Thief Emperor

Chapter 185 Send money to your door!

When a dynasty reaches its end, the feeling is most obvious when you are in it, especially when you are in power.

At this time, what is the most important task of this dynasty?
It is not about reforming bad policies, refreshing the civil service, or making the country strong again through military training.

Because the above practices are too drastic, if one is not careful, the already corrupt dynasty will take a big fall.

What’s more terrifying is that it will expose one’s own weakness.

Therefore, at the end of a dynasty, the most important thing is to be a good "paperhanger" so that the dynasty, at least on the surface, still looks strong.

In this way, with the residual power of two hundred years and the solidified ideas in everyone's mind, everyone will feel that the court is still the court, still the invincible and extremely powerful court.

With this, the country's prosperity can be extended for a longer period of time.

Although this approach is only a temporary solution and may not even be a permanent solution, it can at least prolong the life of the country. Only if the country continues to prosper can other measures to address the root causes be able to continue. Otherwise, before they can be implemented, the country will suddenly disappear and everything will be in vain.

In fact, this is what the Zhou Dynasty has been doing in the past 10 to 20 years.

As long as there was any disturbance on the border, the imperial court would immediately send "heavenly soldiers" to attack in order to demonstrate the national power.

And now, the biggest crisis of the Great Zhou Dynasty has arrived.

The chaos in the Central Plains was out of control.

If General Su Jing is unable to quell the rebellion quickly, the central government will have to send in the imperial guards.

If the imperial guards are also ineffective, various local forces will clearly see the weakness of the central dynasty.

The inspectors in various places, the military governors on the border, and the local aristocratic families may have other ideas.

One or two uprisings by the people will not kill the Great Zhou. However, it would be fatal if the local forces that hold a large amount of social resources or even heavy troops had other intentions.

Now, the prince is anxious about this.

The imperial court already has no money, and now the chaos in Jiangnan has just stopped, and another chaos has broken out in the Central Plains. If it is not handled properly, the whole country may be in chaos.

He still has a lot of ambitions, but he hasn't had the chance to realize them!
The country must not allow major problems to occur at this time.

Thinking of this, the prince felt a headache.

At this time, if His Majesty the Emperor could come forward, things would be much easier. After all, the Emperor has always ordered the border army governors to send some people to the Central Plains to quell the rebellion.

But the crown prince and the prime ministers do not have this power.

Originally, if the imperial court had immediately sent people to the Central Plains to provide disaster relief when the drought first appeared a few months ago, there would not be chaos in the Central Plains, and things would not have gotten to the point they are now.

But now, the Central Plains has been in chaos, and it is too late to send officials down.

The messengers who brought disaster relief would only be hacked to death by the rebel army.

The prince sat in the government hall with a frown on his face. After a long while, he looked at the prime ministers and sighed, "My dear ministers, can you ask the border troops to send troops to the Central Plains? No matter what, we must quell the chaos in the Central Plains as soon as possible, even if we have to sell everything we have to settle the victims."

"Otherwise, if Luoyang really falls, the rebels might declare themselves emperors!"

Luoyang is an ancient capital with a history of thousands of years. Once the rebels occupied Luoyang, few people could resist the temptation to become the founding emperor.

And if another imperial court appeared at that time, the Great Zhou would really be in chaos.

Several prime ministers looked at each other, and finally Wang Du stood up and said, "We can only ask for your approval. Let's write a petition together."

The prince was worried: "Father obviously doesn't want to get involved in this matter..."

"If we go to see the Emperor, I'm afraid we'll make him even angrier."

Cui Yuan also nodded and said in a deep voice: "General Su is a famous general of the time. He was able to recruit an army out of nothing and quell the rebellion in Yuezhou within half a year. I believe that after he arrives in the Central Plains, the situation in the Central Plains will definitely improve."

"otherwise…"

He looked around at everyone and said, "Wait a little longer."

Everyone nodded, and even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was speechless.

Just as the prince was about to speak, an official came to the government hall in small steps, looked at the prime ministers and the prince, cleared his throat and said, "Your Majesty, please give your instructions."

Everyone stood up and bowed.

"Your Highness, I respectfully listen to your instructions."

The official smiled and said, "My Lord, gentlemen, there is no need for such great courtesy."

"Your Majesty just asked me to come here and tell you that you will personally attend the grand court meeting in three days."

Several prime ministers and the crown prince changed their expressions slightly when they heard this. The Great Zhou held a grand court meeting every ten days and a small court meeting every three days. Originally, the grand court meeting was not a rare event, but the current emperor was a bit lazy, especially in the past ten or twenty years, the small court meeting was only held once or twice a month, and it was good enough to have two or three grand court meetings a year.

