Although His Majesty Li Er was depressed, he had no choice but to do anything about Yang Fan's behavior of beating.

Fang Xuanling, who was standing beside him, did not dare to sit on the sidelines. These two were enemies and they would argue with each other every time they met.

Although Li Er is the emperor, Yang Fan is not a vegetarian either.

As long as Li Er does not appear as an emperor, Yang Fan will not treat Li Er as an emperor.

In order to alleviate the confrontation between the two, Fang Xuanling quickly smoothed out and said, "Hehe... we have something to do, should we talk about the main things first?"

Yang Fan waved his hand and asked the two of them to sit down, and joked, "Old house! You are so slaughter... You run to our mansion whenever you have something to do. Who is the prime minister? Just abdicate and let the wise man be the one who lets me be the one!"

Fang Xuanling didn't mind and immediately fought back: "Anyway, I'm old and am about to retire and return home. Since my nephew is determined, I'm just about to have a leisure time, so why don't I write a memorial to resign if I go back?"

As he said that, Fang Xuanling looked at His Majesty Li Er with a smile.

Unexpectedly, Fang Xuanling, who has always been upright, actually joked. Yang Fan waved his hands and smiled bitterly: "Don't... I want to be idle for a few more years. Besides, my shoulders are not wide enough to be able to bear such a heavy task."

Seeing Yang Fan's disgusting look, His Majesty Li Er felt a little depressed!

What did this kid really think that he could do it with a little talent?

In addition to ability, those who can become prime ministers must at least have strict requirements on their personal words and deeds.

Those who are like Yang Fan who are in trouble every few days don’t even want to be the prime minister!

What's even more disgusting is that Yang Fan also showed disgust, which immediately made His Majesty Li Er so angry. He snorted coldly and said unhappily: "You kid, don't be upset. Although your talent and ability are top in the younger generation, if you want to take on the important tasks of the court, you have to exercise for a few more years."

"What's more, you should take care of yourself first. If you want to manage the entire affairs of the court, it's still early! But you have many strange ideas."

"Now there are problems with the imperial examination books and school supplies we sell."

"People from the aristocratic family mobilized ordinary people to buy them, and they bought all the various books and school supplies that were distributed every day in almost an hour."

"These people who rushed to buy school supplies are almost not scholars, and scholars who really need to take the imperial examination cannot buy them."

"Although I know it's the aristocratic family that is making fun of it, I can't find conclusive evidence. Is there any way to solve it?"

"In addition, our speed of printing books can fully meet the needs. Now that the imperial examination is getting closer, are we starting to increase sales to meet the needs of poor students?"

Yang Fan was not surprised when he heard this, because he had long expected that the aristocratic family would not stand by and watch.

But the power of these aristocratic families still made him a little dumbfounded.

It is really a bit scary to be able to mobilize the power of poor students not being able to buy books.

No wonder His Majesty Li Er has been thinking about weakening the power of the aristocratic family. These people are so arrogant!

He actually dared to blatantly provoke the imperial power. As long as he is a king with achievements, no one can let him go.

After pondering for a while, Yang Fan asked, "How many sets of imperial examination books have been sold now? How many are there in stock now?"

Fang Xuanling immediately replied: "According to the plan, the imperial examination books of the court have distributed a total of 10,000 sets to the various prefectures of the Tang Dynasty every day. Now a total of 150,000 sets have been sold, and there are still about 100,000 sets in stock. Various school supplies are also distributed according to quantity, and there are still a lot of inventory."

"These families are really rich." Yang Fan murmured to himself, but said: "From tomorrow, the imperial examination books allocated to various state roads will be reduced by 1,000 sets every day until they are reduced to 5,000 sets, and other school supplies will be reduced by halved from tomorrow."

When he heard Yang Fan say that it would not increase but decrease, His Majesty Li Er looked at Fang Xuan, and his mind was a little confused.

What's the situation?

If they weren't sure Yang Fan wouldn't be in the same vein with the aristocratic family, they really thought Yang Fan had been bribed by the aristocratic family.

Even so, His Majesty Li Er asked unhappily: "You'd better give me a reason, otherwise...hum!"

Fang Xuanling also looked at Yang Fan with confusion on his face, obviously also trying to find out what was going on.

Looking at His Majesty Li Er, who was wise and powerful by history books, looked at Fang Xuanling, who was extremely smart, which made Yang Fan speechless.

These two people even claim to be the top talents in the Tang Dynasty, but they are too stupid.

I really want to shout from the two of them to let them get enlightened.

But Yang Fan also knew that this was not feasible, so he had to look at the two of them with a foolish expression.

Seeing Yang Fan's expression, His Majesty Li Er was a little angry and asked angrily: "What's your expression? If you can't say one, two or three, I'll see if I won't shout you to death."

"I think you are hopeless!" Yang Fan shook his head and explained: "These aristocratic families are willing to spend money on these imperial examination books and school supplies, which is to predict that our production capacity is limited and the production cost is very high."

"If we increase the amount of books we allocate, they will definitely find clues and throw out the books in their hands. Wouldn't that be cheap for them?"

"You know, these aristocratic families are great people. Now that we spend a lot of money to buy our low-cost things, we don't cooperate, wouldn't we be sorry for them?"

These words made His Majesty Li Er confused, and his mind was still a little overwhelmed.

Fang Xuanling's eyes lit up, as if he had thought of something, but he didn't fully understand it, so he asked impatiently: "Nephew, don't play the puzzle, explain it quickly."

