Chapter 14: Official Business

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Su Changqing saw Su Wen rolling on the ground and was instantly enraged. He looked at Su Cheng and shouted, “What’s going on? Why do you want to fight with your younger brother and even spar with him? How can your younger brother be your opponent?”

Su Cheng was helpless. Facing such shameless behavior, Su Cheng said angrily, “He’s just pretending!”

Unfortunately, Su Changqing didn’t listen to him at all. He rebuked angrily, “Your younger brother is already in so much pain, how can he be pretending? Get lost! I don’t want to see you!”

Su Cheng angrily glanced at Su Wen before turning around to leave.

Watching Su Cheng leave, Su Changqing sighed and said, “Get up, there’s no need to act anymore!”

Su Wen immediately got up from the ground and smiled. “I’m just trying to save you trouble.”

Su Changqing naturally knew that Su Wen’s actions would save him a lot of trouble.

Father and son sat back in their chairs.

Su Changqing replied, “I already know. His Majesty has given you an appointment. The Deputy of the City’s Eastern patrolling guard is at least a 5th Rank Official.”

As he spoke, he sized up Su Wen and asked, “Have you learnt martial arts as well?”

Su Wen was stunned and didn’t know why Su Changqing was asking about this. He thought about it and answered honestly, “Yes!”

Su Changqing sighed and said, “You hid it really well. It’s just that you shouldn’t have hidden it from me. I’m afraid His Majesty must have seen through it when you entered the palace today. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have given you an official position out of thin air. His Majesty isn’t someone who would joke about official matters.”

Su Wen scratched his head. He did not expect this.

“Then what should I do now?”

Su Wen was not sure about this.

Su Changqing looked at him and said seriously, “Official matters must be done well. His Majesty can choose to ignore some of the finer details, but if we can’t do our own work well, then he won’t be polite. Especially since you’ve already caught his eye. If you deliberately don’t put in any effort, he might think that you’re deceiving him. When that time comes, he might even pull some schemes on you.”

“Why does His Majesty like to make things difficult for others!” Su Wen complained.

Su Changqing nodded and said, “You’re right, and yet he always thinks that he’s very magnanimous.”

At this point, Su Wen suddenly asked, “Father, how much money do we have?”

Su Changqing looked at him suspiciously and asked, “Why are you asking this?”

“I’m just curious. After all, you’re the number one corrupt official in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Furthermore, I still have to compete with Xue Meng through wealth. I have to have a bottom line,” Su Wen said with a smile.

Su Changqing shook his head and said, “The world only knows that I am greedy, but they don’t know that I never extract any benefits from the people. As for the officials, I only do not reject the gifts that they send over to our residence. I still perform my official matters properly, and it is precisely because of this that your father, I, can stand tall. As for our family’s money, it’s actually not because I’ve been embezzling funds.”

“Ah?” This was out of Su Wen’s expectations.

Su Changqing said, “I actually have a fixed trade caravan that follows the Imperial Court’s ships south, performing as a merchant that passes through the southern seas. This ocean trade is the easiest to rake in money. Moreover, I’ve been doing business with the northern borders all year round. Many of the businesses in the city belong to me. For example, I own 30% of the gambling dens in the city. After you go to the east area to patrol, remember to protect our family’s businesses.”

Su Wen really did not know where his family’s money came from. All these matters were handled by Su Changqing.

However, he also knew that Su Changqing’s authority must have played a huge role in these business operations.

Not to mention anything else, ocean merchants had extremely high requirements for ships. The Great Zhou ships were built by spirit masters and ordinary merchants were unable to obtain such a ship. Even if they went out to sea, they would just end up losing their goods and money.

The combination of power and business can create a certain monopoly.

Hence, in our modern society, many officials are not allowed to dabble in business.

But in this world, society was far from that level.

There was more than one official and businessman in the court.

The union of officials and merchants allowed Su Changqing to amass a large amount of wealth.

“As for how much money our family has, I really don’t know. In any case, you won’t be able to spend it all in 10 lifetimes. I don’t think it will be any worse than the Xue family. Therefore, you can use our family’s money openly to compete with him.”

Su Wen asked curiously, “Then why is everyone saying that you are a corrupt official?”

Su Changqing said as a matter of fact, “Because I earn a lot. Others are jealous of me and can’t compete with me, so they naturally won’t say anything good about me. They will say that I compete with the common people for profit and that my greed is boundless.”

“The more people that talk about this, the more such rumors will spread. In the end, everyone takes it as a given. But even if I give up my share of benefits, it won’t fall into the hands of the common people, but will rather just result in a change of the share of the pie for the rich and powerful.”

After saying that, Su Changqing looked at Su Wen and teased, “You don’t think that I, the prime minister, would be greedy for the money of the common people, right? I have so much power, can’t I get money anywhere I want?”

Good fellow, what a realistic response.

“These matters, haven’t you told Big Brother about it?” Su Wen was confused.

Su Changqing sighed and said, “Of course I did. But in Su Cheng’s eyes, when your father accepts gifts from others, it means that I am greedy. When I do business, it means that I am fighting for profits with the people. However, water that is clear has few fish within, and one that is critical has few friends. The politics of the government are very complicated. Even if I am the prime minister, there are times when I have to compromise.”

Su Wen roughly understood this logic.

To put it bluntly, Su Cheng was an idealist living in a honey pot. In his eyes, money was a burden.

…

Meanwhile, Old Zhou soon found a residence in the eastern part of the city. He casually spent five hundred taels to buy a large residence.

He also hired a few more maids and servants.

By the time Yan Luoying arrived at her new house, Old Zhou had already prepared the firecrackers to officially welcome her.

Yan Luoying smiled and said, “Uncle Zhou, why are you still setting up firecrackers?”

Old Zhou smiled and said, “It’s a housewarming event after all. It has to be lively.”

After saying that, he lit up the firecrackers. As soon as the firecrackers were lit, all the neighbors came out to watch the commotion. They all knew that a new family had moved in.

Meanwhile, a group of people gathered at the east city’s patrolling area to discuss how to deal with this newcomer.

“The official document from the Ministry of Appointments has arrived. They have ordered that Yan Luoying, the daughter of Yan Ze, will enter the capital to serve as the garrison commander of the eastern city patrol guards. The son of Prime Minister Su Changqing, Su Wen, will serve as the deputy garrison commander. This will take effect tomorrow.” A man spoke in a deep voice.

In the patrol guards headquarters, there was usually one commander and three deputies. Each deputy commander would have five troops under him, each consisting of 200 men.

They were responsible for the security of the entire eastern part of the capital.

In the capital, it was an official position the size of an ant, but when to the common people, this authority was not small.

Right now, there were only two deputy guards and fifteen troop captains left in the Eastern Patrol Guard Office.

The one who spoke was one of the two deputy commanders, Wen Jinming.

He was considered a seasoned veteran in the office.

To him, he was actually very satisfied with his current position.

After all, although the deputy commander was only a trivial official position, it was a great position for him to further grease his hands.

He continued, “I don’t know if the rules will change when the new garrison commander arrives, but I’m here to let everyone know. If the new garrison commander asks for too much profit, we can’t agree to it. No one should be cowards.”

One of the team leaders could not help but say, “Brother Wen, this is not a matter of whether we are cowards or not. After all, an official rank is enough to crush someone. She is also Yan Ze’s daughter. We can’t afford to offend her..”