My father is Jiajing

Chapter 222: The Clever Young Elder

If there was anyone in the capital who was more anxious about the expansion project of the capital than Emperor Jiajing, it would be Yan Shifan, the Minister of Works and Junior Cabinet Secretary.

Ever since Yan Shifan found his life goal, he was determined to support King Jing and prove that he was stronger than his father. He became caught up in the thrill of racing against time.

However, Yan Shifan's excitement was not brought about by the capital expansion project itself, but by Yan Maoqing and Luo Wenlong.

After Yan Maoqing took charge of the Salt Administration, he acted very quickly and achieved very good results. In just half a year, he collected over one million taels of salt tax.

Faced with such an efficient Yan Maoqing, Yan Shifan's mouth was almost grinning.

Sure enough, I am still very discerning and good at making good use of people.

This was a high evaluation Yan Shifan gave himself after receiving the secret letter from Yan Maoqing.

With the salt tax of more than one million taels of silver, Yan Shifan felt more confident.

But he also has his own little cleverness. Yan Shifan believes that serving the king is similar to raising a dog.

You can give dogs bones, but never meat!
Because once a dog gets used to eating meat, it will be unhappy when you give it bones.

Therefore, Yan Shifan had no intention of actually handing over the more than one million taels of silver that Yan Maoqing had obtained after taking charge of the salt administration.

Finally, Yan Shifan asked Luo Wenlong to go there in person and tell Luo Wenlong to tell Yan Maoqing to pay 200,000 taels to the court first, and then pay another 200,000 taels after another year. In this way, the court will not only see your ability, but also appreciate your hard work.

Therefore, Yan Maoqing followed Yan Shifan's instructions and handed over the special funds for the expansion of the capital to the court bit by bit.

At the same time, at the suggestion of Luo Wenlong, the remaining money was used to lend money at high interest rates in the local area, with the rate of "nine out and thirteen returned" being used to continue exploiting the local poor people. Those who could not pay back the money had to take their land or shops or sell their children to pay off the debts.

Anyway, with them as the backing of loan sharks, no one dares not to repay the money, so this investment is definitely a sure win.

Moreover, this is not Luo Wenlong's exclusive invention, but something that many powerful expatriate officials often do, except that those people do not have as much capital as they do.

So this also indirectly reflects Luo Wenlong's ability and courage.

They kept part of the money they earned in their own pockets, used part to buy relationships, and out of filial piety, he secretly sent the remaining part to Yan Shifan's hometown in Ji'an.

It can be said that of the more than one million taels of silver obtained from the salt administration in the past six months, only one-fifth was actually handed over.

Most of the rest was pocketed by Yan Shifan, Yan Maoqing, Luo Wenlong and various local small fry who were involved.

And these small shrimps are also unavoidable interest groups.

After all, Yan Maoqing was assigned to work in the Salt Administration. Although he had the power of prime minister, he was just one person.

So if he wants to get things done well and beautifully, he must win over a group of people to help him do things.

Otherwise, even if he had great power, he could not expect to receive even a tael of silver from the salt administration.

This is also a chronic disease and current situation of the local system, and no one can change it.

Because these small fry who were parasitic on the salt administration, although they did not hold high positions, had complicated relationships with each other, and most of them were hereditary petty officials.

Such little devils are so difficult to deal with that even the King of Hell would sigh. Because when it comes to specific matters, these little devils still have to do the work, so even a strong dragon like Yan Maoqing cannot suppress these local snakes.

Once he tried to suppress the interests of these local tyrants, they would let him know in minutes why the flowers were so red.

Therefore, when dealing with these local tyrants, Yan Maoqing's approach was very simple and clever, which was to use one faction to fight against another.

Otherwise, how could he get more than one million taels of silver in just half a year?
However, there are side effects to doing this.

Because the extra money he collected must be taken away from the original interest groups.

Now that he has taken the meat from these people's mouths, when they get the chance to fight back in the future, they may bite him to death in one bite.

Therefore, if Yan Maoqing wants to remain stable, he has to cling to Yan Shifan's thigh tightly and give Yan Shifan the greatest benefits. In this way, he can continue to rise step by step smoothly and avoid the fate of being retaliated by the local salt administrators who were suppressed and bullied by him.

But is Yan Shifan a good tree?

Xiyuan, Wanshou Palace.

After waiting for three days, Emperor Jiajing finally received the memorial on the expansion plan of the capital submitted by the Minister of Works Ouyang Bijin.

Emperor Jiajing frowned as he read Ouyang Bijin's memorial, with an indescribable emotion between his brows.

However, Huang Jin, who had served Emperor Jiajing for a long time, could see at a glance that Emperor Jiajing was dissatisfied with Ouyang Bijin's new plan.

After a while, Emperor Jiajing finally couldn't help but get furious. "Call Ouyang Bijin and Yan Shifan in!"

Huang Jin heard the Emperor Jiajing's rage and quickly responded, "Your Majesty, please don't let your immortal body get damaged by anger. I will go find them and let them vent your anger for you."

Emperor Jiajing looked down at Ouyang Bijin's memorial again, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Does the Ministry of Works want to build a thatched hut for me? How dare they submit such a plan to me? And what did Feng Bao do? I asked him to take Ouyang Bijin around to have a look, and he ended up seeing a plan like this?"

When Huang Jin heard that Emperor Jiajing's rage implicated Feng Bao, he could only sigh in his heart, what a unlucky child.

However, now is not the time for Huang Jin to lament Feng Bao. The most urgent task now is to call Ouyang Bijin and Yan Shifan over.

Therefore, after calming down Emperor Jiajing's rage, Huang Jin immediately sent someone to call Ouyang Bijin and Yan Shifan over.

Especially when he was called Yan Shifan, he was serving his father Yan Song in the duty room in Xiyuan.

At this time he was suddenly summoned by the emperor, and Yan Song also felt that something was wrong.

So, taking advantage of the time when Ouyang Bijin also came to Xiyuan, Yan Song asked Yan Shifan: "Tell me, what good things have you done?"

When Yan Shifan was asked this by his father, he immediately got furious.

"Father, you know me well. How could I do something so inappropriate? I must have been implicated by Ouyang Bijin this time. Your Majesty asked him to follow Feng Bao around and submit a new memorial for the expansion of the capital. I guess he did nothing and asked his subordinates to help him prepare a plan that was not innovative and gave it to Your Majesty."

"So, I think that His Majesty's sudden summons this time must be to reprimand Ouyang Bijin, and I am just a byproduct."

Yan Song looked at Yan Shifan who was speaking with certainty, a gleam of light flashed in the depths of his cloudy old eyes, and then he said faintly: "Really?"

(End of this chapter)