After rebirth I became the tyrant's little white lotus

Early spring is approaching, although the weather has warmed up a little, but the wind is still biting.

New green buds sprouted on the branches, and lively chaffinches can be seen in the sky from time to time.

Nanyang Palace.

Ye Qi walked in with a long sword in his arms, and beside him was the young man who ordered the Beiping Palace to be burned that day.

Today, young people still wear a mask and a black and red gown. They are not as luxurious as the children of aristocratic families, but they are somewhat unrestrained.

"Damn, I'm really being worked like a mule," the young man cursed as he walked, and never stopped talking, "That bastard went to the imperial capital by himself, and now I'm tired of all the tiring work." It's on my head, just thinking about it makes me angry!"

Ye Qi didn't say a word, as if he had gotten used to the youth's irritability.

"Brother Ye, you should say something!" But the young man was dissatisfied with the silence of the people beside him.

"You can call me Yeqi."

"You!" The young man waved his hand angrily, and smashed the gate of the Nanyang Prince's Mansion with his palm. He looked at it with disgust, and muttered: "What kind of rags, only that old man uses this Bad quality."

After walking into the mansion, guards immediately led the two of them to the cellar of Nanyang Prince's Mansion.

The cellar is about ten feet below the mansion. It is spacious and dark, with stone walls everywhere and no ladders. People can only stand on it and watch, and faint rustling can be heard.

The candlelight on the wall was very weak. The young man blinked his eyes in the dark, but he didn't get angry. He felt that he couldn't see anywhere. I have piercing eyes? Can I see a ghost?"

Ye Qi said coldly, "I can't light the lamp."

Seeing that the young man looked like he wanted to listen to an explanation, Ye Qi explained: "The bottom of this cellar is full of black ants. The walls are oiled and they can't climb up, but if the light is turned on, the ant colony will be restless."

"Ant colony?" The young man frowned. Just thinking about the scene of black ants in the cellar made him, a big man, feel uncomfortable. "What's that old man Zhu Lie's hobby? Raising ants?"

As he said that, the young man squinted his eyes and looked down, vaguely seeing a dense patch of black ants almost as wide as his little finger.

"I don't know about that." Ye Qi replied, "Your Majesty's intention is to let us figure out the secret."

After a pause, he continued: "The king of Nanyang bit his tongue and committed suicide on the day he was arrested, but the gold and silver he smuggled over the years have disappeared. What's different is the cellar where the black ants are raised here."

"Huh? This is a colony of ants. How can the old man hide gold in the ant's belly?"

The young man sneered with disdain, but after speaking, both Ye Qi and Ye Qi fell into silence for a while.

I don't know how long it took before Yeqi spoke, but his voice was dry, "Hiding in the ant's stomach..."

"Unbelievable." The young man stroked his chin and suddenly said, "I remembered!"

"what?"

"Damn! Zhu Lie is not a good guy!" The young man hammered the stone wall again angrily, and explained: "A few years ago, when I was wandering around the rivers and lakes, I heard that there was a black ant named Gold-eating ants, because they have a special habit - they can eat gold and silver and hide them in their stomachs. As long as there is enough human blood to support these ants, the gold and silver can safely carry the gold-eating ants If there is no human blood in the ant's stomach, the gold and silver will gradually disappear in the stomach of the gold-eating ant..."

After a pause, the young man asked, "How long has it been since King Nanyang died?"

"Nearly a month."

"That is to say, if my guess is correct and these are gold-eating ants, then they haven't sucked human blood for nearly a month." The young man frowned and his eyes were irritable, "then the gold and silver in their stomachs may be Not much left."

"How to deal with gold-eating ants?"

"That's right, it's on fire!" The young man was very irritable, "Pour more oil, and it will burn more vigorously."

"Yes." The guards guarding the cellar door immediately complied.

Soon, a raging fire ignited in the cellar, and the originally dark space became bright. The black ant colony at the bottom of the cellar was wrapped and swallowed by the flames, and the oily light covered their bodies. After a while, there was a crackling sound, Accompanied by a strong burnt smell.

Under the background of the fire, the young man saw the golden glimmer in the gradually melting black ant colony.

"You guessed it right." Ye Qi said.

"You guessed it..." The young man felt his brain hurt when he smelled it, "I don't know how many people Zhu Lie killed to feed the gold-eating ants in this cellar."

The blazing flames gradually became smaller, and there were more and more black marks on the ground. Finally, after half an hour, the flames in the cellar were completely extinguished.

The young man covered his nose and looked down. Large areas were covered with scorched black marks, and occasionally some pale golden particles could be seen.

Ye Qi said: "Come here, go down and clean up."

"Yes!"

The dark and muddy things in the cellar were cleaned up, and soon large flakes of golden powder were revealed, all of which were fine particles of gold.

This time, bright candles were lit in the cellar.

"Approximately how much gold and silver did Zhu Lie smuggle?" the young man asked.

"A rough estimate is that the king of Nanyang has been smuggling for more than three years, and the gold is worth at least ten million taels." Ye Qi said emphatically: "It's just a rough calculation, the actual amount should be more."

