The palace square was crowded with people coming and going. The confrontation between Jiang Yuqing and the Xiongnu envoy was soon heard by Emperor Xia Jing.
Emperor Xia Jing sighed, "A mere girl has such toughness and shames so many grown men!" He patted his son on the shoulder, "You lucky boy!"
Jing Yan felt honored and rarely arrogant, "Of course I'm luckier than you!"
Emperor Xia Jing: "..." Can't handle this son.
The next day, Huyan Xuri Gan submitted a national letter.
Thus, Da Xia obtained 2,000 war horses without losing a single soldier, and its territory expanded westward by 500 li.
That afternoon, Huyan Xuri Gan left the capital of Da Xia with his men as fast as if something was chasing them.
He now just wanted to get away from Da Xia, this land that was once so coveted but now so terrifying, and from that devil, as far as possible...
He had no time to think about anything else...
The next morning at the early court session, Emperor Xia Jing's loud laughter spread throughout the hall. Expanding the territory was a major event that deserved an announcement to the world for the emperor and his ministers to celebrate together.
He didn't care how Jiang Yuqing did it. A good cat is one that catches mice, no matter if it's black or white.
The Emperor also highly praised Jiang Wenyuan for teaching his daughter well. He issued an imperial decree on the spot, conferring Jiang Yuqing the title of Princess Protector of the Country, an ultra-first-rank title.
Among women, her status was second only to the Empress and on par with the princesses. The words "Protector of the Country" were not to be easily granted.
When the news spread, the capital was shocked again. The creed "raise daughters to be like Jiang Yuqing" once again gained popularity.
People crowded Jiang's residence again to congratulate him, forcing Jiang Wenyuan to close his doors to visitors before it finally died down.
After the Xiongnu left, the Wo Country also left empty-handed with anger.
How dare you send people to rob and kill in my house, then turn around with a smile wanting me to give you treasures as a friendly neighbor. Go to hell! Jerks!
Not only did they receive no rewards or crops, Da Xia even sent a squad of Feathered Forest Guards to "escort" them all the way to the seaside and watched them board the ships!
This completely cut off their idea of getting food supplies midway!
After seeing off these troublesome guys, the air in the capital seemed much fresher.
The officials of the Ministry of Justice could finally sleep well too.
Jiang Wenyuan also heaved a sigh of relief. Every day they just wanted to get money out of him! Disgusting!
The fruit trees at Tai'an Farm had all been planted, blessed by Jiang Yuqing’s wood aura, all survived and grew well.
The large area of alfalfa grass had also grown to about an inch high.
The veterans were delighted, thinking it was due to Jiang Yuqing’s “potion”. They asked her to make more when she had time to water the trees. It worked wonders. Jiang Yuqing was amused by this.
The veterans were now building cattle pens, sheep pens and chicken coops at the predetermined locations.
The pigpen was built close to the 3,000-mu farm near Jiang's residence.
Sewer pipes and composting pools were also dug.
The manure swept out from the pigpen every day could be piped into this big pool for fermentation and then directly spread into the fields as natural organic fertilizer.
It’s also far enough from the orchards and houses, so even on windy days, the smell wouldn’t reach people.
She had notified the government's livestock department to deliver the first batch of 50 piglets.
Jiang Yuqing had the experienced veterans select 10 sows and 2 boars for breeding, and slaughtered the rest.
Seeing Jiang Yuqing lift up the piglets one-handed and castrate them with one stroke of the knife, the veterans couldn’t help but feel a chill between their legs. Their awe of her deepened!
She really deserved to be called the little Warrior God. That was just too ruthless.
So they privately gave her another nickname of "Ghost Hand and Divine Blade".
When Jiang Yuqing found out, she was not offended at all, but rather smug about it.
She decided that when she sets out into the Jianghu world one day, she would use this nickname!
At dinner that night, seeing her father Jiang Wenyuan frowning, she asked what was wrong.
Jiang Wenyuan frowned and said, "Pirates are rampant along the southeast coast. His Majesty intends to pacify them but lacks treasured ships."
Jiang Yuqing said, "Is it because our technology is not good enough to build them?"
"No, it is lack of money! Treasured ships are extremely costly. To establish a strong enough navy, we need a sufficient number of them.
Although Da Xia's national treasury has improved in recent years, there are many places in need of money and it’s hard to squeeze out money for this.”
Jiang Yuqing asked, "How much silver does a treasured ship require?"
Jiang Wenyuan said, "Small ones cost 20,000 to 30,000, medium ones 50,000 to 60,000. For combat ships that can carry hundreds or thousands into sea battles, at least 100,000 silver!"
Jiang Yuqing was shocked. That's an astronomical figure. But establishing a navy was the right idea.
Only with a sufficiently powerful navy could they resist invading enemies, protect their homeland, and even explore the unknown overseas worlds for expansion.
If only they had money...
Jiang Yuqing wanted to help her father too but she was also poor. She couldn't think of any good solutions for a while.
It wasn’t until she was on her way home from Anding Hospital today and bought a baked sweet potato. Seeing a money house, she suddenly had an idea.
