Fearing being killed for his overwhelming merits, the empress decided to marry him.

It must be said that the Ministry of Revenue, which was in charge of the allocation of money and grain for a dynasty, was indeed extremely busy as the empire's purse strings.

In the hour before Shen Lang took office, he was still able to slack off and even exchanged some banter with Yang Xiong.

But an hour later, the eunuchs in charge of the various departments began to deliver the documents requiring approval to the desk one after another, like snowflakes, and Shen Lang could no longer smile.

"Your Excellency, this is the construction fee requested by the Ministry of Works. Please verify and approve it."

"Your Excellency, this is the Ministry of War's budget. Please give your approval."

"Your Excellency, this is the official document from the Ministry of Rites..."

Suddenly, Shen Lang felt completely overwhelmed.

In just a quarter of an hour, the desk was piled high with six official documents that required approval.

After a cursory glance, the summary can be summed up in one word.

money!

"Minister Yang, is the Ministry of Revenue always this busy?"

"Your Excellency is overthinking this. No matter how much money the various departments ask for on ordinary days, they have never been this unreasonable."

"Then these..."

"You'd have to ask me, Minister?"

Shen Lang closed his eyes: "Is this an attempt to intimidate me?"

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiong, who was drinking tea, almost choked on his tea leaves.

"Your Excellency is overthinking this. Everyone in the court and the country knows your formidable reputation. To try and intimidate you would only be asking for trouble."

Yang Xiong paused for a moment, then continued.

“This time, a large number of the major families in Jiangnan have fallen, and their properties will inevitably be confiscated by the imperial court. That’s why they chose this time to cry poverty to you.”

Shen Lang chuckled: "Why didn't they cause trouble when Lin Yu was around?"

Yang Xiong put down his teacup: "Minister, please don't joke. He can't decide how the money is distributed; only you can decide. That's why you're so eager to ask you for money as soon as you take office today."

Shen Lang sighed inwardly, thinking, "They're all such shrewd people."

So he casually flipped through the documents that demanded money and glanced at them a few times.

The Ministry of Works issued an official document stating that the river embankments in Qingzhou and Xuzhou had breached this year, and requested the Ministry of Revenue to allocate 830,000 taels of silver for reinforcing the embankments.

Shen Lang frowned: "If I remember correctly, the river embankments in Qing and Xu were reinforced once in the first half of the year, so why are they cracking again so soon?"

Yang Xiong replied, "The river channels in Qing and Xu have been silted up for many years, and the dikes built are simply not enough to support the rising river levels."

"Then dredge the riverbed! What's the point of just building riverbanks?"

"Dredging the riverbed takes too long. Several other waterways must be dredged to divert the water into the sea, which would cost at least four million taels of silver. It is far more cost-effective to reinforce and raise the riverbanks."

Furthermore, conscripting laborers to dredge river mud would inevitably disrupt agriculture, and could easily lead to famine, only increasing the burden on the imperial court.

Shen Lang remained silent upon hearing this, and then opened the memorial from the Ministry of Rites.

Upon seeing this, Shen Lang was delighted.

"This Cao Xianzhi is truly a talent. I can forgive the expenses for purchasing royal and official ceremonial staffs, and I can even tolerate the tens of thousands of bolts of silk he prepared for Northern Yan."

But why prepare ceremonial staffs for our subordinate foreign states? Look, this Li Kingdom, I seem to recall they occupied Sanye Island of my Great Chu, right?

How come they got involved too?

"Ah~"

Yang Xiong sighed.

"The Ministry of Rites emphasizes reciprocity. You know Minister Cao, just like his predecessor Lu Yanhui, he's a well-known peacemaker."

He believed that any problem that could be solved with money should be solved by no other means. He considered the Great Chu, a land of propriety, to be a place of blessings for all under heaven, and that harmony should be the most valued principle.

"What a 'blessing for the world'! Using the taxes of my Great Chu to exchange gifts with these scoundrels? It's so polite that I don't even know how to comment on it."

Shen Lang simply drew an X on the approval document sent by the Ministry of Rites and tossed it aside.

Next came the approval document from the Ministry of War.

"Another reinforcement of the fortress defenses?"

Upon seeing the memorial requesting reinforcements for the border defenses, Shen Lang felt a headache coming on.

What exactly is Lü Lin thinking?

Yang Xiong said, "I know what the Minister is worried about, but the border fortress must be built. The implications are too great."

Shen Lang remained silent and continued reading the next item.

"Two million eight hundred thousand taels of silver are needed to train the new army?"

Upon seeing this, he finally felt that it was somewhat plausible.

“Training a new army is an important matter, and spending 2.8 million taels of silver to purchase military equipment is reasonable.”

With that in mind, he immediately prepared to draw the first "√" on this line.

"Mr. Shangshu!"

Just as he was about to put down his pen, Yang Xiong quickly called out to him.

