Zhu Houzhao made up his mind to send Mrs. Yuan away, but Zhang Yuan did not dare to disobey and could only do things as he told him.

Before leaving, he gave Mrs. Yuan a lot of rewards, some of which were rewarded by Zhu Houzhao, and Zhang Yuan rarely paid for it. Fortunately, the money paid was all filial to local officials, so he didn't feel much sad.

"When you go back, look at her, don't let her show up in public. Even if you want to do this business in the future, you have to wait for three or five years. Maybe when will His Majesty recruit people back again."

Zhang Yuan ordered the officials who came to pick up people in the local government.

The official nodded and bowed: "Dadfather-in-law, please relax. After my grandfather took his wife back, he would support her with the Qionglou Yuyu, so that she would not let her go out of the hospital. Her devil husband would not want to get closer... just treat it as a way to raise the nobles in the palace."

Zhang Yuan nodded with satisfaction: "I finally have some eyesight. We will talk about ugly things first. If we don't look good about it, it will be even more difficult for your adult to be promoted in the future. After you get the job done, we will help him get on the throne... Our family has a good relationship with Lord Shen, he is the Minister of Personnel and is in charge of the assessment of officials all over the world."

The official smiled and said, "I understand, understand."

Only then did Zhang Yuan serve tea and see the guests off.

After the person left, Zhang Yuan was still a little worried, so he found someone to follow him and told him to see Mrs. Yuan settle down before coming back.

...

...

Zhang Yuan was careful in his work, but everything he did was not a secret at all. Xiao Taozi and Zhang Yong could see it clearly.

When Zhang Yuan did everything properly, Zhang Yong told Xiao Tuozi about the news he had heard. Xiao Tuozi looked ridiculous and sneered: "Your Majesty told him very clearly that day, and just sent someone away, but he insisted on making so many fancy things. He thought that Your Majesty would come again and this woman who came from somewhere. He thought it was a credit, but in fact he was asking for trouble."

Zhang Yong asked with interest: "Why... let this happen to the Queen so that the guy can't afford to take care of it?"

Xiao Zhuozi looked fearful: "The past incident has caused a huge chaos. Who dares to do anything now? If the news leaks, you and I can't afford to take care of it."

Zhang Yong nodded: "That means...we won't make a fuss about this?"

Xiao Tiaozi sighed and shook his head and said, "If you want to deal with Zhang Yuan, you can't just use the Queen to do something... We are always your Majesty's slave, so we can't ignore your Majesty's feelings, right? In fact, our family has regretted it very much. It didn't hurt Zhang Yuan's fur, but it made Your Majesty sad for so many days."

"hehe."

An vague smile appeared on Zhang Yong's face.

Zhang Yongxin said: "Xiao Jiaozi is someone around His Majesty. She looks arrogant, but when facing major events, she is like this kind of mother-in-law and mother-in-law. It's really unbelievable... It's because he is young and ignorant of the world... I can't learn from him."

Zhang Yongdao: "If you are trying your best, you don't care about the details when doing big things!"

Xiao Tiaozi glared at Zhang Yong: "From what you mean, you must do anything big? We are the slaves of the royal family. You must be sensible in your work and think about your master everywhere... Well, if you don't work in the inner veil for a long time, how can you know the rules? Is there any news from Lord Shen?"

Finally talking about what he cared about, Zhang Yong said nervously: "Counting the time, Lord Shen should be about to reach the Xuzhou territory... He will catch up with us in a few days."

Xiao Tiaozi said: "Now, you can calm down your mind and return to the capital as soon as possible, who else can be better than Lord Shen... Maybe Lord Shen will give a good lecture to the queen after he arrives. The queen forgives Your Majesty, and that matter will be over."

Zhang Yongdao: "Mr. Shen is here, it must be a good thing for us?"

Xiao Tiaozi said confidently: "It must be a good thing... but you must beware that Zhang Yuan will take the lead in making contact with Lord Shen. I heard that this time in Jiangnan, Wei Bin showed his face in front of Lord Shen..."

"We all know now that whoever can rely on the big tree of Lord Shen can get to power. We always stay with His Majesty and have no time to greet him. The meeting with Lord Shen will fall on you."

Zhang Yong smiled and said, "Don't worry, you don't need to remind me. In fact, we have already sent a letter to Lord Shen, and there will be one letter in two days to explain the matters in front of His Majesty to him one by one to reflect our sincerity."

...

...

I got a lot of information on the way to Chenxi North.

Many secrets in front of the emperor could not hide them at all. In addition to the secrets he had inserted, there were also many people who informed him.