The young man lazily said: "There are hundreds of thousands of gold-eating ants below this cellar. What we see right now are gold-eating ants that have not been supported by human blood for nearly a month. Their bodies and the gold in their bodies are all It has been consumed, there are rumors in the world - a gold-eating ant can swallow a maximum of ten taels of gold, one can imagine how big it would be."

Ye Qi looked at the subordinates who were restraining the golden granules under the cellar, and said softly, "These gold granules are hardly a tenth of what King Nanyang smuggled."

"No way," the young man spread his hands, "the rest was consumed by the gold-eating ants, Zhu Lie's son-in-law is also very thoughtful, and he won't let us get it if he can't get it! Damn, the more you think about it, the more angry you get." , I really want to find out his corpse and smoke it!"

"Since the matter in the cellar is settled, you can return to the imperial capital with your subordinates." Ye Qi said calmly.

"Let's go! Go back to the imperial capital!" The young man couldn't wait, he stopped Ye Qi's shoulder and walked out, "I can't stay in the fief anymore, the girls in that land are so fierce, isn't it Lao Tzu's food! When I turn around, I will go to the famous Zuifang Court in the imperial capital to spend a few nights."

"Zuifang Court is a small building."

"Young lady? It's okay, it's okay! It doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman, I just like gentle ones!"

"..."

The pigeons released from the Nanyang Palace arrived at the Imperial Capital ten days earlier than Ye Qi and his party.

In the imperial study room, Emperor Wu looked at a small piece of wood that had been untied from the pigeon's claw, with a condensed expression.

"Your Majesty?" Bai Miao, who wrote big characters, snapped her fingers, and looked at the man beside her who was not moving in confusion, "What happened?"

"It's not a big deal." Tu Xiuting handed the piece of wood with writing on it to Bai Miao's hand.

Bai Miao took a closer look, and was a little surprised in his heart—gold-eating ants never existed in the world of his previous life. Bai Miao only read about it in novels, but he didn't expect that such a strange species really existed in Dayin. .

"Wouldn't that mean that the Nanyang King's smuggled money would not be recovered?" Emperor Wu basically kept nothing from Bai Miao about his political affairs.

"It can only take back a few tenths." Tu Xiuting rubbed the center of his brows.

"Your Majesty, do we have no money in Curry?" Bai Miao asked cautiously.

Tu Xiuting chuckled, "Not really, it's more than enough to raise one of you, but..."

Thinking of something, Emperor Wu's eyes suddenly turned cold.

"But what?" Bai Miao was curious.

"It's time to settle the accounts owed by the ministers of the DPRK and China to the household department."

"Do they owe a lot?"

In his previous life, Bai Miao had a little understanding of such things as courtiers owed money to the Ministry of Households, and the first to bear the brunt was during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty.

Bai Miao still remembered that when he was watching "Yongzheng Dynasty", the opening chapter was about floods in the Yellow River, and floods naturally required disaster relief, and disaster relief needed financial support, but at this time everyone discovered that the country had no money!

Until now, Bai Miao still remembers very clearly that in "Yongzheng Dynasty", the country's money was borrowed by those ministers who were sitting on a vegetarian diet.

As the saying goes, "It's easy to borrow money but hard to pay back", and it's the same in "Yongzheng Dynasty". ", and even kneeling may not necessarily be able to get the money back.

In ancient society, officials who borrowed money from the Ministry of Households, whether they were big or small officials or princes and nobles, basically acted according to the direction of the wind. The small officials looked at whether the big officials would not pay back, and the high officials looked at whether the royal children would change or not. , and how can the royal family's money be repaid?Therefore, in "Yongzheng Dynasty", it is extremely difficult to collect debts.

But Bai Miao thought about it again, Emperor Wu didn't have any brothers and sisters beside him, so there was no such thing as the children of the royal family borrowing money and not repaying it, so it mainly depends on the attitude of the high officials in the court.

"A lot." Emperor Wu nodded.

Courtiers asked the Ministry of Households to borrow money. This has happened since ancient times. Even if he is an emperor, he can't say "no".

Even though Tu Xiuting has the reputation of being a tyrant, he still has a city in his chest. It is difficult for him to intervene in some matters above the court, otherwise the original balance will be broken. It is better to live in peace now. As for Some changes will be carried out secretly under the behest of Emperor Wu.

It's a pity that this time Nanyang King disrupted Emperor Wu's original pace because of an accident involving gold-eating ants.

If the gold and silver that he had smuggled before could be retrieved from King Nanyang, then Emperor Wu could continue to carry out the next step of the transformation in secret, but the existence of gold-eating ants was beyond everyone's expectations, and the gold and silver recovered in the end was not enough. It can only be regarded as luck in misfortune, but because of this, Emperor Wu had to start collecting the arrears borrowed by courtiers from the Ministry of Households.

"Wouldn't it be difficult to chase it back?" Bai Miao clicked his tongue.

"One step is one step."

The current situation is not very good, but fortunately, Emperor Wu's secret plan is not in a hurry. Ever since he knew that several feudal lords had the idea of ​​rebellion, Tu Xiuting began to make secret arrangements.

In addition to the three vassal kings who have already been put to death, there are also the Wei family around Dayin who are about to move around, as well as the forces of the former dynasty hidden in the dark and the turmoil in Dayin's family. A gift you will never forget.

And money, urgent but not urgent.

Author gossip: here we come

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