A beautiful day begins in the morning.
Although it was their wedding night, Qin Chuan repeatedly contradicted the Empress, which the Empress found unbearable, but she still chose to forgive him and did not blame him.
I actually quite like his defiance...
"Husband, you're awake..."
Qin Chuan opened his eyes and saw the Empress, dressed in court attire, being served by palace maids. She glanced back at him with a smile in her phoenix eyes.
"In a hurry to go to court?"
“Yes,” Xiao Li nodded her head and blinked her phoenix eyes. “Husband, you continue to sleep. I will go to handle state affairs. After court, I will come to keep you company.”
"I'll go with you. I'll give you some ideas for the problems you can't solve."
After Qin Chuan got up, he realized that he had forgotten to bring all his clothes except for his formal attire.
The empress ordered a palace maid to fetch a dragon-patterned robe, which fit her quite well.
"Let's go, I'll go with you."
Qin Chuan held her soft hand and they went together to the Golden Palace.
All the officials had entered the hall, chatting and laughing, creating a harmonious atmosphere.
The female official on duty had also drunk too much last night, so Xiao Yue took charge of counting the number of officials attending court.
"Your Majesty, one hundred and ninety people were supposed to be present at today's court assembly, but one hundred and one people are actually present."
After hearing Xiao Yue's report, the Empress smiled faintly:
"My beloved ministers drank a bit too much last night because of my wedding, which is completely understandable. Let's discuss a few minor matters today, and we can discuss the major matters when more people arrive tomorrow."
Immediately, he had a eunuch bring a chair for Qin Chuan and place it to the lower left side of the dragon throne, thus bestowing a seat upon Qin Chuan.
"Thank you for offering me a seat, Your Majesty."
However, the formalities still had to be observed. After expressing his gratitude, Qin Chuan sat down with a clear conscience.
After the court officials performed the kowtow, Zhang Xun, the governor of the capital region, stepped forward and reported: "Your Majesty, recently I have discovered that another group of refugees have entered the capital region, and some have even infiltrated the capital city. Some of them are in groups of three or five, begging along the streets, while others are in gangs of dozens, causing trouble in the area and disrupting the security of the capital..."
The Empress slowly said, "Since there are refugees flowing in, as the governor of the capital region, you should do a good job of resettling and repatriating them. Is there any difficulty in doing so?"
Zhang Xun bowed and continued, "Your Majesty, I have been making arrangements for resettlement and repatriation, but the governor's office is short of clerks and there are many displaced people, so the results have been minimal for the time being."
"A shortage of clerks?"
The Empress remembered that a few days ago, she had reduced some of the expenditures of the provincial government offices.
That was because the more than 90,000 Xiongnu prisoners were distributed to various provinces to perform labor service. At that time, Qin Chuan felt that since he had supported these 90,000 people, they must be able to create value.
They expected that local government offices would find their own ways to squeeze money out of these Xiongnu prisoners, but to their surprise, the offices ended up cutting staff to cope with the budget cuts, showing they had no idea how to extract any money from the Xiongnu captives...
This has led to the current situation where government offices are short of manpower.
"Then let's recruit more clerks..." the Empress said calmly.
Zhang Xun said cautiously, "The governor's office hasn't paid salaries for two months. I request the Ministry of Revenue to allocate funds to settle the back pay first, so that we can recruit clerks..."
Lun Wenxu, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, said unhappily, "Governor Zhang, our Ministry of Revenue has already allocated funds to your office once in January, which is enough for your office to pay salaries."
Zhang Xun said helplessly, "Minister Lun, the Ministry of Revenue has allocated funds, but this year's situation is somewhat special. It seems that there is a drought trend in the capital region, and the various prefectures and counties are building irrigation canals. The amount reported is 800,000 taels. The money allocated by the Ministry of Revenue is only enough to pay salaries. I have been troubled by the complaints from below, so I had no choice but to allocate my salary funds to the irrigation canal construction first..."
Hearing these words, the Empress muttered with barely concealed displeasure, "Eight hundred thousand taels, and I have to pay again..."
However, she spoke very softly, and only Qin Chuan heard her.
At that moment, Li Yunrui, the governor-general of Shandong and Henan provinces, stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, the climate of Shandong and Henan provinces is similar to that of the capital region. If the capital region suffers from drought, then Shandong and Henan will also experience drought. Last year's drought has just ended. If there is another drought this year, even if farmers are exempted from taxes for two years, I'm afraid... it will still lead to a disaster of displaced people..."
"So Shandong and Henan are also going to build irrigation canals?"
"Your Majesty, I dare not ask for more. One million six hundred thousand is enough for the two provinces. Since it involves the people's livelihood, I will make the accounts clear and the prefectures and counties will not dare to embezzle a single penny."
The Empress's expression darkened. Water canals needed to be built in the capital region, as well as in Shandong and Henan, and in other northern provinces. Each province would cost 800,000 taels, three provinces would cost 2.4 million taels, and the seven northern provinces would cost 5.6 million taels. The national treasury only had 6 million taels. If all of it was used for water conservancy projects, how could the court function?
Thinking about all this gave her a terrible headache, and she wanted to adjourn the court session.
Governing a country is so difficult; everyone is asking me for money...
But that wasn't all. Zhu Xizhou, the Minister of Revenue, then stepped forward and reported: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue has determined that the number of refugees who have recently fled to the capital, including those in the surrounding areas, is approximately 800,000. These people are not from the north, but from several southern and southeastern provinces. To properly resettle, repatriate, and handle the aftermath, it will cost approximately two to three million taels of silver..."
Minister of Works Yang Weicong followed up, saying, "Your Majesty, I have been ordered to build naval warships. If we follow His Highness Prince Yan's requirement of two hundred ships, at a cost of 50,000 taels per ship, it will require ten million taels. His Highness Prince Yan says it needs to be completed within five years, which means it will require two million taels per year..."
Commissioner of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Wu Qirui, reported: "Your Majesty, the post stations throughout the country are in disrepair, and there is a shortage of horses. According to the custom of repairing them every five years, it is time to do so this year... We need to allocate three million taels of silver..."
"Your Majesty, the straight road leading to the Southern Xiongnu in the north would cost several million taels of silver to build..."
"Your Majesty, the border guards and provincial garrisons need to change into summer uniforms again..."
"Your Majesty, the Jingjiang Canal needs dredging..."
"His Majesty……"
The court officials were all scrambling to report the various expenses they needed, seemingly afraid that the meager funds in the national treasury would be diverted to other departments...
The Empress was on the verge of collapse, thinking, "I've only just gotten married and haven't even had a day of peace, and you're already asking me for money everywhere..."
I don't have that much money!
Managing this household is really tough...
Just then, Qin Chuan stood up, took out 800,000 taels of silver notes from his pocket, and walked up to the Empress: "This is all I have, it's all yours..."
The empress paused for a moment, then whispered, "My husband... I can't keep taking your money forever."
Qin Chuan also whispered, "What's the difference between yours and mine? What's mine is yours, and what's yours is still yours..."
The Empress gazed at Qin Chuan with deep affection in her phoenix eyes, then accepted the silver notes. "Alright, my husband."
Just as Qin Chuan turned back to his seat, the system, which had been silent for a long time, finally spoke—
The sound was like a thunderclap in my mind!
[The host spent 800,000 taels of silver on his wife this time, and now he is getting a 100-fold return, which can be withdrawn as 80 million taels of silver.]
[This could also be equivalent to 315 billion yuan in modern goods]
[Would you prefer ancient silver or modern goods?]
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