The last grand court meeting was last year.

After the official left, several prime ministers talked about it, and even the prince frowned secretly.

The Prime Minister Wang Du, who was a straightforward person after all, could not help but say: "The family of the Yuezhou rebels will probably be escorted to the capital in two or three days."

After hearing this, everyone understood immediately, and many of them had strange expressions on their faces.

Especially His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who had clenched his fists tightly under his sleeves.

Father is really old.

I don't want to do anything that requires responsibility.

But when it comes to being in the limelight and taking credit, he is the one who takes it.

In fact, it is not just the current emperor who does this. Older emperors in all dynasties, especially when they are in poor health, have the same idea.

There is nothing left for them to do in their lifetime, and they don’t have the energy to accomplish anything great.

Now, all they are thinking about is preserving their reputation after death, and they don't want their reputation to be damaged in history books.

Prime Minister Cui Yuan coughed and laughed.

"Alright, alright, it's always a good thing that your Majesty is here. Let's continue discussing things. After all, most other states in the Central Plains have not fallen. Let's order them to cooperate in resisting the rebels and buy some time for Su Jing."

Wang Du seemed to want to say something but hesitated and finally said nothing.

The prince also nodded silently, sat back in the main seat, and took a deep breath.

"Let's continue the discussion."

…………

Yuezhou.

After more than ten days of efforts by Li Yun and others, order has basically been restored in Yuezhou City.

Moreover, Li Yun was paying people for recruiting them to build the city wall. This was something that had never been heard of before, where the government paid people for labor service, and the pay was not low.

For a time, many people volunteered to help build the city wall for Yuezhou.

After ten days or so, the city wall of Yuezhou has been repaired almost completely.

At the same time, the county magistrates of the subordinate counties also began to arrive in Yuezhou. The first one to arrive in Yuezhou was none other than Zhuo Guangrui, the county magistrate of Shan County.

After Zhuo Guangrui knew that Li Yun was in charge of Yuezhou, he did not hesitate. He made some simple arrangements in Shan County and set off for Yuezhou City. After seeing Li Yun, he bowed repeatedly with a smile on his face: "General Li, we meet again."

At this moment, Li Yun was worrying about what business to start and was thinking hard about what kind of business could make some money.

Soap glass and the like are not difficult to make, but it is not easy to make them within a few months or even half a year or a year. Moreover, Li Yun does not have any decent craftsmen under his command now, so he has no idea in a short time.

After seeing Zhuo Guangrui, Li Yun's eyes lit up, and he quickly pulled the county magistrate Zhuo to sit down, forcing a smile on his face, and asked with concern: "Brother Zhuo, are you okay now?"

"Thanks to the general."

After Zhuo Guangrui stood up, he bowed again and said, "After the general submitted his letter, I also submitted a letter of apology. The court has approved it some time ago, saying that since I took the initiative to apologize and have made great contributions in recovering the city, I will not be held accountable for my crime."

"He was only fined two years' salary and demoted one level, and retained his position in Shan County."

Hearing this, Li Yun smiled and said, "Yuezhou is short of people right now, so the court will naturally not accuse County Magistrate Zhuo. After all, Shan County has been ravaged by rebels and needs to recover."

Zhuo Guangrui nodded repeatedly, a smile appeared on his face, and he said, "Speaking of which, last time General Li only took 25,000 strings of cash from me, and then he hurriedly led his troops to the battle. Now I am indeed lucky enough to escape. I have asked my family to send the remaining 25,000 strings of cash to Yuezhou. It will probably be delivered to the general's mansion in a few days."

Mr. Li's eyes lit up.

This outstanding county magistrate is very sensible!
Although he is a little timid, he is a talented person.

But to be honest, he couldn't be blamed entirely for Qiu Dian's affairs. After all, it couldn't be said that he forced Qiu Dian to rebel. Moreover, when Qiu Dian was rebelling, his momentum was so huge that it was not something that a county magistrate like him could resist.

Thinking of this, Li took the initiative to pour him a cup of tea and said with a smile: "Brother Zhuo is open-minded."

After a pause, Li Yun asked again.

"The last time I met Brother Zhuo, he said his family was a wealthy family in Jiangnan, but I didn't have time to talk in detail. I wonder what kind of business your family is in?"

　Now we have reached a new node, and we need to consider the subsequent development path. I have been stuck for a whole day and couldn’t write anything. I just finished writing it now. Sorry!
　　There is one more chapter before twelve o'clock!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)