Early the next morning, Jia Jue rushed to the imperial city with Jia Fu and others, and last night he received an order from the palace to let him go to the study today.

"Shousuke, why did Your Majesty suddenly summon you?"

Jia Jue followed behind Shoufu Wen dialect and asked cautiously.

"I don't know what the matter is, Your Majesty suddenly summoned the general, it must be some militaristic matter!"

Wen Fangyan smiled slightly and walked quickly to the study.

Looking at Wen Fangyan's back, Jia Jue shook his head with a wry smile, a major military event? Just kidding, it's almost the same as Niu Jizong, and it is estimated that there is some errand to be handed over to himself.

At this moment, I saw a group of eunuchs and palace maids walking into the Longguang Gate on the east side of the Qianqing Palace, Jia Jue understood that the emperor was coming, and walked quickly to the upper study with his head down.

Outside the study, Jia Jue saw Zhu Wucheng, the king of Liang who had not been seen for several days, and there was a majestic, heroic and handsome middle-aged man standing opposite him, standing with his hands and under the corridor was very magnificent, Jia Jue recognized the identity of this person at a glance, Zhu Wuxiang, the king of Shu, no wonder the civil official group would support him, compared with the king of Liang, it was too bad.

"General Jia, let me introduce you."

Wen Fangyan smiled: "This is His Royal Highness the King of Shu." ”

Jia Jue took a step forward and clasped his hands, "See Your Highness." ”

Zhu Wuxiang sneered, "You are Jia Jue?" ”

Jia Jue smiled faintly and replied, "Exactly." ”

Seeing this, Zhu Wuxiang's face sank, his eyes were cold, and he sneered: "You are very good." ”

Jia Jue frowned slightly, understanding that because of himself, the Zhongshun Palace's Mansion lost the military power of the Shenji Battalion, which also led to him not only losing the military power that was about to arrive, but also owing the Zhongshun King a favor.

Thinking of this, he calmly stepped forward and took another step, and replied, "Your Highness Xie praises!" ”

All three of them were stunned!

Zhu Wuxiang laughed, and laughed loudly, "You are an interesting person, but unfortunately, if we had met earlier, I wouldn't have become.... Forget it, forget it, everyone has their own ambitions. ”

Speaking of this, he glanced at Zhu Wucheng with slanted eyes, then fell on Jia Jue's body, and asked: "I heard that you regard yourself as a loyal minister, and you don't look down on those officials who fall to the fifth brother, is it possible, these officials who support this king and the king of Liang are shameless villains, only you, Jia Jue, have become loyal ministers?" ”

Jia Jue was stunned for a moment, smiled secretly, and replied: "The Jia family is a noble who rests with the country, and the ministers, as the children of the Jia family, are naturally loyal to the Ming Dynasty and His Majesty the Emperor." As for the other officials, as long as they are loyal to the Ming Dynasty and His Majesty, they are naturally loyal ministers. ”

Zhu Wuxiang sneered, "What a sharp thief!" I underestimate you..."

Before he could say a word, a majestic and cold voice came, "And what are you?" ”

When a few people looked back, it was Emperor Tianyou who walked over quietly, and several people immediately stepped forward to salute.

"Your Majesty!"

"The son of the emperor to meet his father!"

"Two Aiqing are flat!"

Emperor Tianyou's gaze fell on King Liang who was kneeling on the ground again, and waved his hand and said, "Little Wu, you get up." ”

Zhu Wucheng: "Son-in-law thanks to the emperor for his grace!" ”

As he spoke, he kowtowed heavily first, Fang got up and stood behind Emperor Tianyou, Wen Fangyan was extremely pleased, secretly exhaled, and turned his gaze to Zhu Wuxiang, the king of Shu who was kneeling there.

Emperor Tianyou turned his gaze to Wen dialect, "Spread the decree!" Liang Wang supervises the errand of the household department, and in the future, the household affairs do not need to be reported to the second assistant to know, and.... Tell those people that I'm not dead yet, and don't think I don't know what they're doing behind their backs. ”

Speaking of this, Emperor Tianyou's eyes were cold, he looked at the King of Shu kneeling there, and said loudly: "Remember, you are not the prince yet, let alone the emperor, what qualifications do you have to reprimand my courtiers, where have you read the way of saints, the way of loyalty and forgiveness, and the way of being kind to others?" ”

said, sighed deeply, "It is rumored that you are a corporal of Lixian outside, I just can't figure it out, where did these nobles who retired with the country attract your eyes, not to mention the affairs of the Holy Ancestor Dynasty, let's just say that the great war forty years ago, if it wasn't for the desperate fight of the nobles, it can't be another change in the civil fort, who is behind these ghosts?" Don't you really know? ”

Everyone was shocked by Emperor Tianyou's words!

Wen Fangyan and Dai Quan glanced at each other, and with a wave of Dai Quan's hand, the patrol forbidden army in the distance immediately rushed over, and several small yellow men standing on the side were immediately dragged down.

Jia Jue was stunned there, forty years ago in the Hetao battle, the Beijing camp was almost wiped out, his grandfather Jia Daixiao also died in that battle, and the cause of death is unknown Emperor Wuzong, it seems that this matter is not so simple, and I thought of Jia Jing who hid in Xuanzhen Temple, maybe he can solve the doubts in his heart.

There was silence.

Emperor Tianyou: "The Ming Dynasty is the world of the Zhu family, I hope you can understand." ”

Zhu Wuxiang's face was snow-white, and he said in a trembling voice: "Erchen understands. ”

"I want you to take it to heart."

Emperor Tianyou flicked his sleeves, "Get up, I have something to tell you." ”

"Thank you for your grace."

Zhu Wuxiang kowtowed heavily, and timidly followed Emperor Tianyou to the upper study.

