After looking at the spoils of war, the empress ordered them to be sent to the Ministry of Revenue for inventory.
She then ordered the dozen "captive representatives" to be brought to the palace hall.
A moment later, more than a dozen shabbily dressed captives were brought into the palace hall while trembling under the gaze of a group of Cardinal Heaven experts.
They weren't asked to kneel as Dayao didn't have this habit. They just stood there and let everyone watch them.
However, this kind of watching was close to torture for them. Thinking about a dozen rabbits being watched by dozens of lions with sesame, cumin, salt, pots, bowls, ladles, and barbecue grills, this was probably how they felt at that time.
The empress sat on the throne and tapped her chin with one hand, feeling bored.
She wasn't interested in such captives.
"What do you do in the Yun Nation?" the empress asked after a while.
Then, there was silence.
"Are all of you mute? How dare you not answer Her Majesty's question? You must be tired of living! "Lian Liang widened his eyes and emitted a bone-chilling murderous aura.
"Spare us! Spare us, Your Majesty! " The dozen captives immediately became paralyzed. They had suffered a lot along the way and were already exhausted. They were even more terrified when they were brought to the center of the palace hall. Now that they were frightened by Lian Liang, they immediately became paralyzed.
Some of them immediately wet their pants, causing everyone to frown.
"Forget it. Take them away." The empress waved her hands in boredom and ordered people to take them away. This was considered a formality for the captives to be sacrificed.
"These habits of Great Xia are really boring," the empress said after the captives were taken away.
This practice of sacrificing captives was naturally learned from Great Xia. This was the empress's first time experiencing it, and she was very disappointed to see a few shabbily dressed ants trembling in front of her. It was very boring and uninteresting.
"Your Majesty, these captives are indeed of no value. If we capture the emperor and prime minister of the Yun Nation next time, we can bring them here so that you can ask them what they think," Ren Baqian said after a few people were taken away.
"Oh, that makes sense." The empress nodded. If the high-ranking officials of the Yun Nation were to be sacrificed, she could meet them.
"That's right. There's really no need for these people to be sacrificed. I don't know which bastard arranged for these people to be shameful to Your Majesty. I'm afraid he's not very smart," Tong Zhenye said disdainfully.
Qin Chuan glared at him furiously.
The others were all looking forward to watching a good show.
In any case, the two of them had been fighting for so many years that everyone was already used to it.
"That's all for now. All of you may leave," the empress said faintly.
"Your Majesty, I have one more thing to say." Seeing that the empress had spoken, Tong Zhenye hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, currently, Mount Damo produces close to 200,000 kilograms of iron every month. However, due to the insufficient transportation capacity, a large amount of iron ore has been piled up on Mount Damo. At the same time, the smelting furnace and forging workshop at Nineteen Rivers also needed to be expanded.
Also, the salt wells didn't have enough manpower and needed to be expanded.
In addition, there are areas that need to be repaired in the city walls and government offices. "
As he spoke, Tong Zhenye took out a stack of paper with densely packed words written on it. Immediately, a guard took it and placed it on the desk in front of the empress.
"Your Majesty, the frontline's rations are still two months short. Furthermore, the continuous battles over the past few months have greatly damaged their weapons. Many of the soldiers' weapons have already been used as iron plates.
Also, the salary and rations of these auxiliary soldiers have not been decided yet. Even if we don't mention the monthly salary, His Majesty should still reward the auxiliary soldiers! "Qin Chuan said.
At this time, the two of them were surprisingly in sync.
"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue only allocated 50% of last year's salary and is still short by half. If we don't distribute it, I'm afraid that many officials won't be able to eat meat! "Xiong Yaohe, the Minister of Rites, followed closely behind.
It was a classic case of not eating meat … However, there was nothing wrong with it!
"Your Majesty, currently, the Public Order Bureau …"
Zhuo Yan, the Minister of Justice, immediately followed up with the Minister of Rites.
