Everyone watched the prince come out with different expressions.
The eyes of the officials of the prince's line were full of expectation and admiration. It was the totem they followed, the target of their worship, and the ideal holy king in their minds.
The officials of the fourth prince's line had extremely complicated views. On the one hand, they hated the prince because the prince had been promoting administrative reforms, which touched their fundamental interests. On the other hand, they had to admit that the prince was indeed more like the fourth prince. A great wise king.
He has an upright and upright personality, is tolerant of others, and is strict with himself. He is diligent in government affairs, frugal in running the household, and loves the people like a son. From his every performance when he was a child to his various actions after taking charge of the country, all of them reflect his He is the best successor to the huge empire of Da Qi.
But... his attitude is to overthrow the Qiankun Divine Sect and reform the taxation system of scholars and officials.
All these inevitably angered the two largest interest groups in Daqi, which inevitably caused divisions within Daqi.
After the prince came out to kowtow, he stood up and said, "Father, the emperor clearly knows that our Daqi is indeed experiencing internal and external troubles."
There is a trick in the emperor's words. If the prince says that what Ning Tongyi said is true, then the prince has an unshirkable responsibility. If the prince says that it is not true, then Ning Tongyi is deceiving the public with evil words and will be punished immediately.
But the prince was not an easy man. He did not admit it, but he pointed out the key point: what Ning Tongyi said was true, but how much was true, he did not say.
Moreover, without waiting for others to attack, the prince immediately presented a memorial and said: "This is the record of my son's experiences in various places written down after visiting around these days."
The ceremonial eunuch went down and took it respectfully before presenting it to the emperor. Zhao Bairen took a look and saw that it was actually a thick booklet. When he opened it, it was filled with densely packed words. It was probably more than a hundred thousand words.
Zhao Bairen only flipped through the first few pages and then threw it aside and said, "You are the supervisor, what do you think we should do now?"
The prince confidently said: "At present, Daqi's income is shrinking, but its expenses are increasing. Externally, there are puppet countries and Dijon countries that are fighting in the southeast all year round. The Nine Nether Pluto King is ready to move and is eyeing the northwest. Internally, there is a civil uprising in Lingzhou, corruption in officialdom, etc. Concerned about the troubles in his heart, his son believes that in fighting foreign affairs, we must first calm down the internal affairs. We should first concentrate on solving the problems of civil unrest and official corruption. Only by refreshing the official administration, reforming the tax system, and increasing income can we have more money to appease the people! If the people are peaceful, the world will be peaceful. If the world is at peace, the whole country will be at peace! I have finished speaking, I hope my father will learn from it."
"Hmph! Third brother is probably just talking nonsense!"
No one dared to interrupt at this time, only the fourth prince Zhao Liexian. He stepped forward and took the initiative to fire, which meant that both the fourth prince and the prince began to fight shirtless and fight in front of each other.
The fourth prince stepped forward, kowtowed to Zhao Bairen, and then said to Zhao Hanqing: "I dare to ask the third brother, concentrate on solving the civil unrest? How to solve it? Where is the money? How to refresh the government? How to reform the tax system? How long will this take? Time? By the time these problems are solved, the day lilies will be cold! Will there still be time to suppress the civil uprising and deal with the devil? "
Zhao Hanqing said with a cold face: "Things have to be prioritized. Doing it little by little is better than doing nothing at all."
The fourth prince sneered and said: "The situation is urgent right now. As the saying goes, emergency measures should be followed, and special measures should be used at special moments!"
Zhao Bairen asked: "Oh? How do you obey the authority in a hurry?"
Zhao Liexian has obviously done his homework. He said eloquently: "Now the national treasury is empty. If you want to raise funds, you must find ways to raise funds."
Zhao Bairen was overjoyed and said: "Okay, this is a good idea!"
Zhao Hanqing said coldly: "My son has objections!"
Zhao Bairen said: "What objection does the third child have?"
Zhao Hanqing said: "Father, at this moment, we should take a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, we should rectify the administration and increase revenue and reduce expenditure. On the other hand, we should re-measure the acres of land and eliminate the bad policies of land consignment!"
After saying this, everyone was in an uproar.
What is the bad policy of sending land? To put it simply, in order to pay less rent, tenant farmers sent their fields to monastic sects and noble officials who did not need to pay rent. This is equivalent to blatant tax evasion, and what does it mean to measure acres? Everyone's minds are like a mirror. Every official family has some land that has been stolen and the origin is unknown. As long as a person pops up to complain in the street when they go to make a thorough investigation and measurement, the fun will be great. Once the name of the land is taken, it will be great. If you check the truth first, confiscation of homes and extermination of clans is a minor matter.
And who is this prince in front of me? This is the selfless Holy Prince! I don’t even dare to go to the prince’s house to plead for mercy!
Why
The prince eats the simplest three dishes and one soup every day. His robes are not replaced once a year. If they are torn, the princess will sew them with her own hands!
Do you dare to go to such a prince's house to plead for mercy
I'm afraid if we don't investigate immediately, we'll just chop it up and feed it to the pigs!
Such a prince is extremely loved by the people and middle- and lower-level officials, but many wealthy nobles regard the prince as a devil!
