Chapter 1644 - The Futility of Drawing Water with a Wicker Basket!
Chapter 1644: The Futility of Drawing Water with a Wicker Basket!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Grand Scribe, this prince…”
The First Prince’s eyes were uncertain, and just when he was thinking about how to respond, a clear and bright voice spoke up.
“Grand Scribe, the First Prince is kind and benevolent. How could he be the person you speak of?” Wang Chong asked, smiling faintly.
That he was speaking up in the First Prince’s defense left everyone else stunned.
The First Prince felt his heart thump, instinctively sensing that something was wrong. Given their relationship, Wang Chong would never speak up on his behalf.
Wang Chong followed up with an unexpected proposition.
“If Grand Scribe is worried that the First Prince is using the excuse of the Great Buddhist Temple to accept bribes, then once the ceremony is over, His Highness can seal up all the ledgers along with the donations and allow Grand Scribe to keep watch over them.
“Moreover, the First Prince is currently busy running the country and presumably cannot make any extra time to take care of the orphans and widows. It would be better to hand over the matter to the Imperial Court. Gathering officials from the various bureaus, supervised by the imperial censors, a special department should be set up to handle this operation, with all the expenses clearly recorded.
“In this way, we can realize the First Prince’s original intentions and assist all the orphans and widows of the realm while also wiping away Grand Scribe’s worries. Both sides will be satisfied. I trust that the First Prince will not object!”
These words made the members of the Eastern Palace turn ashen, and the First Prince’s face turned nasty.
Twenty million taels of gold together with Wang Chong’s donation made forty million taels. This was an immense sum of wealth, so how could he just sit back and watch as the gold flowed out from between his fingers?
Thus, the First Prince had been planning to agree with the Grand Scribe on the surface while privately playing a few tricks. But Wang Chong’s talk about handing the entire matter over to the Imperial Court, even involving the imperial censors, instantly pushed the First Prince into an extremely passive position.
Once everything went as Wang Chong proposed, tricks would be impossible.
More importantly, in the current climate, he couldn’t refuse even if he wanted to.
“Your Highness! Your opinion?”
Wang Chong smiled as he stared at the First Prince and added another blow.
All was quiet for some time. Finally, the First Prince managed to barely squeeze out his reply.
“This prince… naturally does not object!”
It was no longer his choice.
The Great Tang’s laws were extremely strict, and while he might have been able to disregard others, Yan Wenzhang held the brush of history. He was so old and respected that if he were truly set on an idea and wrote it into the books, it would be hard to predict the trouble he would stir up.
In addition, Yan Wenzhang was still rather unwilling to accept this affair. It was only through Wang Chong’s constant ‘persuasions’ that he finally came to barely tolerate this blessing to the people of the realm.
When the news reached the crowd down below, they exploded with cheers.
With so many common folk serving as witnesses and spreading the word, the First Prince didn’t even have a chance to back out.
“Bastard!!”
Once the ceremony was over, the First Prince returned to the rear courtyard, where he was finally able to slam his fists against a table, his teeth clenched so hard that they might shatter.
Wang Chong!!
Wang Chong again!!
Seated on his armchair, the First Prince seethed with hatred.
An excellent affair where he was about to kill two birds with one arrow had been utterly ruined by Wang Chong, and the twenty million taels of gold had flown out of his hands.
Twenty million taels!
Not even the First Prince had expected that they would gather this much gold!
But now, there was nothing.
The First Prince’s hatred toward Wang Chong reached into his bones.
“Your Highness, this is a problem. The ledger was taken away by Yan Wenzhang. Although we planned for this and made a copy, now, even the King of Foreign Lands has given a donation. Not only that, based on the reports we’ve gathered, quite a few clans, including some of the less well-off ones, had their donations provided by the King of Foreign Lands.
“In other words, it’s impossible for us to know whether these clans are sincere in their support! This goes completely against our original purpose. The ledger is useless.”
Zhu Tong’en spoke grimly, each word only managed with great difficulty.
“What?!”
The First Prince trembled in shock, his entire body dumbfounded.
……
Once the ceremony was over, at the base of the mountain, Wang Chong prepared to board his carriage, but he was stopped by the patriarchs of various great clans.
