Western Zhou Imperial Palace, Jade Pole Palace

"There is no food in the household storehouse.........

Yin Mo's fluttering words almost made Empress Dowager Ning lose her temper in public.

This woman, who is almost the most respected woman today, forced Yin Mo and the household officials with razor-sharp eyes, and her voice was cold.

"Gong Yin, before the army set out, didn't you say that the treasury had enough money and grain, which could be used by the imperial court for a year, why is it that it has only been half a year now, and the grain in the treasury is gone.

The mourning family and the emperor handed over the household department to you and the ministers sitting here, is this how you do it? ”

The Son of Heaven was angry, ambushed millions of corpses, and the Empress Dowager Ning, who listened to the government, was angry, three points better than the Son of Heaven, Yin Mo took the lead, and the palace together with the household officials and the maids and eunuchs all bowed to the ground, and even called the Queen Mother angry.

The little emperor next to him was also startled, he ignored the emperor's majesty that he had trained since childhood, shrunk his neck a little timidly, turned his eyes to look at the situation in the hall, wisely chose not to speak, and silently pretended to be a quail.

Emperor Amano's small movements, Empress Dowager Ning didn't see it, even if she did, it would be fine, she couldn't take care of the little emperor's side at this time.

Dan's eyebrows moved slightly, Empress Dowager Ning condensed a pair of phoenix eyes, her jade face was powerful, her body exuded a cold and piercing murderous aura, and the surging anger in her chest rose and fell against the wide and gorgeous palace clothes.

She's really murderous.........

…………

In fact, it is not to blame Empress Dowager Ning for reacting so much, there is a basis for her anger.

In fact, as Empress Dowager Ning said before, before the official war of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the household department collected a large amount of grain, enough for the entire imperial court for a year, if all of it was used as military food, it could make the 400,000 army eat for two and a half years.

Moreover, when the troops were sent out, it was not far from the autumn harvest, and there was no need to run out of this grain stockpile, so the household department could recruit a large amount of new grain to supplement the loss.

Because of this, even if the imperial court later sent an additional 200,000 troops, Empress Dowager Ning didn't worry much about the problem of military rations, and as a result, today Yin Mo suddenly came to say that the household department had no food.

When fighting a war and fighting a war, what is fought is the word money and food, and the supply of military food is not enough, and the 600,000 troops on the front line of the Western Zhou Dynasty are just a wilted powder keg, not to mention that they cannot hurt the enemy, and they are easy to blow themselves up.

It can be said that the loss of military rations in the household department is likely to directly lead to the defeat of the Western Zhou Dynasty in the war between the Jin and Zhou countries, which gambled on half of the national fortunes.

Not only will the Western Zhou not be able to keep the fruits of the victory that they have worked hard before, but they will also turn the Northern Jin Dynasty into a victory, and even the Southern Chu will come over to bite the weak Western Zhou and take advantage of the opportunity.

With such serious consequences, it is no wonder that Empress Dowager Ning is not in a hurry and angry, if it weren't for the Empress Dowager's demeanor, she would have wanted to pull Yin Mo's collar and ask him if he was eating dry rice.

Why is there so much food in the household department suddenly gone?

…………

Perhaps sensing what Empress Dowager Ning was thinking, Yin Mo, who was kneeling on the ground, sent the account book in his hand up again.

"Queen Mother, it's not that the ministers and others are doing their best, it's really for a reason, there is a book of accounts for the cashier of the household department, the queen mother can check them one by one, and then you will understand where the food of the household department has gone."

Empress Dowager Ning frowned, looked sideways at the maid next to her, the maid blessed her, stepped down from the royal platform, took a stack of account books from Yin Mo's hands, and returned to Empress Dowager Ning with both hands.

Empress Dowager Ning stretched out her jade hand, flipped through a few pages of account books, frowned, although she has been in charge of national affairs for several years, but only deals with major matters, and the specific regulations are handled by the people below, Empress Dowager Ning does not know much about the details.

Therefore, seeing this stack of account books of Yin Mo, Empress Dowager Ning was dazzled, and she didn't understand what was at all, and in desperation, she had to give up.

