Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 624 Big move

Seeing that the emperor was determined to get something for free, Jia Lian didn't refuse and even thought it was a good thing.

Jia Lian wouldn't take on everything himself; instead, he would have the emperor select three to five people to learn the procedures from him, and these three to five people would be followed by a group of errand runners.

Not all of the dozens of people stayed; rather, the best and worst were selected through a process of work and study.

Li Yuan was naturally overjoyed, as this was helping him cultivate talent to make money.

The first step in the process of going public is naturally to understand the company's financial situation, which requires auditing and checking the accounts.

In this world, few people can withstand scrutiny. Jia Lian took charge, mobilizing manpower to form two teams to investigate the accounts of the steel mill and the coal mine respectively.

The investigation lasted a month, and the problems uncovered were promptly relayed to the palace by eunuchs sent by the emperor.

The steel mill was found to have numerous problems, involving 500,000 yuan and over 100 people. The situation at the coal mine was even more serious, with 1 million yuan in financial irregularities and over 100 people involved.

Li Yuan had been experiencing a mix of emotions over the past month. The officials in charge of managing the steel mill and coal mine were all so-called "insiders" appointed by his father. And it was these same people who had gotten into trouble, while some of the technocrats seemed to have escaped unscathed. Li Yuan hadn't yet figured out how to handle the situation.

"Hu Min, what has Mr. Li been busy with lately?" Li Yuan thought of Jia Lian again. Jia Lian had many things to do, so it was impossible for him to devote all his attention to the project of listing the Royal Coal and Iron Group.

"Your Majesty, Lord Jia has been busy selecting personnel to form a training group and a return visit group. Although Lord Jia is not a cabinet minister, he has much more to do than the cabinet elders."

Li Yuan sighed and said, "Sir, you are a minister who values ​​getting things done. What do you suggest we do with those clansmen and relatives of the empress?"

"Your Majesty, this servant would never dare to speak recklessly." Hu Min was terrified. Speaking recklessly could cost her her life and even implicate her family.

"Fine, I won't make things difficult for you. Go and ask the master how to handle this."

Hu Min accepted the order and went straight to Jia Lian's office. Recently, Jia Lian had been working at the Honglu Temple. When Hu Min arrived, Jia Lian was giving a lesson to the training group.

"You represent the face of our Celestial Empire's army. Don't let your minds wander while you're in the Ottomans. It's fine to take in a few maids as gifts, but don't come back with a bunch of venereal diseases."

Standing at the door, Hu Min heard a burst of laughter from below as Jia Lian spoke inside, and couldn't help but feel a pang of envy.

When Jia Lian saw Hu Min, he immediately announced the end of get out of class and told him to come out and see him.

“Why doesn’t Father-in-law just send someone to deliver the message? Why bother coming all this way in person?” Jia Lian spoke politely, but Hu Min dared not ask for permission: “The Emperor sent us to ask the Master a question.”

Jia Lian said, "Please speak, Your Excellency!" After Hu Min conveyed Li Yuan's meaning, Jia Lian smiled and said, "Similar incidents cannot be prevented, and there is no way to solve them once and for all. His Majesty is reluctant to take drastic measures due to family ties, but he cannot leave them unpunished. Hmm, we can first recover the embezzled funds, and then decide whether to kill or spare them based on their attitude of admitting guilt."

While Hu Min was looking for Jia Lian, Li Yuan was summoned away by someone sent by the Empress Dowager.

After the Imperial Guards arrested a group of people, many women entered the palace and cried before the Empress.

In short, Li Yuan's harem was in turmoil, and he had simply been staying in the Qianqing Palace for the past few days. Unexpectedly, he went to Empress Dowager Zhou to complain, and Empress Dowager Zhou, unable to bear the disturbance, had no choice but to ask Li Yuan to come and question him.

"Your Majesty, your coal mines and steel mills make a lot of money every year. Their little trickery isn't a big deal. Why not just let it go? They're all relatives; it's not good to hurt feelings."

If it were the Empress, Li Yuan could simply avoid her if he got tired of hearing her words. But when it came to Empress Zhou, Li Yuan couldn't avoid her words and had to give a response.

"Empress Dowager, it's true those people are relatives, but Father and I haven't mistreated them. Their salaries are calculated according to fixed rates. For example, the general manager of that coal mine earns 60,000 silver dollars a year, and even the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet only earns 60,000 silver dollars a year. I could tolerate his family's expenses being reimbursed through the coal mine's accounts. But he's so clever that he colluded with others to embezzle a million silver dollars. These people all claim to be relatives, to be on our side. They've betrayed Father and me, how dare they come to you to complain?"

