Chapter 377: Selling the Bicycle to the Courtiers
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After saying this, the Emperor struck while the iron was hot and brought up another matter. He coughed lightly and asked kindly, “I wonder if my beloved ministers are tired from walking all the way here from the outside?”
The officials quickly knelt down and said in unison, “I’m not tired! It is our honor to serve Your Majesty!”
If it was any other time, the Emperor would have been very happy. But now, he looked at the black mass of officials kneeling below and felt a little embarrassed.
This couldn’t do. If they weren’t tired, what was he going to say next?
Thus, he said, “I know of the loyalty of my beloved ministers. However, I feel that my beloved ministers have already worked very hard for the development of the Great Wei Kingdom. I can’t let my beloved ministers work so hard in other aspects.”
When he said this, the officials below were not touched. Instead, they were even more terrified. The Emperor was acting so abnormally. They felt that there was a big pit waiting for them in front.
Sure enough, the next moment, the Emperor said with a smile, “This one heard that Princess Ding’an had invented something called a bicycle, and it is very convenient to ride it. This one also knows that there will be a traffic jam every morning when you ride a horse carriage, so this one ordered Princess Ding’an to design a unique bicycle for the court officials. This way, you will not have to worry about traffic when you ride it. It is also not like a horse carriage, where the bicycle can be ridden into the outer gate. When the time comes, you can park it at the square outside, and this way you can save some travel distance.”
Hearing this, all the ministers heaved a sigh of relief. So it was just this matter. Although they had never ridden a bicycle before, if they could ride it in, it would indeed be a lot more relaxing. Otherwise, it would take more than a quarter of an hour to walk from the outer palace gate to here, and even old people would feel tired.
However, the next moment, they were about to vomit blood. The Emperor smiled and said, “Because that bicycle was specially designed by Princess Ding’an for the court officials, the materials used are all of the best quality, so it will be sold for 1,000 silver each. I have already had the Ministry of Revenue purchase it. When the time comes, all of you can order people to go to the Ministry of Revenue to pay the money and collect it.”
Everyone looked at the Emperor in shock and almost vomited blood. 1,000 taels! Don’t think that they do not know that the bicycles that Princess Ding’an sold outside were only a hundred silver each?! This was ten times more than before. Was it made of gold?
They had just bled a lot two days ago, and they did not know how much money they had given to their children to donate. They did not expect the Emperor to scam them again today!
Although 1,000 taels were not much, it was enough to make their hearts ache for a long time.
Looking at the Emperor’s expression, the ministers knew that they had to buy it.
Forget it, forget it. They’ve already donated so much money. What’s 1,000 taels more? the Emperor even let them ride their bikes to the square outside in order to let them buy.
Moreover, the Emperor could have directly taken the 1,000 taels, but he gave them a bicycle. It was not bad.
It would take the Crown Prince nearly half a month to travel from the Capital to Huan City. In this half a month, there was no good news, but there was no bad news either.
Everyone nervously and expectantly looked in the direction from Huan City to the capital, hoping to get a little bit of news about Yu City.
During this tense waiting time, another major event happened in Great Wei. The high-yield grain that had been sent to various places had all been harvested.
Although everyone had heard about the high-yield crops, they had never seen it before, so they were skeptical.
Now that it was finally time to harvest, some people fainted from excitement when they saw the strings of potatoes and sweet potatoes that were full of fruits..
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