By the way, isn't there a little brother in the household department? Zhong Nan suddenly remembered Jin Shicheng, a member of the household department, the cautious official from the fifth grade.

Fortunately, the offices of the six departments were not far away, Zhong Nan found Jin Shicheng, and the two went to a nearby teahouse.

"Lord Shilang, you won't be doing the same thing as Xing Shangshu, right?" Jin Shicheng opened his mouth first.

Zhong Nan looked at each other puzzled, and didn't react for a while.

"Before you came to the household department, Xing Shangshu first found Chen Shilang." Jin Shicheng explained.

Chen Shilang's name is Chen Shengyan, and he is currently the left waiter of the household department. More than half a year ago, Shen Shixing and Xu Guo said goodbye together, and Shen Shixing's position as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites was filled by the successor Shoufu. However, Xu Guo's position as the secretary of the household department has been vacant until now, so the affairs of the household department are temporarily taken care of by the second-in-command Chen Shengyan.

"Pretty much, but I'm mainly here to ask you some questions." Zhong Nan replied.

"I don't want to ask for advice, just ask, my lord!"

"You have been in the household department for a long time, so you should know a lot about the finance and taxation of the Ming Dynasty, right?"

"That's nature!"

"Is there no money in the imperial court's treasury now?" Zhong Nan asked very directly.

"This ...... Although this ...... "took refuge in Zhong Nan's family, Jin Shicheng still couldn't change his too cautious temperament.

"Don't worry, I'm not looking into the secrets of the household department, but I heard that there are frontier soldiers who are owed money by the imperial court, so I want to know if the imperial court has no money to distribute it, or if it has been distributed, but it has been swallowed up." Zhong Nan explained.

"My lord, in the past two years, the imperial court has indeed been unable to make ends meet. Not only the military salary, but even the salary of some officials sometimes delays for three or five months. Jin Shicheng replied simply.

"Financially strained?" Zhong Nan thought it was incredible, not that after Zhang Juzheng's reform, the Ming Dynasty was still quite wealthy, how could there be a situation of arrears of salaries for officials and sergeants. Listening to Jin Shicheng's statement, in the past two years, this kind of situation should be relatively common, which is too unexpected for Zhong Nan.

"My lord, don't you know, since Lord Zhang left, the tax and silver collected every year have been decreasing year by year. However, the expenses of the imperial court are rising sharply year by year. Under the offset of the two, there is naturally not much silver left in the silver treasury. What's more, it took a lot of money to conquer Korea in the east, to resist Mongolia in the north, and to provide disaster relief in various places. Jin Shicheng enumerated them one by one.

"Didn't you spend a lot of money on a war with Mongolia?" Zhong Nan asked.

"Compared with the Eastern Expedition to Korea, it really didn't cost much to fight Mongolia, but with the silver reward, it also cost three and a half million taels of silver."

Zhong Nan finally understood the famous saying - "If you don't belong to your family, you don't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil, and salt are", and there are really too many places where the court needs money all year round.

"And how much silver can you squeeze out now?" Zhong Nan is most concerned about this issue.

"I guess it's hard to squeeze out." Jin Shicheng's answer made Zhong Nan's heart cool by half.

"My lord, now everywhere is counting on the household department to allocate money, and Chen Shilang doesn't dare to open his mouth indiscriminately, otherwise the other yamen who are in arrears will definitely step on the threshold of the household department!"

"But, this time it's serious!"

"My lord, Xing Shangshu went to find Chen Shilang, also to allocate money, right?" Jin Shicheng took a sip of tea, "The relationship between the two of them is very good, and it is estimated that Chen Shilang can sell Xing Shangshu's face." However, it shouldn't be able to squeeze out much, after all, there is not much water in the pool. ”

"A little bit is a little bit." Zhong Nan sighed.

After bidding farewell to Jin Shicheng, Zhong Nan rushed to the "new military camp" non-stop. He found Jing Tianchu and told him to pick some soldiers whose origins are Jizhou, or who have a good relationship with the current Jizhou military camp, and immediately set off for Jizhou. The task he gave Jing Tianchu was to help Shi Changting stabilize the morale of the army and not cause greater chaos.

Zhong Nan asked Jing Tianchu to tell Shi Changting and the soldiers of Jizhou that he would solve the matter of paying money as soon as possible, so that everyone could be at ease. In addition, he also explained that if someone takes the opportunity to make trouble, he must be severely punished.

Jing Tianchu knew that the matter was urgent, and after getting the order, he followed to make arrangements, and Zhong Nan hurriedly returned to Jingshi.

Since Xing Jue received the news yesterday afternoon, it has been mainly the officials of the military department who have been running around for more than a day. It stands to reason that the cabinet and the emperor must have received the news, but they did not say anything about it. That's a bit weird.

Zhong Nan returned to the Zhong Mansion, summoned two advisors, and asked them for advice, only to get the answer.

Sun Chengzong and Shi Qian's opinions are highly consistent, in their opinion, it is normal for the emperor and the cabinet to not speak out, and it is not normal to speak out.

How so?

