Royal Gold Magistrate

Fang Zheng had been mulling over the request to Emperor Jing to manage a district of the capital for some time.

So he had 80-90% confidence in the matter before deciding to speak up.

In his view, Emperor Jing was quite open-minded in his thinking. As a once-battlefield emperor with rich war experience, he not only had courage, but his thinking was also hard to be constrained by those worldly rules and frameworks.

After all, no matter how vicious the changes in the world were, they could hardly surpass the battlefield. For the sake of survival, people could come up with any method.

Secondly, it was also thanks to Li Yuanzhao’s dazzling performance earlier, which undoubtedly greatly increased Fang Zheng’s credibility in Emperor Jing’s mind.

Giving the Crown Prince authority to manage a district was not an especially major matter in itself. The only issue was that Fang Zheng and the Crown Prince might do business together. This matter would sound bad if spoken of and the court officials would inevitably gossip.

But Fang Zheng thought, the Crown Prince and I already stink! Do we still need you to scold us more? What’s wrong with doing business? Isn’t the emperor also selling tea?

So, seizing the opportunity of earning over 40,000 taels, he decisively spoke to Emperor Jing and the result was as Fang Zheng wished – Emperor Jing readily agreed.

As for the choice of district location, Fang Zheng also had a plan in mind early on.

Out of occupational habit, he always wanted to look around after getting off work every day, so he also had a general understanding of the situation in the capital.

The capital had a total of 108 districts, distributed across the entire city like a chessboard.

Initially, Fang Zheng’s choice was Yuhu District, closest to the inner city’s east. Yuhu District had a prime location, complete infrastructure, thriving commerce, and good public order. Even the roads were paved with stone slabs like in Taoyuan County.

Everything could use what was already there, saving a large amount of funds.

Moreover, Yuhu District was close to the Eastern City Garrison. If they encountered trouble and needed manpower, he and Li Yuanzhao could have troops to dispatch at a moment’s notice, which was very convenient.

But even with such favorable conditions, after some deliberation, Fang Zheng still decided to give up.

The main consideration was that with Yuhu District’s favorable conditions, the web of interests there must be complex. Even if managed by the Crown Prince, it would inevitably give rise to many troubles.

An even more important reason was that Yuhu District was very affluent, while Banshan District was more impoverished.

Compared to Yuhu District, the conditions in Banshan District could be said to be vastly different. Just the roads were uneven. Although it was said that the Five City Garrison had recently renovated the roads across the whole city.

But Banshan District basically just had the dirt roads compacted once. If there was rainy weather, it was inevitably still a bit muddy.

Not only were there many poor people here, but the surrounding few districts also had similar conditions.

Fang Zheng had risen from among the poor. He had seen plenty of poverty and hardship, so he would instinctively prioritize impoverished areas.

If Banshan District was chosen for development, firstly it could directly improve the livelihood of the people in the district. On the other hand, it could also drive the development of surrounding districts.

This was where the significance of the transformation lay. Although the first consideration was the development of Taoyuan County, they couldn’t let the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This was not Fang Zheng’s original intention.

Right now, Fang Zheng didn’t have much money on hand. He had allocated 120,000 taels of silver from Taoyuan County. After gifts to the palace, various bribes, and miscellaneous expenses in the manor, only a small portion remained.

Adding the 40,000 taels earned yesterday, half of which was given to Emperor Jing, when all was tallied, Fang Zheng now only had around 50,000 taels on hand.

It should be enough to completely renovate the infrastructure of Banshan District from the ground up, although it might be a bit tight. But after all, it would be built according to Taoyuan County’s standards.

…

Afterwards, Fang Zheng had a simple chat with Emperor Jing about the details and then went straight to the Eastern Palace.

As soon as Li Yuanzhao saw Fang Zheng, he ran over shouting, “Old Fang, you’re finally here! How much money did we make yesterday?”

Fang Zheng smiled slightly and held up four fingers.

“Four thousand taels!?” Li Yuanzhao was so happy his drool almost flowed out. Making four thousand taels in one night was beyond his wildest dreams. That was over half a year’s allowance for him.

Fang Zheng shook his head, “Wrong! It’s forty thousand taels!?”

Hearing this, Li Yuanzhao instantly felt a bit dizzy. Then his eyes immediately burst with a blissful glow as he shouted, “Where’s the money? Where’s the money!”

“Oh, His Majesty is saving your share for you.”

Li Yuanzhao grinned from ear to ear, “Who wants him to save it for me? I’m going to talk to Imperial Father and reason with him!”

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t be in a rush! Your share of the money has been exchanged for something good.” Fang Zheng hurriedly pulled him back.

Li Yuanzhao looked at him with a puzzled gaze.

Fang Zheng didn’t want to keep him in suspense any longer and said directly, “I requested His Majesty to let you manage a district in the capital. You like Taoyuan County, right? Now you can go build Taoyuan yourself.”

“Really?” Li Yuanzhao blinked, somewhat in disbelief of his own ears.

Originally, Imperial Father allowing him to leave the palace was already a huge reward. Now he could actually let him manage a district. Wouldn’t he be able to act as he pleased from now on?

“Really!”

Hearing this, Li Yuanzhao immediately clapped his hands and laughed, “Hahaha, great, Old Fang, it’s all thanks to you. This prince’s long-held idea can finally be realized!”

“What idea?”

“Fence off the entire district, put up railings, then release a hundred tigers, lions, and wolves inside… a battle royale of beasts!”

Fang Zheng’s face fell.

Isn’t this what a fatuous ruler would do? His old bad habits are acting up again after just two days?

“What about the people inside? Feed them to the tigers?”

Li Yuanzhao waved his sleeve, looking smug, “That’s the exciting part! Move all the people out so there are only wild beasts inside.”

“If people want to visit, build an iron cage, lock the people inside, then have a horse-drawn carriage travel inside. Wouldn’t they be able to get close to those wild beasts like this?”

“What about the horses?”

Li Yuanzhao paused. Right, what about the horses? If there are lions and tigers inside, what happens when the horses are gone?

But after a bit of thought, he had a solution, “No problem. The horses can wear iron armor. Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

Fang Zheng sighed deeply.

In his previous life, Li Yuanzhao was probably someone who ran a wildlife park… Being the Crown Prince was truly a waste of his talents.

“Old Fang, what do you think of this prince’s idea?” Li Yuanzhao was very pleased with himself.

Fang Zheng gave a thumbs up, “Wonderful! Extremely wonderful. If there were self-driving carriages, it would be even better. As expected of Your Highness. If His Majesty saw this, he’d be so happy he’d want to have another child!”

“Alright, let’s talk business. Tomorrow, Your Highness will come with me to Banshan District. From now on, that will be your territory.”

“In a bit, I’ll first go to the North City Garrison to get some things. Your Highness can first think about how exactly to plan it.”

“Banshan District? Never heard of it. Why’d you pick a place where even birds don’t poop?” Li Yuanzhao looked at Fang Zheng in puzzlement.

“Once we go there tomorrow, Your Highness will know!”