After Li Yuan finished speaking, Empress Dowager Zhou was a little displeased: "Emperor, no matter what, they are still relatives. They will remember your kindness after taking benefits, but will those officials outside remember your kindness after embezzling money? They have the ability to exert their power on outsiders, but what good is it if they are ruthless to their own people?"

The Empress Dowager was unreasonable, and Li Yuanzhen had no choice but to grit his teeth and say, "I will be lenient with her."

He left indignantly and returned to Qianqing Palace. When Li Yuan saw Hu Min return, he immediately asked him about the result.

After Hu Min relayed his words, Li Yuan sighed and said, "The gentleman guessed that I was in a dilemma, which is why he came up with this plan. Very well, very well, you go to the Imperial Guard yourself and do as the gentleman said. Those who have a good attitude and voluntarily confess their crimes will be treated leniently, while those who have a bad attitude will be treated severely."

Before Hu Min could leave, Imperial Guard Long delivered another batch of audit results, revealing serious cases of stolen goods being sold, involving millions of yuan.

Li Yuan was astonished. These people were incredibly audacious, having been illegally selling iron ingots and coal for five years. They manipulated the accounts, initially just omitting small amounts of production, but their audacity grew, and this year they directly cut off 30% of the production. So, the accounts uncovered earlier were just the tip of the iceberg; the real crime was yet to come.

"If it weren't for your suggestion to integrate the two companies for listing and require an audit, how much money would these parasites have embezzled from me?" Li Yuan's heart was bleeding. In five years, these people had embezzled five million from the two companies, an average of one million per year.

The final audit results were shocking.

These people are all relatives of the emperor. Li Yuan, recalling the Empress Dowager's words, sighed and said, "Recover the stolen goods first!"

When Jia Lian was leaving get off work, he was stopped by someone. He saw that it was a eunuch in plain clothes, so he followed him out and went to a restaurant on the street. He went up to a private room on the second floor and saw Li Yuan sitting inside, lost in thought.

Li Yuan, who was staring blankly out the window at the flow of people on the street, was startled awake when the eunuch behind him spoke to him.

"Sir, you've arrived. Please sit down, have a drink with me, and have a chat," Li Yuan greeted him. Jia Lian didn't stand on ceremony and sat down opposite him.

"Speaking of which, when I'm in the palace, if I sneeze, someone will come to greet me almost immediately. I never have a moment of peace and quiet, it's incredibly annoying. But sitting here in this restaurant, watching the bustling crowds on the street, I don't feel disturbed at all. Why do you think that is, sir?"

Jia Lian understood, but dared not speak carelessly. After careful consideration, he said, "As the saying goes, concern leads to confusion. People close to you seem to talk too much because Your Majesty cares about them and considers them family. The streets are crowded and noisy, yet Your Majesty feels no disturbance because you don't know them and consider them outsiders."

Li Yuan mentioned that the final results of the audits of the two companies were in, but Jia Lian said he hadn't seen them yet. Li Yuan readily gestured for a eunuch to bring the results to Jia Lian. Having someone report the audit results to Li Yuan first was, naturally, a move by Jia Lian to avoid suspicion. These were royal assets; if it weren't for the push to list them on the stock exchange, why would Jia Lian bother with the audits?

The audit uncovered a major problem. Jia Lian had deliberately orchestrated it to remind Li Yuan that, regardless of who they were, few could resist greed when faced with enormous profits. These people were employed by Emperor Chenghui and given high salaries, but they were utterly useless; they continued to embezzle, growing increasingly audacious.

"Your Majesty," Jia Lian said, "it's never too late to mend the fence after the sheep are lost. From now on, the new coal and iron group will be audited quarterly, with a major audit at the end of the year. The accounts must be thoroughly clarified to prevent similar incidents from happening again. Things always need to be done; we can't just kill people for every little thing that happens." Jia Lian could see that Li Yuan was under a lot of pressure, so he simply advised him against killing. After all, this was the emperor; if he were advised to kill these imperial relatives, wouldn't the emperor have all sorts of wild thoughts?

"I ordered Hu Min to keep an eye on things, recover the stolen goods first, and then convict them. It's a pity that this delayed the integration of the two industries and postponed the listing. Sir, tell me, why do the officials in the R&D department rarely have problems when managing industries? But the royal industries are bound to have problems, and big problems at that."

Jia Lian was surprised by the emperor's abrupt change of thought. After a moment's thought, he said, "They're fearless because they have something to rely on! Besides, they treat the property as their own. What's there to worry about when they're taking what's their own?"

Li Yuan asked curiously, "Wait a minute, shouldn't we cherish our own property even more?"

Jia Lian laughed and said, "There are so many people in a family, and the property belongs to the public. Everyone takes what they can get, so how could they possibly cherish it? Even brothers can fight over dividing the inheritance."