It was not just Zhang Yong who wrote a letter to Chen Xi. Zhang Yuan was also writing that the emperor and the eunuchs in front of him were basically not left behind. Now everyone wants to show goodwill to Chen Xi through some methods. These people are all smart and know that it is useless to stuff money, because Chen Xi used to show that he never lacked money.

On the contrary, the real situation around the emperor. These people think that Chen Xi, as a foreign minister, should be very interested in knowing that secretly contacting internal officials and foreign ministers is a violation of the rules. They think that sending a message to Chen Xi in this way of "giving people a handle" will better reflect their sincerity.

"Sir, it seems that there is a conflict between the Queen and His Majesty."

When he came to deliver the letter that day, Xier said with concern, "It's been rumored outside now that His Majesty will not return to the capital for a long time because the conflict with the Queen has not been resolved..."

When saying these words, Xier couldn't help feeling a little proud... The queen is Chen Xi's real sister. Chen Xi is respectful in the court, and even Chen Xi's sister benefits from it. She even dares to show her face to the emperor. It's an incredible thing to quarrel and fight coldly like a couple among the people.

Chen Xi was very cautious: "Your Majesty is often a childlike character, and the queen is even a child who has not grown up... What will happen if they quarrel?"

Xier said: "Sir, now everyone is saying that as long as you come to Your Majesty and help me talk about reconciliation, Your Majesty will be able to reconcile with the Queen."

Chen Xi shook his head: "My girl has married into the palace. I had agreed with His Majesty that she could leave by herself, but it's so easy? I think Yi'er himself is also very clear about this... The reconciliation requires the couple to review themselves and understand each other, so that their hearts can slowly get together... It is difficult for outsiders to participate."

"oh."

Xier nodded as if she understood.

Chen Xidao: "The folk saying should be stopped... The secrets of the royal family have spread so easily. Maybe someone deliberately created the appearance of His Majesty's incompatibility with the Queen. It will not benefit me from the Shen family. Instead, it will make people feel that the queen is arrogant because of my favor and reliance on my position in the court to not give him a sage, which is contrary to the way of a saint."

Xier felt the problem was serious and hurriedly said, "But... sir, there are too many rumors outside now, so it is not easy to stop it."

Chen Xi thought for a while and said, "It's difficult to stop it, so spread more rumors. The more bizarre the better. For example, if His Majesty falls in love with a restaurant girl, playing with dragons and phoenixes, and cover up the previous events."

"It is better to lose money than to block it. Only when the news becomes complicated, there are fewer people paying attention to it... Now for our Shen family, the situation is extremely special. We must not always keep the Shen family in the center of public opinion."

...

...

Just as Shen Xi was desperately chasing the emperor, the original peace in the capital was broken due to something.

It was not that there was any emergency military situation in the northwest or Liaodong, but that there was a disaster in the Central Plains.

In recent years, major and minor disasters in the Central Plains have been continuous, droughts, floods and locust plagues have occurred alternately, causing the Central Plains people to live in miserable life and frequent wars.

Even though Chen Xi led the army to quell the local rebellion, the situation did not fundamentally improve this year. Just after spring this year, the peach blossom flood started, the Yellow River broke its dam again, and hundreds of thousands of victims were added to the Central Plains.

Although Zhu Houzhao was stranded in the Central Plains, he was still far away from the affected area and was completely unaware of this matter.

The news reached the capital, making Xie Qian, who was already preparing to retire and beg for old age, but some things were not decided by him alone.

That afternoon, Yang Tinghe, Liang Chu, Jin Gui, the Minister of War, Wang Shouren, the Minister of the Ministry of Works, Li Jue, and the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Yang Yiqing, gathered in Xie Qian's courtyard on Chang'an Street to discuss issues related to the floods in the Central Plains.

Originally, Wang Shouren was not qualified to come, but Xie Qian had high expectations for Wang Shouren and specially asked him to attend the meeting. However, several ministries were not invited by Xie Qian on the grounds that his duties were not inconsistent.

After Zhu Houzhao left the capital, Xie Qian tried his best to avoid giving people the inherent impression of his abuse of power. Therefore, no matter how big the matter was needed, he would basically contact the officials of the relevant yamen to interview him separately.

This is the first time that so many top ministers have gathered in the courtyard like today.

People arrived one after another, and the sun was hanging high in the west at this time. In other words, the participants came during working hours and did not intend to stay in Xie Qian's courtyard for too long. After all, they had to go back to the yamen before the formal breaks. If there is any important matter, they must be handled as soon as possible while the yamen is still in office.

After several people arrived, Xie Qian asked the assistant Liang Chu to preside over the closed-door meeting.

Liang Chu read out the remarks on the disaster situation in the Central Plains over the past few days to several people on the spot. Because the breach was very sudden, more than a dozen counties were hit by a large area. The local governments were very worried about the subsequent plague and the refugees would rush to cause greater disasters, so the report was urgent and the focus was very accurate.

