After rebirth, I married the emperor's uncle and overthrew my ex-husband's kingdom

The prince took his men to Quzhou to suppress the bandits, and Marquis Yong'an entered the palace the next day.

The emperor stood in front of the alchemy furnace, studying an ancient book with yellowed pages that was obviously very old.

While he was turning the page, Yong'an Hou pretended to be casual and said, "There is a thing called soap that is very popular in Beijing recently. It is really pretty."

The emperor raised his eyebrows and glanced at him, "Hasn't that thing been out for a long time?"

There was also a soap thing in the emperor's room, which was indeed a good thing.

"Your Majesty, do you know this too?"

Yong'an Hou was surprised, and then he said with envy: "I don't know where this person from the Zhenguo Mansion got the recipe from. With just this recipe, I'm afraid he will make a fortune!"

The emperor paused while turning the pages of the book, and suddenly raised his head to look at him, "Is this thing from the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion?"

"Yes."

Seeing that the emperor had fallen for it, Yong'an Hou opened his eyes wide and pretended to be surprised, "Your Majesty, don't you know? The Yun Ni Fang in the capital was jointly opened by the Third Prince and the Zhenguogong Mansion."

"That shop is really enviable. It's no exaggeration to say that it makes a fortune every day."

Marquis Yong'an said this while paying attention to the emperor's expression.

"Is this really how you make money?"

The emperor still had some doubts. After all, it was just a small shop. How much money could it make?

"You still underestimated the Yun Ni Fang. I asked someone to check and found that the shop earns nearly a thousand taels of silver every day. This month, the profit should be at least ten thousand taels of silver."

Yong'an Hou counted on his fingers, "Ten thousand taels a month, that's more than a hundred thousand taels a year. This is just one shop, if you open a few more, it will be incredible!"

As he expected, the emperor's face darkened when he heard this.

He slammed the book shut and snorted, "That old bastard, the Duke of Zhenguo, has been sending messages every few days saying that the army is in urgent need of pay. The soldiers have no food to survive and no clothes to survive the winter. They are crying and begging for food and grass. I was wondering why this year is like the reincarnation of starving ghosts, but it turns out that he was just trying to confuse me!"

"This Duke Zhenguo is really a man who is full and does not know the hunger of the hungry!" Yong'an Hou was also very angry. "Now the national treasury is empty and people's lives are difficult. He does not know how to share the worries of Your Majesty, but even bothers Your Majesty every day!"

The emperor felt the same way. He said coldly, "Since his Zhenguo Mansion has such a good business to make money, why bother the court?"

For an army of hundreds of thousands, not to mention the military pay, the annual expenditure on food and fodder alone would be hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Marquis Yong'an achieved his goal and sneered in his heart.

Aren’t the people in the Zhenguo Mansion arrogant and conceited? When the court stops allocating military pay in the future, how are they going to feed those hundreds of thousands of troops!

Bai Youyou didn't know that Zhuangzi's affairs would cause such trouble after being known to others.

The old lady stood under the eaves with her lips pursed, gazing far away in the direction of the border, her old eyes full of vicissitudes and helplessness.

"This old emperor is so shameless!" Bai Youyou couldn't help but curse.

The soldiers defended the border with their heads tied to their belts, but now he doesn't even let them eat!

"In recent years, the Great Zhou has been hit by natural disasters and man-made disasters. The emperor has also been building a palace, and the national treasury is already in deficit." The old lady looked heavy, "Even if we collect 10% more taxes, it will only be a drop in the bucket. We can't even afford the money for the flood in Quzhou, let alone the food and salaries."

Lu Chen couldn't help but curse: "There are so many corrupt officials in the Great Zhou who don't investigate or confiscate. When they run out of money, they just want to exploit the people!"

The sky was dark, the cold wind was howling, and suddenly snow began to fall.

The old lady's muddy yellow eyes reflected the dark sky. She gathered the plum blossom hand warmer in her arms and said, "It's a good thing that I didn't expect to work for the court before, otherwise your grandfather would have had a hard time this winter."

"An army of 300,000 soldiers, not to mention the military pay, the food and fodder alone would cost at least 300,000 taels of silver every year!"

Lu Chen looked worried, "If the imperial court doesn't allocate food and grass, where can we get so much silver?"

Bai Youyou frowned, "It's not impossible to earn three hundred thousand taels of silver if we think of a way, but the food and grass problem has been solved. What should we do if the old thief Emperor deliberately makes things difficult and refuses to allocate military pay?"

Three hundred thousand taels is still within her ability, but if it is three million taels, I'm sorry that I can't do it for the time being!

"He dares not." The old lady smiled and said, "I eat the emperor's salary, and I worry about him. If I don't eat his salary, why should I worry about him?"

In this way, Bai Youyou finally felt relieved.

"Now that the emperor has resorted to this trick, we have to hurry up and make money."

The food and fodder that was sent previously can only last until the end of the year at most. There is only more than a month left in the new year, so we have to hurry up and prepare the remaining food and fodder.

"Most of the silver we have is used to buy food and fodder," Lu Chen also thought of this, frowning, "Even if we open a shop now, it will be difficult to raise another 100,000 taels of silver in a short time."

Bai Youyou drooped her eyelids in deep thought. When she thought about the prince's plan to set up a chamber of commerce, her eyes suddenly lit up.

"Isn't the prince planning to set up a chamber of commerce? We can just take advantage of his momentum to promote Yun Ni Fang."

She originally planned to adopt a chain model, but when she thought about arranging a job to make a living for the soldiers who retired from the battlefield, she temporarily changed her plan.

The current situation is pressing, and this is the only way to raise a large amount of money in a short period of time.

Lu Chen was very curious, "What are you going to do?"

"Didn't I tell you before that it's similar to salt?"

"Salt?"

The eyes of Lu Chen and the old lady suddenly lit up.

The imperial court controlled salt and iron, and anyone who wanted to buy salt had to go to a shop with a salt permit.

Lu Chen also remembered that Bai Youyou had told him about this, but later considering other aspects, he gave up the idea.

"Anyone who uses our Yun Ni Fang signboard must join our Chamber of Commerce and pay a membership fee of two thousand taels of silver."

Bai Youyou spoke eloquently and briefly explained the plan in his mind.

Lu Chen's mature face showed excitement, "According to what you said, our Yun Ni Fang will be able to open all over the Great Zhou in less than half a year!"

He was not worried at all about not being able to sell the soap. Those merchants had sharp eyes. If they knew that they could join Yunnifang, they would surely be eager to get it.

"I will send people to deliver letters to merchants everywhere, asking them to meet me in the capital!"

Lu Chen was so excited that he was about to leave, but Bai Youyou hurriedly stopped him, "Have you forgotten? The prince is already preparing for the Chamber of Commerce. He has paved the way for us. We just need to wait for those people to come to Beijing."

"Those who are indifferent and do not pursue fame and wealth can have a clear mind. Those who are calm and have no distractions can achieve far-reaching goals." The old woman looked at him seriously, "When encountering things, you should avoid arrogance and impatience, so that you can live a long life."

Lu Chen came back to his senses and found that he was so excited that he lost his composure. His handsome face seemed to be covered with two burning charcoal balls, and his ears were very red.

He immediately bowed his head and admitted his mistake, "Grandson knows his mistake."