You kid! You don't have to be so low-key! !

The thatched hut is located not far from the entrance of the volcano. The environment is quiet and you can listen to the chirping of insects, away from the hustle and bustle. Changqing is quite satisfied with the surrounding environment and does not have to worry about being disturbed.

During the day, he focused on sword training and discussing plans;

In the afternoon, I devoted myself to refining the bloodworm mist;

When night fell, he immersed himself in practicing magic spells and absorbing spirit stones.

Although his days were dull, they were fulfilling and satisfying, as if the troubles in the outside world had nothing to do with him.

In the barracks of the Zhenbei Army at the far northern frontier, an eight-foot-tall man, nearly forty years old, with a tiger head and a swallow chin, wearing military armor, was sitting behind the desk with a frown on his face, reviewing the barracks runway in his hand.

And this person was none other than the commander of the Northern Army of Xingyang State - Lin Hu.

After several years of fighting, the troops returned to their base and soon after, problems that had never been noticed before began to emerge:

The number of troops has been reduced to less than 50% of the pre-war level, and the shortage of personnel is one of the reasons;

The court has not yet explained the pensions for soldiers who died in battle and the retirement benefits for disabled soldiers.

Winter is coming, but the soldiers have not received winter clothing from the Logistics Department.

The soldiers' salaries have not been paid for two years. They have been busy fighting in the past few years, and they don't know when they will lose their lives. How can they care about the salary? Now that the war has stopped, the soldiers naturally want to take the money they exchanged for their lives. They submitted a memorial to the court half a month ago, but there has been no response so far.

As soon as he stood up, the deputy general walked in hurriedly with a serious look on his face.

Seeing this, Lin Hu shook his head helplessly.

The deputy general said in a deep voice: "Recently, many soldiers have come to ask for military pay, and even had conflicts with my guards. I have tried my best to appease them, but if this situation continues, I am afraid it will..."

He didn't say anything else, but both of them knew the seriousness of the matter.

The deputy general added:

"A few days ago, thousands of soldiers from the Zhennan Army were suppressed for demanding military pay. Later, more and more people became dissatisfied, and thousands of them gathered to surround the commander's tent. The Zhennan Army commander had no choice but to go to the imperial city in person to demand the pay, but he was thrown into prison by court officials for deserting his post. The other two armies also experienced riots."

Lin Hu was silent for a moment, and a hint of determination flashed in his eyes.

He turned to the deputy general and said:

"Keep urging the court to pay the military salaries. If one payment every ten days doesn't work, then one payment a day. If that doesn't work, I will go to the imperial city in person to demand it. If they have the guts, then arrest the commanders of these four armies!"

At this time, everyone in the volcano also heard that the commander of the Zhennan Army was imprisoned. Changqing and Yu Qingxi looked at each other and smiled.

Changqing said: "It seems that we can achieve our goal without having to do anything ourselves. I'm sure those court officials are having a headache!"

He thought for a moment and said, "Princess, we can now arrange for the Merchant Alliance to withdraw. We must act as soon as possible and cannot let the court intercept our funds."

Yu Qingxi nodded, turned around and sent a pigeon to deliver the letter.

The Chamber of Commerce responded quickly and decisively. After receiving the letter, it took only one day to recover the funds. The store hung a sign saying "Suspended Business", all the items for sale in the store disappeared, and the store was deserted.

In some merchants' shops, a letter was stuffed through the crack of the door at some point in time.

The letter stated that the court was extremely short of funds and could hardly maintain its operations, and that commercial taxes would soon be increased significantly.

Many merchants thought of the sudden disappearance of the Imperial City Center Business Alliance and cursed them for being cunning, but they did not stop taking action. They closed their shops, packed up their belongings, and left.

At this time, the court officials were faced with hundreds of memorials from the military camp. They were overwhelmed and asked the emperor for instructions. In the end, the emperor did not show up and sent someone to pass on the message: let them solve it themselves.

The court was discussing how to solve the current problem of the treasury being exhausted. Sitting in the top chair was the Regent named Cui, who had met Changqing once before. He watched the officials come up with various ideas and thought silently.

Some people proposed to cut spending and halve salaries.

Some people proposed to mint a large amount of money.

Some people suggested borrowing from merchants and then raising business taxes.

Some people proposed to increase taxes on the people, etc.

Cui Jianguo thought it would be safest to borrow money from merchants first, so he ordered people to gather merchants for discussion. However, the people he sent out came back soon and said that the merchants were all staying indoors and did not respond to his calls. This made Cui Jianguo a little angry, after all, ignoring the officials of the court was a serious crime.

So he personally led a team of nearly a hundred Jinyiwei to the most prosperous streets in the imperial city.

However, when they arrived, they were dumbfounded - nearly 70% of the shops around the street were closed, and only some small individual businesses were still open.

Regent Cui ordered the Imperial Guards to break down the door of the Chamber of Commerce. As a result, only some worthless tables, chairs and benches were left in the store, with nothing else left.

There was a slight musty smell in the air, obviously someone had been gone a long time ago.

They broke into a few more shops and the situation was the same everywhere.

After asking people nearby, I found out that these merchants had been gone for four or five days.

Cui Jianguo could not help but curse: "This bunch of mercenary businessmen!"

The merchants knew that lending money to the court was like throwing meat buns at a dog. Who could ask for it back and who dared to ask for it back then? So this group of merchants fled in panic.

Regent Cui returned to the court with a heavy heart.

In desperation, he had to ask all officials to notify all places to increase the tax rate on autumn grain, and to offer some mineral veins in an attempt to attract the departing merchants to bid for them in auctions.

At the same time, he also asked the Ministry of Works to mint an additional batch of coins.

Time flies, and a month goes by in a flash.

Just as the autumn grain tax rate was being adjusted, this year's adjustment aroused strong dissatisfaction among the people.

The high tax rates caused many people to complain, and conflicts even broke out in some areas.

After all, most of the year's hard-earned harvest has to be turned in as taxes, and it is unknown whether the people can survive the winter.

Half a month later, the autumn grain was collected, but people's resentment was growing.

People in many places even dug tree roots to satisfy their hunger, and the situation of those refugees was even more worrying.

At this time, Princess Yu Qingxi appeared in some places where people's resentment was concentrated, and on the grounds that she "could not bear to see the suffering of the people in the world",

He began to distribute porridge and charity in areas where there were many refugees and severe exploitation, winning praise and support from many people.

Another month passed, winter came, and people's lives became increasingly difficult. In addition, the court minted a large number of coins, causing prices to soar. The price of daily necessities more than doubled, and inflation became more serious.

However, the imperial court turned a deaf ear to this and even ignored it, which made the people's dissatisfaction with the imperial court even stronger.

Yu Qingxi secretly manipulated public opinion and continuously sent people to distribute food for disaster relief.

She purchased tens of millions of kilograms of grain from home and abroad in advance to ensure the supply of disaster relief food.

As a result, the Princess of Xingyang's reputation even surpassed that of the current emperor.

However, just a few days later, the court ordered the arrest of the eldest princess, accusing her of misleading the people in the name of disaster relief and intending to rebel.

Both parties are well aware of this matter.

But the people didn't care about all this; they only remembered the favor the princess had given them.

Therefore, after the news came out, people were talking about it, and many people were discussing:

"The emperor is jealous that the eldest princess is more popular among the people"

For a time, public opinion continued to ferment.

Although the action of distributing porridge and charity is still going on, the original owner, Yu Qingxi, has long disappeared.