Chapter 960 959 [Breaking the Ego]

March 14th.

Qinyuan, in the conference hall.

After the unique auction the day before yesterday, the final result shocked countless people. They were surprised by the number of wealthy businessmen inside and outside Kyoto, and also sighed that Pei Yue, the Marquis of Zhongshan, made a fortune and earned more than 4 million taels in just one day.

However, there are not many people who are jealous of Pei Yue this time, especially those nobles with more informative channels. They said in private with a complicated expression, "Pei Yue is a smart person. I know that I can't keep those money trees sooner or later, so it's better to take the initiative to get some benefits."

In fact, when Pei Yue confirmed that he was about to take action on part of the industry, the powerful and powerful had a clearer understanding of the changes in the past few months.

Since the end of the Battle of the Southern Front, the palace's attitude towards Pei Yue is intriguing. It has neither increased openly and subverted secretly to seize his power, nor has it been as friendly as before. With the end of the last New Year's Day, Pei Yue successfully rejected the Duke of the Duke, and then began to use the connections he had accumulated to wander around for the eldest prince, successfully helping Liu Xian gain a foothold in the dispute over the crown prince.

As of yesterday, 85 branches were sold at Kyoto Xiangyun. This business that is increasingly important for the stability of Kyoto's people's livelihood is no longer the only one of Pei Yue. More than 60% of the branches fell into the hands of dozens of wealthy businessmen. As a result, Pei Yue's influence on Kyoto has dropped significantly. Coupled with his previous efforts, I believe that the palace can temporarily put aside his fear of him.

In short, after Emperor Kaiping showed his suppression, Pei Yue took the initiative while sticking to the bottom line and successfully resolved this crisis. This monarch and minister had obviously reached a certain tacit understanding.

Pei Yue moved so quickly that before those who wanted to attack him had time to take action, the hidden danger gradually disappeared. There were even those who were slow to react, and it was not until now that the whole story was clear.

Liu Xian understood that the other party was unwilling to have a deep conversation, or that Pei Yue did not put himself in a humble situation of inferiority from beginning to end, even though he had made a lot of effort for Liu Xian to run around during this period. What's even more amazing is that the eldest prince did not think that this was wrong. I don't know if it was because Pei Yue left too deep an impression on him during the past grudges and entanglement, or whether Wu Guifei's teachings in recent years had been effective, so he calmly accepted the fact that Pei Yue was on an equal footing with him.

Pei Yue explained with a gentle voice: "Your Highness, every man is guilty of possessing a treasure, which is a universal principle. What's more, I am the head coach of the Beijing camp. It is not appropriate to hold a business like Xiangyun, which is related to the stability of people's livelihood in my hands. It is impossible to say that I have to worry about the difficulties. In fact, even if there is no such thing as the storm of Duzhong during this period, I thought about giving up some of my industries when I was still in the southern border. For me, wealth is no longer the obsession in the heart of the son of the Concubine."

This also strengthened Wang Pingzhang's simple thoughts. Pei Yue is still in the heart of the emperor and has a large number of allies and close friends in the court. It is almost impossible to solve him with ordinary court struggles, so he can only use the most primitive and direct method instead.

Liu Xian did not argue. He had known for a long time that the young and powerful man on the other side was very cunning, and his scheming and skillfulness were not as good as those of a weak age. Therefore, he seemed to be meaningful: "The Ministry of Works has always been very rich."

Liu Xian sighed: "Pei Yue, I know that you have the last resort to selling some of the industries under your name. Whether it is public or private, I should send someone to clamor for you, and I should also give you a sum of money to boost your momentum. But... I also know that after the Qibao Pavilion went bankrupt, the royal palace lost its most important investment, and I am powerless to deal with such major matters. Not to mention whether I can get the silver from the court, even if I have the courage, the Ministry of Rites will not be able to bring so much money."

In terms of the power of chess, Pei Yue is obviously not the opponent of the eldest prince. Although Liu Xian has had a foolish and reckless past, he has received the most traditional and harsh royal education since childhood. Even if he can't be said to be a frank man, he is indeed better than Pei Yue in these elegant ways.

Pei Yue shrugged and said, "Your Highness is thinking too far. I haven't thought so much. I just want to sell some industries as soon as possible and don't want to attract criticism in vain."

