Jiuxi

Chapter 1008 Chapter 1006 [Leaving Beijing]

On April 28th of the third year of Yongning in the Great Qi Dynasty, the Prime Minister's New Policy Office was officially established, and Prince of Qin Lu Chen served as the Minister of New Policy.

At this point, he held two important positions, Prime Minister and Minister of New Policies, and possessed both military and political power.

Under his vigorous leadership, various government policies were quickly implemented.

On the 30th, the list of candidates for the imperial examination was announced. Nearly 60% of candidates from the south of the Yangtze River were admitted, while more than 40% of candidates from the north of the Yangtze River were admitted. Because the list was divided into the north and the south, this imperial examination selected 535 candidates, a proportion far exceeding the previous practice. However, because the court took care of candidates from both the north and the south, it did not cause controversy. Instead, scholars from both the north and the south praised the court's benevolence.

On the seventh day of the fifth month, Minister of Rites Kong Yingdong, Vice Minister Liu Jideng and more than 30 officials and gentry were found to have colluded with each other for personal gain and were sentenced to confiscation of property, beheading, or exile according to the severity of their crimes.

On the 13th, Wang Chulong, the concubine of the Prince of Qin, and Song Pei, the concubine of the Prince of Qin, gave birth to a son for Lu Chen one after another.

The next day, the Prime Minister's New Deal Office announced the Performance Evaluation Law, which meant that the second item of the New Deal, cleansing up the bureaucracy, would become normalized and proceduralized.

Lu Chen knew very well that one cannot just let the horse run without giving it grass to eat, so in the Performance Evaluation Law there are provisions for appropriately improving the treatment of officials. At the same time, it is made clear that two years later the court will set up a special fund for maintaining integrity, which will be implemented in conjunction with the Performance Evaluation Law.

In mid-July, the household status system was finally implemented in the capital area, Southern Zhili, the ten states in northern Jiangsu, and the thirteen states in southern Jiangsu. This new policy greatly enriched the national treasury while reducing the burden on the common people.

This process was not easy. There were even more than a dozen civil unrests that broke out in Lingzhou and Shangzhou in the north of the Yangtze River and Hezhou and Huzhou in the south of the Yangtze River. The wealthy and powerful families who were unwilling to pay more taxes instigated the people to attack the government.

Lu Chen had been prepared for this. The garrisons in the Jiangnan camp and various places in Jiangbei were quickly dispatched, and all the chaos was completely quelled in less than ten days.

This would inevitably result in a large number of deaths, and some officials in the court euphemistically expressed that excessive killing was unkind.

Lu Chen ignored it. He was not fighting alone now. Liu Yuan and Ding Hui alone were enough to deal with those upright officials. One was eloquent and the other was thick-skinned and black-hearted. After quarreling for several days, they actually suppressed those upright officials who were not afraid of death.

These people can't even gain verbal advantage, let alone hinder the implementation of the new policy.

On July 19, Gu Wan'er also gave birth to a son for Lu Chen.

Just eight days later, Lin Xi gave birth to her second son.

In just one year, six more baby boys were born in the Qin Palace.

Lu Tong, who was gradually becoming old, was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. He went to the Rongguo Mansion to show off every now and then, which made Xiao Wangzhi so angry that he later didn't bother to see him. The two old men who had known each other for decades now became more childish.

Having many children and grandchildren is of course a good thing, but Lu Chen never expected that they would all be sons. As a result, the only little princess Lu Xinyi can be said to be the apple of everyone's eye.

In late August, in the flower hall of the palace, Lu Chen looked at the nearly four-year-old Lu Xinyi with a smile, and continued to hand the iced fruit to her, asking, "Is it delicious?"

"It's delicious. Daddy eats it too."

Lu Xinyi stretched out her pink little hand and put the fruit into Lu Chen's mouth.

Lu Chen hardly concealed his love for her, but the little girl did not develop a spoiled character. On the contrary, she became more and more sensible and well-behaved. This might be due to genetic factors, but the most important thing was due to Wang Chulong's teaching.

As the daughter of an aristocratic family, Wang Chulong doesn't want to see her daughter being spoiled by Lu Chen and becoming unruly and domineering.

