"If you want to know, you can ask your brother!" Although Xuan Yuanjue had left, his last words still drifted through the night.
She watched Xuan Yuanjue's figure fade into the darkness, then closed the window. A bit miffed, she crumpled the quilt on the bed into a ball. After a moment's thought, she decided that Xuan Yuanjue might have his own considerations. Instantly deflating, she smoothed out the quilt and obediently went to bed, waiting for the next day.
...
Because Xiao Huaishi didn't rest right after dealing with government affairs, he lay in bed sleepless all night. He spent the whole night pondering what schemes the Western Yue State might have. After all, Xiao Huaishi didn't believe a word of what the envoys from the Western Yue State had said.
The next day, he went to the morning court with two dark circles under his eyes.
Fortunately, the beaded curtain in front of Xiao Huaishi just blocked his dark circles, so he didn't need to hide them. Leaning casually on his chair, he listened to the ministers on the ground reporting matters.
"Your Majesty, just after the flood in the south of the Yangtze River, there has been a severe drought for several days. A large amount of fertile land was already washed away, and now the intense heat and drought have caused many wells to dry up. Without water for irrigation, the fertile land may yield no crops at all. Many crops have already withered! The common people are running out of food!"
"Your Majesty, there's also the war in the south. Small neighboring countries have been causing trouble on our border, forcing us to continuously levy conscription and taxes for military affairs. Now, a group of refugees has rebelled."
"Your Majesty, bandits have been raiding in more remote areas, causing many refugees to abandon their cities and flee to live at the foot of the imperial city..."
One after another, the ministers stepped forward to report, which annoyed Xiao Huaishi to no end. But these were all major matters concerning the common people, so he had no choice but to deal with them. He could only calm down and say, "Speak one by one. Take your time. We'll solve the problems one by one."
A minister immediately stepped forward and bowed, saying, "We must solve the food problem. Otherwise, what if it arouses public anger? Public opinion is of utmost importance. Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. So I hope Your Majesty will pay attention to this matter first."
Xiao Huaishi asked in a deep voice, "Indeed, this is a major issue. But where is the drought the most severe? The national treasury can't afford to allocate funds for all areas. We can only deal with the most severely affected places first."
The minister immediately replied, "Your Majesty, it's in the north of the Yangtze River. I'd like to volunteer to go there with the funds for relief. I don't quite trust the other ministers. I only trust myself not to embezzle the allocated funds. After all, disaster relief is a major matter. I only hope to help the common people across the country get through this difficult time."
Xiao Huaishi looked at this minister. He vaguely remembered that this minister was an honest and upright man, so he nodded and agreed with the minister's suggestion. "Very good. You're so considerate of the people across the country that you've won my heart. I'll leave this matter to you. I'm very relieved. The disaster relief in the north of the Yangtze River depends on you."
The emptiness of the national treasury forced Xiao Huaishi to be very careful with his money. He couldn't conduct disaster relief casually. He had to consider the situation of the affected areas and the personnel in charge. At this time, he must put an end to corruption.
The minister immediately knelt down and accepted the order. Just then, another minister stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, how should we deal with the disasters in other areas? Does not allocating funds mean we'll just ignore them?"
Xiao Huaishi raised the corner of his mouth and said, "My dear minister, what do you mean by this? Do you doubt my ability?"
That minister immediately knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I don't have such thoughts. I just hope that everyone can come up with solutions with Your Majesty to share your burden."
Xiao Huaishi raised his eyebrows and looked at this minister. "It's good that you want to share my burden. After all, aren't ministers supposed to do just that? So, does my dear minister have any good ideas?"
That minister immediately prostrated himself on the ground. "I dare not claim to have good ideas. Forgive me, but I don't even have any stupid ideas. So I can only bring this up so that everyone can share the burden."
Xiao Huaishi still had that faint smile on his face, but there was an imposing air about him without even getting angry. "Then what use are you to me? Should I just replace you with someone else?"
At this moment, a weaselly - looking minister immediately knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive Lord Wei for his thoughtless words just now. He may have overstepped the mark. But since ancient times, ministers have had different roles. Some plead for the people, some fight on the battlefield, some are resourceful, and some offer advice and raise questions. So please keep Lord Wei in his position. He has his own role, it's just that he's not resourceful enough to answer such questions."
Xiao Huaishi suddenly changed the topic and coldly asked this weaselly - looking minister, "Well, if he's not resourceful, according to you, he belongs to the type who offers advice and raises questions. Since you can say so many seemingly reasonable things, it seems that you're the resourceful type. How about you offer some suggestions?"
Xiao Huaishi couldn't help but sneer inwardly. He thought that one should think about whether they had the ability before trying to take something from the tiger's mouth.
The weaselly - looking minister thought for a moment and said, "I can only offer my stupid ideas. The specific actions will have to be discussed by everyone. I think the disaster relief in other areas can rely on the wealthy merchants. We should ask them to open their granaries and distribute grain. We can require each person who has hoarded grain to hand over one - tenth or one - hundredth of it, depending on the wealth of the merchant."
Someone immediately retorted, "But this will arouse the dissatisfaction of those wealthy merchants. What if they rebel if they don't accept this?"
The weaselly - looking minister replied, "It doesn't matter. We can force them to allocate funds for disaster relief in our name to save the lives of the refugees. The refugees will surely support us. Besides, the wealthy merchants are only a minority, while the refugees are the majority. We only need the support of the majority."
That person continued to retort, "If so, what if the wealthy merchants are very dissatisfied and the bandits approach them for cooperation? Then the bandits will have money, weapons, and an expanded army, which will be difficult to deal with."
The weaselly - looking minister seemed to strongly disagree with that person's view. He shook his head and said slowly, "The situation you described is indeed very bad. But we can still stop it with most of our troops. However, if we don't force the wealthy people to allocate funds and open their granaries for disaster relief, the large number of refugees rising up with the displaced people will be the worst result. It will be very difficult for our troops to suppress them, and the losses will be heavy. We may even lose the hearts of the people all at once."
"Moreover, if a country like the Western Yue State, which is eyeing us covetously, discovers this, then our country will really be in a hopeless situation. Besides, the situation you described is basically impossible to happen. The wealthy merchants won't choose to cooperate with the refugees. First, they would have to hand over more grain and money if they cooperate with the refugees than what we ask them to contribute for disaster relief. They're so reluctant to contribute a little money for disaster relief and resent us. Why would they give money to the refugees? Second, in their eyes, giving grain and money to the refugees is like throwing a meat bun to a dog - it's gone forever. Merchants always seek profit. Since the refugees' rebellion will most likely fail, why would they invest?"