Real Estate, Stock Exchange

Palace of Heavenly Purity

Wang Hao stood before the massive sand table of the capital, his fingertips gently tapping the wooden model representing the Southern City. The highly rhythmic thump, thump sound echoed.

"Your Majesty..."

Sun Li, the Eunuch Director of the Directorate of Ceremonial, hurried into the hall from outside. His steps were extremely fast, and his hands held high a red-covered account book half a foot thick.

"The subscription for the model houses in the Southern City... has concluded." Sun Li swallowed a dry mouthful of saliva, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. "Today alone, in just twenty-four hours! The subscription funds alone, which is the 'home-buying deposit' you established, collected... collected a full eight million and six hundred thousand taels of silver!"

When he spoke that number, Sun Li's voice almost cracked.

Eight million six hundred thousand taels! Who would have thought that building houses could be so profitable? One must know that the cost of these model houses was only three million six hundred thousand taels! A full five million taels in profit. If the entire Southern City were fully developed, how much money would that make? A billion? There were plans for two thousand shops and fifty thousand houses of various models. How much money would that be? The Emperor of the future truly would not lack money.

"Among them, the two 'king of buildings' in the best locations didn't even follow your base price." Sun Li suddenly raised his head, his usually gloomy eunuch face now flushed red. "The Duke of Ying's estate and the Jiangnan Salt Merchants Guild saw red on the spot at the sales office, bidding against each other, and finally each smashed down a sky-high price of five hundred thousand taels to take them! Those aristocratic families and wealthy clans... have all gone mad! To scrape together the full payment for the houses, which needs to be settled within three days, as well as to exchange for the new silver coins of the Royal Bank, they not only emptied out all the moldy silver bricks in their cellars, but have even begun selling off fertile farmland and prime shops around the capital at low prices in the brokerages!"

Sun Li thought he would see a shocked or ecstatic expression on the Emperor's face.

However, there was none.

Wang Hao merely took the heavy account book casually. Without even turning a single page, he tossed it onto the imperial desk with a smack, as if throwing away an irrelevant, tattered book.

"You think this is madness?" A mocking smirk curled at the corner of Wang Hao's mouth, his eyes as cold as ten-thousand-year black ice. "This is merely an appetizer. The real bulk of the money has never been in the bricklayer's trade."

Wang Hao's finger moved slowly, crossing over the model of the Southern City, and finally pressed firmly onto the very center of the sand table—onto the massive architectural model that had just been completed and was tightly covered by a red cloth.

The Great Zhou Royal Stock Exchange.

Following the Emperor's finger, Sun Li's pupils suddenly contracted, his expression instantly shifting from fanatical to solemn. He lowered his voice and reported, "Your Majesty's predictions were completely accurate. The secret spies of the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard under my command have sent back intelligence. That group of aristocratic civil officials... have simply been playing this servant for a fool these past few days!"

Gritting his teeth, a trace of ruthlessness flashed in Sun Li's eyes. "For the past half month, the aristocratic officials led by the current Secondary Grand Secretary, Zhang Wuji, have been writing memorials every day, harshly condemning the six great factories as 'bizarre contrivances and wicked crafts,' and cursing the Royal Trading Company for 'competing with the people for profit.' There was even a censor who remonstrated to the death, claiming that the black smoke billowing from the steel mill would anger the heavens and bring about ominous disasters! But behind our backs?"

"Those old foxes, at midnight last night, actually had their stewards use the guise of transporting coal to pull hundreds of carts of ready silver into thirteen underground banks outside the capital! They somehow caught wind of the terrifying profit expectations of the six great royal factories—cement, steel, glass, and coal—and knew that tomorrow, when the exchange officially opens, the 'stocks' of these factories will go on sale."

"These aristocratic and wealthy families, who normally speak of nothing but benevolence, righteousness, and morality, have raised a massive amount of funds. They are just waiting for the moment the gong is struck and the market opens tomorrow to buy up everything like madmen, attempting to monopolize and swallow all the factory stocks scattered on the market!"

The more Sun Li spoke, the tighter his brows furrowed, his eyes full of heartache and confusion. He looked up at the Emperor, whose back was turned to him, and finally could not help but ask the question that had been suppressed in his heart for a long time:

"Your Majesty! The six great factories are truly laying golden eggs! The costs are pitifully low, yet the profits are terrifyingly high! Since you have already taken control of the entire situation, why do you still want to chop up such a prime piece of meat, turn it into so-called 'stocks,' and put it on the exchange for the whole world to buy and sell? Isn't this... isn't this just giving away the silver we worked so hard to earn to Zhang Wuji and his gang of old foxes for nothing?"

