The Grand Princess wants to use this opportunity to thoroughly bleed the noble clans.
His Majesty isn’t particularly interested in bandit suppression itself; the main issue is the low return on investment, which only emboldens the smuggling operations of the great families.
Right now, the border is controlled by Qingfeng Village, a bandit den that doesn’t answer to any authority.
But if Qingfeng Village were truly crushed, the ones to take over the border next would be the black-gloved agents of the noble clans.
“Miss Xiao Yue’s move is truly brilliant.”
Yun Wei blurted it out without thinking, but it drew a look of displeasure from Xiao Yue, who furrowed her delicate brows as if reminding Yun Wei to watch her words.
“S-sorry, I spoke out of turn.”
Realizing her mistake, Yun Wei hurriedly bowed her head in apology.
She felt a bit relieved that Shen Yu beside her didn’t seem inclined to look their way.
Shen Yu was completely captivated by the Fenglin Guards nearby.
After all, someone had smashed up her Mu’en Hall, and this matter definitely wouldn’t be swept under the rug easily.
The imperial family would use this incident to make a big fuss and thoroughly reprimand the noble clans.
As for Shen Yu, although she was caught in the crossfire, she only suffered a bit of a scare.
The imperial family certainly wouldn’t treat her poorly.
The benefits they could secure for her would exceed Shen Yu’s imagination.
Shen Yu understood this herself.
Once things had progressed to the point where the Fenglin Guards were deployed, she roughly grasped that she had been unintentionally dragged into a power struggle between the noble clans and the Imperial Court.
As a pawn within it, what Shen Yu needed to do was simple: just go with the flow.
“How much compensation? Fifty thousand taels? Silver?”
Shen Yu’s eyes widened as she listened to the losses reported by the Fenglin Guards.
Fifty thousand taels was an absolutely substantial expenditure anywhere.
Back when Shen Yu was repairing the river embankment for Qingfeng Village, they were short by just ten thousand taels of silver.
In the end, it was only through fundraising by the local border villagers that the embankment was completed.
The stable irrigation for the fields near Qingfeng Village and their protection from floods for many years were all thanks to the embankment Shen Yu spearheaded for the village.
Shen Yu knew all too well how hard money was to earn.
So, having fifty thousand taels of silver suddenly funneled into Mu’en Hall made her eyes go wide.
It was true that Mu’en Hall wasn’t managed very well.
Not only was there a pile of bad debt, but various procedures were incomplete, and there were no usable personnel either.
Look at Huimin Hall on the other side of the capital.
That place was full of useful, standardized training cattle—the first step into the Imperial Academy of Medicine.
Even Shen Yu, a former Pediatric Master among masters, a department head among department heads in her past life, had worked there as a laborer, a beast of burden.
Countless people had fought tooth and nail to get their children a position there.
That place and this Mu’en Hall were worlds apart.
Shen Yu had been worried about having no funds to use.
Although Mu’en Hall was part of the private imperial treasury, the Emperor’s personal property, asking the Emperor for money… Shen Yu didn’t have the guts for that.
Who didn’t know that countless eyes were fixed on the private imperial treasury?
Today there’s a disaster here, tomorrow a riot there, the day after barbarians attack the border—all of it requires money.
Even on a calm day, money might be needed for this festival or that birthday celebration.
When the Ministry of Revenue runs out of silver, who do they ask?
They’d definitely have to take it from the private imperial treasury.
This little Mu’en Hall, providing Shen Yu with a few dozen taels of silver a month to keep her from starving would suffice.
And this most likely wasn’t just Shen Yu’s thought; that Dog Emperor probably thought the same way.
If Shen Yu could revitalize Mu’en Hall, then he would sit back and reap the benefits.
If Shen Yu couldn’t turn it around, a monthly expenditure of a few dozen taels of silver was a drop in the bucket for the Emperor, almost no loss at all.
‘So much money, wow…’
Shen Yu looked at the loss statement provided by the Fenglin Guards.
She certainly understood the Fenglin Guards had inflated the figures with a lot of padding—things like thousand-year-old lingzhi mushrooms, ginseng, and such.
Shen Yu had never even seen those; where would Mu’en Hall have such things?
What those thugs smashed were medicinal ingredients at the level of dried radishes.
The Fenglin Guards even felt the original damage wasn’t sufficient for the report, so they went back in, picked up clubs, and smashed the place up again, conveniently giving Mu’en Hall a complete top-to-bottom renovation.
One could only say, the eyes and ears of the Son of Heaven really know how to make things happen.