lovenovelstory Chapter 8 To pacify external enemies, one must first secure internal stability.
Chapter 8 To pacify external enemies, one must first secure internal stability.
That evening, in the backyard of the Tenth Prince's residence.
The once bustling theater construction site is now a scene of utter devastation.
The unfinished wooden frame stood there crookedly, and a few dilapidated lanterns hung under the eaves.
The dim yellow light swayed in the night wind, casting shadowy images of the timber and stone materials scattered haphazardly on the construction site.
Yin De stood in the center of the construction site, holding a thick inventory of materials, his brows furrowed in worry.
"Be careful," he ordered in a deep voice. "Count and record every piece of timber and every brick, and report back to the accounting office."
A dozen servants responded and scattered, some carrying timber, some stacking bricks, and some measuring with rulers, busily getting to work in a chaotic mess.
Yin De sighed, walked to the door of the guardhouse, and sat down on the steps.
He rubbed his aching lower back, took out his pipe, stuffed in a pinch of tobacco, lit it by the lantern fire, and took a deep drag.
Inside the guardhouse, two servants responsible for moving things were squatting on the floor eating their dinner.
A bowl of thin porridge, two mixed flour buns, and a dish of pickled vegetable dumplings—he ate them with gusto.
The dark-skinned, thin one is called Zhao Si, and the fair-skinned one is called Qian Qi. They are both third-class servants in the mansion, and they usually do rough and tiring work.
Zhao Si took a bite of his steamed bun and mumbled, "How can this perfectly good theater just suddenly stop being repaired?"
We put in a lot of effort in the first half of the year, and we were almost ready to put on the roof beam. Are we just going to stop like this?
Qian Qi stirred the porridge in his bowl with his chopsticks and lowered his voice: "I heard that our master owes money to the national treasury, and the emperor is pressing him hard. Now it's impossible to fix it."
Lord Yin said that work must be stopped and the timber inventoried; what can be sold should be sold, and what can be returned should be returned.
"Isn't the Emperor's money the same as our master's money?" Zhao Si asked, looking puzzled. "Does a son have to pay back his father's money?"
"Shh!" Qian Qi glared at him. "How would we know about the affairs of the imperial family? Keep your voice down, don't let anyone hear."
Zhao Si pursed his lips, took another bite of the steamed bun, chewed it a couple of times, and suddenly leaned closer: "But speaking of which, how much can this little bit of material sell for?"
I've heard that our Tenth Master spent no less than several hundred thousand taels of silver to build this theater.
"Tell me, where else would you spend so much money to build a theater? Even if you used Phoebe zhennan wood to build the frame, it wouldn't cost this much."
He paused, looked around, and lowered his voice even further: "I've heard that actually more than half..."
"Shut up!" Qian Qi shoved a hand over his mouth, his face turning pale. "You don't want to live anymore? How dare you say such a thing? You'll get a beating!"
Zhao Si shook off his hand and snorted dismissively, "What's the big deal? Our master here has always been a spendthrift and carefree person."
He believed whatever his subordinates reported. Little did he know…
He shook his head and didn't say anything more, but both of them understood what he meant by what he had left unsaid.
Qian Qi didn't say anything more, and just kept drinking his porridge.
Unbeknownst to the two, their entire conversation was clearly heard by Yin'e, who was sitting in his study.
Yin'e closed the book "Overheard" in his hand, his face ashen.
He originally just wanted to test the monitoring range of the book, so he casually clicked on the names of a few servants in the mansion.
Unexpectedly, this one listen revealed a major problem.
Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to build a theater?
The original owner's memories told him that the theater was built last autumn in order to please Emperor Kangxi.
The old master enjoys listening to operas, and the tenth prince wants to build a magnificent opera house in the mansion so that he can show it off when the old master visits.
The project dragged on for more than half a year, and money was spent like water, but the theater hadn't even been set up.
There was a thick stack of account books on the table, which he had Yin De deliver that afternoon.
