Chapter 80 I Should Share the World with Him
However, what Yang Manyan didn't know was that shortly after she took her nap, the emperor returned to the imperial palace in Beijing early with several of his personal guards.
Compared with their sweet and sweet relationship, the atmosphere in the main hall of the Qianqing Palace was extremely tense and cold.
The spacious hall was magnificent and golden, and important officials such as cabinet scholars and ministers of various ministries were all present, but it was completely silent.
On the throne, the emperor sat on a majestic horse and a golden sword, wearing only a dark casual suit and a jade crown to hold his hair up, yet his whole body exuded the awe-inspiring majesty of an emperor.
"Do you know why I summoned you to the palace?"
The people below were somewhat confused, and they all bowed and saluted, "Your Majesty, we are ignorant, please explain clearly."
They really had no idea why the emperor, who was hunting in Nanyuan during the spring hunt, returned to the palace without any warning, and why he suddenly summoned them.
"The Hui rebellion in the northwest only has a few thousand people. I ordered the mobilization of 20,000 troops from Ganzhou, Liangzhou and other places to suppress it a few months ago. The enemy is weak and we are strong, so we cannot win quickly."
"The Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu reported that the military expenditures were insufficient, while the Governor of Gansu, Wan Bingliang, reported that he was willing to pay the 40,000 taels of silver he had accumulated over the years to the provincial treasury to finance the military expenditures."
Having said this, the emperor sneered.
Everyone below felt a sudden pang of fear in their hearts.
The emperor waved his hand to signal the eunuch beside him to pass the secret memorial to the ministers below for their review.
This secret memorial was presented to the Nanyuan Palace this afternoon. It was because of this secret memorial that he suddenly decided to return to the palace and urgently summon all the ministers.
The cabinet chief minister Xie Qian was the first to receive the secret memorial. When he opened it, his face suddenly changed. Then he passed it to his colleagues beside him one by one to read.
The secret memorials recorded that in Gansu province alone, 150,000 new students were added in just three years, and the province should have received more than 6 million shi of grain.
But, how could the military funds and salaries for suppressing the rebellion not be enough?
Due to successive years of drought in the northwest, local warehousing was difficult and it was impossible to open warehouses to provide relief when a disaster occurred. The emperor specially allowed Gansu to open a "donation prison."
Merchants and civilians could obtain the title of Imperial College student by paying a certain amount of rice to the local government, which meant they were qualified to become an official.
However, the imperial court did not necessarily grant official titles to these students. It was a disguised way of obtaining grain from local powerful gentry to fill warehouses and save the court the trouble of allocating disaster relief funds.
This move is beneficial to both the country and the people.
The emperor also issued a special decree emphasizing that only grains such as wheat, beans and rice were allowed to be collected, and direct payment of silver and money was not allowed, in order to avoid local officials from engaging in corruption and extortion under the pretext of "donations for prisons."
However, this small rebellion involving only a thousand people was not suppressed due to insufficient military pay.
If Gansu Governor Wan Bingliang had not volunteered to donate silver to support military pay, the flaws would not have been exposed.
Speaking of which, Yang Manyan was the first to notice something fishy about this matter.
Nanyuan was far away from the imperial palace, so the emperor could do whatever he wanted. These days, he even did not avoid her when reviewing memorials, and let her read them.
Yang Manyan was a little reserved at first.
But when she thought about the memorials before her that would be sent to various places after being reviewed, and the decisions made in them would affect the future of the world, she couldn't help but feel curious.
The memorial from Gansu Governor Wan Bingliang requesting to donate silver to support military pay was discovered by Yang Manyan two days ago.
After hesitating for a long time, she spoke cautiously, "Your Majesty, I remember that the governor is a second-rank official. With the annual salary plus the grace salary and other subsidies, the annual salary is only a little over a thousand taels, right? Lord Wan doesn't seem to be from a wealthy family, so how come his family is so well-off?"
The emperor raised his eyebrows when he heard this and looked sideways at her.
His heart moved slightly, and he raised his hand to pinch her round and smooth face.
"It seems that Yuan'er knows the salaries of officials at all levels very well. The annual salary of a provincial governor is indeed over a thousand taels."
Seeing that he was not unhappy, Yang Manyan snuggled obediently into the man's arms again.
"Before I got married, I heard my father mention that because there were frequent disasters in the northwest, you specially approved the establishment of a 'donation prison'..."
She stopped at the right point, as if trying to find out the man's bottom line.
She had read history books thoroughly and knew that the dynasty was extremely averse to the harem interfering in government affairs, as evidenced by the fact that both the Taizu and Taizong empresses compiled the Four Books for Women.
The emperor frowned slightly, his eyes were deep and unfathomable.
During his many years in power, he worked hard to govern the country and carried out drastic reforms in all aspects just to rectify the administration of officials.
But he also knew that many tricks could not be investigated in detail. It was human nature to seek profit and avoid harm. It was impossible to strictly require all officials to be incorruptible.
As long as it seems acceptable on the surface and does not endanger the country and the people, he will usually turn a blind eye.
For example, ten years ago, the reason why he severely purged the people from Queen Mother Jiang's mother's family was because they had touched his reverse scale.
As Yang Manyan just said, Wan Bingliang was not from a prominent family, but was a scholar from a poor family. He had served in many places and was only promoted to the governor of Gansu two years ago.
The Northwest is bitterly cold, with most of it covered by desert and Gobi, and the land tax and poll tax that can be collected are extremely meager.
Wan Bingliang donated 40,000 taels in one go just two years after his promotion. The problem was most likely with the "donation to prison".
The emperor gently stroked the strands of hair on her forehead, lowered his eyes and said in a deep voice: "Well, I will order someone to find out the situation of the students in the northwest in recent years."
Yang Manyan blinked. He didn't expect that he really didn't mind him talking about political affairs.
After a moment's silence, she said seriously, "If there really is a problem with the 'donation to the prison', it is probably not just the fault of one governor. It is very likely that officials across the province are in collusion and are involved in corruption. Otherwise, how could not even a single piece of news reach the capital?"
The emperor listened to her patiently, his face solemn, and two dark flames seemed to be burning in his eyes.
He was able to discover so many clues just from the small matter of donating 40,000 taels of silver. What a meticulous and far-sighted person he was.
His daughter should become his queen and share the world with him.
And Yang Manyan was indeed right about this matter.
Two days later, the Imperial Guards found out that in just three years, Gansu Province had added 150,000 new students, all of whom were obtained through "donating money to become a student".
The emperor returned to the palace early because he was going to personally appoint an imperial envoy to go to the northwest to investigate the case.
Those who were summoned to the Qianqing Palace at this time were all the court's most important ministers. Putting all the facts together, they naturally figured out the cause and effect.
It was already midnight when everything was arranged.
The emperor simply went to the Southern Study to deal with the government affairs that had accumulated over the past few days, and then set off back to Nanyuan to pick up people at dawn.
Chang Ying, who was waiting outside for the night, suddenly tiptoed in, looking embarrassed and weird.
He lowered his voice and reported: "Your Majesty, the Concubine Shu requests to see you..."
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