Zhu Wucheng passed by Jia Jue's side, patted him on the shoulder, approached him and said in a low voice: "The Zhongshun Royal Mansion intends to find trouble for you, be careful." ”

Jia Jue nodded and arched his hand: "Thank you, Lord Wang." ”

At this time, Dai Quan coughed and reminded the two that it was time to go in.

Jia Jue smiled, hugged his fist at Dai Quan, and hurriedly chased Zhu Wucheng to the upper study.

Emperor Tianyou sat in front of the imperial case, stretched out his hand to pick up an account book, opened it, looked at it twice, coughed lightly, and said to a few people: "Today, I will come to you temporarily, and I will say one thing, the treasury owes silver." ”

Speaking of this, he paused for a moment and sighed, "Last year, the household tribe had a deficit of 3.17 million taels, and I estimate that there will be more this year, Shanxi reported a major drought, Henan, Jiangxi and Nanzhili reported a flood, and there were several plagues in Zhejiang, and now there are more than 130 days before the end of the year, it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no more disasters, the household department only has three million taels of salt tax sent by Lianghuai, and it is difficult to support it until next year, so the treasury must not delay the silver arrears, I still say that the Ming Dynasty is the world of the Zhu family, No matter who the two of you take over in the future, if you want to hold the power of the court, you must have military power and money in your hands, both of which are indispensable, otherwise you will be subject to the courtiers of the foreign courts, especially those groups that represent the interests of the scholars.

If nothing else, let's just say that these two Huai salt taxes, you two know how much they collected in the first two years, I can tell you, they are two million taels and two million and thirty thousand taels, respectively, you may say that the first two years were affected by the weather and salt prices, hehe, no, because this year the Bai family was wiped out, they were afraid, so they broke the wealth and eliminated the disaster, in addition, they also donated two million taels of silver, the wealth of the salt merchants, can be the enemy country!

Unfortunately, they would rather give the money to the sanctimonious hypocrites than to help the imperial court tide over the difficulties. ”

Speaking of this, he looked at King Liang, and then turned his gaze to King Shu, "You should have heard, last year, the household department should have saved 8 million taels of silver, but it also fell into a deficit of 3.17 million taels, where did the money go, you know, I know, everyone knows, but no one thinks about me and the court." Sometimes, I think that it would be nice if I were an ordinary person, laughing when I am happy, and swinging my knife to let out a vicious breath when I am angry, but unfortunately I can't. ”

Emperor Tianyou showed a hint of a smile and asked Jia Jue, "How much floating wealth did you steal yesterday?" ”

Jia Jue was secretly shocked, and hurriedly replied: "Your Majesty, the people in the family have relied on the favor of the old lady to deceive and embezzle the money in the mansion for many years, and in addition to compensating the victims, there are still 257,102 taels left, which is the money and property jointly seized by the two mansions of Ning Rong, and the detailed accounts have not yet been sorted out. ”

Emperor Tianyou nodded, "You see, a small slave can rely on the power of the Jia family to be greedy for so much money, and then think about those corrupt officials and corrupt officials, I have to palpitate!" It is urgent to rectify the rule of officials, otherwise the life of the common people will not be able to continue. ”

Wen Fangyan stood up, bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the problem of corruption is very serious in the court and in the locality, but this matter cannot be rushed, it can only be done slowly, it is better to collect the arrears first, after all, with money, you don't have to panic when you start doing things." ”

Emperor Tianyou nodded, Wen dialect said very well, "What Shoufu said is good, but the money is recovered, and you have to hold it, otherwise there will be a deficit for no reason, didn't I make a wedding dress for someone else?" This is also the main reason why I let King Liang supervise the household department. ”

Emperor Tianyou glanced at the King of Shu and asked, "What do you think?" ”

Zhu Wuxiang had a "buzz" in his head, knelt down on the ground, and said loudly: "Father Emperor Shengming!" ”

Emperor Tianyou smiled slightly, and said, "As long as you can successfully complete the matter of recovering the arrears, I will allow you to choose one of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Officials to supervise." ”

Zhu Wuxiang's heart was hot, and he hurriedly kowtowed: "The son will definitely live up to his father's expectations." ”

Emperor Tianyou nodded, and waved his hand, "Get up." ”

He set his eyes on Jia Jue's body again, and smiled, "I have a hot errand to you, in order to express my apology, I decided to give you some compensation in advance, Zhen Guogong has already handed over the excerpt, and the Beijing camp was split into twelve regimental battalions, I decided that your 3,000 battalions will be changed to the Ruishi battalion, a large battalion of 5,000 people, 3,000 infantry troops, 1,000 firecrackers, 1,000 cavalry, I will solve 500 war horses for you, and you can figure out the rest yourself." I think your old lady can still take out this money. ”

There was silence in the hall.

Wen Fangyan coughed.

Jia Jue came back to his senses, got up and gave a formal salute to Emperor Tianyou, and said, "Thank you for Your Majesty's grace." ”

"Okay, now that the benefits are taken, it's time to hear the bad news."

Emperor Tianyou Zhengse said: "Before the end of the month, one-third of the arrears must be collected, you lead the men and horses of the Ruishi battalion to cooperate with the King of Shu and the King of Liang, but there are those who do not cooperate with the payment of the arrears, whether it is the princes and nobles, or the civil and military officials, take people and people, and raid the family." The two of you ordered, and Jia Qing was responsible for taking people, can the three of you understand? ”

Jia Jue was shocked into a sweat, and hurriedly bowed down and said, "The minister obeys the order." ”

"The retainers obey."

The King of Shu and the King of Liang hurriedly kowtowed.

Emperor Tianyou: "Okay, you go down and prepare, and officially recover the arrears tomorrow!" ”

"Yes!"