lady, please calm down

Afternoon time.

Under the shade of willows next to the small lake in the algae garden, Chen Chu, with wet hair, sat on a stone bench. After listening to Cai Hua's report, he said: "The war situation in the northwest is the most important thing. We still have to find a way to raise the 700,000 taels of military expenses." of."

Chen Jingyan's ten thousand words were not as useful as Chen Chu's. When the latter said this, Cai Hua had already agreed to the matter in principle, but when she opened her mouth, she said with resentment: "Your Majesty said, then... Just give it, since the prince is the head of the family, so naturally you have the final say on our family’s property.”

Chen Chu smiled and said: "How much money can our family spend on food, clothing, housing and transportation? This industry belongs to us in Huaibei. Now Daqi's treasury is empty. Even if it is difficult, it must be spent on military expenses. We cannot let the soldiers be without food when they are working hard on the front line." Are you hungry?"

How could Cai Hua not understand these principles? However, as the de facto person in charge of Huaibei Finance, she was also aware of the difficulties faced by Huaibei. She couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty is right to feel sorry for the frontline soldiers, but the four major banks that I ordered to send last month Your Majesty, have you seen the spring report? It was your Majesty who decided that the over-issuance of cargo tickets should not exceed ten to fifteen of the silver reserve. Now the issuance of cargo tickets has reached this critical point. If Your Majesty is not afraid of the collapse of the credibility of Huaibei cargo tickets that we have worked hard for many years, I will. Let the four major banks continue to over-deliver invoices."

At this point, Cai Hua muttered and added, "I don't know how this battle was fought. In the past, the more money we fought, the more money we had. This time, we only saw money being spent like water, but no profit was made. If things go on like this, Huaibei No matter how rich you are, you will be sucked dry."

In the entire palace, or rather in the entire Qi Kingdom, only Cai Hua dared to talk to Chen Chu like this.

By chance, Mao'er, who was going to get the towel, had already walked over. Hearing the sound, he winked at Cai Hua to signal him not to speak so loudly, and then glanced at Chen Chu.

Then he stood behind Chen Chu, took off the hairpin that fixed the bun on his head, and gently helped Chen Chu wipe his wet hair while saying: "My lord, Sister Cai has been worried about raising military expenses recently. My lord, look. She talks a lot, but in fact, the last few times the court used money, Sister Cai didn't solve it. But now, Huaibei is really in trouble."

Chen Chu, who had been silent until now, turned around and smiled at Mao'er, saying, "It's hot, so it doesn't matter if your hair gets wet. There's no need to wipe it."

"No, the official is now shouldering the heavy responsibility of both Qi and Zhou. What if he catches a headache? Well, the official is obedient and will be wiped off immediately."

While Mao'er was talking, he held the cloth with both hands and kept rubbing it on Chen Chu's head. The latter smiled helplessly, "He is still as stubborn as when he was a child."

The interaction between the couple immediately dispelled the tension that had arisen between Chen Chu and Cai Hua just now due to discussing business matters.

Seeing that the atmosphere had eased, Cai Hua, who was sitting on the ground, wanted to say something more. Mao'er, who was standing behind Chen Chu, winked at her and signaled, 'I'll tell you.'

"Guardian, do you still remember when Zheng Yi messed with Tongshan?"

Mao'er helped Chen Chu dry his hair, then took the wooden comb from Han Lu's hand and whispered softly while combing his hair.

"Of course I remember."

"Mao'er can't forget it. Our goods tickets had just been issued back then, and many villagers were still unwilling to exchange real money and silver for this piece of paper. It wasn't until Zheng Yi led the Shenrui Army to invade Tongshan that the officials asked me to bring copper coins and silver. We went to the county line to wait for the fleeing villagers and took the initiative to cash them. After arriving there, our cargo tickets were finally established. In the blink of an eye, over the years, Sister Cai and I watched the cargo tickets pass through Caizhou, Huaibei, and There are merchants in Daqi and even Zhou who have accepted the cargo tickets, and they feel that the cargo tickets are like our children."

The soft words not only reminded Chen Chu of the difficulties in starting a business, but also provided an explanation for Cai Hua's slightly excited words just now.

