Jia Ke and others waited at the military aircraft for a short time before the young eunuch came to deliver the message. The emperor ordered them to go to Dongnuan Pavilion to reply.
Jia Ke then raised his hands to everyone and said, "Since the emperor has ordered us to go, then please follow me to see the emperor."
After Jia Ke said this, he picked up the memorial from the table and left the military aircraft office first. The others followed Jia Ke.
Everyone followed the little eunuch all the way to the courtyard of Dongnuan Pavilion, and then waited there while the little eunuch went in to report.
The little eunuch entered the Dongnuan Pavilion, came to the emperor's case with his own hands and feet, knelt down on his knees, touched his head to the ground and reported back: "Long live the Lord, five ministers of military aircraft and the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue are waiting for the emperor outside the courtyard.
Summoned."
The emperor was still pretending to look at the memorial, and just nodded lightly. Xia Shouzhong, who was next to him, immediately understood, and gently left the emperor's side, waved to the little eunuch to ask him to leave, and then left the palace in person.
Warm pavilion.
As soon as Xia Shouzhong arrived outside Dongnuan Pavilion, he saw six people standing there respectfully. He immediately took a few steps forward and came to them and said: "Six adults, the emperor ordered me to come and lead the six people."
Come in, sir."
Everyone hurriedly raised their hands and said, "Then I have to thank my father-in-law."
So Xia Shouzhong went in front, and Jia Ke and others followed behind and entered Dongnuan Pavilion.
As soon as Jia Ke and others entered the Dongguan Pavilion and saw the emperor, he quickly knelt down and saluted. Xia Shouzhong returned to the emperor and whispered in the emperor's ear: "Long live my Lord, six ministers are already kneeling down below.
"
Only then did the emperor seem to notice the six people kneeling on the ground. He raised his head and glanced at them, and then said: "Since you are here, don't kneel all the time. Get up and answer."
Only then did these six people dare to stand up.
"Why are you quarreling over something? You are all officials of the imperial court and the pillars of the country. You are almost fighting in a land like the Military Aircraft Department. Do you still have the decency of an important minister of the imperial court?" The emperor looked down expressionlessly.
He actually reprimanded.
Jia Ke and others knelt there and could only listen to the emperor's reprimand.
The emperor reprimanded his subordinates, and then asked Liu Yu, the Minister of Civil Affairs: "Liu Yu, what exactly happened to you?"
Liu Yu took a few steps forward, and then said: "Long live Qi Zun, it's just because when Mr. Jia Kejia was checking the accounts, he found that last year's tax revenue was less than three million taels of silver. This is why we are not appealing to each other.
He confronted him. Because several other ministers were dissatisfied with the explanation given by Liu Wan, the Minister of Revenue, the dispute arose."
The emperor frowned and said to Liu Wan next to him: "What's going on? Last year the weather was good and there was no Tatar invasion. How could there be so much less tax money?"
Liu Wan had already regained his gentleness at this time. When he heard the emperor's question, he walked out slowly and said: "Your Majesty, it's not that the tax revenue has decreased last year, it's actually the ships transporting tax money on the canal.
The boat capsized and we lost three million taels of silver."
The emperor was furious after hearing this, "How could such a thing happen to you bastard? How can the court maintain its status next year after so many compliances?"
Liu Wan quickly knelt down and apologized, "I was a little negligent in this matter. I wanted to transport the tax money to the capital quickly and did not take into account the danger of sailing. That's why I made this mistake. I cannot escape the blame for my death.
Please punish me, Your Majesty." Liu Wan, your head made a bang bang sound when it hit the ground.
Seeing that Liu Wan had taken all the responsibilities on himself, the emperor felt that he could not neglect his loyal ministers, so he comforted him and said: "Liu Aiqing, please get up. The risk of sailing has been high since ancient times. This incident cannot be entirely blamed on you."
But you are the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue after all, so you cannot escape the blame. I will fine you a salary for one year as a warning to others. Are you convinced?"
When Liu Wan heard that the emperor punished him, it couldn't be any lighter. He didn't know that the emperor was trying to protect himself. He was moved to tears. He choked with sobs and touched his head to the ground, "Your Majesty to your ministers."
Nothing can repay you for your kindness. How dare you have any reason to disobey."
He said this, but some people below him were unwilling. This person was Lao Meng Ming. Before Lao Meng Ming was not in power, he was just an old angry youth who could only complain every day. Now as a military aircraft officer
The minister can be said to have great power. Under such circumstances, he can now speak freely about things that he was not used to before.
Now he listened to the emperor's frivolity and let Liu Wan go. He was so angry that his beard was shaking, so he went out of work and said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, this is not possible. This tax bank is of great importance. How can it be just a mere trivial matter?"
A year's salary can compensate for this. Chen Jianyi took Liu Wan to prison, and then brought the relevant people to the capital for interrogation, and he must find out the whereabouts of these silver coins."
The emperor felt angry after hearing what Old Meng Ming said. This matter cannot withstand investigation. If he sends one of his own people to deal with it, he might be able to get through it. But now that Jia Ke has paid attention to it, he only needs to be careful about it.
After checking, there are flaws everywhere. Isn't that old man looking for embarrassment for himself?
