"Still haven't figured it out? Let me ask you, now that the great achievement of capturing Fang La is complete, not to mention Prince Xin Zhao Zhen, how should Zhong Shidao, Wang Xiang, and others be settled? Have you considered this matter?"
Seeing his slow comprehension, Cai Jing said with frustration, "Zhong Shidao, such a martial..."
Halfway through his sentence, Cai Tao suddenly realized. Damn it, Zhong Shidao had become a civil official now...
If he were just a military general, this matter might have been easier to handle. A position as a military governor of a distant prefecture, at most, coupled with a title of Grand Master of the Guards, would have been sufficient reward for his merits!
But now that he had become a civil official, the situation was entirely different. Fang La's rebellion had involved six prefectures in the southeast, and the government troops and rebel forces combined numbered close to a million.
To quell such a great rebellion, at the very least, a position as Vice Director of the Bureau of Military Affairs would surely be in order...
But if that were the case, then the court situation would truly undergo a drastic change...
Wang Xiang and Zhong Shidao, both of them owed their success to Zhao Zhen. It was likely that the three of them had already become as close as one.
Once the two of them entered the Bureau of Military Affairs, combined with Fan Zheng Guo, who had just been appointed as the Right Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and concurrent Minister of Revenue by the Emperor, Zhao Zhen would truly be above any other prince!
Coupled with Zhang Bangchang, who had already sided with Zhao Zhen, if these five truly united, then Cai Jing, the Prime Minister, would be directly sidelined?
"Have you figured it out yet?"
Seeing his thoughtful expression, Cai Jing tapped the table and asked again.
"So, you intend to drive the wolf to devour the tiger?"
After taking a few deep breaths, Cai Tao finally understood.
"That's right. I still have many things to complete. To achieve these goals, at least two to three more years are needed. Only after all arrangements are made can the Cai family have a sliver of hope for survival after my death! During this period, I cannot be sidelined!"
As Cai Jing said this, his face was filled with deep fatigue. His most outstanding son had rebelled against the Cai family, yet under the arrangement of fate, he still had to pay for his rebellious son. Even if he could come to terms with such a result, he still felt deeply uncomfortable in his heart...
"Damn Zhong Shidao, why did he have to become a civil official?"
The thought of this made Cai Tao feel particularly uncomfortable.
"Don't you understand yet? This matter was a conspiracy from the very beginning. The reason he switched to civil status was not to retire; someone had been planning this from the start!"
"Is it that young man surnamed Han?"
As soon as Cai Jing finished speaking, Cai Tao immediately stood up.
"Even if it is him, so what? I warn you, from now on, no one in the entire Cai family is allowed to provoke Han Mo, especially you!"
Looking at his son's angry demeanor, Cai Jing irritably patted the table again.
"He can just make some money, what's the big deal?"
Seeing his father's solemn look, Cai Tao became even more angry.
"Can make some money? Let me ask you, how much is the annual revenue of the Great Song dynasty? Since he took office, how much money has he sent to Bianliang City? How much military funding has he provided to Zhao Zhen?"
Cai Jing was truly exasperated with this ungrateful fellow. If it weren't for his physical condition preventing him from disciplining his son further, he would have truly wanted to administer family punishment.
To face such a formidable enemy and yet remain indifferent, it was truly something Cai Jing could not accept.
"But that money, he confiscated it from families! What skill is that?"
Even though Cai Jing was angry, Cai Tao still grumbled incessantly in a low voice.
"Confiscated from families? Good, among the countless corrupt officials in this world, try to confiscate twenty million strings of cash without causing widespread fear!"
After forcefully banging the table a few times, Cai Jing said indignantly.
"I..."
At this point, Cai Tao was truly at a loss for words.
"Don't forget, the Pu family is now completely finished. All the sea merchants have fallen into his hands. How much is the annual spice trade in the Great Song dynasty? What was the Pu family's share each year? You know it yourself."
After patiently persuading him again, Cai Jing angrily stood up and walked towards the door.
He was truly disappointed in his son.
Whether the Cai family could pass down safely, he was momentarily uncertain.
He had never considered such matters in his youth, but now it was different. The older one got, the more timid one became.
Cai Jing left. In the empty study, Cai Tao was once again alone. His father's words echoed in his ears, and Cai Tao became somewhat bewildered.
He had always thought that being an official was being an official, and making money was making money. But now, he suddenly realized that the ability to make money, even in the officialdom, was something that commanded respect...
The Cai family, as distributors of spices for the Pu family, naturally knew the exact sales figures of these goods.
Even after deducting all sorts of miscellaneous expenses, the money they received annually would reach over ten million strings of cash, and this was just for the spice trade alone!
If, combined with the strategy Han Mo had previously submitted, the final figures were staggering, even Cai Tao himself could not calculate them for a moment.
Each of the seven major merchant families in the southeast was incredibly wealthy. With the three-tenths of the capital flowing in and out of these seven families combined each year, one could easily imagine that it was a figure that an ordinary person could not reach in a lifetime...
"Someone, send out these invitations!"
Despite his own discomfort, Cai Tao finally picked up his brush and quickly wrote over a dozen invitations.
"Yes!"
Just as Cai Tao reluctantly began to gather his subordinates, Feng Yuanbao, now clad in brocade robes, slowly arrived at the royal palace of Chikugo Province with a few attendants.
"This is the royal palace?"
Looking at the low-lying wooden and stone structures with thatched roofs, Feng Yuanbao felt a twinge in his gums.
In such a poor place, was there really a gold and silver mine?
Let alone his mansion in Bianliang City, even his dilapidated house outside Mingzhou City was more than ten levels better than this place...
Feng Yuanbao couldn't imagine how poor the king living here must be...