Quick Wear: I and the Female Match Share the Battle Shirt

As mentioned before, natural disasters occurred frequently during the reign of Emperor Renzong, and the court had to spend a large amount of financial and material resources on disaster relief every year. In addition to the annual tribute to the Liao Dynasty and military expenses, the finances of the Song Dynasty were already very tight at that time.

What made Zhao Zhen angry was not that these powerful people spent his money, but that these people found ways to buy so much land.

The Song Dynasty allowed the buying and selling of land, and land annexation was already quite serious during this period. Zhao Zhen naturally knew what would happen if he allowed these powerful people to purchase land privately, so at the suggestion of Lu Changqing, he made preparations for both scenarios.

Removal of titles and remeasurement of land.

Zhao Zhen issued an edict to change the hereditary system of succession to a lifelong system.

When a person dies, his title will be lost and his descendants cannot inherit it, but they can directly obtain an official position based on their father's achievements or status without having to pass the imperial examination.

As for re-measuring the land, this matter was extremely offensive, and when the order was issued, almost the entire court opposed it.

The land was remeasured and the tax amount per acre was determined based on the quality of the soil, which made it impossible for the landlords to hide their land and evade taxes. Naturally, the ministers who were the landlords or the reserve landlords would be very upset.

Zhao Zhen was immediately in a dilemma. Cowardly people can always be easily controlled by others. Those court officials also knew Zhao Zhen's temper very well, so they dared to take advantage of him and shit on his head.

If it were Lu Changqing, he would directly order an investigation into whether those who jumped the most violently had committed corruption or bribery. If not, they would have to be investigated, and then they would be killed as a warning to others and beheaded.

As soon as Zhao Zhen came back from the court meeting, he called Lu Changqing over and complained about the difficulties he faced as an emperor.

Lu Changqing ignored his words and treated them as nothing.

If being an emperor was really that difficult, not everyone in the world would want to be an emperor.

After Zhao Zhen finished complaining, Lu Changqing said, "Your Majesty, this world belongs to you, not to the ministers. If the treasury has no money, the court cannot function. If you increase taxes on the people, they will not be able to survive and will rebel. At that time, the ministers will not think it is their fault. After all, you are the one who ordered the tax increase and made the decision. They are all clean and innocent."

Zhao Zhen paused in pinching his brows and looked at Lu Changqing with a very complicated expression.

He naturally understood this truth, but he wanted to be a wise and benevolent ruler and leave behind a good reputation of "governing the world together with the literati and officials", so he did not dare to offend these ministers.

Seeing that Zhao Zhen no longer had the intention of measuring the land, the court officials turned a blind eye to his stripping of his title.

This may be what Lu Xun wrote in his article - the Chinese people always like to reconcile and compromise. For example, if you say that this room is too dark and you need to open a window here, everyone will definitely not allow it. But if you advocate removing the roof, they will come to reconcile and be willing to open the window.

You wouldn't know until you check. Once you check, you'll be shocked to find that owning 3,000 acres of land is already considered small among these powerful people. The most terrifying one actually owns nearly 10,000 acres of fertile land.

Zhao Zhen did not dare to offend court officials, but that did not mean he did not dare to deal with these dukes, especially those like Gu Ji who inherited the title from their ancestors and had an empty title but no real power.

With Lu Changqing's deliberate actions, the Gu family became a typical example. If anyone is to blame, it's because both the father and son of the Gu family are not human beings.

Let’s not talk about Gu Ji, he was an old scoundrel who lived a life of debauchery and extravagance. He was a well-known playboy in the capital and had a bad reputation.

His father was an old man who didn't care about his wealth and was willing to cheat people out of money. In fact, in Zhao Zhen's eyes, these were nothing, but he just stepped on a landmine by hiding his land and avoiding taxes.

With regard to what Gu Ji has done in the capital over the years, if the country's laws were a little more sound, he would have been locked up long ago. Therefore, it is very easy to deal with the Marquis' Mansion. They just need to start with Gu Ji.

As for his father, just the description of "bad parenting" is enough, because he has such a good child like Gu Ji.

The Gu family was driven out of the marquis's mansion and all their property was confiscated.

In the past, Gu Ji relied on his good family background to offend many people in Beijing. When his enemies heard the news, they would naturally teach him a lesson.

In order to prevent the situation in the plot where Gu Ji becomes an official in the court based on his military merits, Lu Changqing left the palace on the pretext of going home to visit his relatives, and then took money and hired a few thugs to break Gu Ji's legs to prevent future trouble.

It would certainly not be possible to confiscate all the mansions of the marquises who held the title, so Lu Changqing gave Zhao Zhen an idea. They should return to them the same number of acres of land as they were given when they were granted the title. The extra land in their names should be taken back by the court and returned to the people.

The imperial court would not accept it for nothing, but would give their family a plaque inscribed by the emperor himself, so that they could take it home and worship it.

Zhao Zhen hesitated. "Is this really feasible? I think it would be better to sell the recovered land to them. This way, the court can get a considerable amount of money."

