Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

Wang Zhen swallowed hard, his eyes reddened, and he almost burst into tears.

"Your Majesty, you...you should take a look at the total accounts of the imperial estate's expenses for the first three months yourself. This servant...this servant really dares not read them aloud."

Zhu Qizhen's heart skipped a beat, and an ominous premonition surged into his mind.

He snatched the account book from Wang Zhen's hand.

The skills he had developed over the past seven years, honed by Gu Yannian's various messy accounts, awakened instinctively at this moment.

He didn't need to look closely at the tedious text; his gaze, like that of a hawk, went straight to the final summary of the money in the ledger.

I only glanced at it.

Zhu Qizhen gasped, his wrist jerked violently, and the thick account book nearly fell to the ground.

"Four...four hundred and fifty thousand taels?!"

The young emperor's voice instantly rose eight octaves, and the tone changed.

He stared intently at the shocking number, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

"It's only been three months! Thirteen thousand farm laborers, even if they ate only white flour buns every day, it wouldn't amount to forty-five hundred thousand taels of silver! Wang Zhen, you dog of a servant, have you embezzled my imperial treasury?!"

Zhu Qizhen was furious. He grabbed a paperweight from the imperial desk and was about to smash it at Wang Zhen.

Wang Zhen was so frightened that he kowtowed repeatedly.

"Your Majesty, you've been wronged! Even if I had a hundred lives, I wouldn't dare touch Your Majesty's private funds! Every single item in these accounts has a traceable origin. If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, please examine the detailed expenditure records closely. These people..."

"These guys aren't here to be soldiers, they're like living ancestors!"

Zhu Qizhen suppressed his anger and reopened the account books.

His eyes, which had once been forced by Gu Yannian to calculate the grain and provisions of the nine border regions of the Ming Dynasty, began to scan the accounts rapidly.

The more he looked, the paler his face became.

The more he looked, the more his hands trembled.

"Two thousand pigs and sheep sent from Xuanhua Prefecture were eaten by the guards of the Daningwei pasture within three days?!"

Zhu Qizhen's voice trembled as he pointed at the tent and roared.

"Thirteen thousand men, consuming two thousand sheep in three days? Are they reincarnated gluttons?! The border soldiers only get a taste of meat during festivals, and these guys are eating mutton like it's their main meal?!"

Wang Zhen, with a bitter face, kept complaining.

"Your Majesty, the eunuch in charge reports that these recruited strong men are all burly and have an astonishing appetite. Each of them can eat five catties of cooked beef in one meal."

"If any of the eunuchs who weren't in charge complained, they would overturn the table and shout that His Majesty had decreed that the imperial estates would cover all food and drink, and if their rations were cut, they would go to the capital to lodge a complaint with the emperor..."

Zhu Qizhen felt a surge of blood and qi in his chest, and almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

He patiently continued reading.

"Medical expenses...70,000 taels?!"

Zhu Qizhen stared wide-eyed, as if he had seen a ghost.

"In these three months, there has been neither fighting nor disaster on the grasslands. Where did the 70,000 taels for medical expenses come from?!"

Wang Zhen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice growing weaker.

"Your Majesty, have you forgotten that at the court meeting that day, in order to shut up Prime Minister Gu, you promised that the imperial palace would fund the lives, health, illness, and death of the farmhands at the imperial estate?"

"These ancestors went to the grasslands, and for some reason, one said he hurt his back today, another said he fell off his horse tomorrow. Even worse, some said they had contracted some intractable disease and could only survive by eating century-old ginseng from Changbai Mountain."

"When the doctor went to take a look, he found that they were all just superficial injuries or feigning illness. But they outnumbered him and tied him up and beat him, forcing him to prescribe expensive medicines."

"The head eunuch, fearing someone might die, had no choice but to swallow his pride and use the imperial treasury's money to buy ginseng and bird's nest for them to eat as snacks..."

"Bang!"

Zhu Qizhen could no longer contain himself and kicked over the imperial desk in front of him, scattering the folding tablets all over the floor.

