Chapter 26: Cheap Occupation

  "Li, isn't the Huangzhuang item exempt from tax? Go check it out, see how the people below are handling things, and all the taxes have been collected at the Wangye's mansion!" Chen Tang said to the clerk sitting below him.

  "Yes, yes, I'll go and take care of it right away. If the people below don't see me, there will be trouble!" Li Zhubu hastily agreed.

  "Magistrate Chen, this isn't quite right, what I mean is that we should still pay what's due." said the chief steward.

  "Zheng is in charge of the affairs, but Wang Ye has not yet divided his estate. Does his villa still belong to the imperial villa? Besides, whether it's collected or not, it all belongs to the emperor, it's the same!" Chen Tang interrupted him and said.

  "Thanks to Magistrate Chen then!" The steward said with a bow, delighted that the mansion would be able to save a lot of silver on taxes.

  "Your Highness, I have a small estate on the other side, which is managed by my useless brother-in-law. Not only does it not generate any income, but I also have to put in money every year. Since Your Highness wants to buy land, why don't you just take it over?" Chen Tang said with a smile to Zhao Shi.

  "Oh? Governor Chen wants to sell land, those are good fields, can you bear to part with them?" Zhao asked while eating his vegetables.

  "What's the point of being reluctant to part with it? It was all bought by me in previous years, and every year without a good harvest would only cause trouble. If Your Excellency is not disgusted, then please take it, and it can also be considered as helping this official out!" Chen Tang said with his mouth, but in his heart, he felt a pang of pain - that was more than 200 mu of land! Every year, just the rent from tenants could bring in over 20,000 guan, now he couldn't care less about it.

  "Alright then, I'll take it, but you can't take advantage of me. Name a price!" Zhao Yan said thoughtfully.

  "I bought this land a few years ago, let's just go by the price at that time. You can give me 10,000 yuan and that's it!" Chen Tang said. The people on the seat were all shocked. The governor's handwriting was big enough, now the good fields are sold for more than 2 yuan per mu, this time he gave away 40,000 to 50,000 yuan.

  "Psst!" Zhao Zhan sucked in a breath of cool air, "Ten thousand taels?! Just right, my mother gave me ten thousand taels, didn't you touch this money, Manager?!" He said with a knock on the plate to the manager.

  "What?! The chief steward was taken aback. What does the king mean by this? Even if it wasn't a reward from the emperor, the queen had also sent 30,000 guan. Could it be that... "The chief steward said in a panic: 'Your Excellency, I have committed a crime. Some days ago, when repairing the house and granary of the mansion, I also made up for the deficit left by my predecessor. The money was not enough, so I borrowed 2,000 guan.'"

  "You, you're really bold! Go back and I'll settle the score with you!" Zhao Ye slapped the table, turned his face and said to Chen Tang with a regretful expression: "Chen Zhi Fu, sorry about this, the money isn't enough, you'd better sell it to someone else!"

  "Alright, I've agreed to sell it to the Duke, how dare I sell it to someone else? Whatever price is fine!" Chen Tang hastily said. Having finally grasped a good opportunity, how could he easily let it go?

  "Your Highness, we can't even get 8,000 taels out!" The steward said with a sorrowful face.

  "Bind him for me, have you embezzled all the money?" Zhao Yan shouted as he jumped down from his chair.

  "Your Majesty, please calm down and listen to my explanation. The New Year is approaching, we have spent all the money on land purchases, and at the end of the year, we need to pay wages to the servants, give red envelopes, and cover expenses for food, drink, and other household needs."

  "Stop stalling, just tell me how much money you can come up with?" Zhao Ze said angrily.

  "Five thousand coins!" The steward replied with his eyes closed after calculating for a while.

  "Let Governor Chen see the joke, there really isn't that much money in the house. Otherwise, I'll pawn this belt to you, it's worth at least 3,000 guan!" Zhao Yi said, taking off the gold belt from his waist and putting it on the table.

  "Your Highness, this is something left by Emperor Taizong, how can I dare to keep it? Five thousand taels are just five thousand taels!" Chen Tang hastily returned the gold belt to Zhao Shi and said with a pretentious calmness, but his heart was bleeding. This land was originally a bargain, and now it had been discounted again.

  "Magistrate Chen, you still have some land and livestock there, why don't you name a price and sell them to us all at once?" The steward saw that things were settled and hastily added, now somewhat understanding the prince's meaning.

  "Zheng, I'm not even living in the countryside, I don't know the market price, you give me a quote!" Chen Tang squeezed out a smile and said, as soon as I give a price, you'll cut it in half, just calculate it yourself!

  The steward was not polite, and after another calculation, he said: "Your house is roughly built, including the house and land, it's worth about 200 taels. I don't know how many cattle and horses you have, let's just estimate it as 100 taels. We won't take the furniture, you can take it away, 300 taels is a fair price!"

  "Fair? You can go to hell! I spent 500 taels of silver on that garden, and you only paid 300!" Chen Tang was getting angry, but he couldn't lose his temper, so he forced a smile and said: "Alright, alright, let's just go with what Manager Zheng said!"

  "Magistrate Chen was delighted. I'll give you a receipt, and when we collect the rent next year, we'll settle with you together. The interest will be 20%, making it a total of 360 taels!" The steward said as he called for an apprentice to prepare the ink and brush.

