C178

Chapter 178 - Rent Reduction 2

"This humble subject pays his respect to Your Majesty!" When Li Gang saw Zhao Chen, he was naturally overjoyed!

He first looked at Zhao Chen carefully for a while, then sat down.

"Teacher, what are you looking at?" Zhao Chen said.

This humble subject is always worried about Your Majesty in Middle Han Area, but now that I have seen that Your Majesty is unharmed, I can finally relax! Li Gang said.

"Thank you for teacher's concern!" Zhao Chen said.

He was deeply moved in his heart. It had been so many years, but Li Gang was still so concerned about him! Perhaps, in the heart of Li Gang, he would forever be that child who would not grow up! Li Gang truly treated him as a nephew!

"His Majesty has personally led the army, obtaining such a great victory. The people of the world are all excited for him! This humble subject congratulates Your Majesty here! " Li Gang said.

"This is nothing to celebrate about. We have also suffered great casualties! Furthermore, we have only defeated Wan Yanhuonv, she is only a female high-ranking officer who is not even twenty years old, she is even worse than Wanyan Loushi, Wan Yanwushu, Wanyan Zongwang, Wanyan Zonghan and the rest! Our overall strength is still not as good as Valkyrie's. On the plains, we are not her match! Fortunately, we already have the Tongguan. As long as we protect the Tongguan, it will be sufficient enough for us to not be able to go west! " Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty is right!" Back then, before His Majesty ascended the throne, this humble subject had spoken of a strategy for the future. The first step was to take down the Guan Shan! She had Guan Shan, Chuan Shu and other places. This was the place where Qin Shihuang and Han Gao had built their foundation! This humble subject believes that His Majesty will definitely not lose out to Qin Shihuang and Ancestor Han Gao. Li Gang said.

"I have that confidence! However, the difference between the Qin and the Han dynasties was still very huge. Back then, the Qin nation only had more than a million men, but the military strength reached 600,000! When it came to Han Gao Zu's time, he would also have a lot of troops. Han Xin would have to use all sorts of ambushes to defeat Xiang Yu, and the number of ambushing troops would be over five hundred thousand! "Right now, we only have a hundred thousand soldiers, so I'm afraid that it will be impossible for them to fight against the whole world!" Zhao Chen said.

"We should recruit soldiers, but the people of this world are unwilling to join the army, so we can't do anything for now." Li Gang said.

"I will leave this matter to Wang Shu, he will definitely be able to complete this task! Other than that, I still have one more thing to give to Teacher and Wang Shu. " Zhao Chen said.

Zhao Chen immediately told his about the rent reduction and stood there stupidly.

With Li Gang's political intelligence, he naturally knew that the matter of the rent reduction was extremely important. It involved almost all the officials in the younger generations in the world, involved countless of wealthy families, countless of temples and Taoist temples, it could be said that all of them were involved.

"Your Majesty, you must be careful in this matter!" Li Gang said.

"Wang Shu also advised me to take things step by step, we can go about it now with Guan Shan and Middle Han Area, I am prepared to push this matter as soon as possible! When I came down from Dazhang Pass, I saw that people everywhere were indeed living in hardship, and my heart was very unsettled! The commoners did not live a peaceful life, this is also because we did not do well! " Zhao Chen said.

Li Gang frowned, and after a long while, Li Gang suddenly spoke: "Your Majesty, let me handle this matter! Your Majesty and Your Majesty should not interfere in this matter! "

Zhao Chen was startled, and said: "What do you mean?"

Li Gang continued: If Your Majesty were to do it, I'm afraid that the entire world's gentry will object to Your Majesty, because that would be detrimental to the entire world! Tomorrow morning at the imperial court, this old subject will submit a written report. In the future, this old subject will do it all by himself, and all the gentry in the world will mostly loathe this old subject! In the future, His Majesty can remove this old subject from his post and use it to pacify gentry's heart! "

Zhao Chen stood there in a daze, and said: "How can that be?"

Li Gang said: "Your Majesty, there is no need to hesitate. This humble subject has died a miserable death for the Song Dynasty, if it truly is beneficial to the Song Dynasty, then even if I am pointed at and cursed by thousands of men, it would still be nothing! As the king of a kingdom, His Majesty could not do such a thing right now! "With the rivers and mountains, this humble subject will be the best way to do it!"

