One in a Thousand

The problem of tight finances had initially been resolved, but only to the extent that the treasury now had just enough money to get by.

But having enough was not enough. Zhou Ming wanted money to be spent freely, lavishly, with complete financial freedom.

If he could not achieve that, then being emperor was utterly meaningless. He might as well have descended into the family of some wealthy merchant.

In other words, even as emperor, Zhou Ming still had to find ways to get more money.

How?

Was he supposed to embark once more on that same old farming path? Spend vast amounts of time repeating what had to be done in every instance, even when he had started out as emperor?

Of course he would not continue like that.

Now that he sat on the imperial throne, he had plenty of swift and efficient ways to make money and solve his financial shortage.

What ways?

For example... uh... well, he would stop pretending. That was right—if he did not engage in some farming activities, Zhou Ming had no particularly good way to solve the money problem... even though he had long grown tired of farming.

And even as emperor, money would not simply fall from the sky for him to spend.

So Zhou Ming still had no choice but to farm?

Well, if one insisted on putting it that way, that was true.

But in a sense, it was not entirely true either.

Why?

Because Zhou Ming did not personally enter the fray. Instead, he recruited a large group of representatives to seize profits on his behalf.

Right beside the Imperial Palace, he specifically approved a hundred-acre plot of land and established a Commercial Area. He then recruited over a hundred merchants and opened more than a hundred shops