C94

Chapter 94 - The Tenth Day of Ascension

In the blink of an eye, Zhao Chen had already ascended the throne for ten days!

Early in the morning, before the sky brightened, Zhao Chen had already woken up!

After he had washed up, the guards had brought the breakfast!

After Zhao Chen finished his meal, he headed towards the Supreme Harmony Hall in front of him!

"Your Majesty, are you still going to court early today?" Yue Fei stopped Zhao Chen and said.

"That's right!" Naturally, he had to go to court early! I am the ruler of the Song Dynasty, how can there not be an early dynasty! " Zhao Chen said.

"But Your Majesty, Zhe Keqiu is going too far! "It's fine if you don't want to go in the morning assembly!" Yue Fei said.

Zhao Chen laughed, he looked to the horizon and recalled the events of the past few days!

These days, he had to go to court early every day! There were more than twenty civil and military ministers in the imperial court. These twenty civil and military ministers were also going to attend the morning assembly!

In the morning assembly, regardless of what Zhe Keqiu said, all of the ministers below followed suit! Zhe Keqiu was against something, and so were the other ministers! As long as Zhe Keqiu disagrees, then it will absolutely be impossible to pass! Even if Zhao Chen and Li Gang didn't agree, it wouldn't be of any use, because when Zhe Keqiu reported his agreement, he was already carrying it out! Zhe Keqiu was not reporting the situation, he was only informing Zhao Chen and Li Gang about the things that had happened!

On the contrary, no matter what Li Gang said, all of the ministers were against it! These ministers were all against it, Li Gang's policies could not be carried out!

As for Zhao Chen, he was only eleven years old, so he did not say a word during the morning assembly! Zhe Keqiu was exceptionally satisfied with Zhao Chen's performance!

"If you want to destroy it, you must first make it crazy! Let Zhe Keqiu be crazy for a while! " Zhao Chen said.

He walked forward, out of the Dry Clear Palace, and sat in the emperor's carriage.

As the emperor, Zhao Chen was better. As long as he was able to rush to the Supreme Harmony Hall before the sun rose, he would be fine! As for those ministers, they were to wake up at three or four in the morning. At five in the morning, the doors to the Han Palace opened and they were to enter!

When Zhao Chen arrived, all the civil and military ministers had already been gathered!

"If you have anything to say, you can start now. If you have nothing to do, then leave the court!" Waiting until Zhao Chen sat down, a guard stepped forward and said.

"Your Majesty, this humble subject has something to begin!" Zhe Keqiu was the first to stand out and say.

"If there's anything you need, just say it!" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, Nvzhen is currently eyeing my Song Dynasty covetously. Conan's traitor is occupying the south of the river, stealing away my territory! My Song Dynasty only has a little more than 200,000 troops, and 100,000 of them are to be garrisoned in the Jing Road! This official thinks that our Song Dynasty should expand our military power to deal with the enemies from all sides! " Zhe Keqiu said.

"Expansion of the army?" Zhao Chen was startled, he never thought that Zhe Keqiu would actually make such a request!

"Your Majesty, please do not!" Li Gang stood out and said loudly.

"Why not?" Zhe Keqiu said.

"His Majesty has just ascended the throne, and the taxes of the four parties have not yet been collected. Now that the capital is insufficient, how can we expand the military?" Li Gang said.

"Lord Li need not worry about this!" I have already ordered Yan Wen and Yan Yanzhi to collect taxes everywhere, and now we have enough money to expand the army! " Zhe Keqiu laughed.

"The taxation belongs to the imperial government, and should be managed by the imperial government! I'm afraid that it will not be appropriate for Master Fold to do this! " Li Gang said.

"It's a chaotic world, that's all!" Zhe Keqiu said.

"His Majesty has already ascended the throne. The citizens of the Middle Han Area and the Chuan Shu are living and working happily. Although there are external enemies, there are no internal conflicts! General Crop, as a Privy Envoys, you actually stole the national tax? You can't do that! " Li Gang said.

"Master Fold has no other choice! In this chaotic world, it is understandable that the Master Fold manages the tax! " At this moment, a middle-aged man stood up and said.

This middle-aged man had a very stable appearance, he was the Prefect of Fengxiang Residence back then. After that, he fled to Middle Han Area with Zhe Keqiu and the others.

"That's right, the Master Fold has worked so hard for the Song Dynasty, there is no doubt about it!" Another official stood up and said.

"This humble subject also believes that the national tax should be handed over to the Master Fold for management!" Yet another minister had stepped forward!

Gradually, more and more ministers stood out. Other than Li Gang, Wang De, all the ministers were supporting Zhe Keqiu in managing the national tax!

"There is no need to discuss this further! Master Fold did it for Song Dynasty, so from now on, the national tax will be handed over to Master Fold! " Zhao Chen said indifferently from above.

Li Gang glared at Zhe Keqiu, who had a complacent smile on his face.

