Please call me Your Majesty!

Chapter 102 Who else wants to resign? The Yongjin Emperor is killing like crazy! Chu Shizhao's five-color stick!

The next day.

Emperor Yongjin loosened his clothes early, put on his dragon robe, and ordered the eunuchs to inform all the officials in Chang'an that the court would be held at noon today.

According to the previous system of the Great Zhou Dynasty, a morning court session was held every five days. Except for the early period of his reign, Emperor Yongjin had the habit of holding regular morning court sessions. In the past ten years, he did not hold the so-called court meetings. He usually held them in the palace and ordered a few close ministers to enter the palace to discuss matters. For ordinary matters, he controlled the court through handwritten orders and imperial edicts.

According to the current situation of the Great Zhou Dynasty, it is already the limit for Emperor Yongjin to be able to maintain the normal operation of the current Great Zhou Dynasty.

You think that Emperor Yongjin is not aware of the background of those ministers. You think that Emperor Yongjin is unaware that the land annexation is becoming more and more serious.

Emperor Yongjin certainly knew this, but the internal conflicts within the Great Zhou Dynasty were too intense. It was not that he did not want to do anything, but whenever Emperor Yongjin wanted to do something, he could feel an invisible pressure that was trying its best to prevent Emperor Yongjin from making changes.

Aristocratic families, local tyrants, military governors, royal relatives, and foreign relatives of the emperor.

Emperor Yongjin had to consider the attitudes and positions of these people.

The most difficult thing is that if Emperor Yongjin wants to check and balance the power of the Jiedushi on the frontier, he has to rely on the aristocratic families. Since he has to rely on the support of the aristocratic families, he naturally has to cut profits from them. Otherwise, if the aristocratic families become alienated, what can he use to confront the Jiedushi?

You know, when Emperor Yongjin just came to power, the entire Central Government Army was said to have more than 200,000 people, but in fact, more than 100,000 of them were just collecting empty salaries.

The so-called 200,000 troops could only be assembled into 80,000 at most, but the court paid food and wages according to the quota of 200,000 people every month.

Who on earth was given all this food and money?
The central government's military power was too weak, which resulted in Emperor Yongjin having to resort to bluffing to maintain the apparent strength of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

This is why, as soon as Emperor Yongjin came to power, he immediately exiled Yin Shangxian, who had advocated the reduction of the power of the feudal lords and the abolition of the Jiedushi system during the reign of Emperor Zhengguang.

Didn’t Emperor Yongjin know about the threat posed by the Jiedushi? Didn’t he know that Yin Shangxian was a loyal minister? Was he considering the interests of the Great Zhou Dynasty?
Although what Yin Shangxian said was beneficial to Emperor Yongjin, it hurt the interests of the military governors, which was not conducive to unity.

Moreover, once Emperor Yongjin sent troops to reduce the power of the feudal lords and attack the military governors, it was another matter whether they could win or not. In order to protect themselves, the military governors might even join forces to resist the imperial court.

Wouldn’t this mean the early destruction of the Zhou Dynasty?

What made Emperor Yongjin uncomfortable was that he could not move this or that, and moving anyone would mean moving his own foundation.

Then why move?
How to move?
Emperor Yongjin knew clearly that he could deal with a single Jiedushi alone, but if he removed one Jiedushi from power, how could he guarantee that other Jiedushi would not openly resist the court? So if he really wanted to reduce the power of the vassal states, he would undoubtedly have to deal with all of them, and he had to act quickly and ruthlessly.

Once it came to this point, if the Zhou Dynasty failed to successfully reduce the power of the vassal states in the first place, it would have been brought to a cliff from which it could not retreat.

Moreover, Emperor Yongjin was also clear that even if he won the battle, as long as it was not a complete victory, but only a miserable victory in the end, the Huns on the grassland would not be so foolish as to allow the Great Zhou Dynasty to recover after the civil strife.

If a real war breaks out, as long as the most ideal situation does not occur, it will be disadvantageous to the Great Zhou Dynasty.

If we don't fight, we can actually survive.

The situation of the Great Zhou Dynasty had already fallen into a quagmire when the central court began to fail to control the power of the Jiedushi.

Or, as Emperor Yongjin thought, a strong man would fall from the sky and use the troops of the Central Government Army to subdue the major vassal states in the north, which would be the best situation.

Otherwise, the current Zhou Dynasty would not be able to touch the Jiedushi.

