Half an hour later, Renault Mountain, the Minister of Household Affairs, arrived belatedly.
Arriving at the Xi Zheng Hall in the East Palace, Renault Shan cupped his hands and said casually to Li Chen: "Your Majesty, Renault Shan, please see His Highness the Crown Prince."
Li Chen looked at Renault Mountain expressionlessly and said, "As a minister, why don't you kneel down when you see me?"
Renault Mountain sneered and said confidently: "Of course I am a minister, but according to the ancestral family laws, a minister can only kneel down and worship when he sees the emperor, queen, or queen mother. To the prince, he only needs to raise his hands to salute."
boom.
The memorial in Li Chen's hand hit the desk heavily, "Since I am the supervisor of the country, seeing me is like my father coming in person. Now that I am in front of you, I represent my father. If you don't worship me when you see me, it is
A great crime of treason!"
With this loud bang, several Jinyi guards immediately rushed into the hall, staring at Renault Mountain with murderous intent, as if they would immediately pounce on Renault Mountain and tear it into pieces as long as Li Chen gave the order.
Mount Reynolds was startled.
He didn't expect that Li Chen would not follow the routine when he just started supervising the country.
In this way, they directly used imperial power to suppress people, which was equivalent to completely overturning the rules of their court.
Renault Mountain was shocked and angry. In his opinion, even the emperor had to balance politics with ministers like them in the court. How could a mere prince who was overseeing the country have the courage to challenge the rules of the game?
"Prince, are you going to kill Wei Chen?"
Renault Mountain kept an eye on Li Chen, thinking that Li Chen would not have the guts to touch him.
Otherwise, all civil and military officials in the dynasty would immediately riot and oust the prince.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince, must think carefully. Once you do this, it will chill the hearts of all the civil and military officials, but no one will dare to do anything for the Crown Prince."
Such a naked threat made Li Chen laugh angrily.
"Drag this disobedient minister to me and chop him down!"
Li Chen ordered that the Jin Yiwei of Dongchang don't care who you are or what rank you are. The brainwashing education methods in Dongchang for many years have already engraved the concept of the supremacy of imperial power into their bones.
Several wolf-like guards came up, set up Renault Mountain on the left and right, and were about to drag him away.
Mount Reynolds was really panicked this time.
He found that his reliance and determination were like a nonsense joke in front of Li Chen.
Li Chen had no intention of playing according to the so-called game rules they set from the beginning.
"Prince! You are so cruel, how can you convince all the officials?"
Li Chen said coldly: "The head of a Wenyuan Pavilion scholar is not enough to make you fear me. Then add the head of a minister of the Ministry of Finance to yours. I want to see if it is the bones of you literati."
Hard, but my sword is sharper."
"Do you think that I will play the so-called compromise and balance game with you and slowly win back the power? You are overthinking. Zhao Xuanji may have the qualifications, but you are just an ant, a small household minister.
If you dare to get involved in the struggle for imperial power, I will show you what the consequences will be if you make the wrong choice."
After Li Chen finished speaking, he waved his sleeves and robes, and the Jin Yiwei didn't say a word. They dragged Renault Mountain away regardless of his frantic struggling and shouting.
The screams stopped suddenly outside the palace door.
A moment later, a guard in uniform returned to Li Chen, holding a bloody human head in his hand. The head belonged to Renault Mountain. He stared with eyes wide open, with unparalleled horror and regret still on his face.
"Your Highness, the traitor Renault Mountain has been brought to justice."
"It just so happened that the treasury was empty, so I went and ransacked the house of Renault Mountain. Among the three clans, all the adult men were demoted as slaves and sent to the army. All the women over fourteen years old were sent to serve as officials and women. The remaining old, weak, women and children were expelled.
If you leave the capital, you will never be allowed to enter the capital."
"I'll summon Xu Changqing, the left minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and I'd like to take a look. I'll have to cut off a few heads of this household department today to pick out one who can do things for me."
After all, the Minister of Hubu was a second-rank official of the imperial court, and he led the first department. It can be said that he was definitely one of the core participants of the empire's power.
But Mount Reno was cut down just like that.
The turmoil caused by this incident quickly escalated. When most people heard the news, they thought they had heard it wrong or that the prince was crazy.
Li Chen didn't care how the outside world reacted.
He was looking at Xu Changqing, who was hurriedly coming from the Ministry of Household Affairs, panting and not having time to calm down his breathing.
"Wei Chen, Zuo Shilang of the Household Department, Xu Changqing, please see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince is a thousand years old, a thousand years old, a thousand years old."
Compared to Renault Mountain, Xu Changqing knows too many rules.
After entering the main hall, he lowered his head and lowered his hands, not daring to look at Li Chen's face. He knelt down directly and exclaimed that he was a thousand years old.
At this time, Xu Changqing only knew that his immediate boss, Reno Shan, had been summoned to the East Palace by the prince, but he did not know exactly what he was doing or where he was.
However, in the main hall, there was a pool of stains that might have been clearly visible even though they had been cleaned, which made him feel a little uneasy.
"No gifts."
Li Chen said lightly: "Reno Mountain is dead."
"His head was placed next to you a quarter of an hour ago. If you look carefully, you should be able to see traces of it."
The corners of Xu Changqing's eyes twitched, and he was so frightened that he didn't even dare to breathe.