That’s it! Building money houses, state-owned money houses!
She immediately stuffed the sweet potato into her mouth and raced home on White Xiaoshi. After closing the door, she started drafting plans.
In her previous life, she didn't study finance so her financial knowledge was quite limited.
But compared to this world's money houses that could only hold money and exchange currencies, it was a huge leap forward.
When Jiang Wenyuan returned from work, she had just finished writing. She immediately took it to show her father.
Jiang Wenyu’s eyes lit up when he saw it, extremely excited. "Good girl, you’ve helped your father tremendously!"
He immediately went to the palace without even eating dinner, holding her plans.
The emperor and prince had just picked up their bowls when they heard Jiang Wenyuan had an urgent matter to discuss. They quickly summoned him in.
Jiang Wenyuan presented what his daughter had written and explained it carefully. The Emperor was also amazed, full of praises.
He exclaimed, "Brother Yi, just how did your daughter's brain grow? This is too brilliant! If she was a boy, I reckon you couldn't compare with her!"
Jiang Wenyuan grumbled, "Aren't I not as good as her? If we really rank our status, I still have to bow to her!"
Hearing this, the Emperor burst out laughing, "Oh yes, that's how it is! As the father you are the first rank, but your daughter is an ultra first rank. Do you feel wronged?"
Jiang Wenyuan chose not to answer such a childish question, even if he was the Emperor.
Emperor Xia Jing said, "Let's discuss this plan tomorrow at the grand meeting. If there're no issues, let’s go with it!"
"Alright!"
"Oh yes. Have you eaten? Let's have a meal together!"
"Then this subject will humbly obey and not dare to decline the decree..."
The next day at the grand meeting, Jiang Yuqing’s proposal for establishing money houses were presented and approved by ninety percent of the officials after some debate.
After half a month’s deliberation, a state-owned money house called “Da Xia Remittance and Exchange House” was established on the most prosperous Imperial Avenue in the capital city, under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue.
Instead of charging safekeeping fees, this money house would even pay interest for term deposits.
For clients in temporary need of money, they could mortgage assets like houses and land for flexible loans and repay after their funds returned.
Although interest would be charged, it was extremely low compared to the blood-sucking pawn shops. What's more, this was a state-run money house, credibility guaranteed. In other words, the silver deposited would not disappear as long as Da Xia stood.
On opening day, people lining up to deposit money stretched over a li.
Jiang Yuqing lined up first. She must show some support for national affairs.
The staff recognized her and immediately got up to bow. Jiang Yuqing smiled and asked them to carry up a few boxes of silver ingots.
"Princess, how much would you like to deposit?"
Jiang Yuqing smiled, "A total of 8,888 taels. 5,000 taels for 3-year term deposit. The rest 3,888 taels for active deposit. Please help me with the procedures for deposit certificates."
The staff burst into laughter when they heard this amount. The princess must be trying to give them an auspicious bonus! "Sure, Your Highness, please wait a moment!" The staff carefully checked the quality and weight of the silver before processing the paperwork for Jiang Yuqing and issuing her a receipt and promissory note.
Before leaving, Jiang Yuqing offered her own blessing: "Wishing you booming business and expanding wealth!"
On the first day alone, Huitong Money House on Imperial Street received 273,000+ taels of savings deposits, including 120,000 taels in fixed-term deposits.
This was just the savings received by the first branch on the first day.
If Huitong Money Houses were opened throughout Da Xia, pooling all the amassed wealth together to offer loans or investments, setting it into circulation for money to beget money, the final numbers would be as vast as the sea.
Then would there still be any worry that Da Xia lacked money to build treasure ships?
The Ministry of Revenue officials were utterly delighted, and Emperor Xia Jing was elated. He highly praised Jiang Yuqing once more as an outright genius.
Ever since Huitong Money House opened for business, Jiang Wenyuan's mood improved day after day, his once deeply furrowed brows relaxing as he went about his days gracious and smiling, dining on delicious food.
At the same time, Jiang Yuqing tallied up an account at month's end.
Before winter set in, she had just donated another 150,000 sets of new cotton uniforms to the Northwestern Garrison. Basically all of Su Province's Warm Wool Workshop's profits this year went towards that.
For Anyi Hospital, she hadn't taken a single percentage of their 20% profits this year, leaving it all to the hospital to subsidize medication costs for the veterans seeking treatment.
Fortunately the State Pharmacy Bureau side of things was still profitable. Coupled with several medicinal formulas she had provided over the years, business remained respectable.
She donated a portion of the money to the Mercy Academy, invested some into Tai’an Farm, then had various other expenses here and there, leaving not much left over.
After New Year’s, she still needed to purchase large batches of breeding sheep and cattle and other livestock, which would be another major expenditure.
Moreover, Da Xia had just signed an agreement with Xian Country. Going forward, cattle, sheep, raw sheepskin and wool would be imported from Xian Country into Da Xia in large quantities. Jiang Yuqing also planned to dispatch people to the border after New Year’s to construct another large-scale workshop there—yet another enormous capital investment.
The bit of silver she had on hand truly wouldn’t cut it. It was time to come up with some profitable ventures.
