I want to ruin the country

The man wearing a sable coat and sunglasses came to Xianfu Palace to see the emperor after dinner.

He was summoned in and bowed upon entering.

Yining said with a smile,

"Lord Li, please stand up and take your seat!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The man stood up and looked up, and saw Prince Gong, Wenqing and Ruijin were also there.

He was not wearing sunglasses now. It turned out that this person was Li Hongzhang.

Prince Gong did not know Li Hongzhang. He was greatly surprised to see a businessman who was participating in the auction come to Xianfu Palace.

“You…you…?”

Yining smiled and said,

"Don't be surprised, Sixth Brother. His name is Li Hongzhang, and he's a stooge I arranged!"

Prince Gong and the other two were puzzled.

"Trust? What do you mean?"

Yining pointed at him.

"You're too honest. A shill is someone who takes the lead in bidding up the price!"

Prince Gong was extremely intelligent and understood immediately.

"He's the one who leads the way in cheating people!"

Yining glanced at him sideways.

"That's right, but you can't say that, or I'll become a deceitful emperor!"

The other people all said "Pooh" in their hearts, if you don't cheat others, who will?

Ruijin was especially puzzled. The emperor had never been in the martial arts world since he was a child. Who did he learn these despicable tricks from?

Yining saw what they meant and laughed.

"I know exactly who is slandering me in their hearts. Be careful or my shoes might fly over at any moment, haha!"

Everyone laughed. This emperor is quite interesting!

Prince Gong said,

"I am convinced. With tens of millions more, the court can solve major problems!"

Ruijin said,

"Your Majesty, please stop praising me. The Emperor is going to hold an auction!"

Prince Gong said,

"Let's do it. Wouldn't it be good to exchange these dead things for money to enrich the country and strengthen the army?"

Ruijin and Wenqing looked at each other. It was over. Prince Gong didn't object, so who could say anything to the emperor?

Yining Road

"Lord Li, you bid an extra 1.9 million taels of silver for me today. How do you want me to reward you?"

Today, the undercover agent Li Hongzhang did a good job and set the pace very well. He sold more than 1.9 million taels of silver to Yining just by getting up twice, and this was achieved without firing a single shot!

He was also very proud in his heart, but his face showed no smugness at all, and he said calmly,

"I only followed the emperor's orders and dare not take any credit for it!"

Everyone saw that this man, although not a high-ranking official, was able to remain calm and composed, and was very generous!

Yining said again,

"You did a great job, and you mastered the timing just right. Your contribution deserves a reward. How about this? I'll give you a thousand taels of silver, promote you to the fifth rank, and make you a tutor!"

Li Hongzhang quickly knelt down and kowtowed.

"Thank you, Lord, for your grace!"

From the seventh rank to the fifth rank, a promotion of three levels in a row, this is a great blessing from heaven, the emperor is so generous!

Yining said again,

"Go wait aside first. I'll tell you something when I'm done!"

"According to the order!"

After Li Hongzhang left, Ruijin asked,

"Your Majesty, you've promoted him three levels in a row. I'm afraid it's tempting others to get promoted!"

Yining smiled and said,

"Xing Jin, others must earn back two million taels of silver for me first!"

This one sentence left Ruijin speechless!

Yining suddenly remembered and said with a smile,

"You old thing, do you think my reward to you is not enough?"

Ruijin Road,

"The slave did not say that!"

Yining Road,

"Or I can also promote you to the third level, to the ninth thousand years old!"

Ruijin Road,

"I dare not, but I can give you a little more silver as a reward!"

Yining Road,

"Haha, I knew you had complaints. If you keep complaining, I'll take back your salary for March!"

"If you reward me, it belongs to me. I won't give it to you!"

The king and his ministers exchanged a few jokes and began to "divide the spoils".

Wenqing received 5.54 million taels of silver, which included 840,000 taels of audience fees for the participants, 3.1 million taels of banquet fees and 1.5 million taels of banquet fees.

Wenqing made a fortune and was so happy that he went crazy.

Unexpectedly, the emperor solved the palace's expenses for ten years with just one move. Now, if the emperor slaps him twice, he will happily greet it with his face!

Yining looked towards Ruijin again.

"Master Tianguan, is it okay for the Ministry of Revenue to let us spend these five million taels of silver ourselves?"

When Ruijin heard that the emperor only gave Wenqing more than 5 million taels of silver, he was overjoyed. It seemed that the emperor still wanted to keep these tens of millions of silver in the Ministry of Revenue!

He said hurriedly,

"No problem, no problem. Spending a few million more is reasonable! Your Majesty has the final say!"

Wenqing’s real opinion: Don’t be happy, you will cry soon!

Yining stared at him and asked,

"I have the final say?"

Ruijin said seriously,

"Of course, the world belongs to the emperor. If the emperor doesn't have the final say, who has the final say?"

"The world belongs to me?"

"Of course, anyone who says no will be guilty of treason and their entire family will be confiscated and exterminated!"

Yining slammed the table and praised,

"You are loyal to the emperor and patriotic, and you are a role model for other ministers. Now that we are done, how about I give you two days off?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your consideration. I haven't had a rest in three or four months, and I've been feeling a bit weak lately!"

Yining also said seriously,

"If that's the case, write a letter of retirement and I will definitely approve it. I cannot be accused of exploiting an old minister!"

When Ruijin heard this, he was surprised that it had become true. He waved his hands and said,

"Ah, no, no, no, I am only fifty-one, still young, and my body is doing well. Your Majesty, there is no need to worry about me!"

Yining muttered,

"It's time to retire. Otherwise, if outsiders think I don't care about my officials, I'll be wronged!"

Ruijin was almost crying. Damn it, why did we bring up this topic? Damn it!

Then he hurriedly said,

"Your Majesty has always been considerate of his ministers. If anyone dares to speak nonsense, I will be the first to object!"

Yining said lazily,

"Well, let's do the math. The total auction price was 43.4 million taels of silver. I promised that if the auction price exceeded 10 million, I would give you 10%.

I have kept my word and will leave you 4.34 million taels of silver. You should be much better off now, right? "

Ruijin was so happy that he didn't even notice the hidden meaning in the emperor's words, and continued to flatter him cheerfully.

"It's all thanks to the great fortune of the Emperor that he got this much money. This year, I should be able to relax a little, haha!"

Yining Road,

"Just be content with what you have, and leave the rest to the Ministry of Internal Affairs!"

Ruijin was stunned.

"Ah! What's left?"

Yining Road,

"Yes, you left 4.34 million taels, so there are still 39.06 million taels left, right?"

Ruijin opened his eyes wide,

"Your Majesty, you won't give us that silver?"

Yining asked in surprise,

"Why should I give it to you?"

Ruijin Road

"You...you, you can't spend so much, right?"

Yining was happy and said,

"It won't cost that much, these are far from enough!"

Ruijin muttered,

"I wonder what the Emperor has to do to spend so much money?"