My son, Fusu, please abdicate the first emperor!

Zhou Qingchen's face suddenly froze and his whole body turned cold.

He actually always knew that he had done a lot of wrong things.

But he never dared to admit it.

In fact, he had been secretly colluding with some ministers and engaging in power-for-money transactions with some wealthy businessmen behind the emperor's back.

After doing this, he naturally felt nervous every day.

He was very scared, afraid that his deeds would be exposed.

But His Majesty the Emperor seemed to trust him very much, or perhaps he turned a blind eye to it.

At first Zhou Qingchen could still tell the difference. He knew that the emperor didn't like people like him and was only keeping him reluctantly.

However, as time went on, Qin II turned a blind eye and let him go many times, and now Zhou Qingchen could not figure out the emperor's thoughts.

So when the emperor said the above words, Zhou Qingchen was so scared that his legs went limp.

He was afraid that Zhang Cang would gain power, so he investigated him as soon as possible.

Over the years, Qin II had always intentionally or unintentionally tried to prevent Zhang Cang, the bastard, from dealing with him, but Zhou Qingchen had always been wary of Zhang Cang.

But in the end, the emperor called out a name, "Zhou Qingchen."

The ministers were all shocked.

Only the Left Prime Minister Feng Quji and the Right Prime Minister Meng Tian remained as unmoved as a mountain.

No one understood why the emperor did this.

Could it be that the emperor has changed his mind?

After saying this name, Zhang Cang's face also turned pale.

You know, Zhou Qingchen is inferior to Zhang Cang in all aspects, but in recent years, Zhou Qingchen's status and popularity have surpassed Zhang Cang.

Zhang Cang felt like there was something stuck in his throat every day when he went to work.

Qin II knew clearly that the two of them were sworn enemies, but he still did this, which led to most of the treacherous ministers and villains in the court surrounding Zhou Qingchen.

For a moment, Zhou Qingchen seemed extremely powerful.

More than ten years ago, there was a eunuch named Zhao Gao in the Qin State. Compared with him, Zhou Qingchen today is even worse than him.

When Zhou Qingchen received the order, he was so excited that he almost jumped up and down in the court.

When everyone felt that Qin II was becoming stupid and incompetent.

Qin II did another thing.

He praised Zhou Qingchen in front of everyone.

"Qing Chen has made great contributions over the years."

"I will leave this matter to you to decide. I believe it will be what the people want."

"I hope you can handle this matter properly. I don't want bad voices to affect my reputation a hundred years later."

It was the first time that Zhou Qingchen was praised in public, and it was a huge joy for him.

Because, in the imperial court, almost no one had ever received the emperor's praise.

The current Qin II is not a person who praises others easily.

But today, Qin II not only praised someone, but also praised a person whom most of the Qing officials hated.

Smart people know that danger is coming.

Take Feng Quji for example. At this time, the corners of his mouth curled up, as if he was secretly proud of something.

Meng Tian just frowned, he knew that this was not in line with the emperor's style. His Majesty always likes to keep a low profile, but today, he praised someone so loudly, this was unusual, there must be something fishy.

However, most of the ministers were extremely angry behind the scenes.

Meng Yi's eyebrows stood up like a wolf's tail. He looked at the emperor and couldn't help listing all the mistakes and faults that the emperor had made over the years.

The retired emperor was seriously ill, and Your Majesty seldom visited him. Starting last year, the emperor stopped allowing the crown prince to visit the retired emperor.

General Zhao Tuo looked at the emperor with disdain.

Li Xin finally came back. When Fusu asked him to raise horses, he was worried that his talent would be wasted. But Li Xin went to the horse farm and let himself go.

Within three years, his physique had recovered to its full strength.

He is as strong and vigorous as the horses he raises.

Hearing this in the court, Li Xin suddenly thought of something in his mind: "What a tyrant!"

He looked at Qin II and really wanted to just walk away. If people like Zhou Qingchen became good people, would there be any good people in the world in the future?

Of course, there were also some people who were so happy to see the emperor praising Zhou Qingchen that their eyes and eyebrows were raised. After they left the court, they ran to flick each other's official hats to celebrate their promotion.

