The emperor received Zhao Hanzhang’s memorial and read it with surging blood. He felt her loyalty and respect, so he passed the memorial down for all the generals and ministers to read together.

Then he told the generals to strengthen their training, “When the time is ripe, we can unite with General Zhao to recover the northern territories.”

Zhou Chang, seated at the very end, waited for a long time. Seeing that the emperor only spoke of recruiting soldiers, buying horses, and training troops, he couldn’t help but say, “Your Majesty, Inspector Zhao also mentioned reducing corvée and taxes and encouraging agriculture and sericulture.”

He said, “The memorial states that there are those who know heavenly phenomena who predict that in the next two years there will be drought and locust plagues. Therefore, we should use the agricultural off-season to build water conservancy. To prevent the people from suffering due to corvée labor, we should not only avoid the busy farming season but also reduce and exempt taxes to encourage them…”

Seeing the emperor listening attentively, he continued, “I also understand something of heavenly phenomena. These past years Luoyang’s climate has also been erratic. I fear it is truly as Inspector Zhao stated—a great disaster is brewing. Therefore, I request that we follow Inspector Zhao’s proposal to reduce and exempt taxes and conscript corvée labor to build water conservancy.”

The ministers looked at each other. Everyone agreed, but the problem was…

“Your Majesty, if we reduce and exempt taxes, the national treasury may not be able to maintain operations. How about we first conscript corvée labor?”

The emperor pressed his lips together. Right now, all he could control was the Yanzhou and Qingzhou area. As for Yuzhou, even if he assigned tax quotas, could Zhao Hanzhang really transport money and grain to him?

At most she would provide some support—a drop in the bucket.

But the taxes in Yanzhou and Qingzhou had been repeatedly increased layer by layer by the Gou Xi brothers. The people were already overburdened. If they did not reduce and exempt taxes but still pulled people into corvée labor…

The emperor himself could not bear it.

Everyone waited for the emperor’s decision.

The emperor finally looked toward Zhao Zhongyu. “What does Minister Zhao think?”

Zhao Zhongyu: …

He lowered his eyes and thought for a moment. Anyway, he had already offended the Gou Xi brothers many times—one more time wouldn’t matter. So he stepped forward and said, “I request Your Majesty reduce and exempt taxes and conscript corvée labor.”

With the minister’s support, the emperor finally made up his mind. Gritting his teeth, he said, “For the poll tax to be submitted this autumn, adult males are exempt from twenty percent, half-adults are exempt from half, and each household’s tribute is reduced by twenty percent. Conscript corvée labor to build water conservancy.”

The assembled ministers responded in unison.

Having reduced taxes, the treasury’s income would decrease. The emperor thought it over and still issued the edict reducing and exempting taxes, while simultaneously urging various regions to submit a certain quota of tribute to the court.

He indicated that originally they needed to pay this much, but now because of the tax reduction and exemption, he would only collect half.

However, just saying this, one could imagine that the localities would not possibly submit the full amount.

Zhao Hanzhang had anticipated this early on. After receiving the edict, she had people escort the prepared grain and money to Yuncheng, along with a memorial.

She didn’t send much grain—the main thing was that she sent two carts of money. Ahem, new coins!

She didn’t know if the emperor would be happy to receive her money. Hopefully he’d be a bit happy.

The emperor had not yet received Zhao Hanzhang’s items, so at this moment he did not know whether to be happy or not. He was just having a headache.

Because he foresaw that the tribute collected from other places would not be much, he still had to find his own sources and economize.

The emperor thought for a long time. Apart from selling offices, he really could not think of what revenue-generating methods he had, so he could only economize.

Thus, the economizing emperor first reduced the expenses of the Grand General’s residence. He bribed—oh no, won over—several of Gou Xi’s subordinates.

So he was not only able to quietly replace the person controlling the treasury with his own man, but also planted his own people among those receiving tribute from various regions.

Gou Xi’s people could no longer intercept enough money and grain.

Yet Gou Xi’s Grand General’s residence currently maintained over a thousand servants and maids alone, his concubines had rapidly increased to over twenty, and the beloved maids he favored were almost breaking into double digits.

Once money and grain decreased, his quality of life was immediately affected.

What a joke! His beauty had taken a fancy to a golden hairpin. Previously he would wave his hand grandly and say buy it, but now when he waved his hand saying buy it, the steward actually told him the residence didn’t have much ready cash and needed to be more frugal.

Gou Xi was now second only to one and above all others, yet he couldn’t even afford to buy a concubine a golden hairpin?

Gou Xi was furious.

The steward could only quickly kneel and beg forgiveness, but this was not about buying one golden hairpin—it was that after buying one golden hairpin came pearl hairpins, jeweled hairpins, and silver hairpins following…

Competition for favor in the inner quarters was just like this.

And Gou Xi still had to drink wine. The price of one jar of good wine was no less than the value of a golden hairpin. The steward dared to slight the concubines but did not dare slight Gou Xi.

Only after Gou Xi asked did he learn that the emperor was actually controlling the treasury—he could no longer get money, and even in Yanzhou his words only carried half the weight.

His nerves, corroded day after day by alcohol, barely cleared a bit. Gou Xi developed some sense of crisis and immediately asked, “Where is Gou Chun now?”

The steward quickly replied, “The second young master is in Qingzhou.”

“What about Fu Wen and Wen Ji?”

The steward looked bewildered. “General, both generals are naturally leading troops in their respective armies.”

After drinking, Gou Xi had become even more temperamental and unpredictable. Hearing this, he flew into a rage. “How could I not know they’re in the army? I’m asking what they’ve been doing in the army, who they’ve been meeting with recently. What about Ming Yu? Have Ming Yu come see me!”

After shouting, Gou Xi realized—Ming Yu had run away!

The steward knelt on the ground, keeping his head firmly lowered, not daring to speak again.

Gou Xi’s eyes widened as he gasped heavily. After a long while, he angrily kicked over the table, his face dark as he said, “What about Liu Hui? Summon him to see me.”

Liu Hui was a lieutenant commander under Gou Xi, one of his trusted confidants.

The steward lowered his head in acknowledgment, bowed, and withdrew, hurrying to call Liu Hui.

So before long, a copy of Zhao Hanzhang’s memorial to the emperor was delivered to Gou Xi.

Gou Xi stared intently at the content of the memorial, his emotions rising and falling. With his insight, he knew what Zhao Hanzhang said was correct and was the most beneficial path for the Great Jin.

But… Gou Xi’s head ached. He put down the manuscript and waved his hand, saying, “Go heat a pot of wine.”

“Yes.”

Gou Xi drank wine while reading the manuscript again, but to accomplish this would inevitably require many years of management and enduring hardship, with all resources tilted toward the army.

Gou Xi frowned. “The advantage of Xiongnu cavalry—to overcome it requires ten times the infantry, and we cannot be without cavalry either. A qualified cavalry unit needs at least two horses per man. That’s for light cavalry. Heavy cavalry needs three horses. How much money and grain would it take to maintain this?”

If it had been a year ago, Gou Xi might have had the will, but now, he no longer did.

Liu Hui also slightly raised his eyes to look at the wine pot in Gou Xi’s hand, sighing inwardly. If this had been a year ago, when the Grand General saw this memorial, he would have definitely slapped the table in approval and might even have cooperated with Zhao Hanzhang.

But now, he only frowned worrying about money and grain.

Liu Hui bent slightly at the waist, respectfully asking, “So what does the general think?”

Gou Xi said, “This method won’t work.”

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