Chapter 119: Building Temples

Yan Ning smiled and said, "How could that be? At most, they'll just grumble behind our backs. If you really didn't want to be Emperor, they'd be more anxious than anyone."

Yan Ze let out a "haha" laugh.

However, he turned his head and asked again, "That may be so, but water that is too clear has no fish; it's normal to have a few corrupt officials."

Yan Ning pondered for a moment, "Then what if we give them more money? If we want them to be dedicated, their salaries cannot be low, and we must also provide some Integrity-Nurturing Silver."

Yan Ze pondered for a moment, recalling the history books he had read recently, "Actually, our Daxia dynasty always had Integrity-Nurturing Silver, but the late Emperor abolished it."

Yan Ning asked, "Was it because the national treasury was insufficient?"

Yan Ze nodded, "That's right. The money in the national treasury wasn't enough, and on top of that, we emptied the treasury directly, so we couldn't even pay the officials' normal salaries, let alone Integrity-Nurturing Silver."

Yan Ning pondered: "Then we must earn more money. We must first establish government-run factories. We'll find a way; the shops will be managed jointly by us and the Ministry of Revenue. It's just that one Liuli Pu and one Liquor Workshop are likely not enough. Besides the officials' salaries, we also have to fund infrastructure..."

"In short, money is needed everywhere, so there must be more government-run factories. By the way, those ceramic workshops and textile workshops previously didn't operate for profit; now they will be changed to operate for profit. We can also look for videos to see how to modify the Textile Machine."

Yan Ze noted them down one by one: "Your brain is still the most capable."

Yan Ning gave a cheeky laugh: "Of course, my history score in the college entrance exam back then wasn't low."

As if remembering something, she said: "And the Silk Road, and the Maritime Silk Road. Father, we must build ships."

Yan Ze clutched his forehead in pain: "Why is money needed everywhere?"

Yan Ning said: "It's because we are too poor..."

Yan Ning only felt it was fortunate that she had previously swept the national treasury and the Crown Prince's private treasury clean, otherwise this money would have gone to building an imperial palace.

Consequently, during this period, Yan Ning began to get busy.

The Grand Preceptor and the Grand Tutor could not find her at all.

Yan Ning summoned the Glass Factory and the Ji Family, calling them all over to hold a small, temporary meeting.

This time, she called Madam Xie, Lan Xin, Yun Shang, and Zhijin for the meeting, and for the Liquor Workshop, she brought in Ji Yang, who was in charge of the Liquor Workshop.

The group came over together.

Yan Ning did not beat around the bush and said directly: "I intend to establish government-run workshops to generate profit, which will be used to subsidize the national treasury. I have called everyone here today to discuss opening branch factories."

Yan Ning gave a rough outline of her ideas.

Besides the one in the Capital managed by Lady Xie, she also wanted to set up three more glass factories in different places. When the time came, they could make glass tableware, glass cups, and also Glass Pens.

Those aristocratic youths loved flashy things; the glass pens would likely make a huge profit.

The three glass factories would be headed by Lan Xin, Yun Shang, and Zhijin respectively. Every month, they would need to copy the account books and send them to Yan Ning along with a monthly summary.

The same went for the Liquor Workshop; five branch factories would be set up. Yan Ning would provide the brewing methods for various types of liquor, so the Liquor Workshop and the glass factories would only be allowed to keep twenty percent of the profits, with the rest all going into the national treasury.

The group had no objections.

Instead, they felt it was not bad to be able to contribute something to Daxia. After all, it was Yan Ning and her father Yan Ze who had brought them to the Capital to live a good life.

During this time, Yan Ning explained the brewing methods to them. As for the five people, Ji Yang could find some clansmen from the Ji Family who did not need to take the imperial examinations; as long as their character was sound, they could take guards and servants with them.

The three young women, however, were a bit troublesome.

Public security in the Daxia dynasty was not yet that good. Yan Ning was worried about them having an accident, so she assigned two guards to each of them, and then had them sent to their destinations by a security firm.

Yan Ning was busy, and the Grand Tutor and Grand Preceptor could not find a shadow of her these past few days.

When they asked Yan Ze, Yan Ze only said she was busy with other matters recently.

Grand Preceptor Chen was dissatisfied: "No matter how busy, she shouldn't skip the School for half a month in a row, right?"

Grand Preceptor Jiang frowned: "The Crown Princess hasn't even memorized the Four Books and Five Classics, and her calligraphy isn't practiced well either. Could it be that she became this busy just to avoid us?"

Yan Ze was surprised: "How could you think that? Is my daughter that kind of person?!"

Yan Ze explained: "We recently brought up the issue of corrupt officials, but thinking that the salaries of the hundred officials are not high, we proposed doubling the salaries and gradually restoring the Integrity-Nurturing Silver."

Grand Preceptor Chen and Grand Preceptor Jiang were both shocked: "This, although this is a good thing, the national treasury really cannot support it."

"Tax revenue has decreased too much; we can only increase taxes on merchants."

Yan Ze's eyes lit up: "Right, there is also the tax on merchants. It was originally thirty-to-one; let's change it to twenty-to-one now."

As he spoke, he wrote an Imperial Edict and immediately had it sent to the Provincial Administration Commissioner.

After he finished writing, Grand Preceptor Chen asked: "Hey, we've gone off-topic. Why is the Crown Princess not studying now?"

Yan Ze said: "She wants to earn more money, open more glass factories, and also liquor workshops. Finishing these is definitely not enough; there are so many officials, so she has to consider other government-run workshops."

The two were shocked that such a thing could even be done.

Yan Ze continued to speak up for his daughter: "See, she wouldn't skip class for no reason."

After a period of time, the Potato and Corn had matured, while the Sweet Potato would have to wait another month.

The entire Taowu Village was excited. When the Imperial Crown Princess had forced them to plant high-yield crops, they were ten thousand times confused.

Now, looking at the yields, they were all stirred up.

In fact, the amount of Seed each person received was not much; the three types of crops didn't even cover one mu of land, but the yields of the Potato and Corn were indeed very high.

They didn't have the heart to eat the first harvest; they prepared to take advantage of the good weather to cut all the potatoes into pieces and continue planting them.

They only tasted two cobs of Corn, which were sweet.

They couldn't bear to eat any more, because they had to save them for seeds.

This Corn had a high yield and was sweet; it was the best thing to use as a staple food.

Potatoes tasted dry without seasonings; they heard that boiling them with salt or slicing them to stir-fry tasted quite good.

But ordinary commoners didn't even have pots at home, and they basically didn't add seasonings when stir-frying. How could they bear to add salt to potatoes? That would be so wasteful.

Thus, many villagers kept the potatoes to eat and kept the corn to plant.

It was just that many people were wondering what the Sweet Potato tasted like. They heard it was very sweet and delicious, so they prepared to wait a month to try the taste of the Sweet Potato before considering how much to plant.

In the more affluent villages, they even cast a golden statue of Yan Ning, and people went to worship it every day.

Between the high-yield crops and building a School for the village, temples were built for Yan Ning in many places outside the Capital.

Yan Ning only learned of this from Steward Feng.

Steward Feng would report on the crop situation every month, and incidentally mention the matter of the villagers from several nearby villages building a temple for her.

When Yan Ning found out, she was still a bit surprised; were these people being too exaggerated?

However, after the hundred officials at court heard of this, they secretly thought to themselves that it was fortunate they insisted on Yan Ze becoming Emperor.

As for the one-year probationary period...

They did not care; in any case, Yan Ze must be Emperor!