Han official!

Chapter 39: Piggy Bank
The Jia clan members in the Jiashe courtyard were unable to cause much trouble and were eventually defeated one by one by Guo Jie and others. They killed all the Jia clan members in the courtyard and fulfilled the instructions of Chang'an Wei Zhang Tang.

Huge profits.

All the gates of Jiashe courtyard were closed. During this time, a pavilion chief from Guoting came to check the situation, but Guo Jie evaded the question by saying that he was conscripting labor, and he would not open the door for anyone who came.

"Brother."

Wei Guang ran over, overjoyed, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his fine robe. He said, "The grain in the warehouse has been fully counted. Jia's granary holds 20,000 dan of grain. At the current market price, transporting it to the nine markets of Chang'an would fetch 200 gold!"

Zhang Qian and others began to breathe rapidly.

In the past, when he was not with Guo Jie, he thought two hundred coins were a huge sum of money and did not dare to hope for even one gold coin.

Today there are a full two hundred gold.

The number was so large that it far exceeded the imagination of Zhang Qian, Gan Fu, Ji Shaogong and others.

"Thanks to Wei Guang's superb horse fighting skills."

Zhang Qian walked into the granary and saw the goose-foot lantern. Even now, he was still terrified. "If Wei Guang hadn't arrived on horseback in time, the 20,000 dan of grain in the granary would have been destroyed. Ting Hou deserves death. He dared to burn down my brother's granary. He should be ground to dust."

Outsiders have no way of knowing what happens in the grain warehouse.

After Tingzuo died, his two cousins survived and revealed the internal strife in Arawakura.

Ji Shaogong agreed, "Wei Guang's cavalry skills are incredible, comparable to Guo Jun fighting a tiger with his bare hands. There are few people in Chang'an who are more skilled in cavalry than him, and there are few among the palace officials around the emperor."

The Han court's palace officials were divided into Yilang, Zhonglang, Shilang, and Langzhong, with several thousand of them and no fixed quota.

The Counsellor and the Vice Minister had no subordinates, the Zhonglang had three generals: the Five Officials, the Left, and the Right; the Lang had three generals: the Chariot, the Household, and the Cavalry.

A system of selecting officials belonging to the Han court.

It is divided into Yin Ren, Zi Xuan, and a specialty.

Yin Ren means that the emperor will reward the sons and nephews of dukes, ministers and marquises with a Langguan position for their meritorious service.

Zi Xuan was a kind of official who could be appointed as a Langguan by paying a certain amount of money to the court by powerful and wealthy merchants. During the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, a Zi Xuan who paid 5 million yuan could be appointed as a Chang Shilang.

Having a skill does not require any background or money to get a position. As long as one has a skill that is appreciated by the emperor or important officials, he can become one of the thousands of Langguan officials.

Dongfang Shuo wrote a letter to the emperor to recommend himself and won the favor of the emperor.

Wei Wan's skill in "carriage-playing" attracted the attention of Emperor Wen and he was appointed as a palace attendant.

Zhang Qian was born into a poor family and was a commoner. Fortunately, he was recommended by the county magistrate and was appointed as a palace official. However, after arriving in Chang'an, he was lost among the many palace officials. His life was hard and even food and drink became a problem.

It was not until he met the heroic hero Guo Jie that his life improved and he was able to receive an additional salary from the official temple in Chang'an.

Langzhong Chejiang knew that the low-level chariot officials under him lived a hard life, so he turned a blind eye and tacitly allowed Zhang Qian to receive an extra salary, as long as it did not delay the emperor's travel arrangements.

Zhang Qian was a Langguan under the Langzhong Chariot General. Whenever the emperor traveled, he had to arrange the imperial carriage, golden carriage, standing carriage and other vehicles. The rituals were complicated, and there were many carriages and horses, so each trip took a lot of time.

Emperor Liu Che did not like extravagance and often traveled incognito, leaving his subordinates idle all day long.

"Haha."

