Chapter 573

"This king, on behalf of the Imperial Guards and the people of Chang'an, thanks you, sir!"

Zhang Jing hurriedly said he didn't dare, and the king helped him up, then continued: "Sir Zhang, one man's strength alone will always fall short, and Beijiang is not a major grain-producing commandery; this shortfall cannot be filled by this king and the Minister of Agriculture alone."

Zhang Jing didn't even have time to cry, desperately trying to figure out what the king actually wanted to do. But now that the words had reached this point, the answer was on the tip of everyone's tongue.

"Your... Your Highness, the Zhang family is merely an ordinary gentry clan from Guyang; among the many prominent clans in Chang'an, we truly have nothing..." authority.

He hadn't finished speaking when the king interrupted: "Sir Zhang, having this awareness is enough; you've already surpassed most clans. Will the Zhang clan later worry about failing to become one of the top clans in the capital? Don't I have this king here?"

Zhang Jing decided to just lie back and relax, stop struggling, and simply see what the king wanted him to do!

"Let's organize a charity banquet to raise some grain, okay~" The king, handsome as he was, drew out his words in a long, lingering tone. Zhang Jing felt nothing cute about it—only fear. Is this what royal children are like?!

The king didn't just want him to donate his own stored grain; he also wanted this Minister of Agriculture to step forward and get all of Chang'an to donate!

He had thought the big commotion in Beijiang was orchestrated by the Xie clan behind the scenes, but the Xie clan isn't in Chang'an now. He only had one thought in his mind: three hundred years have passed, and the Mandate of Heaven still belongs to the Bai Li clan. What Yuchuan, what Great Chu—can they really match this little one?! Zhang Jing left the palace worried and anxious, still thinking on the road that he now understood why Bai Li Jing this guy wasn't in a hurry to ascend the throne—he wanted to finish things first, then hold the benefits in his own hands!

Look at Cheng Tai Chang trying to offer advice but finding no foothold; trying to fit him with imperial rules and regulations simply won't work.

Zhang Jing left with a pounding heart, feeling even more uneasy than when he arrived. The king, meanwhile, was delighted, happily heading to his estate to search for rare items at the Floating Tower auction.

The king considered the Floating Tower auction an equal exchange: customers spend money, he also provides goods, everyone trades freely—but the charity banquet is truly harvesting the leeks, blatantly pure harvesting.

The king's estate had a negative balance; the silver ingots from his stall were gone as soon as they came in, leading him to think he couldn't even buy rare items in the city with gold. So he stuffed a few large pearls and some useless gold and silver jewelry into his pack and went to Phoenix Market to barter, finally understanding the inconvenience of being unregistered.

Bai Yang wasn't there, so he dragged Bai Ze along to give him eyes, fearing those few melons and dates on him would get him scammed.

They started from the first stall at Phoenix Market, and Bai Ze, seeing his eager, about-to-make-a-fortune expression, couldn't help but retort: "You're happy just swindling clans out of their money?"

The king immediately showed a "Your words are mistaken" expression of grievance: "How could that be! Am I really that shallow?!"

Bai Ze remained silent; this silence made the king feel as if he'd been pierced by an arrow.

"In these turbulent times, noble clans and wealthy merchants have all kept a low profile, hiding in fortified inner cities, households cutting expenses to scrape through the chaos. From their perspective, this makes no problem; from the king's perspective, it's truly terrible. The more turbulent the times, the more they need to spend! Everyone spends money, everyone earns money; if no one spends money, then no one earns money—dead Chang'an will drag down our Beijiang!"

Bai Ze admitted he had once again come to understand the king anew, never expecting him to think so thoroughly.

While the king glanced at the stalls on either side, he opened his speech box: "I established the Floating Tower in Chang'an, where noble clans and wealthy merchants squander thousands of gold; besides me, the attendants, artisans, and cooks in the tower will also earn money, and once they earn it, they'll spend it elsewhere. Chang'an's people live better than those in other commanderies; with this virtuous cycle, foreign cloth and food can also be sold in Chang'an—wouldn't the economy then come alive? If everyone just holes up at home eating their own provisions, what livelihood remains for the Jin Dynasty? Besides, only the clans can scrape by for a while; everyone else, the less silver they have, the less they dare to spend; over time, the economy just dies~"

Since the king once collected protection money, he gained new insight into the wealth of those great clans: namely, he had never even heard of some small clans, yet dragging out any one of them would make them richer than him. The Prince of Youzhou back then only had one hundred thousand taels of silver for his settlement, and I've heard that the settlement where the Langya Wang Clan placed their servants is even larger than his original princely mansion.

