Chapter 263

If this keeps going on.

The officials in this Viceroy Yamen will all hang themselves from the southeastern branch!

Just when all the officials were still in the dark.

Su Qiao raised his head, looked at the crowd before him, and asked,

"Right—did those few paintings I had drawn yesterday get delivered?"

"Is this what you mean, my lord?"

The Deputy Commissioner casually took out a giant mounted scroll from a distance.

Su Qiao gave a slight nod and said,

"These very paintings—bring them all to the Chengtian Sect treasury tomorrow."

"Yes, sir!"

……

……

The city outskirts, inside the capital camp's field tent.

Huang Zicheng, Watching Qi Tai, and others were leading a group of censors and physicians in deliberation within the tent.

"Lord Qi, Lord Huang, at this rate the city has less than four hundred wen left in a single string of treasure notes—if we let Su Qiao keep running amok like this, our Great Ming will soon cease to be a nation!"

Huang Zicheng set down the tea cup in his hand, a flash of killing intent passing through his eyes.

"What's the panic? Wait a little longer."

This was not the first time Huang Zicheng had impeached Su Qiao.

After summing up his experience,

he had reached a conclusion.

In the previous attempts, he simply had not prepared thoroughly enough.

He had not let Your Majesty see Su Qiao's true face as "strong outside, hollow within."

That was why Your Majesty, "bewitched" by the alchemist, had believed all that baseless nonsense.

This time,

what Huang Zicheng intended to do was not merely trample Su Qiao into the dirt.

He would overturn everything Su Qiao had done before as well!

"The twenty-day deadline is almost here, isn't it?"

The officials present were taken aback.

"What does Lord Huang mean by that?"

Huang Zicheng slowly set down the tea cup in his hand and sighed,

"Tomorrow, when the treasury opens for exchange—that will be when I lay down my life to remonstrate against Su Qiao!"

"Between myself and Su Qiao, one of us must die tomorrow!"

Hearing this,

the censors before him immediately realized Huang Zicheng's intention.

They rose in unison, cupped their hands, and said,

"We shall follow wherever Lord Huang leads!"

……

……

The next morning, at daybreak.

Before the treasury had even opened its doors, the entire Chengtian Sect was packed with commoners come to exchange for hard cash.

Today was the day that would decide whether the "family fortune" in their hands was truly a lifetime of savings,

or mere wastepaper.

It was also the day that would decide whether the black-market peddlers would throw themselves into the river.

When they heard that someone was using hard cash to buy up treasure notes,

these black-market peddlers had bet their entire fortunes on it.

They had taken in a huge haul of treasure notes from the merchants and sold them to the men of the Treasure Note Commission.

So long as the Treasure Note Commission couldn't hold out today,

they could immediately buy up massive amounts of worthless treasure notes at rock-bottom prices and hand them back to those merchants.

And the difference between today's price of treasure notes and the price at which the Treasure Note Commission had previously bought them cheap on the black market—

that was the profit conjured from thin air by these black-market peddlers!

In other words,

the more Great Ming treasure notes crashed today,

the more they would earn!

But if those treasure notes rose,

by tonight those blood-eyed merchants would throw them into the great prison of Yingtian Prefecture!

Just as these people were waiting for the hour of Mao and the roll call, for the treasury to open its doors,

Su Qiao in the distance arrived at the square outside Chengtian Sect half an hour early, carrying several giant portrait scrolls.

Seeing that Su Qiao had come,

nearly every commoner outside Chengtian Sect swarmed around him.

"Lord Su, when will the exchange open today?"

"We arrived early this morning; let us begin at once."

"Indeed. There is not even a place to rest in the city now; we all walked all night from outside the walls to queue up!"

"We arrived yesterday!"

"..."

Su Qiao looked at the crowd before him and could not help but smile.

"Fellow villagers, we will certainly open the exchange today as usual."

"But the court has established rules; the morning roll call at Mao hour must be observed, and this rule cannot be broken."

"I have come now to tell you villagers one thing."

"The planning map for our New Jin Ling is ready!"

"The map is right here; allow Su Mou to explain it to everyone."

Having said this,

the officials of the Paper Money Bureau slowly unfurled the massive map they held behind them.

Within the Jin Ling city walls, several functional districts stood out clearly.

Su Qiao gazed at the distant map and clicked his tongue, saying,

"Everyone, look. The first phase of residences we considered, namely the outer city section with the most affordable prices, is here."

"Please come forward to inspect!"

These common people clearly scoffed at such matters.

"My lord Su, we have already bought fields in our hometown; collecting rent there is better than this, is it not? Let us exchange the notes quickly!"

"Yes, my family's compensation gold was used to open a brick kiln. Once Jin Ling is finished, we also plan to return to our hometown!"

"..."

Hearing these people's voices,

Su Qiao helplessly said abruptly,

"Everyone, please look."

"These one hundred and thirty-six community schools are public schools prepared by the court for the residents in the surrounding areas."

"Any child studying in a community school shall pay no tuition; in the year of enlightenment, they shall enter school immediately."

"The teaching masters will be primarily students of the Imperial Academy, successful candidates from various regions, and Hanlin academicians from the Hanlin Academy!"

In an instant,

the common people who had just been clamoring to return to their hometowns immediately closed their mouths.

Hanlin academicians from the Hanlin Academy!

Are those not the Wenqu Stars of the heavens?