Zhao Chen pondered for a long time. He was unwilling to allow Li Gang to become a thorn in the side of the gentry, but the last sentence Li Gang said moved him! He was currently a Great Song Emperor, and this was not the time to go against the gentry. Even for the benefit of the vast majority of the people, he could not do so! It would be for the best if Li Gang came forward to do this!

"Teacher, if that's the case, I'll have to trouble you then!" Zhao Chen said.

"These are just my duties! This humble subject is the Prime Minister, if I do not do such a thing, who should do it? " Li Gang laughed.

On the morning of the second day, ministers began arriving one after another!

When Zhao Chen arrived, Li Gang had indeed stood forward and proposed to reduce the rent!

When Li Gang said this, all the officials in the imperial court went into an uproar, and there were voices of opposition everywhere!

"Your Majesty, all the people in this world live in hardship. This is something that they must do!" Li Gang said loudly.

"Your Majesty, this humble subject will not agree!" This is the new Vice Minister of Rites!

"Your Majesty, this humble subject disagrees!" This was the new Minister of Industry's letter.

"Your Majesty, this humble subject also feels that it is inappropriate to do so!" Another person stood forward, this time it was Privy Envoys!

So when Curved End came to the Middle Han Area, he felt that he no longer had the power. In just a few short months, Curved End had already purchased over a thousand mu of land. He had been in this city for many years. After that, he had always been an envoy with a lot of silver coins, but now he had spent them on the land. Initially, he was counting on these lands to live in, but he did not expect Li Gang to actually mention the words "rent reduction", causing his heart to become angry.

"Qu Aiqing, why don't you tell us what's wrong?" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, since ancient times, the Sovereign King has ruled the world together with officials and scholars! Officials and scholars all rely on their family's land to survive! Right now, Lord Li wants to reduce the rent. How can officials and scholars survive? " The Curved End said coldly.

"Lord Qu, do you know how much land I have in my family?" Li Gang said.

"This... "I don't know." Curved End said. He really didn't know how much land Li Gang had. He had only heard that Li Gang was a frugal person.

"I don't have an acre of land in my family. I rely entirely on the salary of the imperial court. I have never accepted a single bit of bribe. Most of the land in your homes, even 30% of the rent, is still much better than the majority of the citizens! I don't understand why Lord Qu must oppose this Rent reduction order! " Li Gang said.

"In short, I don't agree!"

All the ministers stood out one after another, expressing their dissatisfaction. Only Li Ruoshui, Wang Shu and a few other people did not say a word! Since Li Gang had decided to bear all the blame, Li Ruoshui, Wang Shu and the others had already received hints, hence they were just silent and did not agree!

"Your Majesty, I request that you decide this for me!" Curved End said.

"Ministers, there are different opinions. I don't know what to do either!" I think it's better this way, the Rent reduction order can't be pushed around the country, let's find some places to put it into practice first! Let's do it in Guan Shan, Middle Han Area and the others! Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, you can't!" The Curved End said anxiously.

"I'll think about it..." Li Gang, I will leave this matter to you for the time being, it would be convenient for you to take action! "If there's nothing else, you can withdraw!" Zhao Chen said.

Zhao Chen had already left Supreme Harmony Hall, and Li Gang was still arguing with Curved End and the others non-stop! Curved End and the rest tried their best to persuade Li Gang. Some of them even promised to give a portion of the family land to Li Gang, but Li Gang still did not agree! This made all the ministers in the court extremely furious!

From the second day onwards, Li Gang would be pushing Rent reduction order s in the Middle Han Area!

He sent all the officials of the Chinese Book Province out to do this!

The officials of the Chinese Book Province passed down the orders of the imperial government in all parts of the Middle Han Area, which meant that the rent of all the landlords would be reduced to 30%! If anyone disobeyed, it would be openly opposing the imperial government, and the yamen would capture them immediately!

However, many of the officials in the yamen were landlords. These yamen officials were unwilling to lower the rent!

Therefore, pushing the Rent reduction order s was extremely difficult!

Li Gang was extremely anxious. On the night of the tenth day of the third month, Li Gang came to the Imperial Palace once again and asked for Zhao Chen's help!