Chen Chu couldn't help but smile and looked at Cai Hua, who still had a sullen face, and then turned around and said: "Madam, we are all a family. If you want to say something, just say it."

Mao'er pursed her lips and smiled, and said in a playful tone: "Then Mao'er boldly said it. If what he said is wrong, the official is not allowed to be angry."

"Well, just say it."

"What Sister Cai and I are worried about is that Huaibei has now shifted to wartime production. Products such as cosmetics and self-propelled horses that could have made huge profits have been greatly affected by this. This year, the profits shown in the spring statements of several major commercial banks have all appeared. The stock market has been declining for several months. Now, Huaibei Commercial is in a bit of danger. If some bad news comes out at this time, it will easily lead to a run. "

Chen Chu couldn't help but be surprised. Looking back over the years, Mao'er in his impression knew far less about business than Cai Hua due to his limited background. Therefore, when something happened, he discussed it more with Cai Hua and talked less with Mao'er.

But now, after listening to Mao'er's soft and slow analysis, I realized that this petite princess of the palace had unknowingly turned into a small-scale strong woman with keen intuition and insights into macroeconomics. .

Come to think of it, there was a lot of effort that Chen Chu didn't know about.

It seemed that the officer's surprised look gave Mao'er confidence. Mao'er continued to comb his hair and continued: "It's hard to build a reputation in ten years, but it can be destroyed in one day. It's not that Sister Cai is unwilling to raise military expenses for the frontline soldiers. But there must be rules, otherwise Huaibei will not be able to survive."

"Oh? Now that my wife has mentioned this matter, I think there are some solutions, right?"

Chen Chu asked with a smile. Mao'er looked at him, smiled sweetly, lowered his eyes, and helped Chen Chu comb his hair again, but said: "Mao'er is very stupid, there is no way to solve it, official. You should ask Sister Cai”

This gave Cai Hua another opportunity to perform.

Chen Chu could see the cooperation between the two sisters, and couldn't help but look at Cai Hua with a smile, but the latter raised his head arrogantly, snorted, and said in a sweet voice: "I didn't even ask about my long hair. What a short-sighted woman"

"Hahaha, Sister Hua, please give me some advice. Xiaoke is polite here."

Chen Chu cupped his hands and smiled at Cai Hua. Cai Hua then regained her arrogant look and immediately climbed a few steps on the grass with her hands and feet. She sat cross-legged again a foot in front of Chen Chu, "Your Majesty! I can give the money to the court. But the imperial court needs to use public land as collateral! In addition, it can also issue war bonds to the private sector, using the fertile land on Nanjing Road in the Jin Dynasty that our army has just controlled, or even the fertile land on Huainan Road in the Zhou Dynasty as collateral, of course! They flock to each other like birds."

After the Huaibei Commercial Company grew in scale, it adopted the silver standard method to issue cargo notes. During non-war times, it was approximately controlled between 1:1.1 and 1.2, and during wartime it quickly approached 1:1.5.

In other words, it used to be that only one tael of reserve silver could be used to issue 100-denominated notes, but now one tael of silver is required to issue 500-denominated notes.

It doesn't seem like a big fluctuation, but it means that in just a few months, the value of cargo tickets has depreciated by more than a quarter.

Although the market may not notice it in a short period of time, if it continues like this, paper will eventually be unable to cover up the fire.

In fact, Cai Hua and Mao'er had a good idea. They used the land acquired during the war as collateral to issue bonds.

This is equivalent to changing the anchor of the bill of goods from a single silver to a combination of silver and land.

Needless to say, the attractiveness of land.
But doing so could solve the current predicament, but it ran counter to some of Chen Chu's goals. Seeing Cai Hua eagerly waiting for his answer, Chen Chu suddenly smiled and said: "There is no rush for war bonds, but I have a way to solve the problem of northwest military expenses."

"How to solve it?" Cai Hua asked hurriedly.

"Haha, although the Lin'an Dynasty's war compensation to Da Qi has not been agreed upon, their filial piety payment to Anfeng Dynasty Chaiji has already arrived at the beginning of the month."

