When Wang Chengen and Wang Dehua heard the emperor's words, they looked at each other in surprise.
Wang Chengen couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, a few days ago King Qi came to persuade Your Majesty to kill the traitor. Isn't His Majesty unwilling to go on a killing spree?"
Zhu Youjian walked a few steps in the study and said: "I can't kill all the civil and military officials who collaborate with the enemy. But the King of Qi can kill them."
Wang Chengen looked at the emperor, thought for a while, and understood.
The emperor is now alone. Using national laws to kill the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty will not only fail to establish his authority, but will arouse the anger and resistance of the gentry all over the world. Now that Li Zhi is powerful, if the emperor continues to fight with the gentry, Li Zhi's influence will be lost.
The power is even greater.
For example, if the emperor takes action against the gentry, and if the gentry from the south of the Yangtze River jumps over the wall in a hurry and organizes an army from the north of the Yangtze River, the emperor may be in trouble both internally and externally. Then he will ask Li Zhi to quell the rebellion. What will he do to seal Li Zhi after that?
Li Zhi is already a prince. The emperor really can't let Li Zhi make great achievements anymore. Otherwise, how can he be granted the title of Li Zhi?
It is completely different when Li Zhi kills people. Li Zhi has a large army, so who else could he do? Even if the Jiangnan gentry had the intention to organize troops, they would still be vulnerable to Li Zhi's army, which was stronger than ever before. So Li Zhi killed the traitor,
It's not like the emperor who looks forward and backward.
Now among the three forces of the emperor, the gentry and Li Zhi, any one hopes that the other two parties will fight, so that he can be sure of victory. And since Li Zhi is willing to take the initiative to provoke a deadly fight with the civil servants, the emperor Zhu Youjian is naturally optimistic about the success.
Wang Chengen thought it over and figured it out.
He kowtowed to the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, the Holy Ming!"
Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen and said nothing. He turned around and looked at the majestic palace outside the window, thinking deeply.
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To the east of the capital, there is a vegetable field in the Xiaoyumen section of the "Tonghui River" of the Grand Canal. Farmers from the suburbs of Beijing grow vegetables here, and then bring them into the capital every few days to sell them to make a living.
But today these vegetable fields suffered a disaster. Li Zhi set up a huge altar on the canal embankment. In front of the altar was a bronze tripod filled with huge sacrificial incense.
More than a thousand officials wearing red and blue official robes poured into the vegetable field.
To these high-ranking dignitaries, what do the vegetables on these vegetable fields mean? Seeing Li Zhi’s altar, the officials stepped on the vegetable fields without hesitation, trampling the green vegetables to stagger them.
use.
However, although the officials were arrogant, they were still quite dissatisfied with Li Zhi's arrangement of worshiping heaven in the vegetable field.
Unlike farmers in Tianjin who use bird droppings as fertilizer, farmers in Beijing use farmyard manure to fertilize vegetable seedlings, so there is a vague odor in the vegetable fields, which is embarrassing.
Chen Wenyue, Minister of the Ministry of War, stood on the ridge of the field, looked at the frowning officials in the vegetable field, snorted coldly and said: "This Li Zhi asked us and other scholars to stand in this vegetable field that is drenched with excrement and urine. I'm afraid he wants to
We officials all show off our power."
In Chen Wenyue's opinion, Li Zhi has a bad relationship with the civil servants. Although Li Zhi intends to rely on the power of civil servants, the running-in between the two takes time. At this stage of running-in, the two sides will inevitably test each other's bottom line, slight and delay.
, various methods of deception and even intimidation will emerge in endlessly.
Today, Li Zhi asked the officials to perform sacrifices in the vegetable field. It was obvious that he was deliberately scorning the civil servants and wanted to see where the civil servants' bottom line was.
However, this embarrassment was not enough for the civil servants to retreat. Regarding the dirt in the vegetable fields, the civil servants pinched their noses and tolerated it.
Wang Heze, the young minister of Dali Temple, squinted his eyes and said, "Did Li Zhi find out that we wanted to raise taxes in the south of the Yangtze River, and deliberately made a show of force to intimidate us, hoping that we would swallow his words?"
The officials thought for a while and felt that what Wang Heze said made sense.
Li Zhi must not have wanted to agree to the conditions of the civil servants, so he acted as if he was snubbing the civil servants.
However, the civil servants were all cunning and calculated, and Li Zhi wanted to be Sima Zhao. Since Li Zhi wanted to be Sima Zhao, he would definitely need the power of civil servants to control the court. How could he be intimidated by this mere vegetable field?
Dong Jiuqi, the Minister of Rites, snorted coldly and said: "The King of Qi is not polite to us, so we don't want to be polite to the King of Qi anymore. When the King of Qi comes, we will get straight to the point and talk about the taxation in Jiangnan."
"He must agree to this matter even if he agrees, or agree if he doesn't. If he hesitates, we will all leave and let him face the emperor's wrath alone."
Everyone looked at the vegetable fields at their feet and nodded in agreement.
In the eyes of civil servants, the main purpose of Li Zhi summoning more than a thousand officials from the capital to worship heaven this time was to show his strength to the emperor. The emperor was undoubtedly very jealous and resentful of such a thing. But if Li Zhi's "grand event" was halfway through
All civil servants left the scene, and the emperor was less fearful and more resentful, and he would inevitably direct all his anger at Li Zhi.
At that time, the civil servants can watch the show of Li Zhi fighting to the death with the emperor.
Therefore, Dong Jiuqi, Chen Wenyue, Wang Heze and others were confident that Li Zhi would agree to their request.
The officials stood in the vegetable field for two-quarters of an hour, but before waiting for Li Zhi, they saw some soldiers of the Tiger Army approaching vaguely in the distance.
The civil servants were stunned and stretched their necks to look at the soldiers.
Chen Wenyue observed for a while and said: "The King of Qi has made a big show, and he even brought soldiers to protect him during this sacrifice to heaven."
Dong Jiuqi stroked his beard and said: "Forget it, after the sacrifice to the sky, we will return to the capital with these murderous tiger and Ben army. Looking at the momentum of these tiger and Ben troops, I am afraid that the emperor will really be frightened and hand over all power to Li Zhi!"
When everyone heard Dong Jiuqi's words, they sighed and admired them. They all said that Li Zhi was very domineering.
Next to Chen Wenyue, Jia Sanwei, the Minister of War, had a different reaction from the others. He was sweating, and when he saw those Tiger and Guard soldiers, he seemed to be seeing the life-threatening King of Hell, and he was so frightened that he couldn't help but tremble.
However, his trembling did not attract the attention of others, who were still discussing the taxation issue in Jiangnan.
After waiting for another quarter of an hour, Li Zhi finally arrived.
Under the guidance of a huge halberd and cloak, Li Zhi came to the altar from the east with the prince's guard of honor.
Li Zhi was followed by Zhong Feng, Zheng Kaicheng and other military generals. Jiang Chong led a group of Tiger and Ben troops to open the way in front, using steel knives to separate the civilian officials who were crowded together, and carved a road directly to the altar in the crowded vegetable field.
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The soldiers of the Huben Army were wearing Fanjiazhuang's refined steel armor, holding the handles of long knives in their hands, carrying breech-loading rifles on their backs, and their faces were full of murderous intent.
Seeing Li Zhi's momentum, Jia Sanwei was so frightened that he almost fell into the vegetable field.
Chen Wenyue looked at Li Zhi with squinted eyes and said, "You want to scare us by showing off your power?"
Dong Jiuqi snorted coldly and said: "I'm not afraid, I'll take care of this Jiangnan taxation matter!"
