It is undeniable that when King Su Zhao Hongrun walked into the Chui Gong Hall with a sullen face, the officials from the Ministry of Revenue who came together this time were a little frightened.
I think back to last year, when His Royal Highness Prince Su was not King Su but just His Highness the Eighth Prince, Xiong Tuo, Lord of Chu Yangcheng, led his army to invade the Wei Dynasty.
At that time, Li Huan, Minister of the Ministry of War, advocated seeking peace with Chu and received a generous gift from His Highness the Eighth Prince. For more than half a year, the poor old man could not raise his head in court and was depressed every day. , so pitiful.
But now, with the power of victory, His Highness has become the most popular person in Daliang. Unless their household department really needs that huge amount of property, otherwise, who would be willing to offend His Highness, who has always been rumored to be narrow-minded?
Learn from the past and learn from those behind you!
I believe that none of the officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs would like to follow in the footsteps of Li Huan, Minister of the Infantry Ministry.
Compared with these officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs who seemed to be a little trembling, Zhao Hongrun, who was only fifteen years old, was more imposing. After he bowed to his father, Emperor Wei, he swept his sharp eyes into the palace. These officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs said calmly: "I'm sorry that I don't know much about all the officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs. How about we all know each other by their first names?"
Mr. Guan?
Hearing the strong sense of ridicule, the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs looked at each other, somewhat daring to get angry but afraid to say what they meant.
After a long time, it was the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Fan Xie, who gritted his teeth and introduced himself first: "Wei Chen, the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Fan Xie."
Following the Zuo Shilang, the other household officials also introduced themselves one after another.
"Headquarters of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Si Lang, Yan Zheng."
"Sirang Duzhi, He Yang."
"Kinbu Silang, Cai Lu."
"Kurabe Shiro, Kuang Ke."
"Outside Lang Min You..."
"Lang Guan Yan Jue..."
"Lang Guan..."
"Lang Guan..."
For a moment, several officials from the Ministry of Revenue in Chui Gong Hall introduced their names and official positions to Zhao Hongrun.
As far as Zhao Hongrun knows, the imperial household department is divided into four departments: the main department of the household department, the branch department, the gold department, and the warehouse department.
Among them, the General Office of the Ministry of Household Affairs has the overall responsibility to coordinate the country's territory, fields, household registration, taxes, salaries and all financial matters; the Du Branch is responsible for managing the receipts and expenditures of the treasury; the Ministry of Finance is responsible for weighing the civil, official, palace and other various matters in the Wei State. Prices in the class market include the minting and recycling of coins; while the warehouse is responsible for the warehouses within the Wei Dynasty, Gyeonggi and local areas, and also includes the transportation of strategic materials under national supervision such as salt, rice, and iron. In addition, .If there is a drought or flood in the country, the warehouse department must also be involved in opening the warehouse to release grain.
This time, for Zhao Hongrun's huge batch of money and goods shipped from the Chu Kingdom, the household department was all in action. Zhao Hongrun counted them, but the only two people who were missing were Shangshu Li Liang and right minister Cui Can. The other ministers and ministers were not present. Even the lieutenants and officials were all present.
It is no wonder that Emperor Wei sent Lang Wei to invite Zhao Hongrun. After all, this was almost equivalent to the unified opinion of the entire household department and putting pressure on Emperor Wei.
"Why don't Lord Li Liang, the Minister of your ministry, and Lord Cui Can, the right minister, come with you?"
Zhao Hongrun looked around at the officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs and asked lightly.
Hearing this, Fan Wei, the left servant, cupped his hands and replied: "Master Li Liang and Master Cui Can are in poor health today, so they did not come with the officials and others."
Are you not in good health? Who are you bluffing? Didn't you do well at the celebration banquet last night?
Zhao Hongrun sneered in his heart. He understood that it must be Shangshu Li Liang and Right Minister Cui Can who felt that this threat was not appropriate, so they pretended to be sick and did not come.
