"What? His Majesty is back?"

Cui Renshi's eyes widened; this was far too inopportune.

He could only grab Zhao Quan's hand and say, "No matter how much money it costs, suppress this matter first, take that beast home and lock him up, and I will go back to deal with it as soon as possible."

"yes."

After dismissing Zhao Quan, Cui Renshi went inside, gathered a few colleagues, and hurriedly headed to the Imperial Study.

During the Empress's absence, they have accumulated a lot of unresolved issues, and it is estimated that the Empress will be furious again soon.

Just thinking about that scene makes Cui Renshi feel choked up.

He's over fifty years old, how can he feel good about being ridden on by a young girl all day?

Soon, more than a dozen key ministers gathered in the Imperial Study.

The eunuch's voice rang out immediately: "His Majesty has arrived!"

Cui Renshi's heart leaped into his throat, and he immediately led all the ministers to kneel down, shouting, "Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a delicate fragrance wafted into the Imperial Study. The next moment, Wu Lanxi's golden-red figure slowly entered the Imperial Study and sat on the dragon throne.

She wore a magnificent dragon robe inlaid with red gemstones, and her eyes revealed an aura of domineering self-importance.

She was only twenty-one years old.

Mingming was born with striking beauty and possessed a dignified and elegant demeanor.

Yet when she looked down upon the kneeling officials, her bright and stern eyes still inspired awe!

"My beloved subjects, rise."

Cui Renshi and the others then slowly stood up.

Wu Lanxi then said, "Report in detail what happened inside and outside the palace during my absence."

Cui Renshi bowed and said, "Your Majesty is benevolent and virtuous, and the people are devoted to you. The world is peaceful and prosperous; there's nothing major, except..."

“The barbarian tribes were restless and tried to harass the border, but they were repelled by the garrison general. In addition, the famine in Youzhou was still very serious. Local grain merchants hoarded grain and refused to sell it, causing grain prices to soar and the people to suffer greatly.”

Wu Lanxi nodded.

Both of these issues are legacy issues from the past.

The nomadic tribes of the border regions were all nomadic peoples. After being driven away, they would disperse on the grasslands, but when they ran out of food, they would gather again and continue to harass the people on the frontier.

Unless we can find a way to wipe them all out in one fell swoop, we can only keep going back and forth, constantly exchanging blows.

As for the grain price in Youzhou, she sent three imperial envoys in succession, but none of them could resolve the issue, and now she doesn't know what to do.

However, they did not present any new issues, but she did have questions to ask.

"Prime Minister Cui, I ask you, last year there was a severe drought in Kuizhou, and I allocated 500,000 taels of silver for disaster relief. Why did so many people still starve to death? Where did all 500,000 taels of silver go?"

Her first stop on her incognito visit was Kuizhou.

They had expected to see a prosperous Kuizhou after the disaster, but instead, the area was littered with corpses of the starving, crops lay barren, and there was no harvest at all.

Not to mention small animals, even the wild grass in the wasteland has been eaten up!

According to locals, the famine in Kuizhou this year is even more severe than last year.

As a result, the truth was concealed from top to bottom!

If she hadn't gone there in person, she probably would still be in the dark today.

Cui Renshi was taken aback, not expecting His Majesty to go to Kuizhou, and his brows furrowed deeply.

Of the 500,000 taels of silver, one-third was embezzled before it even left the capital.

By the time it reached Kuizhou, only half of it remained.

Local officials in Kuizhou naturally couldn't remain inactive.

The amount actually used for disaster relief was probably less than 100,000 taels of silver.

However, even with 100,000 taels of silver, it is not certain that it will actually be put into practice.

Nine times out of ten, those petty officials will use various excuses to substitute inferior goods for superior ones, so the disaster relief efforts will be of little effect.

Unfortunately, the heavens are blind; it hasn't rained for two years in a row!

Local officials are afraid that the situation regarding last year's disaster relief funds will be exposed, so they dare not report this year's as well.

Although Cui Renshi knew the situation, he could not be the one to take the lead.

Now that His Majesty was pressing him for an answer, he had no idea how to respond and could only turn to his accomplices and give them meaningful glances.

Upon receiving the signal, a minister immediately stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, this matter has nothing to do with Prime Minister Cui. The disaster in Kuizhou is severe, with at least a million people affected. Five hundred thousand taels of silver may seem like a lot, but in reality, it's just a drop in the ocean and won't help at all!"

"Yes! Last year, Prime Minister Cui traveled around for the people and even took out three thousand taels of his personal money to help them. But the natural disasters were unbearable. Kuizhou had not seen rain for two years, and the local officials did not report it. Prime Minister Cui could not help them."

Following that, several other ministers also stepped forward.

"The disaster in Kuizhou is getting worse every day. Let alone 500,000 taels, even if we send 1 million taels, it's like filling a bottomless pit!"

"Indeed, if it weren't for Prime Minister Cui, Kuizhou would have become a living hell!"

Wu Lanxi took a deep breath and silently clenched her fists.

here we go again.

Every time she questioned any one of these ministers, they would cover for each other and cover up for each other.

Therefore, no matter what mistakes they make, they can always get away with it unscathed.

In the end, the people will only blame her for being an incompetent emperor!

She is indeed incompetent.

Anyone with a bit of ability would have already eliminated all these high-ranking officials who are just sitting on their laurels and doing nothing but lining their own pockets!

Do they even have the right to spout nonsense here?

"Very well, I will not pursue the 500,000 taels of silver from last year, but the disaster in Kuizhou is severe and cannot be ignored any longer. Prime Minister Cui, you must immediately send someone to investigate the disaster in detail and report back to me within five days!"

After saying this, Wu Lanxi stood up abruptly and left the Imperial Study.

All the ministers bowed their heads and respectfully saw her off until her footsteps had completely disappeared from sight, only then did they raise their heads one by one.

Wang Tianze, the Minister of Revenue, frowned deeply: "Her Majesty actually went to Kuizhou, where there are refugees everywhere and many members of the White Lotus Sect causing trouble. Isn't she afraid something will happen to her?"

The Minister of Personnel, with his hands behind his back, said, "Whether anything happened or not, His Majesty returned safely, didn't he? If there's a problem with the disaster relief funds, the Ministry of Revenue will bear the greatest responsibility. You'd better think carefully about how to explain this."

Wang Tianze glared at him, about to retort, when he was interrupted by Cui Renshi.

"What are you still arguing about at a time like this? Even if there were problems with last year's disaster relief funds, it's too late to investigate now. His Majesty is asking what to do about the current disaster situation!"

Wang Tianze said helplessly, "If it doesn't rain, what can we do? We can either bring the refugees out and send them to other places, or we can only send them money and food. There is no other way."

The other ministers remained silent upon hearing this.

Natural disasters are divine punishment; unless a god descends to earth, no one has the ability to fight against them.

Cui Renshi naturally knew this, but he couldn't say these things himself; he had to force others to say them.

"If that's the case, how much silver is left in the national treasury? How much grain is left in the granaries?"

Wang Tianze said, "Years of war have long depleted the national treasury. In the last year or two, things finally calmed down, but then natural disasters and man-made calamities struck again. Now we can't even come up with a single tael of silver. If we want to provide disaster relief, His Majesty can only pay for it himself!"