Bai Ze nodded in agreement, and the king's head grew ever more lofty, proud~

Bai Ze stopped in front of a stall selling small animals: "Last time, the Wei clan got into trouble with you over the Rou; pets kept by Jin Dynasty nobility are truly bland—you can buy two kinds of rare small animals, and there's no price difference to make up." Bai Ze saw that the animals sold at this stall were just oddly cute in appearance, all ordinary small animals, definitely not spirit beasts.

The king looked at the stall's long-tailed, splendid bird, the fluffy unknown small creature, and thought it feasible.

Too many wouldn't be worth it; the king decided to buy one each to let them fight it out.

The penniless street vendor tycoon produced a large pearl, trying to trade for a few cute little ones, but when the stall owner learned it was merely a precious decorative pearl, he shook his head—clearly, his plane doesn't recognize this foreign jewelry attribute.

The king fumbled out two gold and silver fish bestowed by the palace on children, handed over a silver fish, and the stall owner pushed over a fluffy silver creature, saying this is a Fengyun Beast, and the fattest of his newborn litter is this one.

Upon learning the Fengyun Beast's traits are graceful form and high-speed running, the king fell silent. You savor it: a small animal that can run—this is merely the fattest...

"Fine, just this one—fat and cute. See if this goldfish can trade for a few?"

The stall owner didn't answer, only gave Bai Ze a salivating glance: "This... do you have goods? If you can sell them as a pair, the price is negotiable!"

"Hahahaha!" The king burst out laughing.

Bai Ze, the adult, immediately turned his head and glared at the king, walking away without looking back.

"There's only one Bai Ze adult in heaven and earth, and you still want to pair him up to have offspring for sale, hahahaha!" The stall owner's face showed disappointment; the king immediately slid to his knees to coax his great Rui beast, sweet words flowing out for free.

After Bai Ze turned his attention to the neighboring stall, he heard this guy muttering behind him: "If there are extra offspring, this king will raise them himself—one as a mount, the other specially kept for fur-plucking..."

Bai Ze:...

Meng Fei flew out of the skylight.

After the king's ordeal at the pet stall, he found some stall owners accepted silver and gold, others didn't. He each time tried Bai Yang's processed jade carvings first; the king, possessing jade mines, never lacked Hetian jade; if that failed, he tried silver and gold. After one round, he'd exchanged a chaotic mess of items. Rare treasures and exotic beasts—everything you could want.

The king knew that compared to cute pets, the upper society of Jin Dynasty first prided itself on fine horses, alas he had no silver ingots to open the city market and buy them, so he could only have Zhu Ti from Youzhou send over two idle white gold wild horses from his ranch.

When the king next went out on the street, he no longer rode his own white dragon; the street vendor tycoon, well-versed in advertising effects, began promoting the white gold wild horses, same model as the Northern Border King.

He rode the white gold wild horses around the city to the Floating Tower, handing the updated auction list to He Guang.

This auction's climax will surely be the Return Spring Pill and the Rejuvenate Youth Pill; the king fears the leeks won't recognize the goods. "... Print and distribute some auction lists, while heavily promoting these two pills. Invite renowned folk physicians to attend the auction, and find someone gravely ill to use as bait—I'll give him an extra pill, and we'll demonstrate the effect live. What price these two pills will fetch depends on the effect of these days' promotion."

He Guang calculated the dates needed for printing and promotion: "Please, Your Highness, indicate which day the auction should be held."

The king waved his hand: "Not urgent; wait until my charity banquet is perfectly successful, then we can open it in time."

Wei Shen worried for the Chang'an clans, the king preparing with both hands to deliver a combo punch to harvest the leeks—you might dodge the first, but you absolutely cannot dodge the fifteenth.

At the same time, the Chang'an clans and wealthy merchants also received the king's invitation; the king wishes to hold the charity banquet on the Divine Platform of Jianzhang Palace.

Everyone doesn't know exactly what this charity banquet does, only knowing the invitations were sent by the Northern Border Army.

Whether to go or not—you decide for yourself.