"Your majesty, all the officials of the Middle Han Area are unwilling to execute the Rent reduction order, we cannot rely on them. It seems like we can only rely on the army!" Li Gang said.

"Relying on the army?" Zhao Chen was shocked.

"That's right!" If anyone is unwilling to execute the Rent reduction order, capture them immediately! Your Majesty, didn't you say you wanted to improve the status of the military? For the people of the world to be grateful to the army, there must be a change in their view of the army, don't you think? " Li Gang said.

"That's right!" Then leave it to the army! I will immediately order Tsinghua Army to have Liu Qi and his men enter Middle Han Area! Liu Qi is from the Wasteland Clan, and so are the people from the Tsinghua Army. They do not have land in the Middle Han Area, and would not mix with the officials! " Zhao Chen said.

"That would be for the best!" Li Gang said in joy.

If he wanted to move the troops, he had to have the orders from the Military Security Bureau, which also meant that he had to have Zhao Chen's orders personally! Then, Zhao Chen wrote a letter to Liu Qi, not mentioning anything else!

Li Gang was busy cutting rent, so he did not stay in the palace any longer. He contacted Liu Qi immediately, and did not mention anything about it.

During this period of time, the Tsinghua Army was in the midst of intense training, and they had been following the instructions written down in the infantry exercise code. Furthermore, the Advocacy Division had also arranged for a lot of propaganda personnel to enter the army. Indeed, in just one or two months, the Tsinghua Army had undergone a great change as well! Liu Qi was also praising the《 infantry exercise code》 that Zhao Chen had written!

When Li Gang personally arrives with Zhao Chen's orders, he will naturally not dare to be negligent and immediately lead 10,000 troops to follow Li Gang into Middle Han Area!

After the Tsinghua Army entered the Middle Han Area, the Rent reduction order could finally be successfully carried out!

Although the owners of Middle Han Area were strongly dissatisfied, no one dared to resist the army! Some would be captured if they resisted, and their land would still have to use Rent reduction order s!

Of course, once the Rent reduction order was pushed out, the citizens of Middle Han Area were elated!

The citizens of Middle Han Area did not understand the conflicts in the court, in their eyes, all the orders came from Zhao Chen's will, and it was all carried out by Zhao Chen!

The people were grateful to the Emperor, of course!

It was at this time that Wang Shu's Advocacy Division once again entered the various villages in the Middle Han Area to spread the news!

Originally, according to Zhao Chen's intentions, the Advocacy Division mainly wanted to promote crazy nationalism, propagating the great threat that the Nvzhen posed to the Chinese people. In the end, they could forcibly recruit troops, making the country's political, economic and cultural aspects serve to expand wars and foreign wars, transforming the various regions of the Middle Han Area, Chuan Shu and Guan Shan into "militarized states", so as to achieve the rapid development of the country's military power within a short period of time. In the next five to ten years, the country's military power would increase by ten times or even several tens of times.

Wang Shu was a resourceful man, he felt that the citizens might not be able to accept promoting these thoughts for the time being. From the start of the year to now, Zhao Chen had done two things. The first was to defeat the Nvzhen, and break the legend of being able to defeat all the women, making the hearts of the people uplifted. The second was to push the Rent reduction order s forward. Right now, Zhao Chen held a very high position in the hearts of the commoners! Since that was the case, he felt that they should first continue to publicize Zhao Chen's achievements and promote respect for him. In the end, they should be able to make the citizens have the idea that "everything the Emperor says is absolutely correct", "everything the Emperor says is true", "every word the Emperor says is the top ten thousand words". Once such ideas had been formed in the hearts of the citizens, the Military Intelligence Department and the Advocacy Division would then carry out "militarization" in the name of Zhao Chen.

In fact, many of the later generations of militarist countries would first promote the adoration of their leaders, and then carry out the expansion war! The Germany and Japan of the future generations were the most typical of these two! Hitler of Germany and the Emperor of Japan were completely deified. When the Japanese army was defeated, the Allies even forced the Emperor to issue a Mortal Declaration, stating that "the Emperor is not a god," which led to the surrender of the Japanese army. Otherwise, it would be impossible for the Allies to make Japan surrender.

Therefore, right now, the Advocacy Division was promoting this thought, the Middle Han Area had formed a wave of idolization that Zhao Chen had never thought of!