Daily Intelligence System: Don't Kill Me, Honey!

And with the grain in hand, Chen Jie stored all of it as inventory. According to incomplete statistics, the grain in Huangzhou Prefecture was enough to feed the commoners of the six prefectures under Huangzhou Prefecture’s jurisdiction for five full years.

As for the core area inside Huangzhou Prefecture City, the stockpiled grain there was truly massive.

But even with that much grain, Chen Jie still wouldn’t sell it off. He would rather brew it into wine than sell, because the world was in chaos, and grain would become the most precious material in the future. It had to be preserved well, because once real fighting started, gold, silver, and jewels couldn’t be eaten as grain, whereas grain could genuinely save lives!

The twenty million taels Chen Jie mentioned were basically all profits brought in by Commerce.

As for other income, it hadn’t even been counted—things like military plunder and the like. Someone might ask: how could a little Huangzhou Prefecture possibly have such terrifying potential?

That’s because you don’t know what ”mere Huangzhou Prefecture” really means. In truth Huangzhou Prefecture had essentially monopolized all business in the entire Southwest, or put another way, Huangzhou Prefecture had now become the commercial hub of the whole Southwest.

It was the place all Southwest merchants had to rush to, the place they hoped to take root in.

And the reasons for this were threefold. First, in Huangzhou Prefecture where Chen Jie was, the policies were Qingming and clear; there were no corrupt officials or petty officials extorting and overtaxing. Everything was recorded on paper. This gave merchants an enormous sense of security.

Secondly was Chen Jie’s own strength, plus Peng Yingyu’s protection, and the balance between Chen Jie and the Ruyang King, which kept Huangzhou Prefecture from being like other places where war broke out constantly.

Third, Chen Jie had carried out land reform and grain reform in Huangzhou Prefecture, leading to abundant harvests for the commoners. On top of that, Chen Jie opened factories and promoted Industry and employment, ultimately making all of Huangzhou Prefecture rich in goods and prosperous in people, with the commoners having spare Silver Coin in hand.

With spare Silver Coin, the commoners gained spending power. With spending power, Huangzhou Prefecture’s commercial value soared, and thus more and more merchants gathered.

Lastly, there was transport: the waterways around Huangzhou Prefecture were well developed, with convenient transport. On top of that, Chen Jie was willing to spend money to repair river channels and docks, greatly improving transport convenience. Therefore, passing merchants were all willing to stop here for a while, treating it as a station.

In this way, sand gathered into a pagoda, little gathered into much, and more and more merchants converged here, forming the prosperity of today’s Huangzhou Prefecture.

It had to be said, compared to Chen Jie’s Martial Arts talent, his administrative ability and commercial ability were what truly stood at Top level—equivalent to a Zhang Sanfeng of the business world, an absolute, gulf-like lead.

The Ruyang King looked at Chen Jie’s betrothal gifts, then at Chen Jie and said: ”Chen Jiusi, level with me. Your Huangzhou Prefecture’s annual income has broken ten million, hasn’t it?”

At these words, Chen Jie looked at the Ruyang King and said, ”More or less.”

Chen Jie, of course, wouldn’t fully reveal the books, but even so, the Ruyang King still spoke: ”If you and Yaya weren’t so deeply in love, I’d hate not to just snatch Huangzhou Prefecture away from you!”

That was the truth. The wealth of Huangzhou Prefecture had already made many people green with envy.

With a scale of wealth like that, others simply couldn’t help it. Leaving everything else aside, within the Hubei Road where Chen Jie was, there was already someone insanely jealous of his assets.

That’s right, no one else but that Emperor Xu Shouhui of the Tianyuan Empire whom Peng Yingyu had propped up.

He had wanted to get his hands on Huangzhou Prefecture more than once. But with Ni Wenjun sitting in town, he didn’t dare for the moment, and after Peng Yingyu and Chen Jie and the others’ tireless efforts, Xu Shouhui had lost much of his mystique in Peng Yingyu’s eyes. Though Peng Yingyu was still protecting Xu Shouhui now,

he no longer indulged Xu Shouhui the way he had before, so these days Xu Shouhui was acting with his hands and feet tied.

On top of that, Huangzhou Prefecture was still guarded by Ni Wenjun, and there was also the newly risen Molten Furnace Realm expert Chen Xiaohu. You could say the fighting strength of Chen Jie’s Huangzhou Prefecture was far from weak.

Thus, although Xu Shouhui and the others were jealous, they could do nothing and could only stare hungrily.

From this whole operation of Chen Jie’s, the Ruyang King also understood just how rich Chen Jiusi was. At his side, Wang Baobao could only click his tongue; you had to know that the annual military expense for the seventy-plus thousand soldiers of the White Deer Army was only around two hundred thousand taels.

In other words, the betrothal gifts prepared for his younger sister alone were enough to fund half a White Deer Army.

The Ruyang Royal Mansion’s annual tax intake of seven hundred thousand was arranged like this: first, the military cost of the seventy-plus thousand White Deer troops; next came the maintenance costs for the ordinary soldiers stationed in various places, roughly three hundred thousand a year.

Then there were the clerks and officials at all local levels, who consumed about a hundred thousand a year as well.

Plus various miscellaneous expenses, in reality the Ruyang Royal Mansion itself was left with less than a hundred thousand in net income per year. You could say that Zhao Ya alone now had more annual Silver Coin income than the Prince Mansion.

For the first time, Wang Baobao truly felt what it meant to be ”filthy rich.”

Chen Jiusi really did things in a domineering way!

Zhao Ya was also stunned by this million-tael betrothal gift, and at this moment she said to Chen Jie: ”Jiu Si, this is too much. I can’t accept it. You should take it all back.”

Hearing this, Chen Jie looked at Zhao Ya and said, ”Yaya, you’ve suffered so much for me, gone through so much hardship—I know it all in my heart. This little bit of Silver Coin is just something external. I don’t have anything else I can give you, so I can only use these things to express my feelings.”

As Chen Jie spoke, Zhao Ya replied after listening, ”You really don’t have to, truly don’t. There are so many people who need supporting in Huangzhou Prefecture. If you give me this much money, what about them?”

Chen Jie said, ”Yaya, don’t worry. This money is entirely my private property. Huangzhou Prefecture’s operating expenses don’t depend on this from me.”

Hearing Chen Jie’s words, the Ruyang King at the side said, ”Good. As for all these things, I, the Ruyang King, will accept them.”