"For the sake of the emperor, I can suffer anything!"

As soon as Yan Shifan's words fell, everyone was stunned, and then Gao Gong couldn't help but jump out and accuse: "Don't blame the emperor for everything!" I think most of this money has been embezzled by some people. ”

"You!" Yan Shifan was angry, and when he was about to refute, Yan Song spoke unhurriedly.

"Last year, there was a severe drought in two provinces and a major flood in three provinces, and the imperial court allocated funds to repair the Mudanjiang River and Songhe River, and in addition, it cost more than four million taels to build new dams in Jiangsu and Zhejiang alone."

As soon as Yan Song's words fell, Gao Gong immediately looked through the account books in his hand repeatedly, and saw that he couldn't find any flaws, so he had to sit down angrily.

"I don't understand, it's all about the affairs of the court, why whoever does it more will be more wronged!" Yan Shifan burst into tears, his words were chiseled, and he had a posture of a virtuous minister who was worried about the monarch, and his eyes swept over Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng one by one.

"Why do you always hold on to all this extra money?"

"In that case, the household department should have signed." Lu Fang, who had been observing for a long time, spoke lightly.

"Ding!" A crisp jade chime sound sounded from behind the bead curtain, and everyone present understood that the emperor had forgiven the loss, so they tacitly skipped the topic.

Behind the bead curtain, Emperor Jiajing recalled the palaces built by his predecessors, Biwa Zhuyong, extremely luxurious, and couldn't help but turn dark, and roared: "My money!" ”

"Okay, now that this matter is over, let's talk about the problem of river regulation overruns." Xu Jie, the second assistant of the cabinet, spoke slowly.

"At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Industry budgeted four million taels, and at the time of settlement, it was seven million taels, and the overexpenditure was three million taels, how do you explain this?"

When Yan Shifan heard this, he didn't answer, but turned his gaze to Lu Fang opposite, arched his hand, and said softly: "The supervision of the river is all in charge of the East Factory, and I don't know the specific matters very well, so it's better for Gonggong Lu to answer." ”

The smile on Lu Fang's face remained unchanged, and he took over the conversation: "That's the case, at the beginning of this year, officials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang reported that there might be a risk of flooding, and I then asked the officials of Qin Tianjian for verification, and they said that the possibility of a major flood in Jiangsu and Zhejiang could not be ruled out. ”

Lu Fang said, took a sip of the tea on the table, and continued: "The area around Jiangsu and Zhejiang is the important tax area of my Ming Dynasty, and there must be no loss!" Immediately afterwards, I sent Li Xuan as the river supervisor to investigate, and this is the investigation report. ”

After Lu Fang finished speaking, he took out the report written by Li Xuan from his cuff and handed it to everyone to check one by one.

Yan Shifan took the investigation report handed over by Lu Fang, but he couldn't help but curse secretly in his heart: "This old fox, he picked himself clean in just a few words!" ”

And Qingliu didn't mean to embarrass Lu Fang, but after a cursory glance, he exposed the matter, after all, their main enemy at present was the Yan Party, and they couldn't provoke a powerful enemy.

"Everything is pre-planned, and if you don't stand up, you will be wasted, if you continue to eat the grain like this, the grain will be eaten, I really don't know what else I have to eat in the Ming Dynasty!" Zhang Juzheng put down the report in his hand and stroked his beard angrily.

"What do you mean by that?" Yan Shifan immediately responded, staring at Zhang Juzheng viciously.

"Does that mean that this year will be like last year?" Zhang Juzheng was not stunned at all, and looked back on the past.

"You have a little deficit here, we have to increase the taxes of the people next year, and let the people live?" Gao Gong also stood up and glared at Yan Shifan.

"Hmph, haven't all the accounts been reconciled? Taxes are taken from the people and from the people, where do they not need to spend money? Do officials need money? Do I need money to build a dam? Do I need money to ship various materials such as wood? Not to mention the labor cost and wear and tear! ”

"I see, there are people who don't want to do things for the court sincerely, and they are all traitors who mislead the country and the people!"

Yan Shifan's gaze swept over everyone, and his face was full of disdain.

"Who did you just say is a traitor?" Gao Gong's tone was calm, like a volcano about to erupt.

"The traitor has already jumped out by himself, Gao Gong is one, and Zhang Juzheng!" Yan Shifan emphasized word by word.

"Hmph, how to write the word treacherous, a female word and a dry word, I have been an official for so many years and only have a bad wife, and what about you? Xiao Ge Lao, not long ago, you married Mrs. Ninth Aunt. ”

"You!" Yan Shifan was angry, but he couldn't find any reason to refute it for a while.

Just as everyone was arguing and about to elevate the Imperial Council to an unlimited fighting tournament if they went any further, an inopportune snoring sounded, and everyone followed the sound to see Yan Song drooping his head, and he didn't know when he fell asleep.

"I don't know if Yan Ge Lao is a loss of honor in front of the emperor." Seeing this, Xu Jie couldn't help but laugh dumbly, and said two words of yin and yang.

At this moment, there was movement behind the bead curtain, and I saw Jiajing dressed in a blue-gray robe, and the robe was embroidered with complicated water cloud patterns, stood up from the dragon chair, walked out lightly, and chanted in his mouth: "Practice the body like a crane, a thousand Panasonic two letters, I came to ask Wu Yu to say, the clouds are in the blue sky and the water is in the bottle." ”

"Wait and greet Your Majesty!" Seeing Jiajing come out, everyone stopped arguing and saluted one after another, while Yan Song was still asleep, Yan Shifan saw this, and was ready to wake up his father, but was stopped by Jiajing.

"Let Yan Ge sleep for a while."

"Get up, get up, get up!" Jiajing then looked at the others, waved his hand casually, and everyone immediately got up.

"Do you know what poem I just read?"

"Back to Your Majesty, it is Li Ao's Taoist poem in the Tang Dynasty."

Yan Song's voice came, and everyone looked over, only to see that Yan Song had woken up at some point, and was trembling and saluting Jiajing at this time.

"Yan Ge is right, this is Li Ao's asking poem."

Jiajing was in a good mood when he saw someone answering his question, and then looked at Yan Shifan with a playful look in his eyes: "Little Pavilion Elder, is what Gao Gong said true just now?" ”

"Your Majesty, when the minister goes back, he will send all the wives and concubines back to his parents' house." Yan Shifan heard Jiajing's question, his face turned pale, and he quickly knelt on the ground to defend himself.

"Okay, it's not a big deal to marry the wife of Aunt Jiufang, since ancient times, princes and generals, which one is not a group of wives and concubines? Besides, if you send people back, how will they live in the future, keep them, and just spend more time on state affairs. Jiajing found an empty chair to sit down at random, and comforted him.

"Thank you, Your Majesty! The minister is determined to smear His Majesty's liver and brain, and he will not give up. Yan Shifan bowed to the ground with gratitude.

"Get up, learn more from your father in the future." Jiajing said, and didn't forget to mention it.

"I've heard what you've just discussed, and a large part of the responsibility for last year's deficit in the treasury lies with me! I was bewitched by the Fang Shi and built a temple on a large scale, working the people and losing money, so that the state affairs were difficult here, and I am here to compensate you first! ”

"Your Majesty, no! Eating the king, sharing worries for the king is the duty of the courtiers, how can we accept this gift of the Son of Heaven! ”

I saw Xu Jie's tears flowing, and he took the lead in kneeling on the ground, and then the other people in the room also knelt down with panicked faces, and for a while the ministers cried and made a mess.