The Empress came ashore and beheaded the meritorious officials, forcing me to wear the yellow robe

"what!"

Wang Yuanya was shocked. She never expected that her senior brother was seen by her mother-in-law Huang Suqiu. She was caught off guard and at a loss for a moment.

Huang Suqiu always had a smile on her face, but her eyes were always fixed on her daughter-in-law's face, capturing every slight movement in her expression.

"What? I just saw you two walking and chatting. You seem quite talkative. Could he be a relative of yours?"

Wang Yuanya smiled awkwardly, "Yes... yes! Haha, a distant cousin of mine!"

"What a coincidence? My distant cousin would show up here? Oh my... you are such a fool, my relatives from my mother's side are here, why don't you invite them home for dinner?"

When Huang Suqiu said this, she looked at the direction where the eldest senior brother left, and she had an urge to catch up with him and invite him to have a meal at the Li family.

Wang Yuanya was so frightened that she quickly stepped forward and grabbed Huang Suqiu's arm. She said with an awkward smile: "No need, mother-in-law, actually...actually, my distant cousin is very shy and doesn't like places with a lot of people."

"That's it..."

Huang Suqiu deliberately dragged out the last syllable, and then looked at Wang Yuanya's face, but the girl avoided his gaze and turned half of her face to the side.

"Oh, forget it! Let's not talk about this! Let's just talk about what we just said!"

"What did you say just now?"

Wang Yuanya turned around, looking puzzled.

"That sentence about falling in love with a fool! Haha..."

As soon as Huang Suqiu said this, Wang Yuanya froze, and the back half of her face turned red like a monkey's butt.

"Mother-in-law! I don't want to bother with you anymore!"

After saying that, Wang Yuanya stomped her feet angrily and walked forward with a shy look.

Huang Suqiu, who was behind her, looked at her like this and burst into laughter. Then she quickened her pace and caught up with her.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law walked forward. Huang Suqiu followed beside them and took Wang Yuanya's hand affectionately. Then she said with a smile, "Actually, mother-in-law can understand you. After all, your marriage to Ji Ze was arranged by His Majesty. You two didn't know each other before, a complete stranger man and woman got together. It's unrealistic to talk about love! But... things like feelings, love grows over time! Over time, feelings will naturally come."

"Love grows over time?"

Wang Yuanya muttered these four words silently, and then she found it funny.

Falling in love with a fool? How is that possible?

This guy bullies her when he's normal, either by massaging her shoulders and back or serving her tea and water. But when he's being silly, she takes the opportunity to bully him back.

Can feelings arise in this way?

Just as Wang Yuanya was pondering this question, her mother-in-law Huang Suqiu suddenly appeared like a worm inside her stomach and said with a grin, "And you can't deny that Ji Ze is handsome, young and promising. Although he may be a little bit mentally unstable at times, he's still a pretty good person."

"puff!"

After Huang Suqiu finished speaking, Wang Yuanya couldn't help but cover her mouth and laughed out loud.

"Mother-in-law, how can you praise your son like this?"

"I'm just stating a fact!"

"If that's the case, then he and the Emperor... Your Majesty, they grew up together as childhood sweethearts. Wouldn't their relationship be even stronger? Would they have developed feelings for each other over time?"

A few words...

Huang Suqiu was stunned on the spot. After thinking about it carefully, she sighed helplessly and said, "That's true! In the past, one of them was a prostitute and the other was the eldest son of the Li family. They had a really good relationship. They were childhood sweethearts and grew up together..."

"Oh? What were they like before?"

It's true, Wang Yuanya also wanted to know what happened between the two of them in the past, what made them, childhood sweethearts who loved each other, end up loving and hating each other.

Huang Suqiu sighed and immediately told her daughter-in-law about Li Jize and the empress.

at the same time……

Inside the palace, the empress stood in the imperial garden, looking at the rockery and reminiscing.

People are really strange. When you are full of energy and ambition, you don't care about anything. But once you are in trouble and fall from a high place, you will start to have a lot of thoughts.

That woman with emotion, the empress at this moment!

"Everyone... please take care of yourself!"

At this moment, a cloak was draped over the empress, and the voice of Eunuch Gao was heard behind her.

After the empress realized what was happening, she simply raised her head and sighed, "I have been on the throne for fifteen years now, working tirelessly day and night to govern this country. But now... the Central Plains has fallen, the treasury is empty, and the barbarians are marching south. Worst of all, the little money in my treasury has been swindled away by evildoers."

Speaking of which...

She sighed helplessly and looked up, feeling as if she had the will to kill the thief but was powerless to do anything about it.

"I don't even know where to find the funds for the Northern Liang Wolf Cavalry's expedition."

"This……"

This question stumped Eunuch Gao.

The barbarians were making unusual movements and were feared to move south. The empress specifically ordered the Minister of War Zhou Yan and the Prince of Qin Li Jize to lead the Northern Liang Wolf Cavalry to deal with the situation.

but……

A very realistic question is, where does the military pay come from?

It would be fine if the full salary was paid every month. As the saying goes, it takes a thousand days to train an army and only a moment to use it. It is only natural for soldiers to eat the emperor's food and go to war.

But the worst was yet to come. The Great Qi treasury was empty, and many troops had long been underpaid. The Northern Liang Wolf Cavalry, being a frontier force and the most capable of fighting, only had 70% of their food and wages.

The other armies were even worse off, with delayed and unpaid wages being the norm. If the King of Qin were still alive, he would have been able to suppress this group of arrogant and powerful generals with his personal charm.

But now...

Li Jize has become a fool!

The expedition was imminent, and according to customary tradition, the court should either provide "travel expenses" or supplement their food and wages. Otherwise, why would anyone serve you, the Empress?

After all, the empress is still short of money!

"Hey, everyone...why did it come to this?"

Eunuch Gao's meaningful words were not about why things had turned out this way, but were meaningfully pointing to the Empress, how did things get to this point?

Wasn't she so high-spirited earlier that she even wanted to take Li Jize's military power? She felt that even without the King of Qin, she could still control the entire court of Da Qi.

But now?

Without the King of Qin's relief, the people could no longer survive, and the number of bandits increased, until they captured what is now Zhongjing.

Secondly, because of the internal chaos, in order to maintain the stability of the royal capital, the empress listened to slander and transferred the Beiliang Wolf Cavalry back to garrison, which gave the barbarians an opportunity to take advantage. After receiving the news, they prepared to move south again.

Could it be that……

Didn't his extremely smart and wise master realize that all these chain reactions seemed to be caused by her abandoning him and beheading his meritorious officials?