Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

Observing people at a banquet is indeed the most convenient way to know people.

When he first entered the palace, although he entered the Xuchang Palace instead of the Luoyang North Palace, he could tell the five women's eloquence and knowledge almost exactly during a dinner.

Thanks to Guo Yao's lively atmosphere and constant narration of interesting things in the palace, the five girls gradually became more cheerful and relaxed from their initial reserved and serious attitude.

The five women have their own unique looks, but overall they are all excellent. And their styles are also very different.

Needless to say, Yang Huiyu stayed at home with Cai Zhaoji and Cai Zhenji every day, so it was hard for him to be illiterate. Ren Shu and Zheng Zhi, two daughters from aristocratic families, were also well-educated.

Wen Fang was born in Qi County, Taiyuan Prefecture, and was the niece of Wen Hui, the former governor of Yangzhou. She was almost as tall as a man, and was considered the tallest among the imperial concubines. Xiang Lixiu was born in Xihe, Bingzhou, and was also a woman of aristocratic family.

It was now the fourth year of Taihe, and Cao Rui no longer cared much about the backgrounds of his concubines. As his authority grew, the caution he had shown in choosing concubines in the first year of Taihe, so as not to set a bad example for the court and the public, was no longer so important.

Rather than trying to play the role of a wise and holy monarch in the Northern Palace of Luoyang and show off the reputation he had accumulated over the past ten years, it would be more practical to lead the army to seize Hanzhong County. Moreover, the borders that Wei had expanded to include more than just Hanzhong County in recent years.
Yang Huiyu and four others were granted the title of beauties, ranking at the end of the rank in the palace after the empress, noble concubine, Zhaoyi, Jieyushi, and beauties. The five women also expressed their gratitude repeatedly.

The emperor was young, there was no empress in the palace, there was only one noble concubine, one Zhaoyi, two Jieyushi, and the rest were all beauties, for whom there was still potential to climb up.

For these women who had just entered the palace, this was already the best outcome. If they caught up with a middle-aged emperor and joined a harem that had been fighting for more than ten or twenty years, even if these women agreed, their families would not agree to let them enter the palace. It was not like there was no other way out.

Silent all night.

The next day, Sima Yi and Wei Ji met outside the Xuchang Palace. After they met, they entered the palace together without going to the Shangshutai first. As expected, the two of them were on time and waited outside the study room as soon as the Si hour arrived. After waiting for a while, Cao Rui slowly arrived, surrounded by eunuchs and tiger guards.

Cao Rui looked at the two of them and said, "Sikong and Wei Shangshu arrived earlier than me. Come in. You two have had breakfast, right?"

"Yes, we have all had our meal," Sima Yi replied.

"As you wish." Wei Ji said sternly.

As Cao Rui walked, he continued to give instructions on yesterday's matters: "Sun Yu has done a good job in Qingzhou, which is beyond my expectation. I transferred Wang Ling away and promoted Sun Yu. It has been nearly two years now. I heard that there were still many people in the Shangshutai who did not understand my transfer."

"Your Majesty is a good judge of people, and the court officials have long known this. Who dares to question it?" Wei Ji calmly replied, "Governor Sun is diligent in his administration, and doesn't look like someone who comes from a military family. This year, Qingzhou has a good harvest, and Sun Yu has also sent a letter to the Secretariat promising that more food and grass can be allocated than last year, and it can also make up for the damage caused by the disaster in Yuzhou, Sili, and Jingzhou."

"Well, Qingzhou is OK." Cao Rui nodded. "As for Xue Ti in Xuzhou, I have thought about it. Xuzhou has few people. We can send food and grass from other places to Shouchun along the Huai River this year. Yangzhou needs to build a city in Ruxu, which will cost a lot. There is no need to transfer labor to the court. However, Taizhong still needs to send an official to inspect it. It is one thing for me to trust Xuzhou, but the supervision of the court should be based on the system and should not be neglected."

Sima Yi immediately replied: "Your Majesty, among the five counties of Xuzhou, only Donghai and Xiapi are the richest, so more can be transferred. As for Langya and Pengcheng, they should be able to send more people to apply."

"Do as you think. Write it down in a document. I'll take a look at it later." Cao Rui said.

"Yes." Sima Yi replied.

Not long after, the eunuch Bi Jin walked into the study room and said that he was the Minister of the Imperial Clan, Cao Ke, who wanted to see him.

"Let the Zongzheng come." Cao Rui said, "It's just to send a few beauties, but the Queen Mother asked Jiuqing to send them. It feels like a waste of talent."

Sima Yi interrupted, "The royal family's wedding is a great ceremony for the country. The Queen Mother asked the Nine Ministers to see her off, which is in accordance with etiquette. But since the Zongzheng wants to see him, maybe there is something else going on."

"What can Zongzheng do?" Cao Rui smiled and shook his head. But a moment later, when Cao Ke entered and saluted, the smile on Cao Rui's face disappeared.