The peace negotiation with the Lin'an Dynasty was carried out in two parts at the same time. The Anfeng Dynasty was the Anfeng Dynasty, and Daqi was Daqi.

The peace negotiation between Da Qi and Lin'an Dynasty has not been concluded, but the peace negotiation between Anfeng Dynasty and Lin'an Dynasty has been completed. The most important item is the compensation of 6 million taels, which will be delivered in four years.

In order to save face, the Lin'an court claimed that the money was only for 'filial piety' and was for Chai Ji to build a palace in Anfeng.

Upon hearing this, Cai Hua hurriedly asked, "How much did you give?"

"One and a half million taels."

As soon as Chen Chu finished speaking, Cai Hua was already happy, "One and a half million taels, although it's not much, it can solve an urgent need!"

"."

Even Chen Chu, who had already regarded Emperor Zhou's filial piety money as something in his pocket, couldn't help but said in shock: "Sister Hua, do you want it all?"

"what!"

Cai Huan was more surprised than Chen Chu, and said confidently: "If you don't want them all, are you going to leave them for the old emperor?"

"Just keep some."

"Then leave him ten thousand taels?"

"."

"How much can he spend as an old man? Ten thousand taels is a lot." Seeing that Chen Chu didn't answer, Cai Hua said again. She even put her hand on Chen Chu's knee and shook it. She looked as if she was extremely hungry. The puppy saw the food in front of him.

Chen Chu thought for a while and finally said: "No, let's give him a hundred or eighty thousand to build a garden, so that both of us look good."

"Then I only need 1.42 million taels from the head office!" Cai Hua bargained.

"Huainan also needs to train troops. Han Shizhong organized and trained 20,000 new troops in Yangzhou, which freed up part of his military expenses. In the future, he no longer needs to spend money from Huaibei."

"Then please tell me how much you can give me!"

"At most one million"

Seeing Chen Chu spitting, Cai Hua finally stopped pestering her and muttered in a low voice: "You're so rude."

"Sister Hua! One and a half million, I gave you one million, and I'm still picking at it!" Chen Chu cried out.

"What is one million worth? The prince used his trick to extort 1.1 million taels from the Huaiyuan squire in Suzhou. However, this great Zhou Dynasty only squeezed out so little oil and water, so what? This battle will be fought. What a loss”

"."

Mao'er, who had just tied Chen Chu's hair into a bun, subconsciously raised his head and looked around at the time when the officials had someone pretend to be the thief Jin Taiping and kidnapped a group of evil gentry in Huaiyuan to extort money.

Although this group of people were executed by Cai Hua in Sajin Lane when they attacked Caizhou in the 11th year of Fuchang, the incident was not honorable after all.

The cat felt relieved when he realized that he was surrounded by family members.

Here, Chen Chu combed his hair, stood up and said: "It is impossible for the great Zhou Dynasty to squeeze out such a small amount of oil and water. But we need to pay attention to each division's reputation. At the same time, our army also needs to rest. Don't worry, if not Da Zhou squeezed out fifty to seventy million taels of silver, and Sister Hua is the only one asking me!"

"real!"

Cai Hua, who had been worrying about money all day long, suddenly had a bright look in her eyes. She quickly stood up and asked, but because she had been sitting cross-legged on the ground for a long time, her legs were numb and she couldn't stand still.

Chen Chu raised his hand to steady Cai Hua and said with a smile, "Of course it's true!"

No guarantee was needed. Anyway, Cai Hua believed what Chen Chu said. Just think about how many things can be done and how many soldiers can be trained with an income of tens of millions taels?

Cai Hua trembled slightly with excitement, but then she looked at Chen Chu's determined look and felt angry again. Hey, you little dog, I spent the whole day in Caizhou worrying about money and money. You have a plan, but you don’t tell me!
Cai Hua stretched out her hand and pinched Chen Chu's waist very naturally.
"Hiss~" Chen Chu was in pain and didn't understand that Cai Hua, who was fine just now, was going crazy again. He simply pulled Cai Hua forward and ran forward, and they both fell into the small lake.

Yu Nong, who had already led a group of children to play crazy, gathered around with the children and poured water on the two of them.

