Ouchi Taming the Cat, starting with the Ten Tiger Forms!

Chapter 473 Bad News

"Your Highness is so complimentary."

"Although Bileg has lived in the desert for a long time, he has already heard of His Highness's reputation."

"I'm lucky enough to meet you today. I truly live up to my reputation."

King Zheng and Bileg were still thinking of blowing rainbow farts to each other in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment.

It can be seen that both of them are very indifferent to the current situation.

I just don’t know if these two people are really taking it calmly, or if they are deliberately pretending.

"Lord Wolf would probably be very sad if he knew that Ambassador Bileg was treated like this in the capital."

Regarding King Zheng's words, Bileg just smiled slightly and did not make any further remarks. Instead, he said:
"I'm afraid that the Wolf Lord now has more heartbreaking problems to solve."

"Isn't it, Your Highness?"

Ever since he was imprisoned, Bileg knew that things were going to take a step he didn't expect.

Judging from the fact that King Zheng would appear in front of him today, Bileg knew that all this was a huge gamble by the Daxing Emperor.

After all, he is the envoy of Da Mo. It is not difficult to guess why Daxing dares to treat them like this. That is that Daxing no longer needs the hypocritical friendship between the two countries.

"I also feel very sorry for this matter."

"Our Majesty is still very young and will inevitably be impulsive, but I think he will realize his mistake in the near future."

King Zheng said confidently.

Bileg looked at Prince Zheng in front of him. Although he kept a smile on his face, he was already very wary of this person in his heart.

Even he, the desert envoy, was very aware of King Zheng's ambition.

But it is such a person who still controls the wind and rain in Daxing, has overwhelming power, and has stood firm for many years.

Bileg had no doubts about what King Zheng said.

There is no need for such people to bluff with words.

After his first meeting with King Zheng, Bileg couldn't help but start to wonder in his heart whether his mission to Daxing was right or wrong?

At the moment, it seems that no matter whether it is Emperor Yongyuan or Prince Zheng who will sit on the throne in the future, it seems difficult to say which one is a better situation for Da Mo.

"I hope the two countries can remain friendly in the future."

Bileg said sincerely.

"Peace is our common aspiration."

King Zheng left these words, put on his hood again, said goodbye and left.

The private meeting between the two was very short, and they did not exchange much useful information verbally. It seemed like it was just a simple greeting.

But what exactly the two people exchanged, perhaps only they themselves know best.

……

In the next few days, the three little ones continued to visit various government offices in the capital to supervise the work of these officials.

But now they have learned how to deal with Princess Ankang. Even if they are deliberately looking for trouble, they will greet her with a smile and never give Princess Ankang a chance to get angry.

This made Princess Ankang, who wanted to play the role of a domineering princess, start to feel a little embarrassed.

And now, Li Xuan is seriously criticizing Princess Ankang for not being deeply involved in the drama.

"But, A Xuan."

"Every time we go there, they serve us delicious food and drinks. I randomly checked their work to find that it was not in compliance with the rules, but they were very cooperative and didn't complain at all."

"Even if they do whatever I say, why am I still so angry under such circumstances?"

Princess Ankang argued aggrievedly.

Li Xuan didn't care, slapped his tail on the ground, and lectured fiercely:
"Does the arrogant princess still need a reason to get angry?"

"The tea is too hot, the snacks are not delicious, and the other party is too ugly..."

"If you want to find an excuse to get angry, why can't you find one?"

"You little girl is just slacking off!"

Princess Ankang and Yu'er couldn't help but have dark expressions on their faces after seeing the reasons listed by Li Xuan.

"Axuan, how will your Highness behave from now on?"

Yu'er stepped forward to defend Princess Ankang.

She felt that if Princess Ankang really did this, her future reputation would be ruined.

"I'm confused. For the sake of Daxing's future, what does it mean to sacrifice your reputation?"

"When Daxing really becomes turbulent in the future, I'm afraid it's not just this reputation that will be sacrificed."

Li Xuan shook his head and said helplessly.

After all, the two girls are still young and have many naive ideas.

Neither Emperor Yongyuan nor Prince Zheng are ordinary people.

When two tigers fight each other, the momentum is not mutual.

If King Zheng's ambition cannot be extinguished in time and he is allowed to cause trouble, then the entire Daxing and even the world will be turbulent, and countless innocent people will be involved.

