Chapter 118 The Revenue Report

“My lord, this is this month’s revenue.” Si Niang handed Zheng Fan a thick ledger, with a white sheet of paper on top listing the main revenue and expenditure items separately.

Generally speaking, Zheng Fan was too lazy to look at the thick ledger underneath, as he probably wouldn’t understand it anyway. He just wanted a rough idea of the revenue.

As for whether the demon kings under him would embezzle his money, Zheng Fan wasn’t really worried about that.

There were eight of them in total, and this near-shared fate relationship was, to a certain extent, much stronger than that of so-called family members.

After glancing at the rough figures, Zheng Fan rubbed his brow.

Compared to the massive expenditures, the so-called income seemed far too meager.

The entire Shengle City was a gold-swallowing monster, constantly devouring Zheng Fan’s coffers.

“My lord, the main reason is that the workshops haven’t fully started operating yet. Once they are, our revenue will look much better.”

She could only say it would look “much better.” When they could achieve self-sufficiency was hard to predict, even for Si Niang.

It could even be said that if there were no major changes or battles, this loss would continue until Zheng Fan’s money ran out.

Too many soldiers were being supported.

“Don’t worry, there should be a war soon.”

If nothing unexpected happened, the Yan Kingdom’s imperial envoy should already be on the road with the Yan Emperor’s decree. Once they successfully contacted the Cheng Kingdom and formed a legal affiliation, then the Great Yan dispatching troops to expel the barbarians was almost inevitable.

The only variable now was probably what choice the Yan Emperor would make: to shelve the Cheng Kingdom and instead accumulate strength to prepare for the next attack on Qian, or to first bring the Three Jins lands completely under his control.

Even Zheng Fan knew that giving the Qian Kingdom too much time to “develop” and “recover” would make it really difficult to deal with them in the future, given the Qian Kingdom’s level of manpower and resources.

But from Zheng Fan’s own perspective, it was definitely better to send troops to fight the barbarians; otherwise, his soldiers would just be wasting money and food every day.

“My lord, Tian Wujing’s child is really different. He’s only a few months old, but he looks as lively as other children who are seven or eight months old.”

“His father has strong genes, and his mother isn’t ordinary either.”

It wasn’t surprising that this child had a good physique. In later generations, many athletes’ parents were athletes themselves.

“My lord is resourceful, actually letting Mo Wan look after the child, haha.”

“Children looking after children, isn’t that normal? Don’t worry, Mo Wan might get angry and….”

Zheng Fan didn’t say “kill me.”

Instead, he said:

“But Mo Wan can’t bring himself to hurt other infants.”

He hated everything in the world, but because he himself was a child, he naturally had a completely different feeling toward his “own kind.”

Of course, if it were a child with happy and loving parents, Mo Wan might act out of jealousy, but the young marquis’s mother died right after he was born, and his father hadn’t shown his face yet, as if he didn’t have this son at all.

This kind of situation easily made Mo Wan feel empathy.

The most important and main reason was that letting Mo Wan look after the child seemed fun no matter how he thought about it, hahaha!!!

“This humble servant will leave first, my lord. I’ll let Blind man in.”

“Okay.”

This was the semi-monthly routine briefing.

Si Niang was in charge of money and food, that is, economic development work, while Blind Man was responsible for the ideology and political work of the officials and the army.

Blind Man came in and first handed over a list.

This was the list of people to be executed in this batch.

“So many people.” Zheng Fan said with some helplessness.

Blind Man replied:

“It’s impossible to kill them all, my lord.”

“I know. Hmm? There are two named Wen here?”

Because of Wen Su Tong, the Wen family joined Zheng Fan’s team relatively early, so they occupied a significant position in the Shengle City system.

“Yes.”

“Will killing these two affect your relationship with your wife?”

Blind Man shook his head and said, “If I don’t kill my two brothers-in-law, how can I establish my authority? To be honest, my lord, I’ve been watching the Wen family for a long time, but perhaps it’s really because Wen Su Tong’s family education is indeed good, and I haven’t been able to find any problems. Now that I’ve finally caught them, I can’t miss this opportunity.

The Wen family’s power is a bit too great in our city, and we need to trim their branches in advance.”

“Alright, do as you say.”

“Yes, my lord.”

After sending Blind Man away, Zheng Fan got up, picked up some side dishes that he had asked Si Niang to prepare in advance, walked out of the house, and went to the very back of the backyard.

There was a separate room there, and servants were not allowed to come here for cleaning on ordinary days.

Zheng Fan pushed open the door and walked in. There was a coffin in the room.

Every so often, Zheng Fan would come to drink and chat with Sha Tuo Que Shi.

He set out the side dishes,

Zheng Fan sat cross-legged in front of the coffin and began to pour wine.

He drank his little wine, ate his little dishes, and talked about some of the things that had happened recently.

In the end,

Zheng Fan drained the wine in his hand,

And sighed:

“Old Sha, if you hadn’t had that accident and were like a normal person, wouldn’t that be great?”

