Going to Beijing to save his father, all the powerful officials in the city are vying to be his fath

When Zeng Lao said he wanted to take him as a student, Zhao Jian was overjoyed and forced him to bring Zhao Liangsi with him to become his disciple. Unfortunately, Zeng Lao decisively refused the offer the moment he saw Zhao Liangsi, believing he could not teach him. If Zeng Lao had insisted on taking Zhao Liangsi, he would not have accepted Zhao Liangchen either.

Zhao Jian was afraid of losing such a good opportunity, so he had to give up. Mr. Zeng commented more than once that Zhao Liangsi was stupid and bad.

The emperor smiled meaningfully: "You want me to accept him? Do you know that the reason he surrendered to me was to deal with you? He said he would get rid of you for me."

Zhao Liangchen nodded slightly and said solemnly, "Your Majesty, I know. Do you remember what I once told you: no one in this world can be trusted? Those in your high position are destined to be alone. Everyone in this world can be used by you, but no one can be fully trusted."

Take me for example. Although I am now wholeheartedly loyal to Your Majesty, I cannot say for sure whether I will betray you in the future because of someone, something, or some kind of benefit! Zhao Liangsi regards me as a thorn in his side. No matter what the reason, he will definitely keep a close eye on me.

In this way, Your Majesty can use his power to monitor me and achieve the effect of checks and balances. If one day I dare to betray Your Majesty, you can bring the blame on me without hesitation.

Zhao Liangchen's words made the emperor's pupils shrink slightly, and a trace of emotion moved his heart: "Aren't you afraid? If I find out that you have really done something against me, I will kill you without hesitation."

Zhao Liangchen looked up at the emperor with an earnest gaze: "Don't be afraid. If that day ever comes, I will be happy for you, because by then you will have become a truly qualified king."

The emperor curled his fingers slightly, feeling a mix of emotions in his heart. He knew from childhood that he would be the next monarch, and everyone taught him to be kind and generous in the future.

But no one has ever told him that if he wants to be a true monarch, he must not trust anyone, and he must find someone to check and balance even the person he trusts the most, and he must even kill him without hesitation in the future.

He was reflecting on whether the reason why he was in this situation today, restricted in every way and unable to govern himself, was because he had trusted certain people too much in the past.

His heart was filled with agitation, and he didn't know what kind of mood it was. He slowly closed his eyes, suppressed the restlessness in his heart, and nodded slowly: "Okay, I will do as you say, but I promise you, as long as you are loyal to me, I will ensure that you will have wealth and glory for the rest of your life."

Zhao Liangchen touched his forehead to the ground and kowtowed devoutly: "I thank the Lord for his grace."

The emperor waved his hand: "Okay, get up."

Zhao Liangchen stood up, remembering the second thing he had done in the palace today. He pulled out a stack of banknotes and handed them to the emperor. "Your Majesty, the proceeds from this auction total over 260,000 taels. Originally, it was to be divided into three parts, but Marquis Wu'an said he had no shortage of money, so his share will go to Your Majesty. As for my share, I've kept a portion necessary for expenses, and the rest is all here."

The emperor took the banknote and examined it, his eyes widening in shock. "Are you saying that you made so much money from just one auction?"

He felt a little sad. His private treasury only had a few hundred thousand taels of silver, which he had given all at once to the victims. As a result, he earned half of the silver from this auction.

Zhao Liangchen explained, "The reason we made so much money this time is because no one had ever seen an auction before. The novelty of it all got everyone excited, so they all rushed to bid. Furthermore, Princess Liang contributed a large portion of the money, so we won't be able to make as much next time."

The emperor was a little surprised: "Princess Liang? Did she go to the auction?"

Zhao Liangchen nodded. "Princess Liang comes from a merchant family and has always been looked down upon by the aristocratic families. She's unwilling to accept this and always wants to prove herself, so this time she kept bidding and snatching things from others. If the wife of the Marquis of Wuning hadn't stopped her, she might have spent even more money than this."

The emperor was silent for a while. He remembered that when he was a child, he also looked down on Princess Liang. He really couldn't understand why his uncle, who was good in every way, had to marry a merchant's daughter, and had been favoring her for so many years without even having a concubine.

He asked King Liang about this. He remembered that King Liang looked into the distance with a thoughtful expression and replied with a profound sentence: "You don't understand. You will understand when you grow up."

He had thought that King Liang meant that he was still young and didn't understand matters of love, and that he would understand them when he grew up. But now, it seemed that he had some idea of ​​what King Liang meant.

Princess Liang is rich. If Prince Liang really wants to do something, he will need a lot of financial support, and Princess Liang can help him.

If you think about it carefully, before marrying Princess Liang, Prince Liang was not even crowned as a king, he was just a prince with no foundation. But after marrying Princess Liang, he was not only crowned as a king, but also thrived in the court, gradually rising to a high position, even becoming the Prime Minister.

Without the money from Princess Liang, it would be difficult to do this.

The prince, who had no money himself, understood the feeling of helplessness of wanting to do something but being unable to do anything because of lack of money. He looked at the banknotes in his hand and suddenly sneered, "So he started planning this from that time?"

Was he planning to fight for the throne when he planned to marry Princess Liang? Then why did he push himself to the throne? Was he not ready?

The emperor was filled with pent-up anger, and he returned the banknotes to Zhao Liangchen. "Give them all to Su Jijing. Tell him to recruit more men. I'm not afraid to pay him more. He must train an army for me in a short period of time that can rival the Imperial Guards."

Zhao Liangchen: "Yes."

He thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, after the first month of the lunar year, when foreign merchants return with new goods, I intend to trade with them again. However, I feel that relying on you to transport goods from the palace all the time is too dangerous and could easily lead to discovery.

Those merchants only want some high-quality goods. I dare to ask the emperor to allow me to contact some imperial merchants, so that Lu Sheng can go to the imperial merchants in other places to directly collect goods, and then trade with foreign merchants outside the capital. This way, we can ensure a sufficient supply of goods and avoid the eyes of the capital.

The emperor agreed without hesitation: "Very well. I will write a secret decree later and have Qi Lusheng take it with him to contact these imperial merchants privately. However, most of the imperial merchants' affairs are now handled by Prince Liang. Do you have any way to avoid him?"

He had discussed this matter with Su Qin long before he came. Princess Liang's family was wealthy, but no matter how rich they were, Prince Liang could not use their wealth at will. In the beginning, Prince Liang used the connections and funds of Princess Liang's family to run his own business and accumulated capital. Once he had established a firm foothold in the court, he relied on the trust of the late emperor and the emperor to take over the management of the imperial merchants.

He was in charge of all the imperial merchants, so a lot of money flowed into his pocket continuously.

However, the imperial merchants are all large families, not just a few people in a family. It is impossible for King Liang to win over all of them. He can only win over his direct relatives. However, large families will have conflicts of interest, and some people will be proud while others will not.

People from the collateral line will definitely be jealous of the direct line, and even members of the direct line will fight to the death for the inheritance of the family property.

What they had to do was to avoid those direct descendants who were in collusion with King Liang, and to win over those collateral branches or frustrated direct descendants, and secretly cooperate with them. Those people would definitely not betray them for their own interests, so that they could successfully avoid King Liang and get good goods.

Zhao Liangchen explained this truth to the emperor, and the emperor felt that what he said was very right. He was the emperor, and he would use whoever was on his side in the future. Who wouldn't want to be credited with following the emperor? Even for the sake of family property and future glory and wealth, there would definitely be people willing to cooperate with him.