Late at night, Tang Ke awaited the emperor's summons.
Before long, the emperor's special envoy arrived, and Tang Ke braved the heavy snow to enter the palace.
"Your subject kowtows to Your Majesty."
"Minister Tang, the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce is under your jurisdiction. What is your view on this matter?"
Tang Ke already knew that the emperor had summoned him to the palace because of this matter.
He said, "Your Majesty, I believe that there must be something fishy about why people like Shangguan Hongru dare not interfere in the affairs of the court."
"Then tell me, what's strange about it?"
Tang Ke believed that, given the Emperor's methods, the members of the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce had already been secretly brought before the Censorate for review.
The emperor already knew what was going on. He had summoned him only to discuss how to deal with the people from the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce. After all, he was still the Minister of Commerce, and the emperor couldn't just ignore him and let Liu Yanzong make the judgment directly.
"Someone must have orchestrated and pushed this behind the scenes!"
"What is the purpose?"
"I do not know for the time being."
Zhao Huan ordered someone to brew a pot of tea and asked Tang Ke to sit down.
"Minister Tang, you are my most valued minister. I am at ease entrusting the Ministry of Commerce to you."
"Thank you for your trust, Your Majesty. I will do my utmost to serve you."
"Minister Tang, you can tell me anything on your mind, and I am willing to confide in you."
As Zhao Huan spoke, he poured Tang Ke a cup of tea. Tang Ke was immediately flattered and repeatedly expressed his determination to be willing to sacrifice himself for the emperor.
Of course, he knew in his heart that serving a ruler was like serving a tiger, and that the emperor could never truly confide in him.
However, since the emperor personally poured the tea, it meant that the emperor knew that Tang Ke had many suspicions in his mind, and if he didn't speak up, he would be ungrateful.
"Your Majesty, I believe that someone is trying to use this to disrupt the order of the court."
"Oh, my dear minister, please continue."
“Your Majesty, the money preservation fee is happening right under the emperor’s nose. Even if you gave Shangguan Hongru a hundred lives, he wouldn’t dare to do it.”
The emperor said, "It's also possible that they want to embezzle the money under the guise of collecting a value preservation fee."
Tang Ke said, "The money deposit is too easy to investigate. No one will embezzle this money. They can't swallow it. The only way they can do this is to use the court to kill someone. Once the court kills Shangguan Hongru, someone will try to prove that Shangguan Hongru is innocent. But the person will already be killed. At that time, all the merchants in Tokyo will be disheartened."
Tang Ke was also on tenterhooks when he said this.
Because this involves a topic: the current emperor kills people without hesitation!
It wasn't just that someone wanted to use this to sow discord between the emperor and his subjects; they also wanted to provoke the emperor to kill people. After the killing, the next step might be to prove the person's innocence and show everyone that the emperor was indiscriminately killing!
Thinking about this, Tang Ke didn't dare to think any further.
This is going against the emperor!
Zhao Huan asked, "In your opinion, Minister Tang, who is doing this?"
Tang Ke quickly replied, "There are two possibilities: either they are former officials of the retired emperor, or they are spies from an enemy country."
Tang Ke was quite direct.
Tang Ke's palms were still sweating when he left the emperor's place. He had to eat a big meal when he got back to calm down.
Soon, the verdict in the case concerning the Jiaozi (paper money) preservation fee was handed down.
Shangguan Qi and Liu Yueqing disrupted the imperial court's orders and were to be executed immediately.
The Tokyo Chamber of Commerce official Hongru and others were each fined 300,000 kan for dereliction of duty!
That afternoon, "Shangguan Qi" and "Liu Yueqing" were sent to the execution ground and their heads fell to the ground.
Yuan Ziyan, Wang Qi, and others were disrespectful to the emperor, a crime punishable by death with the confiscation of their property and the extermination of their clan. However, the emperor, considering their lack of knowledge of the crime, leniently punished them by confiscating their property and exiling them to the northwest.
The Jiaozi (paper money) value preservation fee was abolished.
For Zhao Huan, managing a large empire required both a calm and composed mindset and the skillful methods to handle even seemingly trivial matters.
What does it mean to handle heavy tasks with ease?
Even under immense pressure, one must remain calm and composed, as if holding a feather in one's hand.
What does it mean to treat something lightly as something heavy?
It was originally a trivial matter, and in principle, it was not worth the emperor's excessive attention. However, in order to rectify a certain trend or quickly change direction, it was taken into account.
The emperor could use this minor incident to vent his anger, making the matter seem serious and drawing everyone's attention to nip it in the bud.
A truly skillful emperor is not someone who merely plays power games.
If we judge an emperor's political wisdom solely by his imperial power tactics, then Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhao Ji, was a master of those tactics, yet he was an absolute tyrant.
Now, regarding the matter of paper money, Zhao Huan adopted a method of making a big deal out of a small matter, using the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce as an excuse to vent his anger in the court!
"The imperial decrees are for the benefit of all the people! If merchants are unwilling to cooperate with the imperial decrees, then they are going against the people and against me! I don't need such merchants! Nor does the Great Song Dynasty need them!"
The emperor's majestic voice resounded throughout the court. This morning, not a single minister stood up to speak; they all stood there obediently, waiting for the emperor to unleash his fury.
"I tell you, I will make paper money spread everywhere the sun and moon shine upon! Anyone who dares to obstruct the implementation of paper money, I will take their head!"
Qin Hui immediately stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, I am willing to exchange all my family's wealth for paper money. From now on, I will only use paper money."
Holy crap! Qin Hui, you really are the emperor's dog!
Qin Hui had already made his statement, and the second to step forward was Liu Yanzong: "Today, I will have all the money in my household exchanged for cash. From now on, whenever I see someone who refuses to exchange cash, I will rebuke him to his face!"
Next came Shi Xun, He Ye, then Xu Churen, Tang Ke, and so on.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
