The eldest son of the red mansion

Chapter 357
After reading the memorial, Liu Wan laughed, "What I thought was the matter, it turned out to be it. In this way, I can explain it to the adults."

Seeing Liu Wan's unhurried look, Jia Ke knew that there might be secrets in it that he didn't know, and maybe this matter was aimed at him.

Liu Yu, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, stepped forward quickly and said to Liu Wan: "Deyan (Liu Wan's character), this matter is not trivial, so don't talk about it casually." After speaking, he kept blinking at him. Yu knew the magnitude of this matter. Whether the final 300 million taels was embezzled by the Ministry of Household Affairs or detained by the local government, it was a major case.

Liu Wan said nonchalantly: "This is a business matter, and there is nothing I can't tell people about it. I have no reason to talk nonsense."

Jia Ke looked at him sullenly and said, "So tell me, why this year's tax is short by 300 million taels."

Liu Wan looked at the room full of ministers of military aircraft, seemingly indifferent, with a smile on his face.In fact, he had already started beating drums in his heart. Only he and the emperor knew the secret of this matter.If one is not handled well, he is the emperor's scapegoat.

It turns out that although the emperor is now in charge of the hidden guards, and all the courtiers are leaning on him, but because the hidden guards are really expensive, and the Supreme Emperor doesn't know whether it is unintentional or intentional, he didn't hand over the royal family's financial power to him. All of a sudden, his already relatively well-off finances were a little stretched.In addition, the emperor has other calculations. He wants to give Jia Ke some color. Let's see how he can maintain the operation of the court this year without money. Besides, there is no food and salary. Let's see how those arrogant soldiers support Jia. Ke.

That's why Liu Wan withheld some silver taels and sent them to the emperor's internal treasury. Liu Wan didn't want to agree, but faced with the emperor's imperial decree, she had no choice but to agree to the emperor. He has not had a good year this year. I have been thinking at home how to deal with the review of the Military Aircraft Department after the year.

Today, when he was sitting on pins and needles in the household department, suddenly a little eunuch came and ordered him to go to the military plane to answer.He knew that something had happened, so he could only force himself to remain calm, and followed the little eunuch to the military plane.

Liu Wan looked at the military ministers in the room, and waited for him to reply, so he could only bite the bullet and smiled and said, "This year's taxation should not have been like this, but during the water transport to the north, several ships carrying tax money capsized. Yes, I sent people to salvage up and down and found no trace of the ship, so there are only a few million missing."

This is the method that Liu Wan came up with after thinking about it for the entire Spring Festival. Although this method seems a bit stupid, it is more appropriate now because there is really no evidence.Even if the Military Aircraft Department and others want to investigate thoroughly, there is no way, because there is really no ship for them to investigate.

Jia Ke, you almost laughed out loud when you heard this, even a child can't be fooled by this, let alone a room full of smart people.When was there such a big storm on the Grand Canal?It even overturned the tax boat containing several million taels of silver.

Now that Jia Ke has arrived, she has remained silent. Jia Ke has a strong premonition that this matter is aimed at him.Before I figure out the cause and effect of the matter, and the emperor's purpose, I should not talk too much, otherwise I will let them catch me if I make a mistake, and I will not be able to explain it in the end.

Although Jia Ke didn't speak, the fiery old Meng Ming couldn't help it, he went straight to Liu Wan regardless of the occasion, and grabbed his chest, "Who are you kidding? I think my old man is foolish, these money are not trivial, if you take it against your conscience, our court will be in big trouble this year."

Tianye, the censor of Zuodu, stood by the side all the time without saying a word. Now he had turned a corner in his heart. Liu Wan hadn't had the guts to tamper with so much tax money. The emperor might have played a role in it.When Tian Ye thought of this, he felt chills for a while. In order to fight for power, the emperor even ignored the safety of the world.

Although Jia Ke threatened the emperor's power, so far he has not made any extraordinary moves.It is completely like a loyal minister and good general. At this time, what we need to do is to stabilize him and gradually weaken him over several years or even ten years, instead of ignoring the country and society in order to fight Jia Ke.

At this time, Liu Wan hurriedly explained to Old Mengming, "Mr., I really don't know where the tax money has gone. There is still a lot of money left. Let's stick to this year to tide over the difficulties together. It will be better when the autumn tax comes down." gone."

But old Meng Ming didn't take Liu Wan's words seriously, and still grabbed his collar and shouted loudly: "There are still hundreds of thousands of miles left after the autumn tax, how can the money left now be enough to spend? What if This year the Tatars invaded again, and there is no military reward, how can you let those soldiers work for you?"

This sentence of old Meng Ming reminded Jia Ke, and Jia Ke also understood what tricks the emperor was going to play this time. The emperor wanted to deduct the military salary of his direct line troops harshly, but he couldn't find a reason.Only when the silver is gone, can he justifiably not pay or pay less.At that time, Jia Ke's subordinates will have no military pay, and I'm afraid they will disperse in a hurry, which will be able to defeat others without fighting.