Closing the account book, Empress Dowager Ning looked at Yin Mo, and her voice was faint: "These account books will be checked carefully by the mourning family, now you can tell the mourning family and the emperor about the general situation, and our mother and daughter also have a bottom in their hearts." ”

"Yes."

Yin Mo lowered his head and didn't let anyone see the smile in his eyes.

Since he joined the office, he has been a full-time official in terms of money and food, and until now he is still the head of the household, Yin Mo can be said to have dealt with the account book for a lifetime, and his role in all kinds of doorways can be called superb.

The account made by Yin Mo himself, not to mention that Empress Dowager Ning couldn't understand the female streamers who touched the harem monthly account book at most, that is, all the arithmetic people in the Western Zhou Dynasty were gathered, and they had to be planted in it when they were idle.

…………

Pressing the smugness in his heart, Yin Mo stood up at the signal of the little emperor and began to talk endlessly about the account of the household grain to the Empress Dowager Ning's mother and son.

First of all, the front-line military rations, before and after the 600,000 troops and the militia and strong auxiliary service, the daily food consumption is definitely an astonishing number, and because of the defeat of the Jin army and the retreat of the two mansions of Nanling and Beiling, most of the grain depots in the city were burned, resulting in a serious shortage of food in many cities.

In order to appease the local people, Li Wang Ji Linbing could only use a large amount of military food to send to the people, although this move played a very positive role in the Western Zhou Dynasty to subdue the people of the two provinces, but the food used was very huge.

It was almost more than double the food consumption of the 600,000 army.........

Of course, if the military rations alone and the two prefectures of Nanling and Beiling are not enough to enter the entire household grain storage, it may be a little reluctant at first, but when the household department begins to collect new grain in the autumn, the grain reserves of the household department will be abundant.

It's just that the household department was not happy for too long, and a sudden news came that caused problems in the household department's grain collection work.

The problem lies in Suzhou, one of the four major prefectures under the rule of the Western Zhou Dynasty, since the beginning of June of the fifth year of Tianye, the northern part of Suzhou, the northeastern part of Suzhou, and a small part of the southwestern part of Suzhou, there has been no rain for several months, and most of the state capitals have faced an extremely serious drought, and the people have no grain to harvest and live without food.

From the end of August, the letters of the governors and county orders of Suzhou requesting disaster relief from the imperial court were sent to Mingjing like snowflakes, but the princes of the imperial court did not take it too seriously, until the middle of September, when the civil unrest broke out in Suzhou due to the lack of food, and the imperial court paid attention to it all of a sudden.

Now that the front line is in a big war, the situation is tense, and the rear must not be allowed to catch fire, so all the stability in the Western Zhou Dynasty is the main thing, and in the face of the outbreak of civil unrest in Suzhou, the Empress Dowager Ning issued the highest instruction to transfer food and troops, so as to make Suzhou as stable as possible.

…………

In this way, under the vigorous promotion of the imperial court, the disaster situation in Suzhou was calmed down, and the price paid was that all the new grain in Youzhou, He, and Ning Prefecture was brought into this year, and the household department not only died in the autumn harvest replenishment grain storage plan, but also transferred a large amount of grain storage to Suzhou for disaster relief.

And the blessing is unparalleled, the disaster is not a single line, here Suzhou has just stopped, and then the Western Zhou Jinggi area ushered in a snow disaster.

It is said that it is a snow disaster, but in fact, the disaster is not big, but the people of Gyeonggi are panicked, coupled with the previous drought in Suzhou, the major grain merchants simply took the opportunity to raise grain prices, which led to the rise of grain prices in the entire Western Zhou.

More importantly, the rise in grain prices caused the people of the Western Zhou Dynasty to follow suit and stock up a large amount of grain, which in turn led to a sharp decrease in the amount of grain on the market.

Now that the plan of the household department to replenish the grain stock on a large scale is completely frustrated.

What's worse is that the front-line military rations have been like a monster, constantly consuming the grain stored by the households, and seeing that the food is getting less and less, the households have also thought of a lot of ways to save it, but they all have little effect.

At present, the grain stock in the Hubu treasury is only enough to support the army a year ago, in other words, in another month, the 600,000 troops on the front line will be out of food.