"Shaofu won't give you money?" Cao Rui frowned and looked at Cao Ke: "Zongzheng, please take a seat first and talk slowly. I personally issued an order when I was in Yecheng. How could Lu Qian not give you money?"

Cao Ke slowly sat down on the chair closest to Cao Rui. Sima Yi and Wei Ji, who were sitting behind the desk on the side, looked at Cao Ke, then at each other, and continued to read the documents without interrupting. Less trouble is worse than more!

Cao Ke said carefully, "When His Majesty returned from Yingzhou, he issued an edict in Yecheng, promising Cao Zhun and others to either move to Luoyang or settle down in various counties. The Cao clan members who went to Luoyang were easy to deal with, as some already had houses in Luozhong, and some were wealthy, so it was not difficult for them to buy new houses. But those who wanted to live in other states came to me with His Majesty's edict to ask for money."

"I am the Minister of the Imperial Clan, one of the Nine Ministers. I cannot avoid the affairs of the Cao clan. After all, I am the only one who carries out the specific duties and receives the blame."

Cao Rui nodded slightly: "I am listening, please continue."

Cao Ke hesitated as he spoke: "I and my clansmen have been discussing this matter for more than half a month. Take Luoyang City for example. Although the price of a house for ordinary people is more than half of that in the Huan and Ling period, it still costs more than 50,000 coins. A slightly larger and better house costs more than 100,000 or 200,000 coins."

"The wealth of each state is not equal. Take Wuwei, the capital of Liangzhou, and Jixian, Youzhou, for example. An ordinary house costs only 10,000 or 20,000 coins, and a better one costs only 50,000 or 80,000 coins. But the clansmen are not satisfied. They all use the standard of a wealthy family's house in Luoyang City, and also want to buy some land and property. Each family needs 1 million coins."

"One million yuan?" Cao Rui almost laughed out of anger. He put his hands on the table and spoke with a hint of anger: "One million yuan for each family. I will live in Xuchang myself and give them all the houses in Beigong! Zongzheng, ask them if they want to live in Beigong!"

Cao Ke shook his head and sighed, "There are about 80 Cao clansmen in Yecheng, and about 50 to 60 of them have this idea. According to what your majesty said before, the Cao clansmen in Qiao County will also be dealt with in this way. Although the clansmen in Qiao County have not yet reported this matter, if we calculate it this way, I'm afraid there are at least 100 households. If we calculate it at 1 million, it will cost at least 100 million yuan."

"With such a large amount, when I went to discuss it with the Shaofu, Lu Zike almost kicked me out. Lu Zike also said that the Shaofu had no money left, and that we would need to use betrothal gifts to marry concubines this month. For five concubines, each of them would cost one million coins, five hundred pieces of silk, and twenty horses, which is worth about ten million coins in total."

"This..." Seeing the boomerang piercing him, Cao Rui couldn't help but be a little shocked: "I only asked the Queen Mother to do this matter, and I didn't pay attention to the specific amount of money."

"Sikong." Cao Rui raised his eyes and looked at Sima Yi: "How much money can you get in salary and fiefdom every year?"

Sima Yi took a deep breath, raised his head with a helpless look, and answered with his hands clasped: "Your Majesty, I hold the two posts of Sikong and Shangshu You Pushe, and the two salaries are 12,000 dan. Since the court was re-established in Xuchang after the chaos, until the Huangchu and Taihe years, the salaries of central officials have always been paid at one-fifth of the actual salary. I have received a salary of about 2,400 dan, which is calculated at 400 coins per dan..."

Wei Ji coughed and said, "The rice that costs 400 coins per dan is sorghum, and millet is 300 coins."

"My annual salary is 720,000 coins." Sima Yi glanced at Wei Ji, then looked at the emperor: "My fiefdom is 3,200 households, and each household is 200 coins. I can get about ..."

"One million, three hundred and sixty thousand coins." Cao Rui answered the number first.

Sima Yi quickly added, "Your Majesty, my family doesn't actually earn that much. When there is a disaster or trouble in the fiefdom, the money is usually collected much less, and some is donated at other times. In addition, my family is really large, and there are clans in Wen County who need help, and I have also paid half of the money to the Wen County School."

"You deserve the money. I'm not questioning you." Cao Rui snorted.

Cao Rui turned to look at Cao Ke: "So, I spent three officials' salaries for ten years just to take in five concubines?"

"More than twenty years." Perhaps due to the sensitivity of the Minister of Civil Affairs to numbers and salaries, Wei Ji added: "Ordinary officials do not have so many fiefs."

Cao Rui sighed, "I remember that in the first year of Taihe, the betrothal gifts for each concubine were only 300,000 coins. Sun Zhaoyi was the daughter of Sun Quan. In order not to lose face for the court, the betrothal gift was about 3 million coins, which is only 9 million, less than 10 million. Of course, the dowry and gifts that Sun Quan sent back were much larger. He bribed me, so I actually made a profit by marrying Sun Zhaoyi." (End of this chapter)