"If Your Excellency rejects the proposal outright, I have no objection. But if you approve it, things will get complicated."

Shen Lang frowned: "What do you mean?"

Yang Xiong gave a concise and clear reply: "The Ministry of Revenue has no money."

These words almost choked Shen Lang to death.

So you've been pretending to be a big shot even though you're broke? That's ridiculous.

"The Ministry of Revenue's expenses were allocated last month, and with everyone busy with the Empress Dowager's garden, every penny is being used with utmost care."

Yang Xiong also sighed helplessly.

"Now, all six ministries are eyeing the lucrative Jiangnan region, just waiting for His Majesty's order to confiscate its properties."

In this way, the imperial treasury won't be too strained, and at least this year can pass peacefully.

Shen Lang was speechless upon hearing this: "So, you mean that all six ministries are now watching this raid, is that right?"

Yang Xiong: "That's right. Right now, everyone in the Sixth Department is short of money. It's not easy to have such extra revenue. They're all like stray dogs that haven't eaten for three months, rushing at the scent as soon as they smell it."

"But have you ever considered where the money would have come from if this crackdown on officialdom hadn't happened?"

"Then we can only continue to drag it out."

Yang Xiong sighed and continued.

"Even though life is tough, it's still much better than when Lao Han was around."

Shen Lang pondered for a moment, then smiled and said, "It seems that it is necessary to change the tax collection model of the Ministry of Revenue."

……

Inside the Imperial Study, Wu Li requested an audience with Jiang Mengxuan.

"Empress Wu, is there something you need?"

After witnessing Wu Li's hidden side firsthand, Jiang Mengxuan's goodwill towards her plummeted, and her tone was no longer as polite as it had been at the beginning.

"Empress Jiang, what have you thought about the matter I mentioned to you?"

Jiang Mengxuan stopped what she was doing and looked up at Wu Li.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm thinking about whether I should send you back to Wu."

"a ha ha ha……"

Wu Li burst into laughter.

"At this point, you still won't reveal your ambition? That would be pointless."

"Empress Jiang, it's true that people feign weakness to protect themselves, but now that you've recaptured the old capital Chang'an and crushed Western Xia..."

"Having rectified the powerful families of Jiangnan, your name will resound throughout the entire East. To continue pretending would seem rather artificial."

"You are destined to be the greatest emperor since the southward migration of the Great Chu. Now that things have developed to this point, won't you take advantage of the situation to annex and annihilate Song and Wu, which are standing on your left and right sides?"

Jiang Mengxuan stared coldly at Wu Li's increasingly frenzied state.

"Given the current state of the Great Chu, it doesn't seem like a country that can maintain its current status at all, and you, Empress Jiang..."

Nor do you seem like a ruler who only cares about maintaining the status quo. I can see ambition in your eyes, the kind of ambition that desires to rule the world.

"You want to be the ruler of the world, don't you!"

Jiang Mengxuan closed her phoenix eyes slightly, neither denying nor admitting, and simply gazed at Wu Li quietly.

Wu Li suddenly moved closer to Jiang Mengxuan and stared straight at him.

"Sacrificing Shen Lang in exchange for the destruction of the Wu Kingdom, and then unifying Song and Wu, shouldn't this be a worthwhile trade no matter how you look at it?"

"Hurry up and agree. Once you get the Wu Kingdom's jade seal, your annexation of Wu will be legitimate, and no one will question your Chu Kingdom's actions."

"Say yes. There are plenty of good men in the world. As an emperor, you can't only have Shen Lang by your side."

"Agree, I've already brought the Imperial Seal. All you need to do is send Shen Lang to serve me, make me ecstatic, make me experience ecstasy, even let him torment me to death, and then it will be completely yours."

After a moment of silence, Jiang Mengxuan shook her head indifferently.

"Empress Wu, is the reason you want me to abandon my husband because of your former emperor, Wang Ze?"

When you were humiliated, you didn't even have the courage to stand up, like a coward hiding in its shell, did you?

"What did you say?"

One sentence instantly broke Wu Li's defenses.

"What I mean is that your husband is like a coward, unable to even protect his own wife, letting you suffer endless humiliation while choosing to remain silent."

Are you jealous that I have such an outstanding husband, like the bright moon in the sky, and you can't accept it for a while?

If so, then I can understand why you, Empress Wu, tried to persuade me to abandon my husband. However, you will be disappointed.

My husband and I were united by mutual trust, not by mere self-interest. I would never do something so disgusting.

I believe my husband feels the same way. Your methods and words are useless against me. I advise you to abandon those thoughts.

"I am not Wu Li, and my husband is not Wang Ze. We are destined not to follow in your footsteps."

After speaking, Jiang Mengxuan raised her hand, picked up the crystal teapot, and poured a cup of tea into the crystal cup in front of Wu Li.