…………

Yin Mo held the wat board in his hand and knelt on the ground again. He said with a sad face: "Queen Mother, according to the rules, the old minister should have said it early, but in order not to cause chaos in the court and disturb the morale of the army when it was spread to the army, the old minister has been talking about this matter and wants the household department to quietly solve it by himself."

But now that King Li frequently asked the old minister for food, and even gave the old minister the crime of delaying military rations, the old minister discussed it with his colleagues in the household department, and felt that it was better to pass this matter on to you.

The old minister is guilty of living up to the expectations of the Queen Mother and His Majesty, so he can only ask the Queen Mother to punish him. ”

Yin Mo knelt down, and the officials of the household department also bowed down one after another, and shouted in their mouths: "The ministers are guilty." ”

Empress Dowager Ning sat on the jade chair and looked at the household officials who were kneeling down, with a graceful expression on her face.

To tell the truth, after listening to what Yin Mo said, Empress Dowager Ning couldn't wait to push Yin Mo out and cut all these household officials, and dared to deceive the court for such a big matter as the urgency of storing grain, and it was not too many to die ten thousand times.

But the reason in her heart told her that if she really killed these people, the household department would be directly paralyzed by most of them, and the most important thing at the moment was to raise food.

In addition, if what Yin Mo said is true, then there is indeed a reason for the urgency of storing grain, and the household department is not to blame, and even toss these things, the household department can still keep enough food for more than a month, which can be regarded as a good job.

As for not reporting hidden matters, this is the norm in officialdom, but the household department has gone too far this time, and it is almost possible to cause a big disaster for the Western Zhou Dynasty.

There was silence in the hall for a long time, and Empress Dowager Ning said coldly: "Now, the mourning family doesn't want to talk nonsense anymore, give you half a month, and gather three months of grain and grass for the army to send to the front line."

It's done, all your previous mourners can be blamed in the past, but it didn't work out, and anyone involved in this matter will be counted as one and all sent to the East Street Market to be beheaded. ”

…………

What the Empress Dowager Ning said was terrifying, but Yin Mo was unaware, he raised his head and looked at the Empress Dowager of the Western Zhou Dynasty, his voice hoarse.

"The Queen Mother, in fact, the old minister has already had a case for raising food, but I'm afraid that the Queen Mother is unwilling."

"Tell me about it." Empress Dowager Ning said.

Yin Mo nodded, and the old man's face became a little cold: "As far as the old minister knows, there are ten big grain merchants near the capital and Gyeonggi, and each of these grain merchants has tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of catties of grain in stock, which is more than enough for the army to use in March."

Therefore, Lao Chen planned to borrow grain from the top ten grain merchants in the name of the household department, but these grain merchants all have deep backgrounds, and the business also has a lot of family guards........."

Before he finished speaking, Empress Dowager Ning raised her hand to stop it, and said with great courage: "Okay, the mourning family understands what you mean, and I will have someone notify the Admiral of Jiumen in a while, and ask him to send troops to cooperate with you."

During this period, if anyone intercedes for these grain merchants, he has the ability to let him enter the palace to find a mourning family. ”

"Thank you, old minister, Queen Mother."

Seeing the domineering appearance of Empress Dowager Ning, Yin Mo's eyes moved slightly, many people in the capital don't know that the top ten grain merchants in the capital and Gyeonggi, two of which are backed by the Liwangfu, and the owner of the other is surnamed Tang, which is the property of Princess Li's mother's family.

Of course, Yin Mo has spent so much effort on it, and the purpose is definitely not just three grain merchants, this is just an appetizer he gave to the Li Wang couple, and the real feast is still to come.

So, the next day, Yin Mo took the household officials and thousands of soldiers transferred from the Jiumen Governor's Mansion to talk to the top ten grain merchants one by one.

November 20th of the fifth year of Amano

After several days of competition and discussion, the household department finally reached an agreement with the ten major grain merchants, and the ten major grain merchants "borrowed" a total of enough grain from the household department for nearly half a year for an army of 600,000 people, and almost emptied their own granaries.

End of November

All the way the soldiers and horses carried this batch of Yin Molian to the front line of the Zhou army camp, and just after the grain transport troops set off, a knight riding a fast horse also left the east gate of Ming Jing, looking at the direction of his departure, it seems to be ......... General Pass .........