Of course, there is nothing that can be done about it. Now that Emperor Zhao has been on his southern tour for nearly a year, and the new taxation law has been thoroughly implemented, the most important things for the entire southeast are to measure the impact of this rain and when Fujian will be able to stabilize.

However, this has raised another question. Some people have secretly complained that the official business has been completed, and the affairs of Fujian and the rain in Liangzhe are beyond human control. Then why is he, the emperor, still staying here? Is he really attracted by the prosperity of the southeast and doesn't want to leave?

However, the old palace of Wuyue has collapsed, and staying in a Buddhist temple all day is not necessarily comfortable, right? Or is he really a Buddhist?

However, if we really want to talk about what happened, it seems that there was something going on. Not long after Liu Hongdao returned to Tokyo, when Emperor Zhao began to make secret visits, a new session of the cabinet meeting also began. The emperor officially issued an edict, summoning cabinet members at the first level in Lianghuai, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Liangzhe, Fujian and other places to meet at Fenghuang Mountain... The cabinets in Lianghuai, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places were newly formed and had not yet met the emperor, which was of course reasonable.

Besides, no one knows when Emperor Zhao will leave, so organizing a few more successful conferences would be like drawing a circle around the West Lake and successfully concluding his southern tour, right?

Therefore, by the end of summer, the southeast and the banks of the West Lake were once again crowded with people, especially the members of the Lianghuai Public Office who flocked here directly from Yangzhou. Each of them had a wealthy family, and this time they were in opposition to the local government and had a strong desire to participate in politics. So their arrival almost instantly brought Hangzhou City back to the situation it was in before the martial arts conference.

Even better.

Outside Yongjin Gate, Hangzhou is really being misunderstood as Bianzhou again, and Louwailou has become so unaffordable that even the locals can’t afford it.

However, it was almost as if it had been arranged in advance. Just as the Southeast Pavilion set the meeting date and began to handle the relevant procedures under the Leifeng Pagoda, that morning, Xu Jingheng, the former deputy prime minister of the capital province who had gone to Fujian to pacify the local area, also officially returned from Fujian.

After all, Prime Minister Xu was a prime minister before. Now that he was back, he certainly would not compete with those members of the cabinet for the opportunity to meet the emperor. Instead, he was directly led to the main hall of Shengguo Temple by Yang Yi Zhong who came to greet him. That morning, he paid his respects to Emperor Zhao and made a report.

The conclusion does not seem optimistic.

"So, Fujian's autumn harvest is still affected this year?" Zhao Guanjia, who was no stranger to the Main Hall, asked casually under the Buddha statue.

It is worth mentioning that although this place is spacious, the emperor is only accompanied by Lu Yihao and a few close ministers at this time... Fan Zongyin, Mei Li and others are still in Fujian and have not returned, and Xu Jingheng's return seems to be specially recalled by Emperor Zhao.

"So that the emperor knows, it's not the autumn harvest, it's the autumn tax." Xu Jingheng immediately made a correction in the hall. "Armed fighting mostly occurs between clans and villages, but when these people fight, they rarely destroy production or hinder farming... I said that it affects the autumn tax, which means that large-scale armed fighting has gradually subsided, but local villages are confronting each other with weapons, and small-scale vendettas will continue for a long time. In addition, this fight was originally caused by the allocation of taxes, and in order to appease the local area, I have taken the initiative to wipe out all the taxes involved in the dispute in Fujian... So, in this case, the autumn tax in Fujian will inevitably be affected, but it will not have much impact on the actual autumn harvest."

Hearing this, Zhao Jiu breathed a sigh of relief, followed by a long silence.

Seeing this situation, Xu Jingheng, who was standing in the hall, couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

As a re-employed prime minister, on the one hand, his height allowed him to understand the core of the problem even when he was on a business trip - although he only heard some rumors on the way back, he had long since realized that the problem was in the Northern Expedition; on the other hand, his sense of responsibility and political alienation due to his identity, political stance, and place of origin made him have some complex emotions in the face of this major event.

I don’t oppose or participate, but I don’t avoid it either... I feel like I’m being pushed around.

However, as the saying goes, what is coming will eventually come. After waiting for a while, Emperor Zhao looked at Lu Yihao under the Buddha statue and asked again: "So, Fujian is actually better than Liangzhe? There is an impact, but it is mostly limited to the grassroots, and in any case it has not reached the point of disaster... Is it true or not?"

"Forgive me for speaking frankly." Xu Jingheng bowed his hands and replied sternly. "Your Majesty is wrong... Many people died in Fujian, and this incident has far-reaching consequences. It is likely to cause a feud among the people of Fujian. In any case, it cannot be said to be better than the two Zhejiang provinces, which suffered a reduction in production due to rain! The new taxation policy seems too hasty outside the two Zhejiang provinces."

"Mr. Xu is right." Zhao Jiu paused and responded with a serious look. "I only thought about the short-term impact of the two places on the Northern Expedition, but did not consider the long-term situation of the two places... This is not what a monarch should think about."

Emperor Zhao admitted his mistake and directly pointed out the Northern Expedition. What else could Prime Minister Xu say?

After a moment, the man bowed helplessly and said, "Has the government made up its mind?"

"It's not a matter of whether I'm determined or not, but if there's no reason to stop, I can only bite the bullet and do it. And the current situation is that although there are twists and turns in Liangzhe and Fujian, and there's a bit of rain in the Central Plains, it hasn't caused a major disaster after all. And since there's nothing that needs to be stopped, we, the monarch and the ministers, can't deceive ourselves and escape." Zhao Jiu said bluntly. "Mr. Xu, the 300,000 imperial camp troops will be fully staffed in the fall. Although there are many new soldiers among them, there are also Tanguts who can be recruited, Taihang Volunteer Army can be mobilized, and even Mongolian and Khitan friendly forces can be summoned, so the scheduled military strength is still sufficient; as for food, military supplies, and military equipment, although they are a little less abundant than last year's estimate, they are actually sufficient compared to the measurement three years ago... In this situation, if we don't move, we will lose our credibility with the people of the world, don't you think so?"

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