Zhao Zhen, holding a white jade paperweight, almost dropped it, looking at the guard with disbelief.
"What did you just say?" Li Siyuan, who had been clinging to Zhao Zhen's leg, quickly asked.
"Lord Zong is back, and he brought dozens of carts of copper coins!"
"Copper coins? Dozens of carts?"
Li Siyuan's mouth twitched a few times. Was this a joke? How was this possible?
Dozens of carts of copper coins, that would be a fortune!
It was one thing for his Prince to be crazy enough to throw copper coins into the water.
But was there really someone in Bianliang city so foolish as to throw large sums of copper coins into the water?
"That's right, the carts have already reached the alley entrance. Lord Zong asked Your Highness to quickly find people to move the copper coins!"
Seeing their strange expressions, the guard hurried to say.
After hearing him, Zhao Zhen dashed out.
"Your Highness! Your boot fell off! Your boot fell off!"
Zhao Zhen ran so fast in his haste that he didn't even notice his boot had fallen off.
By the time Li Siyuan caught up, Zhao Zhen had already reached the moon gate leading to the back alley.
"Your Highness, your boot, your boot!"
Li Siyuan took two steps at a time to catch up and managed to put the boot back on, then helped Zhao Zhen all the way to the back alley.
As soon as they emerged, they saw a large number of carriages parked at the entrance of the back alley.
Dozens of fierce guards stood at the alley entrance, vigilantly observing their surroundings.
"Your Highness, your subordinate has fulfilled his mission and delivered the money to you."
"This, this is how much money?"
Looking at the vast procession of dozens of carriages, Zhao Zhen asked with a trembling voice.
"A total of 150,000 guan! Not a single coin less. Each cart holds 5,000 guan, exactly 30 carts."
Zong Ying said excitedly.
"150,000 guan? Where did this money come from?"
Zhao Zhen's eyes widened.
Even for him, a prince not well-off, 150,000 guan was quite a large sum.
Of course, if one considered his assets, his Prince Xin's mansion alone was likely worth over several hundred thousand guan.
If one included the miscellaneous treasures within, the value would be incalculable.
But the key problem was that these were basically fixed assets.
And many items were symbolic. If he sold them, he would likely be apprehended and punished by the Court of Imperial Sacrifices shortly after.
One might ask, could a prince, a royal relative, be so poor?
The answer, of course, was yes!
In the Song Dynasty, all princes were generally enfeoffed as commandery princes or imperial princes, and then they would enjoy a certain amount of sustenance from the court.
Of course, to ensure their sons lived comfortably, princes would generally hold multiple official posts.
Like him, he held the posts of Military Governor of Anyuan Army, concurrently appointed Grand Master of the Imperial Court, which was equivalent to a Chancellor.
With this Military Governor position, he now received an additional monthly salary of three hundred guan, twenty bolts of silk and thirty bolts of fine linen for spring and winter attire, one hundred liang of cotton, and one hundred shi of grain per month.
Of course, the benefits of the Military Governor position were not limited to this.
The greatest benefit was the public funds that a Military Governor could command, which in modern terms would be entertainment expenses, amounting to twenty thousand guan annually.
Coupled with his princely allowance, and the court's provisions of tea, wine, cooking ingredients, fuel, kindling, ice, charcoal, salt, and even fodder for horses, as well as clothing, food, and monthly stipends for his household servants, and so on.
In addition, there were official fields granted by the court, manors bestowed by the Emperor, gifts during festivals, and so forth. All these incomes combined amounted to no more than forty to fifty thousand guan in a year.
Although all living necessities were basically supplied by the court, requiring no additional purchases.
However, the exchanges between princes and royal families, as well as the social obligations among the powerful in Bianliang city,
These were also significant expenses for them each year.
Add to that the princes' hobbies, such as falconry and horse riding, none of which were cheap.
Without other sources of income, the savings at the end of the year would be at most ten to twenty thousand guan.
Like Zhao Zhen, he had been a commandery prince for several years, and only in the last year or two had he become a Grand Master of the Imperial Court.
All the funds he could access combined amounted to only a little over forty thousand guan.
In normal times, this would indeed be considerable wealth.
However, with Emperor Huizong's construction of Gengen Peak in recent years, preceded by Song Jiang's rebellion and then Fang La's rebellion,
It was a case of one disaster after another.
From the Huaihe region to Shandong, the area had not known peace.
This led to a continuous rise in grain prices over the past two years, from the initial two hundred wen per dou of rice to the current nine hundred wen per dou.
Moreover, since Cai Jing took office, he first introduced the " Zhe Wu Qian" (currency worth five, but valued at one), then massively issued new salt certificates, tea certificates, and indiscriminately issued money certificates, and so on.
This directly led to the bankruptcy of the copper coin's credit and a further decline in purchasing power, with many people unwilling to accept the Zhe Wu Qian.
Coupled with the current severe drought, unscrupulous merchants secretly engaged in price gouging.
The wealth he had painstakingly accumulated over ten years was spent in just three days.
Seeing that he was about to start appraising the household items, the sudden appearance of so much wealth truly made him overjoyed.
"These were all provided by Feng Yuanbao. Young Official Han said that all this wealth is to be given to Your Highness for disaster relief!"
"Is Feng Yuanbao crazy? 150,000 guan? How is that possible?"
Zhao Zhen's eyes widened.
However, this was also somewhat understandable.
After all, although he was a prince, he was not very familiar with the affairs of merchants.
He naturally did not understand how profitable a monopoly business could be.
"Your subordinate has opened a new path. This Young Official Han truly has the skill of Tao Zhu reincarnated!"
Zong Ying exclaimed as he began to explain in detail to Zhao Zhen everything that had happened at Feng Yuanbao's residence.
"I never expected to have underestimated him..."
After hearing the explanation, Zhao Zhen remained silent for a long time before saying,
"Chief Steward Li, I'll leave the counting of this money to you. Your Highness, let's talk in another place!"
Although Zhao Zhen was straightforward and had never been interested in the position of supreme ruler of the world,
As his subordinate officials, Zong Ying and the others had never given up.
Seeing Han Mo's display of power today, Zong Ying's heart felt as if it were being scratched by a cat...