As soon as the Chongyang Festival passes, the chrysanthemum porridge is not in vogue, a handful of red beans are soaked in water to soften, and then put into the pot with the best japonica rice and boil it until the sand comes out, and then add a spoonful of osmanthus sugar when it comes out of the pot, and the thick and sweet aroma will spread hotly.

It's a pity that guarding such red bean porridge, no one in the Qianqing Palace dared to move.

The transcribed books were placed before them, and they bowed their heads, and no one dared to speak.

"When he became an ancestor, the cost of antric tribute was 3,300 taels to 3,700 taels, when he was Suzong, it was 5,900 taels to 7,000 taels, when he was Shenzong, it was 20,000 taels when he was Mingzong, when he was 40,000 taels when he was the first emperor, and last year's antric tribute, the imperial court spent 67,000 taels of silver. For more than 200 years since the founding of the Great Yong Dynasty, the canal from Jiangnan to Yanjing has been dredged every year, and the exchange of goods and goods has been more than a year, but I really can't figure out the cost of this tribute."

How ridiculous is it that what used to cost 3,000 taels can now be done 20 times more?

But such absurdity abounds in today's Dayong.

Li Congyuan gently flipped through the account book, looking at the "eight rosewood carts" and "sixteen huanghuarosewood carts" that were spent every year on it, and couldn't help but sigh lightly in his heart.

Most of the "Angong" is along the canal, so where is the use of building new cars every year? It's just to settle the accounts.

The number of fish transported to Yanjing from Jiangnan every year is only twice as much, and the amount of ice used up in the account books is more than ten times.

The sweet aroma of red bean porridge on the table rises faintly.

Li Congyuan knelt down first, and Yang Zhai and Liu Kangyong behind him also knelt on the ground.

"Your Majesty is ashamed."

Shen Shiqing moved her fingers and looked at the door of the hall.

"Since I ascended the throne, I don't plan to keep any of those who have handled the tribute. If the people who received the tribute during the time of the first emperor have already returned to their hometowns or died, I will allow their descendants to settle their accounts with their wealth."

Li Congyuan and the others were stunned.

According to the long-standing practice of the Dayong Dynasty, officials will not blame the past when they tell the old, but according to His Majesty's will, even the dead must be dug out to make up for the shortfall!

Liu Kangyong, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, spoke up and said, "Your Majesty, according to the ancestral system......

Shen Shiqing glanced at him and said in a brisk tone: "According to the "Dayong Law", he embezzled sixty taels of silver, peeled and pulled grass. I have never followed the ancestral system, and I am really ashamed of my ancestors and ancestors, and the Book of Rites is right."

In fact, he wanted to say that His Majesty should be lenient and sympathetic to His Majesty, Liu Kangyong opened his mouth, and suddenly didn't know what to say.

"But I also know that now it is not the same as when the country was first founded, and it is a bit too strict to peel and pull grass for sixty taels of silver, so let's do it, three hundred taels or less than three hundred taels of silver, go to the official and seize the position, more than three hundred taels, and be sent to exile, and more than five hundred taels, and be decided."

With a "plop", Liu Kangyong knelt on the ground and didn't dare to move.

If this word spreads, Your Majesty will not do anything, and he, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, will first become the target of the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty!

When he was in Chongyang, he thought that His Majesty was much more stable than before, and he didn't do things according to his temperament like before, but today he realized that His Majesty is not stable, and His Majesty is more unpredictable than before!

"Your Majesty, the rectification of the rule of officials must not be done overnight......" Liu Kangyong couldn't go on again in the middle of his words, because His Majesty was watching him. ….

With an extremely cold gaze.

"Can't the rectification of the rule of officials be achieved overnight? Shouldn't I talk to those people and say, be greedy slowly, be greedy slowly, don't be in a hurry to be greedy?"

Seeing that Liu Kangyong's face turned red, Li Congyuan said slowly, "Your Majesty must also guard against the disaster of framing when rectifying the rule of officials. If it is like Wu Zhoushi's indulgence of cool officials, which makes people's hearts uneasy, and the ministers dare not act, it is not a blessing for the people."

