Chapter 2690: The Imperial Expedition

The Emperor is very concerned about face, especially since this is not just his face, but also the nation’s.

Although the treasury is not wealthy, it is not so poor that it needs to oppress the officials into donating money. That is something only a desperate last emperor would do.

Of course, the last emperor did not ask officials for donations, but directly ordered the confiscation of their properties to seize money.

But in any case, both options are embarrassing and disgraceful for the court.

Now that this step has been taken, is the next step to sell official positions and titles?

This is a sign of a country’s downfall. The Emperor returned to the harem in anger, drank two cups of tea, and then asked the Empress, “Yesterday, did the Crown Princess and the officials’ spouses ask for money?”

The Empress smiled and said, “It was I who asked them.”

The Emperor: “… Empress, do not take the blame for them.”

The Empress shook her head and said, “It was truly I who spoke.”

She sighed and said, “I did not consider this thoroughly. I know this damages the nation’s dignity, but the soldiers’ lives are important too. This year, disasters have occurred everywhere, and Your Majesty is unwilling to raise taxes, and has even reduced taxes in some areas. The treasury is indeed lacking. I heard that the Ministry of Revenue just allocated five million coins to the Imperial Hospital.”

She said, “Not counting the expenses for Your Majesty and the ministers’ medicinal materials, but evenly distributed, according to the number of soldiers Your Majesty has sent out, each person would only receive forty coins for medicine.”

The Empress said, “Even one bottle of wound medicine costs more than that, not to mention other hemostatic and blood tonic materials.”

“Zhou Man told you that?” It was such specific information—forty coins per person—that if Zhou Man hadn’t told her, he wouldn’t have believed the Empress could know.

The Empress did not deny it, sighed, and reached out to hold the Emperor’s hand, “Your Majesty, this matter hasn’t caused a big scandal. The officials’ spouses are kind-hearted and seek virtue. It doesn’t bring shame to the court.”

The Emperor couldn’t help but humph and said, “You have oversimplified it. These ladies are naive and believe your words, but the officials are not foolish. They were mocking me with subtlety.”

The Empress became unhappy, withdrew her hand from his paw, and said, “Who says the ladies are naive?”

She said, “They are giving us face. Does Your Majesty really think they are donating military funds just to pray for Zhou Man’s wishes to come true? But accumulating virtue is real. It’s a kind gesture, and they can get some credit for it.”

Even if last night’s atmosphere was just right and everyone believed it, after a night of sleep, they would have come to their senses.

Not all, but at least most people would understand that the Crown Princess and Zhou Man’s actions were to raise money for medicine. Yet, today they are still willing to send money into the palace, which shows their attitude.

Do you really think they are fools who will actually go pray to Zhou Man?

The Emperor rubbed his forehead, “But the officials…”

“Your Majesty, rest assured,” the Empress said calmly, “I am here, and this matter won’t be mentioned again by them.”

The Emperor thought for a moment. Since the money had already been sent in, returning it would be inappropriate and would be even more embarrassing. He said, “Alright, but such a thing must not happen again. It doesn’t benefit the nation.”

“I understand, this time it was my lack of foresight, it won’t happen again.”

Only then did the Emperor sigh and rub his temples.

The Empress saw this and got up to massage them for him, softly asking, “When will Your Majesty set out?”

“The Astronomical Bureau is calculating the date. Today, it’s already been announced to the world. It shouldn’t be long. Troops from all over have already set out and will reach Liaodong and Dengzhou soon.”

The Emperor remembered something and curiously asked by holding her hand, “How much did they donate in total?”

The Empress smiled, “There are still people at the palace gate sending silver. It hasn’t been tallied yet. I’ll tell you once it’s counted.”

The Emperor nodded.

The results of the fundraising exceeded both the Emperor and Empress’s expectations. They originally thought that raising one or two million coins would be enough, but who knew so many people would send in money.

Some families where the leading lady intended to donate twenty taels just for appearances found themselves in a position where the daughters-in-law, wanting to curry favor with their mother-in-law, the Emperor, or the Crown Princess, started to give generously.

Not daring to exceed the lady’s donation, if the main branch donated ten taels, I would donate eight, and then the third branch would follow with eight more…

One family could end up donating fifty or sixty taels.

Besides silver, some families directly brought out a gold ingot. These gold and silver donations were converted into copper coins, totaling over six million coins.

Similar to the two previous donations they received recently.

After Zhou Man came out of a meeting at the Ministry of Revenue, she was called into the palace and came out holding an account book, which showed a total of 13.28 million coins.

Manbao immediately turned and went to the Imperial Hospital to find Director Xiao and others. They held another meeting, avoiding the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue, and used this donation to purchase a large amount of medicinal materials, hemp cloth, gauze, needles, and thread, among other things.

Meanwhile, the Imperial Hospital suspended classes, and all students participated in the preparations. Some purchased materials needing processing were to be processed, then stored, recorded, and delivered to the Ministry of War for escorting;

The purchased hemp cloth and gauze needed to be cut to standard sizes, then packaged and sent to various locations;

They also needed to produce a large number of catgut sutures, including blood transfusion devices, and made several more sets.

All these were done by the Imperial Hospital’s physicians with the students of the Imperial Academy of Medicine, and Zhou Liru was urgently summoned back to stay at the Imperial Hospital and work overtime.

Manbao was so busy that she barely had a moment to rest.

Bai Shan was also busy. The Astronomical Bureau calculated the date, and August 21 was a good day. The Emperor would personally lead the campaign on that day.

He finally secured a place in the campaign, so he had many things to deal with. He needed to check the reports from local post stations, ensure smooth communications, and that information could flow seamlessly from Liaodong to the capital.

It’s safe to say that everyone in Great Jin is busy now.

The Honglu Temple’s people are also busy. Some envoys from tributary states need to be sent off after the palace banquet, for which they prepared gifts. Other envoys needed to be kept for a month or two and then sent off with generous gifts.

For example, Tubo’s envoy.

Liu Huan was also on the expedition list. He was inserted by the Ministry of Public Works, mainly responsible for military equipment accounting and escorting, needing to cooperate with the Ministry of War.

Bai Erlang also followed along, though not because the Hanlin Academy needed to go with the army, but because the Emperor personally appointed him to go gather some contributions.

The Emperor thought that with Bai Erlang’s current way of idling through life, promotion seemed very difficult. So if he could have the opportunity to rack up some accomplishments, he should go. In the future, spending a year or two in the Hanlin Academy should see him promoted one rank, then continue staying in the Hanlin Academy without embarrassing Mingda.

With everything prepared, on the early morning of August 21, the Emperor set out on the expedition.