What’s interesting is that when Qin II saw that most people in the court were looking at him with indignation, at that moment, he actually laughed out loud with contempt in his heart.

"What are you all doing with such a stern face?"

"Besides the economic issues, is there anything else?"

"When there is something to do, we will start to act, but when there is nothing to do, we will retreat."

Qin II, however, lived a leisurely life. Over the years, people in the court grew old, left, or died. Of course, many new people came, and the bureaucratic structure of the empire was moving towards a delicate balance.

Although there are few treacherous ministers, they hold power and manage major affairs; although there are many honest ministers, most of them do their work properly and do not have much power, perhaps because they themselves are unwilling to expand their power.

There were also a few people who began to approach Zhou Qingchen and others. This was inevitable.

Wei Liao looked at the group of young people anxiously and just looked at the emperor.

Whether the empire can turn the tide, break the curse, and prosper for a long time depends on your majesty's strategy this time. Nowadays, most of the people in the Qin court are young and strong, and there are fewer and fewer old bones.

When the emperor did such a thing, these young people lost their patience and some even wanted to stand up, tear off their robes and leave on the spot.

At this time, Meng Yi stood up and said:

"Your Majesty, I believe that education is now universal throughout the world, and one in five common people can read and write. One in ten people in the central government of the empire can already be considered scholars."

"Although the culture of the empire is now unprecedentedly prosperous, and everyone is discussing the Book of Changes and Taoism, it is inevitable that it is filled with frivolous atmosphere."

"I think Your Majesty should take the most severe measures to curb this trend."

When the ministers heard this, they all stood up straight.

Over the years, Meng Yi has done many things for the emperor and enjoys a high prestige among the people.

Many people were jealous of him.

They were jealous that he had the emperor's trust and had accomplished so many tasks. What's more, he seemed to be getting younger and younger as he got older, while these big shots were looking older and older.

What Meng Yi criticized was the trend of scholarship that was emerging in the empire at the time.

This trend spread from the Imperial College to all the counties and post stations in the country.

"Taoism is something that comes naturally. Now, a bunch of people who are just trying to gain fame are trying to gain recognition. They even say they want to write a book, but in the end, they just rewrite the words of the saints."

"You have seriously distorted the original intention. Your Majesty, I think that the study must be strict. Once a certain point is relaxed, it will open the floodgates and cause chaos."

"If the people are not prohibited from making up and interpreting classics at will, the situation will become worse and worse."

"Your Majesty, did you reform culture and education for the situation we are in today?"

"Everyone thinks that learning is the best and they want to show off themselves."

“Ten years ago, there were still many truly great people in the world, but ten years later, the situation is very different.”

"There are people everywhere who are either unlearned or have only learned a little bit of knowledge but are just trying to fill in the gaps. They claim to be masters all day long, but the result is that the academies and colleges are in a mess." "It's unbelievable. If these people are allowed to continue, they might do something even more ridiculous."

Everyone is familiar with the situation Meng Yi described.

A big event happened in Xinzheng a few days ago.

A scholar was explaining classics to his students, and then he wrote a few words on his own and made mistakes in the classics.

The student took the book written by the teacher and started fighting with other disciples because of disagreement.

It doesn't matter if they fought, the key point is that it led to a riot.

Wherever there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

It is normal for students to have conflicts.

Once everyone has access to paper and writing tools, they will no longer cherish them but write whatever they want.

When many people became scholars, the identity of a scholar no longer became so distant, as if anyone could be a scholar.

When many people started writing books, there was no longer any sacredness in writing books. People just picked up a book and started writing on it casually.

Eventually something went wrong.

"Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, the power to produce paper books should be returned to the central government, and even the people who write documents should be appointed by the government."

“How can just anyone write a book?”

There was immediate criticism in the court.

"This is inappropriate..."

The ministers sighed.

"No matter what, people still have to eat. Eating won't make you shiver."

"If we destroy their jobs, they will fight us to the death."

Meng Yi frowned as he listened to these people's conversation.

When it comes down to it, it's because these high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen are protecting them. Those so-called scholars are all bribed by these high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen, and they specifically speak well of them and create momentum for them.

