Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 162 Court Meeting
In addition to education and agriculture, which are two of the most important areas, Zhang Chengdao also added some welfare benefits for the officials.

When you ask someone to do something, you can't expect to get something in return.

Salaries (official stipends) cannot be directly increased. If they are increased now, it will be difficult to suppress them later. In fact, the salaries of ancient officials were not low. It was just that most of them had to support slaves and staff, and the expenses were too high, so they seemed insufficient.

However, other benefits and perks can still be mentioned.

For example, in the medical field, it was stipulated that any official official of the imperial court, or any of their immediate family members suffering from serious illnesses, could apply to purchase the "immortal medicine" of the White Stone Immortal Sect—which was the few thousand doses of [Kudzu Root Soup] and [Trauma Powder] that Zhang Chengdao carried in his backpack, and even the materials for making these two medicines were piled up in the warehouse in the amount of tens of thousands!

"Select sites in various locations, clear out an area, and designate it as a residence for officials. I will arrange a large number of houses, and officials will be able to apply for residence free of charge upon presentation of their appointment documents..."

Zhang Chengdao planned to build stone-tiled houses, so as to curb the practice of keeping slaves and servants from the root. These houses only have two floors, with the upper floor being just a small attic, which can only accommodate the wife and children at most, and cannot support slaves and servants at all!

Of course, this kind of "welfare housing" is not mandatory; it is just a benefit provided to many officials who are short of money. If they have money, officials can rent or buy other properties or land. However, if the place they live in is too luxurious, the officials in charge of the city's supervising department will have something to do.

In addition, there is an annual "celestial food" benefit, mainly consisting of "celestial peaches," with the rest depending on what's left in the warehouse. These items are not free; they are purchased through official channels, with the purchase amount capped at a predetermined level and priced as if they were ordinary peaches.

The "court assembly" lasted until the afternoon, during which Zhang Chengdao also provided the court officials with a purely vegetarian lunch.

This time, the dishes are [rice], [braised ground sesame], [fried tofu], and [jade and white jade soup]. Since the Immortal Destiny Conference ended, and the disciples in the sect have been eating and drinking on their own in the [teahouse] and [restaurant], the pile of food that was stockpiled to prevent not having enough to eat has finally come in handy.

Each person receives a set meal consisting of two dishes and a soup. Unless you encounter someone with an appetite comparable to Chang Ping'an, a normal person can eat their fill.

The court assembly held every seven days was a regular court session, with only a little over a hundred officials attending. Therefore, this amount of consumption did not even affect the tens of thousands of food items that Zhang Chengdao had saved up in his backpack.

However, many of these ministers were bribed by the two banquets.

Putting aside the unparalleled taste, these are truly "divine delicacies"!
It is said to be a "celestial delicacy" that could only be tasted at the Immortal Destiny Assembly!
Wang Yanqing, who considered himself a confidant of the immortal, couldn't help but fantasize—if he could get a feast at every court assembly, he would die for it!

After the meal, Zhang Chengdao brought up the issue of coinage again.

The Zhou state minted an enormous amount of coins. It's like something out of another time in ancient Eastern times, where unified states minted anywhere from hundreds of millions to billions of coins annually—but those were states with territories far exceeding Zhou's. The Zhou state, a tiny territory encompassing only Qin and Jin, minted over one hundred million coins annually!

This was not only because the Zhou state was located in a strategic location, was good at management, and had a developed economy, but it was also a sign of excessive government spending, which led to domestic "inflation" becoming more and more serious year by year!
Zhang Chengdao proposed minting coins not because he wanted to establish authority after the change of dynasties, but because he wanted to gradually promote true credit money and, incidentally, stop the previous minting of coins to stabilize the market economy which was on the verge of collapse. However, the acceptance of credit money was not something that could be achieved overnight, especially since the people of Qin and Jin had just experienced a "change of dynasties." Even though Baishi Immortal Sect was an "immortal," it did not gain trust in some aspects.

Therefore, the first step is to increase the perceived value of fiat currency in the public eye, for example...

Using the iron ore produced in the Iron Mine Cave, combined with the copper ore that already exists in this world, and refining it with true fire to create a copper-iron alloy, then minting coins, its value is much higher than that of ordinary copper coins, and there is no need to worry about wear and tear—having the ability to wear down metal refined with true fire is quite impressive, what can't you do with it?
Moreover, coins made from this kind of spiritual metal naturally have a certain protective effect against evil. After circulating among the people, they are the best protective means to deal with various changes in the early stage of spiritual revival. It is simply a win-win situation!
After explaining some important matters, it was time for the court officials to report on their respective work.

The funeral rites for Li Renshun and his empress have been completed, and they have been buried in the imperial mausoleum. All the deceased concubines were also buried together at the same time—this was proposed by the Ministry of Rites after understanding Zhang Chengdao's intentions, which could save a lot of money.

After the report was finished, the ministers exchanged glances. The Grand Secretary, forcing himself to rise, bowed with his ivory tablet in hand and said, "Reporting to the Immortal Master, a member of the royal family in Nanzheng, Liangzhou, has started an uprising under the banner of rescuing the Crown Prince and restoring the Zhou Dynasty. Although it has been suppressed by the Commandant of Hanchuan Prefecture in Liangzhou and imprisoned in Nanzheng, this matter is still quite troublesome. I wonder how the Immortal Master will handle it... to depose the Crown Prince..."

The Grand Secretary found it extremely difficult to utter the words "deposed crown prince".

The Zhou state had fallen, but the court officials were former officials of the Zhou state. So even though they used to despise the former crown prince who was not very bright, they all felt sentimental at this moment.

What they were lamenting wasn't the crown prince, but their own precarious political future!
"Let the Ministry of Rites choose a title, and bestow upon him the title of Duke of a fief..."

Zhang Chengdao had no intention of being petty about this. If he hadn't never planned to bestow a title of kingship upon the other party, he would have gladly done so. Raising a fool wasn't difficult.

If the other party isn't an idiot, I'd let him enter the White Stone Immortal Path University to cultivate immortality. If you really think about it, I'm actually the benefactor of his whole family!
"His condition is not suitable for cultivating immortality..."

Zhang Chengdao had barely finished speaking when he suddenly remembered something and pressed for an answer: "Was the former crown prince born with an illness, or did he develop the disease later in life?"

"This……"

The court officials looked at each other, none of them having paid attention to this matter before—Empress Zhao had always been very secretive about it, and such a secret matter was indeed difficult to investigate.

Unexpectedly, an old scholar who had never spoken in the crowd suddenly spoke up: "It should be... when the Crown Prince was three years old, he caught a cold and fell seriously ill, which is why he is now unwell..."

The old Hanlin scholar's beard was already white, and his court robes were faded from washing. He hunched over, head bowed, and said in a drawn-out tone, "Twenty... more than twenty years ago, when the Crown Prince was born, this old minister served... before the late Emperor, often hearing the late Emperor... praise the Crown Prince... for his extraordinary intelligence and eloquence..."

(End of this chapter)