I became a big shot in the quick transmigration world.

Chapter 735 Long Live the Emperor! (5)
Ding Yuzhao immediately knelt down and begged for forgiveness loudly: "Your Majesty, please calm your anger. It was my shortsightedness and narrow-mindedness that led me to this. I know I was wrong."

But after he said those words involuntarily, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

Ding Yuzhao and Ping Qinian shared the same opinion; they were on the same side. Wasn't his self-criticism indirectly criticizing Ping Qinian as a short-sighted coward?

He shuddered immediately.

Oh no, he's offended both sides now!
Yu Muhuai stopped looking at Ding Yuzhao, who was trembling on the ground, and turned to look at Ping Qinian.

What do you think, my dear minister?

Although Yu Muhuai disagreed, he still needed to ask the opinion of this Ninth Prince.

She is still in the early stages of her career, and she needs to do a good job of putting on a show.

Unexpectedly, Ping Qinian lowered his eyes and head, adopting a submissive demeanor, and refrained from expressing any further objections.

"Your Majesty's words are quite right, Your Majesty."

Yu Muhuai raised an eyebrow, gave Ding Yuzhao a meaningful look, and then turned to look down.

"Regarding the embezzlement at the post station, do any of you ministers have a solution?"

With the matter of abolishing the post stations behind us, Yu Muhuai smoothly moved on to another topic.

Afterwards, the ministers below expressed their opinions and put forward various suggestions.

After a moment's deliberation, Yu Muhuai, combining the actual situation with his experience from his previous life, selected the most suitable plan and ordered its execution.

"The court session is over."

Following Ping Qinian's words, Yu Muhuai stood up from the dragon throne, turned around and walked down the steps toward the back of the main hall.

The matters discussed in the court were limited; many more needed to be reviewed and approved in the Imperial Study after the court session.

In his previous life, Wan Zhixin diligently reviewed memorials, never taking a day off throughout the year, and only getting two or three hours of sleep each day, which caused his hair to turn white from exhaustion.

Since Ping Qinian died, Wan Zhixin no longer trusted anyone else to help him process memorials, so he did everything himself, handling both big and small matters.

This not only involves a lot of mental and physical exertion, but also makes it easy to fall into cognitive biases, leading to incorrect judgments on certain matters.

What Yu Muhuai is facing now can be summarized into one thing.

Short of money.

There is a lack of funds for disaster relief, military pay, and weapons and equipment.

The result was an increase in famine, a decline in the military strength of the Cong Kingdom, and a great difficulty in resisting foreign enemies.

The reason for the lack of money is that most of the wealth is in the hands of a few people.

There are several deeply corrupt officials in the court who are rich, as are eunuchs like Ping Qinian.

Wealthy merchants from the east and south had money, and they used it mostly to bribe court officials.

The iron merchants in the northwest were wealthy, but they opened the door to great convenience for the Jian Kingdom.

In the northwest there is a very famous city called Iron Fighting City.

Tiedou City is famous because of a group of well-known local merchants.

These merchants were named after the city they inhabited and were known as the Iron Merchants.

Due to geographical reasons, iron merchants had frequent interactions with the people of Jian State on the border.

At this time, the technology of Cong Kingdom was among the best in the world, with iron casting and gunpowder production being world-class.

The Jian Kingdom, a remote and uncivilized land that grew up on the grasslands, only knew how to plunder and had no understanding of advanced technology.

Iron merchants smuggled various ironware and gunpowder out of the country, exchanging them for cattle, sheep, horses, minerals, money, and so on.
The iron merchants made a fortune, but they brought huge hidden dangers to the Cong Kingdom.

In the later stages of the previous life, after the Jian Kingdom and the Cong Kingdom went to war, the iron merchants also sold state secrets.

This includes topographical maps, military intelligence, and the specific locations of major military strongholds, down to details such as the names of some city defenders, their families, the number of soldiers, and their equipment.
When the Cong Kingdom declined, the iron merchants provided large amounts of money and grain that they had earned domestically to the Jian Kingdom.

He went from a profiteer who made a fortune off the country's misfortune to a traitor who betrayed his country.

In short, it's all related to money.

Yu Muhuai glanced sideways at Ping Qinian beside her, and a dog-eat-dog idea came to mind. She knew that Ping Qinian hated wealthy businessmen more than anything else in his life.

Ping Qinian was born into a poor peasant family and was exploited by wealthy merchants in the town from a young age. He was so thin and weak as a child that he almost never had enough to eat.

The trauma of his childhood had a great impact on Ping Qinian.

This is one of the reasons why he is now increasing taxes on wealthy businessmen across the country, complicating business procedures, and strictly controlling foreign trade procedures.

It was precisely because of Ping Qinian's exploitation of wealthy merchants that some of them had to bribe officials in the civil service in order to live a more comfortable life.

Yu Muhuai sighed silently.

If it weren't for her having all the memories of Wan Zhixin's past life, she probably wouldn't have been able to see through these complicated relationships so clearly.

For a monarch to balance the various forces is indeed a difficult and tortuous path.

As he walked, Yu Muhuai suddenly stopped.

Ping Qinian, who had been following behind, also stopped.

He looked at the emperor, puzzled.

The emperor turned to look at the few crooked trees beside him, his face showing a desolate expression.

"The Heavenly King is cold and broken."

"The weather's getting cold; the iron merchants are going to go bankrupt."

Ping Qinian was stunned for a moment.

He understood the term "iron merchant," but he didn't understand what "bankruptcy" meant.

After hesitating for a moment, Ping Qinian asked, "Your Majesty, what does 'bankruptcy' mean? Does it mean that the iron merchants are to be made to do something?"

Among the merchants who imposed heavy taxes were, of course, iron merchants from the Northwest.

The iron merchants therefore hated Ping Qinian intensely and transferred this hatred to the emperor.

Ping Qinian also disapproved of those unscrupulous merchants who had countless riches in the Northwest but were unwilling to give even a sip of rice porridge to the starving people.

Although Ping Qinian was bad, he was mainly bad to the powerful and wealthy, and to the civil and military officials who did not obey him.

Yu Muhuai turned his head to look at Ping Qinian and said seriously.

"Admiral Ping, I suspect that the iron merchants of the Northwest have extensive trade dealings with Jian State."

In the past, it was normal to trade with other countries.

However, the two countries are currently at war, so a large number of transactions are bound to be problematic.

Ping Qinian frowned.

Although he had many followers, his reach into the impoverished northwest was limited, and he was not very familiar with the situation in Tiedou City.

"Your Majesty, may I ask where this news came from?"

Yu Muhuai looked up at the sky and said mysteriously, "I observed the stars tonight."

Ping Qinian was speechless.

It's broad daylight, where did these stars come from?

Is this emperor getting too little sleep and his mind is a bit muddled?
However, as a subject, Ping Qinian dared not say these words.

Although the emperor's words were a bit far-fetched, the key point was exactly what he wanted to hear.

Last year, Ping Qinian wanted to contact the iron merchant, but Wan Zhixin at that time found another excuse to politely refuse.

This was one of the rare instances where Wan Zhixin refused Ping Qinian before their relationship soured.

At that time, Wan Zhixin thought that Ping Qinian wanted to amass wealth and had extended his reach to the iron merchants.

First updateヽ(▽)ノ

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(End of this chapter)