The ninth day of the sixth lunar month in the twenty-seventh year of Chongzhen.

The Minister of Revenue Gao Hongtu was awakened by the voice of the housekeeper outside before he got up.

"Master, something terrible has happened, Master!"

"Master, please wake up, something terrible has happened!"

Gao Hongtu continued to lie on the bed and asked unhappily, "What are you so scared of?"

"The money in the Nanjing treasury has disappeared."

"Hmm?" Gao Hongtu frowned slightly: "How much money was lost?"

"All...all lost."

Gao Hongtu thought he had only lost a few hundred or a thousand taels of silver, so he didn't take it seriously and subconsciously said, "Oh, so it's all lost..."

After saying this, he suddenly realized that what he had just heard was that all the silver was lost.

Gao Hongtu sat up and asked loudly, "What? You said all the money was lost?"

The butler replied: "Yes!"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Gao Hongtu didn't believe it at all. "The Nanjing Treasury is heavily guarded. Ordinary people can't get in. Even if a hundred people go in, they can't steal millions of taels of silver in a short time."

"Master, the money in the Nanjing treasury is indeed lost. The patrol camp has been investigating and arresting people since before dawn, and they haven't stopped yet."

Gao Hongtu ordered as he put on his clothes: "Hurry up and prepare the sedan chair. I want to go out immediately."

"Yes." The butler ran away.

Although Gao Hongtu didn't know what exactly happened, all the silver in the huge treasury was lost overnight. It was obvious that a huge conspiracy was waiting for him and... everyone in Nanjing!

Gao Hongtu first went to the patrol camp office, and after inquiring about the specific situation, he immediately went to Chunhe Hall to meet the prince.

When he came outside the temple, he found that it was already full of people.

The court officials and nobles had already received the news and planned to report the situation to the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang and ask for countermeasures.

Soon, Zhu Cilang's personal eunuch came out and said, "You gentlemen may come in, but please walk slowly and lightly!"

Cao Rong, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, noticed something was wrong and asked quickly, "What happened to the Crown Prince?"

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince fell ill when he heard that the silver in Nanjing's treasury was lost."

"Sick?" Everyone looked at the eunuch.

The eunuch lowered his head and replied, "I am ill, so please walk more lightly so as not to disturb His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Although everyone was somewhat skeptical, they still followed the eunuch's instructions and tiptoed through the front hall to the back hall.

When they walked to the bed, everyone was startled.

Zhu Cilang was lying on the bed, curled up in a ball, his eyes closed and his face pale.

There are both pretense and real reactions in this.

Seeing this scene, everyone was completely panicked.

The army that came to support the king went north in the name of Zhu Cilang.

If Zhu Cilang made any mistake, the plan of supporting the king would fail.

This group of people will become rebels and enemies of the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Highness, Your Highness!" Ren Jun, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, stepped forward quickly and knelt beside the bed: "Your Highness, what's wrong with you?"

Others followed and asked, "Yes, Your Highness, what's wrong with you?"

"Ahem," Zhu Cilang coughed weakly twice and asked everyone present, "I heard that all the money in the Nanjing Treasury was lost. Is that true?"

"It's true!" Gao Hongtu, the Minister of Finance, replied in a low voice: "I just came back from the patrol camp. The Nanjing treasury was robbed last night and all the silver was lost."

"All lost?"

"All lost."

"Not a penny left?"

"Not a penny left."

"It's over." Zhu Cilang's face was even uglier than before. "The army has just set out to support the king and is in urgent need of food and military pay, but the money in the Nanjing treasury is gone. How can an army without food and pay support the king?"

The left assistant minister Ren Jun beside him hurriedly advised: "Your Highness, don't panic. The army has already been paid a month's salary before it sets out, and the army still has a month's salary and a month's food and fodder."

Gao Hongtu asked, "What will happen after one month? Will you be eating bran or starving?"

Ren Jun opened his mouth, not knowing how to answer.

"Don't start a fight first," Zhu Cilang said weakly, "What else is missing?"

"I heard that the gate to the treasury was also lost."

"Door?" Zhu Cilang opened his eyes. "What's going on? It's fine to steal the money, why steal the door?"

Gao Hongtu paused and said, "According to the people in the patrol camp, they initially suspected that the treasury ambassador and the treasury soldiers were stealing, and the Jinyiwei might also be involved. In order to cover up the crime, they recruited idle people in the city a day in advance, and when the people left, they also took away the door..."

Although Nanjing is a large city, news spreads quickly.

In particular, the news of recruiting civilians to work without paying them quickly spread throughout the city of Nanjing.

The people in the patrol camp knew about it last night and made preparations early.

What they didn't expect was that the employer was actually the Jinyiwei.

In order not to affect the Jinyiwei's investigation, they had to evacuate the scene.

By the time they got the news, the treasury had already been emptied.

Zhu Cilang gritted his teeth and said, "Investigate, we must investigate thoroughly!"

"Yes, I will arrange for someone to check it right away!" Ren Jun, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War, first agreed, and then asked: "Your Highness, the silver in the treasury is gone, how to solve the subsequent money and food problem of the army to support the king..."

Zhu Cilang struggled to do it, but failed after trying twice in a row.

Helplessly, he could only lie on the bed and say, "I am not feeling well, and I am afraid I don't have the energy to deal with these things."

"But Your Highness is the Crown Prince. Without your order, we dare not make any decision on our own."

Zhu Cilang took out his seal from under the pillow and said, "You guys can discuss it. This is my seal. After you have discussed it, you can directly stamp it on the official document without having me personally review it."

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time: "Your Highness, this is inappropriate! We do not have the courage to do this, and there is no such rule in the Ming Dynasty."

Although these ministers all have their own ulterior motives, none of them is a fool.

It is almost impossible to expect them to issue orders with the prince's seal.

It would be fine if the army supporting the king wins, but if it loses, the person holding the prince's seal will become the target of public criticism and be subject to various impeachments and accusations.

Overall, the risks far outweigh the benefits.

So they rejected Zhu Cilang's proposal immediately.

Zhu Cilang made the next best choice: "Then let's set up the Nanjing Silijian and let the eunuch in charge of the Silijian handle this matter."

After he said this, he kept breathing heavily, as if he had exhausted all his strength.

No one objected to this suggestion.

If something goes wrong, the person in charge of the Imperial Household Department will take the blame. Even if it is related to them, it is not a big deal.

After selection, Zhu Cilang appointed the old eunuch Pang Tianshou as the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department.