Chapter 508 The Return of the Treasure Ship
[Wow! Censor Li is amazing! He's actually going to hit his head against a pillar and die for his remonstration.]
[Hahahahaha, Prince Rui calls for everyone to step aside, making room for Li Yushi to bang his head against the pillar. Li Yushi's face turns blue with rage, and if Lord Dong hadn't reached out and pulled him back, he would have banged his head against the pillar.]
[Oh my, King Xiao is quite eloquent, debating with the scholars and making two of the three most vocal ministers faint. Luckily, the tyrant summoned the imperial physician to wait outside in advance, otherwise, wouldn't they have gotten a heat stroke in such hot weather?]
[Hahaha, the tyrant is also enjoying the fun, even serving mung bean soup, saying he's worried the ministers are thirsty from all the noise, so he wants to take a break and continue the discussion. Is he afraid he won't anger those old ministers to death?]
The Grand Tutor is more rational, and his questions are all to the point. Two years ago, Prince Xiao might not have been able to answer them, but in the past two years since he left, Prince Xiao and his team have not only investigated and punished corrupt officials, but they have also, while not completely understanding the situation across the country, already grasped most of it, enough to deal with it.
[King Xiao is indeed resourceful. Young Master Yan actually didn't inform his family of the situation. He'll probably be treated to a meal of stir-fried pork and bamboo shoots after court.]
[Among the six ministers, two opposed, two supported, and two remained silent. It was pretty evenly distributed.]
[Hmm... the opposition is mostly civil officials, and the ones with the most devious minds are also mostly civil officials. The tyrant's digging with this hoe has hit a major artery. Let's see how things develop and then argue.]
The live broadcast posts were updated very quickly, and Chu Liuzheng scrolled down.
At the beginning, the ministers' words were quite elegant and polite, but later they started to greet each other's parents and ancestors, and their language was so crude that it was comparable to cursing in the street.
[Tsk tsk, as expected of the runner-up in the imperial examination, he has a rich vocabulary for cursing.]
[Wow wow wow, it’s time to fight, it’s time to fight, hitting people when you can’t win an argument, how tasteless! ]
[I see, a gentleman uses words, not fists. Keep arguing!]
[Hahaha, he's actually taking off clothes for personal gain. Censor Wang is such a jerk! If he hired an artist to paint the scene inside the Fengtian Hall, it would definitely be a masterpiece.]
Chu Liuzheng grew tired of flipping through the pages, but the quarrel in Fengtian Hall continued. It lasted five days, during which time the Emperor met with the Grand Tutor twice, the six ministers three times, and several other officials.
On the sixth day, before the ministers started arguing, the emperor made the final decision that tax reform was imperative. It would be supervised by Prince Xiao, the Minister of Revenue, and the Director of the Censorate, and monitored by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Specific details would be issued to local governments.
Under the emperor's order, the garrison troops were dispatched to cooperate with local governments in surveying the land. Anyone who caused trouble or gathered in crowds to resist would be thrown into prison and dealt with according to the law after verification.
Those who are stubborn and those who lead troublemakers will be killed!
The blood dyed the land red, and wails and cheers sounded at the same time.
News was constantly delivered to the emperor's desk, and then news was delivered out.
Chu Liuzheng searched the system for several days and nights, using Yi Zhen as a shield to reveal the locations of several gold and silver mines to ease the pressure on the national treasury.
King Xiao and his men traveled everywhere, were repeatedly assassinated, and escaped death several times.
The lights in Wenhua Hall stayed on all night long. Chu Liuzheng began to stay up late with the emperor, and this went on for several months. By the time the outcome was settled, snowflakes were already falling outside the window.
Winter has arrived, and everything as far as the eye can see is pure white except for the roof tiles.
Exhaling a breath of white air towards the sky, Chu Liuzheng took his people to the Imperial Garden to relax and happened to meet Yi Zhen lying on the ice.
She looked at the thick ice and then at Yi Zhen, who was wrapped up like a bear, and asked in surprise, "What's your new...fun?"
