. If this continues, I'm afraid it won't work. "Qiu'er lowered his head and said.
"Qiu'er, since our expenses didn't exceed 25,000 guan, how come we spent a million guan in the first half of the year? This account is wrong." Peng Qingying frowned.
Qiu'er didn't dare to intervene. Zhou Ehuang hesitated for a moment, glanced at Li Yuan and said, "I have to ask Mr. Lang about this matter. Today I want to bring this matter up for everyone's comment."
Li Yuan pointed at his nose and said: "Is it my business? I don't think I have spent a lot of money. Although I am the governor, I am still very frugal. At most, I reward my subordinates on weekdays, and sometimes We invited Wuping's officials, big and small, to have a few meals and drinks, and it didn't cost much."
Emperor Zhou E said: "Mr. Sir, how much can you spend on a banquet? One thousand guan is enough for you to reward as many people as you want and hold banquets for as many times as you want."
"Yes, then why is the money gone?" Li Yuan asked in surprise.
Qiuer's slender jade fingers were stained with saliva, opened a few pages of the account book and read: "On the first day of October, Hu Gui's inner treasury received a sum of 20,000 guan. On the sixth day of October, Hu Gui's inner treasury received a sum of 70,000 guan. On the fifteenth day of October, Hu Gui’s inner treasury received a sum of 30,000 guan. On October 19, Hu Gui’s treasury received a sum of 40,000 guan. On October 29, that is today, Hu Gui’s inner treasury received a sum of 30,000 guan. This Hu Jian Cheng Guang In less than a month, I came to the inner treasury of the mansion to withdraw 190,000 yuan. Where did the money go? "
Zhou Ehuang's face also turned red, and he was obviously very angry.
Everyone was surprised. In less than a month, Hu Gui, the weapons supervisor, actually took away so much money from the inner treasury.
Li Yuan said in astonishment: "The cost of weapons inspection is quite high. I know this, but it has always been borne by the Wuping treasury. My inner treasury can only provide some support at most. How come it has only been paid by the inner treasury recently?" Get money? What’s going on?”
Emperor Zhou E said faintly: "Why are you still asking us, Sir? Do you remember that before you went back to Dongxi, you specifically told me that Hu Gui would not be stopped from coming to the inner treasury to collect money. He only needs to sign and confirm with his own hand and report the details every month. Just check. It was Lang Jun himself who gave him the convenience of receiving the money, and now he comes to ask us? "
Li Yuan frowned, and he suddenly understood what was going on.
Liu, who had been silent all this time, frowned and asked: "Brother Yuan, what is going on? Then how could Hu Gui spend so much money, and where did he spend it?"
Zhou Ehuang sighed and said: "Didn't Lang Jun ask him to be responsible for the twenty alchemists he found from the capital to refine Fu Huo Fang? Those people spent money like water. It is said that large sums of money were spent. Throwing it in like water, one refining furnace costs 7,000 guan, and ten alchemy furnaces cost 70,000 guan. Moreover, these warlocks are very particular about the alchemy furnace and the alchemy room.
I heard someone say that hundreds of families around the military prison were forced to move out because the smell of alchemy was too bad, so they all went to the state government to complain. In the end, the state government had to spend a sum of money to give these people Settling into new accommodation. The sulfur, saltpeter, and all kinds of strange things used to make alchemy are also very expensive. Money was just thrown into the furnace..."
After hearing this, Mrs. Liu frowned deeply and said: "Brother Yuan, tell me, are you obsessed with some way of immortality? You have been a smart person since you were a child, how can you believe in such illusory things? Those pills are Things that are harmful to people should not be eaten carelessly..."
Everyone suddenly realized that many people knew about Li Yuan's request to refine the Fire-Fu Fang. Naturally, they didn't understand the use of Li Yuan's refining the Fire-Fu Fang. However, Li Yuan was the head of the family. What would happen if he wanted to do anything? He dared to say something, so there was no one to stop him. But now, in their eyes, this thing is just a waste of money, but they are afraid of harming Li Yuan's health.
"Lang Jun, to be honest, I asked you to come here today because we are worried that you will be poisoned by the elixir." Zhou Ehuang couldn't help but sigh.
