Food bloggers made fortunes in ancient times

Kang Ruidi frowned, his face becoming uglier: "How could the treasury be so empty?"

Lord Chen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and replied carefully: "Your Majesty, natural disasters have occurred frequently in various places in recent years, and the court has allocated a large amount of silver for disaster relief."

"In addition, the cost of repairing the imperial mausoleum last year was quite high, so the national treasury is really stretched to the limit now."

Emperor Kangrui stood up suddenly, glanced at everyone in the court, and was furious: "Natural disaster relief and repair of the imperial mausoleum are both major national affairs!"

"And the renovation of the imperial mausoleum was a matter of several months ago. How could the national treasury be left so empty?"

All the civil and military officials in the court did not dare to look directly at Emperor Kangrui, and there was deathly silence in the hall.

Emperor Conrad was an ambitious monarch, but it was obvious that his ability did not match his ambition. At this moment, he could do nothing about this group of old foxes except for being incompetent and furious.

After a long while, he suppressed his anger and said through gritted teeth: "This matter must be thoroughly investigated! I want to see how the money for repairing the imperial mausoleum was spent in such an unclear way!"

After saying this, he cast a sharp gaze towards the Minister of Justice, Lord Zhao: "Mr. Zhao, this matter is now in your hands. You must get to the bottom of it. If any official has embezzled money, they must be severely punished!"

Lord Zhao hurried out, knelt down and accepted the order, but he was complaining in his heart.

This involves a wide range of people, and many officials in the court may be related to this matter. If one is not careful, he will offend a large number of people, and his own career will be in jeopardy.

But he could only bite the bullet and agree to it since it was difficult to disobey the emperor's order.

At this time, Lord Sun, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, stepped forward and said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, even if we can recover some of the embezzled silver, I am afraid it will not be able to solve the urgent need for food and grass in the northern border."

"The most urgent task now is to find a way to raise military pay as soon as possible."

After hearing this, Emperor Kangrui frowned and after thinking for a moment, he said, "Pass the order down and ask the governors of various places to collect food and grass in their jurisdictions and send them to the northern border within half a month."

As soon as these words were spoken, a low murmur of discussion suddenly arose in the court.

Some officials murmured quietly: "The Jiedushi of various places already have their own troops and are very powerful. If we ask them to collect food and fodder, I'm afraid they will take the opportunity to expand their power and become too powerful to be eliminated."

At this time, Li Xiang stepped forward and offered a suggestion: "Your Majesty, the princes of various places have been holding their own troops for a long time. If the military governors are allowed to expand their power, it may endanger the court."

"Why not use this opportunity to raise food and fodder to readjust the local military and political layout. Ask the princes to send troops to help transport food and fodder. This will not only help solve the urgent problem in the northern border, but also take the opportunity to weaken the princes' military strength."

Emperor Kangrui had long been displeased with those vassal kings, but he had never had the opportunity to discipline them.

Especially last year, two iron mines that had been mined were discovered in Prince Chen’s foreign territory, which made Emperor Kang Rui feel like a thorn in his side.

Unfortunately, when the two iron mines were discovered, the site had already been destroyed beyond recognition, and no evidence that could directly incriminate King Chen could be found.

When Prince Chen learned of this, he immediately submitted a petition, crying that he was loyal to the court and had no intention of treason. He also said that the iron ore might have been illegally mined by refugees and that he was indeed negligent in its management, and begged His Majesty to forgive him.

Therefore, no matter how much Emperor Kangrui was afraid of Prince Chen, he could only let him go for the time being.

At this moment, hearing Li Xiang mention the idea of ​​weakening the power of the vassal kings by raising grain, it was exactly what he wanted.

Kang Ruidi's eyes flashed with ruthlessness: "Prime Minister Li, you must draw up detailed rules for this matter as soon as possible, and there must be no mistakes!"

Li Xiang bowed and said, "I obey your order!"

Emperor Kang Rui sat back on the dragon chair, rubbed his brows, and said, "My dear ministers, do you have anything else to say?"

For a moment, no one answered.

Emperor Kangrui looked at the silent ministers and suddenly felt a little frustrated. As the king of a country, he was helpless against these old ministers.

"Forget it, everyone leave." Kang Ruidi waved his hand, his voice full of fatigue.

