Chapter 559: Disgusting

"Of the twenty-one prefectures of Great Song, Qinzhou and Yongzhou are occupied by the Northern Di, Jinzhou is held by Ma Yuan, Sizhou is held by Ma Han, Yanzhou is held by this Prince, and the remaining sixteen prefectures have now all fallen into the hands of the Rich Clans." Zhao Xu sighed.

Xu Ke sighed, "Your Highness is mistaken; the Prefect of Jinzhou is no longer Ma Yuan. The Imperial Edict has enfeoffed Jinzhou to the Sixth Prince."

"Zhao Fang?" Zhao Xu's hand holding the teacup froze.

Xu Ke nodded gently, suddenly not even daring to breathe heavily.

Although the Yan Wang before him looked as usual, he felt that the Yan Wang was like a fierce tiger ready to eat someone at any moment.

"They are doing this to deliberately humiliate this Prince." Zhao Xu set down the teacup and walked outside the study.

He had performed great military feats, yet he only controlled the entire Yanzhou now.

And the Sixth Prince had not performed a single feat, yet Dou Wei and the others had bestowed the entire Jinzhou upon the Sixth Prince.

If this is not humiliating him, what is?

Furthermore, the Sixth Prince's personal feud with him was something no one in Jingshi was unaware of.

The rumors that Zhao Xu was insane and that Zhao Heng detested Zhao Xu all had the shadow of the Sixth Prince behind them.

Moreover, he had also driven his reliance, the Yuan Family, out of Yanzhou.

Now, the Sixth Prince must hate him to death.

"Dou Wei is truly sinister. With Jinzhou falling into the hands of the Sixth Prince, the west of Yanzhou will no longer be safe." Xu Ke gritted his teeth.

Zhao Xu snorted. Dou Wei could even pull off the "civet cat for the crown prince" scheme; what was there that he could not do?

"You are overthinking this; Jinzhou will not fall into the hands of the Sixth Prince." Zhao Xu suddenly smirked.

To the east of Jinzhou is Yanzhou, and to the south is Sizhou.

In such an environment, if he let the Sixth Prince successfully control Jinzhou after all this time, wouldn't he have wasted his efforts?

Most importantly, seeing that the bottom line of the Rich Clans was getting lower and lower.

He felt that only a wicked dragon could defeat a wicked dragon.

Since the Rich Clans could play dirty and disgust him, why couldn't he turn around and make the Rich Clans uncomfortable?

"Your Highness means...?" Xu Ke's eyes suddenly filled with anticipation.

In fact, it was simple to deal with the Sixth Prince; with just one word from the Yan Wang, the Four Courts would ensure the Sixth Prince never reached Jinzhou.

But this required the Yan Wang's nod.

"Since they are using Jinzhou to disgust this Prince, this Prince will simply take Jinzhou." Zhao Xu smiled wickedly.

When Ma Yuan was the Prefect of Jinzhou, he felt embarrassed to take action.

But against the Sixth Prince, he had no such qualms.

Now that the Steam Engine Workshop was built, more and more Steam Engines would be put into every industry in Yanzhou in the future.

And with the popularization of the Steam Engine, the amount of coal used in Yanzhou would continue to increase.

Under these circumstances, it was safest to keep Jinzhou, a region rich in coal, in his own hands.

Furthermore, Jinzhou was originally won with the lives of the Yanzhou soldiers.

How could this land flowing with the blood of Yanzhou soldiers be given to the Sixth Prince,

Only for him to use it to deal with Yanzhou?

"Please give your instructions, Your Highness." Xu Ke suddenly became excited, anticipating the result he wanted.

"This Prince knows what you are thinking, but there is no need for your Four Courts to take action," Zhao Xu said.

When he withdrew from Jinzhou, he had left a backup plan.

When Xiliang captured Jinzhou, most of the people of Jinzhou were led into Yanzhou.

Ma Han had once wanted to lead the people fleeing from Qinzhou and Yongzhou into Jinzhou, but he had intercepted them as well.

In addition, Jinzhou had been severely ravaged by Xiliang, so the current Jinzhou was very withered and broken, and sparsely populated.

