Datang: Just been appointed as the crown prince, the counterattack system is here

Chapter 90: The Emperor is capable, Your Majesty! I can do it too! [Please subscribe]

It is said that behind every successful man, there is a successful woman.

This statement does make sense.

Behind the successful man Li Shimin, stood an extraordinary woman, Empress Changsun.

Behind the successful man Li Zhi, there is also an extraordinary woman, Wu Zetian.

The former is to hide one's achievements and fame, while the latter is to monopolize all the achievements and fame.

Some people say that men conquer women by conquering the world, and women conquer the world by conquering men.

In the eyes of men, once they get power, they will naturally get everything.

In the eyes of women, once they conquer a man, they will naturally gain power.

Wu Zetian was such a woman.

She deeply agreed with this statement.

However, this sentence does not apply to Empress Changsun.

Empress Changsun was not keen on conquering men or conquering the world. She was only keen on one thing.

Help her man conquer the world.

So, Li Shimin was lucky.

When he was about to make a mistake, it was Empress Changsun who pulled him back.

At this time, when he returned to Liangyi Hall again, his anger towards Wei Zheng had disappeared.

When the ministers saw his amiable expression, they were both surprised and relieved.

What was surprising was what happened that made Emperor Li II's anger subside so quickly.

I felt relieved that I would not be implicated by Wei Zheng.

After all, when the emperor gets angry, millions of people will die, which is no joke.

If His Majesty Li II gets angry and loses control of himself, it is easy to hurt innocent people.

"Your Majesty, minister."

Seeing Li Shimin sitting back on the throne, Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui exchanged a glance and were about to change the subject, but Li Shimin waved his hand to interrupt them. He then looked at Wei Zheng and said, "Wei Zheng, you are right. I have indeed neglected the people and the strength of the country. Let's continue talking about the suffering of the people!"

"Uh,"

Wei Zheng twitched his lips, feeling a little strange, but still said seriously: "I have said everything I wanted to say. The current national strength cannot afford war."

"Why can't we afford the war? You have to give a reason, right?"

"The evidence is not with me. Your Majesty, please have the Minister of War do the math and you'll know!"

"Hey, you're ordering me around!"

Du Ruhui glared at Wei Zheng with some displeasure.

Li Shimin laughed heartily upon seeing this, but he also agreed with Wei Zheng's point of view. He smiled and waved his hand, saying, "Then let Lord Du do the math!"

"Yes!"

Du Ruhui grumbled in response, then pondered, "Your Majesty, with a population of over one million, if each adult male pays two dan of grain per year, that would be two million dan."

"With a population of more than one million, and you calculated two million shi, the taxes for these extra people alone would be a considerable amount, right?" Li Shimin frowned.

Du Ruhui nodded and said, "Your Majesty is quite right. However, due to the conferment of titles and titles over the years, there have been many tax exemptions, and there have also been many reductions and exemptions in years of disaster, so it can only be calculated as one million."

"That makes sense. Keep calculating."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Du Ruhui continued, "Of these two million dan of grain, the court would need about 600,000 dan for various expenses, plus about 200,000 dan sent to the Eastern Turks each year. In other words, at the end of the year, there would be less than 1.2 million dan left."

"If you add in various miscellaneous expenses, the actual accumulated amount is one million koku."

"And to fight the Eastern Turks, we'll need at least 10 million shi."

"Ok?"

Li Shimin's eyes widened, and he said in disbelief, "We accumulate one million shi a year, but we need ten million shi to fight the Eastern Turks. Does that mean I have to wait ten years before I can fight the Eastern Turks?!"

"No, Your Majesty, that's not how it's calculated. Once a war breaks out, even 10 million dan of grain may not be enough!" Du Ruhui denied.

"Then tell me, how do we solve this?!"

Li Shimin waved his sleeves in annoyance.

Du Ruhui thought for a moment and said, "There are two solutions: one is to increase taxes, and the other is to increase the population."

"but."

Then he changed the subject and sighed, "Increasing the population won't solve the urgent problem. And increasing taxes will only put an even heavier burden on the people!"

"So, there's nothing you can do?"

Li Shimin frowned to express his dissatisfaction. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he looked at Fang Xuanling and said, "Minister of the Central Secretariat, you mentioned earlier that a wealthy family set up stalls to distribute porridge to the victims. Is that true?"

"This"

Fang Xuanling was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting Li Shimin to confirm this matter. He quickly said, "I dare not deceive Your Majesty. This is absolutely true!"

"Then do you know that some of these wealthy families, under the guise of providing disaster relief, are secretly engaging in the dirty business of human trafficking?"

Boom!

When Fang Xuanling heard Li Shimin's words, he was struck by lightning.

Even Du Ruhui, Xiao Yu, and Wei Zheng were shocked by these words.

"Your Majesty is wise! I was unaware of this matter!" Fang Xuanling hurriedly prostrated himself on the ground and kowtowed.

"I naturally know that you don't know this, otherwise, you would be beheaded by now."

Li Shimin said coldly: "From now on, when you report anything, first investigate it thoroughly before reporting it. Otherwise, I will punish you severely!"

"Yes, yes, I will investigate thoroughly and report back later."