"No." Yi Zhen said, "I am lying on the ice to catch carp."
Chu Liuzheng: “…”
[This guy's brain must be frozen.]
"Just lie down slowly." She lifted her foot and left.
Listening to the crunching sound of boots on the snow, Yi Zhen rolled on the ice and looked up at the gray-blue sky.
[System, calculate, when can I escape from this world?]
[Five years at the earliest? Why does it take so long?]
[I'm not in a hurry, but I'm so bored! Let's go somewhere with internet access in the next world. I want to play games!]
[1000 points? Why don't you go grab it! 20, not more.]
[Alright, 200 is 200. I want to drive a mecha in the next world!]
*
In the eighth year of Shunguang, at the beginning of May, an express letter was delivered to the capital over a distance of 800 miles, announcing the return of the treasure ship.
The emperor was overjoyed and personally led people to the port to welcome him.
【Here it comes! 】
Chu Liuzheng stood on tiptoe and looked up.
Between the blue sea and blue sky, the sails are flying like white birds.
The people on the boat waved their arms and shouted towards the shore, and Chu Liuzheng even heard a few wolf howls.
The treasure ship docked.
There were 200 treasure ships when they set out, but only 86 were left when they returned, and the crew was also reduced by almost half. The hardship they endured can be seen from the haggard faces of those who returned.
Everyone recalled the days of drifting on the sea, the countless times of self-doubt, the countless times of gritting their teeth and persevering, fighting pirates, being deceived by natives, and almost being boiled in a pot. Laughter gradually mixed with tears. Finally... they were back! They were back!
"We have fulfilled our mission and brought back all three sacred objects!" The dark-skinned man, as thin as a bamboo pole, with tears in his eyes, quickly walked to the emperor and knelt, holding a mahogany box as long as his forearm in his hands. "God bless us, Dasheng. Long live Your Majesty!"
Everyone on the boat knelt down and said, "May God bless us, long live His Majesty!"
"Long live the emperor!" Everyone on the shore knelt down and shouted in unison. Chu Liuzheng was about to kneel down with the crowd when he was grabbed by Xiao Jingfan. He stood beside the emperor and listened to everyone shouting "Long live the emperor" three times.
[Holy crap! Is this what it feels like to be an emperor?]
Her eyes widened as she glanced over the backs of everyone's heads.
[No wonder everyone wants to be the emperor. Who doesn’t want to be a father every day?]
[However, if you want to be a good emperor, you will die early. Life is more important.]
Hearing the inner voice, Xiao Jingfan glanced at the woman beside him, reached out to take the wooden box from Fan Hong's hand, and personally helped the woman up, saying, "Stand up."
Everyone stood up.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Lord Fan, who had been fattened up by his wife, was now only a bag of bones. His face was haggard, but his eyes were bright as if burning with fire.
He couldn't wait to introduce the contents of the wooden box to the emperor. "Your Majesty, look, these are potatoes, these are sweet potatoes, and these are corns."
Chu Liuzheng turned his head and saw that the box was filled with round potatoes, lumpy sweet potatoes, and half a corn cob with dry and hard corn kernels on it.
[Shredded potatoes, beef stew with potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, sweet potato porridge, stir-fried sweet potato leaves, boiled corn, roasted corn, ...]
She recited a string of dish names in her mind, making herself craving them, so she quickly diverted her attention and helped arrange for a doctor to come on board to examine the crew members.
What was presented to the emperor were only samples; what was loaded on the ship were the carefully selected seeds.
It was only after Fan Hong and his companions set out to sea that they discovered the three sacred items actually came in different varieties, with each grown slightly differently in different locations. To prevent soil incompatibility, they bought and traded, spending nearly twice as much time bringing back some of each, and even sending people to learn cultivation methods from the locals.
But to grow corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes in Dasheng, it is naturally necessary to develop a new set of methods suitable for the people of Dasheng.
(End of this chapter)
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