Chapter 197.1

At this time, in the Great Xia imperial palace.

Yaoyao giggled while holding her stomach, “Little foolish emperor, do you know? Great Luo Emperor wanted to copy your Great Xia’s large-scale production and build concrete houses. But after the money was distributed, it couldn’t be collected, and the national treasury was emptied!”

“The Great Luo Emperor was very unwilling to accept this, so he forced people to buy houses by cutting their wages and forbade them from leaving Great Luo! This, in turn, enraged the common people, who then caused massive destruction and looting. The merchants there suffered huge losses, and the city became desolate!”

“It’s like lifting a rock only to drop it on his own feet, losing the wife and the soldiers, haha!”

“Now, Great Luo Emperor’s reputation is ruined, and he’s being called a foolish emperor! The Taoist Sect had finally chosen a ‘wise ruler’, but he turned out to be a foolish emperor, which is very funny!”

“Now, the whole world is laughing at them, haha!”

Lin Beifan chuckled, “I also know about this, Great Luo is indeed going through a streak of bad luck!”

“What bad luck? It’s simply stupidity!”

Yaoyao continued to laugh, “The successful example of your Great Xia is right here, yet they couldn’t even copy it properly and ended up ruining themselves. Don’t you think so?”

Lin Beifan shook his head, “It’s not that they can’t copy, but copying is useless for them! Our Great Xia’s development model is very unique and doesn’t work in other countries!”

“Why is that?” Yaoyao asked, puzzled.

“Because the key to our development model lies in housing! If the houses aren’t cheap enough, then the model won’t take off!” Lin Beifan explained with a smile.

“Why is that? Can you explain it to me in detail?” Yaoyao asked curiously.

“Alright, I’ll explain it to you!”

Lin Beifan was in the mood to talk, “Yaoyao, let me ask you first, what do you think is the biggest expense in a person’s life?”

“People regard food as their heaven; it must be about eating and drinking!” Yaoyao thought for a moment, then said.

Lin Beifan shook his head: “No, although eating and drinking are important, the biggest expense isn’t that, but housing!”

“Housing?” Yaoyao echoed.

“The four major concerns in life are clothing, food, shelter, and transportation! If you can solve the first three, a person can live quite decently and can be considered relatively successful!”

“Clothing and food go without saying; they are key to a person’s survival! But these two expenses are controllable! For a normal common person, if you have money, you wear better clothes and eat better food; if you don’t, you wear worse clothes and eat worse food! The only thing that can’t be controlled is housing!”

“Because housing is just too expensive! Before the advent of concrete houses, even a simple red-brick house would cost more than 40 taels of silver, and if it’s the sturdier and waterproof blue-brick house, it would need fifty to sixty taels!”

“However, for the average common person, their monthly wage is only about 200 wen. To buy a suitable house for living, they would need to work for over 20 years without eating or drinking!”

“People can’t just not eat or drink, they still need to provide for their families, so it usually takes 30 to 40 years to save enough money to buy a house. Their whole life is invested in it!”

“Therefore, for common people who have solved the problem of clothing and food, the biggest expense is housing!”

“They must own a house of their own!”

“Only with a house can you marry and have children, care for the elderly, and shelter from the wind and rain, living a decent and dignified life! This is everyone’s most deeply rooted thought and fundamental need!”

Yaoyao nodded: “Hmm, that makes a lot of sense!”

“But getting such a house is not so easy!”

Lin Beifan gave a wry smile: “As I said before, to buy a sturdy house, an ordinary person has to work hard all their life, and they can’t afford any accidents! At this time, most people think since they can’t afford it, they might as well not buy one right away, save more money for their old age, just in case!”

“So, if housing prices don’t come down, then this development model can’t get started! You distribute money, but naturally, it won’t flow back, and you can’t revitalize the economy!”

“Therefore, housing prices must be reduced!”

“I see!”

Yaoyao had an epiphany: “No wonder you set the housing price at 25 taels, considering this aspect!”

