Chapter 214: Fighting Intentions (1 update)

It’s the first time that Daliang has experienced such a severe snowstorm in 200 years since its founding.

Moreover, it happened at the end of the year. With Kyoto as the center, the snowstorm spread to four prefectures and counties, all of which were hit by the disaster.

In two prefectures, the snowstorm was even heavier than in Kyoto, but because the roads were blocked by heavy snow, the relevant reports on the disaster were not sent to the court until 20 days later.

Lu Chengtian and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty underestimated the severity of this snowstorm.

Originally, they thought that only the capital was affected by the disaster, so they simply handed over the disaster relief work to the prince in the capital.

Now the four prefectures and counties in the north all need disaster relief. Not to mention the prince who has never been out of the capital for work, even if it is handed over to the ministers who have served in the court for many years, this matter is extremely difficult.

The emperor has made it clear that since the prince has been put in charge of disaster relief, even if the disaster is now worsening, this task can only be handled by the prince and cannot be delegated to others.

However, in this situation, even those ministers who have served in the court for many years cannot guarantee that disaster relief can be completed under such difficult conditions.

However, no matter how difficult it is, disaster relief must be carried out.

The atmosphere at the morning court today was particularly solemn.

Kyoto is the capital of Daliang, and this disaster relief is presided over by the prince, assisted by the two princes, and the troops are moving quickly. There is no discussion of countermeasures or preliminary preparations.

The little prince received the task that day and the disaster relief began that day.

The execution ability of the second and third princes was top-notch, and they did not give grain and medicine merchants any chance to raise prices.

The speed of the prince's disaster relief was admired even by the ministers in the court. This efficiency was really too high.

However, it was the second and third princes who did the work.

As for the prince, he was still buying all kinds of things! What

he bought were still some useless enjoyment items. Compared with the two princes who worked diligently and hard to provide disaster relief, the prince's actions made the ministers extremely disappointed.

Now, the four prefectures have been hit by disasters for more than 20 days. If the local prefect is a powerful person, he can still suppress the local grain and medicine prices. If the local prefect does not have this skill, then now, the grain and medicine prices in these places can be imagined.

Although the national treasury has been relatively full in recent years, it cannot be invested entirely in disaster relief.

Apart from other things, the military pay has not been paid yet.

Therefore, every minister in the court has his own idea about how much silver to allocate for disaster relief.

The second and third princes naturally wanted more silver. Knowing that the prices of food and medicine had doubled, the more silver the better.

The second prince asked for 500,000 taels from the Ministry of Revenue.

The Minister of Revenue immediately burst into tears and listed several places where silver was needed, especially the large expenditure on military pay. Disaster relief is important, but military pay is more important.

The Minister of Revenue is a miser. No matter where the court needs money, the first thing he says is to complain about being poor.

Others are frugal by breaking a copper plate into two halves, but this Minister of Revenue is like breaking a copper plate into four petals. The main thing is

an iron rooster.

However, it is precisely because of this iron rooster that the treasury of Daliang is full every year. Whether it is repairing the Yellow River or providing disaster relief, money can be taken out to avoid an empty treasury.

There is only one Minister of Revenue, the second prince and the third prince.

But even in a 1vs2 battle, the Minister of Revenue still does not lose the upper hand, and there is a trend of winning.

The second prince, who was so angry that he was determined to complete the disaster relief mission and fight for the throne for himself, stood in the court, with no manners at all, and his face was red with anger.

"Minister Qian, 350,000 taels of silver is the minimum! If we don't even have this much silver, this disaster relief will not be able to take care of the four disaster-stricken prefectures!"

Minister Qian was unmoved, "250,000 taels is the maximum that the Ministry of Revenue can take out at present, and the rest of the silver must be used to pay the army!"

The third prince had already discussed the silver for disaster relief with the second prince, and 350,000 taels was the minimum they could accept.

If the price of food and medicine had not increased, 250,000 taels could barely support the family, but in the current situation, it is definitely not enough.

"Minister Qian, if there is less than 350,000 taels of silver, you should let the minister take care of the disaster relief. I am also good at mathematics, and I can do the work of the Ministry of Revenue for you."

After the third prince decided not to become the crown prince, he was not as polite to the ministers in the court as before. Anyway, he did not need to control the court officials, so he was happy to do whatever he wanted.

The Minister of Revenue was also a stubborn person. He was only loyal to the current emperor, and he was not polite even to the princes.

"You don't have to work so hard, the Ministry of Revenue can only give 250,000 taels of silver, but you can think of a way to give the rest yourself."

"I recently heard that during the disaster, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince still spent a lot of money in the city and bought out several embroidery shops, silk shops, and silver houses in the capital."

"Since the Crown Prince is so generous, I believe he will not be stingy in giving some money to the people affected by the disaster, right?"

The words of the Minister seemed to open the door to a new world for the ministers in the court.

Everyone thought it was a good idea.

After all, all the ministers in the court had basically sent money to Fangfeixuan and Liuli Pavilion, and it was a lot of silver.

These are all the prince's businesses. The prince's shop makes a lot of money every day, and it's almost emptying the pockets of the ministers!

It's time for the prince to bleed.

For a while, the little prince immediately became a little fat sheep in the court, and everyone wanted to bite a piece of meat off him.

The eldest prince was so angry that his face turned red. If the little prince standing in front of him hadn't pulled his sleeves hard, it is estimated that the eldest prince would have rolled up his sleeves and rushed to fight with this group of old ministers!

The second prince was shocked by the shamelessness of these ministers.

The third prince was just watching the show for fun.

The fourth prince was not good at speaking, and he didn't know where to start if he wanted to argue.

As for the fifth prince, he didn't even go to court. He was still counting the accounts in the Ministry of Revenue.

This made the prince seem a little weak in the court, as even his grandfather, the Duke of Zhenguo, did not stand up to speak for him.

Of course, this was a tacit understanding between them.

Lu Zexu had no opinion on the Minister of Finance. On the contrary, he admired this old man.

If this man played tricks on him, he would not be very happy.

"What Minister Qian said makes some sense." As soon as Lu Zexu opened his mouth, the court suddenly became quiet, and the ministers' eyes were all focused on him.

Lu Zexu smiled slightly, "You gentlemen eat the emperor's salary, so you should share the emperor's worries. Now that the people of Daliang are suffering from the disaster and the treasury is short of money, I believe that you ministers should be generous to donate to alleviate the worries of the snow disaster, right?"

The ministers looked at each other, with big question marks flashing in their eyes.

No, when did we say that we would pay for it ourselves?

We asked you to pay for it!