Cai Hua emerged from the water in embarrassment and wiped it on her face randomly. When she saw Chen Chu next to her with a smirk on her face, she immediately rushed forward and tried to push Chen Chu to the bottom of the water.

But she has limited strength alone, so naturally she can't control Chen Chu.

So, Cai Hua, who was soaked all over, strangled Chen Chu's neck from behind and shouted to Yu Nong and the children: "Come on, help me!"

On the shore, Mao'er saw that Cai Hua was just making noises, so she stood on the shore and persuaded her: "The head I just wiped dry is wet again! Why is Sister Cai also making such nonsense!"

Upon hearing this, Cai Hua immediately stopped her futile attack on Chen Chu, then walked to the shore and stretched out her hand, as if asking the cat to pull her up.

As soon as Mao'er stretched out her hand, she heard Cai Hua yell, "Come down!"

'Plop~'

"Hahaha"

"Giggle."

The sun is getting westward, and as we enter the algae garden, there is a lot of joy and laughter.

On the shore, only Ayu and Jiarou were left bathing in the golden sunset.

Seemingly feeling something, Ayu turned her head, and Jiarou was indeed looking at her.

Their eyes met, but neither of them moved away. They looked at each other for two or three breaths before Jiarou lowered her eyes a little and landed on Nian'er in Ayu's arms.

Ayu immediately looked away, but also stopped at Mian'er who was riding on her uncle's shoulders.

This look at each other was like testing each other, and also like silent communication.

Just now, the two of them witnessed the entire exchange between Mao'er, Cai Hua and Chen Chu.

The two sisters Zhao and Cai, one plays the white face and the other the red face, work perfectly together.

In an instant, some major events that could affect the world were settled.

Sister Cai dared to speak out and give advice, and the princess always protected her, helped her explain, and took the initiative to give up opportunities to express herself.
Jia Rou, who had always wanted to have a son to save the country, could see that the reason why the princess treated Sister Cai so specially was because the latter had no children, in addition to the relationship they had developed since Weihan.
After Jiarou entered the palace, she noticed that Cai Huan had special feelings for Ji'er. She also heard that when Ji'er was just born, the princess often took risks to send the prince to Qingpu Garden.

At present, the effect seems to be excellent.

The princess's family background is weak, but with the help of Cai Hua, whose father is already a minister, Ji'er's position as the heir apparent is as stable as Mount Tai.

Jia Rou was a little cautious. She guessed that Ayu, who gave birth to her son, might not have secretly thought about the possibility of Nian'er's future.

If Cai Hua had not supported the princess, Ayu, whose father, uncle and elder brother were all important ministers in Qizhou, might have threatened the princess.

But now, whether it's Cai Hua's tricks or the princess's magnanimity and reputation, coupled with the obviously different attitudes of King Chu towards the two, people don't dare to covet them.
In the back house of the prince's palace, the princess and Cai Hua were invincible.

Thinking of this, Jiarou slowly stood up, walked to Ayu's side, teased the infant Nian'er for a while, and then looked at Xiaohu.

The soaked Mao'er struggled to get ashore, but Chen Chu and Cai Hua held each other's waist and the other dragged Mao'er's arm to prevent her from doing so.

It was useless even for Mao'er to pretend to be angry. In desperation, Mao'er simply let go of her thoughts, temporarily abandoned her persona of a dignified princess, and started playing around with the two of them.

A group of children, led by Yu Nong, quickly rushed to the battlefield to help their mother fight back against the two bad guys, Dad and Aunt Cai.

It was extremely lively.

Jiarou, who didn't like to smile easily, also showed a faint smile, but said meaningfully to Ayu: "Sister Chen, we are lucky to have the princess and sister Cai in the family, which is why the house is so harmonious."

The scene where Mao'er and Caihua discussed important matters with their uncle just now also touched Ayu. Even Ayu, who is also the daughter of a wealthy family, could hear some of the deep meaning in Jiarou's words.

However, a smile appeared on Ayu's originally calm face, and she said very naturally: "Yes, with two sisters in charge of the house, the dirty atmosphere from outside cannot enter the house."

Jia Rou replied with a brighter smile, "Yes, Sister Chen is absolutely right." (End of Chapter)