Li Xuan naturally does not want Princess Ankang and Yu'er to live in such a world.

"But if we make trouble unreasonably, wouldn't it delay their preparations for war?"

Princess Ankang put her chin on her palm and asked in confusion.

Li Xuan was silent and speechless.

Princess Ankang is right.

Although it is unclear why King Zheng allowed these officials to actively prepare for war, there is nothing wrong with blocking what the enemy wants to do.

In the past few days, Li Xuan didn't stop at night, going back and forth to the residences of important officials in various yamen, but he never found anything.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs is also actively investigating, but there is no news until now.

Such a smooth preparation process made Li Xuan not happy at all, and even worried.

During this period of investigation, he clearly understood that these officials were not just acting, but were seriously advancing the process, and even the efficiency was quite gratifying.

But the more this happened, the more uneasy Li Xuan became.

Now, not only the two managers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also Emperor Yongyuan were silent.

Fortunately, they had vowed before, but it looked like the war was really about to start.

Although Emperor Yongyuan said that it would be a good thing for them that the war started, Li Xuan just felt that something was wrong.

Although he had only met King Zheng from a distance a few times before, he was sure that this was not a person who was willing to surrender easily.

"Axuan, don't be anxious yet."

"We'd better wait for the news before taking action."

Princess Ankang touched Li Xuan to calm his impatience.

After visiting all the yamen in the capital as usual during the day, the three little ones returned to Jingyang Palace at dusk.

When the three little front legs came back, the two stewards came to visit.

Surprisingly, neither of the two stewards looked very good-looking.

Not only that, they also brought bad news.

"We have found out what they are doing."

Zhao Feng said and took out a stack of memorials and secret letters.

Manager Shang continued:

"They are not preparing for war, but emptying the treasury!"

"What!?"

The three little ones widened their eyes in shock.

Princess Ankang immediately looked through the memorials and secret letters. In Princess Ankang's arms, Li Xuan lay down at the table and started reading together.

As they quickly browsed the contents of the memorial and the secret letter, Li Xuan and Princess Ankang gradually frowned. The contents of the memorials are all similar, and they are all kinds of urgent documents.

"Money, grain, ordnance, supplies..."

"Is the treasury about to be emptied?"

Princess Ankang couldn't help asking after reading it.

According to the accounts in the memorial, although Daxing's original treasury was not rich, it was definitely not empty.

But in the past few days, the consumption in the accounts has been like running water, and it has begun to bottom out.

Even before the war started, the treasury was already in dire straits.

"In less than half a month, preparations for the war have already reached the point of being on the verge of bankruptcy."

Manager Shang sighed, as if he had not expected such a situation.

Only then did Li Xuan realize that the officials who had prepared so seriously for the war were just to drain the treasury and make the war aborted, announcing it was aborted during the preparation stage.

"The reserves in the national treasury are originally sufficient, right?"

"Otherwise, my father would not insist on starting a war."

"Are they really not afraid of death when they do this?"

The memorials and secret messages in front of her completely broke through Princess Ankang's understanding.

In her opinion, this was a blatant provocation to the imperial power.

Originally, the mission of the three little ones was to find out those who were passive and slack in preparing for the war, so as to punish them and weaken the power of King Zheng's men.

But now, King Zheng took the initiative to commit crimes that were enough to send all his men to beheaded.

Regarding Princess Ankang's problem, Manager Shang gave a detailed explanation.

He first took a memorial, then looked at the accounts on it and began to explain them one by one.

"Your Highness, what is recorded here is not the general ledger that has been consumed."

"The upper part, which accounts for less than half of the consumption, is materials that directly support the front line."

"And the remaining half is the estimated consumption account for assembling an army of 200,000 for the expedition."

Princess Ankang quickly understood the accounts according to Manager Shang's explanation, but even so she did not feel much better.

"In other words, supplies to support the front line have begun to be mobilized, and some of them are already on their way to the front line."

"As for the 200,000-strong army heading out to the desert, we haven't seen a single shadow yet, but the remaining reserves in the treasury are no longer enough for the army to go out, right?"

"They want to use this to force my father to take back his life?"

"But this account is wrong, isn't it?"

“They went so far in falsifying their accounts, how many people would they have to push out to take the blame?”

Princess Ankang was right.

Even in Li Xuan's opinion, this strategy is not profound, even stupid.