Yang Fan did not keep it in a silence anymore and analyzed: "According to my estimate, there are only 300,000 scholars in our Tang Dynasty, and only tens of thousands of people took the imperial examination. In addition, some people were preparing to take the examination, at most only tens of thousands of people."

"If we rely solely on the purchasing power of these people, how many sets of imperial examination books and various school supplies can we sell?"

"But now, in order to prevent poor families from buying books, those aristocratic families have mobilized the people to buy books and school supplies. Isn't this just giving us money?"

"The cost of printing our books and various school supplies is so low. If we sell more, it will not only increase our income, but also take out a piece of meat from the mouth of the aristocratic family. Why not?"

"Only by making them believe that our production capacity is at the end of our strength, the aristocratic families will crazily carry out monopoly."

After explaining this, His Majesty Li Er thought about it again and it seemed that this was the case.

Nowadays, the aristocratic family monopolizes these books, and the purpose is self-evident, just to stop the imperial examination reform and want to see his Li Er's joke.

This time, not only Yang Fan made more money, but the court could also make more money from the pockets of aristocratic families.

Nowadays, the profit of a book is more than four cents, which is simply a huge profit, not to mention the income from school supplies such as paper, pen, ink and inkstone.

It is a great thing to be able to make a lot of money out of the aristocratic family this time.

If you want to prevent the aristocratic family from discovering the truth, you naturally have to look like Yang Fan said, and you must look like you are almost unable to withstand it.

This kid's mind is indeed fast, and many ideas are just imaginative, which can make people fall into it without realizing it.

It seems that this time I'm really right to ask for advice!

If you directly increase sales according to your own nature, these aristocratic families may soon find that they have fallen into the trap.

But His Majesty Li Er always felt something was wrong. After pondering for a while, he asked, "If you say that, as you said, those poor families who really want to buy books will not be able to buy books, wouldn't this delay their future? You should know that the spring imperial examination has only been more than three months."

Yang Fan smiled and said, "Actually, those who bought the imperial examination books this year are actually for the imperial examinations for the next year, and they have little impact on this year's imperial examinations."

"So, real talents can get a good score without these reference books."

"Besides, most of the interpretations and translations of the imperial examination books we are selling have not changed. All the students who take the imperial examination this year should learn."

"What's more, based on our publishing speed and inventory, based on the number of current scholars in the Tang Dynasty, enough books can be published in less than a month, even if each household is one set."

"Since the aristocratic family wants to monopolize books, we use their money to increase production."

"I just need to keep their appetites and ask them to buy more books, and I want to see how many more books they can eat, and what's the point of eating them all?"

"At most one month later, we will directly distribute the students who are studying, and the money we use is also harvested from the aristocratic family."

"And, the more aristocratic families buy now, the more we earn, and the more funds we spend on the imperial examination reform. Are you still afraid that money will bite your hands?"

"Besides, isn't the purpose of the court to suppress the arrogance of the aristocratic families? Let them lose more money, which can not only improve the situation of poor students, but also make the aristocratic families feel hurt."

After listening to Yang Fan's explanation, His Majesty Li Er blinked his eyes, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that what Yang Fan said made sense.

Only by sacrificing the appetite of the aristocratic families can these aristocratic families invest enough money to purchase books and school supplies.

The more aristocratic families buy, the more the court makes?

In this way, the aristocratic families were weakened in disguise and the court made a lot of money. Why not do it?

When a noble family cannot afford it, the court can take a blow, reduce the price again or give free books to students who cannot afford books.

The imperial court just needs to increase its output, but it is all about the money earned from these aristocratic families.

In this way, the court can not only gain a good reputation, but also attack aristocratic families, which is simply killing two birds with one stone.

After thinking for a while, His Majesty Li Er asked excitedly: "What should we pay attention to now? How can we make as much money as possible from the aristocratic family?"

Yang Fan smiled: "That depends on Your Majesty's acting skills! It depends on how you raise funds and borrow money from the ministers in the court. The national treasury is very "loss" because of printing books."

"The treasury has not lost money in printing books. Why do you have to borrow money from the minister?" His Majesty Li Er was slightly stunned, with a confused look on his face.

Fang Xuanling asked with some uncertainty: "Nephew, what do you mean is to create an illusion for the aristocratic family, so that they think the court has hollowed out the national treasury for printing books?"

Yang Fan showed a teaching-looking expression and said, "Yes, the reason why these aristocratic families buy books in large quantities is probably because they saw that the imperial examination books we printed were extremely exquisite, so they thought that our manufacturing cost was far higher than the selling price."

"They should use their manufacturing costs to calculate our costs, believing that we are losing money, and want to defeat us through this method so that the imperial examination reform of the court could not be implemented."

After hearing Yang Fan's words, His Majesty Li Er murmured to himself: "The people from these aristocratic families are too self-righteous, right?"

Yang Fan did not reply, but Fang Xuanling seemed to have figured out the key to all the problems and explained:

"Your Majesty, this is actually easy to understand. Papermaking, printing and various school supplies were previously produced and sold by Shijia, which are areas they are extremely good at."

"In a field where a person is good at, he always has indelible confidence. These noble families will never believe that our rain manufacturing technology will surpass them, and will surpass them so many at once."

"If we calculate based on their previous manufacturing costs, our current selling price will inevitably be a loss-making deal."

Hearing Fang Xuanling's explanation, His Majesty Li Er finally reacted.

No wonder the aristocratic families mobilized the people to buy these books so hard.

The fact should be that as Yang Fan said, these aristocratic families misjudged the situation.
To be continued...