Chapter 2673

The Queen was meeting with some elderly ladies, and Changyu sat with them for quite a while. Feeling really bored, he winked at Mingda.

Mingda still had a goal to achieve, so he was unwilling to leave and just pretended not to see it.

Changyu had no choice but to sit for a while longer. She really couldn't sit any longer. If she sat any longer, she would fall asleep.

So he quietly got up and went out.

As soon as she went out, a gust of wind blew, and Changyu felt a little more energetic. She exhaled, turned around and went back to her own bedroom.

The head maid stopped her and said, "Princess, the officials and imperial edicts are almost all here. The Queen will be there soon. If you go back to the bedroom now, you will be too late to come."

She said, "If you're not feeling energetic, why not go to the Wude Hall and talk to someone and you'll feel better."

Chang Yu said boredly, "Well, I don't know if Zhou Man has come in yet."

Speaking of Zhou Man, Chang Yu perked up a bit, "Let's go find Zhou Man."

Manbao was also looking for them, and came all the way from Wude Hall. When the two sides met on the palace road, they immediately rushed towards each other with joy.

Manbao held her hand and said, "I was just about to go look for you."

One asked, "What is the Queen doing now?"

Chang Yu was curious when he heard this, "Why are you looking for the Queen Mother?"

"It's something important," Manbao asked. "I heard you say earlier that the Queen wanted to raise money for our Imperial Medical Bureau to buy medicinal herbs?"

Chang Yu: "...Did I say that? I only heard from Mother that it was for military supplies for this expedition. Many people from your Imperial Medical Bureau are accompanying you, so you must have a share. What's the matter?"

Manbao asked, "Is the money collected enough?"

Chang Yu thought for a moment and said, "It's not a small amount. I alone gave eight ten-liang silver ingots, and there are also quite a few jewelry. It must be worth at least seventy or eighty liang."

She said, "Mingda gave me little jewelry, but he gave me a lot of cash, the total value is about one or two hundred taels."

Manbao was extremely surprised. If the palace was willing to give all the money to their Imperial Medical Bureau to prepare medicinal materials and medical equipment, then the money might be more than the five million allocated to them by the Ministry of Revenue.

Manbao cheered up and pulled Changyu towards the harem. She said, "I haven't paid my respects to the Empress yet. Let's go pay our respects to the Empress."

She decided to take advantage of the situation.

Changyu didn't want to, so she stood still, but Zhou Man was very strong and dragged her away, "Hurry up, hurry up, don't delay me from paying my respects to the Empress."

Chang Yu said, "There are only old nobles like the wife of the Duke of Zhao and the old lady of the Yin family. They are either talking about their sons or their grandsons. We can't get a word in there."

Manbao said, "Your Majesty will bring Lord Yin with him on this expedition."

So they can still communicate with each other, they have a common language.

Chang Yu: “…”

Led by Changyu, they went straight into the main hall, where everyone was talking animatedly.

Manbao pricked up his ears and heard them talking about "Princess Kindness"

"This is what we did. If we can help relieve the worries of His Majesty and the Empress, it will be our honor."

The two were planning to sneak in quietly, and the queen, who was sitting upstairs and smiling, had a panoramic view of the situation in the palace.

Naturally, she also saw the two people sneaking around, so she smiled and said, "Madam, you are very understanding and righteous. I am very pleased. It just so happens that Zhou Qing is here too. Zhou Qing, what do you think of this matter?"

Manbao and Changyu, who had just slipped halfway, froze.

Chang Yu adhered to the principle of "a friend's death would rather die than me", broke free from Zhou Man's hand, walked back to his seat gracefully and sat down.

Yeah, what do you think?

Chang Yu thought to himself: What does God think? They just came in from outside and have no idea what they said before. How can they think?

Manbao looked up and smiled slightly. Just as he was about to act like a spoiled brat, Mingda also looked up and smiled slightly, saying cheerfully, "Mother, she's naturally the happiest. Although this money is donated to be used for the soldiers, it still falls under the management of the Imperial Medical Bureau."

"She's the imperial physician. She has enough medicinal herbs to treat illnesses and save lives. Would she be unhappy?"

Manbao's eyes lit up, and he swallowed his words. He nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, yes, yes, I'm very happy."

The Queen glanced at Mingda, smiled slightly, and said, "Mr. Zhou is from the imperial court, so he should know more than us women in the harem. This year, the harvest has been poor in many places. Before the autumn harvest, His Majesty reduced taxes in several areas, so the treasury is not very prosperous. Yesterday, the concubines in the harem, as well as the prince's daughters, donated some money for military expenses. It's not a lot, but it will add up and can help His Majesty and the adults solve some minor problems."

Man Bao nodded approvingly, suppressing his excitement as he said, "For example, they could buy medicinal herbs for our Imperial Medical Department, gauze and linen lamps for bandaging. Not to mention the generosity of the Empress and Madam, even a penny could buy hemostatic medicine. This is a great deed that saves lives. Zhou Man would like to thank the Empress and Madam on behalf of the soldiers."

The ladies who were led by Princess Mingda to donate money were still feeling a little reluctant and unwilling, but now all their reluctance had disappeared.

Yes, this is a great merit, just like giving porridge to the poor during festivals.

The old ladies whose family members had gone to war prayed to the gods or Buddha in their hearts, hoping that God would bless them with a safe return because of their piety. If...

The money donated this time will also be used for them.

Although given their status, if they were really injured, they would not be beyond treatment, but they still had to comfort themselves in their hearts.

If the Imperial Medical Bureau had enough money, they might be able to buy better medicine. If you really need medicine by chance, the difference between a hundred copper coins and one copper coin is quite large.

Thinking of this, an old lady couldn't help but ask, "Master Zhou, have you prepared all the medicines in the Imperial Hospital?"

The lady, whose family was away at the battle, immediately pricked up her ears.

Man Bao laughed and said, "Not yet. The Ministry of Revenue only gave us a budget of five million. But we have one hundred thousand soldiers going on this expedition. If you include the personal troops that His Majesty wants to take with him, there must be at least one hundred and twenty thousand."

Manbao sighed and said, "That is to say, not counting the menial tasks and the logistics soldiers transporting supplies, the money for each person fighting on the front lines for wound medicine is only a little over 40 wen. This is at least three months of medicine expenses."

Forty cents is only enough to buy two sets of hemostatic medicine, the cheapest kind.

If the condition is more serious, the price of a prescription will be more than that.

The other old ladies didn't know the price of the medicine, but they were not stupid. If the fight continued into the cold winter, and they had to rely on forty cents for the medicine for three months, wouldn't that be sending people to their deaths?

Everyone couldn't help but glance at Minister Liu's wife with some dissatisfaction in their eyes.

Mrs. Liu Shangshu: ...

If you just sit there quietly, disaster will come from the sky.

Mrs. Liu Shangshu glanced at Zhou Man and said nothing.

See you at 7pm

(End of this chapter)