The first problem that Emperor Yongjin faces now is who will be the one to solve these problems after his death.

In the long run, some problems cannot be turned around in just one year by Emperor Yongjin. He failed to do so in the first half of his life, during his twenty-plus years in office. How could he deal with those military governors with just this one breath now?

Moreover, the problem that Emperor Yongjin was most worried about had already occurred.

His three legitimate sons are almost in the same boat with the aristocratic families.

In comparison, this actually highlights how rare and precious Chu Shizhao is.

Outside Chengtian Gate, the temple began a noon court session that had not been held for a long time.

This time, the ministers all showed signs of panic. Although Emperor Yongjin was known for not showing his emotions on his face, the best thing about him was that he would not kill anyone as long as you were willing to give him benefits.

Unless this person is too ignorant.

Wang Ruizhen's death was really too sudden. After all, Wang Ruizhen was the emperor's real "henchman" in the court.

This person is a true pro-royalist.

"My dear ministers, you all know what happened last night." During the noon court, Emperor Yongjin looked a little lazy, as if he did not regard the noon court as a formal court meeting, but a casual chat.

Lu En, who was the Minister of War at the time, no longer dared to show his head. He hung his head and remained silent.

Yang Gong, the Minister of Personnel, suddenly stepped out from among the ministers, faced the Emperor Yongjin and said, "Your Majesty, I have something to report."

Emperor Yongjin nodded and motioned Yang Gong to continue.

"Lord Wang is indeed inappropriate in this matter. Although many fields are registered and detailed accounts are available, the huge amount of 100,000 acres is still jaw-dropping. He should be executed."

“However, Your Majesty has added the crime of exterminating three clans. Isn’t this too harsh?” Yang Gong said with his head down.

Yang Gong has always had a good reputation in official circles, because he is good at speaking and often takes the initiative to smooth things over and smooth things over, so he is considered a "good guy".

Wang Ruizhen is dead, and it is impossible for Yang Gong to overturn his verdict. He does not have the ability or the need to do so.

This was an order issued personally by Emperor Yongjin, but Yang Gong saved Wang Ruizhen's descendants, which established a good relationship. Other civil officials in the court would also recognize Yang Gong's character and would give face to Yang Gong and his descendants in the future.

The reason why Yang Gong was able to remain standing in the court would have been difficult if he had no special abilities.

Emperor Yongjin sometimes also needed a minister like Yang Gong who could act as a buffer between the ministers and the emperor.

"Is this harsh?" Emperor Yongjin said sternly, "I heard that among the 100,000 acres of fertile land in the south owned by Wang Ruizhen, in addition to the land donated, a lot was also embezzled and seized by his son."

"Even so, my dear, do you still want to protect them?"

At this point, Emperor Yongjin said softly, "Record what Yang Aiqing said."

Yang Gong was stunned for a moment. He never expected that Emperor Yongjin would be here. He suddenly had a conversation with his ministers and asked the historian behind him to record what happened today.

Moreover, Emperor Yongjin insisted that some of those lands were embezzled by Wang Ruizhen's son, and Yang Gong was really unaware of this. At this time, if he pretended to be a "good guy" and acted as a Bodhisattva to protect Wang Ruizhen's descendants, he would be infamous.

"Since Your Majesty has made the decision and has solid evidence, I dare not discuss it further." Faced with the "rogue" behavior of Emperor Yongjin, Yang Gong could only obey.

However, the ministers standing outside Chengtian Gate also realized that Emperor Yongjin came prepared today.

The previous Emperor Yongjin would mostly let his subordinates convey his "intentions" and would never take the initiative to make decisions on his own. But now he is so aggressive that it is really difficult for his ministers to understand his thoughts.

"Then let's close this case." Emperor Yongjin then said, "Let's charge him with embezzling land and allowing his clansmen to exploit the countryside."

At this moment, the faces of the ministers suddenly became much uglier.

Strictly speaking, in Wang Ruizhen's case, the scholar-officials took advantage of a loophole in their status that allowed them to enjoy certain tax exemptions, and let the people voluntarily donate their land to them, thereby reducing the taxes of these people who donated their land. It was equivalent to the scholar-officials helping the people to exempt taxes and reduce taxes, and the people paid taxes to the scholar-officials instead of the court.

This is a relatively large-scale, large-scale "collectivized land donation" case.

