Read Novel Full Chapter 447: Buying Mountains
Chapter 447: Buying Mountains
Since the appointed military officers would be staying in the Northeast city for a long time, they were allowed to bring their families and would be allocated houses in the military compound.
But if their families decided to stay at their current homes, they would share rooms with other soldiers instead.
Meanwhile, Yao Zhi was reading the investigation reports submitted by her guards in her room.
Ling Shi’er and his brothers had gathered a lot of information about the situation in the nearby towns, cities, and villages.
Besides the political and economic situations in those places, they also investigated the officials, nobles, and wealthy families living there.
Perhaps due to their proximity to the Northeast City, where the barbarians had stayed for the past few years, economic growth was slow.
The local government didn’t have much power over the laws. Instead, it was the wealthy families who held the power to decide who was rewarded and who was punished.
From these reports, Yao Zhi had a rough understanding of the overall situation. Those with money were the big brothers here.
After she finished reading the reports, she said, “All of you did a great job. Go take a rest.”
Ling Shi’er and his brothers were indeed tired. So, they nodded and returned to their rooms.
Ling Ershi had already asked for hot water and food. So, when they returned to their room, everything was ready. After taking a bath, they had a meal and went to sleep.
As usual, Ling Ershi climbed the tree and stood guard.
Not long after, a maidservant knocked on Yao Zhi’s door and said, “Young Master Lei, the Madam invited you over to the main hall.”
Hearing this, Yao Zhi stored the reports in her system’s storage and opened the door.
This maidservant was more honest compared to the previous one. Seeing that she had come out, she curtsied and greeted her before she led her to the main hall.
When they arrived, there was only Xue Ya’er present. After the maidservant retreated, she waved at her friend and said, “Yao Zhi, have a seat.”
Noticing her good mood, Yao Zhi smiled and asked, “Ya’er, you seem to be in a good mood. Did something good happen?”
Xue Ya’er nodded as she poured a cup of tea for her friend. She took out a stack of papers from a wooden box and said, “These are the land deeds for the western outskirts and the mountains.”
Hearing this, Yao Zhi was taken aback. She checked the deeds and asked, “Did the new Prefect arrive?”
Shaking her head, Xue Ya’er replied, “The Emperor bestowed the title of Marquis of Zhongyong upon my husband and gave him a fief.”
“This fief is the Northeast City, including all land, villages, towns, and cities within a radius of 10,000 li from the city. Calculating the area, the mountains are also included in my husband’s fief.”
After hearing this, Yao Zhi smiled. Now that the Northeast City had become the male lead’s fief, it would be easier for them in the future.
Although the location of this fief was at the border and the risk of facing invasion from other kingdoms, the barbarians, and grassland tribes was high, it was far from the Capital.
Even if the Emperor sent his people to keep an eye on Lu Qianxuan, it wouldn’t be easy for him to control everything from afar.
What’s more, Yao Zhi was delighted that the money would go into her friend’s pocket instead of the Imperial Court’s.
“So, how much is the price for the land and mountains?” she asked.
Xue Ya’er also didn’t know what the right price for the land was. Although the size of the land was huge, the location and the soil quality were very poor. It was already polite to call it wasteland.
“I don’t know. Yao Zhi, you can just give me whatever amount you want. Even if we didn’t sell the land to you, it would still remain a wasteland.”
Hearing this, Yao Zhi opened her system panel and checked her money. At this moment, she owned a total of 22,808,123 taels of gold, 4,036 taels of silver, and 260 wen.
Since most of her money was from the General and the Xue family, this was the right time to return the money to them. With this money, they could recruit soldiers and build their own troops.
“I will give you 20 million taels of gold. I will also give 5% of the total output of my orchard, farmland, and animal farm to the Marquisate every year. On top of that, you and your husband will get priority purchase rights from all of my businesses.”
When she heard the price, Xue Ya’er was stunned. She thought that the price wouldn’t exceed several million taels of gold.
Also, under normal circumstances, after she paid such a high price, she wouldn’t have to pay tax for at least 10 years. She never thought that her friend would be so generous to pay her 20 million taels of gold and even offer to pay a tax.
Although 5% was far lower compared to the common tax rate of 10 to 15%, Xue Ya’er was confident that under her friend’s management, the tax coming from her estate would be more than enough to support the army and fill up the granaries.
It didn’t take Xue Ya’er too long to make up her mind. She nodded and said, “Deal!”
As soon as they reached an agreement, Yao Zhi took out box after box of gold ingots from her system’s storage. Xue Ya’er kept all the gold ingots in her spatial ring.
Now that the money had been handed over, they went to the Magistrate’s office to process the documents.
After the Imperial Edict was announced to the entire city, Wu Dashu didn’t dare to make things difficult to earn any tea money anymore.
The moment he received the order from Xue Ya’er, he quickly transferred the deeds to Lei Feng’s name and stamped them. With the official stamp, the land transfer was complete.
Besides that, he also asked to issue the highest tier of business permits for Lei Feng.