When she walked into the flower hall, Lu Xinyi quickly stood up and saluted, "Mother."

"Ah."

Wang Chulong spoke in a gentle tone. She didn't always have a stern face towards her daughter, but she wasn't like Lu Chen, who wanted to pick the moon from the sky for Lu Xinyi.

Lu Chen looked up at his wife who had recovered well after giving birth, and asked with a smile, "Is the fourth child asleep?"

Except for Lu Jiusi and Lu Xinyi, the other six sons do not have a full name yet. Lu Chen said that there is no need to go through the trouble of giving each of them a nickname. They will be called the second to the seventh in the order of their birth. The fourth refers to the son of him and Wang Chulong.

Being so casual and willful, he was bound to be looked down upon by his family members.

"Just went to bed."

Wang Chulong sat down next to him and asked, "Where is the dinner?"

Lu Chen nodded and said, "This place is fine. Your sister Lin is able to get out of bed now. I've also asked someone to call Bingxue back from the military camp outside the city. We'll have a family reunion dinner tonight."

Wang Chulong agreed, with a hint of sadness in her eyes.

Seeing this, Lu Chen took her hand and said, "Don't worry."

Lu Xinyi stared at her parents with her big round eyes.

Wang Chulong couldn't help but break away from Lu Chen's hand in embarrassment and said softly, "Of course I'm not worried, but are you sure you can convince them?"

"Why not? Don't you know that I am the head of the family?"

Lu Chen raised his head deliberately, and this strange posture made Wang Chulong couldn't help laughing.

However, when night fell, the King of Qin, who was second only to the emperor, sat obediently at the table, answering the questions from his wives and concubines.

Lin Xi frowned and asked, "Why are you leaving the capital for no reason? Do you still need to do it yourself now?"

Li Bingxue snorted softly, "The prince is restless and wants to move. In the past few years, he was often able to lead troops to war, but in the past six months, he can only stay in the military camp outside the city for half a day at most, and then he has countless political affairs to deal with. Now that the new policy is progressing smoothly, those officials are becoming more and more shrewd and capable. There is no need for the prince to keep an eye on them all the time, so he naturally wants to go out for a walk."

Luo Jiujiu looked at Lu Chen with great excitement and asked, "My Lord, can you take me with you?"

Song Pei and Gu Wan'er didn't dare to say anything harsh, but they also hoped that Lu Chen could stay in the capital.

Wang Chulong looked at Lu Chen who was stuffing rice into his mouth grain by grain with a smile.

"Oh." Lu Chen sighed and put down his chopsticks.

The hall immediately became quiet.

"Do you think I'm willing to leave? If it weren't necessary, I would like to be with you every day."

Lu Chen's face was full of affection. He intentionally avoided Wang Chulong's eyes that seemed to see through everything. He looked at the others and said, "You must know that the new policy has condensed too much of my hard work. Although the secret reports from various places are piled up in several large boxes, on the surface, all places are thriving, but who knows if this is true? I can only go to various places to take a look and determine the implementation of various new policies."

The girls were silent.

After a moment, Song Pei said cautiously, "Your Highness, before the disaster happened to my family, we also encountered a high-ranking official from the imperial court who came to inspect. However, before the official arrived, the county magistrate had already arranged everything. He had already decided who would appear before the official and what to say. If anyone dared to do anything wrong, the whole family would be in trouble."

Lu Chen was stunned, and Wang Chulong couldn't help laughing out loud.

At this time, everyone else also reacted. Lin Xi laughed angrily and said, "That's right. As the King of Qin, you are always surrounded by people wherever you go. Who dares to reveal the truth under your nose? Even if the local officials are doing a mess, they will pretend that everything is peaceful and prosperous."

"You don't understand this."

Lu Chen gave Wang Chulong a look that said "don't expose me" and then said calmly: "First of all, I admit that what Song Pei said makes sense. It is very common to deceive superiors and subordinates, but as long as I walk around, most officials will get nervous. Not everyone has the courage to lie in front of me. Secondly, even if there really is such a daring person, doesn't your husband have a way to deal with such an idiot?"

Luo Jiujiu asked curiously: "What method?"

Lu Chen shook his head and said, "The secret of heaven cannot be revealed."

