The Yangxin Palace is the workshop of the Emperor of the Apocalypse to make carpentry, and the entire Yangxin Palace presents an I-shaped pattern. The first seven rooms, the back five, and the middle are connected by a hall.

After the death of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, Chongzhen did not allow others to clean up the things in the Heart Palace, but would come over from time to time to sit for a while, see things and think about people.

Therefore, all the arrangements of the Heart Cultivation Hall have not changed from the reign of the Emperor of the Apocalypse. In the front is a place where tools and materials for making utensils are stored, while in the back is a storehouse where the eunuchs on duty rest and make utensils.

According to Wei Zhongxian's instructions, Xu Yingyuan found the entrance in the west warehouse behind the Heart Cultivation Palace, and several strong chamberlains pried open four gold bricks connected together under Xu Yingyuan's command, and a downward passage was suddenly revealed.

After Xu Yingyuan and Lu Qi waited for the turbidity in the warehouse to be exhausted, they personally walked down with two torches. After the passage drops to the height of more than two people, it is a brick road more than three meters long.

The end of the corridor suddenly opened up, and a relatively wide basement appeared. The storehouse is divided into three independent storehouses by two supporting walls of brick walls up to one zhang thick, each of which is about one zhang wide and ten zhang long, and more than one person high.

Xu Yingyuan took a torch to shine on the roof of the warehouse, and found that it was a ceiling made of thick blue-striped stone frames, which made him feel a little relieved, at least the top of the warehouse would not suddenly sag. Lu Qi noticed that the flame of the torch was slightly inclined in one direction, which indicated that the warehouse was also equipped with ventilation facilities.

The two eunuchs first checked the safety of the treasury before relenting and checking the contents of the treasury. The warehouse is divided into two floors, with a hardwood bracket against the wall.

There were boxes on the upper and lower floors, and Xu Yingyuan opened the box closest to him, the so-called box was actually a small cabinet divided into four rows of drawers. Xu Yingyuan opened the upper drawer, and the white horseshoe silver suddenly shone brightly in the firelight.

50 taels of horseshoe silver horizontal and vertical, neatly arranged in a drawer, one drawer is 25. Xu Yingyuan opened four drawers in a row, and found that the amount of silver in each drawer was exactly the same, and there were 100 horseshoe silver in one box, which means that this box was 5,000 taels of silver.

The dense boxes in the west warehouse are not yet half of the shelves, but there are about 100 boxes, and this warehouse alone is no less than 500,000 taels of silver. Although Xu Yingyuan had already heard from Wei Zhongxian about the actual amount of silver in this treasury, when the silver appeared in front of him, he realized that hearing about it and witnessing it were completely different things.

The appearance of so much silver in front of him immediately confused Xu Yingyuan's mind, and at this moment only one thought came to his mind, how good it would be if all this silver was his own.

Xu Yingyuan had seen the most money in his life, and it was just that Wei Zhongxian wanted him to say good things for him in front of Chongzhen, and gave him three thousand taels of silver, which was less than a box in this warehouse.

Lu Qi on the side was not dazzled by these silvers, although he had been serving as a low-level servant, and his life savings were not 50 taels. But after being promoted to the deputy manager of the Qianqing Palace by Chongzhen, Lu Qi regarded his life as Chongzhen's. Therefore, in his eyes, no matter how much silver is in this treasury, it is also the property of His Majesty.

Xu Yingyuan's style of forgetting who he was when he saw the silver suddenly made Lu Qi look down on him a little. He watched Xu Yingyuan pick up a silver ingot, and was reluctant to put it down, looking at it vigorously over and over again, and couldn't help coughing a few times to remind this Xu Gonggong what they were here for.

Lu Qi's coughing sound made Xu Yingyuan finally remember that he didn't come down alone, and there was a chief eunuch who accompanied him down.

Before Xu Yingyuan left the capital, he had never seen this deputy steward of the Qianqing Palace, but there were many eunuchs in the palace, and it was common for one or two faces to pop up. Based on Xu Yingyuan's understanding of these stewards and eunuchs in the palace before he left, none of the stewards and eunuchs did not love money.

There are many eunuchs in the palace, and there are only a few positions with oil and water. If you want to go from a servant who sweeps the courtyard to a steward eunuch with a certain position of power, in addition to managing various interpersonal relationships, you also need a certain amount of luck and a lot of money.

And the most important of them is money, as a eunuch of the Ming Dynasty. They could not be like the old-timers of the Han and Tang dynasties, and their power could be so great that they could depose the emperor to control the entire empire. and can't be like the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty, making meritorious contributions to earn a family business for future generations.

In the internal and external court system formulated by Taizu and Chengzu, eunuchs could only become vassals of imperial power, and were a tool used by the emperor to counter the excessive civil power of the outer court. After the Ming Dynasty Civil Engineering Change, the civil official group completely suppressed the noble forces that balanced the inner court and the outer court. This also caused the eunuch to be held high by the emperor, but once he lost the emperor's support, the eunuch himself was not the opponent of the civil official group at all.

Except for Wei Zhongxian, a big eunuch who was too trusted by the Apocalypse and was unaccustomed to being looked down upon by the civil official group, finding fault every day, and finally being forced to fight back. Most of the eunuchs in the palace pursued nothing more than a luxurious life beyond ordinary people.

