The Empress’s Gigolo

The empress finally grabbed Ren Baqian and quickly flew off from a beam. An empress, who was traveling incognito, had to ultimately flee for her life.

Of course, she didn’t let Tong Zhenye off cheaply and kicked him out of the street.

Tong Zhenye smashed through a house and landed on another street. He lay on the ground for a long time before realizing what the empress was referring to.

“Ren Baqian… you tricked me!”

The empress heard Tong Zhenye’s words from a distance and asked Ren Baqian, “What did you trick him with?”

“I have forgotten!” Ren Baqian said.

“Oh!” The empress nodded and didn’t pursue the matter.

The two spent some more time in Baishi District and found out that while other districts in Lan City were generally in a slump, the areas that sold weapons, farming implements, and hardware were busier.

Thanks to the weapons left behind by the Great Xia army and the iron ore brought back by the auxiliary army from the Yun Nation, the price of iron in Lan City had fallen, which created a more prosperous market for iron than before.

Ren Baqian also saw an imitation of his hand-cranked fan being sold here! It was based on his earliest model that was operated by pulling a rope and spinning it for a period.

The blades of this fan were made of wood, and at the price of one tael of silver each, it was selling quite well.

The two of them subsequently went to Shihu District to take a look. This was originally the largest trading area for animal hides, but all the shops seemed to be closed.

As she moved along, the empress asked, “Have you thought about introducing something new? The imperial treasury has very little income, and Tu Wan has complained many times.”

“Although the salt mines operated by the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Revenue contributed substantially to the treasury, this money is used to pay off the previous deficit. Furthermore, the price of salt is too high in Dayao and too big of a burden on the citizens. As you mentioned just now, the animal hides collected by the aboriginals are rotting away. As a result, they have no income. I’m thinking of decreasing the price of salt by about half so that the citizens can afford it. Did anyone tell Your Majesty about this?” Ren Baqian smiled.

“I know what they are thinking, but they are also not wrong. Since this is my empire, you should also bear some of the burden with me. This is why I am asking for your opinion. Others can have their own agendas and benefit themselves, but I can’t because I am the empress. As you are the husband that I have selected, you can’t either,” the empress said solemnly.

“Of course! What the empress wants to do is what I ought to do!” Ren Baqian smiled.

After some time, they sat down at the side of the street.

“We should collect some fur!” Ren Baqian said after pondering for a while.

“Why?” The empress was puzzled.

“Since the beginning of the war, the trade merchants of the three nations have disappeared, so the furs from the aboriginals can’t be sold and are rotting. As a result, these folks have no income and therefore no spending power. On the one hand, by collecting fur, we can give these folks some income that they can spend in the city to buy their daily necessities. On the other hand, fur production requires workers and increases the income of these people, which can also improve their situation. The money in the imperial treasury is just a number, but it can be circulated to stimulate the market and change the livelihood of many people. Lastly, the price of fur is currently very low. As long as we can market it to Great Xia, we can make a big profit instead.”

The empress didn’t fully understand his words. Dayao’s business model was rather primitive and there were few taxes, so she didn’t pay much attention to business.

As Ren Baqian spoke, she simply listened since he was much better in this aspect than she was.

However, she was happy to find a method to keep those furs from rotting away. As Ren Baqian said, this could at least solve some problems.

“Only you can do this. Tu Wan will get mad if anybody else takes money from the imperial treasury,” the empress said.

“Of course.” Ren Baqian nodded. If he wanted to marry the empress, he had to take responsibility for cleaning up the mess in Dayao. He didn’t feel any contradiction at all.

“Are spices what they want?” Ren Baqian muttered to himself. “These things belong to the empress, and no one dares to touch then. If the spices are given to them, every household will plant spices. With the current price of spices, those with access will not let them go. The officials in the labor departments will have easy access to the seeds. In due time, the most likely outcome will be the planting of spices in all the fields in Lan City—the price will drop sharply and the planting of grain crops will be affected. We might as well wait for a few years for things to stabilize before releasing the spices to them. I can introduce some items like soap for daily use as well as cotton and textile technology.”

“If you say so, then it’s alright.” The empress put one hand on Ren Baqian’s shoulder, rested her chin on the back of her hand, and mischievously breathed into his ear.

She still remembered that every time Ren Baqian came close to her ears to talk, she would feel a sensation. Now, she wanted to see his reaction.

“Oh!” Ren Baqian let out an exaggerated cry and his head moved sideways, hitting the empress on the forehead.

“Ow!” The empress groaned and sat up straight. Ren Baqian’s cry was too exaggerated, poorly acted, and wasn’t sincere at all.

“Let’s go back!” the empress said.

…

The next day, Ren Baqian went to the Ministry of Works to hand over the method of making soap to Tong Zhenye and also helped him plan for the construction of the first soap production factory in Dayao.

After that, he started to recruit workers, opened shops, and built a leather processing plant on a piece of barren land outside the city.

After a period of time, a shop displaying a sign board to buy fur and leather was opened on Jingyang Street in Lan City.

After opening for only a few days, the shop was crowded with aboriginals who came after hearing about it.

Their furs, which had been piling up for a long time and were starting to deteriorate, were sent in large quantities to Lan City and delivered to the courtyard behind the shop for weighing.

Indeed , they were weighed.

Ordinary animal hide was sold by weight, just like scrap paper.

The price was slightly lower than the price they previously fetched from the other three nations, but it was enough to make the aboriginals extremely happy.

Knowing that this shop had the support of the imperial family, many people looked at the situation as the empress doing good and showing sympathy for her citizens. After all, Dayao didn’t have the means to treat animal skins with nitrates. Plus, the war was still ongoing and all trade was cut off.

The sole reason for the empress to do this was to show sympathy for her citizens.

The popularity of the empress immediately rose by one level.

A monarch who showed compassion and kindness to her citizens would be loved by the people in return.

Moreover, the empress was the strongest aboriginal, could win wars, and showed compassion to her people. To them, she was the best ruler.

During this period, there were changes in the war with the Yun Nation.

First of all, the elephant soldiers appeared on the battlefield. Right from the beginning, these thick-skinned animals produced good results.

Zi Donglai used the elephant soldiers to attack the frontlines of the enemy and annihilated nearly 100,000 of the Yun Nation’s soldiers in one battle.

As expected, more than half of these elephant soldiers perished in the battle. They were considered expendable units that were disabled after one battle.

However, Zi Donglai had achieved his goal since this battle had eliminated half of the fighting force of the Yun Nation.

After that, baihu and tiqi from Tianjing Basin moved into various cities in the Yun Nation with the help of the Zhang family. Information was continuously fed to Zi Donglai by these spies.