Of course, even though no one came, Zhao Hongrun couldn't tell whether the two people were opposed to this kind of coercive method, or whether they simply wanted to be the mastermind and planned to manipulate this matter behind the scenes.
"Go and invite!" Zhao Hongrun said calmly: "The entire household department, all officials above Langguan and above are present, how can we miss Mr. Li Liang and Mr. Cui Can?... When those two adults arrive at Chui Gong Hall, let's talk about those batches again.
Money matters."
"..."
The officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs looked at each other, probably because they did not expect that Zhao Hongrun would have such a strong aura in the Chui Gong Hall, and his words were categorical and could not be refuted.
The eunuch Tong Xian was nearby. He secretly looked at the emperor's expression and saw that his majesty was reviewing the chapters by himself with a smile but not a smile. He understood in his heart and quickly ordered the little eunuch behind him: "Go, will you?"
Mr. Li Liang, the Minister of Household Affairs, and Mr. Cui Can, the right servant, please come to Chui Gong Hall together."
"Yes." The young eunuch bowed his head and accepted the order. Just as he was about to turn around and walk out of the palace, he saw Zhao Hongrun raising his hand to stop him.
"Wait a moment...I will send a message to the six ministries of the imperial court in my name. If any other government officials are interested in the money and materials, please send them to send officials above the rank of Lang Guan as representatives to come to Chui Gong Hall together. Remember to tell them
If they don't come within one hour, the money and materials will not belong to their government."
this……
The officials of the Ministry of Revenue looked at each other with shock in their eyes: Is His Highness King Su trying to completely muddy the water?
"Yes, Your Highness Prince Su." The young eunuch bowed respectfully.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun ignored the dozen household officials who were in the hall and walked to Zhongshu Zuo Cheng Yuziqi, with whom he had a good relationship, and greeted him with a smile.
After all, since returning to Daliang, Zhao Hongrun has not had much time to chat with the minister of Zhongshu, who had a good relationship with him in the past. Even at the celebration banquet last night, Yu Ziqi only had time to toast Zhao Hongrun with a glass of wine, and was surrounded by other people competing for him.
The people toasting Zhao Hongrun were pushed aside.
"His Royal Highness King Su..."
Seeing Zhao Hongrun greeting him, Yu Ziqi couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Although he also wanted to talk to His Highness about certain national policies that were not adopted by the current court, such as weakening the rights of the nobility, etc., at this moment, he had no idea of talking about those topics. After all, the ten people in the palace
Several officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs were looking at him with different expressions, as if they wanted to blame all of Zhao Hongrun's resentment for treating them as wooden piles on Yu Ziqi.
Who am I provoking?
Feeling the unkind or even hostile looks from some officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Yu Ziqi smiled bitterly in his heart.
But since His Highness has this interest, it's not easy for him to refuse. As for offending some people, hehe, just offend him. Anyway, he and Lin Yuyang, who have become ministers of Zhongshu at a young age, are jealous of each other.
It's a matter of God.
"This time, Your Highness went to Yingshui North County of Chu State, and I think I got to know a little bit about Chu State. I wonder how Chu State compares to our great Wei Dynasty?"
In full view of everyone, Zhao Hongrun moved a stool and sat next to Yu Ziqi. He shook his head and said, "It's nice to hear and see... The rich are rich and the poor are poor. The disparity is like a world of difference."
Yu Ziqi was stunned when he heard this and asked curiously: "How many rich people are rich, and how many poor people are poor?"
Zhao Hongrun thought for a moment and said: "The rich have a house full of rare treasures and rice grains are like mounds; the poor have no rice to feed their families in winter."
After hearing this, Yu Ziqi touched the beard on his chin and said with an incomprehensible expression: "This is good news for me, the Wei Dynasty... By the way, I heard that His Highness kidnapped hundreds of thousands of Chu people from the Chu Kingdom this time?"