Under the legality of the rules and regulations, it should not be illegal, it's just that the amount of "tax evasion" is a bit large.

Emperor Yongjin simply ignored the implicit rule of "land donation". He did not convict you based on this. Instead, he blurred the charges against Wang Ruizhen and insisted that "land donation" was Wang Ruizhen's way of embezzling land.

In this way, those ordinary scholars and officials who also enjoy the land contributions from the people will not be desperate, but will only think that Wang Ruizhen really embezzled the land during the whole process and made some omissions, and was caught by His Majesty, thus developing a sense of luck.

The Yongjin Emperor used rhetoric to set a trap. In the future, whoever owned a large amount of land obtained through "land donation" would be identified by the Yongjin Emperor as "embezzling land" and be killed on this charge.

In fact, the taxes levied by the Zhou Dynasty during the Yongjin period were only slightly higher than those levied during the founding period, which was not considered high.

It's just that successive disasters have led to low grain output in various places and severe inflation, which makes it difficult for the people to survive. But Emperor Yongjin can't say that because the disaster this year is too serious, he will reduce the tax.

Once the taxes are reduced, where will the money come from to organize the army and provide disaster relief? What's even more helpless is that if you reduce taxes for the people today, and then raise the taxes back next year when there is a good harvest, the people will instead call you a tyrant.

How happy you are when taxes are reduced, how angry you will be when taxes are adjusted back up.

If you want to lower it, you have to keep lowering it. There is no such thing as lowering it for a period of time and then adjusting it back.

But before the ministers could adjust their ugly expressions, Emperor Yongjin issued another important decree.

"I want to let the fourth prince Chu Shizhao lead 3,000 new troops of the Central Government Army." Emperor Yongjin glanced at his ministers and said in a thoughtful tone: "My dear ministers, what do you think?"

The moment he said this.

The ministers on both sides knelt in a row.

Even though some people had heard about it a long time ago, they had heard that Emperor Yongjin had released Chu Shizhao from the imperial prison.

Even a very small number of ministers learned from the eunuchs that His Majesty wanted Chu Shizhao to command the troops.

But, that's just an idea after all.

Emperor Yongjin has not done it yet.

Now Emperor Yongjin spoke directly about this matter, which made the ministers in the court stunned on the spot, and their eyes looked a little strange.

Because there were no Jiedushi in the earliest Zhou Dynasty.

After a rebellion led by vassal kings called the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion", those generals who helped the new monarch to quell the rebellion were promoted to Jiedushi based on their military merits, in order to replace the "vassal kings" to guard the border.

Therefore, the Great Zhou Dynasty has always strictly controlled the power of the royal family and prevented them from easily accessing military power.

Now that the Jiedushi has lost control of the court and is slowly becoming more powerful, do you want to ask the princes of the royal family to suppress the Jiedushi?
Foolish king! What a fool!

We, the children of noble families, have already tried every possible way to defend the Great Zhou Dynasty against those military governors, but you, Emperor Yongjin, came out and wanted to let the royal family lead the army. Not only would you take away their power, but you would also create a force within the country that would give them a huge headache.

what on earth do you want? !

In fact, Emperor Yongjin employed Chu Shizhao, on the one hand because Chu Shizhao was a royal family member, and on the other hand because Chu Shizhao was indeed talented.

Emperor Yongjin did not have many years left to live, and he knew how great a crisis the Great Zhou Dynasty would face after his death. At this time, his need for the throne and imperial power actually decreased a lot.

If he doesn't give up the power he holds, does he really want to see the entire Zhou family being killed by traitors and his entire family line being extinct?
Therefore, Emperor Yongjin had to make changes.

The fact that Wang Ruizhen's three clans were exterminated and that Emperor Yongjin used tricks to cover up his crimes were now forgotten by all the ministers.

Wang Huai, the nephew of Wang Conghui and then the Minister of War, immediately stood up and shouted in an aggressive tone: "Your Majesty, this is against the ancestral law!"

"The royal family is not allowed to lead troops. This is a rule set by Emperor Taizong." Wang Huai showed an upright and upright face. "Your Majesty, you should take this as a warning!"

The ministers in the court had long wanted to place some of their own sons in the Zhongfu Army. If a man with the character of the Prince of Jin were to lead the army, he would certainly make these sons of noble families complain.

They will definitely oppose this matter.

Emperor Yongjin had long thought that it would be difficult to get the consent of his ministers for his intention to let Chu Shizhao lead the troops, but he came here not to discuss the matter with his ministers, but to announce it.

