The eldest princess is obsessed with rebellion, but there are six male protagonists

The Chief Secretary of the Princess's Mansion is a fifth-rank official with a monthly salary of 16 dan of rice. One dan of rice is 180 jin. 16 dan is almost 3,000 jin of grain. Wutong's small body is not capable of carrying it.

Fortunately, officials’ salaries were not all paid in the form of rice. Instead, they received whatever was available in the national treasury, including rice, silver, salt, tea, cloth, and pepper.

The Minister of Revenue, Lord Xu, was an old acquaintance of Su Fengyi, and the two had even had dinner together.

In addition, the Pei family is behind Lord Xu, and Prince Consort Pei and the eldest princess have reconciled, so the Pei family and the eldest princess are on the same boat, so rounding it off, Lord Xu and the eldest princess can also be considered as family members.

So Su Fengyi took Wutong to the Ministry of Revenue to collect the salary certificate, and Lord Xu was much more enthusiastic than the last time they met.

Since it was the eldest princess's order, even though it was only a small matter of 16 stone of rice, Lord Xu handled it very seriously and even specially summoned a person named Tao from the Taicang Office of the Ministry of Revenue.

Although the position of the chief official is small, the power is enormous. Chief Tao is in charge of the monthly salaries of officials and decides what to use from the national treasury to pay them out.

The emperor decides how much salary officials should receive, but Tao, the executor, decides what to use to pay the salary.

Execution is power.

So, it makes a big difference whether a stone of rice is brown rice, polished rice, old rice or new rice.

If it is exchanged for cloth, how much cloth and what kind of cloth should it be?

Exchanged for tea, what kind of tea is it and when is it made?

All these things are decided by Master Tao, and one can imagine the room for maneuver.

Manager Tao took out a long list and said to Wutong. He did not show any arrogance because Wutong was a woman. Instead, he was very humble and said with a smile:

"Please Shangguan An, Lord Lu, these are the things currently available in Taicang, the capital. Please take a look. Is there anything that suits your taste?

From now on, Lord Lu, when you want to get your salary certificate, just come to me and I will do it for you properly."

Wutong glanced at Su Fengyi, and Su Fengyi smiled and said:

"Since it is Master Tao's intention, you must thank Master Tao."

Seeing that the princess had acquiesced, Wutong solemnly thanked Master Tao, and then the two of them went aside to discuss what to exchange the sixteen stone of rice for.

From the beginning to the end, Lord Xu was not impatient at all. Instead, he just drank tea and waited in a very good manner. He no longer had the attitude of "I'm politely declined. No appointment" as before.

Lord Xu even started chatting with Su Fengyi:

“Speaking of which, this spring has been a good year with good weather and good harvests. The quality of tea in various places is good, and now the national treasury is full of tea. We have been giving out tea as monthly salary for quite some time.

I wonder if we can still see such good tea in the national treasury next year."

Qiao Gui has always wanted to promote the tea monopoly through the East Depot. If he succeeds, all the tea revenue will go into the pocket of the East Depot, and the tea tax of the Ministry of Revenue will be in name only.

Without the tea tax, the national treasury's revenue would be greatly reduced, and the Ministry of Revenue would be the first to suffer.

There has been a significant reduction in income, but the expenditures in various places have not decreased. If this hole cannot be filled, Mr. Xu's job as the Minister of Revenue will surely come to an end.

So Lord Xu was openly asking whether there would be any tea in the national treasury next year, but he was actually asking whether Qiao Gui's tea monopoly could be accomplished this year?

The key to whether Qiao Gui can succeed in this matter lies in what the emperor’s attitude is on this matter?

Lord Xu couldn't meet the Emperor and couldn't figure out the Emperor's attitude, so he came to ask Su Fengyi.

The change in Lord Xu's attitude from not making an appointment last time to actively asking this time was all because the eldest princess used to be an outsider, but now she is a person at the center of power who can sit at the table.

If Su Fengyi wants to promote tea-horse trade on the border in the future, she will certainly need the support of Lord Xu. Mutual benefit is the way for the court to survive.

Moreover, the national treasury is the foundation of the country. Even if Lord Xu didn't ask, Su Fengyi would not let Qiao Gui mess around like this.

So Su Fengyi said:

"In my opinion, the emperor is wise and blessed by heaven. Next year will surely be a good year with good weather, a good tea harvest, and a full treasury. Lord Xu, please do not worry too much."

The issue of tea monopoly has troubled Lord Xu for many days. Now that he has heard the confirmation from the princess, Lord Xu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Even Lord Xu gave Su Fengyi a serious bow:

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your kind words."

Master Tao, who was observing everyone's words and expressions from the side, suddenly became more enthusiastic towards Wutong.

Master Tao even personally arranged for someone to take out the things Wutong wanted from the Lu Mi Cang, and also arranged an ox cart to deliver the things back to the Princess's Mansion.

Wutong was happy when he was choosing things. It was the first time that he received salary from the national treasury as Lu Qingtong. He was curious about everything and wanted everything. He chose a lot of rice, flour, tea, salt and cloth.

When they arrived at the Princess's mansion, the oxcart driver asked her which door to enter and where to move her things, but Wutong got stuck.

She finally remembered that she and Dangui lived in the same room, and their small room definitely could not accommodate so many things.

Wutong felt a little regretful. One stone of rice cost one tael of silver. If he had known earlier, he would have directly received sixteen taels of silver. Besides, there was a store that specialized in collecting these rice next to the Lu Mi Cang. He should have disposed of these just now.

Just go back and deal with it.

She said to the driver sheepishly:

"Excuse me……"

At this time, Dangui brought a group of servants to rescue Wutong:

"Master Lu is back. Please pay your respects to Master Lu. Come, come, move Master Lu to the courtyard."

A group of servants rushed over and moved all the things in no time. Wutong wanted to stop them but failed. He asked Dangui:

"With all these things moved into our room, where are we going to sleep tonight?"

Dangui smiled as if a flower had bloomed. She was really happy for Wutong. Wutong was promoted to the position of Chief Clerk, and the position of the Princess's first personal maid belonged to her, Dangui. So if Wutong was good, she was good too.

Dangui came up and pulled Wutong to leave:

"What do you mean by 'we'? Whoever says 'we' to you will naturally move to your yard.

The eldest princess has allocated a separate courtyard for you and added two little maids to serve you. From now on, our room will be mine alone.

Hey, come quickly. Baiguo, Luqing and I have been decorating your yard for quite some time. Come and take a look to see if it suits your taste.

It’s useless even if it doesn’t suit my taste, but it’s killing me, and I can’t change it even if it doesn’t suit my taste…”

Wutong was pulled forward by Dangui. He looked back at Su Fengyi, tears welling up in his eyes:

"Your Highness..."

Su Fengyi smiled and said:

"Since you are already a chief historian, you should behave like one. Go ahead. The three of them have prepared a celebration banquet for you. You sisters should get together and celebrate today."

Su Fengyi did not attend Wutong's celebration party that night, for fear that they would feel uncomfortable if she went.

Dangui was a considerate person. Halfway through the celebration banquet, she personally brought a bowl of rice to Wutong and said with a smile:

"Try it now, how about it?"

No matter how good the rice in the national treasury is, it is not much better. How can it be compared with the fine rice in the Princess's Mansion?

But when Wutong tasted the rice made with the rice from her monthly salary, she felt that it was the best thing she had ever eaten in her life. Even the fine wine and precious medicine in the Empress's palace could not compare to it.