SWDnovel Chapter 74: Housewarming Celebration
Chapter 74: Housewarming Celebration
Xia Chengzong went to his own palace for a stroll, and the plaque bearing the title "Prince of Ping'an" had already been hung up.
The entire palace covers an area of 550 acres, which is even larger than the Prince Zhongzheng's Palace.
Although the Prince's Mansion has a history of several decades, it looks brand new after renovation.
The Prince's Mansion is exquisite and beautiful, with a picturesque view at every turn.
It is even better than the Prince Zhongshun's Mansion.
Even with his knowledge from later generations, Xia Chengzong was still astonished after seeing this house.
Indeed, the highest level of wealth and status is something that ordinary people can never witness.
However, Xia Chengzong soon realized that this palace belonged to him.
Then it's alright.
After touring the Prince's Mansion, Xia Chengzong was very pleased, but he also felt pressured.
This empty house, which has been vacant for two or three decades, has more than five hundred people maintaining it.
If I move in myself, and later marry a princess and have children, I'll need even more staff.
At that time, it will probably take more than a thousand servants to operate.
It should be noted that the Rongguo Mansion, a single Duke's residence, had over a thousand servants.
Musk Moon, a servant in the Grand View Garden, once said, "The Rongguo Mansion has thousands of servants, and they can't even recognize all of them."
With over a thousand people, the monthly allowance alone would amount to nearly a thousand taels of silver. What about food and other expenses?
You can't make more than five or six thousand taels of silver a month, can you?
Over the course of a year, the expenditure would amount to nearly 100,000 taels of silver.
And this is only the expenses of the Prince's residence.
He also needs to support more than a thousand soldiers—although his grandfather promised that he would use his own treasury to help him support the army.
But in the end, you'll inevitably have to bear the consequences yourself.
To seize the throne, there will inevitably be many other places where money needs to be spent.
It would take at least several hundred thousand taels of silver a year to sustain it.
Thinking about this gave Xia Chengzong a headache.
He currently only has a little over a thousand taels of silver in savings.
It couldn't even cover the monthly expenses of the Prince's mansion.
His current income consists of two sources: a princely stipend, which is two thousand shi of grain per year, equivalent to about one thousand taels of silver.
Secondly, the imperial court granted him land, and now he owns 5,000 mu of farmland, with a rent of less than 1,000 taels of silver.
Aside from these two items, he had no other income.
This gap is quite large!
Before even moving into the Prince's Mansion, he began to worry about its expenses.
Indeed, one doesn't know the cost of firewood and rice until one is in charge of a household, and one doesn't know how much gratitude one owes to one's mother until one raises a child.
Previously, when he was at the Prince Zhongzheng's mansion, he only knew that the mansion was struggling to survive, but he did not know that it would be this difficult!
The advantages of a powerful maternal clan are evident in these aspects.
If he has a powerful maternal clan, they will provide him with enough money to live on without any worries.
Unlike now, he is already facing enormous financial pressure even before moving into the palace.
Xia Chengzong is already thinking about ways to make money.
The money-making strategies used in online novels about time travel to ancient times are mostly not applicable in the Great Qian Dynasty.
Take the most common soap business as an example—Daqian already has soap.
They used soap in the Prince Zhongzheng's residence.
Even a noble family like the Jia family used scented soap.
In Chapter 21 of Dream of the Red Chamber, it is described that: Zijuan handed over the soap, and Baoyu said, "There's enough in this basin, no need to scrub."
Manufacturing glass wouldn't work either, since Daqian already had glass made from the West.
Of course, glass was still a luxury item at the time, so luxurious that when Jia Zhen hosted a banquet, his son Jia Rong had to go to the Rongguo Mansion to borrow a glass screen from Wang Xifeng.
Unfortunately, although he is a retro craft content creator, he is not so flashy as to start his own glassmaking business.
If he were to personally oversee the process, perhaps after numerous attempts, he could also successfully produce glass.
However, it's unclear how much time and money it will take.
Once he is able to produce glass, the price of glass will quickly drop.
Therefore, this path is also impassable.
The path to making money still needs careful consideration.
Fortunately, the expenses of the Prince's residence before the New Year were all paid from the Emperor's private treasury, so there was no urgent need for such an expense.
But at least until the end of the year, he must find a suitable way to make money.
……
Before moving in, Xia Chengzong invited his father, queen, and siblings to visit his palace.
The children were all deeply impressed by the scenery of his palace.
"Wow!"
"Wow!"
"Wow!"
They used this exclamation to express their shock.
Princess's negative emotions +1 +1 +1
Xia Chengqian's negative emotions +1 +1 +1
……
夏承志负面情绪+1+1+1+1+1
Not only did the children provide him with negative emotions, but even the princess provided him with negative emotions.
It is clear that this incident had a tremendous impact on the princess.
As Xia Chengzhi looked around, he sighed and couldn't help but say, "Third Brother's mansion is even bigger and nicer than ours! I hope my mansion can be like Third Brother's someday!"
Xia Chengkun rolled his eyes and said, "Keep dreaming. This is a royal mansion bestowed by the Emperor. What you will get in the future is a county prince's mansion."
"There's a whole level of difference. How can you compare to Third Brother's Prince's Mansion?"
Xia Chengzhi snorted and said, "Won't your future palace be smaller than Third Brother's? You're talking as if yours will be the same size as Third Brother's."
Xia Chengkun's negative emotions +1 +1 +1
夏承志负面情绪+1+1+1+1+1
Before long, the children discovered that there was a huge lake inside their third brother's palace.
A bamboo bridge spans the lake, and a pavilion is built in the water along the red bridge, where people can enjoy the water and fish.
It's also a great place to enjoy tea or wine in the summer.
This lake also draws in a lot of fresh water, creating a winding, picturesque scene.
Two small lakes appear, one of which is planted with lotus roots. The lotus leaves in the lake are lush and green, standing tall and graceful, a feast for the eyes.
Another small lake is home to many goldfish of various sizes and colors.
Compared to the Lin family, they have many more.
The children were immediately captivated upon seeing it.
Xia Chengkun quickly said, "Third Brother, the goldfish in your palace are so beautiful!"
Xia Caiwei said, "Third Brother, we don't need to go to Fifth Uncle's mansion to catch goldfish anymore; we can do it here!"
Xia Chengzhi nodded frantically, saying, "I want the colorful one, and the black one, and..."
Xia Chengzong: "No way!"
Xia Chengkun's negative emotions +1 +1 +1
Xia Caiwei's negative emotions +1 +1 +1
夏承志负面情绪+1+1+1+1+1
The three little ones glared at Xia Chengzong, providing a surge of emotional support.
Xia Chengzhi felt refreshed and chuckled, "Just kidding."
"I'll call some men over; you can take whichever one you fancy, how about that?"
Upon hearing this, the children clapped their hands and burst into laughter, repeatedly saying that their third brother was a good person.
As expected, Xia Chengzhi summoned servants and had them each catch a few goldfish, including Xia Chengqian.
……
Seven days later, on an auspicious day, Xia Chengzong officially moved into the Prince's Mansion.
On the occasion of moving to a new house, the families of Prince Zhongzheng, Prince Zhongshun, and Lin Ruhai all came to offer their congratulations.
Prince Chung-jung helped entertain the male guests, while the Princess helped entertain the female guests.
Fortunately, there were no outsiders present; everyone was quite familiar with the group, so there was no need for any special hospitality.