Let's talk about the emperor's side first. Although the household has no silver, it does not mean that the emperor has no silver, but the emperor will not easily use his "small treasury". Generally speaking, in addition to various rewards, Zhu Yijun rarely uses his private account, and the Manchu Dynasty civil and military are aware of his habits.

Let's talk about the Cabinet. The root cause of this mutiny in the Jizhou military camp was still a few years ago, and if it weren't for the forty-three taels of silver owed by the imperial court, it is estimated that there would be no today. It's just that the four scholars who handled this matter at the beginning are no longer in their positions, so where do the four scholars today have the initiative to take this "hot potato"!

The emperor and the cabinet were silent, but the military department could not ignore it, after all, this was the business of the military department.

Early in the morning of the third day, the principal officials of the military department gathered again in the conference hall and exchanged the results of the two days.

"In the past two days, I have been waiting in the household department, and finally let Chen Shilang breathe his sigh of relief, he promised to allocate 200,000 taels of silver to the Jizhou military camp and repay part of the arrears. As for the rest, we can only wait a little longer. Xing Jue spoke first.

"It's still a lot off!" Everyone's mood is down.

"The military department thought of a way to make up 50,000 taels of silver." Song Yingchang added.

"It's still 400,000 taels short of the minimum amount I calculated." Mao Dahai said.

"The top priority is to distribute this part of the salary first, and appease the soldiers in Jizhou." Xing Jue made arrangements, "Zichu, you have served in Jizhou, so you can still have a few words with them, this time it's up to you!" ”

"Yes, I'll go with it." Zhong Nan did not refuse.

Since not all the money allocated by the household department was silver, and half of it was grain, Zhong Nan left a few military officials who were supposed to travel with him, so that they and the silver and materials transported arrived later. And he took his own soldiers and rushed to Jizhou first.

After arriving in Jizhou, Zhong Nan did not rest, but went to the military camp first. He asked Shi Changting to summon all the generals of the rank and above to come to the battlefield office in the open space of the martial arts arena.

"Brothers, I am Zhong Nan, and most of the people present must be no strangers to me. Today, I am back in Jizhou Barracks to solve your problems. ”

There was a slight commotion in the crowd.

"I know everyone is very aggrieved, we are soldiers, not for food and pay. It's just that in the past two years, the imperial court has indeed had some difficulties, not to mention that we are soldiers, even the officials of the Beijing Division, and there are also those who are in arrears. ”

"That can't make us bleed and sweat in vain!" Someone in the crowd said.

"Yes, how can there be such a reason!"

"My family is still counting on money to live!"

"Lord Commander, you have to call the shots for us!"

……

The scene slowly boiled.

"Brothers, be quiet first!" Zhong Nan shouted loudly: "Since everyone still recognizes me as a person, then you have to believe me!" ”

"Brothers, everyone should listen to Lord Shiro!" Liu Hu, Jing Tianchu and others were also helping on the side.

Seeing that the scene was quiet again, Zhong Nan continued: "I said it at the beginning, I came here to solve the problem. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, there will be a part of the silver and grain, which will be distributed to everyone in advance. ”

"How much can you send?" "When will the rest be sent?" Everyone asked.

"Everyone starts with about five taels, and I'm thinking of a way to fix the rest, I believe it will be solved soon!" Zhong Nam made a promise.

"That's it?"

"When will the silver for the Eastern Expedition to Korea be issued?"

……

The crowd began to stir again.

Zhong Nan gave Shi Changting, Liu Hu, Jing Tianchu and the others a look, and they followed, "Don't you still believe Lord Shilang?" He walked out of our Jizhou, can he lie to you? ”

Only then did a group of generals settle down, and then slowly dispersed under the organization of Shi Changting and others.

After temporarily pacifying these people, Zhong Nan summoned Shi Changting and other middle and senior generals, went to the camp of the Chinese army, and held a small meeting.

"You must stabilize the morale of the military, if anyone deliberately makes trouble, military law will do it. You know? Zhong Nan's tone was very stern.

Everyone nodded yes.

Later, Zhong Nan explained some precautions, which were basically similar to the stability maintenance work in later generations, and he was busy until midnight.

In the afternoon of the next day, the silver and grain transported by the imperial court finally arrived at the Jizhou military camp. When the soldiers saw the white flowers of silver and bags of rice, they really felt relieved.

"Lord Squire, I'm looking for you!" A voice came.

Zhong Nan looked for the voice and found that it was Lou Dong calling him.

"Why did you come to Jizhou? Haven't been to Fujian yet? Zhong Nan walked over briskly and asked about the building at the back of the transport line.

Lou Dong jumped out of the carriage and explained to Zhong Nan, "My lord, on the day we had dinner, I originally said that the next day, I would leave for Fujian. As a result, in the afternoon, weren't you called back to the military headquarters, I was worried about something on your side, so I thought that it would not be too late to go to Fujian in two days. ”

"Yesterday, I just heard about the matter here in Jizhou, and it happened that they were going to transport silver and grain, so I came with them."

"What are you doing in Jizhou? But what news does the Wa Kingdom have? Zhong Nan couldn't help but be surprised.

"My lord, it has nothing to do with the Wa Kingdom. I came to Jizhou to make a special trip to relieve you! ”