When the generals retreated, a group of civil servants came in.

"Let's talk about the civil unrest."

Huang Daozhou responded: "After the persuasion of the members of the Ming Society mobilized by Taipinghou, the people around the Lotus Bridge and Taiping Bridge have dispersed. Today, only in the area of the North Gate Bridge are thousands of people who refuse to disperse. In addition, after checking the account books in the past few days, the deficit of the household bank is more than 21.9 million ....... ”

Wu Zheng listened silently, he X, two years of hard work, a deficit of more than 20 million taels, if he gets this silver himself, I am afraid that he can really go on the Northern Expedition at this time, Wu Zheng has a big spread at this time, but it is empty inside.

However, things should not be irreparably bad yet, after all, the Yixing Dynasty is still on the shelf.

On the way here, Wu Zheng actually already had a general disposal strategy.

In fact, Wu Zheng also thought about taking this opportunity to directly let Yixing Dynasty "end of his life" and start the stove again, so that he can cook.

But on second thought, I knew it wasn't going to work.

It's not that you will be able to maintain the clan, but you have to have a name for everything, the so-called name is not right, and Wu Sangui of the Ming Dynasty rebelled in history, and you have to use the banner of restoring sight.

If the Yixing Dynasty "ends its life" at this time, then at least the twelve and a half prefectures under the jurisdiction of the original imperial court (counting the two and a half prefectures of Huguang and the three mansions of Jiangxi) will be chaotic.

Wu Zheng could not control these twelve and a half mansions, because the officials there were all appointed by the imperial court.

The Yixing Dynasty has been able to support it until now, and it really doesn't mainly depend on Wu Zheng.

Its existence has its reason, for example, those former dynasty ministers who were not dealt with by Wu Zheng, the remnants of the Donglin Party and the Fushe.

In fact, the power of these people is quite large, and they are all over the states and counties, because they control the biggest force in the world - talent.

Basically, people who read books are inextricably linked to them.

Even if Wu Zheng carried out a purge of the nine mansions under the jurisdiction of the General's Mansion, and categorically rejected the request of Zhang Huangyan and others to open a department and select scholars, he could recommend them, and he could still slowly infiltrate these people.

Wu Zheng had no choice but to establish Jiangnan College and train a group of newcomers to curb the infiltration of the remnants of the Donglin Party and the Restoration Society.

Therefore, before there are enough available talents, Wu Zheng can't throw away the banner of Yixingchao.

Of course, there is another reason that the north shore is surrounded by strong enemies, and civil strife will only make relatives and enemies happy.

Wu Zheng must save this civil strife!

"Lord Huang, the household department has no ability to repay this shortfall, right?"

"Yes. At least for three years, the imperial court will not be able to make up for this hole. ”

"Then sell the household bank." Wu Zheng threw out such a sentence lightly.

"What?" Huang Daozhou was stunned, "The prince may not know that there is no surplus silver in the treasury of the household bank. ”

What Huang Daozhou means is that the money village under the jurisdiction of the household department only leaves an empty shell, which is nothing more than dozens of shops in various prefectures and counties, how much silver can be sold?

Wu Zheng smiled and said: "Under the jurisdiction of the Yixing Dynasty, there are three money banks that are not subordinate to each other, and the lack of management by the government has led to this vicious incident of misappropriation. What I mean by this is to consolidate the three banks and make them into one, so that they can either grow or sell the households to make up for the shortfall. ”

Huang Daozhou thought for a while and said, "What does the prince mean that from now on, the household money village has nothing to do with the imperial court?" ”

"Yes. The government should not be involved in business operations in the first place, and let professional people do professional things, which is the right thing to do. The Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce and the Jiangnan Mo family are all business elites, just let them do it, and the government can supervise it, but don't get involved in it anymore. ”

Huang Daozhou hesitated: "But ...... But the money bank can't sell much silver, right? ”

"I can't say how much I can sell, but I have already sent someone to summon Mo Zhinian and a few stewards of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce to Beijing, and after talking about it, it will not be too late to discuss...... This is put aside in advance and talk about the situation of the missing officials. ”

Huang Daozhou responded: "There are missing officials in all ministries, a total of sixteen people, and the household officials are the most, with nine people. It was as if they had been pre-agreed and disappeared along with their families on almost the same day. ”

"Have you sent someone to search for it?"

"The whole city was searched for three days, and nothing was found."

Wu Zheng pondered for a while and said, "Are there still clansmen from which these people originate?" ”

"Some have, some don't, and some officials are originally from Jiangbei."

"Then arrest the clansmen first."

"This ...... Is the prince going to be connected? ”

"Let's catch it first and lock it up, but don't torture it, just lock it up. Since the outbreak of the incident, it has been more than ten days of effort, and the cash silver may not be transported far. ”

Huang Daozhou nodded and said, "Listen to the prince." It's just that it may not be the time of the incident that the silver was transported, maybe it started a long time ago, after all, the money bank has been embezzled for a year. ”

Wu Zheng nodded and said: "You said that it is possible, but before the incident, there were two sums of silver embezzlement, one was personally brought by His Majesty to reward the three armies after the outbreak of the war, and the other was said to pay the arrears of several months' military salaries." These two accounted for 20% of the total shortfall. ”

Huang Daozhou pondered: "The latter sum is indeed a little strange, but the former sum is His Majesty's reward for the three armies, if there is corruption, I'm afraid it's unlikely, right?" ”

Wu Zheng nodded and said: "Dead horses are regarded as live horse doctors, send someone to check, and count whether the total amount of silver rewarded is consistent with the amount of silver proposed by Qian Zhuang." ”

"Yes."

"For the previous sum of money, all the officials who handled it were arrested, but they should not be tortured, or even brought to court, just locked up."

"What do you mean, Lord Wang?" Wang Yi, the imperial historian on the side, couldn't help but speak, "Arresting people and officials for no reason, is this not in accordance with the law?" ”

Wu Zheng said with a smile: "It is the duty of citizens to cooperate with the investigation." ”

Although Wang Yi didn't know much about what Wu Zheng said, he could still understand the meaning of his words, "The people are just fine, but once a large number of officials arrest them, the political affairs will be delayed and delayed, and please think twice." ”

"It doesn't matter. Without Zhang Butcher, he wouldn't have eaten hairy pigs. Wu Zheng said casually, "I won't torture them, just lock them up for a while, and let them go." ”

Wang Yi asked puzzledly, "Why is this?" ”

Wu Zheng knew that Wang Yi was an upright person, so he patiently explained: "It's just a wide net, maybe among these officials and the people, there are people in the know, after all, the last two pieces of silver are huge, just before and after the war, millions of taels of cash are not small objects, it is inevitable that someone will see them, and if they are locked up for a few days, maybe someone will take the initiative to confess." Of course, no one will explain, and it will be released in a few days. ”

Only then did Wang Yi understand Wu Zheng's intentions, so he retreated and no longer objected.

"Deploy some troops, and after disguise, secretly monitor the top 20 wealthy households in the capital."

Wu Zheng suddenly spit out these sentences, which made the faces of the officials present change.