How could my childhood sweetheart be the current empress?

Xu Chengling nodded slightly, and, supported by several veteran ministers, walked to the front of the team.

Before leaving, he did not forget to turn around and glance at Li Si who had just made the harsh words, and pointed at the two stone lions outside the door.

Eat it, don't waste it.

"..."

At this moment, all the officials who had laughed at Xu Chengling before could no longer laugh. They just stood there in a daze. Thinking back to the laughter just now, their backs were wet with cold sweat.

If the young prime minister had just held a grudge, then all of those who had laughed at him would definitely suffer the consequences.

Just thinking about it made them so scared that their legs went weak and they couldn't even stand.

"He is truly a first-class rank ..."

Li Si and the young official who had just made the harsh remarks were dumbfounded. They watched Xu Chengling walk to the front of the team and stand in the position of the prime minister.

He had never heard that the Prime Minister would be a young man of about the same age as them.

The two looked at each other and couldn't help but think of the harsh words they had just said.

"How to say?"

"What else can I say? Eat it."

"Is it really delicious?"

"Do you want to live or save face?"

"Then eat it."

The two looked at each other and saw the determination to die in each other's eyes.

They rushed out of the hall and started to bite the stone lions at the entrance.

However, they broke several teeth, but the stone lions at the entrance of the hall remained motionless.

Fortunately, Xu Chengling did not make things too difficult for them. After a while, he ordered the officials beside him to pull the two men back.

The main reason is that His Majesty is about to come out, and these two people lying on the stone lions at the entrance of the hall somewhat affects the image of the geese.

At this time, Xu Chengling stood in his position and looked up at the steps.

Not far in front of him, there was a dragon throne symbolizing supreme power. The only person in the world who could sit on this dragon throne was the current emperor.

As time passed, the officials below held their breath, looking upwards, waiting for the empress to arrive.

"His Majesty is here!"

Following a loud shout, all the officials inside and outside the hall fell silent, and their eyes turned to the top of the hall.

At this time, a graceful figure dressed in a dragon robe, supported by her personal maid, walked slowly up the steps from the right side above the hall with light lotus steps.

At this moment, Xu Chengling looked at the supreme and beautiful figure in front of him and couldn't help but stand there in a daze.

How come the empress's graceful figure and walking posture are so similar to the wife he hasn't seen for many days?

At the same time, the empress on the stairs couldn't help but look back slightly and glanced in Xu Chengling's direction.

I saw the beautiful face under the crown, and it couldn't help but slightly raise a beautiful curve.

Silly boy, can’t you recognize me after I changed my outfit?

----

I plan to strive for perfect attendance this month. The editor said that if I can maintain this performance, I will have the opportunity to arrange a trend, and there will be a wave of updates in the last few days at the end of the month, with five updates a day. If the author can do this, I'll be counting on you for the monthly votes for next month. Thank you very much.

Chapter 104: Almost Empty the National Treasury

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, a woman dressed in a dragon robe and wearing a golden crown sat on the dragon throne.

Following her were her two personal bodyguards, Xue Yuan and Xia Chan.

Seeing His Majesty sitting on the dragon throne, the ministers below bowed and kowtowed, and shouted in a loud voice:

"Long live His Majesty, long live His Majesty."

"Well, my dear ministers, please stand up."

The woman in dragon robe behind the curtain nodded slightly and responded calmly.

At this time, Xu Chengling, who was standing at the lower left side of the steps, frowned and looked at His Majesty sitting behind the curtain. The more he looked, the more he felt that he looked like the wife he lived with day and night.

No way, could it be that my lady is the empress?

Xu Chengling was shocked by his own thought. If this was true, then his real wife must be the Majesty whom he had been guarding against.

"Wait, it doesn't seem to be..."

At this time, Xu Chengling's gaze could not help but fall on the empress's chest. Although he could not see the empress's appearance clearly because of the curtain, he could vaguely see that the empress seemed to be a little insufficient.

He was very clear about his wife's financial resources. That was a broad mind that was enough to embrace the whole world, and it was definitely not just this.

Xu Chengling couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. It seemed that the empress above was not his wife, he just saw it wrong.

After all, his wife and the current empress are sisters, so it's normal for them to look similar. It's just that their actions are so consistent that he was a little surprised.

This means that the person in front of him is not his wife Yan Qiaoling, but the Queen of Dayan, Yan Jixue.

The dragon-robed woman behind the curtain opened her red lips slightly, looked down like a king, and said in a cold voice:

"When there is something going on, we will start, and when there is nothing going on, we will retreat."

When Xu Chengling heard this, it made sense. It was still the same empress from before.

At this moment, the woman in dragon robe sitting behind the curtain smiled secretly. This trick of speaking was taught to her by Ling'er to prevent the other party from hearing the trick.

"Come here, read out this year's report on the wild geese."

At the empress's signal, a civil servant came up to the stage, holding a memorial in his hand, and read it out.

The general content of the memorial is the expenditure of Dayan’s treasury in that year, as well as the policies implemented this year and the results achieved. To put it simply, it is equivalent to Dayan’s annual report for that year.

It can be seen from the annual report that the empress has issued many policies and carried out vigorous reforms over the past year, some of which have achieved good results, while some have been mediocre.

One of the policies, work-for-relief, is currently being implemented, saving a lot of food for the geese and effectively solving the problems of the victims.

Not only those disaster victims who had fled from the Western Regions before, but work-for-relief has been promoted throughout the country. The government provides jobs and transforms the disaster victims into a labor force, killing two birds with one stone.

But as Xu Chengling said before, jobs are limited, and there will be more and more victims of the Dayan disaster in the future. Work-for-relief can only solve short-term problems, but it is not a permanent solution.

