The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 685 Quan Wanji's Strategy
Chapter 684: Quan Wanji's Strategy

Hu Lixian left Qingyun Tower and came to the Prince Shu's Mansion in Yongfufang. After being informed, he was directly taken to the back garden of the Prince Shu's Mansion by the housekeeper.

At this time, King Shu Li Ke and Quan Wanji were discussing the Flying Tiger Army. Yesterday, Li Ke gritted his teeth and paid 100,000 strings of cash to Hu Lixian to run the operation. Although he knew that such things would definitely cost money, a good cook cannot cook without rice. Almost all the tutors in the Eastern Palace had a good background.

In this situation, connections were almost useless. To get a military post in the Flying Tigers, one had to be more willing to spend money. If Hu Lixian didn't spend money, he would definitely be excluded from the circle of "interest exchange", gaining nothing and knowing nothing.

Li Ke asked with some pain: "Wan Ji, what kind of position can you get with 100,000 strings of cash?"

Hearing that Li Ke felt sorry for the money he spent yesterday, Quan Wanji secretly despised him. He was reluctant to give up small profits to do big things. It took him a long time to persuade Li Ke yesterday before he was willing to spend 100,000 strings of cash.

You are too greedy to want to buy the Flying Tiger Army with just 100,000 strings of cash and cause huge losses to the Eastern Palace!
"Your Highness, I am not worried about the size of the position, but I am worried about the relationship between Lixian and us. Will the Eastern Palace be on guard from the beginning?"

Quan Wanji said with deep concern: "You know, if the Eastern Palace really puts the Flying Tiger Army positions up for sale, there will definitely be many people willing to pay. Let alone 100,000 strings of cash, even a million strings of cash would be nothing to those noble families. Why would the Eastern Palace consider someone with a dirty background like Li Xian?"

"There are many powerful people who want to make friends with you without any trouble. Not everyone dares or has the need to offend His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

When Li Ke heard this, his brows immediately furrowed and he no longer cared about the 100,000 strings of cash. He thought about the Five Surnames and Seven Aristocrats, the dignitaries in the court, and the local wealthy families, most of whom had their children serving in the Eastern Palace. Those aristocratic families were all the richest in the world, and their homes were filled with mountains of silver and money.

Although he is a prince with a noble status, he does not have much income a year.

Although he was a prince, his annual salaries, allowances, and official land, including rice, labor, official land, monthly miscellaneous allowances, regular items, and special items, only added up to a revenue of tens of thousands of strings of cash.

In this way, in order to accumulate strength to deal with Jie Li in the past few years, Li Shimin first cut his own palace expenses in half.

The emperor set an example, so others followed suit. The empress and concubines, the crown prince and princes, and all civil and military officials requested to have their salaries reduced. Princes who were determined to win favor and succeed the throne, like Li Ke and Li Tai, were even more ruthless to themselves. The crown prince reduced his salary by one third, and Li Tai reduced it by half, both of which were approved by Li Shimin.

In order to defeat these two people, Li Ke directly applied for a two-thirds reduction, causing everyone in the mansion to tighten their belts.

Li Ke moved to the waterside to live, on the one hand to show off his culture, and on the other hand to reduce the huge number of servants and maids in the palace and save money.

That is to say, when Concubine Yang married, she brought a large dowry. Although she had supported Li Shimin in his bid for the throne and developed his power many times, she still had a lot of private money. After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he no longer took money from Concubine Yang.

Always eating his wife's private money is a disgrace to the image of a wise and holy ruler.

Therefore, Concubine Yang would occasionally support Li Ke, and his fans like Quan Wanji and Chai Zhewei would give him some support during the New Year holidays. If not for this, Li Ke would not be able to afford the money to give Hu Lixian a position in Quyuan.
After hearing what Quan Wanji said, Li Ke realized that the 100,000 strings of cash he had taken out were indeed nothing in front of those wealthy businessmen. He felt depressed when he thought that his wealth as a prince was not as good as that of a local tyrant.

Just when I was about to vomit, I saw someone coming from the corridor in the distance and stopped talking.

Led by the butler, Hu Lixian greeted Li Ke and said, "I, your humble servant Hu Lixian, pay my respects to His Majesty. May Your Highness live a thousand years!"

"No need to be polite, sit down."

Seeing Hu Lixian coming, Li Ke knew that there was news about buying an official position with money, so he sent the housekeeper away and asked hurriedly, "Li Xian, how did the talk go?"

Hu Lixian calmed himself down, greeted Quan Wanji again, then sat down in the pavilion and told him what he had just talked about with Wang Xuance in Qingyun Tower. Not only was Quan Wanji surprised, but even Li Ke looked inexplicably shocked.

He said angrily, "I said that the person in the East Palace has bad conduct and can't do his job well, but you still don't believe it? Now, he is acting so arrogantly. This is simply insane. He instructs and condones the officials below to openly buy and sell official positions."

"What else? They shamelessly marked the price. A lieutenant costs 30 strings of cash, a lieutenant general costs 60 strings of cash, and a lieutenant general costs 100 million strings of cash. Then my strings of cash can only be exchanged for a brigade commander?"