"Well, a rough estimate is about three to four hundred thousand, but most of them are old, young, women and children. I will place them in the Yanling, Shangshui, and Changping areas." As he said, he glanced at the household officials in the palace and mocked lightly.
He said: "In my opinion, the three to four hundred thousand people of the Chu State are the biggest gain of our Wei Dynasty... However, right now there are many people who only focus on the money and goods, and nothing else.
"
"..." After hearing this, the officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs became a little ugly.
Naturally, they could tell that Zhao Hongrun's words were purely for them.
Your Highness, please don't...
Yu Ziqi smiled bitterly in his heart and quickly changed the topic: "Your Highness, what is the combat strength of Chu State's army?"
"The army of Chu State?"
Having said this, Zhao Hongrun also suppressed the slight ridicule on his face, and his mood became serious. After all, as far as he knew, the people he defeated this time were just the Chuxi nobles headed by Xiong Tuo, the Lord of Yangcheng. Although Xiong Tuo
Tuo was trying his best to govern, but according to the information he inadvertently revealed, Zhao Hongrun could guess that Chu State did not have no regular army. Otherwise, when Xiong Tuo threatened him to break up, he would not have said what would happen if the king's army arrived.
How to say that.
In other words, in the eastern part of Chu, which is more fertile than the western part of Chu, the Chu State actually has a regular army.
Think about it, if there is no permanent regular army, why would the Chu State fight against King Xi of Qi?
As for the combat effectiveness of the Chu State's regular army, unfortunately, Zhao Hongrun still has no information at all.
In this era when communication still only relies on couriers and carrier pigeons, it is not easy to spy on other countries' intelligence and then send it back to the home country.
Of course, it is precisely because of this that the status of surrendered generals from Chu such as Qu Cheng and Yan Mo became more important in Zhao Hongrun's heart.
For most of the next hour, Zhao Hongrun and Yu Ziqi chatted about Chu State, detailing its culture, architecture, and cuisine.
During this period, not to mention the idle and bored officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs who listened attentively, even the Emperor of Wei, the eunuch Tong Xian and the other two ministers of Zhongshu also listened with interest.
After all, it is undeniable that the Wei Dynasty still knew very little about Chu. On the other hand, the better it understood this enemy, the better its chances of defeating him.
After chatting like this for about half an hour, the number of officials in Chui Gong Hall gradually increased. Not only Li Liang, the Minister of Household Affairs, and Cui Can, the right minister, but also Li Huan, the Minister of War, and Old Man Li, who almost vomited blood because of Zhao Hongrun's generous gift, also brought
Xu Guan and Wang Can, the assistant ministers on the left and right, came to Chui Gong Hall.
I believe that they also came here for the money and materials. After all, the Ministry of War has always been the largest expenditure on the Wei treasury.
In addition to the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War, there were also ministers from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Industry. They were Shangshu You of the Ministry of Rites, and Meng Wei, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry who accompanied the Chu Kingdom this time.
However, as soon as the minister of the Ministry of Rites arrived at Chui Gong Hall, he told Zhao Hongrun that he was just here to take a look.
The meaning is self-evident.
Only the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Punishment did not send anyone over after the one-hour period expired.
Obviously, these two imperial government offices may have thought that they would be of no help in Zhao Hongrun's battle to repel the Chu State, so they knew better and did not send anyone over.
Whether it is the officials of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Punishment, or the Minister of Rites, it is not difficult to guess that anyone who can climb to their position is a person who knows how to advance and retreat, and knows the current affairs. Since they know that they have no share, they simply
Either you don’t come, or you just come to enjoy the fun.
After counting, the only ones qualified to share the pie with the military represented by Zhao Hongrun were the Ministry of Husbandry, the Ministry of War, and Meng Wei, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry who wanted to get involved but didn't know how to speak.
Representative of the Ministry of Industry.
Among them, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs seem to be the most confident. (To be continued.)