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Chapter 1370 The general trend

The blood edict forged by Suning was a threat to the aristocratic families, so these aristocratic families tried their best to kill Suning. Soon, Empress Kaiyuan Li Lingyue witnessed the terrifying background of the aristocratic families.

However, these hastily assembled armies were completely useless and were no match for Suning's elite troops, so their fate was already sealed.

In addition, Suning did not allow the mercenaries of the Anxi Protectorate to continue to come to Chang'an for support. Instead, he sent the mercenaries to Yizhou and Guanzhong in the name of King Yong. After all, these places became hesitant after Li Longji's sudden collapse at Mawei Slope.

Su Wuming, who had returned to Chang'an safely, immediately paid his respects to Su Ning, "Su Wuming pays his respects to His Royal Highness Prince Yong."

"Please stand up quickly." However, Su Ning still treated Su Wuming with great courtesy, but the identities of the two had changed drastically.

"Thank you, Your Highness Prince Yong."

"Su Wuming, I'm sure you've heard about Lu Lingfeng's experience. I never thought his brilliant life would be so short."

"Your Highness Prince Yong, is the Battle of Mawei really true?" Su Wuming, with a grief-stricken face, looked at Su Ning in front of him and asked.

"Hey! Although we all find it a little hard to believe, this is the fact that has already happened." Su Ning nodded to Su Wuming with pretended sadness.

"Then...where is Lu Lingfeng's body?"

"I have already arranged for the construction of a mausoleum at Mawei Slope. From now on, Lu Lingfeng will stay at Mawei Slope to continue protecting the late emperor."

Su Wuming naturally understood the hidden meaning behind Su Ning's words, and couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise. "This... Your Highness Prince Yong, are you not going to take back the remains of the late emperor?"

"Hey! Su Wuming, the late emperor has been on the throne for less than two years, and he didn't care about the construction of the imperial mausoleum, so it doesn't matter whether the imperial mausoleum is located in Chang'an or Maweipo." In fact, in Su Ning's heart, he believed that Li Longji was not worthy of being buried in the imperial mausoleum, and Maweipo was his destined burial place.

"..."

"Alright! Su Wuming, we living people had better be more pragmatic. The Yong Palace has now established a cabinet and a secretariat, and Prime Ministers Yao Chong and Song Jing have been appointed as cabinet elders. So I want you to go to the Yong Palace secretariat and be responsible for sorting and summarizing the memorials submitted by the cabinet."

"Cabinet? Secretariat?" Su Wuming, who hadn't read the court bulletin much recently, was surprised.

"Well, haven't you read the weekly gazette? These new policies have already been published in the gazette."

"Your Highness Prince Yong, Wuming was completely distraught upon seeing the tragedy at Mawei Slope and the blood edict issued by Your Majesty, so he didn't pay much attention to these important matters."

"Well, from now on, the Yong Palace will continue to retain the Six Ministries. Furthermore, the Three-Province system will be abolished, and a Cabinet and Secretariat will be added. Every day, government affairs will be gathered from the Six Ministries to the Cabinet. After the cabinet elders write down their opinions, they will be sent to the Yong Palace Secretariat. After being collated and summarized by the Secretariat, they will be reported to this prince for his decision."

"Ah? In this case..." The clever Su Wuming naturally noticed the powerful centralization.

On the contrary, Su Ning nonchalantly spoke for Su Wuming and said, "Haha, so the power of the Prime Minister will be castrated, right?"

"Your Highness Prince Yong, wouldn't it be inappropriate to arbitrarily change a policy that has been passed down for thousands of years?"

"That's fine! It's just a temporary policy of Prince Yong's Mansion. If it's not good for the government affairs of the country, we can change it later."

"Yes! Your Highness."

Of course, Suning will not change the cabinet system. Strengthening centralization is also something he must do. China is destined to prosper ahead of time in his hands.

You should know that Su Wuming is a rare talent. According to the development of the plot of "Strange Stories of the Tang Dynasty", Su Wuming's future will naturally be to impact the Tang Dynasty.

Now it would be most appropriate for Suning to place Su Wuming in his own secretariat. He could first let Su Wuming gain experience in government affairs for a few years, and then he could send Su Wuming out as a local official. In this way, Su Wuming would no longer be a detective who could only judge cases.

In fact, with Su Wuming's intelligence, he could naturally realize that Suning played an ignominious role. If it were his previous personality, he would definitely stay away from Su Ning. However, the development of things now far exceeded Su Wuming's expectations, and his mentality naturally changed unconsciously.

……

Suning was not in a hurry to eliminate the rebels in Luoyang immediately. Instead, he continued to attack Luoyang at a leisurely pace. However, Luoyang became increasingly stretched.