Zhang Cang was also very angry. It was because these people turned a blind eye all day long that the situation had gotten out of control like it is today.

"I don't care about this, I don't care about that. Let's just stop doing this. Let's not go to court this time."

"Yeah, that's right, just don't do it."

“If you don’t deal with small matters, when they become big, even God won’t be able to handle them.”

When the imperial censors saw Zhou Qingchen being praised, they couldn't help but found an excuse to satirize Qin II.

"We wear clothes made by the common people and eat the delicacies offered by the common people. If no one cares about us, then we should just go home and farm."

"I can't afford to lose this person!"

"Yes, we can't afford to lose this person!"

After a while, the court suddenly became chaotic and everyone was fighting.

Some people took off their court robes.

Zhou Qingchen's eyelids twitched. He felt that these people were talking about something on the surface, but were actually targeting him.

Zhang Cang's face was dark, but he didn't say anything. It wasn't the first day that he had a problem with Qin II.

Today, the discontent has reached a climax.

At this moment, Chen Gong stood on the high platform and shouted, "Silence."

The ministers retreated to their respective sides.
Qin II looked at his ministers and said, "Doctor Xu, how about I let you be the emperor?"

Everyone looked at Xu Ziyi, as he was the one who had the most fun just now.

Xu Ziyi adjusted his hair crown and said, "Your Majesty, that is not what I meant."

"Since you are so capable and eloquent, I'll leave this matter to you."

Xu Ziyi stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I..."

"No need to say more. That's all for today."

The emperor immediately stood up and left, then ran to see his beloved concubine.

But he kept all these ruthless ministers together without considering the consequences at all.

Not long after Qin II left, a crazy fight broke out in the Da Zheng Hall.

"Stand up for the people!"

"Stand up for the people!"

Everyone looked at Zhou Qingchen and pounced on him together.

This time, Meng Yi led his ministers to beat him up.

Feng Jie couldn't help himself and joined in.

Great Qin, full of martial virtues.

Zhou Qingchen was naturally filled with hatred after being beaten up by everyone this time.

He had always been planning to take revenge on these people, but he never had the chance.

Now the emperor has opened his eyes and actually entrusted the economic affairs to him. Isn't this a great opportunity?
Soon, Zhou Qingchen brought back the good news.

That year was a relatively gloomy year for the imperial court, but it was also the richest year for the imperial court.

Zhou Qingchen and his men were very capable in their work. They ruthlessly plundered the common people, and before long, the treasury was full of wealth.

The empire's industrial revolution began, but there were also a group of people who took advantage of the situation and made a lot of money.

If the market mechanism becomes alienated and moves in a direction opposite to the expected plan, then there is a high probability that there is a big problem with allocation.

Huge amounts of resources and money flowed in the opposite direction.

However, it is precisely because of this that the empire has now overcome its difficult financial crisis.

Qin II was rich again, and the empire was rich again. This money was enough for the empire to do many things in the future.

However, compared with those of the rich and powerful, the purses of ordinary people are becoming increasingly empty, while the wealth of the rich and powerful, which originally could only fill a cellar, can now be used up by their descendants in ten lifetimes.

A new crisis was brewing.

After the court session, some ministers and celebrities went to the library to drink, while others went to the Imperial Academy to gather.

"Your Majesty has become increasingly stupid over the years."

"From the moment your majesty promoted Zhou Qingchen to the position of Shangqing and placed him above us, the empire was about to change."

"The sun changes every day, and I thought there would be some difference."

Several doctors of Confucian origin gathered together to vent their dissatisfaction with Qin II over the years.

"This is really ridiculous. Handing over the financial power to Zhou Qingchen at this time, isn't this just handing over the foundation that we have worked so hard to build over the years to someone else?"

Everyone gathered together and sighed.

"If you ask me, wouldn't it be better if we all jointly submit a petition to ask His Majesty to dismiss us?"

No one agreed with Xu's proposal.

"The emperor hates being threatened the most. If you bring this up, Zhou Qingchen, a scoundrel, will stir up trouble and say something. Then we will all be dismissed." (End of this chapter)