The ministers bowed and took their leave as if they had been pardoned.

Emperor Kangrui sat alone in the court for a long time, with a lot of thoughts in his mind.

He thought of the ambitions he had when he first ascended the throne, and then looked at the current situation, and felt heavy in his heart.

Since twenty years ago, the northern border has been in constant war and several cities have been lost.

When my father was alive, he valued civil officials over military ones, which resulted in military generals being neglected. The army was filled with mediocre people, and except for Han Qinggang, no one was useful.

Now facing the crisis in the northern border, Kang Ruidi feels powerless.

Once Feiyun City falls, the Hu cavalry will be able to march straight into the heart of the Jin Dynasty as if they were in an empty land.

At that time, he, the emperor, would become the eternal sinner of the Jin Dynasty and would not be able to face his ancestors.

Emperor Kangrui was extremely anxious, thinking about how to resolve the crisis in the northern border while stabilizing the court, suppressing the power of the princes, and keeping power firmly in his own hands.

But he didn't know that the Jin Dynasty was already riddled with holes and full of crises.

The Hu people outside are eyeing the country covetously, and the vassal kings inside are ready to make a move, just waiting for the right opportunity to raise the banner of rebellion and fight for the world.

Coupled with successive natural disasters, the people were suffering terribly and resentment was boiling. In some places, the victims even rose up in rebellion and formed uprising armies to fight against the government.

The Great Jin Dynasty was like a building about to collapse, shaky and crumbling.

Yunshan County, Songzhou.

When Song Yan learned of the defeat in Northern Xinjiang, it was already early February, more than two months had passed since the defeat.

At this time, Song Yan was holding a strawberry and carefully peeling off the thin layer of flesh with seeds attached along the skin of the strawberry.

Song Yan plans to plant a few acres of strawberries after the spring, and first try to see if he can successfully grow strawberries in Yunshan County.

He thought that if successful, Yuecha would have another signature iced drink after the summer this year.

He had no intention of selling the strawberries to other places for the time being, because strawberries are extremely perishable. In this era without efficient preservation technology, long-distance transportation would cause huge losses, and it is very likely that the strawberries would rot on the way before they are shipped to other places.

At present, the strawberries can only be sold in a small area around Yunshan County to make them famous.

He had already made up his mind that when the strawberries were ripe, he would give a small plate of them for free to the regular customers of Yue Cha so that everyone could have a taste. With the reputation Yue Cha had accumulated, there would be no shortage of customers.

By the time Song Yan finished processing the basket of strawberries, it was already dusk.

The remaining strawberry flesh is just enough to make a few strawberry cakes.

Song Yan skillfully beat the eggs, stirred and baked, and soon, the sweet strawberry cake was freshly baked.

He took the strawberry cake to the study to find Shu Changyu, and happened to hear Eleven reporting on the latest battle situation in the northern border.

Song Yan's hand holding the cake paused slightly, and the relaxed smile on her face faded a little.

He walked into the study, put the strawberry cake on the table, and looked at Shu Changyu and Eleven with concern: "Is the situation in Northern Xinjiang very bad?"

Eleven glanced at Shu Changyu, and when he saw him nod slightly, he spoke: "In reply to your question, although Feiyun City has been temporarily defended, it has suffered heavy losses, and the food and grass are almost exhausted."

Song Yan frowned, sat down on a chair beside him, picked up a piece of cake, but lost interest in eating: "Has Lin Yifeng arrived in Northern Xinjiang now? Is he in danger?"

If he had known that Northern Xinjiang would be in danger, he should have persuaded Lin Yifeng not to go.

But it was too late to say anything now. Swords and knives were merciless on the battlefield, and Lin Yifeng was just a weak scholar. He was afraid that if the barbarians came to kill him, he wouldn't even be able to protect himself.

Seeing Song Yan's nervous look, Shu Changyu sneered, "Don't worry, he's not as weak as you think."

Besides, he had already received the message from Lin Yifeng, which mentioned that he was temporarily safe.

But Luo Tinghan has been in a coma until now, the intelligence from Beiting has been cut off, and Song Yuanshan's whereabouts are unknown.

Of course, Shu Changyu didn't mention any of these. Before he could actually bring Song Yuanshan back safely, Shu Changyu would not let Song Yan know that Song Yuanshan was still alive.