The heavy losses of the aristocratic families did not cause the Luoyang court to expand. Instead, it was dragged down by the continuous fighting. Instead, Chang'an became stronger and stronger.

Gao Lishi came to Su Ning and reported, "Your Highness, there is an envoy outside the door claiming to be the Empress of Luoyang, requesting an audience."

"Hmph! You are just a monkey in a human's clothing! How dare you call yourself an emperor in front of me?" However, at this time, Su Ning said with a look of disdain on his face.

"Your Highness, are we still meeting this so-called special envoy?"

"Let him in! I want to see what Li Lingyue wants to do."

"Yes! Your Highness."

Then, Suning's personal eunuch Gao Lishi brought in the Luoyang envoy, who turned out to be Li Lingyue's confidant Xue Bing. "Your Highness, Prince Yong, is greeted by your humble servant Xue Bing."

"Haha, my title was conferred by the late emperor. Do you, the fake emperor in Luoyang, also recognize it?" Su Ning couldn't help but asked sarcastically.

"..." Hearing Su Ning repeatedly calling the Empress "Fake Emperor," Xue Bing, a close confidant of the Kaiyuan Empress, wanted to tear Su Ning's mouth apart. However, thinking of this mission, he forced himself to endure it. "Your Highness Prince Yong, the Mawei Slope incident was a tragedy. Her Majesty naturally does not want to see such a situation. In addition, the Jinyiwei and Liao Kai have already been executed by Her Majesty."

"What? Xue Bing, you said that the fake emperor executed 200,000 Jinyiwei and Liao Kai?" Su Ning was stunned by the shamelessness of the Luoyang court. He never thought that they could find such a method.

"That's right! Otherwise, why is there no news about Jinyiwei and Liao Kai?" Sure enough, Xue Bing showed an unconcealable cunning smile. Presumably, Liao Kai would not dare to appear in front of the world again.

"Haha, your Queen is truly amazing. Do you think you can shirk all responsibility by doing this?"

At this moment, Xue Bing found that he really hated Su Ning. Even though Luoyang had already put aside his pride, he still couldn't let Su Ning accept Luoyang's goodwill. "Huh? Your Highness, since the tragedy has already happened, we must first consider looking forward. There is no point in continuing to fight."

"Oh? Xue Bing, what exactly do you Luoyang want to do?"

"There are only a few of the Li royal family left in the world. The only true legitimate lineage is the Empress's. As long as Your Highness Prince Yong can follow the will of heaven and obey Her Majesty, Her Majesty will naturally still recognize your princely title."

"Haha, you Luoyang people are really good at scheming. It seems you really think I'm a fool?"

"Your Highness Prince Yong..." "Enough! All my wealth and glory comes from the late emperor, and the late emperor's will will naturally be carried out. Go back and tell your Queen that the contents of the blood edict are the fate of you traitors."

"This……"

Su Ning was naturally too lazy to say anything more to Xue Bing. Instead, he looked at the eunuch Gao Lishi and said, "Gao Lishi, kick this monkey in human form out."

"Yes! Your Highness." Gao Lishi, who was standing by, immediately came forward and said to Xue Bing, whose face was ashen, "Mr. Xue, please come in!"

"..."

Then Xue Bing angrily left Prince Yong's Mansion with a flick of his sleeves. He naturally understood that the war between Chang'an and Luoyang could not be stopped. Suddenly, he began to doubt whether Su Ning, Prince Yong's brain was not working well.

However, when Xue Bing returned to Luoyang in a dusty state, Empress Kaiyuan was naturally angered by Su Ning's attitude and felt that Su Ning was really shameless.

The Kaiyuan Empress yelled angrily, "Damn it! This is truly despicable! Do you really think my Great Zhou Tianjun is a sick cat?"

"Your Majesty, the most important thing now is not Prince Yong in Chang'an, but how to explain the Mawei Slope incident to the world. We in Luoyang have been too passive recently." The ministers of Luoyang began to persuade him. After all, the Mawei Slope incident made Luoyang unable to explain clearly.

"Well, since Liao Kai and those 200,000 Jinyiwei have disappeared, let's announce to the public that they were executed by me. All the blame lies with the Jinyiwei on their own initiative."

"Your Majesty is holy."

"My dear ministers, please make full use of your family's influence and quickly get those local governments to recognize Luoyang. This way, Chang'an will naturally be unable to make any moves on its own."

"Yes! Your Majesty, we will do our best."

Although Suning's refusal made Empress Kaiyuan very angry, the most important thing at the moment was to seize territory, and she could only rely on the power of the aristocratic families, so naturally she needed to give up her interests to the aristocratic families.

