Empress: Your Majesty, please respect yourself, I don't want to be promoted

In the end, Lu Chen still didn't sit next to the empress, but asked the empress to send someone a table, and was going to sit in an inconspicuous corner to work, not to overstep the threshold, and let the empress feel helpless.

Afterwards, the empress handed some official documents from the household department to Lu Chen.

"Qing Lu, these are the reports and applications for money and food from the Ministry of Households for supporting the royal family and nobles, repairing palaces and tombs, salaries, military salaries, disaster relief, appeasement of mobs, thieves and Japanese pirates, as well as the taxation of various places and the changes in acres of land in the world. To sum up, I asked the Ministry of Households to list all the income and expenditure in detail, so the number of audits that need to be audited is extremely complicated. The cabinet has already audited it. During this period of time, you have to work hard, and the next officer will come to help me audit it every day. If there is no problem , help me criticize Zhu."

Hearing this, Lu Chen couldn't help rolling his eyes in his heart.

Well, after the engineering and official departments, now I have to take over the most troublesome job of the household department.

He also conveniently did the work of the eunuch Bingbi.

Simply let my buddy do all the work of the six subjects by myself.

Increase the amount without increasing the price, Your Majesty, I really have you. I can't tell that you, a beautiful girl with delicate features, are actually a black-hearted capitalist.

I really have the style of your Taizu Emperor Hongwu.

Love love love.

Please increase the intensity, it is best to exhaust my buddy to death.

"correct!"

Just when Lu Chen was complaining in his heart, the empress suddenly remembered something, and said to Lu Chen:

"Lu Qing takes engineering as his body, and has an overview of the affairs of the two departments. Before that, he went to Yuzhou to take charge of the military affairs of the two states. Now he is also taking care of the affairs of the Ministry of household affairs. It's a lot of work. I can't let you work in vain. This month you Receive ten times the salary, and after processing these official documents from the household department, you can rest for a while, and when you feel well enough to come back, come back to court, I will not let you be exhausted."

Lu Chen: "..."

Well, the place where this girl can gather people's hearts is not only not dark inside, but very white on the contrary.

Simply spotless.

It would be nice if you could be a little bit more ruthless...

Lu Chen didn't feel much about ten times the salary.

After all, the salary of officials in Daxia is the lowest in all dynasties, ten times the salary, which is actually not much money.

The point is to rest.

You can rest as long as you want, and you can come back whenever you want.

Is there a better perk than this?

It's just that this kind of thing is not a good thing for Lu Chen.

Of course, as an upright gentleman with lofty aspirations and one heart for justice, he still had to refuse, but the Empress insisted, and she couldn't shirk it, so Lu Chen had no choice but to accept it with shame.

Anyway, you can come back whenever you want, it doesn't matter.

After receiving the official document handed over by the empress, Lu Chen put it on the corner of the table, then picked up the first one and read it.

Well, the expected style.

"Your Majesty, please give me some straw paper."

"Give."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Lu Chen put the straw paper on the table, and then prepared to pick up the pen.

"Come on."

The Empress suddenly called softly.

"Bring a few calculation chips over here, and in addition, announce a few experienced calculation officials to enter the palace to assist Lu Qing."

In this world, the way of sages and sages is the absolute mainstream, and everything else, except martial arts, is a small way.

Affected by this, there are very few practitioners who specialize in the way of counting.

After all, if you don't practice the way of sages, you won't even have the chance to be an official. If you specialize in the way of sages, you will not be able to improve in other ways after you fall into the shackles of citing scriptures and excerpts from chapters and sentences.

Of course, it is impossible for those who can enter the court to be officials not to learn the way of counting, but most of them do it concurrently, and they are not proficient in it. Few are proficient in this way.

For Lu Chen, the calculation methods that are widely circulated in the Great Xia are quite backward, and the speed of development is similar to the ancient times in his impression. It is very time-consuming and laborious to calculate complicated data. It takes a lot of time to collect and summarize the tax revenue of various places or the details of the imperial court expenditure. Ten or hundreds of counting officials counted for several days, and after a long and repeated review, the data could be submitted.

Not necessarily accurate.

This also makes it easier for some people to go up and down.

A light flashed in Lu Chen's eyes, then he suddenly raised his head, and said to the Empress, "Your Majesty, don't bother, I never need to count, and I don't need help from others, just give me a charcoal pencil."

Since the way of simply dying doesn't work, it's time to change the way of thinking.

Coincidentally, the figures in the official document in front of him, which involve various long-standing abuses of the Great Xia Empire, are a good starting point.