This was quite safe, and Shen Shiqing's finger clicked on the table.

At this moment, the curtain of the door was lifted, and the three cats crept in and stood at the door.

Shen Shiqing saw it and asked him, "What's the matter?"

The three cats lowered their eyebrows and said, "If you go back to the emperor, someone has come to Cining Palace, and it is the queen mother who sent someone to send something to the emperor."

It is said that it is not a terrible thing for Cining Palace to send things to the emperor, but the three cats trembled when they spoke, which made Shen Shiqing have some speculations in his heart.

"Let people in."

"Yes."

The next moment, a eunuch wearing a black eunuch uniform walked in with a tray in his hand, and as soon as he came in, he knelt down and saluted the emperor.

"Slave maid, eunuch of Cining Palace, at the behest of the Empress Dowager, sent 100,000 taels of silver to Your Majesty, as well as two pure gold Buddha statues. The Queen Mother has something else to say to Your Majesty."

After speaking, the eunuch looked up at the elders who were also kneeling on the ground.

His appearance made Shen Shiqing more and more curious, and waved her hand, she said, "A few Shangshu got up first, I guessed that the things sent by the Queen Mother were also related to the matter of the officials, you might as well listen to it with me."

Li Congyuan and the others stood up, and they actually wanted to leave very much in their hearts.

After His Majesty ascended the throne, the Queen Mother had repeatedly said in front of the wife that His Majesty was not suitable for the king, and one day the year before last, His Majesty went to the Queen Mother to ask for peace before the court, and the Queen Mother actually said that it was uncomfortable to see His Majesty wearing a dragon robe, and even asked His Majesty not to wear a dragon robe to ask for peace in the future.

His Majesty is arrogant and willful, moody, but he is deferential to the Queen Mother, and although he rarely sees the Queen Mother since then, there is never a shortage of rewards.

But for these courtiers, the Queen Mother has put His Majesty's face in front of them, if they are involved, they are afraid of offending Your Majesty and the Queen Mother at the same time, if they watch from the side, they will lose their duties as courtiers.

So, the three pavilion elders lowered their heads together, as if there were three more hollow wooden pillars in the main hall of the huge Qianqing Palace.

Yiji said to the eunuch who was holding the thing, "If the queen mother has any will, you just have to say it."

"The slave passed on the words of the Queen Mother, I heard that His Majesty wanted to rectify the accounts of the Taifu Temple, a few years ago, when the Marquis of Shoucheng was in the Taifu Temple, he was fooled by the people below because he did not understand the practice, and made some deficits. Although Marquis Shoucheng is His Majesty's uncle, he is a timid and wooden person, and he has already fallen seriously ill because he was confused and failed to live up to the grace of the emperor. Yesterday, I heard that His Majesty was going to check the accounts, and I was so frightened that I cried in front of the mourning family for a day. He is a fellow mother of the mourning family, and the mourning family can't ignore his brother, and the money is the mourning family's account for him. The Cao family is deeply favored by the emperor, but their talent is insufficient, and they dare not be in the court, but they will not be driven out and killed, so let this time pass. I just hope that Your Majesty will collect the money and don't be embarrassed by the Manchu Dynasty civil and military, our old Zhao family can sit firmly in the world, it is all dependent on the long-cherished sleep of these courtiers, when the first emperor was there, he often said that the monarch should be generous, to be a benevolent monarch, a Ming monarch, for a little money to make the people of the Manchu Dynasty panic is not good. The Queen Mother's words were passed on by the slave and maid." ….

The Qianqing Palace was quiet.

Liu Kangyong could almost hear the sound of sweat running down his cheeks and into his collar.

The day before yesterday, His Majesty said that he would rectify the rule of officials and check the Angong and Taifu Temple, and today the Queen Mother showed His Majesty's face in a grand manner.

Several of them didn't even dare to look up at His Majesty's face.