His mind was spinning rapidly, and he realized that this was a big crisis, and it was also a big opportunity for him.
Perhaps this is the opportunity to go from being the second-ranked person in ten thousand years to crossing the hurdle that has left countless officials in despair all their lives, to achieve the second rank, and to lead the first rank of minister.
After just briefly weighing the pros and cons, Xu Changqing immediately said: "I don't know what crime Renault Mountain committed, but since His Highness the Crown Prince is so angry, he must be worthy of death."
Li Chen laughed and said, "You are smarter than him."
Xu Changqing lowered his head and did not dare to look at Li Chen. He said: "I only know that the emperor is not in good health now and cannot handle the affairs of the country, and the prince is the supervisor of the country, so everyone in the world must listen to the prince."
Li Chen became more and more satisfied.
Now he has no foundation at all in the imperial court. It can be said that Zhao Xuanji's people are everywhere.
And he urgently needs to form his own team and control his own power.
So for the selection of these teams, the first thing is to be smart enough and ambitious enough, and the second thing is ability.
People who are too smart will not follow him at this time.
Only smart and ambitious people will follow him when his foundation is weak, so that if he wins in the future, he will get more rewards.
As for ability, after scientific examination and many years of ups and downs in officialdom, he can climb to one of the six departments of household affairs and become the second-in-command. How bad will such a person be?
"Look at this."
Li Chen no longer mentioned the matter of Renault Mountain, but threw the memorial from Nanhe Province in front of Xu Changqing.
Xu Changqing respectfully held the memorial in both hands and then read it carefully.
As soon as he read the content, he knew what the prince was doing.
Xu Changqing put down the memorial and said carefully: "Your Highness, the disaster in Nanhe Province has already happened. In the past two months, more than ten memorials have been submitted, each one more serious than the last."
"Then why not provide disaster relief?" Li Chen asked.
"The treasury is empty."
Xu Changqing held up his hand and said honestly: "Now the national bank balance is only 3.7 million taels. Even the salary used to pay officials all over the world is not enough, let alone disaster relief. Nanhe Province needs to provide disaster relief, and there is not 5 million."
The two can't fight each other, it's just a drop in the bucket, Your Highness."
"I remember that the treasury's annual tax revenue is 60 million taels, why is it so empty?" Li Chen asked with a frown.
Xu Changqing said with a wry smile: "Officials from various places have high salaries. The severe drought in the north has lasted for more than a year. The floods in the south have already started the year before last. In addition, military expenditures have gradually increased, and..."
Speaking of this, Xu Changqing realized that he had mentioned something that he shouldn't mention, and he hesitated and did not dare to say anything.
"You said, I will not punish you." Li Chen said calmly.
Xu Changqing gritted his teeth when he heard this, and said bravely: "Starting from this year, the vassal kings such as Han Wang, Chu Wang, Zhao Wang, Jingyang King, etc. have all begun to use various reasons not to pay their annual contributions. This is the case.
Most of the income was lost.”
Li Chen narrowed his eyes slightly.
Lord of the vassal!
In the Qin Dynasty, after the vassal king became a vassal, he had military power, political power and taxation rights in the territory. He only had to pay a certain annual tribute to the court every year. This was equivalent to a country within a country.
Two hundred years after the founding of the Qin Dynasty, these vassal kings have become a huge cancer.
"I understand."
Li Chen didn't say much about the feudal king.
Now that the emperor may die at any time and the empire is in turmoil, Li Chen doesn't want to cut down the vassal vassal. His uncles, if they don't want to wait for the emperor's death, they can hold high the banner of King Qin and overthrow him.
Therefore, in order to target the feudal king, one must wait until he actually ascends the throne.
At this time, we still need to start solving the problem of domestic disasters first.
"Disasters have been going on for years. The imperial court has allocated a lot of money to provide disaster relief. I know that it is impossible for the officials below to deal with them without being stained with oil. Please report the names of several corrupt officials you know.
Give it to Dongchang, and Dongchang will take care of it."
Li Chen, who was short of money, paid attention to corrupt officials.
The poorer the country, the richer both groups of people are.
One is corrupt officials, and the other is businessmen.
"Also, what are the prices of food, oil, rice, noodles and other daily necessities in the market today?"
Xu Changqing was just frightened by the word Dongchang. Hearing this, he subconsciously replied: "Price has skyrocketed, and the price of rice has risen to an absurd level. At the beginning of the year, 5 copper coins could buy a pound of good-quality new rice, but now
, even if it is moldy old rice, if you don’t have 30 copper plates, you can’t even buy it.”
"Most of the grain on the market is concentrated in the hands of the big grain merchants, who work together to drive up prices. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Household Affairs borrowed grain from the three major grain merchants in the capital in the name of the court, but not only did they get nothing, but they also borrowed grain from the three major grain merchants in the capital.
It’s really hateful to cry out for injustice!”
"Go and gather all the principals of the three major grain merchants in the capital, and tell them that I will host a banquet in the East Palace tomorrow to entertain them."
Li Chen sneered and said: "It is not easy to make money during a national crisis. These businessmen usually make a lot of money. During the time of national crisis, they still want to make such ill-gotten wealth. They really don't think the weapons of the imperial court can fall on them."