If Luoyang continues to develop, once they truly control the world, all the efforts of successive Tang emperors will be in vain, and the strength of the aristocratic families will surely rebound. However, Empress Kaiyuan can only swallow this poisonous candy now.

……

Suning naturally understood that he could not compare with the empress and the aristocratic families in terms of influence. Although the people of the world currently disdain the behavior of the Luoyang Queen, they will sooner or later accept it. After all, Li Lingyue's lineage is indeed the only remaining direct bloodline of the Li royal family.

That's why Suning ordered the Anxi mercenaries to split up and march into Yizhou and Guanzhong areas. Only with the butcher knife in his hand could he make the fence-sitters behave themselves and completely subdue these guys who were wavering in their ways.

Moreover, as the Anxi mercenaries successfully occupied Yizhou and Guanzhong, and implemented the land-based tax and new tax policies in various places, the aristocratic families in various places had no choice but to compromise in the face of the butcher knife of Prince Yong's Mansion.

Of course, there were also those who thought they were stubborn and chose to confront the Yongwang Mansion head-on, but the final result was that they were all slaughtered. After the Yongwang Mansion successively wiped out several leading families, no one dared to resist the policies of the Yongwang Mansion anymore.

Pei Xijun, who had been staying in seclusion in the backyard, came up to Su Ning and said, "Your Highness, my father has returned from Nanzhou?"

"Oh? Why is he going back to Chang'an now?" Su Ning suddenly realized that Pei Jian's trip was not simple.

"The head of the Hedong Pei clan personally approached my father. He must have heard about the events in Yizhou and Guanzhong, and wanted my father to help ease the relationship between us."

"Okay! You can ask your father-in-law and the head of the Pei family to come over. It's a good opportunity to have a good talk with them today."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

"Alright! Go ahead! For your sake and your father-in-law's sake, I will definitely give Pei a chance to live."

Soon, Pei Xijun, with a grateful face, brought Pei Jian and an old man in, while cabinet elders Song Jing and Yao Chong were listening on the side. It can be seen that what Su Ning said today must be very important.

Pei Jian and the Patriarch of the Pei family both politely saluted Su Ning. After all, Su Ning's status had changed. "Pei Jian, Pei Rong, pay your respects to His Royal Highness Prince Yong."

"No need to be so polite! We are all relatives, please take a seat." However, at this time, Suning was still giving face to the Pei family. As for whether the Hedong Pei family could hold on, that was their business.

"Thank you, Your Highness Prince Yong."

At this moment, Su Ning looked at Pei Jian and asked directly, "Father-in-law, why did you suddenly come back from Nanzhou?"

"Your Highness, this is Pei Rong, the head of the Hedong Pei family. The Hedong Pei family has heard of the late emperor's will, but they have no dealings with Luoyang. So, I beg Your Highness, Prince Yong, to show some mercy."

"Father-in-law, Patriarch Pei, I don't really want to cause more bloodshed, but I have to obey the late emperor's blood decree. Therefore, I am caught in the middle and am in a very difficult position."

At this moment, the Patriarch of the Pei family knelt on the ground again and begged for mercy, saying, "Your Highness Prince Yong, if you can show mercy, the Hedong Pei family will swear allegiance to you until death."

"Well, that's fine! For the sake of Xijun and my father-in-law, I can give your Hedong Pei family a chance to survive."

"Thank you, Your Highness Prince Yong, for your kindness."

"Although I can spare the lives of the Pei family, you must surrender all your land and accept the Yongwang Mansion's land tax system and the unified tax system for officials and gentry."

"Ah?" As expected, Pei Jian and the head of the Pei family widened their eyes in shock, and even Yao Chong and Song Jing on the side had bitter smiles on their faces.

"Of course! This condition applies to other aristocratic families throughout the world. You, the Hedong Pei family, can also contact other aristocratic families. Now that my Yongwang Mansion has actual control over Yizhou and Guanzhong, this opportunity is the last one the Yongwang Mansion can give to aristocratic families."

"Yes! Your Highness, the Hedong Pei family will do their utmost."

"Well, go ahead! Prince Yong's Mansion will consider holding an imperial examination next year, and we can give a certain number of recommendation quotas to the major families."

"Thank you, Your Highness Prince Yong."

Suning naturally thought of changing the current imperial examination system. In the future, the public school system will be implemented throughout the world, and only those who have completed nine years of education can take the imperial examination. After passing the imperial examination, students will continue their studies or join various industries.

Moreover, the previous private schools will be completely abolished. It doesn't matter whether the students are recommended by aristocratic families or not, so Suning pretends to be generous and lures aristocratic families.

……

(End of this chapter)