The new emperor, whom these people called the Lone Star of Heavenly Evil, had not even ushered in the first year of his ascension to the throne, and before his reign name could be announced to the world, Yangzhou, where Jiankang was located, was besieged by rebels again.
On the border between Yuzhou and Xuzhou, which is adjacent to Yangzhou, the rebels have stationed troops numbering 500,000. They are eyeing Yangzhou and have been spying on Jiankang for a long time.
With such heavy troops stationed on the border, one can imagine how much pressure the Southern Court was under.
Only now did the new emperor realize how much pressure Emperor Huiyuan was under when Beidi soldiers and horses approached the capital!
It can be said that he has trouble sleeping at night, does not know how to eat, and is anxious all day long. His body is visibly losing weight, and the black hair on his head is falling out in great numbers.
The new emperor thinks that he will be bald before the end of the year without waiting for next year.
Daiyi, who once served Emperor Huiyuan, now has the favor of the new emperor and is still serving the new emperor in front of the palace.
Of course, most of the time the personal attendant was the new emperor's personal eunuch since he was a child, and Dai Yi was just there to assist.
At this moment, he saw the little attendant combing the new emperor's hair, and a lot of black hair fell off, which made his heart twitch, as if he had returned to the days when Beidi soldiers and horses were approaching the capital, and he served Emperor Huiyuan.
It’s so painful!
It's terrible!
"I dare you, Your Majesty. Please relax, take care of your health, put the country, the country, and the people of the world first. With a good body, everything is possible!"
The new emperor naturally noticed the hair loss on the comb. After hearing Dai Yi's words, he lowered his eyelids and didn't want to say anything.
The country is almost gone, what’s the use of the body?
Is it used for hanging?
Or for throwing into the river?
My life is almost gone, can I exchange for the peace of the country?
He is about to become the sinner of Dayu!
As the New Year approaches, the atmosphere in the court becomes more and more tense. Everyone knows that when the snow melts in spring after the New Year, the decisive battle between the two armies will begin.
After a harsh winter, the rebels' food and fodder were almost exhausted. It was impossible for them to let the war continue forever, and they would definitely find the right opportunity to decide the outcome.
Since it knew that a war was inevitable, the imperial court must make preparations before the war.
It's just that the national treasury didn't have much silver to begin with, and the imperial court's move southward almost exhausted the little silver that remained in the treasury.
When he came to Jiankang, officials at all levels were in arrears with their salaries. How could the new emperor get money to fight in such a poor and impoverished court?
The new emperor has never had a peaceful day since he came to the throne. He feels that he is miserable.
In the early morning of that day, some courtiers pointed out that there was insufficient food and grass for war preparations, and asked the new emperor to hand over his private treasury to help Dayu overcome this difficulty.
The new emperor, who was already in a bad mood, became furious after hearing their proposal: "How outrageous! Is my private treasury something you can care about?"
The courtiers looked at him as if they were a child who was having a bad temper with them, and they didn't take him seriously at all.
"Your Majesty, the overall situation is more important. You are rich in the world, how can you care about this small profit in front of you? As long as Dayu's kingdom is stable, the whole world is not under your control!"
"It makes sense. Dayu's empire is stable, and the late emperors will be happy to have spirits in heaven. For the sake of Dayu's empire, the emperor sacrificed some personal interests, but it is beneficial to the country and the people of the world. Why not do it?"
"Using the money from the Emperor's private treasury to support the soldiers and horses in the Gyeonggi military camp, our wealth will not flow to outsiders. Why do you have any hesitation, Your Majesty?"
The new emperor laughed angrily at them and interrupted their chatter impatiently, "Since you are so upright and righteous, why don't we all donate money together until we have enough food and fodder for the army to fight in the spring? What do you think? After all, everyone rises and falls in the world.
responsibility!"
After hearing this, the courtiers exchanged glances with each other. Although the new emperor is young, some things are really hard to fool.
For example, this time it was getting harder and harder to trick him into taking out money.
The Minister of Household Affairs stood up and said, "Your Majesty's words make sense. Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world. For the sake of Dayu and the people of the world, I am willing to donate ten taels of silver to help the soldiers in the capital!"
Now that someone has started it.
The people behind him all echoed with great respect.
"Wei Chen is willing to donate five taels of silver!"
"Wei Chen is also willing to donate ten taels of silver!"
"."
Some people have five taels, some have ten taels. There are no less than two hundred officials in the palace during a morning court.
After careful calculation, one early court meeting can help the new emperor more than 1,600 taels. The number can be said to be too much or too little. How can I put it? It all depends on the wishes of the officials.
When the new emperor saw this scene, he was so angry that he almost ascended to heaven, following in the footsteps of Emperor Huiyuan.
