Eat the whole family? I emptied the storehouse of the Marquis' Mansion and married the crippled

Ye Jintang has always been a very tough person. This time, she closed the gambling house not only to take advantage of Qin's customs, but also to keep the business of the gambling house in her own hands, which could bring in more money than any other industry.

Based on her understanding of Xiao Mo, he would not wait for 2 or 3 years before attacking Xirong. He would be able to send troops by next summer at the latest.

In order to ensure food and grass in such a short period of time, Ye Jintang had to think of some unconventional strategies.

There were several gambling houses in the capital that had never been closed down, and there were powerful forces behind them, but Ye Jintang did not take them seriously at all. She directly sent the Imperial Guards to close down the gambling houses, and anyone who dared to stop them would be arrested and tried to see if they had any connection with Empress Dowager Naruhito.

Her actions immediately caused dissatisfaction among many people, but they couldn't report such a small matter to Xiao Mo. There was nothing they could do since she was the queen. They could only quickly prove that the gambling house had nothing to do with Empress Dowager Naruhito. As for when to reopen it, that was not up to them.

Things are going on in an orderly manner. The hot summer is coming to an end and the weather is finally getting a little cooler.

Gambling houses in various cities were closed one after another, and large amounts of silver were transported to the capital from all over the country.

All this silver was the private property of Empress Dowager Naruhito hidden in the dark. The first batch of one million taels of silver arrived in the capital first.

The Minister of Revenue Lu Qixian was the first to receive the news. At first he thought that the money would go into the national treasury, but it didn't. After arriving in the capital, the money went directly into Xiao Mo's small treasury.

"Master Shangshu, what should we do? You promised me to use this money to buy winter clothes for the soldiers. Now it will be put into the emperor's treasury. What about our winter clothes?"

General Ding sat in the inner hall of the Ministry of Revenue with a gloomy face, and he looked like he would stay in the Ministry of Revenue unless he was given an explanation today.

"General Ding, I don't know what went wrong. Logically, this money should go into the national treasury."

Lu Qixian had a bitter face. The treasury was empty and he wished he could break a copper coin into two. Without this money, the winter clothes for the soldiers in the South Camp would have to wait a little longer to see if he could squeeze out some tax silver after the autumn harvest.

"I don't care. Lord Lu must give me an explanation today. It's already autumn. If we don't hurry up and make winter clothes, all the soldiers in the South Camp will be freezing this winter. We haven't bought winter clothes for five years. Do you know how tattered the soldiers' winter clothes are after not changing them for five years?"

Ordinary people may be able to barely wear winter clothes if they don't change them for five years, but soldiers who have to train and fight every day can't bear it. After a battle, they may not be able to wear their winter clothes. What's more, they don't know how many times they have trained in winter in the past five years, and they have been fighting battles of all sizes.

"Hey, General Ding, how could I not know your difficulties? But everyone has difficulties. You haven't received winter clothing money for five years. Our Ministry of Revenue almost couldn't even pay salaries around the New Year last year. It was only thanks to the emperor's use of the slush fund that we had money for the New Year."

Suddenly, the two of them were visibly stunned. They exchanged glances and shouted almost in unison, "Little Treasury?"

"General Ding has also noticed it. I feel like the emperor's treasury is never used up. I seem to have borrowed more than 100 million taels of silver from the emperor."

Lu Qixian took an account book from the bookshelf with a look of surprise.

"I remember correctly. The Emperor lent me 14 million taels of silver in 130 installments."

General Ding glanced at the account book and agreed, "I saw the emperor's personal guards in Mucheng. The weapons they used and the armor they wore were all first-rate. And their food was many times better than that of our soldiers in the South Camp. I have never seen soldiers eating white flour buns and fried bread while marching and fighting."

"General Ding, why don't you go ask the emperor? Maybe he will just lend you this batch of silver with a wave of his hand."

"Okay, I'll go now."

General Ding also felt that instead of wasting his time talking to Lu Qixian here, it would be better to try his luck with Xiao Mo.

It was mid-afternoon, and Xiao Mo was usually in the imperial study at this time, so General Ding rushed over immediately.

At this moment, Ye Jintang was discussing with Xiao Mo the matter of having her eyes on several female officials.

Ye Jintang was optimistic about the four female officials, but she didn't know much about their families, so she came to Xiao Mo to inquire.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, General Ding wants to see you for something."

"Oh? What could General Ding do so late in the afternoon?"

"Your Majesty, General Ding came from the Minister of Revenue."

After Jiang Heng said this, Xiao Mo and Ye Jintang immediately understood that he was probably here for the money.

"Good fellow, that one million taels of silver has just been deposited into my treasury and hasn't even had time to warm up yet, and someone is already eyeing it."

Ye Jintang on the side said with a smile, "Besides General Ding, there will probably be many more people behind him. The Emperor will have a headache."

"My private treasury has more money than the national treasury, which is also a trouble."

After a while, General Ding entered the imperial study.

He was a cheerful person and didn't beat around the bush with Xiao Mo. He just told him his difficulties directly.

"Your Majesty, I have been arguing with the Ministry of Revenue for five years. The Ministry of Revenue always has various reasons and just won't give me the money. If it continues like this, the soldiers in the South Camp will have difficulty even training in the winter."

"General Ding, don't worry about this. The Queen made some preparations a few months ago. The first batch of winter clothes for the soldiers will probably be ready soon."

Xiao Mo looked at Ye Jintang and said, "If I remember correctly, the first batch should be 20 winter clothes. Can the South Camp get 5?"

"Your Majesty remembers correctly."

Ye Jintang looked at General Ding and continued, "General Ding, rest assured. Before winter comes, I will ensure that all soldiers in the South Camp can change into winter clothes. Before the beginning of next spring, all soldiers' weapons and armor will also be gradually replaced."

"The war horses I raise will be able to arrive in the capital next spring. By then, the general will give General Ding at least 5 war horses."

General Ding was sitting on the chair, listening to Ye Jintang talking. He felt like everything was a dream. He pinched his leg hard, and the pain made him feel that he was not dreaming.

"Does the Queen mean what she said?"

Looking at General Ding's puzzled expression, Ye Jintang smiled with his eyebrows curved. He couldn't believe that a big pie suddenly fell from the sky.

"General Ding, rest assured. I will not only replace the weapons of the soldiers in the South Camp, but also the soldiers in other camps."

"Change them all? How much silver will that cost?"

General Ding was completely dumbfounded. He didn't even dare to think about how much money it would cost to replace the equipment of the entire army. It would definitely be an astronomical figure for him.

"General, rest assured. Since I dare to say this, I must be fully prepared."

General Ding himself didn't remember how he walked out of the imperial study. That night he had called together a group of his military friends and had a rare night of drinking. He hadn't been so happy for a long time.

General Ding's actions gave some court officials hope.

So the next day after the morning court session, five officials came to Xiao Mo at once to borrow money. Xiao Mo, who was sitting on the dragon throne, was so angry that he laughed. These people treated him as a cash cow.