I want to ruin the country

Zai Yuan came to see the emperor angrily,

"Your Majesty, this is absolutely unacceptable. Auctioning off our family fortune would be disgraceful, not to mention that Your Majesty is condescending to eat with those common people just for money. This, this ...

If he was not facing the emperor, Ruijin would have said all kinds of ugly words like "shameless" and "shameless for asking for money"!

Yining said nothing and refused to respond no matter what he said.

Zai Yuan felt even more suffocated and angry, and he tried his best to persuade the emperor,

"I beg Your Majesty to revoke your order. The palace is short of money, and we will find a way to prevent Your Majesty from starving!"

However, no matter how dry his mouth was, the emperor just looked at him with a smile, and stopped him from talking after the last sentence.

"I want 10 million taels of silver to buy warships. If you give it to me, I won't hold this auction!"

Where would he get ten million? If it came to one million taels, he could probably get it by scraping together some money.

When he heard that he couldn't stop the emperor from holding the auction, he wanted to stop the emperor from giving banquets and eating with him.

The emperor still smiled and said,

"There's no money left in my palace. How about I send all the concubines who promised to stay here permanently to your house to get their monthly allowance?"

Upon hearing this, Zai Yuan was at a loss for words. The emperor was determined and he had no other choice but to kowtow and take his leave without saying anything else. It was all because of poverty.

There was a constant stream of people coming to the Ministry of Revenue to pay and register, and the total amount collected was 840,000 taels, with the registration fee of 10,000 taels per person.

The people who came here didn't leave after paying the money. They wanted to know if it was true that the emperor would accompany them for dinner, and if it was true that he would give them a gold medal. They also heard that the gold medal could be used as a death-proof medal. Was it true?

The newly appointed Minister of Revenue Rui Jin angrily told them that it was true and that this was the grace of the current emperor. If they missed this opportunity, they would never get it again. This was a rare chance and they had to seize it!

After receiving the affirmative reply from the Minister of Revenue, these people were relieved.

"I'll pay ten thousand, see the emperor once, and then I can brag about it for the rest of my life!"

"Ten thousand is nothing. I'll pay a hundred thousand. I want to enjoy the banquet given by the emperor. That will bring honor to our ancestors!"

"One hundred thousand is nothing. I want to pay three hundred thousand. I want to have dinner with the emperor. It can be recorded in the family tree so that my descendants can see that their ancestors dined with the emperor!"

These people were happy, but some were unhappy. When they heard the emperor's decree, there were many voices of doubt!

"What is your Majesty going to do?"

"Who knows?"

"Selling things, isn't that a waste of money? Is His Majesty so poor?"

"Not only that, but they're also selling their bodies. Ten thousand for a meeting, one hundred thousand for a banquet, and three hundred thousand for the emperor to have dinner with. How is this any different from being a prostitute?"

"It's such a disgrace! It's so embarrassing!"

"No, I'm going to kneel down and protest. I'm losing face!"

"Besides, those carpenters and masons are also going to rise to the top. As long as the Ministry of Works selects them, they can get official positions. Where does that leave me, a well-read and knowledgeable person?"

"The Sage Confucius is so angry that he's about to lift the lid of his coffin!"

"The teachings of Confucius and Mencius have been disgraced, disgraced!"

Several ministers who were loyal to the emperor also had their opinions, thinking that the emperor's actions were damaging the royal dignity, and they all wanted to find the emperor to argue!

But before they could leave, Du Shoutian and Wen Qing found them separately. After hearing what they said, everyone was stunned!

It turns out that the country has so many internal and external troubles, and the emperor has no other choice but to raise money in this way!

Forget it, let’s not make things worse. Let’s see if it’s just as the emperor said!

Mu Zhang'a, Qi Ying, Seng Linqin and others initially wanted to find fault with the emperor, but they heard a rumor from the palace that there was something fishy about Lian Xin's death, and the emperor seemed to be investigating it.

This frightened Mu Zhang'a and Qi Ying greatly. They told themselves to stop looking for trouble. Compared to their own lives, causing trouble for the emperor was not that important!

They also heard that Prince Gong went to the palace and had a long talk with the emperor. It seemed that they had a very pleasant conversation and he was overjoyed when he left the palace!

They didn't believe it and went to visit Prince Gong one after another. Unexpectedly, Prince Gong said he had something to do and avoided them!

This made Mu Zhang'a and Qi Ying lose their composure. Not only did they not dare to provoke the emperor, but even the monks and relatives persuaded them to stop. It is better to have less trouble than more, so they should wait and see how the situation develops!

Some officials from the six ministries and nine departments with slightly higher positions, as well as some nobles who were unaware of the truth, came to ask to see the emperor.

He planned to scold the emperor in person, wake him up, and bring him back to the right path.

It’s a pity that I couldn’t see him. He said that the emperor went out for inspection.

I couldn't see him for two days and couldn't scold him in person, so I wrote a memorial to scold him. The palace's memorial office received a lot of memorials.

They all accused the emperor of being too absurd.

Selling off property, disgrace to ancestors, eating with ordinary people, embarrassing oneself, letting people who did not pass the imperial examination to be officials, insulting civilization, all these, in addition to using dirty words and cursing people, all the unpleasant words were written in the memorial.

Yining didn't care about that. He just did what he had to do. When someone came, he disappeared. When memorials came, he just looked at them and smiled, then threw them aside and kept them all without sending them out.

The infuriated ministers were dumbfounded. It was like punching a cotton ball, with no place to put force. Tell me, is this infuriating? You want to argue, but no one argues with you!

How could some low-level officials in the Inspectorate and the Censorate know about these things happening at the top? They were filled with righteous indignation, but due to their low positions, they were not qualified to ask to see the emperor at any time, so they could only write letters to the emperor.

Of course, there was no response to the petition. There was really no other way, so they decided to unite and kneel outside the palace gate to make a petition with tears and blood!

These people acted immediately. Led by the censor Weng Tonghe, dozens of white-haired old men came to the palace gate to ask to see the emperor.

Someone replied to them that the emperor had gone out of the capital for an inspection.

These people have no intention of giving up. They come in the morning, come in the afternoon, come today, and come tomorrow.

On the third day, they knelt outside the Meridian Gate and refused to move. It was still chilly in spring and very cold at night, but these people were really determined and would not go back even if they were frozen to death.

Even so, the emperor did not show up.

Seeing that some old men were about to die of the cold, the soldiers, either out of a change of heart or an order, actually brought reed mats and surrounded the area.

It has been hundreds of years since the Forbidden City was built, and this is the first time that a reed mat shed has been built outside the Qianqing Gate. It looks really awkward!

Not only that, the soldiers also built a fire in the middle for them. Although the reed shed was drafty, at least they wouldn't freeze to death with the fire!

These people began to refuse to eat or drink, forcing the enemy to go on a hunger strike. When the news reached the palace, the soldiers received orders.

"Feed them with milk, they can't starve to death!"

It is the duty of soldiers to obey orders. These people had their mouths pried open and were force-fed a stomach full of milk, which was not known whether it was pig's milk, cow's milk, goat's milk or horse's milk.