Chen Wenchang's body was shaking uncontrollably.
Although he already knew about this, hearing Lu Chen's cold words still made his heart suddenly rise to his throat, and cold sweat instantly wet his back.
At the same time, his mind was spinning rapidly to determine the intention of Lu Chen's words.
Is it to beat him or threaten him? Or maybe both?
Then, this may also be an opportunity for him!
The leader of the household department is dead. As long as he performs well at this moment, he might be able to reach the sky in one step!
Go sit in that seat that you have always dreamed of sitting in!
Taking a deep breath, he immediately risked his life and said: "Your Highness, during his tenure as the Minister of Household Affairs, Li Yun took countless bribes. Such a treacherous minister should be punished!"
"Your Majesty's act of killing these two ministers is an act of great devotion to benefit the people of Liming!"
Lu Chen raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
"Yes, you are a smart man."
"I am really a stupid person. I have to obey His Highness's orders!" Chen Wenchang quickly expressed his loyalty.
Lu Chen nodded. Since he is a smart person, it will be convenient for him to do things.
Now that he has no foundation among civil and military officials, and Ji Wuye's followers are everywhere, he must quickly cultivate his own power.
This Chen Wenchang can be among his training targets.
"As long as you know."
Lu Chen's tone returned to coldness and he threw the memorial to Chen Wenchang: "Let's take a look."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Chen Wenchang immediately caught the memorial and opened it carefully.
After seeing it, he breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out to be because of this.
Immediately, he said respectfully: "Your Highness, the disaster in Jiangnan Road has become increasingly serious. In the past two months, there have been hundreds of memorials submitted to the imperial court for relief."
"Then why doesn't the Ministry of Household Affairs allocate funds for disaster relief?"
Lu Chen asked coldly.
Chen Wenchang did not give those empty reasons, and said briefly and clearly: "Back to Your Highness, the disaster in Jiangnan Road is very serious, and the national treasury inventory is only more than 500,000 yuan, and the money used for disaster relief is just a drop in the bucket. If it is used for disaster relief, this year's official salary will not be enough." Issued to."
"Therefore, the Ministry of Household Affairs requires Jiangnan Province to raise food for disaster relief on its own."
Lu Chen snorted coldly and said: "As far as I know, Dafeng's annual tax revenue is nearly 70 million taels. Why is there only a mere 500,000 taels left in the treasury? Where did those tens of millions taels go?"
Chen Wenchang smiled bitterly and had no choice but to answer: "Your Highness, there are constant natural and man-made disasters. Last year there was a severe drought in Hebei Province and there was no harvest. This year there was a flood in Jiangnan Province... Taxes and silver have been falling again and again, and the Huns have been deducting border and military expenditures. Expenses keep increasing...so..."
"Only this?"
Lu Chen narrowed his eyes and his tone became a little colder.
Chen Wenchang suddenly broke into a cold sweat and his heart beat wildly, knowing that the topic of death was coming.
If he didn't answer well, he would probably move his head immediately.
Gritting his teeth, he took the risk and said, "Back to Your Highness, the most important reason is that all the vassal kings have not paid taxes this year and have kept the tax money for themselves."
"In this case, the national treasury has been reduced by more than 20 million taels of silver. There was a drought in Hebei Province last year, and this year His Majesty issued a tax exemption, so another reduction of more than 10 million taels of silver..."
Lu Chen narrowed his eyes.
The vassal king is Da Feng’s immediate thorn in his side!
Three hundred years after the founding of Dafeng, these vassal kings have already formed a cancer.
Sitting on the ground to collect taxes, one side of the separatist regime no longer obeys the court's orders, and now it no longer even turns over the tax money.
However, it is not easy to deal with the feudal king. You can only wait for him to take control of the military after he ascends the throne!
Taking a deep breath, Lu Chen said: "I understand."
"But... there's one more thing you didn't say, right?"
Chen Wenchang trembled all over and broke into a cold sweat. That was a topic he did not dare to touch.
"Apart from the vassal king and the Minister of Revenue, are there no other officials who are greedy for ink?"
Lu Chen's voice became colder and colder.
"Plop!"
Chen Wenchang knelt on the ground, closed his eyes, and said loudly: "Your Highness, I want to expose those corrupt officials!"
If he can become the second-in-command in the household department, he is certainly not a fool.
We have already analyzed what Lu Chen wants to do from his words.
He knew that once he said this, it meant that he would side with Lu Chen and directly oppose the civil and military officials.
But if he doesn't take sides, he's afraid Lu Chen will kill him immediately.
Lu Chen snorted softly and softened his tone a lot: "Write down all the corrupt officials you know and give them to me, and I will let the Jin Yiwei deal with them."
"Now that the common people are struggling to survive, it's time to take action on them."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Chen Wenchang said tremblingly.
Then, Lu Chen changed the subject: "Nowadays, natural and man-made disasters continue, and the people are struggling to make ends meet. The first thing that must be controlled is food prices."
"Go, call me the boss of the big grain merchant in the imperial capital, and tell me that I will hold a banquet for them."
Lu Chen didn't need to think about it to know that food prices must be ridiculously high now. In addition to disaster relief, the first thing that needed to be stabilized was food prices.
"this……"
Chen Wenchang hesitated: "Your Highness hosted the banquet in person. Isn't it too honorable for them?"
"Such trivial matters can be handled by me."
He wants to show what he can do.
"No need, I will do it myself."
Lu Chen refused, and then said: "Go and do as you are told. Now the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue is vacant. Whether you can take the position of Minister depends on your performance."
"yes!"
Chen Wenchang held up his hand and did not dare to talk nonsense: "I will do anything to His Highness, no matter what!"
The rights of the first-in-command and the second-in-command are not the same.
The Hubu is in charge of money and food among the six ministries. Although its status is not as good as the Officials, Shangshu and Tianguan, it has almost the greatest power.
Anyone who wants money must come to him.
After Chen Wenchang left, Lu Chen rubbed his brows tiredly. It was indeed quite energy-consuming to deal with these government affairs.
Sande arrived at this time and wanted to report to Lu Shen: "Your Highness, Dongchang, who is in charge of the villain, has received news that a month ago, the Korean envoy arrived and asked Dafeng to send troops to help them solve the crisis of being invaded by Japan. Your Majesty did not Agree. Now the Goryeo mission is spending a lot of money to bribe ministers one by one in an attempt to get Dafeng to send troops."
"Gaoli is here to cause trouble again..." Lu Chen took a deep breath: "Please tell me about this matter in detail."
Sande immediately reported in detail.
After a while, Lu Chen also learned the whole story in detail.
The matter is not complicated, it's just that Korea can't defeat Japan, so it comes to ask for help.
As the emperor became seriously ill, the mission was left alone without a reply, so he had other ideas and used money to pay bribes.
"snort!"
Lu Chen raised the corner of his mouth slightly: "It seems that the Korean mission is very rich! The national treasury is empty, so send someone to keep an eye on all the officials who were bribed and record them all for me. After this matter has passed for a while, all the officials will be recorded. Officials confiscated their homes and dismissed from office!”
"Since they have also contributed to the national treasury, there is no need to chop off their heads."
"yes!"
Sande bowed, silently mourning for those officials in his heart.
