Frost for a Thousand Years

Chapter 205 The national treasury is short 20,000 taels of gold?!

Kangyi and his wife slept back to back at night.

Both of them remained silent.

Suddenly, Kang Yi spoke up: "Is it comfortable?"

After a brief silence, he replied, "Comfortable."

Then, silence returned.

The young master's wife could easily explain that she hadn't been favored by Song Shi'an, and he would believe her if she explained clearly, leaving no lingering resentment in his heart. However, out of some women's pride, she was even willing to admit it.

After all, as a hostage, one has lost all self-respect.

We can salvage some things, even just a little.

Therefore, we should do as Song Shi'an said.

The princess turned around and tugged at his clothes.

Kang Yi was still in a daze and did not respond.

"It was me who offered myself to help you negotiate, what right do you have to be angry?" the princess scolded. "Just because I felt good and spoke the truth?"

Kang Yi immediately turned away in anger.

But what I faced was an even more resentful face.

"Does Song Shi'an need women?" the princess questioned. "What could he possibly give up for me?"

"..." Kang Yi paused for a moment, then asked somewhat uneasily, "What does he want?"

"Keep your voice down."

After being reminded, the princess slowly approached him and whispered in his ear, "Just like you said before, he wants to disrupt the government."

"..." Kang Yi had known this all along. He gave his wife to the other party as a gift in the hope of getting less profit, but judging from his wife's words, it seemed that she was not worth that price.

“He doesn’t want you to become the King of Yan; he wants Northern Yan to have two Kings of Yan,” the princess said.

"Impossible!" He was instinctively angry, but after being pinched hard, his voice became much softer, though his tone was still somewhat agitated. "If the Yan region is split into two countries that are hostile to each other, it will be annexed within ten years."

"I want to be the Queen of Yan for ten years, and I want to be the Queen of Yan for one year." Clenching her teeth, thinking about the humiliation of being almost naked and still not being eaten by Song Shi'an, she said hatefully, "I don't want to be a prisoner for life."

Living is no more comfortable than dying.

If life is about length, then everyone should become a tortoise.

“According to him, even if he really becomes the Prince of Yan, he will be no different from a prisoner, just a puppet of Song Shi’an,” Kang Yi advised.

“I want to wear magnificent robes, I want to eat delicacies from the mountains, I want to be the mistress of the harem. And you too.” Pointing at Kang Yi, he said, “Your father promised you that you would be a hostage, and after he died, he would summon you back to succeed him. Didn’t he ever think about how you would come back? Was he just lying to you? Was he just trying to lure you to Dayu, to hold onto some dream of the ancestral state, so that he could put Kang Xun on the throne with peace of mind?”

"Shut up! How dare you insult the late king!" Kang Yi grabbed her by the neck.

The princess's cheeks gradually flushed red, and she was speechless with breathlessness, but she still looked at him with a smile.

Kang Yi let go of her hand.

"Just now..." After coughing twice and catching her breath, the young master's wife said, "You were so angry, yet you didn't dare to raise your voice."

This one sentence shattered his self-esteem completely.

The ground was cracked all over.

Kang Yi lowered his head, his face ashen, unable to make any expression.

Slowly, the princess embraced him. She placed his head against her chest and said gently, "My husband, we did nothing wrong. We simply want what is rightfully ours. If it's only half, then the other half is what Kangxun owes us. There's no need for self-blame, no need for guilt..."

Kang Yi's eyes were already red.

He looked up at her and asked, "Madam, what should we do?"

"Song Shi'an wants one thing that can prove you are you," the young master's wife said.

"..." Conson closed his eyes and nodded with difficulty.

Yes, such things exist.

And nobody knew about it.

Otherwise, the people of Yu would have used it to make a fuss long ago.

“Then, you must write these words down,” the princess said, gazing at him intently.

Kang Yi didn't speak, so the princess leaned closer and whispered those words in his ear.

Upon hearing this, he immediately showed a resistant expression and shook his head, saying, "Impossible, absolutely impossible."

"You have to write it, even if it means death." The princess stared at him intently and said, "He's already threatening your son. Even if it's for your son's sake, you have to write it."

“I cannot be the sinner…” Kang Yi insisted on not complying.

“He is your son, not someone else’s.” The princess’s eyes were brimming with tears as she said forcefully, “I swear, he really is your son, he is Kangyi’s offspring.”

This is Kang Yi's real inner conflict.

Everything else is meaningless.

He didn't want to be a sucker for life.

Knowing that her words had worked, the princess continued, "Song Shi'an, he doesn't just want to succeed in his mission, he wants power."

“He seized power from Northern Liang.” Kang Yi agreed with this statement. “Did you see it during the day? In this delegation, he seemed to be hampered by Zuo Ziliang…”

“Besides that soldier, there was also a woman; the rest of them didn’t belong to him.” The young master’s wife also noticed.

