When Qin Chuan returned to his room, he found the little princess asleep on the table, not even responding to her parrot, Xiao Ba, pecking at her gold bracelet.
"You can't sleep like that..."
Without thinking, Qin Chuan picked her up and carried her to his bed.
Throughout the entire process, the young princess remained unawakened, seemingly fast asleep...
After placing a pillow under her head, Qin Chuan left the room.
Then, he personally went to install the air conditioner for Su Rushi, and after a lot of work, he was so tired that he was covered in sweat.
"It's so cool here, brother-in-law!"
Su Ruyan sat in front of the air conditioner for a while, her hair at her temples was gently blown up. For a moment, Qin Chuan thought that the person in front of him was his wife, Su Ruyan.
"My wife..."
Su Ru was stunned for a moment. Upon hearing this address, two blushes instantly rose to her cheeks, but she could only pretend that she had not heard anything.
Qin Chuan snapped out of his daze and, seeing that the beautiful woman in front of him was not his wife, felt somewhat embarrassed and quickly left Su Rushi's room.
"Hey, brother-in-law..."
Su Ru walked out of the room, seemingly wanting to say something to Qin Chuan, but Qin Chuan had already walked away, leaving her only with his back, and she didn't hear his soft call.
...
After the young princess woke up, Qin Chuan told her about her mother's attitude and concerns.
The young princess sat at the table, her slender hands supporting her snow-white chin. "Fifth Uncle, I didn't expect you could actually persuade my mother. I thought she was just deliberately preventing me from trying these things!"
Qin Chuan patted her little head and said, "Don't overthink it. Just do what you want to do. I'll support you."
The little princess shook her head. "It's not that I'm imagining things, it's that my mother is imagining things..."
Then, she raised her delicate, jade-like face and looked at Qin Chuan: "Fifth Uncle, could you go and keep her company when you have time? You're the only one she can talk to, and I'm afraid she'll get sick from boredom..."
"Okay, I promise you, I'll go and keep her company whenever I have free time."
"Thank you so much, Uncle Wu! You're so kind!"
The young princess beamed with joy.
...
Morning next day.
According to the female court officials' count, apart from one person who was ill, 191 people were expected to attend, and 190 people actually attended, including all six ministries and nine ministers.
After the court rites were performed, the court assembly officially began.
With over 17 million taels of silver at her disposal, the Empress felt much more confident and slowly parted her lips: "My lords, please speak freely."
The governor of the capital region, Zhang Xun, had just stepped forward when the Empress silenced him with a single sentence.
"Is water conservancy being built in the capital region? Are government offices behind on salaries? I understand. The Ministry of Revenue should make a note of this and allocate another round of salary payments to the government offices in the capital region from the national treasury."
"I will obey Your Majesty's decree," said Zhu Xizhou, Minister of Revenue, bowing with his official tablet in hand.
At this moment, Li Yunrui, the governor-general of Henan and Shandong provinces, cautiously stepped forward. "Your Majesty, regarding the water conservancy projects in Henan and Shandong provinces..."
"Repair it! The Ministry of Revenue should make a note of it and allocate 1.6 million taels of silver to the Governor-General's Office of the two provinces."
"Your Majesty, what about our other provinces..."
"Repair it! Repair it all! Allocate 800,000 taels to each province!"
"..."
Your Majesty immediately set aside 5.6 million taels of silver for water conservancy projects in the seven northern provinces, while the national treasury only has a little over 6 million taels of silver. Doesn't that mean there's not even enough money to pay salaries?
Thinking of this, many court officials looked at Zhu Xizhou, the Minister of Revenue, hoping that he could come out quickly to stop His Majesty.
Zhu Xizhou lived up to expectations and stepped forward decisively, loudly proclaiming, "Your Majesty, such an allocation of funds is extremely inappropriate!"
The Empress asked, "What's wrong?"
Zhu Xizhou said, “Your Majesty, the national treasury has a total of only 6,570,341,400 taels of silver. If all of it is used for water conservancy projects, then I am afraid that the salaries of officials will become a problem. The annual tax revenue will not be collected until November. It is only the end of March now, and there are still more than half a year left. If 5.6 million taels are spent at once, the remaining 900,000 taels will not be enough to last until November.”
The ministers all agreed.
The Empress took out a thick stack of silver notes and said to her ministers, "My dear ministers, you may not know this, but the Prince of Yan conquered the Southern Xiongnu and brought back so much for us. These silver notes in my hand are worth a full ten million taels!"
"Ten million taels?"
The ministers were all astonished. His Highness the Prince of Yan had actually brought back ten million taels of silver from the Southern Xiongnu.
Regarding the Southern Xiongnu's silver reserves, the ministers present were not actually clear about the actual situation. Almost all of them agreed that since the Southern Xiongnu had been plundering for over a hundred years, and the Prince of Yan had stormed the Xiongnu royal court and captured more than 90,000 prisoners, there might really be that much silver...
In reality, Qin Chuan plundered the entire Xiongnu royal court and only managed to bring back 1.8 million taels of silver.
“Your Majesty, these silver notes should not be exchanged for cash all at once. They should probably be exchanged for cash in batches over two years. If they are exchanged for cash all at once, there will be insufficient silver in circulation among the people, which will cause panic among the people and disrupt the livelihood of the nation…” said Lun Wenxu, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, holding his official tablet.
Hearing him say that, Qin Chuan was slightly taken aback and glanced at the Empress from the side and above.
The Empress also glanced at him.
The two men understood each other implicitly; what Vice Minister Lun said made perfect sense. They couldn't exchange the silver notes for cash all at once, as it would cause panic among the people.
Qin Chuan was thinking to himself that in a society where productivity, means of production, and product supply are all insufficient, if we want to improve the people's living standards, it would probably be more effective to directly distribute supplies than to invest silver.
At least it can solve the people's survival problems.
Thinking of this, Qin Chuan stood up and said to the court officials, "Since that's the case, then let's do as Vice Minister Lun said and convert it into cash over two years... As for allocating funds to various provinces for water conservancy projects, we don't have enough money. I just happened to get a batch of grain and supplies, so we don't need to buy any materials or tools. We just need to hire laborers."
“Since His Highness Prince Yan has the necessary materials and tools, then things will be much easier. The national treasury won’t have to spend a single penny to complete the water conservancy project,” said Yang Weicong, Minister of Works.
After he said that, Qin Chuan remembered that nowadays, people who perform corvée labor bring their own food and do not receive wages. They have to work for free for half a month or even a month before they can go home.
Thinking of this, Qin Chuan raised his voice slightly and said, "The imperial court is not short of money now. The system of mandatory corvée labor for the people needs to be changed, Your Majesty..."
He bowed to the Empress and then said, “Someone once said, ‘When a dynasty prospers, the people suffer; when a dynasty falls, the people suffer.’ The people are also human beings, and their lives are already difficult. Having to pay for their own food and lodging when performing corvée labor will undoubtedly make things even worse for poor families. I request Your Majesty to issue a decree that in the future, when people perform corvée labor, they will no longer need to pay for their own food and lodging, but will be provided entirely by the government, and they will also be paid wages according to the market price of labor.”
Upon hearing this, all the officials were shocked. Was His Highness the Prince of Yan going to reform the system?
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