"You bastard! You good-for-nothing! You scoundrel!"

The young emperor was so angry that he trembled all over and cursed loudly in the warm pavilion.

This is clearly a group of thugs and hooligans hired at great expense!

The private treasury he painstakingly accumulated was earned through his frugal living and meticulous scrimping and saving, penny by penny, from the expenses of the imperial household.

Now, however, it's like a raging river, feeding all of these ungrateful wretches!

Zhu Qizhen was so angry that his chest heaved violently, but after all, he had been brutally beaten by Gu Yannian for seven years, and he still retained his rationality.

He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and picked up the account books from the ground.

At this moment, the "accountant" within him was fully awakened.

"What about the horses from the pastures? What about the grain grown on the imperial estates?"

A ruthless glint flashed in Zhu Qizhen's eyes.

"They eat my food and use my resources, so they should be working now! Selling these horses and grain to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue will at least make up for some of the deficit!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhen's expression did not improve; instead, it became even more unpleasant than if he were crying.

He shakily pulled another thin folded document from his sleeve and presented it to the person in charge.

"Your Majesty... This is a joint memorial submitted today by Minister Chen of the Ministry of Revenue and Minister Yu of the Ministry of War."

Zhu Qizhen snatched the folded book and unfolded it to take a look.

"Your humble servants Chen Jian, Minister of Revenue, and Yu Qian, Minister of War, respectfully report: We have heard that the imperial estates and pastures of the Imperial Horse Stables produce a certain number of horses and fodder, which we wish to sell to the nine border regions."

"We sent officials to investigate and were shocked to find that most of the warhorses they bred were small and inferior, old, weak, sick and disabled, and some were even donkeys used as horses."

"How can soldiers on the nine borders charge into battle on donkeys? Therefore, the Ministry of War refused to accept them."

Upon seeing this, Zhu Qizhen felt a wave of dizziness.

Donkeys used as warhorses?!

These damned scoundrels actually tried to fool the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty with a donkey!

However, what made him even more desperate was the second half of the text on the folded page.

"Furthermore, although the grain and fodder produced on the imperial estates are of inferior quality and high price, the Ministry of Revenue, considering the financial difficulties of the inner court, is willing to purchase them at 60% of the market price. However, according to the agreement reached at the court assembly in the spring of the eighth year of the Zhengtong reign, the trade in the imperial estates must pay 20% commercial tax."

"Therefore, after deducting 20% ​​commercial tax, the Ministry of Revenue's payment for this purchase of grain and fodder amounted to 12,000 taels of silver. It has now been transferred to the Imperial Treasury. Your Majesty, please check and accept it."

"Twelve thousand taels..."

Zhu Qizhen looked at the number and felt dizzy.

The enormous expense of 450,000 taels of silver only yielded a profit of 12,000 taels of silver!

Moreover, the Ministry of Revenue has legitimately stripped away a layer of commercial tax revenue!

"Gu Yannian!"

Zhu Qizhen let out a mournful wail and slumped onto the dragon throne, his eyes lifeless.

He finally understood.

From the very beginning, all of this was a scheme set up by Gu Yannian!

That old scoundrel had long seen through his trick of wanting to build a private army, which is why he deliberately agreed readily in court.

However, it lightly added the constraints of paying taxes and providing for basic necessities for life, old age, sickness, and death.

What's even more terrifying is that the recruitment of over ten thousand gluttonous rogues could not possibly be a coincidence!

It must have been that old thief who secretly instructed people to kill the most gluttonous and troublesome rogue in the world.

He stuffed it all into his imperial estate!

That old thief not only didn't step in to stop it.

Instead, he moved a chair and sat comfortably to the side.

Watching Zhu Qizhen use his own private savings to fill this bottomless pit that can never be filled!

"Your Majesty, what should we do now?"

Wang Zhen looked mournful.

"The imperial treasury doesn't have much money to begin with. At this rate, they can only last until autumn at most before we're starving. Why don't we issue an edict to dismiss them all?"