Shen Shiqing, who was sitting on the dragon chair, was not angry, after all, she was not Emperor Zhaode himself, and she hadn't even seen what the Queen Mother looked like. In his opinion, the Queen Mother is the emperor's mother to put it bluntly, and her power also comes from her son, and her use of her power is like this to wrap up family affection and morality, which is exactly the most common thing Shen Shiqing has been in Ning Anbo's mansion in the past years.

The person she was thinking about at this time was Zhao Surui.

It turns out that His Majesty the Emperor, who is wise and omnipotent, also has to go through such a means.

She even wanted to laugh a little.

寿成侯与保平侯的名头她从前在深宅里都听说过，曹家这两个兄弟原本都是游手好闲之辈，他们的父亲从前也不过是个工部郎中，偏偏生了个好女儿，十四岁就被选入禁中，十六岁被指给当时还是郡王的先帝为妻，先帝对她甚是爱重，不仅和她恩爱相守不纳妃嫔，甚至还将她的两个兄弟都封了侯。

The eldest brother of the Queen Mother, Shou Chenghou, is a bastard who does not dare to provoke Yan Kyoto, probably because he knows that his family's title cannot be inherited, and he has forcibly occupied the land and grange everywhere over the years, and has raised a group of thugs under his hands.

He is also smart, rarely entangled with civil officials, and his eyes are all about rich families without official status and declining nobles, and over the years, he has collected a lot of land in the suburbs of Beijing.

Such a person not only amassed wealth excessively, but also corrupted the law, obviously betraying the emperor's grace, but the queen mother still had to cover it up for him.

The queen mother took out her private room, nominally to settle the accounts for the Marquis of Shoucheng, in fact, it was in the left and right courts, the emperor just ordered the inspection of the Taifu Temple the day before yesterday, she jumped out today to let the emperor be lenient to the courtiers, these things and these words reached the ears of those officials of the Taifu Temple, even if there was a little bit of desire to surrender the heart has gone.

Still, it's fine.

Shen Shiqing showed a smile on her face.

Since the Queen Mother pushed Shou Chenghou out, she can use Shou Chenghou as a target.

"Who investigated the case of the Marquis of Shoucheng's Mansion back then? Go find the dossier and let me see if the money sent by the Queen Mother is enough to settle the account. Summoning Shou Cheng Hou to enter the palace immediately."

Hearing the emperor's order, Yiji raised his eyes and glanced at the emperor, and then lowered his head:

"Yes, Emperor."

Shen Shiqing lowered her head, and just saw Zhao Surui's private seal, she picked it up with her ring finger and pinched it in her hand and rubbed it gently:

"The Queen Mother is really generous." She whispered, "How many years will it take to save up 20,000 taels of gold and 2,000 taels of silver a year?"

No one dared to answer these words.

A chicken stood there, wishing that he was a wooden chicken.

Shen Shiqing stood up:

"I remember that the first emperor once allocated two imperial villages to the queen mother's mother, but now the queen mother is old and has a good private house, so I don't think I can use so much fat powder."

Li Congyuan immediately understood what His Majesty meant.

In the final analysis, the expenses used by the Queen Mother are also divided by the emperor from the private treasury, in the past, the Queen Mother used the money from the emperor's private treasury to supplement her own family, Your Majesty turned a blind eye, but now the Queen Mother even dares to interfere in the affairs of Her Majesty's investigation of the Taifu Temple, and Your Majesty does not plan to endure it anymore.

The little eunuch who passed the word was still kneeling on the ground holding the silver ticket, and he was just waiting for His Majesty's reply.

Shen Shiqing glanced at the silver ticket in his hand, raised his feet and walked down from the throne.

She wants to get back the deficit of Shou Chenghou from him exactly what, and as for the 100,000 taels of silver, since it was sent to her, she is not welcome.

The aroma of red bean porridge had not yet dissipated, Li Congyuan looked at His Majesty with a smile on his face, and felt in a trance that the red bean porridge on the table looked like blood.

Your Majesty let someone else bleed.

Six