Chapter 633: Chapter 631 Annoying Master
Wang Xian sighed silently, they had sided with Prince Fu, being one of the forces reaching out for a piece of the rail transport project. At the ti it seed like a lucrative opportunity, but now it seed an extrely dangerous trap.
Not only had they failed to secure as much silver as anticipated, they had also left themselves holding a hot potato. It was just unclear how much the Crown Prince had gotten himself involved.
Liu Yu was examining the docunts Prince Fu had laid on the table, skimming over the important parts, and said, “This docunt is organized and practical. If the Crown Prince had known in advance, he probably wouldn’t have spoken out against it personally, right?”
The Crown Prince always loved grandeur and spent lavishly, and Liu Yu could imagine that the Crown Prince would reach out for silver during the fundraising for the railway construction. Yet, for a Crown Prince, wasn’t he too impatient? His actions were a clear sign to others how important the railway project was to him, to the point where he couldn’t hold back any longer?
Prince Fu said, “With his foolish nature, if he has sothing on his mind, where would he care about being patient? When Pri Minister Han brought up replacing iron rails with wooden ones, there was a chorus of discussions in the Imperial Court with loud opposition, and the reasoning behind it was quite sound. Yet, the brainless Crown Prince couldn’t wait for his subordinates to speak up and jumped out first, spouting a long speech himself.”
As Prince Fu spoke, he scoffed again, “It seems that during the fundraising for the railway construction, the Crown Prince dipped his hands in too greedily.”
Liu Yu nodded in agreent, “It’s very likely. If that’s the case, we could look into it. If we can use this opportunity to bring down the Crown Prince and completely open up the position of heir to the throne, that would be good.”
Prince Fu frowned, “The Crown Prince has been entrenched in the Ministry of Revenue for many years. He himself may be foolish beyond asure, but those ministers who support the legitimate line have managed the Ministry very stringently; outsiders simply can’t get involved. Jiang Yifan is also a capable official, but after working in the Ministry for half a year, he’s still lingering on the fringes, unable to get involved in substantive matters. If we want to check on the Ministry’s affairs, I’m afraid it won’t be easy.”
Liu Yu was already worried about the stockpiled materials, but it wasn’t sothing that could be solved in a short ti. If they could find fault with the Crown Prince, they might also divert so attention and win so ti to deal with the iron materials.
He said, “If we want to investigate, it’s not necessarily through direct involvent with the Ministry of Revenue. Once the silver enters the Ministry, it is under the Son of Heaven’s eyes, and then it’s not easy to tamper with. The railway project requires a huge amount of silver, perhaps the Crown Prince extended his reach to the localities, taking advantage of collecting huge sums of money locally to manipulate.”
Upon hearing this, Prince Fu nodded, “What you say makes sense. However, without a decree from the court, it’s difficult to examine and tally the differences in local taxation.”
Wang Xian, struck with an idea, said, “What’s so difficult about that? We’ll take so trouble to send people to inquire about the tax situation in various places. If the taxation is excessive, causing the common people to beco holess or even lead to loss of lives, we can encourage them to file complaints.”
“Right,” Prince Fu’s eyes brightened, “Then we can petition His Majesty, expanding the scope, and call for a strict investigation into tax affairs.” His irritation from hearing about the use of wooden rails in the Imperial Court had just started to subside.
The three discussed how to handle the stockpiled iron mines and iron materials. Although the concealed iron materials and iron mines were substantial in quantity, luckily these items weren’t concentrated in one place; they were scattered across various mines and workshops. If no one deliberately investigated, they would not attract too much attention.
After their discussion, Prince Fu once again lanted Jinrong’s luck, “Although we valued Ye Xinyan highly, we were still negligent. If we hadn’t recalled the spies in Qingyuan County back then, we might have discovered the wooden rails being laid in Clear Water Village earlier. If arrangents had been made beforehand, those wooden rails could have been destroyed. At the very least, we wouldn’t have stockpiled so much iron ore and materials.”
Seeing Prince Fu was quite disheartened, Wang Xian spoke up to comfort him, “If we speak of negligence, it is the oversight of us subordinates. How could Your Highness be preoccupied with trivial matters when tasked with great affairs?”
Liu Yu, however, said, “Your Highness need not be vexed by this matter. Even if those spies continued to linger in Qingyuan County, they couldn’t sniff out any detailed information, let alone destroy the railway. In those little villages, the arrival of a stranger imdiately attracts a lot of attention. With Guan He and nurous guards watching over the Qi family, strangers find it even harder to get close. We recalled our people precisely because the spies were of little use remaining there.”
“As for the stockpiled materials…” Liu Yu glanced at Wang Xian and continued, “We manage the Ministry of Works, at most we could promote the use of threaded fasteners to the various counties next year, and then find a way to supplent the border with so weaponry. Piece by piece, we would be able to use up quite a bit.”
Every ti he thought about the stockpiled materials, Prince Fu felt unbearably gloomy. He said, “Ever since Lao Liu went to Yuyuan Prefecture and ran into Ye Xinyan, we always seem to stumble in our endeavors. This Ye Xinyan…”
At this point, a frown creased Prince Fu’s brow, and his face darkened, words failing him.
This was not the first ti Jinrong lost money. That year, Jinrong had sent cheese powder and dessert recipes to the palace. Luckily, his overseer had been to the North and knew what the cheese powder was made of. Thus, he had arranged to buy a lot of cheese residues and butter from the nomadic lands of the Northern Barbarians.
But before his goods had even reached the capital, Jinrong’s fernted cheese was introduced to the city, and the production ingredients of the cheese powder were made public. To control the price and the market for cheese powder, he had not spared expense in procuring cheese residues and butter, resulting in a massive loss of Silver.
This ti was even worse; not only was there a loss of Silver, but if the stockpiling of iron materials was discovered and criticized, the situation would be dire, far from easy to extricate oneself from.
Jinrong had now beco a stumbling block for him. But Jinrong was a prince, naturally not so easy to deal with. And as for Ye Xinyan… with Duke An and Marquis Zhongyong involved, she was no easy target either. One careless move could result in his own downfall.
A dim light flickered in Prince Fu’s eyes.
Speaking of the Miss of Duke An’s Mansion, Liu Yu also felt a headache.
In the past two years, His Highness Prince Yu had beco highly favored by His Majesty, while the Crown Prince and Prince Fu were increasingly restricted. The reason, after all, lay in the extraordinary abilities of Miss Ye. The nurous incidents stirred by Prince Yu in recent years were all engineered by the Qi family and Ye Xinyan.
He understood what Prince Fu ant. If it were an ordinary person who was an eyesore or a threat, one could simply get rid of them. However, they were dealing with Prince Yu and Miss Ye.
No matter how threatening Prince Yu was, he was still a prince, and it was not possible to do anything to him.
Ye Xinyan was equally formidable, a lady with a powerful backing and accompanied by an inscrutable bodyguard, equally difficult to handle. If Duke An was provoked, and the old man threw caution to the wind, he might have the power to bring Prince Fu down.
In a soothing voice, Liu Yu said, “It is divine favor that grants the Ye family lady such opportunity, not to ntion Elder Master Ye and Guan He’s care. Your Highness, best put aside those thoughts. No matter what, Duke An is a revered minister highly valued by His Majesty. Even if we cannot win him over, we should at least avoid offending him. Keeping him neutral is the best outco.”
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