As the empress carried out vigorous reforms and developed the military, Dayan's fiscal revenue this year is not optimistic and the national treasury is also in a tight situation.

If it weren't for the work-for-relief policy proposed by Xu Chengling, the treasury shortage problem this year would have been even more serious.

The above is the entire content of the annual report, which basically tells the officials below what I have done in the past year.

It can be seen that the empress is enterprising, as can be seen from her determination to carry out drastic reforms, but if that happens, the national treasury will not be able to sustain it.

After listening to this annual report, Xu Chengling couldn't help but frown.

Just as he thought, the empress had the ability, but she was a little unskilled, but he didn't say it.

He briefly summarized it, and the general meaning was that I did a lot of things this year and almost emptied the national treasury.

In fact, it is not difficult to solve the problem of treasury deficit. If he were the emperor, he would allow his ministers to take bribes and embezzle money, fatten them up and then kill them. Then he would have money.

At this time, after the civil servant finished reading, Yan Jixue looked down at the officials below and said lightly:

"I'll give you some time to start the discussion."

After getting the empress's permission, the ministers below began to discuss.

For a moment, all kinds of sounds mixed together, waibi waibi, waibi babbu.

Because today is a grand court meeting, the number of officials coming to court is several times more than in the past. Some of these officials are here for the first time, and naturally they want to show off in front of the emperor.

So these officials started talking loudly in the hall at the top of their voices.

Soon, the whole hall became a vegetable market, with all kinds of noises coming one after another. Officials all blushed and tried their best to express their opinions.

At the same time, there were special civil servants in the hall who were collecting the opinions of each official, making a few notes on the memorial, and then walking towards another official.

"Master Xiangguo, what do you think?"

At this time, several old ministers came up to Xu Chengling and discussed with him.

"How to see? Use your eyes to see."

Xu Chengling couldn't help but shrugged. The old ministers looked at each other in shock, smiled awkwardly, and said:

"Mr. Prime Minister, you really love to joke. What we, the old ministers, want to ask is, regarding Dayan's national policy for next year, does the Prime Minister have his own opinion?"

"No, it's not my words that count. It's His Majesty's words that count."

Xu Chengling replied calmly, as if he had already started, leaving several old ministers speechless.

It's not that he doesn't want to express his own opinions. He also has great ideals and ambitions. However, no matter how great the ambitions are, they have to be approved by the empress.

And now we are collecting opinions, which will be summarized and reported to the Empress.

If the empress were to listen to the opinions of the hundreds of people in the hall taking turns to express their opinions, she would not be able to adjourn the court session and would not be able to pay her year-end salary.

Receiving salary is secondary. The main thing is to be efficient in everything. Everyone is looking forward to retiring early and receiving their salary.

"Mr. Xiangguo, thank you for helping me out last time."

"Yes, if it weren't for the Prime Minister, the Minister of Revenue and I would have been dismissed from our posts."

The people who spoke were the Minister of Works and the Minister of Revenue. They had been targeted by the empress for bribery and corruption. Fortunately, Xu Chengling exonerated them, thus saving their official hats.

"It's okay, just be more careful next time."

Xu Chengling nodded. He did this only to follow His Majesty's wishes so as not to implicate himself.

As a result, these two ministers owed me a favor.

"Okay, silence."

A cold voice suddenly sounded, which seemed very small among the noisy voices, but this voice seemed to have a magical power that immediately quieted down the noisy crowd, and no one dared to make a sound.

At this time, the civil servant who was collecting opinions from all officials came up and handed the memorial to Xu Chengling.

Just when Xu Chengling was a little stunned, the empress's voice sounded again. Her phoenix eyes looked towards him and said with a smile:

"Prime Minister, please read out the contents of the memorial."

Chapter 105 I didn't expect her to be so bad

Xu Chengling frowned and opened the letter in his hand. He saw densely packed small characters written on it. How long would it take to read it all? He was afraid that the empress was making fun of him.

The contents of this memorial can be said to be various, including famine problems, bandit problems, road construction problems, etc., all of which require funding from the court to solve.

Among these, the issue of rebels was mentioned the most, and it seemed that signs of rebel uprisings had appeared everywhere.

Xu Chengling had figured out the process of the grand court meeting. First, the officials below would raise questions, then specialized civil servants would collect and summarize them, and finally the prime minister would summarize and report to the emperor.

Okay, let him read it.

Xu Chengling looked at the memorial in his hand and read to the empress on the steps:

"Your Majesty, in recent years, famine has occurred in various parts of Dayan, and countless victims have become homeless and displaced."

"Open the granaries to release grain and appease the victims. Local officials who have suffered from the famine will provide jobs so that the victims can work in exchange for relief grain. The Minister of Revenue will be responsible for supervision. If there are not enough jobs, the grain in the imperial granaries will be used first."

After hearing this question, Yan Jixue quickly gave a solution.

"Your Majesty, a group of bandits has emerged in Guangdong and Guangxi, committing all kinds of atrocities in the area. Two county magistrates have already been killed."

"Minister of War, I order you to draw up a plan to suppress the bandits in the next two days. You will be jointly responsible for suppressing the bandits with the Minister of the Ministry of Astronomy. At the same time, you must thoroughly investigate whether there are any local officials colluding with the bandits. There must be no mistakes."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

In the crowd, the Minister of War and the Minister of Astronomy stood up and bowed to receive the order.

The empress handled these issues with ease and quickly arranged them.

As the empress of Dayan, Yan Jixue's ability in handling state affairs is in no way inferior to that of the late emperor, and in some aspects she is even better than the late emperor.

When the issue of deceiving the emperor was raised, Yan Jixue, who was sitting upstairs, couldn't help but raise her lips slightly, looking at Xu Chengling who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, and asked him: