Dad, don't be greedy! My brother climbed into the emperor's bed, and I became famous overn

The study in the Cui family mansion.

Cui Yuan sat in the armchair, holding the letter in his hand, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes.

Cui Ming stood opposite the desk, his eagerness barely concealed.

"Brother, this is a major project spearheaded by the imperial court. The fact that Pujitang can't come up with the money means that their cash reserves have reached their limit."

Cui Yuan remained silent and reread the letter word by word.

Then he folded the letter and placed it on the corner of the table.

She raised her eyelids and glanced at Cui Ming.

"Send someone to check out that logistics park first. We need to find out whether the commodity market is profitable or not before making any decisions."

Cui Ming was unwilling to accept this and was eager to take revenge.

But with his older brother present, he dared not lose his temper and hesitated to speak.

Cui Yuan had already picked up his teacup and slowly blew away the foam.

"Second brother, haven't you learned your lesson after being wronged once?"

Cui Ming held his breath, his shoulders slumping slightly.

This time, he has to follow his elder brother's instructions and try to kill two birds with one stone by taking down both the young emperor and Pujitang!

The following day, two middle-aged men dressed in ordinary clothes mingled with the crowd of vendors entering and leaving the logistics park and walked in through the main gate.

One of them carried a satchel on his back, and the other carried an oil-paper umbrella in his hand.

They looked no different from itinerant merchants who traveled all over the country.

The two spent the entire afternoon wandering around the logistics park.

From the warehouse area, we walked to the dock, and then from the dock, we circled around to the perimeter of the wholesale market.

The wholesale market is not yet completed; it's still a construction site.

However, a rental notice has already been posted on the bulletin board outside.

A row of brand-new shopfront model rooms in front, with half of the gray-white wall peeking out from the gaps in the fence.

The man with the satchel leaned closer to the notice and squinted as he read through the rental prices from beginning to end.

The one carrying the umbrella went to the nearby food stall and chatted idly with the stall owner.

"Boss, how's business at this logistics park?"

The stall owner flipped the sizzling, oily meat skewers on the hot plate without even looking up.

"Great! Look at this flow of people, my little stall can sell more than twenty taels of silver worth of skewers a day."

"What about that shopping mall next door? I heard it hasn't opened yet?"

"It'll be ready soon. The guys inside say the shops have already been snapped up. There are still a lot of people queuing up for shops in the second phase."

The person carrying the umbrella grunted in agreement, stood up, and exchanged a glance with their companion.

The two squatted at the park entrance for a while longer.

They counted the horse-drawn carriages and wagons coming and going.

From the time of Shen (3-5 PM) to the time of You (5-7 PM), more than three hundred vehicles passed by.

Three days later, the news was compiled and sent back to the Cui residence.

The two men stood hunched over in front of the desk, reporting all the information they had gathered in detail.

Cui Yuan listened with narrowed eyes, already making plans in his mind.

If more than 70% of the shops in Pujitang Commodity City have been sold.

The cost of the shop space alone amounts to tens of millions of taels of silver every year.

Even worse, if we allow merchants to move into the shopping mall one after another without any intervention, it will be disastrous.

That would deal a fatal blow to the commercial channels controlled by the Cui family.

Therefore, from any perspective, they must find a way to bring down Pujitang!

Cui Yuan frowned in thought, extremely cautious.

"Even though the shops at Pujitang weren't finished, they still rented them out in advance and collected money. Why are you saying they can't come up with the cash?"

The two spies exchanged a glance, unsure of what to do.

"Sir, we only heard this information from elsewhere, so we can't guarantee its accuracy."

"I heard from the workers at the commodity city construction site that the owner of Pujitang donated most of the profits from the logistics park and commodity city to the national treasury in order to host the Cuju (ancient Chinese football) tournament. He said it was in response to His Majesty's call to give back to the court."

Cui Yuan's eyes lit up.

Now he understood.

No wonder Pujitang, a newly established business with little of its own, was able to rise so quickly in Kyoto.

It turns out that by being ruthless enough to send silver into the national treasury, they gained the emperor's protection and preferential policies in return.

In this seemingly insignificant exchange, one actually gained something far more valuable than silver.

That is the endorsement of imperial power.

This commodity city dared to set up an imperial tax office.

No wonder those small and medium-sized merchants dared to openly bypass the Cui family to do business.

So that's where the root of the problem lies.

Cui Yuan remained silent for a long time.

"That project in Lingzhou..."

He paced around the room twice with his hands behind his back.

"Let the Ministry of Revenue investigate further. If the court truly lacks personnel for cooperation, it wouldn't be unreasonable for our Cui family to take them over."

Cui Ming frowned.

"Brother! Could this be a scam? Such a big project ties up a lot of cash, and we still need to stockpile grain."

Cui Yuan raised his hand and pressed it down.

"What's the rush? We can bring the nobles in the merchant guild on board."

"Even if the court changes its mind and abandons the project later, the land and facilities will still be in our hands. The nobles who joined will not be able to expand their trade routes elsewhere."

"Lingzhou is the Cui family's territory. As long as things are built on our land, they will always belong to the Cui family."

Cui Ming nodded happily.

His older brother always thinks three steps ahead before taking any action.

"This is a safe and good solution! It won't trap us, and it will also keep those nobles in the merchant guild in check."

Five days later.

Cui Yuan led a group of people away from the capital to Lingzhou to prepare for investment matters.

……

early morning.

Civil and military officials lined up on both sides.

Xiao Ye sat upright on the dragon throne, listening calmly to the routine reports from the court officials.

It was all just trivial matters, as if the world was already at peace and the people were healthy and the seas were calm.

The Ministry of Revenue then casually mentioned that the day for allocating military rations to the northern army was approaching.

Then nothing more was said, and the matter of purchasing grain was never mentioned again.

Xiao Ye glanced at the officials indifferently, without showing any emotion.

Gu Mingli stood among the court officials, his gaze darting around erratically.

He used to find attending court sessions boring.

Now, as he secretly plots against the Cui family in cooperation with the emperor, he realizes the undercurrents surging within the court.

Even when court officials reported on their work, there were pitfalls everywhere.

Just when everyone thought the morning court session would end uneventfully, Prince Qi, Xiao Jue, suddenly stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, I have something to report."

Xiao Jue took out a letter from his sleeve and held it up with both hands.

"I recently received an urgent report from Ji Province. Since the beginning of summer, many provinces in the north have not received a drop of rain, riverbeds have dried up and cracked, and more than half of the crops have withered and died."

Traces of locust eggs have been found in the cracked soil. If we do not take immediate action, a major disaster may ensue.

The hall was completely silent.

Several people in the civil service line stiffened slightly and exchanged glances.

Their movements were so subtle that they were almost imperceptible unless you were watching them closely.

However, Gu Mingli saw it.

He silently made a note of those people, preparing to remind the emperor in the imperial study after court.

Xiao Ye accepted the folded book offered by the young eunuch.

I flipped through it and glanced at it.

"A locust plague has appeared in the north, and the imperial court needs to send envoys to provide disaster relief and stabilize the people's livelihood. Which of you, my esteemed ministers, is willing to take on this mission?"

The hall was completely silent.

The officials from the Ministry of Revenue exchanged glances, all keeping their eyes down and remaining silent.

Xiao Ye wasn't in a hurry and waited a moment.

Locust plagues are different from other disaster relief efforts.

The methods for controlling locusts are limited, and the results are not ideal.

This job is thankless and exhausting.

In particular, the three states most severely affected by the disaster are located near the northern border, where people are short of food, leading to frequent border raids.

Nobody wants to do this kind of dangerous and thankless job.

However, Gu Mingli had already discussed it with his sister.

During the morning assembly, he would stand up and apply to go to provide disaster relief.

Gu Mingli straightened his robes and was about to step forward.

Just then.

At the very front of the civil officials' line, a plump middle-aged man slowly stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, this old minister is willing to go."

Gu Mingli stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

It's his father, Gu Debai!