According to his understanding, the population of Jinzhou was now mainly concentrated in the seven commandery seats.

Totaling less than eight hundred thousand.

And of these eight hundred thousand, more than half were effectively under the jurisdiction of the Yan Commandery Trading Firm.

After taking Jincheng, he killed the Four Great Wealthy Clans of Jinzhou and simultaneously confiscated all the mines, farmland, and shops of the Rich Clans.

He handed all these confiscated assets to the Yan Commandery Trading Firm to manage, turning them into assets of the Prince's Mansion.

It could be said that the Yan Commandery Trading Firm now almost controlled the economic lifeline of Jinzhou.

After all, these Rich Clans held the best farmland and the best mines in Jinzhou.

But most importantly, he ordered the trading firm to collect only one-tenth of the tax from the tenant farmers on the farmland, just like in Yanzhou.

While the minimum tax collected by the Imperial Court was three-tenths.

As a result, many Jinzhou people almost all chose the trading firm's farmland.

Regarding this, Ma Yuan could only stare helplessly.

The Yan Wang had forced the Rich Clans to sell the contracts for their farmland, shops, and mines to the Prince's Mansion during the war.

This was a fair trade, and he could not criticize it.

What made him even more depressed was that the tax Great Song levied on the Royal Clan's farmland was very low, basically just symbolic.

It was not even one percent of the tax, so even if the Yan Wang only collected one-tenth, he was still making a profit.

Besides the farmland, he also had the trading firm give the mine workers generous wages.

This absorbed another portion of the Jinzhou population.

Therefore, although Jinzhou was under Ma Yuan's jurisdiction, in reality, if he stomped his foot in Jinzhou, Jinzhou would shake three times.

Previously, it was because he was wary of Zhao Heng and had a good relationship with Ma Yuan.

So he let the merchants of the trading firm behave themselves under Ma Yuan's rule.

But if the Sixth Prince came, that would be different.

He would certainly make the Sixth Prince experience the same treacherous human nature he faced when he first arrived in Yan Commandery, and let him die in despair.

"Let him go to Jinzhou first; this Prince has his own ways of dealing with him." Zhao Xu decided on the strategy for Jinzhou.

Furthermore, if he killed the Sixth Prince halfway, Ma Yuan and Mo Kuan would not be grateful to him.

It was better to let the Sixth Prince wreak havoc in Jinzhou for a while first.

In any case, before Jinzhou was integrated, this Sixth Prince posed no threat to him whatsoever.

Even if he did, he could crush him to death at any time.

The Prince's Personal Army at Feihu Pass was also sufficient to handle any emergency.

Having settled this matter, Zhao Xu ordered Xu Ke to continue keeping an eye on Jingshi.

He was to report any changes in Jingshi at any time and also have him monitor the movements of the powerful clans.

Especially the dealings between the Han Family and Dongying.

As the two were talking, Feng'er suddenly reported that Wang Chong requested his presence at the Workshop District.

He then let Xu Ke leave and headed straight for the Workshop District himself.

Upon arriving at the Workshop District, Zhao Xu was led to a workshop room, where a Steam Engine was emitting bursts of roaring sounds inside.

Some women dressed in simple clothing were moving back and forth between the workshop and the warehouse.

What they were carrying were bundles upon bundles of clean, white cotton yarn.

"Your Highness." Wang Chong walked out of the workshop at this moment, his clothes covered in cotton lint.

With a smile, he gestured toward the workshop, making a welcoming motion, "This is your Spinning Workshop."

Zhao Xu laughed heartily and strode inside.

The women who were spinning yarn bowed to him one after another upon seeing him, then, with shy expressions, continued with their spinning.

And the things they were operating were none other than the spinning machines he had ordered Wang Chong to research and build.

However, this was no longer the primitive spinning jenny, but a spinning machine that had been improved, just like the Steam Engine.

Wang Chong even gave this model of spinning machine a new name—the Qianji Spinning Machine.

Because the primitive spinning machines of Great Song only had one spindle, while the improved spinning machine possessed eighty spindles.

It increased efficiency by eighty times.