The girls rolled their eyes and looked at Wang Chulong. Li Bingxue simply said, "Sister Chulong, you speak."

Wang Chulong smiled and said, "It's nothing more than a secret visit. Our prince is an outstanding martial artist. He can dominate the world with just one sword."

Hearing this, Lin Xi turned to look at Lu Chen, her eyebrows slightly raised.

"No, no, no."

Lu Chen waved his hands repeatedly and said solemnly, "This time I will bring a thousand personal guards and three thousand Dingbei cavalry ready to serve, plus the garrisons in various places. As long as I don't cross the Jing River and run into Jingguo, there will be no danger. By the way, Senior Yuchi will go with me. Even if you don't trust me, you can always trust him, right?"

"How could I not trust you, it's just..."

Lin Xi shook his head and asked, "Can't we wait until next year?"

After all, it had only been less than a month since she gave birth. Although she had recovered well, it was not appropriate for her to fight with others within such a short period of time. In addition, her seventh child was not even a month old, so she was really worried.

If another half year passes, she will be able to be with Lu Chen, and it will be safer for the couple to travel together.

"I will take time out every year to travel around, and you will have the opportunity to go with me. This year is special, and there are a lot of hungry children at home, so I have to let you go for now."

Lu Chen's words made the women yearn for it, and then he said with a smile: "Eat, eat, the food will get cold soon."

After more than half an hour, Lu Chen finally calmed his wives and concubines, then got up and went to the study in the front house.

"Your Majesty."

Nan Yi had been waiting here for a long time.

Lu Chen's expression was no longer as warm and gentle as before, and he said calmly: "How is the investigation going?"

Nan Yi bowed his head and said, "Your Highness, I have confirmed that there are many traitors, including in the Prime Minister's New Deal Office, the Secret Guard, and the military, but the current clues all point to low-level officials. The other party is extremely cautious and secretive in their actions. I followed Your Highness' instructions and did not alert the enemy, so I have not yet dug out a truly important traitor."

Lu Chen said: "This should be the trick of Qin Zheng and Xue Nanting. Maybe there is a foreshadowing left by Prime Minister Li. Don't be too stressed. Remember not to just focus on the traitors who have been exposed. Maybe this is their trick."

Nan Yi was slightly surprised: "Old Prime Minister Li?"

He was not surprised that Qin Zheng and Xue Nanting would plot a hidden trick. These two people have always been loyal to the royal family. It was not easy for them to remain calm and silent when Lu Chen took control of the military and political power. It was impossible for them not to take any action.

But even though he had been with Lu Tong for the past decade, he knew what kind of person Li Daoyan was. Given the goodwill that the old prime minister had towards Lu Chen, how could he have left behind a foreshadowing that deliberately targeted him?
"You don't understand how cunning Mr. Li is."

Lu Chen seemed unwilling to discuss the matter further, and asked, "Are there any officials in the capital who privately criticize the new policy?"

Nan Yi replied: "Quite a few. We have found more than 20 people so far, but they are all officials of the fourth rank or below."

"Hopefully they're just grumbling verbally."

Lu Chen stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back. After a long silence, he whispered, "Is there anything unusual in the palace?"

Nan Yi said thoughtfully, "Your Highness, the Queen Mother and the Emperor have been acting as usual these past few months, and have not shown any obvious abnormal behavior."

"Let's prepare for the worst-case scenario. It's always a good idea to be prepared. First, implement the three emergency plans we made earlier."

Lu Chen looked calm, and then said: "Tell those people outside to come in one by one."

Nan Yi bowed and said, "Yes, Your Majesty."

The lights in the study were on all night, with people coming in and out from time to time. It was not until dawn that Lu Chen returned to the back house to sleep.

Half a month later, on September 12, King Lu Chen of Qin submitted a memorial to Queen Dowager Ning, requesting him to lead one thousand personal guards and three thousand elite cavalry to leave Heluo.

As the Prime Minister, Lu Chen ordered that the defense of the capital be handed over to Li Chengen, Liu Yin, Song Shifei and other powerful generals and their 100,000 troops. He personally went to various places in Jiangbei to inspect the achievements of the new policy over the past year.

The first stop is Lingzhou, on the south bank of the Jing River.

(End of this chapter)