The Empress Makes a Secret Visit, but I Can't Hide My Tanks Anymore!

The Great Feng Dynasty is beset by troubles at home and abroad. The treasury is so empty it echoes, powerful clans pay lip service while defying orders, and the Marquis of Zhenbei is colluding with foreign enemies and poised to make a move. Empress Feng Qingtian is at her wit's end, her hand cramping from reviewing memorials. Then, among a pile of reports full of complaints about poverty and hardship, she comes across one that stands out from the rest:

"Your servant, Zhou Yuan, magistrate of Hedong County, reports that this year's tax revenue has exceeded its target, the population has grown by six hundred households, and the common folk eat meat at every meal!"

The empress: "???"

Isn't Hedong County the poorest in the whole country? Just a few years ago it was full of starving corpses, and now it's rolling in wealth?

This memorial is written so badly it looks like a dog scratched it out, yet the Ministry of Revenue says the accounts check out?

This Zhou Yuan... could he be a once-in-a-millennium genius of a corrupt official?

The empress slammed her hand on the imperial desk. "Saddle the horses! I shall meet this 'able minister' myself!"

But when she arrived in Hedong County, she was dumbfounded.

There were all sorts of things she had never seen before. Never mind the many everyday items that were entirely new to her, what on earth was this thing you called a "tank"?

Zhou Yuan: "Your Majesty, this is an iron carriage essential for sightseeing and touring the countryside!"