ATPnovel Chapter 1114: Competing to Donate
Chapter 1114: Competing to Donate
The clerk’s eyes widened; he thought at most there would be copper coins inside, and never expected it to be silver.He glanced at the boxes still being unloaded, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and asked Yun Jiao, "Dare I ask, National Lady, are those remaining boxes all silver too?"
Yun Jiao shook her head, "Not entirely."
The clerk let out a sigh of relief. As expected, there should be some silk, cotton, and the like. If it were all silver, how much would that be?
"Some boxes contain gold," Yun Jiao thoughtfully added.
The clerk’s legs went weak.
The surrounding villagers fell silent.
But only for a moment, before they erupted in excitement, "My heavens, with so many boxes, how much gold and silver must there be inside?"
"Isn’t this donating the entire family fortune?"
"Doctor Gu is truly generous!"
Yun Jiao smiled at everyone, "This silver is the salary of our Ducal Lord and Lord Chief Minister over the past ten years."
"After all, treating patients myself, I can still support the family."
When it came time to bring honor to the men in the family, she never hesitated.
The villagers all gave thumbs up, saying, "The National Lady is noble."
"The Ducal Lord is noble."
"Lord Chief Minister is noble."
Several clerks gathered around to count the silver.
The silver ingots were in fifty and hundred tael denominations, and the gold was roughly the same, making counting relatively quick.
Yun Jiao watched them finish counting and recorded in the book, "National Lady’s donation, two hundred thousand taels of silver, ten thousand taels of gold."
The clerks, overwhelmed with responsibility for the large amount of silver, hurriedly sent someone to report to the Ministry of Revenue. The Ministry immediately dispatched clerks to escort the silver to their vault.
The Emperor soon received the news.
The National Lady had donated three hundred thousand taels of silver.
In the palace, the Emperor said "Good!" three times in a row.
He then issued an edict, promoting the National Lady to Duchess of Qin.
Duchess of Qin is a first-class title, one step higher than National Lady.
The Empress, upon hearing this, immediately took out one hundred thousand taels from her private funds and sent them to the Ministry of Revenue, saying it was for the soldiers on the front line.
Consort Rong, upon hearing the Empress had donated one hundred thousand taels, quickly went through her own private money.
But soon realized that she really didn’t have much money on hand.
Although her family was once merchants, they didn’t do very well. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have thought of marrying their daughter to Prince Kang, seeking a path to elevation.
Now the Rong Family had grown significantly, both her brothers were officials, and the family business was managed by stewards, leaving little after expenses each year.
They couldn’t provide much monetary support for Consort Rong.
Consort Rong had received many rewards over the years, but none of these could be converted into cash.
Seeing she had only over twenty thousand taels on hand, she quickly sent someone out of the palace to the Rong Family, asking them to gather one hundred thousand taels for her.
She didn’t want to spend her meager private money, nor be outdone by the Empress.
The Rong Family, upon receiving the message, didn’t know where to find the silver quickly, and hastily sold off several precious antiques and several shops to gather seventy thousand taels for Consort Rong.
In the palace, Consort Rong harshly scolded Yun Jiao for leading the donations, added ten thousand with reluctance, and finally, unwillingly donated eighty thousand taels to the Ministry of Revenue, still less than the Empress.
With the royal concubines donating, the court officials couldn’t fall behind.
Each family donated some silver, more or less.
Very soon, the news of Yun Jiao’s donation of three hundred thousand taels reached Dayangshu Village and Qingshan Village.