Lu Chen expected that if he touched the territory of Buddhism and Taoism, there would definitely be backlash, and the resistance would definitely be considerable.
But he didn't expect the resistance to come so quickly and be so great.
The next day was a grand court meeting. Before the heads of the six ministries could even review their work, an imperial censor jumped in and said, "Your Majesty, I heard that Master Lu issued an order yesterday requiring all Taoist temples and Buddhist monasteries to give him half of their farmland. This bribery is simply outrageous and insane!"
This censor was like a fuse, completely igniting the entire court. As soon as he finished speaking, other officials stood up and denounced Lu Chen's unscrupulous behavior.
That's the Buddhist and Taoist sects all over the world. The land they control combined is a pretty terrifying amount.
Now Lu Chen directly wants half of their money. Is this evil Taoist addicted to confiscating people’s property?
Cui Shanzhan frowned, walked over to Wei Yong and lowered his voice, "What's going on? Did you arrange this?"
Wei Yong is the head of the Censorate, and he has always been at odds with Lu Chen. Now it is the Censor who is taking the lead in making trouble. Any normal person would think that this is Wei Yong's instigation.
Wei Yong glanced at the censor who had just impeached Lu Chen and snorted coldly, "If I couldn't stand Lu Chen's behavior, I would have spoken up myself. Why would I need to use someone else's mouth?"
Lord Wei is still as tough as ever, and he really dares to take action himself if anything happens.
"That's strange. Didn't he tell you before he took action?" Cui Shanzhan looked curious and didn't mind watching the fun.
You must know that Lu Chen is now the emperor's favorite minister, and his status as the national teacher is not ordinary. The Censorate wants to impeach such a person, and he is also asking for bribes from Buddhist and Taoist sects all over the world. Such a big thing should be reported to Wei Yong.
Wei Yong's face turned very ugly. It was obvious that the censor under his command had not informed him in advance.
Seeing Wei Yong's unhappy expression, Cui Shanzhan could guess what was going on. He said sarcastically, "It seems that Lord Wei should discipline his men. This is too unruly."
A big shot like Wei Yong couldn't stand this. He also looked at the people who came out to impeach Lu Chen and said, "If I'm not mistaken, there are people from your Ministry of War among them, right? Your Ministry of War and Lu Chen have a good relationship, but I didn't expect them to jump out and stab us at this time. It really shows how the world has deteriorated and people's hearts have changed! As expected, there is no good person in the court."
This is directly rising to the moral level to carry out a dimensionality reduction attack. Wei Yong is very good at this method.
Sure enough, after hearing this, Cui Shanzhan's face turned green.
No matter how these scholars standing in the court want to kill each other in their hearts, on the surface they all regard themselves as gentlemen.
Everyone present knew exactly how much Lu Chen had helped the Ministry of War. It would be fine if others could come out and impeach Lu Chen, but could your Ministry of War also join in the fun?
"Haha, it seems that Lord Cui's methods of controlling his subordinates are also average!"
Cui Shanzhan almost lost his breath at Wei Yong's sarcasm. He was also a bad mouth, so why did he provoke this big troll?
While the two were talking about this, more and more people came forward to impeach Lu Chen.
Seeing that 30% of the officials in the court came out to impeach Lu Chen, Li Zhuo could no longer sit still.
He didn't know what went wrong, but he knew that to mobilize so many officials for one thing, there must be someone behind it.
Who has such means? Who has the final say in this world?
Li Zhuo suppressed his anger and said, "Master Lu, is what they said true?"
Lu Chen glanced at these officials and memorized their appearances.
"Your Majesty, I did ask the Buddhist and Taoist sects to give up half of their land, but I don't want them to give it to me. I want to use it to grow something, just like renting their land."
"My Lords, you are really ridiculous. What are you thinking? Those lands are scattered all over the world. Even if they really want to give them to me, how can I get them?"
After listening to Lu Chen's explanation, Li Zhuo breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as Lu Chen didn't really accept bribes, there would be no problem.
In fact, the officials who came out to impeach Lu Chen also knew that the success rate of impeaching Lu Chen with such a ridiculous charge was almost zero.
However, their purpose was not to kill Lu Chen directly, but to make Lu Chen withdraw the order he gave yesterday.
The censor who had led the impeachment earlier spoke again, "Your Majesty, even if what Master Lu said is true, this is still deeply inappropriate. Those fields are the few remaining assets of the Taoist and Buddhist sects, and all the monks and Taoists rely on the meager yield from the fields for their livelihoods. If their food supply becomes compromised, people will die."
"Yes, yes. Whether it's Buddhism or Taoism, if too many people die, it might alarm the heavens. When that happens, the gods and Buddhas in the heavens will rain down their wrath, and who knows what kind of disasters will be brought to our Great Qi."
"Yes, yes, although the theory of ghosts and gods is illusory, we must be cautious, Your Majesty!"
Looking at the court that had once again turned into a market, Li Zhuo rubbed his brows with a headache. Finally, he looked at Lu Chen and said in a negotiating tone: "Master, what do you think about this matter?"
"Your Majesty, as the Imperial Master, I naturally have to look after the Buddhist and Taoist sects for Your Majesty. In fact, the concerns of the others are also what I am thinking about. The Buddhist and Taoist sects rely on the output from the fields, so we cannot allow any mistakes to occur."
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