At the beginning, I became a county magistrate with greed of 500 million. The empress asked me to be

"I'm afraid I'll disappoint Lord Zhao. Your Majesty and I are only as monarch and subject, and there is no other relationship."

After suppressing the awkward feeling in his heart, Xia Yun responded truthfully.

Not to mention the relationship, as far as he could remember, he had never even written a memorial to the empress in person.

However, when Zhao Gongming heard this, a look of suspicion appeared on his face.

As the Governor-General of Zhili, close to the capital, he was well aware of everything that had happened in the court over the past few days.

When he learned that Xia Yun was going to Beijing to report on his work, he read through the reports sent from the court over the past six months.

Eventually he came to a conclusion.

That means Xia Yun and the empress must have a special relationship!

First of all, in the Daliang Dynasty, if one wanted to rise from a seventh-rank county magistrate to a second-rank governor, it would take at least ten to twenty years of effort.

But Xia Yun was first appointed by the empress to be the county magistrate of the remote Dai County. Then, within just three years, he was promoted three levels higher and became a fourth-rank prefect.

Now, he has jumped one level higher and become the second-rank Governor of Zhejiang Province.

Such a speed of promotion is unique in the entire history of the Daliang Dynasty and is completely unprecedented.

More importantly, Zhao Gongming discovered from the court situations over the past one or two months that the empress always seemed to favor Xia Yun intentionally or unintentionally.

Several ministers on the spot, as well as the junior cabinet minister Xu Miao, impeached Xia Yun many times, but to no avail.

This is unprecedented in the past decade or so.

Combined with these unusual phenomena, Zhao Gongming became more and more certain about the relationship between Xia Yun and the empress.

"Master Xia, there is no need to rush to answer. I have been an official for more than 20 years, so I understand some things."

Zhao Gongming thought about it and believed that Xia Yun was deliberately hiding his incompetence, so an "I understand, I understand" attitude appeared on his face.

However, when Xia Yun saw his actions, he suddenly felt dizzy.

You know nothing!

Faced with Zhao Gongming's image of "King of Understanding", he had no choice but to explain again.

"Sir Zhao, I was born a commoner, but was fortunate enough to win the imperial examination. I think the reason why Your Majesty has appointed me is all because of this. Please don't misunderstand me, Sir Zhao."

Xia Yun felt helpless, and at the same time, he couldn't help but think again about the reason why Zhao Gongming held the banquet.

If the other party thought that there was some special relationship between him and the empress, then the reason why the other party specially invited him to a banquet and there were only two people in the box would have an answer.

Could it be that this guy has something to ask for?

Xia Yun thought about it. Xu Wan'er had told him before that although Zhao Gongming was the governor-general of Zhili and held a high position of power, he was not an official of the Jiangnan Party.

This is also one of the reasons why he happily attended the banquet.

Half of the reason why Zhao Gongming was able to sit on the position of Governor-General of Zhili was of course because of Zhao Gongming's own outstanding abilities.

On the other hand, it was because Zhao Gongming's father-in-law had once been the chief minister of the cabinet during the previous emperor's period.

When the previous emperor was alive, Zhao Gongming was recommended by his father-in-law and took the position of Governor-General of Zhili.

To this day, although Zhao Gongming's father-in-law has passed away, Zhao Gongming has served as the Governor-General of Zhili for more than ten years.

"Lord Xia, there is no need to say more. This governor understands everything!"

Even though Xia Yun explained again and again, Zhao Gongming just thought it was just Xia Yun's modesty.

After all, he would never believe that a seventh-rank county magistrate who had nothing to do with the empress could become a governor within three years.

Seeing this, Xia Yun knew that no matter what he said today, this "King of Understanding" in front of him probably wouldn't believe it.

Therefore, Xia Yun simply smiled bitterly and shook his head, no longer explaining the relationship between himself and the empress.

It was at this time that Zhao Gongming suddenly took out a tray covered with a layer of red cloth from a cabinet behind him.

When Zhao Gongming removed the red cloth from the tray, a bunch of shiny gold ingots were revealed.

"Master Xia, this is a small gift that I prepared for you. It is five hundred taels of gold. Please accept it, Master Xia."

Zhao Gongming smiled and handed the tray to Xia Yun while speaking.

However, Xia Yun, who had extremely keen observation skills, still saw the flash of heartache in Zhao Gongming's eyes.

"Xia has just arrived in Zhili, I am unfamiliar with the place, and I have not done anything, so how dare I accept the reward."

Xia Yun immediately shook his head.

Although he loved money, Changshan City was currently in dire straits, and people were saying that the Governor-General of Zhili was squeezing money from the people.

It was impossible for him to take the ill-gotten gains at this time.

Hearing this, Zhao Gongming, who had been smiling just now, suddenly showed a look of struggle and confusion on his face.

It was as if there was something unspeakable in his mouth that he couldn't say directly.

Seeing this, Xia Yun immediately decided not to beat around the bush with Zhao Gongming anymore.

"Master Zhao, if you have something to say, you can just say it. Why do you have to keep hiding it and use these things to bribe Xia?"

Xia Yun smiled happily.

Zhao Gongming was stunned for a moment, and seemed to realize that he had been too secretive in front of Xia Yun.

So Zhao Gongming stopped hiding it and immediately stated his true purpose.

"Sir Xia, to be honest, I do have a favor to ask of you, but it's not for me, Zhao, but for the people of Zhili!"

This time, Zhao Gongming's voice was sonorous and powerful, and he truly exuded the aura of the Governor-General of Zhili.

"Oh?"

Xia Yun raised his eyebrows. Zhao Gongming's answer surprised him a little. Then Xia Yun signaled Zhao Gongming to continue.

"Master Xia may not know that in May this year, the imperial court issued an order for all provinces to pay their tax debts. However, Zhili has been preparing for war against the northern barbarians for many years, and the tax debts owed have reached more than 30 million taels!"

"Now, even if we dig three feet deep into the Governor's Office, it would be difficult to dig out more than 30 million taels of silver!"

Zhao Gongming spoke repeatedly, his voice was helpless and sad, his face was furrowed, and he was completely different from his previous image.

After hearing this, Xia Yun fell into deep thought.

The so-called imperial tax silver refers to the various taxes and silver collected from the people in each province every year.

According to the rules of the imperial court, each province could only keep a fixed proportion of tax silver each year to maintain the operation of the government, and the vast majority of the rest of the tax silver had to be escorted to the capital.

However, there are some special cases, such as if some provinces encountered natural disasters such as drought and floods, or encountered foreign invasions, peasant rebellions and other human disasters in that year.

Then these provinces would withhold a portion of the tax silver that should have been sent to the imperial court that year and use it for the government to deal with natural disasters and man-made disasters.

The withheld tax silver would be counted as tax silver owed by various provinces in the court's accounts.

Generally speaking, the imperial court was sympathetic to the difficulties faced by officials in various provinces and often turned a blind eye to the arrears of taxes and silver and did not care about them.

For example, during the reign of the previous emperor, the court never collected any outstanding taxes.