After Wang Xuanye left, Emperor Zhaowu's face darkened; Wang Xuanye's words had struck a chord with him.

That day, Wang Yushi was confined to her quarters in the imperial court, and the imperial treasury was handed over to Emperor Zhaowu. Such a major change naturally attracted attention, and the powerful and influential families in the court who had the ability to find out the news were all watching what the treasury would look like after the handover.

Li Ji, the chief steward of the inner treasury, lived up to expectations and quickly provided everyone with a lot of juicy gossip.

Dozens of spice distributors blocked the doors of the Huang family's shop, hundreds of suits of armor were returned by the Central Army, several workshops stopped production due to a lack of raw materials from high-ranking officials, and a cannon exploded because of substandard iron.

These matters could not be kept from the ears of the Prince of Yan and the Prince of Changle, but neither of them showed any intention of helping Emperor Zhaowu resolve the conflict between the imperial family and Qin Mo. Instead, they stayed on the sidelines and watched the show.

These superficial troubles alone caused Emperor Zhaowu to lose face, but that wasn't the worst part. The sudden deficit in the imperial treasury's accounts was what truly made his heart bleed.

When Wang Yushi was in charge of the Imperial Treasury, even during the months with the highest expenses, there were still profits in the accounts. Normally, there were millions of taels of silver in income every month. When had there ever been a time when she lost money?

By this time, those court officials who were celebrating the return of power to the imperial treasury could do nothing but keep asking Emperor Zhaowu for money under various pretexts.

Emperor Zhaowu desperately needs someone to step forward and solve this problem. He doesn't need Qin Mo to submit to him; he just wants the Imperial Treasury to be restored to its former state. He needs a stable source of revenue to support those new nobles. Otherwise, if he just sits around and squanders his tens of millions of taels of silver, he'll be back to square one.

"What has Prince Chang Le been up to lately?" Emperor Zhaowu asked abruptly from his chair, facing a dark corner.

"Your Majesty, yesterday he seemed to sense the aura of that great elf, and went out of the camp to search all night before returning at dawn."

"Did he contact any other nobles?"

"No, if he does anything improper, I will immediately report it to Your Majesty!"

"Go down! As long as you are loyal to me, I will not hesitate to reward you with titles and official positions!"

"Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty!"

In a dark corner, Qin Fafeng, the adopted son of the Prince of Changle, kowtowed on the ground, his eyes gleaming with malice.