the means of the people have been used up
The Chinese idiom, Pinyin is m í nqi ó NGC á ij ì n, which means that the people are poor and the national wealth is consumed. From the water margin.
The origin of Idioms
The ninety first chapter of Shi Naian's the complete story of the water margin in the Ming Dynasty: "this place is surrounded by mountains, easy to gather, but also worth frequent floods and droughts, the people are poor and the people are confused."
Idiom usage
Combined; as object and complement; with derogatory meaning. Gu Yanwu's rizhilu (Volume 12) in Qing Dynasty: "since ancient times, there have been people who are poor and have no money, but most of them are hidden in the top?"
Chinese PinYin : mín qióng cái jìn
the means of the people have been used up
plan to station troops permanently. zhù shì fǎn gēng
a loss may turn out to be a gain. sài wēng shī mǎ