Chen Huizhi saw that Gao Yun seemed a little helpless, so he asked: "Since you don't want to fight us, why do you still want to be this generalissimo, wouldn't it be pure to refuse?" ”

Gao Yun said earnestly: "It's okay that I led the troops this time, but I'm afraid that people like Xun Mou and them will bring the troops here, and there will be more people who are only afraid of death when the time comes." ”

"Then what are your plans to lead the troops this time, is it possible to lead 100,000 soldiers and horses to surrender."

"Surrender!"

Chen Huizhi laughed loudly, and said mockingly: "Marshal Gao, do you think we are like soft eggs who are greedy for life and afraid of death? Also, do you think that if you surrender, you will have good fruit to eat? Even if you win this time, as long as Liu Yan's emperor throne is stable, you will be the first to abandon it! ”

Gao Yun sat on the handsome seat, slowly lowered his head, and did not speak for a long time.

In the early morning of the next day, Gao Yun led several henchmen to the east of Lanzhou City to explore the virtual reality, after seeing, sure enough, Lanzhou City is not as good as before, since the last invasion of the Great Fan Kingdom, Lanzhou City under the leadership of Fang Gradually, the city wall has been strengthened and increased a lot, if you want to attack hard, I am afraid that the strength is not enough, and now you can only outwit.

Gao Yun's general Zheng Huaide pointed to Lanzhou City in the distance and said: "Marshal, in my opinion, we will let our subordinates prepare siege equipment today, and attack the city early tomorrow morning, forgive him These rabble will definitely be difficult to resist." ”

Gao Yun looked into the distance and shook his head, his expression solemn, "No, I know Lanzhou City very well, and now I see that they have strengthened the city defenses, if they attack it, it will be in vain." ”

"What does the marshal mean?"

"Lead the snake out of the hole......"

Xuanzheng Palace, still majestic, the difference is that now the hall is repainted and gilded, the original five days of the early dynasty is a day off, and now it has been changed to a daily day, from the day Liu Yan ascended the throne to the present more than a month, the hundred officials have not rested. Therefore, the officials in the Xuanzheng Hall today look listless and yawning. Someone in the hall suddenly coughed twice, and the officials of His Royal Highness hurriedly beat their spirits and knelt down to worship the mountain and shouted......

Liu Yan has been worrying a lot recently, and when he saw that His Highness's officials were listless, he frowned a little impatiently. After Liu Yan sat on the dragon chair, before he could ask questions, there were old ministers at the bottom who reported that the lower reaches of the Yellow River were flooding again, and there were already three people who had rebelled.

When Liu Yan heard this, he was instantly furious, slammed the fold in his hand on the Danqi, and said angrily: "The Western Expeditionary Army has been dispatched for more than half a month now, and it has not yet attacked the city, how can there be a rebellion of thieves." As for the Ministry of Industry, didn't the last flood already let people repair the river embankment and distribute disaster relief money and food to the people? How can there still be grass people rebelling? Who is in charge? ”

No one in the hall dared to answer, Xun Mou looked around, so he went out and said: "After the Ministry of Industry Shangshu was appointed to the law, it is now temporarily led by Shang Lu, the squire of the Ministry of Industry." ”

"Why didn't Shang Lu come to the early dynasty?"

"Take sick leave."

"What? What's the disease? ”

Xun Mou said bluntly: "In the morning of the past few days, I was infected with wind and cold, so I was sick in bed. ”

Xun Mou's words came out, and there was a heated discussion in the hall in an instant, some people accused that it was really undesirable to take leave for minor illnesses, but some people didn't think so.

"Ridiculous!" Liu Yan slapped the table and said angrily, "The front-line soldiers fought hard and never said that they were on leave, but a squire of the Ministry of Labor took leave because of a minor illness. Someone, go and bring Shang Lu to me. ”

Liu Yan's drinking made everyone in the hall silent.

Lu Renxiang didn't dare to speak, but he still had to go out to pray, "Your Majesty, Marshal Gao went out on the expedition last month, and he has not attacked the city for half a month now. ”

"Waste?" Liu Yan was furious, "Before the city is attacked, how can the treasury silver be exhausted?" What about money? What about money? ”

Lu Renxiang lowered his head, "In the past few years, the war has been going on for many years, and the treasury has actually been exhausted, and it can be maintained in the past two years, but recently, the wolf smoke has risen again in various places, and the flow of treasury and silver has increased. ”

Liu Yan's face sank like water, and he remembered some of the words of the emperor's grandfather in an instant, it turned out that it was really not easy to sit firmly in the country, and it was not easy to sit on the throne for just one month, and the country he won had already been riddled with holes, after thinking about some things, Liu Yan asked helplessly: "Didn't the emperor say that the arrears of the hundred officials in the treasury should be recovered one by one, how is it done now?" ”

"This ......" Lu Renxiang looked at Xun Mou in embarrassment, and when he saw him nodding, he continued to answer, "The arrears were originally urged by Xia Jingying to get back three million taels of silver, and now Weichen has also tried his best to recover five million taels, and the rest of the officials who have not yet been removed from their posts have also been removed from their posts and confiscated in accordance with the regulations." In addition, King Ning's mansion confiscated more than eight million taels of silver, half of which was spent to the Western Expeditionary Army. Only ...... left"

"Say ......"

"Only Lord Xu, the secretary of the Ministry of War, is left, and there are still 350,000 unpaid!"

Liu Yan's heart moved, and then he remembered that Xia Jingying had told him about it, his father-in-law owed 900,000 taels, and repaid 550,000 taels, and the remaining silver was let Xia Jingying find a way to erase it, who knew that this person died later, and this account was forgotten to be written off, and now it was brought up by Lu Renxiang again, and his face was dull for a while, but he said: "Xu Aiqing!" ”

Yu Bingde, who was already trembling, knelt on the ground in a panic and kowtowed repeatedly, "It's not that the guilty minister will not pay it back, I hope Your Majesty can give a few days of grace, and the minister will make up for it." ”

"Within three days, if you can't make up for it, you will be removed from your post and investigated!"

"Minister...... Obey! Yu Bingde breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead, and cautiously retreated to the court.

At this time, Shang Lu had already been carried by the Golden Melon Warrior to His Royal Highness, and Shang Lu hurriedly saluted.

"Shang Lu, the last time the Yellow River flooded, the emperor had already allocated disaster relief money and food, and also asked people to repair the embankment, how can the embankment break again now, and the people rise up?"

Shang Lu replied calmly: "The matter of repairing the river embankment, Weichen sent someone to secretly investigate, this time the embankment burst was caused by heavy rain for several days, the new dam was not stable, the old embankment collapsed again, and there were rich households in the nearby prefectures and counties, and the grain prices remained high, and the local officials let it go and colluded with each other, which made it difficult for the people to continue their lives, so there was this change." ”

The officials in the palace never thought that Shang Lu of this age would dare to speak like this, so they were all speechless, waiting to see what the emperor's attitude was, and then make a decision.

Liu Yan also fell into thinking, there have been a lot of changes in the past two months, and there are also local officials who take the opportunity to collect money, just take this opportunity to kill chickens and monkeys, so that local officials should also be jealous, and now seeing Shang Lu's words of loyalty, he also has the heart to promote him, "Spread my will, Zhuo ordered Shang Lu to take over the official position of the Ministry of Industry and deal with the Yellow River embankment." As for the thieves in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, it is up to ......" Liu Yan hesitated for a moment, looked around the hall, and didn't know who was more suitable for the commission.