Fang Xuanling kowtowed repeatedly, a sense of trepidation rising in his heart, as if he were accompanying a king like a tiger. Meanwhile, Wei Zheng, standing beside him, frowned, "Now that Your Majesty knows about this, how should this matter be handled?"

"Left servant!"

As soon as Wei Zheng finished speaking, Li Shimin's voice followed.

Xiao Yu bowed quickly and said, "I'm here!"

"I order you to thoroughly investigate this matter and deal with all those wealthy families who secretly engage in illegal activities according to the law, and confiscate their property!"

"Also, those grain merchants who maliciously raised prices during the famine years must also be dealt with!"

"Yes!"

Xiao Yu bowed and accepted the order, and soon left Liangyi Hall.

At this moment, Li Shimin thought of something else and said solemnly, "How is the implementation of the Ministry of Personnel's assessment of officials going?"

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Personnel is investigating this matter, and it may take some time," Fang Xuanling said hurriedly.

Li Shimin frowned and said unhappily, "Tell Zhangsun Wuji to hurry up. The court has so many important matters to attend to, and the disaster is getting worse. How can we afford to waste so much time here? If you have time, go and help!"

"Yes!"

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui nodded in response, then stood up and left.

When only Li Shimin and Wei Zheng were left in the hall, Li Shimin slowly walked up to Wei Zheng and said calmly, "Wei Zheng, I wanted to kill you today, but the Queen dissuaded me. She told me that you are my loyal minister! I cannot kill a loyal minister!"

"This"

Wei Zheng was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No, the Queen is also wrong."

"you!"

Li Shimin was furious, but he still said patiently, "How is the Queen wrong?"

"I am a good minister, not a loyal minister! Therefore, the Queen is wrong."

"Ok?"

Li Shimin frowned and asked, "What are good ministers and loyal ministers?"

"A good minister chooses his master and serves him, then he does his utmost to gain a good reputation for himself and his descendants will pass it down through the ages."

Wei Zheng said calmly, "As for a loyal minister, he only knows how to share the same sentiments with his sovereign. His fate is closely tied to that of his sovereign. If his sovereign encounters disaster, the loyal minister will end up without a home or a country, leaving behind only the name of a loyal minister."

"The two are very different. Your Majesty must not confuse them."

"Okay! Well said!"

Li Shimin nodded with great satisfaction and said with a smile: "You are a good minister, good ministers are good."

On the other side, the Secretariat.

These days, Changsun Wuji has been extremely busy with the Ministry of Personnel's assessment.

Even though he knew that the result of this matter would be that he would be kicked out by Emperor Li II, he still spared no effort to help Emperor Li II complete it.

Because he was a loyal minister of Emperor Li II.

His fate is closely linked to that of Emperor Li II.

So, even if there are mountains of swords and seas of fire ahead, he will jump down.

But it is not so easy to jump out of this sea of ​​fire and swords.

Pei Ji, who was sitting not far from him, suddenly sighed, "I think it's necessary for the Ministry of Personnel to evaluate officials. Recently, the list of candidates for the examination in the capital has been sent to the Ministry of Chancellery, but not all of them yet. They will arrive in the next two days."

"As for."

Having said this, he glanced at Changsun Wuji and continued, "As for the officials from various states, they have all arrived, and the examination lists have also been sent in."

"These past two days, all the inns in Chang'an, big and small, have been fully booked, and it's still not enough. Some people have even set up tents outside."

"I see, our Tang Dynasty is truly full of talented people!"

As soon as these words were spoken, all the officials in the Secretariat looked at each other in surprise.

But no one dared to respond to Pei Ji.

However, at this moment, two hearty laughs suddenly rang out from outside the door.

"Whether he is talented or not, we won't know until the assessment results come out!"

"Yes, Pei Sikong, the results haven't come out yet, so why are you so anxious to make a conclusion?"

"Humph!"

Hearing these two laughs, Pei Ji couldn't help but snort coldly and said solemnly: "Nine years of Wude, in nine years, there will be so many officials. Regardless of whether they are talented or not, they are also the accumulation of Wude!"

As he spoke, he turned to look at Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui who had just stepped into the room, and continued, "Since the Minister of the Central Secretariat and the Minister of War are here, plus the Right Prime Minister, you are all loyal ministers of His Majesty, so naturally you must do your best to serve His Majesty!"

"In my opinion, this matter cannot be delayed any longer!"

"If we delay any longer, all the officials from all over the country will arrive. If there's too many people, and something goes wrong, not only will it delay the exams, it will also delay the officials from all over the country from returning home."

"hehe."

Before Pei Ji could finish his words, Changsun Wuji interrupted him with a smile: "Pei Sikong is really thinking too far ahead. Are they worried that their wives will run away, or what, and that they'll be delayed in returning?"

"Hahaha!"

Everyone burst out laughing.

Pei Ji's face darkened, and he said angrily, "If you delay returning, they will write a letter to His Majesty, accusing you of delaying disaster relief! Let's see what you can do!"

Wow!
The laughter stopped abruptly.

Changsun Wuji, Du Ruhui, and Fang Xuanling's expressions changed instantly.

Pei Ji saw this and smiled coldly with complacency.

Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking. You just want to cut off my network of contacts!
This time I'll show you
What the emperor can do, I can do too!

(End of this chapter)