I clearly wanted to be a tyrant, but how did I become the greatest emperor of all time?

This time, Goryeo was badly cheated.

Originally, the only thing that Goryeo could export was grain.

As soon as the grain merchants from Yuhang appeared, they beat the Korean merchants without any chance of fighting back.

They had no choice but to give up their grain trading business and go to the mountains to mine ginseng.

When Lu Weibin arrived at Huajiang Prefecture, he saw a large number of ships at the dock.

Seeing so many ships, the first thing Lu Weibin did after getting off the ship was to announce that he would establish a port in Huajiang and impose taxes on merchant ships entering and leaving!

As soon as this order was issued, all the maritime merchants in Yuhang protested.

The scholars in Yuhang Prefecture also said that Lu Weibin competed with the people for profit.

However, Lu Weibin still established the port in a tough manner and prohibited ships that had not paid taxes from docking.

The lawsuit was eventually brought to the attention of the Yuhang governor.

The dispute was finally settled after the Yuhang governor strongly supported Lu Weibin.

But soon, Lu Weibin got into trouble again!

He wants to impose taxes on the silk mills in Huajiang Prefecture!

This again aroused strong public indignation in Yuhang!

Of course, these people are not ordinary people.

But it was the big landlords in Yuhang and the students supported by the landlords.

The people of Yuhang are not peasants.

Only landlords like Mr. Gao can be called the people.

The Gao family owned thousands of hectares of fertile land in Huajiang and was the largest landlord in Huajiang.

Mr. Gao is a well-known figure in Huajiang, and students from Huajiang often attend his banquets.

Every year, many poems praising Master Gao become famous.

That’s because Mr. Gao’s name is Gao Yao, and he once served as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet.

Everyone in Huajiang knows Master Gao.

Mr. Gao was very kind to scholars and often provided financial support to them.

But they were not so kind to ordinary tenant farmers.

Every year, countless tenant farmers died of exhaustion in Mr. Gao’s fields.

The students of Huajiang all sang praises to Mr. Gao’s kindness.

In Mr. Gao’s silk reeling workshop, hundreds of female workers were scalded by hot boiling water every year.

But those peasants won't speak out.

Since discovering the benefits of maritime trade, Mr. Gao opened many silk reeling workshops.

Female workers need to put their hands into boiling hot water to extract the silk.

After a period of time, these female workers lost feeling in their hands.

They have to work in cramped workshops every day and are often scalded by boiling water.

There was no commercial tax in the Great Zhou Dynasty in the past.

Mr. Gao does not have to pay taxes on his land or his workshop.

So Mr. Gao simply built a lot of factories and put all the landless farmers into work.

Huajiang’s banquet is still going on.

There are more poems praising Master Gao.

Gao Yao was the former Prime Minister and the former magistrate of Huajiang County, and they all treated him with great respect.

But the new Huajiang prefect, Lu Weibin, is different.

As soon as the prefect took office, he imposed taxes on seagoing vessels.

This has nothing to do with Master Gao. Master Gao is just a silk merchant and does not engage in maritime trade.

But soon, the prefect began to levy taxes on the workshops in Huajiang Prefecture as well.

Now this has something to do with Master Gao.

Gao Yao asked his son to go to the prefectural government office with his visiting card.

But this prefect was surprisingly tough.

"Mr. Gao was once a high-ranking official in the imperial court, so you should lead by example. Please pay the commercial tax first!"

This time, Gao Yao got angry!

This guy!

There are more banquets at Mr. Gao’s house.

This time, at Mr. Gao's banquet, no more poems praising Mr. Gao were heard.

Instead, it was a poem that cursed Lu Weibin.

For example, exploiting the people and competing with them for profits.

Lu Weibin's reputation instantly became ruined.

Even in the Yuhang officialdom, Lu Weibin had a very bad reputation.

But Lu Weibin didn't care at all.

He stopped the officials and insisted on levying taxes on the workshops.

This time, Master Gao was completely furious!

This time, the workshop manager said to the workers:

"The court is going to close Master Gao's workshop, and you will all starve to death on the streets!"

"Follow me to the street today, and you will have two taels of rice and flour tomorrow!"

The hungry workers followed their manager and took to the streets!

A small mutiny broke out in Huajiang.

But it was quickly suppressed by Lu Weibin and his men.

However, in the Yuhang officialdom, memorials impeaching Lu Weibin flew to Kyoto like snowflakes.

The most important of these was the memorial from Gao Yao, the former prime minister of the cabinet.

It can be said that as soon as Lu Weibin arrived in Huajiang, he turned the entire Yuhang upside down.

By the time the court received Yuhang's memorial, it was already the end of March.

At this time, Li Tian was chatting with Minghui in the alchemy room.

Ever since Minghui invented the Thunder Pill last time, Li Tian forbade Minghui to continue tinkering with it.

If he could come up with some other powerful weapon, the fate of our country would be doomed.

So Li Tian simply forbade Minghui from refining the Thunder Pill.

"Does Taoist Master Minghui have any new elixirs recently?"

Recently Minghui has been obsessed with alchemy and spends the entire day in the alchemy room.

Li Tian was also afraid that he would do something to stab him again, so he came to take a look.

Minghui's blue Taoist robe had turned a little yellow, and it was obvious that it had not been washed for several days.

Minghui said, "Your Majesty, I have been researching living pills recently."

"Living Dan?"

Minghui nodded: "I found it in the random alchemy formula that the emperor gave to Xiaodao."

"What is that?"

Li Tian asked curiously.

"The so-called living elixir is a living elixir."

"The Living Pill is bred in the essence of heaven and earth. It is an elixir that can cure all diseases!"

After hearing Minghui say this, Li Tian felt relieved!

Isn’t this the rhetoric of a charlatan?

It can cure all diseases or something!

My little imperial teacher, this is the right way!

Don’t tinker with things like Lei Dan again!

Li Tian asked with interest: "What does the living pill look like?"

Minghui hesitated for a moment and took out a glass jar.

There was some green powder in the jar. Minghui pointed at the powder and said, "Your Majesty, this is the living elixir."

This is too ridiculous!

At least it should be made into the shape of a pill, right?

Isn't this just ordinary medicine powder?

He is indeed a charlatan!

Li Tianlong said with great joy: "Thank you for your hard work, little imperial master!"

"Someone, come here! Allocate another 50,000 taels of gold to the alchemy room! Help the young imperial master concentrate on refining the living elixir!"

Upon hearing this, Minghui looked at Li Tian in ecstasy.

All the funds for the alchemy room are allocated from the inner treasury.

Now with an extra 50,000 taels of gold, Minghui can conduct more experiments.

[Favoring alchemists and obsessed with alchemy, Great Zhou’s national fortune: -2000 points! ]

[Because the host has the title of benevolent monarch, the national fortune has doubled, the national fortune of the Great Zhou: -4000 points! ]

Very good, very good!

Although compared with the enfeoffment of the Sixth Uncle, this amount of national fortune is just a drop in the bucket.

But Li Tian was still very happy. Thanks to Lu Weibin and Minghui, he also destroyed 8000 points of national fortune this month.

Even though a mosquito is small, it’s still meat!

After Minghui finished brushing up the national fortune value, Li Tian got up and left.

After Li Tian left, Minghui opened a door.

I saw many porcelain pots filled with various green molds.

Minghui poured the powder into the jar.

Murmuring, "I didn't expect that the essence extracted from Penicillium could have such a magical effect."