Two years ago, when the Ru River embankment was built, Yang Ziheng was not yet Minister of Works, nor had he been involved in the matter.
But now that the embankment had burst, he, the Minister of Works, could hardly avoid being implicated.
What frustrated him even more was that he had only just sent someone to inspect the breached embankment. How to put it? Those people had been far too ruthless. They simply had no bottom line at all.
Skimping on labor and materials would have been one thing, but they had actually papered over the matter and called it done!
Repairing the embankment now was no different from building it all over again, and the money, grain, and laborers required would be even more than two years ago.
Before Emperor Yanping could condemn anyone, Minister of Revenue Li Zhijie stepped forward. "Your Majesty, the national treasury has no money or grain left to use."
Did the national treasury truly have no money and no grain?
It was true!
Although the Imperial Merchant Bureau had provided the Ministry of Revenue with a large number of silver funds these years, Da Rong had also had many places to spend money these years, especially last year and this year.
Last year, the Wuliang Hu Tribe had invaded Beiyuan Town in force, and the Imperial Court had allocated quite a bit of money and grain to Beiyuan Town. In the end, most of that money and grain had been seized by the tribal divisions of the Wuliang Hu Tribe.
After the Wuliang army retreated, Beiyuan Town had to be rebuilt, so the Imperial Court allocated another large sum of money and grain. Now Beiyuan Town was a gold-swallowing giant beast, nearly sucking the Ministry of Revenue dry.
Aside from Beiyuan Town, the