Liang Cheng knew how to fight, but Sha Tuo Que Shi could sit in the position of the Barbarian’s Left Guli King, so he was obviously a master strategist.

To a certain extent, he really wasn’t much worse than Tian Wujing.

Think about it, he already had a Sword Saint guarding the city gate. Add a Sha Tuo Que Shi in his prime, tsk tsk, that scene was simply too beautiful to bear.

After speaking, Zheng Fan packed up his things, reached out, and patted the coffin lid again as a greeting to Old Sha, and then walked out of the room.

With a tipsy feeling, Zheng Fan walked back to the courtyard where he lived, pushed open the door, and walked in, finding the young marquis lying in the cradle, fast asleep. When he came in, the cradle was still rocking, and there was a stone under the cradle.

“Heh.”

Seeming to see him coming, Mo Wan stopped rocking the cradle for his younger brother.

Zheng Fan walked to the cradle, lowered his head, and looked at the child. The child was indeed cute, and Zheng Fan basically took time out every day to tease him.

Pinching his face, patting his butt, etc.,

And then imagining Tian Wujing’s figure in his mind, his wicked taste was greatly satisfied.

After looking at the child for a while, Zheng Fan walked to the bed, lay down on his side, closed his eyes, and prepared to take a nap.

Everyone in the city was busy to death, but this real person in charge was able to enjoy leisure every day.

And just as Zheng Fan lay down,

In three other places,

There were three people who had to sit up from their beds.

One was Situ Lei, the emperor of Ying, who was bedridden in the palace in Yingdu.

After hearing the news that the garrison general of Shaye City in the east had opened the city gates and surrendered to his two elder brothers,

This Emperor of the Cheng Kingdom forcibly pushed away the eunuchs and imperial physicians and sat up.

Shaye City was a barrier guarding Yingdu. Now that the barrier was lost, it meant that the rebel army and barbarian troops led by his two elder brothers could come to Yingdu unimpeded.

“Someone, bring me my armor!”

………

Another was Li Bao, who was in Quhe City and had been forcibly awakened from his bed by his subordinates. He had been drunk the previous night because his son had gotten married.

Li Bao had the temperament of a leopard, and since losing an arm, his temper had become even worse. After being awakened from his hangover, he was about to curse when he saw a eunuch standing in front of him, holding a yellow scroll in his hand. The horse urine in his brain immediately dissipated by seventy or eighty percent. After the people around him set up a sacrificial table and incense burner, Li Bao knelt down to receive the decree.

The imperial decree ordered Li Bao to lead his troops to the old capital of the Jin Kingdom.

…………

The third person who was awakened from his bed was engaged in some unspeakable activities.

When the sound of the eunuch delivering the decree came to the mansion, the woman in his arms seemed very flustered.

“Don’t worry, Father knew that you were secretly brought back to the capital by me long ago.”

The woman under him was the little daughter of the Barbarian King, who had already been taken as a concubine by the First Prince.

The woman got up and helped the First Prince put on his clothes while nervously saying:

“Will it implicate Your Highness?”

“Implicate what? You are a princess after all. A princess who dared to follow me back to the capital without a title. When my father finds out, he’ll praise me, so why would he blame me?”

“But the ancestors of the Great Yan once said that future generations must not make peace through marriage with foreign countries or races.”

“What’s not allowed is marrying daughters out, but it doesn’t say that we can’t marry other people’s daughters in. I’m sorry to make you feel wronged.”

“This servant is not wronged. I am content to be with Your Highness.”

“Just bear with it a little longer, or we can work harder and get you pregnant sooner, so I can go to the palace to report the good news to Father. That way, you’ll get your title.”

“With a child, I can…”

“That’s for sure. My father and your father fought for a lifetime. Now that his son has abducted the old rival’s daughter and gotten her pregnant, how happy do you think that would make Father? He’ll definitely announce it to the world and make up the betrothal gifts.

How should I put it? This Prince can be considered to be promoting our national prestige and boosting the morale of our Yan land’s lads!”

“Then the Barbarians and the Great Yan will no longer fight in the future? The tribes of the desert and the people of the Great Yan can live in peace?”

Hope appeared on the girl’s face.

The First Prince reached out and stroked the concubine’s cheek.

Smiling, he nodded.

“Yes, it definitely will.”

“That’s great. If the two countries no longer use weapons, many fewer people will die each year.”

“Yes, everyone can live their own lives in peace. How wonderful.

You rest for a while. I’ll go to the front to receive the decree. It should be to let me lead the army to the Jin lands.”

The First Prince, dressed neatly, walked out of the room.

Turned around,

His face immediately sank.

He really liked the girl in the room.

The Barbarian King was right. She was indeed as pure as the spring water in the desert, making people’s hearts flutter.

But there was something the First Prince didn’t tell her.

That was his father,

Seemed to particularly like to eliminate the maternal families and wife’s families of the princes.

His second and sixth brothers knew this best.

The First Prince sighed, shook his head, and began to focus on the matter at hand.

It was clear that the Marquis of Jingnan was in the Jin lands, so why did he want him to lead the expedition?