The hall suddenly became like a market. A group of people stood below and shouted. Between the lines, there were only three words: Want money, want goods, want people!
"Your Majesty, you mustn't. Last year, many of the cities in the north suffered losses, and the allocation of money and rations consumed more than half of the national treasury. After that, many of the cities in the northeast were attacked by the Yun Nation, and we also need to allocate food to help the people there tide over the difficulties.
If all the money is transferred, it will only barely be enough to help the people in the destroyed cities survive until the spring harvest! We absolutely won't have any extra resources for other purposes! "Tu Wan stepped forward with an ashen face, and her voice immediately overwhelmed everyone.
In fact, they still owed the Rearguard Commandery a few months' worth of rations! The empress couldn't send hungry soldiers!
However, seeing Tu Wan's surging aura and knocking everyone aside, Ren Baqian was very rational and didn't say anything.
His physique wasn't like that of Tong Zhenye and the others.
It didn't matter if they were hit, but if he was hit, he would be half-dead!
Well, the baihu of the Rearguard Commandery were all rich people, so they shouldn't be short of rations and wouldn't starve to death for the time being. It was better to bring this matter up with the empress later.
"All of you, shut up!" The empress's face turned blue, and her hair began to flutter. Her aura was like a towering mountain, suppressing everyone.
"All of you, step down. We will discuss this after an inventory!" the empress said coldly.
"Your Majesty …" Tong Zhenye was unwilling to give up and wanted to say something.
"Step down!" A bright red, square brick smashed into Tong Zhenye's head, and it was immediately smashed into pieces.
The feel of this thing was excellent, and the empress had always been very accurate when throwing it.
Unfortunately, the significance of this brick was far greater than its lethality. To Tong Zhenye, it was no different from a piece of tofu smashing into his head. The lethality was probably less than a piece of tofu smashing into an ordinary person's head.
He just wanted to tell everyone that the empress was in a bad mood and didn't want to talk to them. They were to quickly get lost, or else she would flip out!
Seeing that the empress was on the verge of losing her temper, everyone had no choice but to temporarily stop talking and step down.
Ren Baqian was the last to leave, half a step behind the empress.
"Your Majesty, it's not worth getting angry over this matter," Ren Baqian softly comforted the empress from behind.
"Why should I be angry?" The empress, who was angry just now, turned her head and looked calm.
"It has been like this for so many years, and I am already used to it." The empress looked at him and said.
"I just find them noisy."
Ren Baqian didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It turned out that the empress could also put on an act.
"In any case, they will quarrel when they don't have money, and they will quarrel even when they have a little bit of money. I think that after we conquer the Yun Nation and have money, they will stop quarreling, "the empress said.
"At that time, they will quarrel about other things," Ren Baqian said after thinking about it.
"When they are hungry, they think about filling their stomachs. After filling their stomachs, they want to wear warm clothes. When they are full and warm, they will think about other things. The ancients said it well: One thinks about sex when one is full! "
The empress kicked Ren Baqian's calf, and he felt like he heard the sound of bones cracking …
"What do you think about sex when you are warm?" the empress looked at him coldly and asked.
"That's what the ancients said, not me!" Ren Baqian hugged his legs and jumped around in circles.
Kick him if you want! He was innocent!
"Hmph!" The empress snorted.
"Actually, this is fake. Everything in the world is just a facade. It's fake and not real. If I feel pain, then it will be painful. If I see through this illusion, then I won't feel pain. Amitabha! " Ren Baqian took a long time before putting his leg down. He tried his best to maintain a calm expression and act like an enlightened monk.
These days, he had made great progress in his study of Buddhist scriptures. At this moment, he felt that learning Buddhism was really good.
Sometimes, it was very useful. It was just like calming one's heart and cooling down naturally.
The empress kicked his other leg. Following which, she softened her tone and asked gently, "Does it hurt?"
Ren Baqian's face twitched …
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