"Shut up! Shut up, everyone!" The new emperor's face was ashen and he was really furious.
"Is this your pattern as Yu's courtiers? It's really eye-opening for me!"
"You all travel in carriages that cost hundreds of taels of silver. The cheapest clothes your family wears are high-grade Hangzhou silk. You are standing here today crying about your poverty to me. You are really not afraid of the laughter of the people in the world!"
courtier:"."
What a misstep. If I had known that the new emperor would be so clever and know their means of travel even while staying in the palace, they should have changed to a simple carriage when they went out.
The new emperor is in the palace and naturally does not know what kind of transportation the courtiers are taking today.
But when he fled to Jiankang, he saw the carriages of the imperial officials, so this happened.
The Minister of Household Affairs spoke again: "Your Majesty, the purpose of traveling by carriage is to reach the Yamen more quickly to handle official business. If something goes wrong with the poor carriage, wouldn't it be a delay?"
The new emperor laughed angrily, "So, you are still dedicated to serving the public good?"
"The Emperor's Holy Ming!"
The courtiers responded loudly.
hehe!
The new emperor finally understood, and all the officials in the court treated him as a fool.
They regard him as a puppet, and it is these damn courtiers below who want to control the entire court!
"I really don't understand. The imperial court treats you well. It gives you glory, wealth, and high official positions. When the imperial court encounters difficulties, why doesn't it get preferential treatment from you? Why don't you see you helping each other in the same boat?"
"At this point, the first thing you think about is your own interests. Is your conscience being fed to the dogs?"
"Or do you all want to be the ministers of the country's subjugation?"
The new emperor glared at the people below who had their heads lowered, "If you want, I might as well make it happen for you!"
"Daiyi!"
Dai Yi walked out from the back of the palace, "I'm here!"
The new emperor's eyes flashed with anger and glanced at the body of the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, "Go and tie the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue to me, put him in jail, and try again the next day!"
The meaning of the top leader is very clear, that is, the head of the household department is done with it this time!
"Your Majesty." Shangshu Hube was dumbfounded. He just wanted to feel superior and did not think that he was playing with fire too much.
Is this considered playing with fire and burning yourself?
The ministers were also dumbfounded!
Emperor, is this serious?
Dai Yi didn't care what the ministers below him thought. Without hesitation, he immediately led his men forward and detained the Minister of the Ministry of Finance.
At this time, the Minister of Hubu came to his senses and asked, "Your Majesty, why did you do this? Is this a violation of the laws of Dayu?"
Seeing this, officials from the civil service group in the court came out to dissuade him one after another. Some even claimed that the emperor had been bewitched by a treacherous villain.
To make such a confused decision!
The courtiers of a country made such things out of thin air, which made the new emperor furious!
"You, the leader, are not loyal to the king. They are all scheming and have no desire to make progress. This is the behavior of a rebellious minister. Should I let such a rebellious minister go?"
The ministers looked at each other, knelt down and saluted, "Your Majesty, calm down!"
The Minister of the Ministry of Revenue was detained and unable to move, but he still looked distressed and said: "Your Majesty, how can you be so irritable and surly? Are you not afraid of chilling the hearts of all the officials in the world by imprisoning the ministers for no reason?"
"Can you still represent the world's officials? Or do you connect the world's officials?"
As he spoke, the new emperor's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"."
The Secretary of the Ministry of Finance trembled all over.
If you admit this, I'm afraid you will be punished by the Nine Clans!
At this moment, he wanted to die. Why did he want to be the first person just now?
Judging from the emperor's performance today, he is a madman!
If you argue with a madman, no matter how many heads he has, you won't be able to chop him off.
Seeing that the ministers below were frightened, the new emperor hurriedly ordered Dai Yi: "You took people to raid the House of the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue. I want to see if his house is really poor and destitute. He only took ten taels of silver with him when he went out.
It’s time to go out!”
"If he is really poor and useless, I will let him go. If the opposite is true, then I'm sorry, he will be imprisoned and the whole family will be exiled to the Gobi to guard the border!"
The courtiers were silent. At this moment, they realized that the new emperor was quite evil. Torturing Lord Shangshu like this, they might as well kill him with a knife to make him happy!
During the same court meeting the next day, Dai Yi presented the list of inspections of the Shangshu Mansion to the new emperor.
Five hundred thousand taels of cash alone were confiscated, not counting antiques, calligraphy and paintings, as well as real properties such as farms, shops and houses.
If we add them all up, the materials confiscated by Shangshu Mansion would be equivalent to about one million taels of silver.
