At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the relics of Chongzhen's inner treasury in the Forbidden City had many unsolved cases in later generations, but it was just that there were none. If there is, maybe it will be a huge fortune of tens of millions of taels, so Xiao Xuan didn't dare to slack off after hearing such words, but said a little solemnly: "Then let's see how much of the clues you can provide about the private wealth of the palace secret vault in the end." If you can have more than one million taels, it will be enough to atone for your sins? If you can finally have a harvest of more than two million taels, then maybe not only your life can be saved, but the life of the child outside may also be rewarded. Of course, two million is too cheap for a sinner's descendant to become a dignitary who has the opportunity to peek into the throne. I'm afraid it will take at least a million taels of harvest before I reconsider this matter... ”

Ke Yinyue saw the depth of a person from Xiao Xuan's words, and felt that Xiao Xuan was not the kind of person who killed decisively or promised easily, so he also gave up his plan to support the big at this time, so he said bluntly: "Wei Zhongxian... Oh no, when Li Jinzhong was there, the concubine occasionally mastered a secret that few outsiders knew in the palace, and it is said that in the apse of the Yangxin Palace, there were at least several million taels of silver buried in the land wealth, which was said to be a secret vault accumulated by the Wanli Dynasty. When Apocalypse ascended the throne, he used a lot of urgency because of side affairs, but he thought that maybe he would also leave a foundation of several million taels of silver. Because the silver left by the Wanli Dynasty was said to be as much as 10 million taels, and the records in the palace were checked, and the total estimate was only 7 million taels... ”

Hearing this, Xiao Xuan seemed to feel a little regretful, because although a few million taels of silver could also meet the needs of orderly army expansion and training in the next few years, there was still a lot of distance from his expectations.

Ke Yinyue didn't have a trump card at this time, so she had to add: "In addition, although there are tens of thousands of eunuchs in the palace and many palace maids, although they have been dismissed a lot, those people should also have a lot of private wealth in their hands. According to the status of the leader of the torture, the amount obtained should not be much less than three million taels... ”

When she said these words, Ke Yinyue's heart also rose to her throat, because she didn't know what kind of fate she would encounter when she confirmed these facts, and whether she would be disposed of because she had no value at all. Although this was the case in the past, no one can be sure that their intuition is correct in such a matter. Xiao Xuan did not delay, immediately left the secret prison house, and began to organize more than 1,000 people, holding relatively good geotechnical excavation tools, to carry out a net investigation and excavation behind the Heart Cultivation Palace.

After a lot of practical experience and special thinking, the teenagers in this kind of thing team also have some rules. Generally speaking, the first thing to do is to tap on the harder masonry floors to see if there are any places where there are thick slabs, and if there are no problematic hard floors, start with soft floors. Generally, the depth of burial of valuable land wealth is very deep, not to mention that there is about one zhang, and it is not uncommon to have two zhang. Therefore, the team specially prepared a lot of steel sticks for testing. At the same time, he also summoned many palace maids and eunuchs who had been in charge of the area of the Heart Cultivation Hall in the past to inquire with the deterrence of preparing for severe punishment.

For most of the night, thousands of people seemed to have nothing to gain. Xiao Xuan, who was not reconciled, remobilized more than 1,000 young people to work in shifts until noon the next day, and finally made a breakthrough, digging out an iron box that seemed to weigh thousands of catties and weighed tens of thousands of taels from a depth of about two zhang under the hard stone slab at the beginning.

And just like that, another day and night passed, after nearly two days and nights of excavation. A total of more than fifty heavy boxes were excavated from under the hard masonry ground in the backyard of the Yangxin Palace, and after spot checks and rough estimates, there were as few as two million taels of silver or more, perhaps two million and five hundred thousand taels was a reliable number.

It was only at this time that Xiao Xuan's heart settled down a little. In this way, if there is no major problem with the income belonging to the inner treasury in the future, the needs for the expansion of the army within three years will be settled. According to the cost of personnel, equipment, rewards and pensions and other expenses, the scale of each person per year is about 100 taels. In the first year, the number of 10,000 people was expanded to 14,000, which was 400,000 taels more than the daily income of about 1 million taels, and in the second year, the army was expanded to about 20,000 people, and the overexpenditure was 1 million taels from the third year onwards to maintain 30,000 elite forces, and a total of 3,400,000 taels of silver was required. If there is no catastrophe like the first year of Chongzhen in the past few years, the existing family inventory and capital will barely meet the needs.

Obviously, this land wealth also brought another beneficial consequence, that is, in the face of the eunuchs who were in charge of the operation under Pang Tianshou, they were no longer as worried as before. Many things that were scrupulous before can be stricter in the future, which will add a lot of extra income. In this way, not only within the armed forces, but also in strengthening the new military intelligence system, there are more abundant conditions than in the past.

Of course, the storm in the capital lasted for many days, and a total of dozens of civil and military officials involved in the case were executed and purged, and thousands of people, including the nine clans of Zhulian, were either secretly detained and disappeared or publicly sentenced to death. Although the intensity of the bloody wind and rain was very large, the scope of the impact was still limited to some people in the old army in the capital and some military officials involved in the case, and there was no intention of continuing to expand. This made many people feel as if they had been relieved by amnesty.

Xiao Xuan also held a special court meeting very rarely, and publicly admonished: "If there is a situation again the next time, it will not only be the people involved in the case who will be affected." The same goes for those who don't report it! ”

Just when many of the purges in the lunar month approaching the New Year made the officials and even the nobles in the capital tremble, and the land wealth obtained from the backyard of the Yangxin Palace, which had been recorded in the Kangxi Record, greatly alleviated the financial pressure of the forbidden brigade and the expansion of the army, and the new military newspaper from the south also came from the open channel: Li Zicheng's department, which had suffered a heavy blow from the forbidden brigade of the Son of Heaven a few months ago, suddenly killed and grew stronger in Shandong, approaching many decent states and counties along the canal. As the New Year approached, the army returned to the south to fight against the bandits, and there was a new name and excuse.

For the Guards Battalion and the Brave Guard Battalion, which had experienced a battle with the main force of Jiannu after entering the customs and had strengthened a lot of armaments, the news of preparing to go out this time did not cause much excitement and waves. At the same time, many people in the court also knew that the newly enthroned emperor was the military emperor. Not many people dare to make irresponsible remarks. After all, no matter what aspect it is, it seems to be a good thing for the Son of Heaven to go out to the capital to suppress bandits again.

Of course, this time, Xiao Xuan also didn't have much pressure, and the purpose of this expedition was not to weaken the power of Li Chuang, who had recovered. Instead, he took the opportunity to clean up some local forces, so he also planned to delay the matter of pro-conquest until around the first month before leaving for the south.

(End of chapter)