Liu Zihe didn't dare to speak, and still only kept his head lowered. Yet Song Juguang was unforgiving. "Now, when the court has needs, how come you didn't act as an example?" Liu Zihe lowered his head even further, even raising his voice to blame others. Song Juguang didn't pay attention to him, and walked to Wu Dongmu's side. "Only on leaving the capital did I hear that Wu-daren had spent money a great deal of riches to buy a painting from the previous dynasty, yet he can't draw out any money now?" At this, Wu Dongmu also shirked responsibility. When Song Juguang had entered just then, her face had still carried a smile, but now, that smiling expression had dispersed entirely. Suddenly furious, a foot kicked Wu Dongmu's chest, causing him to fall a few meters away. "A Guang." Only then did Jiang Changbai speak, stopping her. Song Juguang, hearing this, drew back her vicious behaviour, and turned around, walking to the front of the ...

Translator's note: I just realised that I'd been misreading Wei Xiren's name as Wei Sharen the entire time, and went back to fix that in the previous chapters, so if you're wondering "Who on earth is Wei Xiren", that's what happened. - The Great Li's territory was great, and the common people were uncountable. However, the state treasury had been in debt for many years, and had actually been relying on progressively levying taxes to maintain its operations. Jiang Changbai had always been within the Prince's residence, and had only known that Emperor Tai was extravagant, but hadn't imagined that the extravagance had actually come to this point. Merely for the semi-annual hunt, five hundred thousand liang of silver was used; it had to be known that one liang of silver was sufficient to cover the expenditures of a common household within Beijing for a year. Now, the Great Li had only just faced internal disorder, especially the capital to the nort...