“It’s entirely possible that he lied to us, wrote something like this, but didn’t send it out,” Kang Yi said. “He might have wanted to keep it for himself.”

Upon hearing this, the young master's wife felt a chill in her heart.

She didn't care whether the Yan Kingdom perished or not.

All she wants is freedom and dignity.

But if Song Shi'an deceived her to manipulate power, then there would be no possibility of returning to Yan...

“We,” Kang Yi said, “must also seize control of his lifeline.” …

Zuo Ziliang leaned back in the armchair, his feet soaking in a bucket of water.

The soldier in front of him knelt down to wash his feet and then described, "Master Zuo, no sooner had Kang Yi left than Magistrate Song was invited into the house. Once inside, the woman tried to seduce him, but it seems that Magistrate Song ridiculed her, saying that he was more interested in Ji Yuan's wife than her."

"Lord Song has very lofty ambitions," Zuo Ziliang joked. "He wants to play the role of a fake empress."

"Originally, even Magistrate Song didn't think much of her, but that woman did something, and then said, 'Magistrate Song is more honest in his physical appearance...'"

"Go on," Zuo Ziliang said, suppressing a laugh.

"Then, the bed started shaking, and the woman started screaming," the soldier said. "It was quite a commotion, and it lasted for a long time."

"I was just as good when I was young," Zuo Ziliang said without a trace of envy.

"Master Zuo is mighty." After praising him, the soldier added, "However, halfway through, Magistrate Song's woman came by, listened through the door for a while, and then left in a huff."

Zuo Ziliang laughed himself to death.

Then, wiping away the tears of laughter, she asked him, "Is there anything else?"

"Master Zuo, that's all."

"Alright, go out and keep watch."

"Yes!"

And so, the other person left the house.

Zuo Ziliang took his feet out of the wooden tub, dried them with a towel, and then noticed that his toenails were a bit long. So he took out a curved knife from the side and began to sharpen them with the blade.

After a while, he put the knife away. Then, he stood up in his wooden clogs and left the house.

There was no one guarding his door.

Because no one dared to eavesdrop on the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

After all, they were the people in the world who knew the most secrets of the emperor.

Under the moonlight, he walked to a tree. He loosened his belt and began to urinate.

Silently, a figure approached him.

Then, he urinated on the tree roots alongside him.

.........

After finishing the cleanup of the banquet and taking his leave, Song Jing returned to work at the Ministry of Personnel.

However, he became suspicious about one thing.

Sitting at his desk, he asked Xiu, "Has the national treasury not made any expenditures in the past few days?"

The Minister of the Imperial Secretariat was able to act as the de facto prime minister not only because he was in charge of the promotion of officials, but also because he was responsible for overseeing the nation's finances and taxes.

Since ancient times, prime ministers have always been in charge of money.

A prime minister who doesn't care about money can't be considered a true prime minister.

"It seems there's been no notification from them," Yu Xiu said.

"Shouldn't the expenses for such a mission come from the national treasury?" Song Jing said. "No matter what, it will cost money, right?"

Leaving aside bribery, there are still other expenses to consider.

Could it be from the internal treasury?

Impossible, this process is completely wrong.

“Indeed.” Yu Xiu also felt something was amiss, so he asked, “Lord, should I summon the official in charge of the national treasury?”

"Ah."

Song Jing nodded.

So Yu Xiu went down.

Song Jing knew that Song Shi'an's trip to Yan would definitely cost a lot of money.

This certainly involves some confidential matters, but as the acting Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, he cannot fail in his duty in such a matter.

What if, during the year-end performance review, the accounts reveal that a certain amount of money is missing out of nowhere?
The Song family could not fill the deficit in the national treasury.

Soon, the official in charge of the treasury arrived. He bowed respectfully to Song Jing and said with a smile, "This humble official greets the Chief Minister."

"Has your national treasury not released any funds these past few days?" Song Jing asked.

"Yes, it is in the capital." The official looked at the other party with some hesitation.

"It's His Majesty's order, isn't it?" Song Jing asked.

"Yes." The official nodded, then glanced around briefly before whispering, "If His Majesty has given an order, you can speak to the Chief Minister."

Yu Xiu wisely stepped aside and told everyone else to leave as well.

The door was closed.

"Speak, what are Your Majesty's orders?" Song Jing asked.

"His Majesty allocated funds from the national treasury for the Junior Earl's mission. It was personally claimed by the Left Master of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Junior Earl, and it is recorded and registered in the national treasury," the official said.

"Okay, got it."

That solves the problem. The people from the Embroidered Uniform Guard signed a document when they left, which is in complete compliance with the procedure.

"His Majesty said that the Grand Secretary still needs to know how much was taken away," the official said. "After all, you are temporarily serving as the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, and there are many places in the country where money needs to be spent."

"Hmm." Song Jing responded calmly, then asked, "How much did you take?"

"Twenty thousand gold coins."

"!" Song Jing's eyes widened suddenly. "Young Master Duo?!"

(End of this chapter)