"Isn't Emperor Taizong a royal family member? Isn't Emperor Gaozu's brother a royal family member? They have all led troops. How can we not allow royal family members to lead troops just because of the example of the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion?"

Emperor Yongjin asked again: "Someone once died because of drinking a sip of water. According to your opinion, will other people not be allowed to drink water from now on?"

"If Your Majesty insists on making such a sophistry, then I resign..." Wang Huai's face flushed, and he looked like a loyal minister who was willing to die for the Great Zhou Dynasty.

After Wang Huai took the lead in saying this, the other silent ministers also began to bow their heads and express their attitudes.

Lu En, the Minister of War, gritted his teeth and walked out, saying, "I am old now, and I am afraid I am no longer able to take care of the affairs of the court, so I also resign from your majesty."

Lu En stood up this time with the intention of exerting pressure on Emperor Yongjin together with Wang Huai. However, the difference between him and Wang Huai is that Lu En really does not want Chu Shizhao to hold power, while Wang Huai wants to have the power to command the Central Government Army.

"Who else is there? Tell me all at once." Emperor Yongjin remained calm from beginning to end.

He has already made up his mind about this matter, so there is no way he would change his mind.

"I, this old minister, think that there is indeed something inappropriate about this matter." Yang Gong also stood up at this time.

"You two adults insist on doing this. I also feel that you two are old and it is not suitable for you to work hard in the court."

"In this case, I will reluctantly allow the two of you to resign." Emperor Yongjin did not give Yang Gong and Lu En any face at all.

At this time, relying on one's seniority to bully others is of no use to Emperor Yongjin.

Want to use resignation as a way to retreat and advance?

Then I'll use your trick against you and send both of you back home together.

Lu En and Yang Gong were also dumbfounded. They had never expected that Emperor Yongjin would really allow them to resign in order to let Chu Shizhao lead an army.

Because resignation has to follow procedures and etiquette, what they said was just to express their attitude and position and oppose this matter.

Generally speaking, officials of their level must resign at least three times, and Your Majesty must retain them three times in a row. This is the most normal procedure.

Only by completing this process can it mean that one can return home in glory and with honor.

Emperor Yongjin simply skipped this process and resigned them on the spot. This was not a resignation by a minister, but rather Emperor Yongjin took the initiative to dismiss them both, which was actually a demotion!
Wang Huai was also confused now. His resignation was just symbolic to express his firm opposition.

I really have no intention of resigning.

He was just over 30 years old and had already been promoted to the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of War. His future was promising.

Why?

Logically speaking, shouldn't Emperor Yongjin give up his ideas in the face of so many objections?
Moreover, Emperor Yongjin does not seem like an irrational emperor. Doesn't he know how dangerous it is to hand over military power to members of the royal family?
Only by entrusting ministers like them can the Great Zhou Dynasty prosper!
"Is there anyone else who wants to resign?" Emperor Yongjin looked at the ministers kneeling outside Chengtian Gate, and asked in a friendly manner with an expression as if he was trying to 'comfort the ministers'.

"I can agree to all of them."

"If no one objects, this matter will be settled."

"Dismiss the dynasty."

Emperor Yongjin stood up to leave, but some of the ministers outside Chengtian Gate were reluctant to resign, fearing that they would really be deposed by Emperor Yongjin. But they did not want to agree to this matter easily, so they simply knelt outside Chengtian Gate and refused to leave.

Cao Wei, who was accompanying the emperor, took a look and saw that Emperor Yongjin returned to the palace without even looking back.

However, Lu En and Yang Gong's expressions were the bleakest among them.

But at this time, they were placed at the top and could not lose the minister's face for no reason. Since they were asked to resign, they might as well stay here on their knees and continue to fight for fame.

Unfortunately, Emperor Yongjin was not a good-tempered person. He directly ordered the eunuchs to take off the black gauze hats and official robes of the two men, and then asked them to continue kneeling outside Chengtian Gate.

Yang Gong felt bored and humiliated after his official hat was taken off his head, so he knelt for two hours and then left. Only Lu En was left kneeling outside Chengtian Gate.

At this moment, Chu Shizhao, who was released from the imperial prison, was not idle either. He ordered people to make more than ten five-colored sticks.

He planned to make a big move in Chang'an by taking advantage of his status as a prince.

(End of this chapter)