The eldest prince's bandit suppression was very unsuccessful. Tonglu's accidental defeat completely broke his original plan. Then Zhu Jiancai set a fire in Tonglu, and a large number of people went north to capture several small counties one after another. Their troops were rolling bigger and bigger like snowballs.

After receiving the news, the eldest prince immediately adjusted the plan and led his army to surround the pursuit. But who would have thought that Zhu Jiancai was both cunning and decisive. Whenever he was caught up, Zhu's troops would directly abandon a group of ordinary people from the Alliance, using this way of surviving the tail to stop the pursuit.

For Zhu Jiancai, these ordinary people are consumables. Except for some young and strong people who chose to join their old camp, the other functions of the elderly, weak, women and children are used to block the pursuers for themselves. In addition, Zhu Jiancai's land was greatly damaged, and the local gentry almost wiped out the food, grass, gold and silver, except for what could be taken away, burning the fire completely, which made the place complain.

The fall of Tonglu led to insufficient military rations for the eldest prince, and the destruction of local productivity and large amounts of materials made the local plan to raise grain fail. In addition, Jiangnan is not as brave as the north. Although the eldest prince is brave and good at fighting, don’t forget that the wars he participated in have occurred in the north, while Jiangnan has many water towns, mountains and jungles... The cavalry basically cannot play its role in Jiangnan, and the battle in Jiangnan mainly relies on infantry. However, in this era, infantry relies on their own legs and loses power. Faced with Zhu Jiancai, who is more familiar with the terrain of Jiangnan, the eldest prince cannot even use his strength.

Due to the lack of food and grass, the eldest prince kept urging the rear to transport as soon as possible to meet the supply on the front line. However, as the people of the Parliament Association were left behind, even the eldest prince could not bear it. This greatly dragged down the speed of his troops' pursuit, and at the same time, it had to allocate part of the limited military rations for local settlements to settle the people.

At this moment, Yuan Qi suddenly appeared in Chizhou and robbed the large number of military rations of the eldest prince, which made it even worse. When he received the news, the eldest prince was shocked. On the one hand, he urgently sent people to continue urging the transportation of food and grass, and at the same time he found out the movements of Yuan Qi's troops. On the other hand, he immediately interrupted the local food and grass relief. You must know that the eldest prince had not much food in his hands, and even if his troops ate it themselves, they would not be able to stand for long.

As a result, the local government could not settle the people who had "rescued" from Zhu Jiancai, which put these people who had lost their homes in trouble. With the lack of food, in order to survive, these people also began to make trouble. Although they sent troops to force the blast, people always had to live. This situation quickly became more and more intense, and most of the Jiangnan area suddenly became a mess.

At this point, let alone encircling and suppressing the rebels, even the security of the occupied areas could not be guaranteed. The eldest prince had no choice but to temporarily stop pursuing, send troops to suppress the local area, and constantly urged all places to speed up the supply of food and grass, and at the same time, he asked for emergency assistance from the capital.

When he went to the study, Emperor Kangxi looked at the memorial sent by the eldest prince, his face was as gloomy as a pool of water.

Kangxi did not expect that the situation in Jiangnan did not improve after the eldest prince went south, but instead became more and more intense. He felt extremely dissatisfied with the eldest prince, hating him for not being able to eliminate the rebels, and at the same time he was very angry with the officials in Jiangnan. In his opinion, the reason why such a rebellion broke out was that the local government could blame him.

But no matter how angry it is, the matter still needs to be solved, especially in the current situation in Jiangnan. After thinking about it, Kangxi issued a direct order, requiring the green camps in the three northern provinces to go south to compress the living space of the rebels, and at the same time, join forces with the eldest prince in Jiangnan to carry out a net encirclement and suppression. In addition, he stepped up the mobilization of grain and grass to ensure the safety of the food route, and allocated 1.5 million taels of silver for military use.

"Let's do it now." After saying that, Kangxi ordered Ma Qi, who had finished writing the order.

But Ma Qi did not bow to the head as usual, but instead stood there with an unstable look, wanting to speak but stopping.

"Emperor..." After hesitating, Ma Qi gritted his teeth and said, "There seems to be some problems in the Ministry of Revenue..."

"Ministry of Revenue?" Kangxi was stunned and soon realized what Ma Qi was saying, and his face looked extremely ugly.

In recent years, the Beijing officials borrowed silver from the Ministry of Revenue, and Kangxi knew about this. To be honest, although the salaries of officials in the Qing Dynasty were higher than those of the Ming Dynasty, except for local officials, the income of officials in Beijing was not high. Apart from the daily expenses and management, the Beijing officials, especially the lower-level officials, lived a tight life. As a kind king, he turned a blind eye to this situation and acquiesced to some Beijing officials to borrow from the Ministry of Revenue.

But Kangxi never expected that his kindness was exploited by the subordinates. Except for a few people, most of the Beijing officials directly regarded the Ministry of Revenue as an ATM. They borrowed more and borrowed a lot, and did not repay the money if they could. Later, not only the Beijing officials, but also local officials also had the idea of ​​the Ministry of Revenue, and several princes were also borrowing a lot of money from the Ministry of Revenue.

"Then... 1 million taels." Kangxi said after a moment of indifference.

But who would have thought that Ma Qi still didn't say anything. Kangxi couldn't sit still and asked how much money the Ministry of Revenue could get.

Faced with this situation, Ma Qi knew that the lid could not be covered, so he could only tell Kangxi that the Ministry of Revenue now could not exceed 600,000 taels of silver, but the amount on the books was owed more than 36 million taels.

Hearing this number, Kangxi's face suddenly turned red. He never expected that his treasury would be completely hollowed out. More than 36 million taels! These officials were too brave. Do they just take advantage of their kindness?

Kangxi, who felt that he was deceived, was suddenly furious. Jiangnan is like this now, and there is no money in the treasury. What kind of war is there to fight and quell the rebellion? Once something happens, how will the Qing Dynasty continue to operate?

But the facts were right in front of him. No matter how angry Kangxi was, he could not make any money. He could only suppress his anger and told Ma Qi to allocate 600,000 taels of emergency first, and then immediately recover the owed debts of the Ministry of Revenue. He had to take back the 36 million taels.

When Ma Qi heard this order, he complained. Although he was of high status and power, don’t forget that the debts of the Ministry of Revenue were involved in a wide range of areas. It not only involved all Beijing officials and local officials, but also several princes. Clearing the debts was simply a landmine! Where did Ma Qi have the courage?

But Kangxi's will was unwilling to obey, so Ma Qi had no choice but to agree temporarily. After Ma Qi left, Kangxi sent someone to touch the Ministry of Revenue in private. When the news was fed back to Kangxi, Kangxi became more and more angry when he saw the shocking numbers.

On the second day, at the court meeting, Kangxi called out the head of the Ministry of Revenue and cursed him in person, and reiterated his intention to recover the debts of the Ministry of Revenue in front of all officials. Faced with Kangxi's thunder and furious, everyone agreed, but in the end, the thunder sounded loud and the rain was small. Ma Qi and others worked hard to recover 2 million taels in half a month. The number of 2 million taels seemed to be quite large, but the debts of 36 million taels were still far from being owed.
Chapter completed!