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

"Look, this is news brought by the remnants of the Luchuan royal family who fled across the sea into our country."

The State of Chu was far more complex than we imagined; it was a nation imbued with martial spirit.

Now I understand why the Sirius Kingdom is such a difficult tribe to tame.

Suddenly, a memorial was submitted proposing to be incorporated into the outer vassal state of Wu Zhao. The Yan state perished, but it became part of the territory of the Chu state.

The cavalry of the Sirius clan could not contain the expansion of the Chu state, so they were willing to make these unruly barbarians serve Wu Zhao.

While He Yong watched, Li Hong explained in detail.

After reading it, He Yong's expression turned solemn: "Your Majesty, I am not very familiar with military affairs, but judging from this intelligence, the Chu Kingdom seems to be quite warlike."

Li Hong replied, "Yes, the purpose of my continuous dispatch of envoys to the State of Chu over the years has been to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses."

Every piece of news he brings back keeps me up at night. On the other side of the sea, there exists such a warlike nation. What if they one day cross the sea and attack? How will we respond?

He Yong laughed and said, "Your Majesty is joking. The State of Chu and our Dynasty are separated by a river, one in the west and the other in the east. Do you think they can swim across?"

Li Hong: "You're being a bit naive. Do you still remember when the Qiang tribes submitted to our dynasty and were incorporated into our outer vassal states?"

He Yong: "Your Majesty, I have also heard of this matter. It was about ten years ago. At that time, I was still young and had not yet entered the court to serve Your Majesty."

Li Hong said, "At that time, the remnant Qiang leader told me that the Chu army was extremely powerful, and that their more than 20,000 men had managed to escape westward."

After a full year of trekking through the vast desert, only about four thousand people survived and crossed the Death Desert to reach the border of Wuzhao.

What does this mean? It means that the State of Chu also borders our dynasty on land, and that the State of Tianlang keeps sending envoys to me.

They hope I will allow them to migrate their entire tribe to the Sarhan Steppe to avoid a direct confrontation with the threat from the Chu Kingdom.

This is sufficient proof that there was more than one route connecting the State of Chu with our dynasty; the only difference was the distance between them.

He Yong: "Then what does Your Majesty think we should do now?"

Li Hong: "Aren't the Chu envoys going to the capital? Since you've already been in contact with them, then you'll be in charge of negotiating with them on my behalf."

"I want to know what they're up to, and also to subtly inquire why the Empress of Chu is so disregarding my invitation and refusing to give me face."

He Yong immediately knelt down: "This servant obeys the decree and will certainly do a good job for Your Majesty on this mission."

Li Hong nodded: "Alright, let's not talk about these troublesome things. By the way, how are the preparations for the Wanfu Building that I asked you to build going?"

He Yong: "Your Majesty, please rest assured. Construction of Wanfulou has already begun. This servant estimates that it will be completed in three months at most."

Moreover, this servant, through careful calculation, has saved His Majesty 300,000 taels of silver.

"You, you, hahaha." Li Hong couldn't stop smiling. "Who told you to take it upon yourself to save me money?"

"Several hundred thousand taels of silver, what could I possibly do with that? Saving that money would only make the world think I'm stingy, hahaha."

He Yong lowered his head and replied, "This servant knows that His Majesty's talent and strategy are as lofty as a flying dragon in the heavens, and this servant is merely under the protection of that dragon."

How could the people enjoying this prosperous era possibly have the same vision as His Majesty?

"All this servant can do is what is within my power, and I will save the money saved from repairing Wanfu Tower for unforeseen circumstances."

Li Hong nodded with satisfaction, but still said, "It's good that you understand frugality and share my burdens, but I've never had to worry about money in my entire life."

You wouldn't risk making Wanfu Restaurant lose its prestige just to save a mere few hundred thousand taels of silver, would you?

He Yong hurriedly replied, "Your Majesty, please rest assured, I have been personally overseeing the construction of Wanfulou. There will absolutely be no problems."

And I certainly won't embarrass His Majesty, after all, isn't my head only hanging around my neck thanks to His Majesty's permission?

"Hahaha, good. I have complete confidence in you and Yong handling things. Now tell me, what do you plan to do with the 300,000 taels of silver that have been saved?"

"Your Majesty, aren't the twenty-six counties in the three southern prefectures currently suffering from floods?"

The servant thought to himself, "Let's use all the 300,000 taels of silver saved from repairing Wanfu Tower to provide relief to disaster victims."

If the common people knew that His Majesty had gone to such lengths to save money from Wanfulou Restaurant for the sake of those suffering from disaster, they would be eternally grateful.

Although He Yong had only been by Li Hong's side for three years, he understood Li Hong's thoughts very well.

This emperor valued his reputation above all else; he was willing to spend any amount of money to make himself look good.

As expected, Li Hong was overjoyed upon hearing this: "Very well, it will be done as you say. Allocate these 300,000 taels of silver to provide relief to the disaster victims in the southern prefectures."

This also serves as a reminder to those stingy local officials how to treat the people well.

"On behalf of all the people of the world, this servant thanks Your Majesty."

He Yong immediately knelt and kowtowed three times and bowed to Li Hong.

However, He Yong still did not understand the true meaning behind Li Hong's words.

While Li Hong certainly cared about his image and liked to embellish his reputation, he was by no means comparable to those extraordinary figures like Zhao Ji and Zhao Huan.

Li Hong's last sentence meant that he wanted to borrow the 300,000 taels of silver so that the local government could raise the money itself to solve the disaster.

The so-called exemption was just a word game, a way to curry favor with himself. Li Hong knew very well that this alone could not solve the problem of resettling disaster victims.

However, Li Hong did not want to use the national treasury's money and grain on disaster victims who did not bring him any real benefit, so the only option was for the local governments to provide the funds.

This time, the 300,000 taels of silver allocated by He Yong Province for the construction of Wanfu Tower was merely giving Li Hong an excuse to exploit local officials.

In fact, since the establishment of the Wuzhao Dynasty, the Di people, led by the Li clan, have always adopted a strong discriminatory policy against the hundreds of millions of former Mingzhao people who have been atomized.

This discrimination was multifaceted, ranging from the imperial examinations to daily life. Even the Di people and commoners were not allowed to eat in the same restaurant. If a conflict arose between the two, regardless of who was right or wrong, the government would first give the commoner forty strokes of the cane.

In short, in the eyes of people like Li Hong, benevolence, filial piety and love for the people are nothing more than a well-practiced disguise.

At this moment, the eunuch Fengchun came to report: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of War reports that more than 320 leaders of the Heavenly Principle Sect have all been escorted to the capital and are awaiting Your Majesty's judgment."

Li Hong replied directly: "Notify the Ministry of Justice that at noon tomorrow, all these traitors and rebels be executed at Caishikou. I want the whole world to know."

What will be the fate of those rebels who defy me!

"The slave obeys the order."

After receiving the order, Feng Chun did not leave in a hurry, but said, "Your Majesty, Queen Qi Bang has been in the capital for two months. Today, she has submitted another petition to Your Majesty, hoping to receive the protection of our dynasty."

Li Hong: "Go back and tell the Queen of Qi that it is not difficult to obtain my Wu Zhao's protection, but the laws of our dynasty cannot be disregarded. Let her think it over carefully before telling me."