Yin'e sat down and opened the first book.
The cover reads "Records of Construction Income and Expenditure of the Tenth Prince's Mansion from February to April of the 46th Year of Kangxi".
He flipped through the pages, his brow furrowing more and more with each page.
He didn't study finance, but he was still a seasoned office worker who had worked his way up in society. He had done plenty of Excel spreadsheets and filled out countless expense reports.
The shady dealings in the accounts were, in his eyes, as if the words "I embezzled" were written in black and white on the paper.
Let's start with manpower.
The account book states: "The daily wage for a master craftsman is 300 cash, and for a junior craftsman it is 150 cash."
However, after searching through the original owner's memories, he found that during the Kangxi era, the market price in Beijing was only 150 to 200 coins for a master craftsman and 80 to 100 coins for a junior craftsman.
That's more than doubled.
Even more outrageous is the number of people.
The account book stated that there were "fifty skilled workers and one hundred and twenty unskilled workers" working every day, but when he passed by the construction site in the afternoon, he glanced at it and saw only thirty or forty people working here and there.
Fifty master carpenters? The entire capital city might not be able to gather that many carpenters capable of building a theater.
Next, let's talk about materials.
The account book states: three taels of silver per piece of cedar wood.
Although Yin'e was unfamiliar with timber prices, he found a piece of information in the original owner's memories: last year, the Imperial Household Department purchased the same batch of timber, each piece costing only one tael and two mace.
That's almost tripled.
The most outrageous item is "miscellaneous expenses".
"February 15th, tea and snacks, twenty taels of silver."
"On the third day of the third lunar month, offer incense and silver worth thirty taels to the gods."
"On the eighteenth of March, the craftsmen were rewarded with fifty taels of silver."
"On April 12th, an additional eighty taels of silver was allocated for temporary supplies."
All things considered, the "miscellaneous items" alone cost nearly two thousand taels of silver.
What does two thousand taels mean? It's enough for a fifth-rank official in the capital to earn two years' salary.
These miscellaneous items had no details, no receipts, just a line of text and a number, and that was it.
Yin'e slammed the account book onto the table with a dull thud.
"Okay, very good." He gritted his teeth, squeezing out the words.
The original owner of this body was stupid, and the servants in the mansion treated him like a fool, taking advantage of him to steal his money.
Of the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver invested in the project, probably less than half has actually been completed.
Moreover, this was just a theater.
How much money has been quietly embezzled from the mansion's annual expenses, purchases, rewards, and social gatherings?
Yin'e leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
He suddenly realized an extremely serious problem: if he wanted to establish himself in this era, his home and backyard absolutely could not be in chaos.
With wolves and tigers like the Eighth and Ninth Masters watching from the outside, if the mansion is hollowed out from the inside, what will he use to fight against others?
Moreover, he currently has no businesses and no source of income.
The princes' annual stipends were fixed, with the Beile receiving 2,500 taels of silver and 2,500 bushels of rice annually.
It sounds like a lot, but this amount of money is barely enough to cover the expenses of the palace eunuchs and the food, clothing, and other necessities for the hundreds of people in the household.
It's simply not enough to cultivate relationships with court officials, build influence, or provide financial assistance at crucial moments.
Open source and cost reduction are both indispensable.
Open source things can't be rushed; they need to be planned slowly.
But we can start cutting costs tonight.
Yin'e opened his eyes and his gaze fell on the account book on the table.
Although the two servants did not reveal who had embezzled the money for repairing the courtyard, he already had a good idea of who it was.
Almost all affairs in the mansion were managed by Chief Secretary Yin De.
Purchasing, bookkeeping, paying wages, inspecting materials... he handled everything himself.
If there are problems with these accounts, Yin De is either the mastermind or he failed to supervise.
Either way, it means there's something wrong with the watchdog beside him.
Yin'e was silent for a moment, then reached out and summoned "Overheard," turned to a blank page, and wrote the four characters "Niohuru Yinde" with his hand instead of a pen.