The great hall fell into a deathly silence.

After a long time, a low chuckle escaped from Wang Hao's throat. The laughter grew louder and louder, eventually turning into a burst of wild laughter that echoed throughout the hall.

"Give it to them?"

Wang Hao suddenly turned around, his profound black dragon robe tracing an arc in the air, looking incredibly dashing. He looked down condescendingly at Sun Li, his eyes like those of a demon god controlling the fate of mortals.

"Companion Sun, you have been by my side for so long. Your eye for judging people is sharp, but your eye for 'money' is still too green. You only see them using real gold and silver to buy my stocks, but you have no idea what it means to be the 'house' in this game, or what it means to... 'harvest the leeks'!"

Sun Li trembled all over. These two extremely unfamiliar terms, which inexplicably carried a scent of blood, instinctively sent a shiver of palpitation through his heart.

The Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Pei Jingzhe, who had been waiting in attendance all along, also couldn't help but tighten his grip on the embroidered spring sword at his waist, his breathing growing heavy.

"Once the sickle of capital swings down, it does not recognize human lives, only silver!" Wang Hao walked down the imperial steps step by step, each step feeling like it was stomping on the tips of their hearts. "Zhang Wuji and those thousand-year-old aristocratic families think their foundations are profound. They think they can buy my industries with silver? What they covet are merely the quarterly dividends; but what I have my eyes on is their entire principal!"

Wang Hao's gaze was like a torch, staring intently at the sand table. "Sun Li, Pei Jingzhe, listen to me well. The wealth in this world has a fixed amount. These thousand-year-old aristocratic families and great clans of civil officials have been annexing land for hundreds of years, turning seventy percent of the Great Zhou's wealth into moldy silver melons in their cellars, into land deeds! Because they hide their money away, the national treasury has no money, and the imperial court can only go and squeeze the commoners who can no longer survive!"

"It would be easy for me to kill them, but if I kill them, their remnants will rebel, the world will descend into chaos, and we might not even be able to find all the silver. Therefore, I built the Southern City and established the exchange."

Wang Hao's voice was like that of a devil, full of temptation. "I will use high returns to infinitely magnify the word 'greed' in their hearts! As long as they smash all the silver they have hoarded in the land and hidden in their cellars for hundreds of years into my stock market and real estate market... their economic lifelines will be completely squeezed in the palm of my hand!"

Sun Li's pupils dilated. He seemed to have grasped something, yet he felt that the thought was too appalling to believe.

"When all their money is converted into 'stocks' on paper, and into 'pre-sale properties' in the southern city that haven't even been built yet..." The cold sneer at the corner of Wang Hao's mouth was like that of a bloodthirsty shark. "When that time comes, I will only need to casually issue a policy restricting sell-offs, or have the Inner Court frantically dump our bottom positions at the highest point to crash the market! I can make those so-called 'stock prices' evaporate in a single day!"

"If I say the stocks will rise, they will rise; if I say they will fall, they will fall. After harvesting them back and forth a few times, we will make them spit out all their money and land."

"What does it mean to have your positions liquidated and be forced to jump off a building? It means that yesterday they were the wealthy heads of noble families, but tomorrow, the stocks in their hands will turn into a pile of waste paper too stiff to even wipe their asses with! When they cannot repay the money they borrowed to buy stocks, the fertile fields and ancestral estates they mortgaged will be legally confiscated by the Royal Bank!"

Boom—!

Sun Li and Pei Jingzhe felt as if a thunderbolt had exploded in their minds, shaking their very souls.

Murder without spilling a drop of blood!

What was murder without spilling blood?! This was truly devouring someone without even spitting out the bones!

The noble families thought they were buying a hen that lays golden eggs, but in reality, the Emperor had lured them into a slaughterhouse with dead ends on all sides!

"The stock exchange has never been a charity house meant to make them rich," Wang Hao's voice sounded incredibly ethereal in the cold, hard night wind. "It is the ultimate graveyard I have meticulously prepared for these millennial noble families who have sucked the lifeblood of the Great Zhou Dynasty for centuries!"

"As long as their silver is drained and their land is confiscated, who will feed their private armies? Where will they get the money to bribe local officials? Without money, these so-called millennial noble families and prestigious elites are nothing but toothless dogs, a herd of pigs ready to be slaughtered at my whim!"