Lin Beifan nodded: “Yes, 25 taels is a relatively appropriate price! Ordinary people can afford a house after working hard for a decade or so! If there’s another laborer in the family, it saves even more time, and they can afford a house in less than 10 years! When everyone sees hope, they will naturally be willing to spend!”

“With a house, naturally, you start thinking about marrying and having children! With a wife and children, of course, you want them to live better, so furniture, clothes, quilts, pots, and pans are indispensable, and so consumption is necessary!”

“With increased consumption, the entire nation’s economy is revitalized!”

“You’re right! You’re right…” Yaoyao nodded repeatedly.

“This method can only be used by our Great Xia!”

Lin Beifan smiled: “Because the raw materials for producing cement are right at our doorstep, we can save a lot of costs! Other countries don’t have this advantage, so they are doomed to fail!”

At this moment, Yaoyao’s eyes twinkled: “Little foolish emperor, tell me honestly, did you make a lot of money from selling so many houses?”

After she spoke, her gaze was fixed intently on Lin Beifan.

Lin Beifan sipped his tea very calmly: “That’s a secret, I have nothing to disclose!”

Yaoyao immediately hugged Lin Beifan’s arm and shook it coquettishly: “Tell me, come on, tell me!”

Lin Beifan looked disdainful: “Do you really think these little tricks can make me confess?”

“What do you want then?” Yaoyao asked.

Lin Beifan smirked coldly: “If you want to play, let’s play big! I’ll tell you if you can make me submit in bed!”

Yaoyao: “…”

A moment later.

Lin Beifan: “Ow, ow, ow…”

Yaoyao: “Are you going to talk or not?”

Lin Beifan: “I’d rather die than tell you! Unless you can make me confess in bed!”

Yaoyao: “You foolish emperor, let’s see how I deal with you!”

Lin Beifan: “Ow, ow, ow…”

After a bit of a struggle, Yaoyao gave in: “It seems I must resort to my trump card! You’re in for a treat, you little foolish emperor!”

Moments later, Lin Beifan’s cheek bore a red mark.

Satisfied, Lin Beifan said, “That’s more like it. I’m someone who can’t resist temptation, especially the temptation of beauty!”

Yaoyao, with flushed cheeks, gritted her teeth and said, “Now, spill it!”

After taking a sip of tea, Lin Beifan calmly stated, “Originally, our cement houses were sold for 20 silver taels each, just enough to break even! Now it’s 25 taels, you do the math!”

“So, you’re saying, on average, you make a profit of 5 silver taels per house!”

Yaoyao pulled out a small abacus and started clicking away: “How many houses have you sold now?”

“I can’t remember clearly. Nearly everyone wants to buy a house, probably reached 10 million houses by now!”

“10 million houses! At an average profit of 5 silver taels each, that means you’ve made a total of 50 million silver taels!!!” Yaoyao’s eyes turned green with envy.

Lin Beifan waved it off nonchalantly: “It’s not that much. Most people are paying in installments!”

“Money in installments is still money! If you haven’t gotten it now, you’ll get it later! With your current population size, selling 20 million houses shouldn’t be a problem! That means, through housing alone, you could make a hundred million taels of silver!”

Yaoyao’s envious eyes were about to pop out!

She gazed at Lin Beifan with a deep look and then slowly approached.

Lin Beifan felt a bad premonition rising: “What are you trying to do, don’t mess around!”

“I want to bite you to death right now!” Yaoyao pounced, opening her little mouth wide.

Lin Beifan cried out, “No, don’t!”

After the commotion, they returned to the topic of Great Luo.

As Yaoyao wiped the saliva off Lin Beifan’s face, she reminded him, “Although Great Luo has suffered a great loss, we must not let our guard down! After all, they still have the support of the Taoist Sect behind them!”

Lin Beifan nodded repeatedly: “You’re right, we must never let our guard down at any time!”

He connected to the Empire Sandbox in his mind, conjured a tornado in his territory with his hands, and tossed it into Great Luo territory.

Great Luo Emperor: (⊙ o ⊙ )

***

TLN: Thank you for the tips, Khaitam!

131/254 –> 131/259

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