Junior Uncle is too cunning.

Faced with King Zhou's question, Jiang Ziya merely lowered his head in thought for a moment, bowed to King Zhou, and slowly said, "The decree to reduce the power of the vassal states!"

Upon hearing this, the three who were originally calm and composed, Shang Rong, Bi Gan, and Wen Zhong, all changed color. Shen Gongbao, who was standing beside him, was also greatly shocked. "As expected, he is worthy of being accepted as a disciple by Master." As a powerful Golden Immortal who had lived in the mortal world for many years, Shen Gongbao couldn't help but admire and be alarmed by Jiang Ziya's thoughts.

It should be understood that the current state of the Great Shang Dynasty is one of joint rule between the Great Shang Dynasty and the feudal lords. In fact, the Great Shang Dynasty is the largest feudal state. Therefore, the other feudal lords elected it as their leader. In addition, some feudal states were transformed from the Great Shang Dynasty, so they also obey its orders.

However, apart from paying annual tributes and sending troops when wars broke out, the Shang Dynasty's imperial court actually had no right to govern the vassal states' own territories.

Although the feudal lords did not explicitly establish their own capitals, both the feudal lords and the Shang imperial court knew that the feudal lords were essentially states within states of the Shang imperial court.

After all, it has an independent military and political system, and it makes its own decisions regarding human resources and finances. Who would believe it isn't a country?

Fang Hui, who was standing to the side, was also looking at Jiang Ziya with a formal perspective for the first time. As the elder in charge of the God of Wealth Sect in the Southern Continent, especially since the God of Wealth Sect was not a pure cultivation sect like the Jie Sect or the Chan Sect, and most of its members were ordinary people, they actually constituted the most basic and solid strength of the God of Wealth Sect.

Therefore, as the chief elder of the Southern Continent, Fang Hui has a great understanding of the entire Shang Dynasty Imperial Court. Even Prime Minister Shang Rong may not understand the grassroots thoughts of the Shang Dynasty Imperial Court better than him.

After all, Shang Rong spent most of his time in Chaoge handling political affairs, and he mostly interacted with officials at all levels. He might not know as much as Fang Hui about the lives of ordinary people.

After all, most of the followers who can join the God of Wealth Cult have various requests and hope that the gods will solve their suffering. Only at this time will they speak the truth.

Unlike the officials sent down by the Great Shang Imperial Court, even if there are people who speak up for the people, ordinary people would never dare to open their hearts and tell the truth unless they are driven to the brink of despair!

Wu Yunxian, Baihe Tongzi, and the others were somewhat bewildered as they looked at Shang Rong, Bigan, and the others who had become serious. Could this "Decree to Reduce the Power of the Feudal Lords" be very powerful?

It's no wonder they didn't understand the severity of the decree to reduce the power of the vassal states. If King Zhou's plan to suppress Buddhism would bring about the destruction of the Shang Dynasty, then Jiang Ziya's decree to reduce the power of the vassal states would definitely shake the very foundation of the Shang Dynasty.

The plan to destroy Buddhism would only provoke hatred from Western Buddhism and the two Western saints, but that would only be a destruction of the upper echelons. In fact, with the addition of forces like the Chan Sect, the Jie Sect, and the Huoyun Cave, King Zhou actually had seventy percent confidence in the plan to destroy Buddhism.

As long as the Western Buddhism can be resisted, the Shang Dynasty imperial court will not face any problems.

Jiang Ziya's decree to reduce the power of the vassal states was indeed different; it could be described as extremely bold. If King Zhou's plan to destroy Buddhism was audacious beyond belief, then Jiang Ziya's decree to reduce the power of the vassal states was utterly insane.

Although water can carry a boat but also capsize it, and the people are like water while the Shang Dynasty court is like a boat, this basic framework was actually built with the help of the feudal lords.

After all, there are simply too many humans. In the entire prehistoric world, if you randomly pick ten people, you'll probably find one human. In the Southern Continent alone, the human population is no less than three billion. With such a large population and land area, the Great Shang Imperial Court itself occupies a very small portion; most of the land is managed by countless vassal states.

The saying that the Shang Dynasty's imperial court and the feudal lords jointly governed the world was not just empty talk.