  Chen Tang was about to cry, and he still had to pay 300 taels of silver, which would be given next year. Your Highness's monthly salary is 400 taels of silver, how can you bear it? Now the life of my son is in their hands, "Hehe, Zheng Guan Shi, I was just joking with you, and you took it seriously. This house and livestock are just a bonus, how can they be counted as money?"

  "No, business should be fair and square. This money must be given, don't let others say that our Wang Fu is stingy. If need be, I'll go a year without eating meat and save up the money!" Zhao Ke's face turned red with anger as he said this, his skin crawling with goosebumps. The master of the house wants to have it both ways, wanting to take advantage of others while still appearing righteous.

  "The prince, no need!" Two people insisted on not wanting it, another person insisted on giving it, two people pushed and shoved, everyone was stunned. This prince is really a honest man, he untied his golden belt, hit the strip, still wanted to eat vegetarian food to repay debts, seeing the joyful belly almost burst into laughter, but also had to hold back, it's really hard work!

  "Alright, since Governor Chen doesn't want it, let's give that lion cat of mine to Governor Chen as a plaything!" Zhao suddenly stopped arguing and said loudly.

  "What?! That cat of yours, Prince Wang, was exchanged by the Duke for a calligraphy piece from Cai Zheng and Xuan Wang. Moreover, it's your treasured possession!" Ji Xi Xin said with a smile, as if it was his turn to take the stage again.

  "How can you be so ignorant? What's one cat worth? Magistrate Chen gave us a mansion, and you're still reluctant to part with a single cat!" Zhao scolded.

  "Hmph, you can't sleep without holding the cat every day, now that it's been given away, what will you do at night?" Xī Yǐ hummed in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, and discontentedly backed down.

  Everyone is confused again, you said the king would calculate, but now he's generous. A cat may not be worth much, but that cat was exchanged for a calligraphy of Cai Chengxiang, and who knows how much money it's worth? But Cai Chengxiang's calligraphy is priceless, one fan can sell for 3,000 guan, speaking of which, the county governor didn't lose money either. Maybe children don't understand what's going on here, but being able to give away something you love is also a kind of sincerity.

  After the land purchase was settled, all sorts of dishes were served one after another. Zhao's previous performance had won everyone's favor, and they all toasted him with wine. He couldn't drink it all, so Da Guan Shi and Jian Xi had to help out on his behalf. The banquet hadn't even dispersed yet, but already a bunch of people had fallen drunk.

  Chen Tang had the people who drank too much supported away to sober up, he found a private room and asked Zhao Che to rest for a while. The shopkeeper brought tea, Chen Tang waved his hand to let him retreat, and Zhao Che also only let the 'bodyguard' guard the door.

  "Your Highness, save me!" Seeing that there was no one else in the house, Chen Tang hastily knelt down and begged. Zhao didn't call him up like before, but instead coldly smiled at him, waiting for his next words.

  "Your Highness, this unfilial son of mine has offended you and deserves to die. However, he is after all my flesh and blood. I beg of you, on my account, to spare his life!" Chen Tang raised his face, now streaked with old tears, and spoke in a choked voice.

  Zhao Yi knew that the meat show was coming, and he performed a family drama in front of himself. "Magistrate Chen, I also want to let him go, but your son insulted my parents. If someone else scolded your old man, what would you do?" Zhao Yi asked 'seriously'.

  "This" Chen Tang listened to the childish words of Wang Ye, and for a moment, he really didn't know how to respond. If it were an ordinary person, it would be easy to say, but his father was the Emperor, and his mother was the Imperial Consort. Scolding the Emperor was a crime of disrespecting the ruler, punishable by confiscation of property and extermination of the family. "Wang Ye, the child didn't recognize Wang Ye, it was an unintentional mistake, please forgive me!"

  "Magistrate Chen, this is a difficult situation. Others know that someone scolded my father, but I can't scold back, or they'll say I'm unfilial!" Zhao Zhan said, shaking his head like a rattle drum.

  Chen Tang had never been so troubled before. The person in front of him was just a child, and to make matters worse, he was the emperor's son. He wouldn't be swayed by soft words, and Chen Tang didn't dare use harsh ones. He really didn't know how to deal with him, so all he could do was plead bitterly, hoping to move the prince.

  "Alright, Director Chen, stop crying, it's annoying! A big man like you crying on the ground, Zhao Zhe felt a bit embarrassed, as if he had wronged him. He said unhappily, 'I didn't want his life, but it can't just end like this either!'"

  It turns out that the king has a soft heart, if I had known earlier that crying would work, it wouldn't have been necessary to sacrifice the whole village. Chen Tang thought this but didn't dare show any dissatisfaction, "But as long as the king spares his life, everything will be up to the king's disposal!"

  "He has a foul mouth, let him stand outside the government office and slap himself one hundred times!" Zhao thought for a moment before saying this. He had originally wanted to say hit one hundred slaps, but then felt uneasy about it. The ones who would be hitting him were all under Chen Tang's command, and at the critical moment they would definitely go easy on him and fool around with their own boss. What was important was not whether he would feel pain from being slapped in public, but rather to humiliate him so that he wouldn't dare to be arrogant again."

  "Alright, I'll follow your orders, Your Highness. First, let me thank you for sparing my life!" Chen Tang breathed a sigh of relief; this punishment was indeed something that only a child could come up with.

  "Governor Chen, what are you going to do with those people who attacked the Wang Manor?" Zhao asked after taking a sip of tea.

  "In accordance with the law, I hereby sentence them to exile three thousand miles away!" Chen Tang said with a serious face.