Wei Guang was just a riding slave. When he heard that the emperor's eunuchs were inferior to him, he said with a proud face: "If I were not a riding slave in Princess Pingyang's noble residence, just based on my superb riding and fighting skills, not to mention recommending myself as an eunuch, I would have to give up the position of eunuch in the chariot commander."

Zhang Qian, Ji Shaogong and others smiled and found it quite interesting. They did not think that Wei Guang was capable of serving as a Langzhong Chariot General.

Only Guo Jie knew the truth. Although both of them had the character "Guang" in their names, Wei Guang's achievements far surpassed those of Li Guang, the Marquis of Mi Lu, and it was unfair for him to be appointed as a doctor and chariot commander.

"Mr. Guo."

Mang Tong, with a full beard and an iron mallet in hand, strode over and said, "The inventory of Jia Ziguang's property has been completed. According to Mr. Guo's instructions, even the lamps, lacquerware, and tables were sold to the nine markets of Chang'an and distributed to the families of the officials. Also, the corn was loaded onto carts and transported back to the Gaojie Duting under cover of darkness. Also, a large number of piggy banks were found hidden in a wall."

Piggy bank, also known as xiang.

Used to store money, it is equivalent to a piggy bank, usually made of pottery, with a small hole on the top to put money in. When the piggy bank is fired, it is often engraved with auspicious words.

Yiquan, Fugui, etc., would bury their piggy banks underground when they were full of money.

"Oh."

Guo Jie did not expect to receive an unexpected reward: "Let's go and check out the piggy bank hidden in the wall. It would be great if it had gold cakes. I could share a lot of money with it."

Piggy banks are usually used to store copper coins.

There were also nobles and powerful people who stored gold cakes, but they were relatively few, and they mainly stored three-zhu coins.

The double wall was not in Jia Ziguang's main room, but in Tingzuo's main room. Ten ceramic piggy banks were found there, with the word "Yiquan" engraved on the front.

Quan means money.

Yiquan means that money is as endless as water.

"Smash it open."

Guo Jie kicked the piggy bank with his shoe and felt the weight was wrong. It was heavier than the piggy bank that stored three-zhu coins. He instructed, "Smash all the piggy banks open and you will know whether the coins stored inside are three-zhu coins or gold cakes."

Mang Tong walked over with an iron hammer and started smashing the ceramic piggy bank to find the stored money.

Guo Jie had a sense of fun in smashing open random jars.

"Crack!"

A golden light flashed, and under the illumination of the branch lantern, after the ceramic piggy bank was smashed, a pile of small golden cakes appeared, weighing about five gold coins.

Everyone was overjoyed.

Zhang Qian said eagerly, "Can I break the piggy bank open?"

I don’t know what happened.

He loved the feeling of smashing open the unknown piggy bank.

Guo Jie glanced at Mang Tong, as if asking what he meant.

Mang Tong immediately handed the iron hammer to Zhang Qian, who smashed open the remaining nine ceramic piggy banks to check the money stored inside.

"Click! Click! Click!"

The sound of the iron hammer hitting the piggy banks continued to ring out, and the ceramic piggy banks were all smashed open one by one.

Under the light of the branch lanterns, nine piles of golden cakes appeared again, emitting a fascinating golden glow.

There are fifty gold in total.

Guo Jie was delighted. He decided to keep at most half of the 20,000 dan of millet, and give the remaining 10,000 dan to the two superior officials. Half of the remaining 10,000 dan of grain would be divided among Zhang Qian, Wei Guang, Ji Shaogong and others.

He owns half of it.

Now that we have found fifty gold coins, we don't need to distribute the ten thousand dan of millet. It will be enough to just give the fifty gold coins to Zhang Qian and his men.

Guo Jie received another 10,000 dan of millet, which was worth 100 gold coins according to the market price. Compared with the 10 gold coins that Zhang Qian and his companions received as profit, he already got 90% of the profit.

Zhang Qian and his companions looked at the golden cakes with joy on their faces, and no one thought that Guo Jie took too much.

"Walk."

Guo Jiefang burned down Jia Ziguang's house, destroyed all evidence, and rushed towards Chang'an with a number of open carts pulled by oxen.

"Go back and divide the money!"

(End of this chapter)