Lu Changqing was speechless. "Sir, we are doing so much to prevent the land from falling into the hands of these people. If you allow them to buy the land from the court, then we have worked in vain, right?"

"And the land must be remeasured. As you can see, the people in the capital alone have concealed so much land. How much is the land across the country?"

Zhao Zhen compromised, "Okay, let's do as you say."

Productivity is stuck here. The problem of land annexation is unavoidable in any feudal dynasty, and Lu Changqing cannot solve this problem.

Moreover, the population of the Song Dynasty exceeded 100 million during a period of time, and the means of production on this land at the time could only barely feed so many people.

Once the population reaches the maximum value that society can bear, the direct consequence of the shortage of means of production is the outbreak of war.

As long as productivity cannot be improved and developed, the country’s demise is inevitable, even without external threats.

After this incident, Zhao Zhen liked to call Lu Changqing to his Funing Palace more and more, either asking her to make tea for him or asking her to play chess with him.

Sometimes they talk about state affairs, and sometimes they talk about random things.

Lu Changqing thought this was a good idea as it would make it easier for her to administer the drugs.

When Zhao Zhen's cough became more and more serious, his beloved woman, the future Queen Wencheng, now Princess Qinghe, gave birth to his third child, a little princess.

At this moment, envoys from the Liao Kingdom arrived to discuss the war between Song and Xia and the construction of city defenses in the border areas between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom.

This matter did not pose a problem for the ministers in the court. It was Li Yuanhao who took action first, and the Song court was just fighting back. The so-called construction of city defenses was only because the previous city defenses were old and damaged, so the court sent people to repair them.

After treating the Liao envoys with fine wine and delicious food, Zhao Zhen saw them off. During this period, he was in high spirits and was in great shape.

After repelling the Xia soldiers, there was no fighting on the border for the time being. Now he had another child, although she was a princess, it didn't matter because his second child was a boy who was now one year old, so he didn't need to worry about the issue of succession.

With wise ministers by his side and a beautiful woman in his arms, it was so beautiful that it was hard to describe. However, his body could not take it anymore and he started coughing up blood.

The medicine Lu Changqing gave Zhao Zhen was quite strong, and around the first month of the year, the imperial physician informed him that he needed to stay in bed and rest.

If it were an ordinary emperor, he would definitely let the empress come out to manage the government at this time, but Zhao Zhen was not ordinary.

He didn't like Cao Danshu, from the bottom of his heart, so he suspected that there was something wrong with this illness.

Lu Changqing felt that Zhao Zhen might feel that he was about to die, and that he was thinking too much, which caused his thoughts to become so divergent.

Zhao Zhen's health was not good to begin with, and he was continuously fed arsenic that even the imperial physicians could not detect. Lu Changqing did not expect that he would fall down in bed and be unable to get up.

Cao Danshu was not completely out of temper when facing Zhao Zhen. After the eunuchs who had searched her palace left, she took off the hairpins on her head, ran to Zhao Zhen's bed with bare feet, and asked Zhao Zhen for an explanation.

Cao Danshu was really pushed into a corner. Since she was inexplicably chosen as the queen, she has been fulfilling her duties and playing the role of the queen seriously.

Because of her status as an in-law, her family became increasingly low-key, for fear of being caught doing something wrong and angering Zhao Zhen.

She was already so cautious, but Zhao Zhen was still wary of her.

Lu Changqing could understand Zhao Zhen's train of thought. He was probably thinking of the fear of being dominated by Liu E. After all, Zhao Zhen was controlled by Liu E for eleven years, succeeded to the throne at the age of twelve, and began to rule the country at the age of twenty-three.

His current situation is very similar to that of his deceased father. He is ill and the queen is in charge of government affairs. When his father died, he was twelve years old. If he died now, the next emperor would only be one year old.

How could he not panic?

This incident caused a big fuss. Zhao Zhen was not in the right to begin with. What the Song Dynasty lacked the least was censors who dared to scold the emperor, and Zhao Zhen was famous for his good temper, so what was wrong with scolding him?

Zhao Zhen didn't expect that he would be scolded even while lying in bed recuperating. He wanted to get angry but couldn't afford to offend that group of scholars. In the end, he had to swallow the bitter fruit himself.

Although Zhao Zhen did not find any evidence that Cao Danshu wanted to harm her, he still did not dare to delegate power to her. Every day, he dragged his sick body to listen to Lu Yijian and others report on important matters of the court.

The imperial physician was helpless against Zhao Zhen's illness and could only tell him to rest more.

Even Lu Yijian and others advised Zhao Zhen to rest well and not worry too much about state affairs.

Zhao Zhen was worried about his illness, and Lu Changqing was also worried about the problems in Shaanxi.

Historically, the Battle of Haoshuichuan took place the next month, but reality took a turn at Sanchuankou. Li Yuanhao had been defeated before, and Lu Changqing was not sure whether he would quickly gather troops to attack Shaanxi again this time.