“Many thanks, Your Highness!”
The patriarchs of the Zhang, Huang, Lu, and Li Clans, as well as those of several smaller clans, respectfully bowed in front of Wang Chong.
Wang Chong swept his gaze past the patriarchs of the four sword-smithing clans and looked toward the patriarchs and representatives of the smaller clans. The sword-smithing clans were one thing, but Wang Chong couldn’t help but sigh when he looked at these smaller clans.
Fish in the moat were caught in the crossfire when the city gate was attacked, and when disaster struck, the first to be affected were these small clans with their weak reserves. This was why he had personally assisted them this time.
Following the principle of ‘Kill the chicken to cow the monkeys’, after the Great Buddhist Temple incident, numerous minor clans would end up being destroyed.
Their maids and servants, without even knowing what was going on, would be sold into slavery.
Wang Chong had run into one of these servants and learned of their tragedy, so this time, he had chosen to pay the donations for them. If they had not come and handed over the five thousand taels of gold, the consequences would have been unbearable.
“There’s no need to be polite.”
Coming to his senses, Wang Chong waved them off.
“No matter what, we must thank Your Highness. If Your Highness needs anything in the future, this Zhang Clan is willing to obey!” the patriarch of a minor Zhang Clan sternly said.
“That’s right. If Your Highness needs us, you may ask us anytime,” another minor clan patriarch said.
They had not realized the significance of the Great Buddhist Temple at first, only coming because they had received an invitation from the First Prince and did not dare to show disrespect.
But when the First Prince brought up the sum of five thousand taels of gold, they all understood the political nature of this event and broke out in a cold sweat.
If not for the help and advice of the King of Foreign Lands, they would have made a grave error, the consequences of which they were keenly aware.
They were all shedding tears of gratitude, so they asked the four sword-smithing clans to introduce them to Wang Chong so they could express their thanks.
Wang Chong simply smiled. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he sent them off.
Once they were gone and he was alone in his carriage with the four sword-smithing clan patriarchs, the patriarchs hesitantly glanced at each other.
The Lu Clan Patriarch was the first to break the silence. “Your Highness, we’ve troubled you this time, but… you spent twenty million taels of gold to help everyone. Is it truly worth it?”
Wang Chong chuckled.
“So you came to ask me about this?”
Their reaction was completely within his expectations, and he had known what they were going to ask the moment he spotted them.
“This… yes! Your Highness truly went to great lengths for us!” the Lu Clan Patriarch and his fellows uneasily said.
Twenty million taels was no small sum, and together with the assistance to the minor clans, Wang Chong had spent at least twenty-seven million taels of gold on the Great Buddhist Temple incident.
One could say that Wang Chong had not received a single benefit from the entire affair.
They couldn’t help but be bothered about this.
“Heh, if that’s all, then there’s no need for concern. It’s just twenty million taels of gold. It means nothing to this king. Moreover, in the end, this money will pass through the Imperial Court and be used for those orphans and widows. In other words, what comes from the people is used for the people.”
Wang Chong faintly smiled.
After the battles over Talas and Khorasan, Wang Chong had obtained a massive compensation from the Arabian Empire, and even after various expenditures, he still had a significant sum left.
Twenty million taels was truly a meager expense.
Moreover, what Wang Chong had left unsaid was that he truly was doing this for those orphans and widows.
Such people existed in all dynasties, and even that prosperous and highly-advanced world that Wang Chong had come from had not been able to avoid this, let alone a feudal society like this one.
Many problems had been concealed by the veneer of prosperity, and the dazzling light had made those places where the light couldn’t reach even darker.
Wang Chong had known in his past life that the Great Tang’s orphan problem was extremely grave. Even back in Taizong’s era, the foreigners on the border would infiltrate the Great Tang, take these orphans, and train them into assassins and spies to be used against the Great Tang.
And the constant warfare and excess fertility had led to even more orphans.
With the calamity imminent and the world going through great changes, even more children would be orphaned. Wang Chong had donated twenty million taels of gold during this incident to prepare for this.
At the very least, he could train these orphans and provide them something to eat so that they could survive in that apocalyptic era.
In the future, they would be the hope for the Great Tang, the hope of humanity!
But Wang Chong would never explain this to anyone.