The emperor is a person who has a good face, especially not only his face, but also the country's face.
Although the national treasury is not rich, it is not necessary to oppress the ministers and workers to donate money. This is what the last emperor of the previous dynasty would do when he was desperate.
Of course, the last emperor didn't reach out to ask the ministers to donate money, but directly raised his hand to make people raid the houses of the ministers and directly robbed the money.
But no matter which one it is, it is a matter of embarrassment and embarrassment to the court.
This step has been taken, the next step is to sell the official and sell the title
This is a sign of subjugation. The emperor returned to the harem angrily, and asked the queen after pouring himself two cups of tea, "Did the princess and the officials ask for money yesterday?"
The queen smiled and said, "It's what I want from them."
Emperor: "... Empress, don't take responsibility for them."
The queen shook her head and said, "It's really the concubine who spoke."
She sighed: "It's my concubine who didn't think carefully, and I know that this matter will damage the dignity of the country, but the lives of soldiers are also important. There are disasters everywhere this year. Your Majesty is unwilling to increase taxes. He has reduced taxes in some areas. The national treasury is indeed not rich, and I heard that the Ministry of Household Affairs is only willing to allocate five million yuan to the Imperial Medical Office."
She said: "Not counting the expenses of your majesty and the ministers' medicinal materials, if you divide them all equally, based on the number of soldiers your majesty has sent out now, each person will get 40 wen for medicine."
The queen said: "A bottle of golden sore medicine is more than this price, let alone other medicinal materials for stopping bleeding and nourishing blood."
"What did Zhou Man tell you?" It was even up to 40 Wen per person. If Zhou Man hadn't said it, he wouldn't believe that the queen would know if he was killed.
The queen did not deny it, sighed, and stretched out her hand to hold the emperor's hand, "Your Majesty, this matter is not serious. It is because the officials and family members are kind-hearted and want to ask for merit. It is not a shame for the court."
The emperor couldn't help snorting and said: "Your thinking is too simple. Those ladies have short-sightedness, but they believed your words, but the princes in the court are not stupid. Just now they turned a corner and made fun of me."
The queen was upset, and withdrew her hand on his paw, "Who says ladies are short-sighted?"
She said: "That's just the madams giving us face. Your Majesty really thinks that they donate military funds to make Zhou Man's wish come true? But accumulating merit is true. After all, it is a kind heart, and you can show your face before us. two."
Even if the atmosphere was good last night and everyone believed it at the time, they should be awake after going out of the palace and going back to sleep all night.
Don't dare to say everything, at least most people can figure out that the Crown Princess and Zhou Man are doing this to raise money for medicine, but today they are still willing to send money to the palace, which shows their attitude.
Do you really think they are fools, are you really going to worship Zhou Man
The emperor rubbed his forehead, "How about you..."
"Don't worry, Your Majesty," the queen said calmly, "There are concubines, they won't mention this matter again in the future."
The emperor thought about it, the money has already been sent in, and it would be shameful to return it, and would be even more embarrassing, so he said: "All right, but this kind of thing must never be done again, and it will not benefit the country."
"The concubine knows that this time it was because the concubine didn't think carefully, and it won't happen in the future."
The emperor sighed and rubbed his forehead.
When the queen saw him, she got up and rubbed him, and asked softly, "When will Your Majesty leave?"
"Qin Tianjian is counting the days. It has been announced to the world today. It shouldn't be long. The soldiers are very fast. The soldiers and horses dispatched from various places have already set off, and they will reach Liaodong and Dengzhou in a few days."
The emperor thought of something, took her hand and asked curiously: "How much did they donate in total?"
The queen smiled and said: "There are still people giving money at the gate of the palace. I haven't counted it for a while, and I will tell you when it is counted."
The emperor nodded.
The effect of the fundraising was more than what the empress thought. I thought it would be enough to get one or two million yuan, but who knew that so many people sent it.
In some families, the wife of the head of the family wanted to donate twenty taels of meaning, but who knows, the daughter-in-laws below donated generously, not knowing whether it was to please the mother-in-law, or to please the empress or princess.
I dare not surpass Madam, but the first house donated ten taels, I will donate eight taels, and the third house will donate eight taels...
A family may donate fifty or sixty taels.
In addition to silver, some people directly took out an ingot of gold, and the gold and silver were directly converted into copper coins. In this way, the total amount exceeded six million coins.
It was almost the same as the two donations they received two days ago.
After Zhou Man came out of a meeting with the Ministry of Accounts, he was called into the palace. When he came out, he had an extra account book in his hand, which contained a total of 13.28 million yuan.
Man Bao directly turned around and went to the Imperial Medical Office to find Xiao Yuanzheng and others. They had another meeting by themselves, avoiding the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households, and used the donation to buy a lot of medicinal materials, linen, gauze, needles and threads.
At the same time, the Imperial Medical Office closed classes, and all the students participated in the preparations. Some of the purchased medicinal materials needed to be processed, and then they were preserved. They were compiled and handed over to the Ministry of War for escort;
The bought linen and gauze should also be cut according to the standard, and then collected in batches and transported to various places;
There is also sheep catgut, they need to make a lot of sheep catgut, including blood transfusion sets, and they also made a few more sets.
These were all done by the imperial doctors of the Imperial Hospital and the students from the Imperial Medical Office. Zhou Liru was also called back urgently and lived directly in the Imperial Medical Office to work overtime.
Man Bao was so busy that he hit the heels of his head, and basically never stopped.
Bai Shan is also busy, Qin Tianjian has calculated the time, August 21st is a good day, the emperor will personally march on that day.
He finally got the quota for enlistment, so he still has a lot of things to deal with. He also has to check the official documents from the post stations in various places to make sure that the communication is smooth, and the information from all parts of Liaodong to the capital can be unblocked.
It can be said that everyone in Dajin is busy now.
The people in Honglu Temple were also busy. Some envoys from the vassal state had to leave after attending the palace banquet, so they prepared gifts to send them away, and some envoys needed to try their best to keep them, and they would give them after a month or two A big gift to send away.
For example, the envoys of Tubo.
Liu Huan is also on the expedition list. He is a person inserted by the Ministry of Industry. He is mainly responsible for the accounting and escort of armaments, and needs to cooperate with the Ministry of War.
Bai Erlang also followed, but he was called up not because the Imperial Academy also needed to join the army, but because the emperor appointed him, and he asked him to accumulate some credit.
The emperor felt that with Bai Erlang's current state of dawdling, it would be very difficult to get promoted, so if he had the opportunity, he should go and get credit for it, and stay in the Hanlin Academy for a year or two before raising his rank a bit, and then continue to stay in the Hanlin Academy Courtyard, as long as Mingda doesn't lose face too much.
Everything was ready, and early in the morning on August 21, the emperor set out to march.