"I give him a monthly salary of three thousand taels, yet he still embezzles and accepts bribes!"
"The entire household has cost me nearly two million taels of silver?!"
"That's 40% of the national treasury's annual tax revenue, and it's all just gone like that?!"
"Mu Xianke, Mu Xianke! The Left Prime Minister? Lord Mu?!"
"I... I was really too lenient with you before!!"
The Empress was enraged, and everyone around her lowered their heads, not daring to even breathe loudly.
Qin Chuan, however, found it somewhat amusing.
The Empress's miserly appearance is actually kind of cute!
"Your Majesty," Qin Chuan thought for a moment and said, "Now that we have three million, shouldn't we first deal with the issue of the displaced people?"
He recounted Li Aniu's ordeal from his journey from the countryside of Jizhou in Shandong to the capital to the Empress, concluding, "The displaced people are now showing signs of gathering in the mountains and forests. If the problem of displaced people is not resolved soon, they will rebel..."
The empress, who was furious just a moment ago, immediately changed her tone upon hearing this, sounding somewhat aggrieved: "Qin Chuan, look, this money has just entered the national treasury, can't I even take a second look at it..."
"Your Majesty, the fate of the nation is paramount."
The Empress wrinkled her nose and waved her hand, saying, "Then let's send this money to Shandong and Henan provinces in batches for disaster relief..."
"Drafting an imperial edict..."
"Your Majesty, is it too hasty to just transport the money like this?"
Seeing that the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial was about to draft the imperial edict according to the emperor's wishes, Qin Chuan hurriedly stopped him.
"What is the Grand Preceptor's intention?" the Empress asked thoughtfully.
Qin Chuan paused for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, prices in Shandong and Henan provinces have skyrocketed, and the people are suffering terribly. Before the disaster, a shi (a unit of dry measure) of rice cost only about one tael of silver, but now it has risen to thirty taels of silver, a full thirty times the price!"
"Even if we transport three million taels of silver to the two provinces now, it won't solve the problem."
"Not to mention the corrupt practices of the governor-general's office, the provincial governor's office, the provincial magistrate's office, the prefectural government, the county government, and other government offices, less than one-tenth of the money and grain actually reaches the disaster victims. Even if all three million taels were used to buy grain and distributed to the disaster victims, how much grain could that buy at the current price level? It simply wouldn't be enough!"
After listening to Qin Chuan's words, Xiao Yun, standing to the side, said with a heavy expression, "These unscrupulous merchants! They hoard grain during years of famine! Then they sell it at high prices to make huge profits, without caring about the lives of ordinary people!"
Xiao Yue's eyes shimmered, and she said coldly, "Then kill them all!"
Qin Chuan couldn't help but sneer: "My goodness! There are tens of thousands of unscrupulous merchants in the two provinces, like grains of sand in the Yellow River. Do you think it's as simple as confiscating their homes? Can you kill them all?"
"you……"
Xiao Yue remained silent, knowing that she had made a foolish mistake.
"Besides, even if you kill them all, can you intimidate them for a while? Can you intimidate them forever? Aren't the new merchants just as cunning? They know they're doomed, so they'll only become more ruthless and try every means to make more money while they're still alive!"
Hearing Qin Chuan's words, Xiao Yue blushed and remained silent.
Judging from her expression, it seemed she was saying, "I know I did something stupid, can you please stop talking?"
The Empress slowly opened her mouth: "Then what should we do now?"
What Qin Chuan said was indeed a rather thorny issue. She hadn't considered these problems before, thinking that simply transporting the money to the two provinces would solve the problem...
After Qin Chuan's reminder, she immediately realized that by doing this, the money would be wasted again...
The situation with the refugees would only escalate, and she didn't even want to think about the possibility of them rebelling, the Xiongnu moving south, and the Jiang Kingdom advancing east, leaving her besieged from both inside and outside...
Fortunately, Qin Chuan is here to relieve my worries and solve my problems...
Thinking of this, the Empress walked up to Qin Chuan, looked at him intently, and said, "You must have a way, right?"
Her eyes were bright, her expression like that of a young girl, full of anticipation, and her cool beauty was tinged with a charming allure.
Qin Chuan felt his heart pounding, and for some reason, he recalled the night they consummated their marriage, Su Ruyan's shy yet desireful expression...
Damn it, business is more important!
After banishing the evil thoughts from his mind, Qin Chuan said solemnly, "Your Majesty, the best course of action now is not to give any more money to any government office in the two provinces. Giving money will not solve the problem."
"Then what should we do?"
The Empress felt Qin Chuan's lewd gaze and subconsciously took a step back, thinking to herself, "How dare this man lust after my body!"
However, I am the Emperor of the Great Gan Dynasty, and my husband must be an outstanding person, a genius of all time!
He seemed to be just... no... way off... by more than a tiny bit...
I can't lower my standards!
No...no...Xiao Li, what are you thinking?!
The empire your ancestors entrusted to you is almost lost, and you're still thinking about romance and love?!
In a flash, numerous thoughts raced through the Empress's mind...
"Ahem..." The Empress coughed lightly to hide the inexplicable blush on her beautiful face. "Where were you?"
Qin Chuan was taken aback. "Where was I?"
Fortunately, Xiao Yun reminded him: "We can't give money, it's useless to give money."
“Yes, yes, giving money is useless,” the Empress coughed again, and then said, “Then what should we give? If not money, then food?”
Qin Chuan nodded: "That's right, Your Majesty is wise. You're giving us grain, and it's grain mixed with sand!"
Upon hearing this, the Empress, Yun, and Yue were all shocked: "Grain mixed with sand?"
Xiao Yue said, "How cruel you are! The refugees are starving, and you still mix sand into their food!"
Xiao Yun pondered, "The Imperial Advisor must have a deeper meaning behind doing this, but what that meaning is, I cannot fathom..."
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