He said, smiling a little, "Why don't we just settle it all at once? That way, I won't bother you anymore and you can save yourself the trouble. I promise to keep my mouth shut and never mention this again. How about that?"
When you can get more benefits, of course you have to get as much as possible, otherwise, it would be a waste of suffering. He gave up his princess and his wife, so he had to get more benefits.
What's more, he had done the math for Jiang Songwen and knew how much money he had. He also knew that his request was just a drop in the bucket for Jiang Songwen.
Zou Qing almost laughed out of anger, looked up at him, and asked calmly: "Then how much does the Marquis want?"
Guanzhong Hou pondered carefully for a while, looked at Zou Qing's face, and slowly stretched out five fingers.
Zou Qing looked at his raised finger, hesitated for a moment, and asked him: "Fifty thousand taels?"
"Five hundred thousand taels!" Guanzhong Hou said it in one breath, as if he saw the white silver right in front of him, and he was excited and a little jubilant: "I know that Lord Jiang is in a high position. I heard that he will soon take over as the Shaoqing of the Ministry of Imperial Treasures. This is a lucrative position. Before, Lord Jiang was in charge of the Ministry of Works, so if there was a little slip in his hands, it would be a huge sum of hundreds of thousands of taels... ... In the future, when he is in charge of the Ministry of Imperial Treasures, won't he be able to take whatever he wants? Lord Jiang will not care about these small numbers..."
He said five hundred thousand taels of silver was a small amount right at the start. Zou Qing sneered in his heart, thinking that this man was simply courting death.
However, if he wasn't so greedy, he wouldn't have betrayed Shen Chen after making an alliance with him.
Guanzhong Hou himself was completely unaware of Zou Qing's criticism. In his opinion, his request was reasonable.
Others may not know, but he knows that Jiang Songwen relied on his father being the Prime Minister and had done countless things to bully men and women. However, everyone was afraid to impeach him because of his father being the Prime Minister.
When they were clearing the river in Guanzhong, the Ministry of Works approved one million taels of silver. However, when the silver reached Guanzhong, only 700,000 taels were left.
At that time, Guanzhong Hou and the then Governor of the River were very good friends and were also related by marriage. I heard clearly from him that the 300,000 taels were given as a filial gift to the Minister of Works, Jiang Songwen.
Jiang Songwen was also a bold man. He slammed the table and argued with the Governor of the River, saying that he had already done the math. The Governor of the River had only spent 600,000 taels to build the river. He took 300,000 taels and left 100,000 taels for the Governor of the River.
At that time, the Marquis of Guanzhong was shocked. He did not expect Jiang Songwen to be so greedy. You know, 600,000 taels were used to repair the river, and 300,000 taels were given as a tribute to Jiang Songwen. Only 100,000 taels were left out of the one million taels given by the court. After these 100 taels were exploited at various levels, from the local governor of Guanzhong to the eunuchs who guarded the city to the prefect and others, there was almost nothing left for the governor of the river. It was like he worked hard for nothing and got nothing.
Jiang Songwen has been so greedy for a long time. Guanzhong Hou gave him a rough estimate that Jiang Songwen had been the Minister of Works for six years, and he must have made at least one million taels in these six years.
What's more, he had previously served as the Minister of Works.
For Jiang Songwen, five hundred thousand taels is at most a drop in the bucket. Although it is a little more, it will not affect him at all.
Guanzhong Hou thought that he had calculated the accounts very accurately and the amounts he had quoted were just right and would never be excessive.
However, Zou Qing couldn't help but take a deep breath in his heart, thinking that Guanzhong Hou was simply ridiculous.
He was eager to fish out the silver in the frying pan and use it, but he didn't even think about whether he had the chance to do so.
He hummed and said without hesitation: "The amount you proposed is a bit high... I can't make the decision myself, so I'll go back and ask our master..."
Guanzhong Hou raised his chin in a haughty manner: "Go ahead and ask." He looked at Zou Qing proudly and said meaningfully: "You are not the only one who came to see me today. Before you, many people have come to ask me about the princess and asked me why the princess said she was sick again..."
This is clearly the beginning of a threat.
Zou Qing still nodded perfunctorily with a smile on his face: "Don't worry, don't worry, we dare not neglect it. Just let us go back and report to the master. We will give you an answer before tonight. We will definitely not delay your business. Since you like Yunxiufang, just go. No matter how much money you spend, we will reimburse you when the time comes..."
This is what human beings say. Guanzhong Hou stroked his beard with great satisfaction. He nodded, stood up and left.
Zou Qing patted the table where he had sat, slowly dried his hands, and asked his subordinates to come in. He ordered expressionlessly: "Go to Yunxiufang and tell them that he has fallen in love with that noble lady. Let the noble lady serve him, and make sure she serves him well for me."
As he spoke, he smiled sinisterly: "Then send someone to inform your sister's lover."
Although Yunxiufang was not the property of the Jiang family, the Jiang family was familiar with it and had a stake in it. Zou Qing knew the situation inside very well. He also knew that Guijie's family used to be officials, but later her father got into trouble and she was forced to become a prostitute.
She also had a fiancé who had been engaged to her. Although she didn't want to be a burden to him and always refused, her lover was a very affectionate and loyal man and was determined to help her redeem herself.
Guijie gradually agreed and was willing to become that man's concubine.
If Guanzhong Hou really forced his sister to marry him, then...
Then it was only right that Guijie's childhood sweetheart took his life. He couldn't blame anyone. Who told him to be so blind as to break up lovers
Jiang Songwenming told him to do things neatly and beautifully, and no one outside could discover the secret. After thinking about it, he came up with this method. After thinking it over again and again, he felt that this was the only method that was foolproof.
The people below immediately understood what he meant, agreed, and went to make the arrangements themselves.
Zou Qing sat quietly in the private room facing the street for a while before he laughed. Guanzhong Hou was really stupid. Not only was he stupid, but he was also greedy.
But this is a great thing for them. Fortunately, he was stupid and greedy, so he did not betray Jiang Songwen immediately. Otherwise, it would have caused big trouble for Jiang Songwen and the Jiang family.
He flicked the dust off his sleeves and stood up expressionlessly, hiding the disdain and ridicule in his heart. (To be continued)