Jiang Ziya's decree to reduce the power of the vassal states involved stripping them of their fiefdoms, indirectly weakening the power of the vassal kings. This would strengthen the centralized power of the Shang Dynasty's imperial court, eliminating the fear that vassal kings might amass power and rebel, thus allowing the rulers to sleep soundly without any worries.

King Zhou only needed to hear Jiang Ziya's three-word advice to feel compelled to become his disciple; Jiang Ziya had truly expressed his own feelings.

Since becoming Empress, he has discovered two major problems with the Shang Dynasty. First, after so many years of development, the surrounding barbarian tribes have gradually gained some influence and have even begun to covet the Shang Dynasty's territory.

The second problem is internal strife. After so many years of the establishment of the Great Shang Dynasty, those loyal vassal states have begun to have their own ideas. These vassal states possess vast territories, with large vassal states often having dozens of cities and hundreds of millions of people.

Just like the four major vassal states of the present day, their fiefdoms alone account for a small portion of the land area of ​​the world. Not counting the other vassal states of the Great Shang Dynasty, these four vassal states alone are comparable to the territory of the Great Shang Dynasty itself.

They also possessed a large army and relatively independent administrative, financial, and official appointment and dismissal powers, making them virtually an independent, small-scale Shang Dynasty imperial court.

When the Shang Dynasty was first established, these vassal states were still in awe of its power and dared not act recklessly. However, after the death of the founding emperor, Tang, as the meritorious officials and veteran generals in the court gradually died out and retired, and as the bloodlines of the kings and the emperor became increasingly distant, these powerful vassal kings began to become increasingly arrogant. The problem of a weak central government and strong regional powers became increasingly prominent, posing a significant threat to the central government and national unity of the Shang Dynasty.

Having reigned as emperor for so many years, how could he not know that Jiang Ziya's proposed decree to reduce the power of the vassal states was entirely for the sake of monarchical autocracy? Reducing the power of the vassal states would strengthen the central government's control over the vassal states. King Zhou had actually had this idea for a long time.

However, he believed that the method of reducing the power of the vassal states was feasible, but the vassal states were not easy to deal with, nor were they meat on a chopping block to be slaughtered. If King Zhou wanted to reduce the power of the vassal states, it would be like cutting flesh off their bodies with a knife. It would be a miracle if they were willing to do so.

So at the time, he only thought about it in his mind. Later, after weighing the pros and cons, he chose to deal with the external troubles first and then carry out internal management.

Over the years since his ascension to the throne, he has waged countless wars against foreign powers, both large and small. Indeed, thanks to his campaigns, he has wiped out dozens of tribes, both large and small, which has greatly diminished their arrogance. For the time being, they have given up their ambitions to covet the Shang Dynasty's imperial court and have become obedient, choosing to lick their wounds on their own.

Just as he was preparing to deal with internal affairs, he discovered that because of his dozens of campaigns, the finances of the Great Shang Imperial Court were already in a deficit, like a huge hole. If it weren't for Shang Rong and Bigan's persistence, the finances of the Great Shang Imperial Court would have collapsed long ago.

Moreover, because of his poor judgment of character, treacherous people like Fei Zhong and E Lai took advantage of the situation, allowing them to use King Zhou's name to promote their cronies, extort wealth, and misinterpret the king's intentions.

Their cronies followed suit, devising various pretexts to plunder the people's wealth, causing widespread resentment. By the time King Zhou discovered this, it was too late. Even if he beheaded Fei Zhong and E Lai, it only temporarily alleviated the people's resentment.

In addition, the various lords secretly stirred up trouble. After all, the lords were not fools. Those who could stand out from the ranks of the lords must be intelligent. They had come to understand King Zhou's bloodthirstiness over the years. Moreover, when the previous emperor, Emperor Yi, died and King Zhou first ascended the throne, they took advantage of the instability of the throne to annex many surrounding lords. Now that the external threat was gone, they would definitely deal with these people. It was just in time to meet with the public resentment. It was like a pillow for a sleepy person. If they did not sow discord and secretly cause trouble for King Zhou, they would be in trouble if King Zhou realized what was going on.

It was because of the secret actions of the feudal lords that King Zhou had no choice but to issue an edict of self-reproach, which finally suppressed the people's resentment. After that, thanks to the governance of Shang Rong, Bigan, Wen Zhong and others, things finally improved, and the reputation of the Shang Dynasty was somewhat restored.