But this Meng Ming represents the Supreme Emperor. He is the spokesperson that the Supreme Emperor found for himself in the court after Jia Ke's separation. As an emperor, he really has nothing to do with him.
The emperor originally thought of getting away with this matter, but by the time Jia Ke found out, it was already too late. Unexpectedly, the first thing Jia Ke did at the beginning of this year was to verify the project. This caught the emperor a little off guard.
The emperor said displeasedly to Lao Mengming: "Now that the whereabouts of the money are unknown, it is still unclear whether it can be recovered. The most important issue now is how to survive the difficulties in the next year? As the minister of military aircraft, what will happen next?"
Any ideas?"
The emperor simply put the matter aside and did not discuss it at all. At this time, Lao Mengming had no choice but to stand aside and sulk.
Tianye, the censor of Zuodu, stood up and said: "Since we have lost so much silver, we must save money next year. Many large projects must be stopped, and the governor's end of the Datou River that uses silver must also be reduced.
share.”
Liu Wan, the Minister of Household Affairs, retorted: "We must not stop the construction of the river channel. It affects the livelihood of many people. If the river bursts next year, many people will be buried in the belly of the fish."
Tian Ye, the censor of Zuodu, was already a little annoyed with Liu Wan. The money was thrown from his hand, and now it is not allowed to be withheld. What on earth did he mean?
"Lord Liu Wan, are you saying this out of consideration? You don't have enough money, and you don't want to cut expenditures. Why don't you ask our Military Aircraft Department to convert the money for you? Or do you mean that your household department has extra money to fill this hole?" Tian Ye.
His face turned red with anger. At that time, he didn't care that he and Liu Wan were in the same camp, and almost poked his nose with his finger.
Liu Wan knew that he was in the wrong and did not dare to react in any way to his rudeness. He could only keep stepping back to avoid his annoying finger.
When the emperor saw Tian Ye, the censor of Zuodu, looking like this, it seemed that he was going crazy now. So he quickly said: "Now is not the time to hold people responsible. We are still thinking about how to patch up this hole next year. Don't you two?"
This is a big deal."
When Tian Ye heard the emperor's words, he returned to his class in high spirits.
The emperor looked at Jia Ke, who had been silent since entering the Yangxin Hall, and said with a smile on his face: "Jia Aiqing, you are the foreman of the Military Aircraft Department, what do you think of this matter?"
Jia Ke thought for a while and finally decided that since the emperor had already made a move, he had to respond.
So Jia Ke came out of the office, raised his hands and said: "Long live Lord, if these silver taels are missing this year, I'm afraid the court will be unable to survive. Please open the internal treasury to allocate silver taels to make up for this year's taxes."
Old Meng Ming, who was standing below, his eyes lit up after hearing Jia Ke's idea. He felt that this idea was really good, and it was time for the emperor to shed some blood. After all, this country belonged to his family.
So Lao Mengming also came out and raised his hands and said: "I would like to report to the Emperor, Mr. Jia is absolutely right. Please open the inner treasury to make up for the lack of tax revenue of the imperial court."
The emperor sat on the throne and frowned a little after listening to what the two of them said. According to the practice in previous years, if the court's tax revenue was insufficient, the emperor would open the internal treasury to make up for the shortfall, so as to avoid turmoil in the court.
But this time, the emperor wanted to weaken Jia Ke, a powerful official. How could he open up the inner treasury to allow Jia Ke to tide over the difficulties?
So the emperor turned around and asked Xia Shouzhong in a pretentious manner: "How much silver do we have in our internal treasury? Can we allocate some for the use of the court?"
As the emperor's confidant, Xia Shouzhong was also a clever man. He didn't understand what the emperor meant. When he heard the emperor's question, he quickly knelt down and said with a cry: "Long live my Lord, it's my fault. This year's harvest in Huangzhuang is really not good."
Well, many places have been hit by disasters, and the inner treasury still needs money to provide disaster relief. And the shops everywhere don't have much income. Now the inner treasury can no longer make ends meet, and I'm afraid there is no money to support the court."
After hearing this, the emperor said angrily: "Don't tell me that these are useless. How much money does the inner treasury need?"
"As far as I can tell you, the inner treasury currently has less than 200,000 taels of silver. I'm afraid it won't even be able to cover the expenses of the palace this year. How can there be any money to give to the court?"
After the emperor heard this, he said to the ministers below: "You have also heard that it's not that I won't give it, but that there is really no money in the treasury."
Jia Ke raised his head and glanced at the emperor, then lowered his head again and said: "If I were to tell you, why don't we stop all the rewards given to the chieftains in the south this year. This can also save hundreds of thousands of taels of silver."
The emperor narrowed his eyes after hearing this. This method seemed good, but it had great consequences. Over the years, the relationship between the chieftains in the south and the imperial court had improved, and they all respected him as the emperor. The emperor gave them silver coins.
Reward can be regarded as a compromise reached by both parties. However, if the reward is stopped at this time, I am afraid that war will spread all over the south again.
This Jia Ke wants to embarrass himself. Once there is unrest in the south, I am afraid that troops and horses will be needed to quell it in the end. Even more money will be consumed.