There was a hint of sourness in Li Ke's anger, as if he was somewhat envious and jealous of the fact that Donggong was doing such a big business and could make a huge profit this time.

"What do you mean by raising funds? He is just pretending to be someone else. I will file a complaint against him and see how he explains it to my father."

"Wait, Your Highness, you can't do that."

After hearing what Li Ke said, Quan Wanji wanted to put the blame on the prince without hesitation. He shook his head slowly and said calmly, "Your Highness, please be patient. If I am not mistaken, this incident must have been done by Wang Xuance without authorization."

As soon as he said this, he saw Li Ke's dissatisfied expression and quickly explained: "Your Highness, even though the Crown Prince is cowardly and mediocre in talent, he is so cruel and openly selling the Flying Tiger Army of the court at a fixed price. Think about it yourself, is this possible?"

"Not to mention that the emperor doesn't believe it, even the civil and military officials in the court will doubt it."

"Of course, I predict that Wang Xuance will not say this to the prince. He will say that the court wants to fight the Turks and the emperor is tightening his belt. He is so bold and reckless to encourage the prince to raise funds on his own in the name of helping his father, but in fact he is selling official positions and titles."

"The prince certainly didn't know, otherwise, he certainly wouldn't dare and wouldn't do it. It's just that the prince is young and inexperienced, and he couldn't have imagined that people below him would use this method to raise funds. How could a prince who has never touched ordinary things know about the dirty tricks of the grassroots yamen officials?"

"If Your Highness reports this and the Emperor sends someone to question him, the matter will be exposed. Now the big mistake has not been made yet. The Crown Prince will at most be criticized by the Emperor. Everything can be salvaged. In fact, Your Highness is equivalent to you saving the Crown Prince's life."

'Well'

Hearing this, the furious Li Ke gradually calmed down. After Quan Wanji's implicit reminder, he also knew that it seemed unlikely to overthrow the prince. He quickly said, "Wanji, what you said makes sense. So tell me, what should we do?"

Quan Wanji didn't say anything, his eyes fell deeply on the water in the distance, with a gleam of light flashing in his eyes. Li Ke believed in Quan Wanji's wisdom very much, and knew that Quan Wanji was thinking rapidly in his mind at this time. He held his breath and looked at Hu Lixian nervously.

After a long time, Quan Wanji's eyes calmed down and he smiled slightly. Li Ke was delighted, got it!

"Wanji, what ideas have you come up with?"

"Your Highness, the recent sale of official positions within the Flying Tiger Army is like a pimple in the East Palace. It is still in the initial stage of development and needs some time to ferment before it can mature. If it is punctured now, at most some pus will flow out, but after a brief pain, the pimple will heal and the person will be healthy. It is equivalent to us curing his illness."

Quan Wanji looked very wise and shrewd: "Why don't we help him take care of it, protect it, and cover it up, so that this pimple can slowly grow and ferment, and grow without anyone knowing."

"When it grows into a malignant tumor, a life-threatening disease, we will poke this dark pimple and by then I am afraid that even the old roots of the East Palace will be uprooted."

"Perhaps on that day, this East Palace will have a new owner."

Li Ke's eyes suddenly widened, his breath stopped, and he stared at Quan Wanji in disbelief, his expression stunned.

His heart was also churning as he looked at Quan Wanji, who was sitting in front of him with a calm and leisurely expression. He was like a mountain standing still in the abyss, and he exuded a kind of calmness and heaviness, as if Mount Tai was leaping in front of him but his expression remained unchanged, as if his fat head contained endless wisdom, and it seemed that nothing could stump him.

I have overestimated the other party, but his wisdom keeps exceeding my expectations.

He is still the same person, but after a prison sentence, he has grown rapidly and is like a completely different person. This strategy is obviously much better than his previous ideas and can be considered a brilliant strategy.

It seems that people can grow faster if they suffer a little.

Li Ke was thinking about whether to send everyone around him to the Dali Temple for transformation. Perhaps the strength of the people around him would have a big increase and leap.

It is said that there is great terror between life and death, and great fear breeds great wisdom. It really makes sense!
"Hahaha, it really is a great idea."

Li Ke clapped his hands excitedly and said, "Wan Ji, I was right about you. In the past, everyone said that you were as good as Zhuge Liang. I think these rumors underestimated you. In my opinion, you have the talent to be a king's assistant!"

Quan Wanji was very happy to receive Li Ke's praise, and took the opportunity to express his loyalty: "No matter how talented I am, I am here to assist the holy master. Although Mr. Kong Ming has the talent to protect the emperor, he has never met a wise master, and his life was ruined by Adou. Wanji is able to meet a wise and holy master like the prince in this life, and it is worth it to come to this world!"

"Hahaha, well said, I think."

Li Ke laughed heartily for a while, and was about to give an order subconsciously as usual, but suddenly changed the subject and asked Quan Wanji sincerely: "Sir, tell me, what should we do next?"

(End of this chapter)