"Haha." The new emperor laughed while holding the list, regardless of his image, "This is what you call the pillar of the country? Corruption, bribery, unrepentance, such a low-level character, how could I be blind and let him be in this position?
Sit for a few more months!”
Everyone in the court was in danger, and few people responded to the new emperor's words.
From this we can see that the imperial administration was really rotten to the core.
With the five hundred thousand taels of cash in hand, the new emperor immediately equipped the troops and horses of the Gyeonggi camp and was always on guard against sudden attacks by the Yuzhou, Yanzhou and Qingzhou rebels.
With the money to equip the army, the ministers in the court became quiet again, and everyone was watching the development of the situation.
Just as the New Year is approaching, everyone's attention is quickly attracted by buying new year's goods.
It was really hard for the rebels who occupied Yuzhou in the ice and snow. They didn't expect that this winter would be so cold, so they didn't prepare much warm clothes and food!
The leader of the rebel army, Qin Lang, was so worried that he almost rubbed his bald head.
Sitting in the lobby of the Yuzhou government office, he pointed to the location of Yangzhou on the map and said: "Yangzhou is already the best retreat for the imperial court. If you go further, you will reach the sea, and to the west and north, there will be other state capitals. If you still want to
Relocation is a waste of time and money.
I think the Southern Court has reached a point of no return, what should we do now to avoid being a drag on him in the future!"
The staff member smoothed his beard, shook his head and said: "Currently, we are seriously short of food and grass, but there is still more than a month until the start of spring. If the weather delays the start of spring, we will have to wait for almost two months. Two months is too difficult, we are currently
What to do?”
After listening to his words, Tan Lang began to take it seriously. Food is the driving force for soldiers and horses. If there is no food, there is no need to talk about it.
"If we really can't hold on until spring, we will prepare in the next few days to brave the snow to sneak attack on the small counties in Yangzhou near Yuzhou. I believe that the family will always have some properties in various places, and we can just grab them."
——
It was around the end of the new year, and it was possible that the new emperor had raided the Shangshu Mansion to obtain military pay.
In short, at the end of the year, Jiankang City lost its former sluggishness.
People are coming and going on the street, and everyone is busy buying New Year's goods. They hope to buy more while the merchants still have supplies and store them home.
If we push further, I'm afraid the last bit of supplies will be sold out.
The wife of the Crown Prince of Changping Marquis Mansion also took advantage of the end of the year to take her daughter to the streets, planning to buy some fabrics to make some clothes for her family so that she could visit relatives and friends during the New Year.
It's just that the cloths in the major cloth shops in Jiankang City have been selling like crazy these days.
"What's going on? Why is there so little fabric left in the store?"
Li Chengxian pointed at the fabric on the counter with a look of disgust, and spoke to the shopkeeper in a very aggressive tone, which showed that she usually had a bad temper.
"I'm very sorry. The fabrics in the store have been sold like crazy these days, and the inventory has almost been cleared. If you don't like it, Madam Prince, there may be no more fabrics like this in a few days."
The shopkeeper said an apology, but the expression on his face was full of smiles.
Li Chengxian was furious when she saw his appearance!
"These colors are very old-fashioned. Whoever wants to buy them will buy them. Anyway, our Changping Marquis Mansion doesn't like fabrics of this grade!"
Just as he was feeling disgusted, a lady next to her waved her hand and pulled a bunch of cloths on the counter into her range, "Shopkeeper, wrap up these dozen pieces of cloth, I want them!"
The shopkeeper said with a smile: "Madam still has a good vision!"
The lady laughed loudly when she heard the compliment: "I visited several shops today, but the fabrics were not all available. But when I got here, I found a dozen pieces of the same color fabric, which I just bought to make clothes for the servants at home.
"
"Madam, you still have the foresight!" the shopkeeper sincerely praised.
After hearing what they said, Li Chengxian looked stunned. It seemed that the servants in the Hou Mansion hadn't prepared the New Year's cloth yet!
The lady didn't say anything, and she didn't even think about it.
"Shopkeeper, do you still have this kind of fabric in your warehouse?"
When the shopkeeper heard this, he turned around and saw that they had not left yet, so he said with a smile: "Our shop has sold out this low-grade fabric. I'm very sorry!"
"you"
"Okay, mother, since the shopkeeper said there is no more, let's forget it. It seems that there is nothing to visit in this street now, let's go back!"
Li Chengxian’s daughter who was about to get married stopped her to prevent her from going crazy in public!
Li Chengxian only had time to glare at the shopkeeper before she was dragged out of the shop by her daughter.
"Daughter, where else do you want to go?"
"Go home. Jiankang's supplies are not sufficient. If we continue shopping, we won't be able to find anything satisfactory."