An entry point that can perfectly avoid system restrictions.

After hearing what he said, the Empress suddenly asked curiously: "No need to count? Then how should we count?"

"Your Majesty will know later."

Although confused, the Empress still asked people to do what Lu Chen said.

Not long after, the eunuch Xiao Lizi, who had met once before, walked in with a charcoal pencil.

"Lord Lu, here it is."

Lu Chen took the charcoal pencil and said casually, "Thank you."

Xiao Lizi was immediately flattered and felt respected.

However, the huge difference in status still made him wave his hands quickly, and said respectfully: "No thanks, no thanks, Mr. Lu, you are too polite, this servant is just following His Majesty's orders."

"Any contribution should be valued."

Lu Chen said indifferently: "Your Majesty will naturally thank His Majesty, but one yardstick counts for one yardstick. You are the one who does things, and I am the one who benefits. It's a very simple logic of cause and effect, isn't it?"

Hearing this, the Empress quietly looked at Lu Chen with a soft look.

To be so kind to an insignificant little eunuch, not to be contemptuous because of the other party's humble status, nor to shrink back because of the other party's strength and power, stick to the heart and be consistent.

Such a sincere and trustworthy gentleman is worthy of her trust.

Unconditional trust.

Xiao Lizi's shoulders trembled slightly, and then he saluted Lu Chen respectfully, then stepped back slowly and left Zichen Palace.

There are only Lu Chen and the empress in the huge Zichen Palace.

Lonely men and widows.

It's a pity that Lu Chen never knew what amorous feelings were, and he didn't feel the slightest charm. Instead, he wholeheartedly compared the income and expenditure details attached to the document, and wrote Arabic numerals on straw paper with a charcoal pen.

It didn't take long after that, and the other side of the straw paper, which had been drawn in advance, was gradually filled with dense numbers.

Although the empress sitting on the dragon chair seemed to be dealing with official documents, the corner of her eyes drifted from time to time to Lu Chen who was buried in her work.

Thinking about it carefully, this is the first time she's been alone with Lu Chen after knowing Lu Chen for so long.

Realizing this, she had a strange feeling for no reason.

As the Ninth Five-Year Lord who has the power to control the world, even in the face of the ruthless and scheming Queen Mother Zhao, he is a generation of heroes who can turn the corner from desperation.

No matter what she faced with everything, she could calmly deal with it, and she was as immobile as a mountain. Her breathing was usually very smooth, but at this moment, there was a moment of disorder.

Time passed minute by minute.

Unknowingly, the night outside was extremely thick, and the bright moonlight poured down, covering the earth with a layer of melancholy silver makeup.

The empress put down the last official document in her hand, then exhaled softly, stood up, and walked behind Lu Chen.

When she saw the ghost symbols in the forms with unclear meanings on Lu Chen's desk case, she couldn't help being slightly taken aback.

What's this? Some kind of ancient Dao pattern?

It doesn't look like it.

After recovering, her eyes were full of curiosity.

But she didn't ask immediately, and even her breathing slowed down a lot.

She walked to the gate of the palace, then waved to the outside, and asked the maid to prepare some supplements, then slowly walked back behind Lu Chen, quietly watching him immersed in his official duties.

Even though she couldn't understand what the dense symbols written by Lu Chen were, and didn't know what their functions and meanings were, she still didn't make a sound to disturb her.

Time seemed to have completely stopped at this moment.

The snow is flying outside the window, and from time to time, a few wisps of snowflakes float into the house in the strong wind, bringing extra decoration to the magnificent Zichen Palace, making this majestic palace, which symbolizes the supreme imperial power, reveal a mortal atmosphere.

click

Lu Chen's right hand suddenly trembled slightly, and the force caused the charcoal pencil in his hand to split instantly.

The crisp voice made the empress instantly react.

Seeing the charcoal pencil broken into several pieces, the empress thought he was tired and couldn't control his strength, so she planned to let him take a rest.

However, before she could speak, Lu Chen frowned suddenly, then raised his hand suddenly, and patted the table hard.

Boom!

The dull sound instantly resounded throughout the Zichen Palace.

"It makes no sense!"

In the majestic voice, there was an indescribable anger.

"Why is Lu Qing angry?"

The Empress asked softly.

"But what's wrong with these papers?"

Lu Chen turned around, and suddenly saw the empress standing not far away, looking at him suspiciously.

"Sorry, Your Majesty."