Li Yuan finally understood that the problem lay in the immense potential profits! There are countless cases throughout history of brothers turning against each other.

"You previously said to either kill or exile me, but now you are advising me not to kill anyone. I now understand why you have been contradicting yourself."

Jia Lian thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty's approach of recovering the stolen goods first is correct. After dealing with these corrupt officials and completing the integration of the two companies, we can offer a portion of the shares to interested relatives for purchase. If these people are incompetent, then we can create some sinecure positions for them and support them. As long as they don't involve money or goods, they are unlikely to cause any trouble. As for those who actually do the work, let's dismiss them after recovering the stolen goods."

In any case, we must try our best to make up for the losses before considering anything else. As for how to deal with it, since they are relatives of the emperor, it is really inappropriate for Jia Lian to speak recklessly.

"I still need to make an example of them. They can't just let things go like this." Li Yuan's face was full of hatred, and he gritted his teeth, showing how much he cared about the money.

"Your Majesty, please get things settled with the Imperial Guards as soon as possible so that I can complete the integration on my end and publicly announce the value of the integrated assets. Only then can we release the official valuation results to the public."

Jia Lian decisively changed the subject, not wanting to dwell on the matter any longer. He had only offered an idea and had no intention of taking responsibility.

The ultimate goal is to set a benchmark for the listing process. Since funds are raised from the market, the accounts should be made public. This point must be clear; otherwise, listing is fraud.

"The role of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) must be brought into play, with regular audits to prevent listed companies from falsifying accounts. It should be understood that falsifying accounts for a long time will always lead to serious problems."

Speaking of bookkeeping, Jia Lian couldn't help but think of his friend who would be back next week; he was truly a master bookkeeper.

The financial industry is extremely risky; even a slight lapse in regulation can lead to major problems. The most typical example is the rubber bubble of 1909—back then, there was virtually no scrutiny of companies going public!
Any company can go public and then engage in hype and fraud.

Therefore, strict control is necessary. Okay, that's the ideal scenario. In reality, things are often only discovered after the bomb has already exploded.

Jia Lian could only keep a close eye on things and try his best to find loopholes in the system.

After recounting his story, Li Yuan felt better and returned to the palace slightly tipsy.

Jia Lian didn't have much time to focus on that; he was busy continuing matters related to cooperation between the two countries, such as resource allocation and warship construction.

Speaking of warships, Ibrahim, in order to save money, simply bought second-hand ones, all of which were more than five years old, at a much lower price of 300,000 yuan each.

Because the transaction amount was so huge, the Ottoman Empire couldn't come up with that much money all at once, so Jia Lian had to help them get a loan.

According to statistics, the total amount of this military procurement case reached 30 million yuan, half of which was to be financed by loans, and at low interest rates.

Even with loans at an annual interest rate of 3%, banks are vying to lend. After all, this is a sure-fire way to make a profit; there's no way they'll lose money.

After the agreement was reached, army equipment began to be loaded onto ships, and personnel from the training regiments and the return delegations also began to board and set sail. The Ottoman Empire purchased twenty second-hand warships, and the South Seas Navy also had to send people to deliver the goods.

Ibrahim cannot leave for the time being; he needs to wait for the equipment and technical personnel. The agreement includes a technology transfer clause, and the Zhou Empire will help the Ottoman Empire build a steel mill and an arsenal.

In terms of technology, it was certainly not the most advanced; it only had the technology of flintlock rifles. Even so, it was still ahead of Europe in terms of technology.

In order to support the Ottoman Empire and cause trouble for the European powers, Jia Lian made much less money from this deal.

Once the cooperation between the two countries was nearly resolved, the final outcome regarding Li Yuan's situation was also announced.

Perhaps because so much money had been embezzled, Li Yuan hardened his heart and exiled all those involved in the case. This outcome was mainly due to the poor results achieved in recovering the stolen funds.

Li Yuan personally told Jia Lian that they had only recovered a little over one million yuan, which was far less than the amount that had been stolen.

Even so, Li Yuan did not kill a single person, which shows how much pressure he was under.

This incident led to a very serious consequence: Li Yuan's trust in the imperial relatives almost completely disappeared.

The subsequent managers of the two companies were all technical officials and graduates of the engineering college.

While Jia Lian was busy with the IPO, Li Yuan made another big move.

At a cabinet meeting, Li Yuan raised a request: Looking at the world's great powers, none fail to value practical learning; yet, the current imperial examinations in our dynasty emphasize theory over practice. This is outdated and must be changed. Starting from the first year of the Qianzheng era, the imperial examinations must be reformed, increasing the emphasis on practical knowledge. The cabinet first discussed the matter and produced a proposal.

This move shocked the world!

(End of this chapter)