Shaanxi's defense line is now very weak. For example, in Jingyuan Road where Han Qi is stationed, it is said that there are nearly 20,000 garrisons, but in fact there are only a few thousand regular troops. The remaining 10,000-plus soldiers were recruited by Han Qi when he arrived at the local area.

How many people did Li Yuanhao of Haoshuichuan bring with him in history? 100,000!

One hundred thousand against twenty thousand, and with so many cavalry, isn't this pure bullying?

While Lu Changqing was thinking about whether Li Yuanhao would go south, Li Yuanhao was also struggling with this issue.

We had suffered a defeat in Jinming Village before, and the losses were quite serious, but not to the point of serious damage.

However, due to the outbreak of the Song-Xia War, the Song Dynasty stopped the "annual gift" of large quantities of silver, silk and money to Western Xia; it closed the border trading markets and prohibited the entry of blue-white salt produced in Western Xia, causing Western Xia to lose direct economic benefits. The Song Dynasty also stopped trading with Western Xia, resulting in a shortage of food, silk, cloth, tea and other daily necessities in Western Xia and high prices.

Fighting a war requires money, supplies, and manpower, and if it continues for a long time, Xixia will find it difficult to bear the consequences.

Li Yuanhao was undecided and asked Zhang Yuan whether to send troops.

Zhang Yuan naturally asked Li Yuanhao to send troops. After all, his current goal in life was to destroy the Song Dynasty.

At this time Han Qi spoke up. Taking into account the increasingly heavy financial burden on the country, and the fact that he felt that after the Battle of Sanchuankou, Li Yuanhao's troops would be at most 50,000 to 60,000. He advocated taking the initiative to attack and have a decisive battle with Western Xia. He believed that defending in different routes would disperse the troops, and that the troops should be gathered together to destroy Xia in one fell swoop.

Fan Zhongyan, who was guarding the neighboring Huanqing Road, believed that Li Yuanhao was quite powerful and it would be difficult to destroy Xia in one fell swoop. He should stabilize the defense, advance step by step, look for opportunities to attack, and combine it with economic blockade. Only by taking a two-pronged approach could the Northwest problem be solved.

Their leader Xia Song was unable to make a decision about the two deputy envoys' opinions. As an experienced man, he decided to shift the responsibility and report the opinions of the two to the court, and let Zhao Zhen make the decision.

Historically, Zhao Zhen chose to support Han Qi, and then was defeated. Now Zhao Zhen is drowsy every day, and he is only worried about when his illness will be cured.

Seeing that Zhao Zhen's condition was getting worse, the ministers knew they could not wait any longer, so they collectively wrote a letter to the queen asking her to come out and take charge of the government.

When Lu Changqing handed the memorial to Zhao Zhen, the latter spat out a mouthful of blood.

Zhang Yihuan wiped the blood from the corner of Zhao Zhen's mouth with tears in her eyes.

Zhao Zhen grabbed Zhang Yihuan's hand and said to Lu Changqing, "Fuying, do you think it's too late for me to depose the queen now?"

Lu Changqing looked at Zhao Zhen coldly, "Forgive me for being blunt, but Your Majesty, the most important thing you should do now is to ease the relationship with the Empress."

Zhang Yuhan glared at Lu Changqing with red eyes, "What do you mean by that? Do you hope that the emperor's illness will not be cured?"

"Your Majesty, the ministers will never agree to your deposing the queen. Even if you depose the queen, who will you make the queen? Madam Miao who gave birth to the little prince? Or Madam Zhang, your most beloved one?"

Zhao Zhen looked at Zhang Yuhan in front of him with a pale face, his lips moving, "I..."

"Your Majesty, besides you, the only one in the palace who is most suitable to preside over the government affairs is Your Majesty."

Zhao Zhen said disappointedly: "Even you think so? I always thought you were the most loyal to me."

"Your Majesty, what are you talking about? I am naturally loyal to you and the country of Song. The suggestions I made are also for the sake of the stability of the court."

"And the imperial physician also said that your illness is caused by overwork and worry. You will get better after a period of rest. Your worries are completely unnecessary."

"You know what I'm worried about?"

Lu Changqing uttered four words softly, "Empress Dowager Zhangxian."

Zhao Zhen was silent for a while, then said with a wry smile: "Fu Ying, you really are..."

Zhao Zhen took a deep breath, let Zhang Yuhan help him lie down, and then said to Lu Changqing and the others, "You two go down first. I want to be alone for a while."

After leaving the Funing Palace, Zhang Yihan stopped Lu Changqing and said, "As a close minister of the emperor, you clearly know that the emperor dislikes the queen, so why do you repeatedly let the queen take charge of the government?"

Lu Changqing said, "Madam Zhang, you shouldn't ask me this question. You should ask the ministers in the court why they keep petitioning the Empress to come out and rule the country from behind the curtain."

"I'm asking you now, don't drag others into this."

"Because she is the most popular choice, because she is the master of the six palaces." Lu Changqing looked at Zhang Yihan and said, "I know what Madam Zhang is thinking. It's useless. The ministers will not allow the emperor to depose the queen. It's useless even if His Majesty dotes on you. In front of the country, love is not worth mentioning."