After Liang Chu finished speaking, Li Wu next to him looked worried: "How did the Henan Governor's Office say it?"

Liang Chudao: "There is no memorial from the governor of Henan."

Li Jue shook his head: "This is strange... In the past, when encountering disasters, the Henan Governor always reported first. Local memorials mostly only supplemented the report. This year, it was a bit abnormal."

Jin Gui reminded: "Now Your Majesty is also in the Central Plains."

Wang Shouren asked nervously: "Can the disaster affect the surroundings of the canal?"

Liang Chu shook his head and then looked at Xie Qian: "At present, it seems that it has no effect on Your Majesty's northward journey, and there is no obstruction of water and land transportation. However, if the victims go east in the future, your Majesty may encounter it. But I believe that the local government will try to prevent the emergence of refugees and not affect Your Majesty's return..."

They were waiting for Xie Qian to speak, but at this time Xie Qian closed his eyes, as if he was resting his mind, and seemed to be listening carefully.

After a brief conversation, Li Ju, Yang Yiqing and Wang Shouren had a basic understanding of the situation. In fact, before Xie Qian came to the three ministries, there was a closed-door meeting in the cabinet, but it may be of great importance and must be participated by the relevant government offices of the six ministries, because the specific disaster relief measures must be implemented, and the six ministries, especially the Ministry of Revenue, need assistance.

Yang Yiqing said: "Old Xie, I don't know how much money it needs to allocate to the Central Plains this time? According to past experience, if the break is more than one mile or there are many places, you may get more than 100,000 taels of silver at one time. If you add disaster relief, it may take more than 300,000 taels... It depends on the specific situation..."

No one spoke, waiting for Xie Qian to express his opinion.

Xie Qian finally opened his eyes in public expectations, poured Yang Yiqing a basin of cold water, frowned and said, "Can the value of silver be compared with a few years ago?"

Just one sentence made the people in the room embarrassed.

The first thing they thought of was that the price of private silver has dropped due to the absorption of large amounts of Florence silver in recent years.

In the past, it would be good if the imperial court could earn 20 million taels of silver a year, but in the past few years, there had been more than 10 million taels of silver in the imperial treasury, and there were also a lot of silver popular among the people.

Xie Qian said: "Silver is not valuable, and the prices in the disaster area are getting high. Is so much money allocated to the disaster area all at once? Can the people become food or clothing? Can the people rely on these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to eat and wear and warmly?"

The problem is thrown back to Yang Yiqing, after all, Yang Yiqing is in charge of the Ministry of Revenue.

Yang Yiqing said in embarrassment: "The grain storage in the capital's granary is insufficient, the Central Plains treasury is empty, and there are constant wars in the past few years, so it is too difficult to raise food for disaster relief..."

The ministers present were all familiar with the situation of the Ming Dynasty. Even though Wang Shouren was just a minister of the Ministry of War, he was very familiar with the situation among the people... He served as a governor in the northwest for several years and had experience in governing the area. The Xuanfu, which Wang Shouren guarded, was the main storage place for military rations and materials in the northwest.

The Ming Dynasty is so poor that it is so poor that it is only silver left.

These people are familiar with Xie Qian's usual behavior. He has never advocated putting a large amount of money in the treasury to the people to buy food and food, because he felt that this was a competition for profit with the people.

As for deeper issues, such as consumption stimulating production, Xie Qian's conservative mind is really unthinkable.

Yang Tinghe, who had been silent, said: "If the Central Plains are difficult to allocate, the only way is to transfer food and grass from the northwest."

Liang Chudao: "The northwest is not peaceful, and the Tartars are showing signs of a comeback... After the beginning of spring, the border was harassed by the Tartars... In fact, it is most convenient to directly allocate silver, or the court uses silver to buy food from those unaffected areas and transport it to the disaster area urgently to solve the urgent problem."

There are so many Liang Chuke.

In his opinion, if there is money, it is not necessary to requisition food and supplies, which is simply a waste of money. Even if the price of the disaster area is really high, the allocation of silver may cause prices to rise again in the past. However, merchants will quickly organize supply to fill the market gap. Moreover, local governments can also find ways to buy materials from areas with low prices to transport them to the disaster area.

After hearing Liang Chu's words, Li Wu nodded and agreed with Liang Chu's suggestions.

As for the other people, they looked at each other. They might also agree with Liang Chu's opinion, but they had no way to express it at this time, because Liang Chu said this as a singing stage drama with Xie Qian, and only those like Li Li who don't care much about official positions do not need to consider Xie Qian's opinion.
To be continued...