Zhao Yuan said lightly: "Then repair." ”

"It stands to reason that building a villa for the Empress Dowager is also the duty and filial piety of a courtier, and it should not be refused. But...... In the accounts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there is now not a tael of silver. King Alcohol's fat face showed a look of embarrassment, "Yesterday, the Jiangnan Weaving Prefect came to Beijing, and asked the ministers to repay the 800,000 taels of silver owed to them by the Internal Affairs Office, and they haven't landed yet, this ......"

"What?" Zhao Yuan sank his face, "You mean, now the Internal Affairs Office not only doesn't have a tael of silver, but even owes Jiangnan Weaving silver?" ”

Zhao Shu also showed surprise.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs is the royal purse.

That is, the royal family still owes the local silver?

There are two months left for the New Year, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs has no money, which means that the emperor and empress dowager want to make new clothes and a few pieces of jewelry for the New Year, but they have no money.

This is excessive.

The emperor was angry, and King Alcohol hurriedly stood up and said in fear: "The emperor is angry. ”

Zhao Yuan said coldly: "King Alcohol, I ask you, where did all the money from the Internal Affairs Mansion go?" Why do you owe Jiangnan Weaving silver? ”

In the year since the emperor ascended the throne, life in the palace has been quite frugal, except for the ceremony of the emperor's enthronement, there have been no decent activities.

Jiangnan Weaving was originally an institution dedicated to providing various clothing fabrics for the royal family.

The number of concubines in the palace of the new emperor is pitiful, because of the queen, there is no extravagance and waste, and most of the clothes are prepared by the palace dressing office.

Even like the queen's clothes, in addition to the ceremonial dress and phoenix robe, the daily clothes are made by the palace maids of Fengyi Palace.

The palace is so saving, how can it owe Jiangnan so much silver?

It is impossible for Zhao Yuan not to be angry.

He knew that the Internal Affairs Office didn't have much money, but he didn't know that it was so bad.

King Alcohol knelt down and said, "The emperor is angry, the minister has the account book here, and it is clearly recorded......

He brought it over with a thick ledger.

Zhao Yuan said angrily: "The account book is not written by you dog slaves, if you make a fake account, who can know?" ”

"Emperor Mingjian, how dare the minister cheat in the account book?" King Alcohol shouted for himself, "In the winter of the 18th year of Yuhe, the first emperor canonized fifty-seven concubines and built a warm winter garden. After spending a huge amount of money, the minister had no choice, so he borrowed 2 million silver from Jiangnan Weaving, and still owes 800,000 yuan and has not paid it off...... It's all on the books! ”

Zhao Yuan looked at him: "First Emperor? ”

"Yes, this is all a deficit left by the first emperor. After the emperor ascended the throne, he added some silver, but it was not enough to pay it back. King Alcohol sighed, "The Empress Dowager forced her ministers to build a villa, and Jiangnan Weaving asked for silver, and she wanted money everywhere, and the ministers had no choice." ”

Zhao Yuan said: "So, is Uncle Wang here to cry to me today and ask for silver?" ”

The alcohol king grimaced.

Zhao Yuan looked at him coldly for a moment and said, "This matter, let's discuss it later, you go out first." ”

"Obey."

The Alcohol King kowtowed and withdrew.

Zhao Yuan's expression was gloomy, and he pinched the fingers of the teacup and slowly tightened it.

Yun Dai put her hand on the back of his hand and whispered, "Your Majesty, it's just a few hundred thousand taels of silver, it's okay." ”

"I'm the King of Alcohol." Zhao Yuan said, "I don't want to pay attention to the silver owed by the first emperor. The problem is that the clan headed by King Alcohol controls the Internal Affairs Office, but it hollows out the Internal Affairs Office, which is really hateful. ”

Speaking of which, there are a lot of revenues from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The royal Zhuangzi, the gold and copper mines in various places, the customs duties of the Left Wing Pass, the Right Wing Pass, Zhangjiakou, and the Killing Tiger Pass were also directly entered into the accounts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

But the king of alcohol and other clans regarded the internal affairs office as a gold mine that filled their own pockets, deceived their superiors and subordinates, greedy the royal money, and turned around to force the emperor to take the silver.