In the last days of the Ming Dynasty, the rise of merchant power made people in this era want to enjoy, as long as they have money. These eunuchs who served the emperor in the palace were far more exquisite in life than ordinary wealthy families, and in order for these eunuchs to live the life they wanted, they had to be very rich.

Just seeking a rich life in this world is a true portrayal of the hearts of most of the eunuchs in the palace. So as long as there is a possibility, these eunuchs will not let go of any opportunity to make money.

For example, this Xu Yingyuan, under the persuasion of Wei Zhongxian, threw out the secret of the silver treasury of the Yangxin Palace in exchange for the trust of Emperor Chongzhen. Now that he saw the actual silver, he suddenly began to feel a little annoyed, and felt that he should not have told Chongzhen about the actual amount of silver in the silver vault so quickly.

Xu Yingyuan reluctantly put down the horseshoe silver in his hand, and suddenly said to Lu Qi with a smile on his face: "This father-in-law, have we met there before?" I don't know if my father-in-law was there on an errand before? ”

Lu Qi just owed a debt, so he replied: "Back to Father-in-law Xu, before going down, he worked in the Mixed Hall Division, and he should have never met Father-in-law Xu." ”

"Mixed Division?" Xu Yingyuan was slightly stunned, he didn't understand how this person went from being a mixed hall to the deputy steward of the Qianqing Palace, one of the lowest-ranking yamen in the mixed hall Sishi Palace, and the deputy steward of the Qianqing Palace was basically a eunuch close to the emperor because he was often in contact with the emperor, and his status in the palace was very high, and even ordinary concubines would not offend the stewards and eunuchs of the Qianqing Palace.

However, Xu Yingyuan quickly put this problem behind him, no matter how Lu Qi climbed to his current position, it just shows that he should have spent a lot of money. As long as this father-in-law is short of money, he can do something with him.

The smile on Xu Yingyuan's face became more affectionate, he put the torch into the iron clip fixed on the wall, then turned around and pulled Lu Qi's empty right hand and said: "Father-in-law Lu, we are really destined, before I entered the palace, my mother was surnamed Lu." As soon as I saw you, father-in-law, I couldn't help but feel a sense of intimacy in my heart..."

Xu Yingyuan's general behavior of climbing relatives did not make Lu Qi feel cordial, but felt a little creepy. Although he has been working in the Mixed Hall Division for more than 20 years, he is not a bastard who knows nothing.

On the contrary, the mixed hall division served as a bathing place for the eunuchs in the palace. Many secrets in the palace will be revealed in the mouths of these eunuchs who are soaking in the bathhouse and are relaxed.

It can be said that Lu Qi, who has worked in the mixed hall for more than 20 years, has a far better understanding of the situation in the palace than Xu Yingyuan.

Looking at Xu Yingyuan's unusually affectionate energy, Lu Qi suddenly became vigilant. He hurriedly withdrew his hand, took a step back, and said: "Father-in-law Xu, please tell me directly, Lu Qi was abducted and sold by traffickers when he was a child, and finally entered the palace, I don't remember what his real name is." This Lu Qi is just the name given to me by my father-in-law when I entered the palace. Therefore, the father-in-law's maternal family will not have anything to do with Zaixia. ”

Looking at Lu Qi's attitude of rejecting people thousands of miles away, Xu Yingyuan didn't care at all, as a well-known gambler in the palace. When he lost all his savings and looked for people to borrow money everywhere to turn over the book, he didn't see anything in vain.

It's just that without Lu Qi's help, he can't do it himself, so he will be entangled with Lu Qi with a dead face.

"Since Gonggong Lu said so, then I will say it directly. Although my old Xu seems to be a few years older than Father-in-law Lu, this time to enter the palace is not as good as Father-in-law Lu, it is better for you and me to become godbrothers, and we can take care of each other in the palace in the future. What do you think? ”

Lu Qi frowned, this Xu Yingyuan stood in the shadow of the torch, and he couldn't see the expression on his face at all. Lu Qi also didn't know what this Xu Gonggong wanted to do.

However, out of caution, he still said ambiguously: "Let's talk about the matter of swearing and doing brothers, let's talk about it later." Now Your Majesty is still waiting for you and me to go back and reply to your life, so let's hurry up and check the number, and then go back quickly. ”

Xu Yingyuan finally couldn't hold his breath, and he said nervously in a low voice: "When Gonggong Wei and I mentioned the amount of silver in the silver inventory, I was thinking about other things at the time, so I wasn't sure if the number I heard at that time was correct. And the last time Gonggong Wei checked the accounts of the treasury was 6 months ago, and we don't know whether the amount of silver in the treasury has changed during this period..."

Listening to Xu Yingyuan Luoli's rambling words, Lu Qi interrupted very strangely: "This silver treasury is here, and the silver two are also here, and they won't run away with long legs, even if the amount of silver deposited is not right, Your Majesty will not blame Gonggong Xu?" ”

Xu Yingyuan's palms were sweating, and he took a step forward, and his whole person was exposed to the light of the torch in Lu Qi's hand.

Under Lu Qi's gaze, Xu Yingyuan, whose face was flushed and the tip of his nose was sweating, tried his best, but he lowered his voice and said: "I hope that Gonggong Lu will report back to Your Majesty with me, the amount in this treasury seems to be different from what Gonggong Wei said, and it is not as much as 2 million taels." ”