Chapter 376 - Chapter 376: Praise
Chapter 376: Praise
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Jian Qingqing was a person on the Emperor’s side. Since she came to the capital, she had never been seen close to any family. Very few people had seen her. She had never accepted the invitations from the women of the officials’ families. They had almost forgotten about this person. They did not expect that at this time, he would give them such a heavy blow and make them bleed a lot.
No matter how unwilling they were in their hearts, the adults were unwilling to let them suffer grievances and be inferior to others in the face of their beloved sons. Therefore, they painfully gave them a large sum of money and asked them to donate it.
Such a scene not only happened in one family, but almost all the powerful officials in every family were in the same situation.
That night, Jian Qingqing’s name could be said to be familiar to all the officials and left a deep impression.
So, the next day, all the officials gave their children a large sum of money to donate to the Academy.
How much to donate was also a matter of knowledge. It was reasonable to say that the higher the position, the more money to be paid. Otherwise, if the child of a lower official position surpassed his own child, where would he put his face?
That was why the manors of the marquis and the land owners of the third rank and above all gave their children more than 100,000 taels of silver to donate. There was no other way, they did not want to give so much, but who asked Princess Ding’an’s family to donate 100,000 taels?
A Princess from the countryside had donated so much, it would not be right if they only donated a little. The main thing was that they would lose face. Face was the most important thing to a large family, so no matter how much hatred they had in their hearts, they would still have to hand over the money.
After the matter of the donation was over, the Ministry of Revenue did a count. They had received a total of 13-5 million taels of silver and more than 20 million catties of grain. This silver and grain could let Great Wei relax for a while.
As a result, the Emperor, who was in a very good mood, greatly praised the merchants and students who had donated money during the court session. He also ordered the Ministry of Revenue to quickly make a monument, saying that the monument would be erected at the National Temple for the people to admire.
As soon as these words were said, the officials’ faces turned green with regret.
They never thought that the Emperor would actually do something like this. Putting a monument on the National Temple, didn’t that mean that everyone could see it?
One had to know that the National Temple was the highest-ranking temple in the Great Wei Kingdom. Countless people went there every day to burn incense and pray to Buddha. If one’s name was on the monument, it would be a matter of face. It was much more face than being an official.
Not everyone would remember you as an official, but the National Temple had existed for thousands of years. It was possible that it would stand there for a long time. Having a name on the monument meant that one’s name would be respected by the people of the world for generations.
The Emperor looked at the officials below with different expressions and smiled proudly.
He coughed heavily and suppressed the gloating in his heart. He adjusted his expression and said, “I know that all of you want to contribute to the Great Wei Kingdom. Princess Ding’an once said that everyone has a responsibility toward the rise and fall of the world. You should teach your own children well. I know that the Academy students have donated a lot of money, and this is the result of the support of my beloved officials in education. I hope that next time, the young people of the Great Wei Kingdom can still maintain this kind of emotion of worrying about the world. I will not treat them badly!”
The officials wanted to cry but had no tears. In the end, the Emperor was the Emperor. Even if the officials were the ones bleeding, they still had to cry and thank the Emperor.
At this moment, they could only console themselves that even though they did not have their own names engraved, it was not bad to have their children’s names..