the means of the people have been used up
In Chinese, the pronunciation is m í nqi ó NGC á iku ì, 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
In this case, the enemy should not be underestimated. History of the Qing Dynasty: biography of Chang Geng
the means of the people have been used up
pretend to be ignorant of sth. - zhuāng lóng zuò yǎ
serious and facetious at the same time - yì zhuāng yì xié
to make the dead come back to life - xū kū chuī shēng