Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

It's still that suffocating number.

Thirteen million strings of cash!

This is just cash!

This doesn't even include the mountains of silk, porcelain, antiques, and calligraphy and paintings, nor the shop deeds that could buy half of Chang'an!

"Huffing and puffing—"

Li Shimin's breathing became heavy and labored, his chest heaving violently, as if he were about to suffocate at any moment.

He suddenly raised his head, and his bloodshot eyes were filled with a complex mix of emotions.

There was shock, there was ecstasy, but more than anything, there was a bottomless anger and sorrow.

"Wang De".

Li Shimin's voice was hoarse, as if he were holding a mouthful of blood.

"This servant...this servant is here." Wang De knelt on the ground, trembling.

"Go and bring me my private treasury ledgers."

"Your Majesty, this..."

"Go get it!"

A moment later, a thin, rather shabby booklet was presented.

Li Shimin grabbed it and opened it.

It records all of his "private savings" as the emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

Silver in the Imperial Treasury: 32,000 strings of cash.

Of this, 20,000 strings of cash were intended for repairing the leaky side hall, and the remaining 10,000 strings were intended as New Year's rewards for the concubines in the harem.

Thirty thousand strings of cash.

Compared to thirteen million strings of cash.

A difference of four hundred times!

"Snapped!"

Li Shimin slammed his account book to the ground with all his might.

"Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!"

He rose from the dragon throne, like a lion trapped in a cage, pacing wildly around the hall.

"I, the Emperor of the Great Tang! The Supreme Ruler!"

"To save on military expenses, I dare not even eat too much meat! To build a water conservancy project, I have to stretch every copper coin in half!"

"I believe I have been frugal enough, and I believe I have been a good emperor!"

Li Shimin suddenly stopped, pointed at the account book that had been confiscated from the Cui family on the ground, and let out a fierce roar.

"But what was the result?!"

"I, the emperor, am not even as rich as a dog from the Cui family!"

"In one of their collateral branches' cellars, there's ten times more silver than in my national treasury!"

"Where did this money come from? Huh?!"

"They're sucking my blood! They're sucking the marrow of the people of the Tang Dynasty!"

"These traitors! These parasites!"

Li Shimin's eyes were bloodshot. If those people hadn't already been beheaded, he would have rushed to the mass grave right now, dug up their corpses, and whipped them three hundred times!

I hate it so much!

The immense psychological gap created by this disparity between the rich and the poor completely broke down this emperor who was considered one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history.

He thought he was ruling the country, but in reality he was working for these powerful families!

"Your Majesty, please calm down... Your Majesty, please take care of your health..."

Wang De was so frightened that he kowtowed repeatedly.

"Calm down? Why should I calm down?"

Li Shimin suddenly stopped roaring.

He looked at the thick list of confiscated property on the ground, and the expression on his face began to subtly change.

The anger gradually subsided.

Instead, a strange blush appeared, which then spread and transformed into an almost manic excitement.

"No... I should be happy."

Li Shimin rubbed his hands together, and the corners of his mouth began to uncontrollably turn up in a wild smile, eventually stretching all the way to his ears.

"They are dead."

"Their entire family is dead."

"so……"

He suddenly lunged at the imperial desk, grabbed the account book, and rubbed his face against it, looking just like a bandit leader who had just robbed a bank.

"This money now belongs to me!"

"They are all mine!"

"Thirteen million strings of cash! Hahahaha!"

The loud laughter shook the dust off the beams of the main hall.

Li Shimin felt that he had never stood as straight as he did today.

We're rich!

Nouveau riche!

That nouveau riche mentality instantly took over his mind.

"With this money, whose whims will I need to curry favor with?"

He kicked away the stool beside him and waved his arms with great bravado.

"Turks? Jieli?"

"Hmph! In the past, I had to be meticulous in my calculations and think of ways to use schemes."

"Now? No need!"

"Issue my decree! Summon all the blacksmiths from the Ministry of Works back to me! Work day and night! Make cannons! Make guns! Make the finest armor!"

"I will use silver to pound the Turks to death!"

"besides!"

Li Shimin looked around at the Taiji Hall, which was magnificent but somewhat old, with disdain in his eyes.

"These floor tiles are too old, they need to be replaced!"

"Change it to gold... No, gold is too tacky, it'll make you slip when you walk."

"Replace it with white marble! And it must be a single, solid piece! Cover it from the main hall all the way to the Vermilion Bird Gate!"

"And what kind of paint should we use on these pillars? Gold plating! Jade inlay!"

"I want the whole world to know that my Tang Dynasty is the richest in the world!"

At this point, Li Shimin had become completely arrogant.

The frugality of the Zhenguan era and the self-reflection of using bronze as a mirror were all thrown to the winds in the face of this enormous sum of thirteen million strings of cash.

He only wants to do one thing right now—

spend money!

Revenge spending!

Make up for all the humiliation we suffered from poverty in the past!

"Wang De! Draft an edict! I want..."

Li Shimin was just about to announce a series of grand "spending plans".

Sudden.

A screeching sound came from the palace entrance.

"Sizzle—sizzle—"

It looked like something heavy was being dragged across the ground.

Li Shimin was interrupted, and he frowned in displeasure: "Who? Don't they know I'm contemplating matters of state?"

"Father, when considering matters of state, shouldn't we first clarify the accounts?"

A lazy voice rang out.

Immediately afterwards, a familiar little figure appeared at the door.

Li Chengqian was dressed in loose casual clothes, and he was not carrying any memorials or weapons.

He was holding a thick hemp rope in his hand.

At the other end of the rope, dragging along a huge, bulging... sack.

The sack looked incredibly heavy, pressing down on the gold-brick floor with a sickening scraping sound.

As Li Chengqian dragged the cart, he wiped non-existent sweat from his forehead, his face saying, "I'm also very tired."

"Oh dear, I'm exhausted."

He threw the sack into the center of the main hall.

"Clang!"

A muffled thud.

Judging from the sound, it definitely contains hard currency.

Li Shimin paused for a moment, looking at the sack and then at his son's "weasel paying respects to a chicken" expression, and that ominous premonition rose in his heart again.

"Chengqian, what's wrong with you...?"

Li Shimin pointed to the sack, "Is this a gift for me?"

"Gifts? Father, you're overthinking it."

Li Chengqian dusted off his hands, plopped down on the sack, crossed his legs, and looked at his father with a smile.

"Your subject is here to collect money."

"Put money in?" Li Shimin instinctively protected the account books on the table.

"yes."

Li Chengqian pointed to the direction of the square outside the palace, where mountains of wealth glittered in the sunlight.

"Father, have you forgotten something?"

"We agreed beforehand that we'd split the profits 50/50 when we met... oh no, I mean, we'd divide them according to our work."

He pulled an abacus from his pocket; it was the same golden abacus he had used in court to calculate the expenses for the Fengshan ceremony.

He fiddled with it a couple of times with a "crackling" sound.

The crisp sound of the abacus was like a bucket of cold water, instantly extinguishing Li Shimin's newly ignited dream of "paving gold bricks".

Li Chengqian raised his head, and his clear eyes gleamed with a shrewd, even "cunning" light.

"Father, everyone who sees this gets a share."

"Shouldn't we sit down and have a proper talk about... how this windfall will be distributed?"