Fearing being killed for his overwhelming merits, the empress decided to marry him.

September 8th, Jinling City, Weiyang Palace.

From the day she was five months pregnant, Jiang Mengxuan seemed to become a different person.

Perhaps the days of pregnancy were too boring, so the empress, who always advocated frugality, began to indulge in extravagance for the first time.

The reason for her extravagance was that she was bored when she flipped through a book of unofficial historical records and was deeply attracted by the description of the thousand-story pagoda in it.

Therefore, she also had the wild idea of ​​building a towering pagoda in Jinling.

This is not just something we imagine; it's actually starting to be put into practice.

She summoned Li Youcai from the Ministry of Works and ordered him to create a draft as quickly as possible.

This made the already incredibly busy Ministry of Works even busier, to the point of almost vomiting blood.

The Ministry of Works is already overwhelmed with planning transportation routes in the Chu Kingdom, so how can they have time to study some kind of pagoda?

But how could we dare disobey the Empress's orders?

So, Li Youcai spent a full month, and with the help of his colleagues, finally completed a design drawing for a pagoda that was 88 meters tall.

According to the Ministry of Revenue's budget, this project will cost at least 20 million taels of silver to complete.

But Jiang Mengxuan didn't even hesitate and immediately ordered the Ministry of Works to recruit people to build it. As for the location selection...

Naturally, it should be in the most conspicuous place in the capital region.

Shen Lang didn't ask why Jiang Mengxuan suddenly stopped being frugal and spent tens of millions of taels of silver to build such a beautiful but useless pagoda.

Why……

A: No need.

Women's thinking is inherently difficult to fathom, especially pregnant women. Just go along with what they want; after all, the Empress is spending her own money, so there's no need to fight over it.

Moreover, Shen Lang has more important things to do right now.

Inside the Huibin Hall of Weiyang Palace, a special group of people—local bullies—are now seated.

These local bullies, whenever it involves anything related to people, will basically join in the commotion with a "let's watch the show" attitude, and what they do is rob the poor to help the poor (gambling, loan sharking, buying low and selling high).

Logically speaking, these guys should never have had the chance to enter such a high-class place as the Imperial Palace.

But right now, it was Shen Lang who personally ordered the Jingwei Division to personally "invite" them here one by one.

Although these local bullies usually act arrogantly and fight in groups at the slightest provocation, they boast that even God would kneel down and call them Jesus.

But when they got to a place like the palace, they were so obedient that they didn't dare utter a single word.

At this moment, they felt extremely uneasy. Sitting in their seats, they felt as if countless needles were pricking their buttocks, and their bodies were trembling.

All eyes were focused on Shen Lang, who was sitting in the main seat, looking down and reading a memorial.

The fact that this group of people is fortunate enough to enter the palace and see the world today is all thanks to Shen Lang's initiative.

Shen Lang was also frowning at this moment.

This memorial came from Southeast Asia.

Just as Shen Lang had predicted, the unsustainable exploitation of the indigenous people by the Chu immigrants in the Li Kingdom colony led to a mass uprising by the local inhabitants.

In the eight months since the colony was established in January, there have been more than seventy small-scale indigenous protests in the colony area.

Although the riots were quickly quelled, they severely hampered the development of the colony. It took too much effort just to quell the riots, so how could the colony profit from them?

This served as a wake-up call for the entire Chu court.

The six ministers who participated in drafting the laws of the colony unanimously agreed that this was due to the fact that these unruly people did not understand the teachings of the kingly way.

In short, the problem is that the regulations have been too lax. These troublemakers must be made to understand what the demeanor of a great nation truly means.

Therefore, they jointly wrote to Shen Lang, strongly requesting that troops be dispatched to demonstrate the power of the nation.

This gave Shen Lang a huge headache. He had to involve the army to deal with a small group of indigenous people. How could he possibly make money?

He believed that the ideological awareness of the Six Ministries was far below his expectations, and they did not understand that the Chu state established colonies for the sake of their abundant resources, rather than to spread the teachings of the kingly way.

However, Shen Lang agreed on one point: the natives in the colony area needed to be disciplined.

We can't let the military get involved, so what should we do?

So Shen Lang came up with this perfect solution.

Since the natives of the colony were unruly, these local bullies were no better.

Why not let this group of unruly people manage the other group of unruly people?

Thinking of this, Shen Lang spread his hands, and the memorial landed neatly on the desk.

"Please don't be nervous, everyone. I've called you here today to bestow upon you a fortune."

As he spoke, he got up and began to walk around in front of everyone.

"Gentlemen, I have evidence of your years of forcing women into prostitution, lending money at exorbitant interest rates, and operating casinos for huge profits."

"Release any one of these pieces of evidence, and it will be enough to put you in jail for the rest of your lives. I don't think you'd want to spend your next life in a prison cell, reminiscing about the glorious years you've lived, would you?"

These words made the local bullies tremble like leaves.

Chen Ba, who was close to Shen Lang, spoke up: "Your Highness, you promised us that as long as we cooperated with the Jingwei Division..."

"Providing us with useful intelligence will get us a blind eye to our actions; you can't just turn your back on us like this now."

Another man with a scar on his face, Tong Qi, added, "Yes, Your Highness, besides, we haven't been doing those kinds of things for years."

You can't keep bringing up the past. After all, we all contributed a lot when you were on that mission."

Upon hearing this, Shen Lang smiled calmly: "Please don't misunderstand, everyone. I remember all your contributions."

"I am not the kind of person who shows no mercy, otherwise you wouldn't be sitting here drinking tea today."

Chen Ba immediately understood Shen Lang's implied meaning: "Your Highness, if there is anything you need us to do, please tell us the truth. If it is something we can do, we will definitely do it."

Shen Lang's lips curled into a smile: "Alright, then I'll tell you the truth. The six ministries have unanimously decided to launch a comprehensive crackdown on all criminal gangs throughout the Great Chu."

Especially this capital region, it is of paramount importance. Her Majesty does not want to see any unseen stains existing within the mighty capital. Do you understand what I mean?

Upon hearing this, everyone panicked instantly.

Tong Qi: "Then wouldn't we have no way to survive? Your Highness, you can't be so ruthless as to kill us all."

Chen Ba: "Your Highness, you know very well how I have treated you all these years. Do you remember when you were in trouble, I risked being beheaded by the Imperial Guards to save you?"

For a moment, the hall was filled with deafening cries, one after another wailing and lamenting, creating quite a scene.

"Alright, stop acting. You all have some reputation in the underworld, so what's with this behavior? If I really wanted to wipe you all out, would I still be sitting here?"

Shen Lang bluntly interrupted the old hands' act.

"Apart from you people, all other gangs in Jinling City will be wiped out within three days. You are safe for the time being."

Upon hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But the next moment, their hearts were in their throats.

"However, it is only temporary. His Majesty does not want to see any lawless forces still existing in the city after she resumes power."