The struggle for the throne among nine princes—I really don't want to be the crown prince.

Chapter 89 Borrowing money is fun for a moment, but borrowing money all the time is even more fun.
Emperor Qianxi was decisive and efficient in disaster relief.

Besides arranging for Shen Ye to be in charge of fundraising, he made other arrangements.

For example, the Ministry of Revenue should allocate 400,000 taels of silver as soon as possible, so that local areas can find wealthy households to buy grain.

Furthermore, ten young censors were dispatched to the severely affected areas to supervise the disaster relief efforts. If any acts of corruption or malfeasance were discovered, they were to be reported to the authorities immediately.
Another point is that the fourth prince, Yunzhen, requested that people be sent to Jiangnan to procure grain.

Emperor Qianxi was very willing to do this, but in the end, he was somewhat worried about his son, so he sent Chen Tingjing, the Left Censor-in-Chief, to Jiangnan to procure grain.

With these decisions made, the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty quickly began to operate around the issue of providing relief to the disaster victims.

However, compared to other arrangements, most officials were more concerned about the job that Crown Prince Shen Ye had been given.

The Crown Prince and the Emperor had a private audience.

And it was quickly decided that the Crown Prince would be in charge of raising funds for disaster relief.

Is this really a sign that a massacre is about to begin?
If Emperor Qianxi wanted to raise money by launching a major purge, who would the Crown Prince target first?

For a time, some ministers who thought their families were wealthy felt a sense of unease.

Shen Ye had just accepted his assignment and hadn't even returned to Yuqing Palace when Zhou Bao walked over with a strange expression on his face.

"Greetings, Your Highness."

Seeing Zhou Bao's hesitant expression, Shen Ye knew that his personal eunuch must have encountered something.

He said calmly, "Just say what you need to say. There's no need to hide anything from me."

Zhou Bao said in a low voice, "I just met Lord Algishan. He... he asked me to tell the Crown Prince that the Nalan family has countless amounts of gold and silver."

"And Nalan Mingzhu was notoriously greedy."

"Once Nalan Mingzhu is brought down, then... then the disaster relief funds should be raised very quickly!"

Upon hearing Zhou Bao's report, Shen Ye was startled.

He just wanted to borrow money, but he didn't expect that some people would be so eager to hand him a knife.

If it were the former crown prince, he might have been tempted by such a thing.

Raising money was a minor matter for the former crown prince.

However, he was more than happy to bring down Mingzhu, the Crown Prince's biggest supporter.

But for Shen Ye, defeating Mingzhu would be a complete waste of time.

As for the money from the confiscation of his property, Shen Ye was somewhat tempted, but he still intended to proceed according to his plan.

So he waved his hand and said, "You don't need to pay attention to these words, just pretend you didn't hear them."

At this point, he suddenly turned to Zhou Bao with curiosity and asked, "Zhou Bao, do you really think Mingzhu's assets are enough for disaster relief?"

Looking at Shen Ye's smiling face, Zhou Bao felt a chill in his heart.

He quickly replied, "Your Highness, this servant does not know how much wealth Lord Mingzhu possesses, but this servant has heard that Lord Mingzhu is very rich."

Shen Ye waved his hand, indicating that Zhou Bao could leave.

Objectively speaking, moving to Mingzhu would be a win-win situation, but doing so would create too many enemies.

Moreover, this would make those ministers who had previously remained neutral in the court wary of the crown prince.

After all, the ministers all had money.

Today, the Crown Prince confiscated Mingzhu's property because he was broke. What will happen when he becomes emperor? Will he confiscate my property too?

Therefore, Shen Ye does not intend to do that.

Of course, another reason for not doing so is that Mingzhu is not someone who can be easily manipulated.

Even Emperor Qianxi would have to carefully plan the confiscation of his property.

Shen Ye wasn't confident enough to easily win over Mingzhu.

As he sipped his tea, pondering his plan to borrow money, Zhou Bao came again to report that the Fourth Prince and Minister of Revenue Ma Qi requested an audience. Upon hearing that these two had arrived, Shen Ye sighed softly.

The fourth brother really did reveal his true strength without making a fuss.

By following Ma Qi around like this, he inevitably earned a reputation for being proactive in his work and sharing his father's burdens.

Shen Ye had originally planned to meet Ma Qi, but upon hearing that Ma Qi had arrived, he had someone invite Ma Qi and the Fourth Prince over.

"Greetings to the Crown Prince." Ma Qi and the Fourth Prince bowed to Shen Ye at the same time.

Shen Ye quickly stepped forward and helped the two men up, then smiled and said, "Fourth Brother, Lord Ma, there are no outsiders here, so you two don't need to be so polite."

"Please take a seat!"

Ma Qi did not sit down immediately. He solemnly said, "Your Highness, His Majesty has instructed us to assist you in raising funds. The disaster situation is urgent, and His Majesty is deeply concerned."

"If there is anything that Your Highness needs me to do, please give the order as soon as possible, and I will do it immediately."

Ma Qi's words were quite eloquent, sounding like he was wholeheartedly trying to share Emperor Qianxi's burdens.

But Shen Ye had a feeling that this guy was trying to shift all the blame onto himself.

The fourth prince, Yunzhen, stood to the side, seemingly listening attentively to the two of them.

Shen Ye asked, "Lord Ma, I heard that the Ministry of Revenue's annual salt tax is two million taels of silver?"

Ma Qi was taken aback; he didn't know why the Crown Prince had brought up the salt tax.

But at this moment, he still honestly replied, "Your Highness is wise. The salt tax collected by the Ministry of Revenue every year is more than two million taels."

"But this year's salt tax has already been paid."

"Otherwise, it can be used as an emergency measure."

Shen Ye glanced at Ma Qi and said, "Wasn't there no harvest next year?"

“Your Highness, collecting the salt tax ahead of schedule... this could easily cause unforeseen problems.” Ma Qi’s voice trembled.

The Crown Prince's method is far too simplistic and crude; if implemented, it might cause a major upheaval.

Shen Ye waved his hand and said, "Who said I was going to collect the salt tax ahead of schedule? I just want to use next year's two million taels of salt tax as collateral to issue two million taels of disaster relief bonds."

"The interest rate on disaster relief bonds is lower than the interest rate on private loans."

"We'll pay back the disaster relief debt after the salt tax is collected next year."

Upon hearing Shen Ye's words, a hint of hesitation flashed in Yun Zhen's eyes, but he quickly lowered his head, pretending that he knew nothing.

However, as the Minister of Revenue, Ma Qi could not keep it a secret at this time.

He said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, I wholeheartedly agree with your idea."

"But Your Highness, the interest rate on these disaster relief bonds is not high. How can we convert these bonds into silver?"

"If we sell slowly, then... then I'm afraid it won't be enough to quench our immediate thirst!"

Shen Ye knew that Ma Qi was telling the truth, and he said calmly, "Lord Ma, as the Minister of Revenue, you should know that both nobles and scholars have the right to be exempt from taxes."

"It's just that the amount of tax exemption is different."

"Now that the country is in trouble and the national treasury cannot provide disaster relief funds, shouldn't those who enjoy tax-exempt privileges buy these bonds?"

"It's not like I'm not going to pay it back!"

Ma Qi looked at the calm-faced Crown Prince and didn't know what to say for a moment.

He never expected that the Crown Prince's method of issuing disaster relief bonds would be so simple: they were distributed according to the rank of the officials.

This method seems to work.

However, it's a bit too simplistic and crude!

　The first update of the day is here! Please support me, everyone! It's almost the end of the month, so please give me a vote if you have one!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)