He got up slowly, bowed slightly to the empress, and said apologetically: "The minister was angry just now, but he forgot that this is the Zichen Palace, which disturbed His Majesty, please punish him for his misbehavior."

The empress waved her hand: "Lu Qing didn't do it on purpose, there's no way to talk about the crime of disrespect, so don't worry about it."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

The empress was quite puzzled and said: "Lu Qing was so angry just now, did he find something inappropriate in these official documents?"

"Return to His Majesty."

Lu Chen said in a deep voice: "The reason why I lost my composure is not because of the official document itself, but because of the various problems reflected in the data inside."

"what is the problem?"

The Empress frowned slightly.

These official documents were all handed in after approval from the cabinet. If there were any problems, the cabinet ministers should make it clear to her.

but none.

But Lu Chen, who has only been an official for a few months, has noticed a problem in his engineering career.

Is it the incompetence of the remaining cabinet, or Lu Chen misunderstood something?

Lu Chen took a deep breath, and then, as if striking a big bell with all his strength, he said heavily: "If it is not resolved as soon as possible, it may lead to the collapse of Great Xia!"

Hearing this, the female emperor's expression froze immediately.

There will be a day when the country will perish This is not a random word.

If it was someone else, the empress might wonder if the other party used such alarmist methods to win her attention.

But the person who said this was Lu Chen.

The sincere gentleman who has never just talked about it and has made outstanding achievements for the imperial court!

His words are believable!

Even if his words and suggestions sound a bit shocking, even the Arabian Nights.

After all, he has proved by facts several times that his seemingly unreasonable advice is actually correct!

Therefore, his opinion is very important, you have to listen carefully and consider it seriously!

He said that it would endanger the survival of Great Xia, which is very likely to be a big problem that shakes the foundation of the country.

"How to say?"

The Empress asked in a condensed voice.

"Please look, Your Majesty."

Lu Chen picked up the brush from the side, dipped the ink twice, and then began to write down the amount in Daxia characters on another blank draft, facing the calculated result on the straw paper.

The Empress walked over as she said, leaned close to Lu Chen, and looked down at what Lu Chen had written.

I saw Lu Chen writing on the manuscript paper:

Daxia's annual tax income last year: 38,722,317 guan.

Expenses for supporting the royal family: more than 13.17 million

Disaster relief expenditure: more than 2.12 million yuan.

Expenditure for repairing the imperial mausoleum: 3.13 million guan

Immediately afterwards, Lu Chen pointed to the item of royal family support with the largest expenditure above, and said to the empress in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, the expenditure of royal family support accounts for more than 30% of the annual financial expenditure, but such a huge expenditure, Yu Daxia The long-term stability of the country has almost no effect."

"Those royal families like King Yu took the money from the imperial court. Not only did they not consider the future of Great Xia, but they continued to ruin the country's destiny, domineering, oppressing the people, and using their titles to amass wealth and power without scruple, completely disregarding the life and death of the local people!"

As he spoke, his voice gradually revealed a wave of anger.

"The people are the foundation of the country. The tax revenue of the court comes from thousands of people. If our Great Xia wants to have a long-term peace and stability, it must be taken from the people and used for the people. The country's financial revenue and expenditure must not be excessively separated from the people's livelihood. Otherwise, it is shameless plunder!"

"If this expenditure is not adjusted quickly, and those moths are allowed to continue to erode the fortune of the country, if this continues, my Daxia's 100,000-mile country will definitely be wiped out by them. By then, how can Daxia survive?"

Hearing this, seeing his cynical look, obviously agitated, the Empress couldn't help but feel her heart tighten.

But she remembered that when Lu Chen was the governor of the two states, he had a fierce conflict with King Yu who was covering the sky with one hand in Yuzhou, and then directly killed King Yu with his hands. To the court, Yuzhou has completely settled down.

After such an experience, Lu Chen probably won't have a good impression of the royal family except her.

In fact, to be honest, she doesn't really have a good impression of the royal family.

These so-called relatives, while enjoying the support of the imperial court, caused chaos to the imperial court everywhere, making the people all over the place more and more disappointed with the imperial court.

Even hated, so that riots continued.

But some things don't just go the way they want.

Even if she is the emperor.

For example, the royal support system that has lasted for nearly a thousand years

Thinking of this, the empress could not help but sigh.

"But. This is the ancestral system established by Emperor Taizu Hongwu."

Hearing this, Lu Chen's expression turned cold.

"Your Majesty, do you think the ancestral system is important, or the survival of Great Xia?"

Hearing this, the empress couldn't help but startled.