"Isn't this taking the initiative to hand the knife to Emperor Yongyuan?"

Emperor Yongyuan was worried that he could not find a chance to deal with King Zheng's gang members.

If this matter is investigated further and accused of delaying foreign wars and embezzling the treasury, then why not make it bloody?
"Your Highness, their mastery lies here."

Zhao Feng said, clenching his fists with an ugly expression.

"They haven't touched a penny of the money in the treasury."

Zhao Feng's words made the three little ones feel baffled.

Princess Ankang even asked more: "But the accounts in this memorial..."

"They advanced money from the treasury." Zhao Feng took a deep breath and closed his eyes unwillingly: "From the prefectures and counties around the front line."

The three little ones blinked, not understanding what they meant.

Manager Shang pressed Zhao Feng's shoulder and explained for him:

"Your Majesty dares to speak out and is well prepared to deal with it. He has close confidants who support him in several important yamen. The expenditure of the treasury is closely monitored by His Majesty."

"I didn't expect that Prince Zheng would find a way to bypass these people."

"In the name of supporting the front line as soon as possible, they directly transferred all the needed supplies and grain from the warehouses of prefectures and counties around the front line to the front line. The remaining part was collected from the private sector in the name of temporary war tax."

"This matter is gradually expanding its scope and its impact is extremely harmful."

Hearing this, the hearts of the three little ones all trembled.

"In principle, the materials collected from the temporary war tax will be repaid to the people in batches from the national treasury in the next few years, so it is said to be an advance payment to the national treasury."

"The reason for such a huge expenditure is that they directly mobilized supplies and food for the two hundred thousand troops from the beginning, which will produce a lot of waste during transportation."

"Things that should have been done step by step were mentioned directly from the beginning to maximize consumption."

When the three little ones heard this, they couldn't help but look at each other.

Just listening to Manager Shang's explanation, they could already imagine what was happening in the counties around the front line.

In the name of the imperial court, local officials emptied the treasury and at the same time levied excessive taxes on the people.

The explanation for all this may be that Emperor Yongyuan launched a war against the desert on a whim.

It is conceivable how much resentment the people will have towards Emperor Yongyuan if this process is pushed forward by someone with intentions.

Thinking of this scene, Li Xuan couldn't help but swallow.

"And how much supplies were collected, how much was consumed on the way, and how much was left after being finally sent to the front line."

"It's difficult for us to verify the details in the capital."

"Even if we verify them one by one in the future, it will take a lot of time and energy."

Speaking of this, Manager Shang also showed a rare look of exhaustion.

"In other words, King Zheng took advantage of this opportunity to not only damage his father's prestige among the people, but also embezzled a large amount of money, food, grass and other materials collected from the people. In the end, he forced his father to stop preparing for war, withdraw his life, and lost his face. …”

"Do you kill three birds with one stone?"

Princess Ankang murmured to herself, with a complicated expression.

Before getting the news, Princess Ankang really thought that those officials had learned from the mistakes made by the magistrate of Chang'an and began to work hard and obey the orders of Emperor Yongyuan.

But now it seems that she was really too naive.

"Now, we are in a dilemma."

Manager Shang sighed.

Suddenly, Li Xuan jumped on the table and wrote with his tail:

"I didn't complete the task."

"Axuan, this matter has nothing to do with you!" Zhao Feng said flatly.

"Is our entire Ministry of Internal Affairs just a decoration? Do we need to put all the responsibility on you, a cat?"

"This matter has been found out. It was several low-level officials from the Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Household Affairs and Ministry of War who falsely sent orders to the local government. The local government actively cooperated, which resulted in such consequences."

"The Ministry of Internal Affairs failed to detect it in time and is fully to blame!"

Zhao Feng lowered his eyes and looked gloomy.

The three little ones couldn't help but feel a little silent when they saw Zhao Feng's terrifying appearance for the first time.

Manager Shang said nothing.

Now the general manager of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is Zhao Feng, and he needs to handle these matters himself.

Otherwise, it will only be a matter of time before Zhao Feng loses His Majesty's trust.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Xuan asked Zhao Feng:
"Is there anything else I can do?"

"There will be." Zhao Feng said firmly.

"Whatever they eat, I will make sure they spit it out twice as much!"

Zhao Feng's tone was cold and frightening.

(End of this chapter)