Pei Yue was slightly surprised and asked calmly, "What does your Highness mean?"

Liu Xian looked at Pei Yuechunche's gaze and nodded convincingly, then asked tentatively: "So you used this opportunity to dig a hole for the second child?"

Pei Yue was a little curious and puzzled. Now the overall situation is improving for the eldest prince. After two months of long debate, the debate on the inheritance system of the eldest son in the court gradually subsided, and the focus of the topic shifted to the advantages and disadvantages of the two princes themselves.

The eldest prince has an absolute advantage in this regard, whether it is his performance in the previous case of the fourth prince's rebellion, or the several proposals he gave in the Ministry of Rites this year won a lot of honors. Although the second prince was secretly angry more than once, because those methods must be what Concubine Wu thought, he himself had never left the help of Queen Chen, so he naturally did not have the courage to expose the secrets in the palace.

Pei Yue smiled and changed the subject: "I didn't expect that this little thing in my life would make Your Highness worry. It's a great honor."

Even Princess Pingyang's actions to plot against Pei Yue and Liu Xian's crime for her became a proof of his pure filial piety, which could only make people sigh that the world is inconsistent and cannot be calculated by human power.

Today, the atmosphere in Qinyuan's conference hall was elegant. Pei Yue was talking to the young man sitting opposite him, as if he was too lazy to pay attention to the ups and downs outside, and only wanted to hide in the small building and become unified.

Pei Yue asked, "What trouble does Your Highness have?"

Liu Xian said a little embarrassedly: "That's true."

Liu Xian smiled and said, "The second brother has been coveting your property for a long time. When his father asked Han to take over the Nanjing peace talks, he couldn't wait to ask Liu Fei to take action. How could he bear to sell it on his own initiative this time? You used bidding to raise the price of the Xiangyun branch very high. Today, he used the same method to sell the shares in Kyoto Qinyuan. He didn't have that much money. After all, Zhulou gave up a lot of profits to keep the store in the past two years."

Logically speaking, Liu Xian was in a state of pride at the moment, and even if he was careful and did not give him a handle, he would never be so worried.

Pei Yue smiled and said, "It seems that Your Highness is very worried. How about this game of chess ending here?"

Liu Xian put the chess piece in his hand into the box and said shyly: "Oh, there have been a few things that have made me feel uneasy in the past."

Pei Yue laughed and said, "Your Highness, if you really dare to get the money from the Ministry of Rites, the Imperial Concubine would be furious."

But he still had two confusions in his mind. Even if the second brother had a shortage of silver, he would not have used the money from the Ministry of Works. Even if he used the bamboo house as collateral to borrow silver from Taiping Money House, he could still make up enough money to acquire Pei Yue's industry. He took a step back and said that even if he really used the money from the Ministry of Works, what would Pei Yue have to uncover the lid?

This time, I was able to see Pei Yue’s plan because Liu Xian has always been from an outsider’s perspective and has a thorough understanding of the entire situation. In addition, I have experienced Pei Yue’s various methods before, so I can analyze Pei Yue’s ideas extremely rationally.

Wang Pingzhang and the second prince are naturally not listed here. They just felt it was a pity that they did not take advantage of this opportunity to defeat Pei Yue.

Now he has the power to govern the Ministry of Rites at least nominally.

However, today's matchup on the chessboard seemed evenly matched, especially when Pei Yue used a "small tip" in the lower left corner, Liu Xian fell into the long-term exam.

The matter involves the prince, and it is not possible to report the news. If Pei Yue had not helped, Jian Rong, who had impeached the eldest prince, might not have been able to escape unscathed.

Secondly, if we consider the best results, even if the second brother can't see the mystery clearly, can't the old fox Wang Pingzhang see through?

Liu Xian now knew that Liu Yun and the Duke of Wei had a secret relationship, so he looked straight into Pei Yue's eyes and asked frankly: "Pei Yue, do you think the second brother and Wang Pingzhang will be fooled?"

Pei Yue slowly put the chess pieces on the chessboard into the box, and asked with a smile: "Your Highness thinks that Wang Pingzhang will make a word to remind the second prince?"

Liu Xian was stunned.

(End of this chapter)
Chapter completed!