Before Zhao Bairen could speak, Zhao Liexian sneered and said, "Okay, we are facing a formidable enemy. It seems that Third Brother is going to make a fuss about us first before he is willing to give up!"
As he said that, he said to Zhao Bairen: "Father, this is a recipe for self-destruction, and you must not do it!"
Zhao Hanqing knelt in the hall and said in a deep voice: "Father, Pluto will not come to the world tomorrow, and the catastrophe will not come now, either. We still have a little time, and this time is for us to solve internal problems. However, if you don’t seize this little time, once you miss it, it will be too late to regret it. By then, it will be hard to recover from the accumulated shortcomings, and Daqi... is in danger!"
Zhao Liexian immediately stepped forward to fight in the ring. He also knelt down and kowtowed: "Father! At this time, we should first raise large sums of money to help the victims, so as to calm the hearts of the people in the world, and then we should cancel the reform to calm the hearts of the officials! In this way, the people of the world will feel at ease, and all the officials will feel at ease, so that we can unite and fight against the devil!"
Zhao Bairen perked up after hearing this, and said: "Oh? Where did this fundraising money come from? Those wealthy businessmen, huh, they are all iron roosters, and they all deserve to be killed! However, if you want to take it by force, then that's it too No, otherwise the world will be in chaos!"
Zhao Liexian said confidently: "I have a plan that can solve the crisis of empty treasury!"
Zhao Bairen said: "Oh? Come and listen."
Zhao Lie first said: "The richest people in the world are none other than the many sects of cultivation. They enjoy their success and make extensive financial resources. The people's revolution started in response to them, so they should be allowed to contribute money!"
Li Chengfeng took a breath of air when he heard this: Is this fourth prince really with the cultivation world? Has this autumn wind hit the cultivation sect? Is the leader afraid that he will blow this guy's head off
Zhao Bairen also took a breath of air, and he hesitated: "This matter... I'm afraid it won't work, right?"
Zhao Hanqing stared at Zhao Liexian and said coldly: "If fourth brother can persuade the cultivation sect to send money for disaster relief, third brother is willing to make amends to you!"
Zhao Lie snorted first, and said proudly: "Even ordinary people are unwilling to pay for nothing. As the saying goes, if you want to take something, you must give it first. There is a word in the world about giving, and only by giving can you get something!"
Zhao Bairen asked curiously: "What does the cultivation sect want?"
Zhao Liexian said: "Simple! Two words: autonomy! Each cultivation sect has its own sphere of influence. Divide their spheres of influence and give them autonomy. In this way, if a civil uprising occurs, let them handle it by themselves. The imperial court will The income relationship has been eliminated and a lot of burden has been relieved, so why not?"
After saying this, the fourth prince and all the officials applauded and cheered.
But the prince's officials were all furious!
Prince Zhao Hanqing looked at Zhao Liexian in shock. His eyes were like daggers and his voice was like iron. He said word by word: "Fourth brother, is this your method?!"
Zhao Liexian said proudly: "That's right! As the saying goes, to untie the bell, you must tie the bell! This method can ensure that our country will be worry-free for a hundred years!"
Zhao Hanqing was furious, and he said angrily: "Fart! Fart! Fart! You are traitorous! Are you abandoning the world to the cultivation sect? They regard Daqi as their parents, but you regard them as a burden? ! Is this what people say!”
As he spoke, he knelt down and kowtowed heavily towards Zhao Bairen, and said angrily: "Father, this plan is absolutely unacceptable! This will certainly lighten the burden for a while, but in this way, each sect will become like a warlord. Countless Independent small kingdoms will pop up all over Daqi overnight! The people are attached to each faction. As time goes by, they will only know the sect but not the court! By then, the binding force of the court on the factions will completely disappear, and the factions will become more independent. They must attack each other to gain more land and population! From now on, there will never be peace in the world!! This is a plan to dig one's own grave. My father has learned from it! He has learned from it!!"
Zhao Bairen's face was cloudy and hesitant for a moment.
A fierce quarrel began again in the court, and Li Chengfeng looked on with cold eyes. Although he was a practitioner, he knew that if Zhao Liexian's plan was implemented, Daqi would indeed be able to solve its various problems in the shortest time. .
But this is tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst. This is not solving the problem, it is throwing the problem to the spiritual sect, and it is also throwing power to the spiritual sect.
The fourth prince’s plan is not to slash at the practicing sect with his sword. This is to send a sword to the practicing sect. No, it is to send Shang Fang’s sword to the practicing sect!
Although each faction has its own sphere of influence, taxation and local governance are handled by the government, and even some of the business done by each faction has to pay taxes to the local government.
But if each faction is independent and self-governing, then the government will become a slave to each faction and become a lackey of each faction.
And since then, the most important criterion for determining the strength of each faction has become land and population, because as long as each faction continues to expand their sphere of influence, their land and population will naturally continue to expand.
As long as you think about it with your toes, you will know that at that time, various factions will attack each other and fight against each other. There will not be an inch of land in the world that is a paradise, and every place with people will be caught in the flames of war!
This will be the end of Daqi, and it will also be a disaster for everyone in the world!
This... is probably a disaster more terrifying than the coming of the Demon King!
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Dazhang, let’s make up for the previous debt...