Liu Tong walked to the Marquis of Anyuan's mansion, and his heart was much more settled.

However, this good mood lasted for only three days, and then it disappeared because Ruiwang was embarrassed by the household officials on an errand.

Although I knew early on that I was involved in the relationship with the household department and that dealing with the household officials was a big problem, I didn't expect the people in the household department to give Rui Wang so much face, and the perfunctory trick of kicking the ball made it perfect.

King Rao Shirui was ordered by the emperor to check the treasury, and he made them delay for several days before agreeing to open the treasury.

This one was not all opened, but only three or two warehouses were opened.

Without seeing the complete gold and silver reserves of the treasury, it is naturally impossible to estimate the amount of the entire treasury by counting only the gold and silver of these three or two treasury rooms.

Although these three or two warehouses were full of gold and silver, who knows if the other warehouses will be empty?

Rui Wang asked people to roughly click and let the other warehouses be opened, and the left waiter of the household department smiled and said: "The keys to each warehouse are kept by a special person, and there are many approvals and processes required to open the warehouse, and the number of other warehouses and these two warehouses is about the same, so Lord Rui doesn't need to take a closer look." ”

The errand sent by Emperor Yuanwu to King Rui was to ask him to count the taxes paid over the years, calculate the treasury reserves, and then speculate on the total taxes that could be collected after the autumn harvest this year, and by the way, he could also predict the expenditure of the household in the next year.

It sounds very concise, but to do such an errand is laborious and offensive.

Despite this, Ruiwang still did it.

But when he inspected the treasury, he was treated like this.

This made him feel worried.

Since the opening of the Great Wei Dynasty, what has always been claimed to the outside world is that the treasury is full. King Rui did not doubt this either.

There are a total of 20 treasury rooms in the treasury on the bright side, which are full of mountains of gold and silver. However, it is said that there are also secret vaults, but only the successive emperors know about them.

If most of these twenty vaults are fine, the people in the household department will not open three or two vaults for him to see.

What is hidden and tucked up seems to have a ghost in it.

Next, the household department showed him a storeroom every day or two.

Of course, all he saw was a full treasury of gold and silver.

But why not open it for him at the same time? Who knows if the household department will watch three times in the middle of the night and move the east wall to make up the west wall?

King Rui had doubts about this, but he also knew that he was not good at secret investigations, so he could only grind and soak the people in the household department for several days.

Those people in the household department also said that King Rui, a prince who had never participated in political affairs, was afraid of them, and even picked up Qiao, and King Rui asked them to do things, and their perfunctory behavior was even worse.

After Liu Tong heard these sporadic news, he rushed to the Ruiwang Mansion.

Ruiwang is anxiously looking at the tax books of the past years.

Since you can't see the real thing, you can only review the account books.

The more he looked, the more Rui Wang frowned.

When the crown prince was still the eldest prince, although he also worked in the household department, the account books were still relatively real.

In the past three or four years, the prince has been in charge of the household department, and some records of income and expenditure in the account books are incredible.

If people who know the people's livelihood see it, I'm afraid they will laugh off their big teeth.

In the sixteenth year of Yuanwu, the household department actually paid 400,000 taels of silver;

In the seventeenth year of Yuanwu, the drought in Nansu reduced the reported harvest by more than half of previous years, but the tax revenue was only one-tenth of the normal year four years ago;

In the seventeenth year of Yuanwu, the military salary of Yanbei was 1 million taels......

Looking further back, there was a lot of silver taels spent on military salaries, and each time it was a large amount.

Thinking about his errand in the military department by the crown prince, King Rui seems to understand something......

He frowned and thought deeply, Liu Tong called him Fifth Brother, Rui Wang raised his head to look at him, and said with a smile: "Xiao Jiu is here?" I've been busy for a while, and I haven't congratulated you on getting what you wanted. ”

In the face of King Rui's dilemma, Liu Tong naturally had no joy on his face, and said worriedly: "Fifth brother, those people in the household department are difficult for you, you might as well use this reason to push off this errand." ”

King Rui sighed lightly: "The household department is so wary of me checking the treasury, presumably there must be something wrong with the treasury...... If you let me investigate, I won't dare to investigate further. ”

"Then what is the fifth brother going to do? Fold the son to the father? ”

"Naturally, it is going to be up." King Rui nodded and said, "During this time, the household department has been perfunctory and difficult for me, and my father must have heard about it...... Two days later, I wrote the recital and returned the errand to my father. ”

Liu Tong breathed a sigh of relief: "In this way, the fifth brother doesn't have to offend the prince." ”

"Who says you can't offend him?" King Rui smiled bitterly: "The prince is the most suspicious and stingy, he doesn't dare to be angry with his father, this resentment can naturally only come out of me." When the prince's grounding is lifted, I don't know what he will do to me. How much more ...... the treasury"

King Rui paused: "He will also say that I did it on purpose." ”

If King Rui had said to Emperor Wu of the Yuan Dynasty, there would be no problem with the treasury reserves, and he would have no worries.

If King Kerui is on the fold and informs Emperor Yuanwu that the household department is unwilling to open the treasury for him to check, doesn't this imply that there is a problem with the Yuanwu Imperial Treasury?

It's no wonder that the prince doesn't have a lot of heart!

Liu Tong thought about it and couldn't help sighing.

"It's not good, that's not good, in the final analysis, my father shouldn't let you do this errand."

"If you say anything further, I shouldn't have spoken out in court that day."

King Rui rubbed the corners of his eyes and shook his head again: "But if I don't talk about the matter of Langxi, it will become a game between the father, the prince, and several princes...... The father and son of the heavenly family are secretly competing, who can care about the life and death of the people. ”

Liu Tong looked at King Rui and was worried.

In the past, he thought that his fifth brother was smart and thorough, far better than the prince, and he secretly had the idea of comparing the fifth brother with the prince.

Now the vague idea that the fifth brother is better than the prince is even clearer.

The person who cares about the world is not the prince, but his fifth brother.

The fifth brother may not have realized it yet, but the father ......

Liu Tong lowered his eyebrows, and wanted to ask King Rui if he had any ambitions for that position.

But he didn't ask after all.

Some things are said, but they can't be taken back.

He didn't want to hurt the fifth brother because of his question......

Liu Tong swallowed this matter and didn't mention it, let out a long breath, and said, "When the fifth brother delivers this errand, you can be idle for a while." ”

"Not necessarily." King Rui said: "My father is willing to let me go and talk about it." ”

"The fifth brother didn't participate in politics before, and the prince knocked on the side and said that the fifth brother was not good at this. Now that my father sees that the fifth brother is running errands in an orderly manner, it is normal for him to want to promote the fifth brother to do things. Liu Tong frowned: "I just hope that it is better not to conflict too much with the interests of the prince." ”

King Rui thought so, but still said truthfully: "Now it seems that it is difficult. ”

"How?"

"In the final analysis, the whereabouts of the silver money for building the embankment are unknown, and to put it bluntly, someone embezzled it. The crown prince handled this matter, and of course he had nothing to do with it. ”

King Rui said: "My father asked me to intervene in the household department, and I want to get out of it, but it is estimated that it will be difficult." (To be continued.) )