At that time, Jia Ke will rebel immediately, and he will have no money in his hands, and these big soldiers may not necessarily follow him. As long as Jia Ke is controlled in the capital, the world will probably be peaceful.

Presumably, the emperor had already arranged many of his own men in the original three battalions in the capital, as well as in the infantry commander's yamen and the imperial army.However, Jia Ke didn't take it seriously at all. Now the officials of more than a hundred households in these troops were trained by Jia Ke himself in the training class. He can rest assured of the loyalty of these people.

And the main generals of the major battalions were also single-handedly selected by Jia Ke and secretly controlled, so it is even more impossible for these people to rebel.Then the rest are those middle-level figures. These people are probably the ones the emperor is wooing, and they are also the ones who are most likely to rebel.However, these people do not directly control the army. If they want to use the army, they must go through hundreds of households under them. At that time, they will find that once they betray, they will not be able to mobilize a single soldier.

Jia Ke then decided to wait and see what happened. He wanted to see what tricks the emperor could make, and what kind of tricks the emperor would make in the end.The harder the emperor tosses, the faster the country will decline, the less difficult it will be for him to seize power in the end, and the greater the support of the people will be, so why not do it?
And more importantly, the emperor really regarded these generals as soft persimmons. If these Qiu Bamen start arguing about wages, it is not a joke.If the persecution is too severe, it will be up to the emperor to see how it ends.

Lei Ying, Minister of the Ministry of War, was also a little annoyed at this time. Every year, the Ministry of War is a big spender of money.This loss of so much money, I am afraid that most of it will be deducted from the Ministry of War in the end. In this way, the Qiu Bas all over the place will not be in trouble, and if this one is not good, it will be everywhere.

Lei Ying has worked in the Ministry of War for a long time, so he naturally knows the thoughts of the generals below. If they are not paid enough, these people will immediately rebel, let alone transfer.

At this time, Lei Ying didn't care about being the same emperor as Liu Wan. He strode forward and said to Liu Wan: "I don't care what method you use, you must give me this part of the money. Otherwise, I will let you Life is better than death." After Lei Ying said this, she stared at Liu Wan with flushed faces, and everyone didn't look like he was joking.It seemed that he was really in a hurry.

At this time, Liu Wan also regretted why he had agreed to the emperor at the beginning. If he knew this, he might as well resign and return to his hometown.But now he can't confess to the emperor, so he can only stand there without saying a word.

While they were arguing here, they heard a high-pitched and thin voice outside the Military Aircraft Office saying: "My lords, what is this arguing about? Even the emperor knows about it in Dongnuange."

Everyone was very familiar with the voice. It was the voice of the emperor's trusted eunuch Xia Shouzhong. Now Xia Shouzhong has fully taken over Dai Quan's job as the eunuch of Liugongdu, and he can already be called an internal minister.

As soon as Liu Wan heard his voice, he breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly shouted out: "Grandpa Xia, it's me, Liu Wan, and all the lords from the Military Aircraft Department are asking me about the shortage of tax money."

Xia Shouzhong, who was standing outside, didn't want to go in at first. He was still a little afraid of Jia Ke, the chief minister of the Military Aircraft Department. Last time because of Jia Ke, he was almost beaten to death by the Supreme Emperor.Now the Supreme Emperor, although he has broken with Jia Ke.But this scares him even more. He is the emperor's confidant and knows everything about the court.Knowing that Jia Ke's power is no less powerful than the current emperor.

But Liu Wan was the emperor's confidant after all, so he knew about what happened this time.If you don't go in and rescue him, I'm afraid he will sue the emperor and he won't be able to explain himself.

So Xia Shouzhong reluctantly asked the little eunuch to open the curtain and enter the military aircraft department.

As soon as Xia Shouzhong entered the military plane, he saw old Meng Ming and Lei Ying grabbing Liu Wan and looking like they were going to gang fight.But Jia Ke, the character they want to plot against, sits high on the main seat instead, as if he has nothing to do with himself.

Xia Shouzhong was startled when he saw the situation, whether Jia Ke didn't see the reason, or had a way to deal with it, so he didn't panic.If it is the latter, the emperor may lose his wife and lose his army this time.

As soon as Liu Wan saw Xia Shouzhong coming in, he stood at the door and didn't come up to rescue him, so he said quickly: "Grandpa Xia, quickly pull the two of them away, what kind of dignity is this?"

Xia Shouzhong finally came to his senses at this moment, and hurried forward to old Meng Ming and Lei Ying and said, "My lords, hurry up and do it, it's our own people who want to be so reckless."

Seeing Xia Shouzhong's persuasion, the two men were afraid that he was the emperor's confidant, and they could only sell him to save face, so they both let Liu Wan go.

Although Lei Ying and the others let go of Liu Wan, they were still very angry, especially Lei Ying, now he was staring at Liu Wan with red eyes, wishing to bite him a few times.

(End of this chapter)