"Even if we have enough money, I'm afraid the citizens of Middle Han Area will not agree to expanding our forces! The citizens of Middle Han Area would normally live and work merrily, and might not even want to join the army! " Li Gang said again.

"When a nation is in danger, the people of the world shall sacrifice themselves for the nation! Your Majesty, my lords, this humble subject has an idea! " Zhe Keqiu said.

"What idea?" Zhao Chen said.

"This humble subject believes that for the citizens of Middle Han Area, if the number of men in their families exceeds two, then one must join the army! If anyone disagrees, all the members of the family, male, female, old and young, will be thrown into prison! " Zhe Keqiu said.

"This …" Zhao Chen was startled, and looked at Zhe Keqiu in disbelief!

Ever since the establishment of the Song Dynasty, there had never been a reason why ordinary citizens should be forced to join the army! The Great Song Dynasty's forces usually came from three parts, one part was a hereditary army, the grandfather was a soldier, the father was a soldier, and the son and grandson were naturally soldiers too, so the soldiers were the most numerous! The second part was that when there was a drought, the imperial government would recruit refugees as soldiers and provide them with food! Some of them were recruited, while the others were recruited at the lowest number!

However, forcing the citizens to join the army had never happened before in the Song Dynasty.

"Ridiculous! This is absolutely out of the question!" Li Gang bellowed.

"The country is in danger. This is the only solution!" Zhe Keqiu said.

"Master Fold is right, our country is in danger. Now, we can only do this!" Han Ping stood out and said.

"This is the only thing we can do now! I feel that Master Fold is right too! " Another minister had stepped forward!

Not long after, all the ministers stood up to support Zhe Keqiu!

"Your Majesty, this cannot be done!" Li Gang knelt down and said.

"Although Official Li is the Prime Minister, the expansion of the army is a military matter, and military matters are under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council! He is the Privy Council's envoy, since he has decided to enlarge his army, then let's enlarge it! " Zhao Chen said indifferently.

"Your majesty is enlightened!" Zhe Keqiu was overjoyed.

Therefore, without any suspense, Zhe Keqiu wanted to send out the order to "expand the army"! Zhe Keqiu could freely expand his army!

Following that, another official stepped forward to preach! The court official thought that the Middle Han Area was simple and crude, Zhao Chen had just ascended the throne, and the palace lacked eunuchs. As such, the court official thought that the eunuchs should be recruited! Zhao Chen rejected this offer without hesitation. Although it had already been a long time since he was reincarnated from the later generations and had gradually blended into this era, he was absolutely not interested in eunuchs who were male and female. Furthermore, he did not approve of the idea of harming other people! Back then when he was in Kaifeng, he was surrounded by a group of eunuchs. That was because there was nothing he could do about it. Now, however, he was unwilling to have another eunuch by his side!

Zhe Keqiu only wanted to expand his power and control his own government. He was obviously not interested in recruiting eunuchs. Without Zhe Keqiu's support and with Zhao Chen's opposition, the matter would be put to rest!

Another minister stepped forward and began to preach, thinking that the palace should be filled with palace maids! Zhao Chen did not object to this matter, thus the matter was temporarily passed on, but Zhe Keqiu did not have the mind to bother with it right now, so he handed the matter over to the Vice Minister of Rites, Han Ping!

The imperial court lasted for an entire two hours. When the imperial court dispersed, Zhe Keqiu had a complacent look, he looked at Li Gang with ridiculing eyes, and Li Gang snorted coldly, then walked out! All these years, Li Gang had suffered a lot, he did not care about today's predicament at all!

Deep in the night, Zhe Keqiu and Zhe Yanwen sat together when they returned to the Zhuang Residence!

The two of them had just finished dinner and were discussing about the situation in the court!

"Father, Li Gang is opposing us everywhere! We should drive Li Gang out of the palace as soon as possible! " Zhe Yanwen said.

"Now is not the time!" Zhe Keqiu shook his head and said.

"Isn't it time?" Zhe Yanwen said in surprise.

"His Majesty has just ascended the throne, the Chuan Shu, the Middle Han Area, the various places in the Guan Shan are still not safe. After all, the Emperor Kang was the elder and many people believed that the Emperor Kang was the king in this chaotic world! Li Gang's prestige was extremely high, if he was taken out now, the people around him would not be able to at all! Wait until everyone stabilizes before I kill Li Gang! However, we can clear the few insignificant warriors beside His Majesty right now! " Zhe Keqiu sneered.

"Father is talking about Wang De?" Zhe Yanwen said.

"Other than Wang De, there are also His Majesty's three personal guards, Yue Fei, Wang Gui, and Zhang Xian. These three must be eliminated as well!" Zhe Keqiu said.

"It's just three martial artists, it's nothing. Father, you're overthinking it, right?" Zhe Yanwen said.

"The three of them are extremely skilled, and staying by His Majesty's side is still a hidden danger! We have to get rid of it! " Zhe Keqiu said.