In Jingzhou City, inside a huge top scholar palace.
Thirteen old men sat on the couch, holding teacups, listening to the servants' reports.
"Got it, go down!"
Someone said this lightly, and the servant hurriedly got up from the ground and left the yard.
"Haha, I didn't expect that as soon as we arrived in Jingzhou, this woman would arrange a good show for us."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, check the land and assign the labor service according to the land, what a big tone!"
"I think she doesn't want to be the emperor anymore, right?"
"Ha, she probably thought that by putting down Yan Cetian's rebellion, she could scare us and control the world."
"snort!"
An old man snorted coldly, "Control the world? This little girl is quite ambitious. Have you forgotten that we supported her to become emperor and helped her overthrow Zhang Jiangling?"
"Haha, young man, you are energetic!" an old man laughed.
"Then let's give her a good beating. Let her understand that we are the masters of this world, not him!"
"That's right, let her know that without us, she's nothing!"
"Come here, pass the order down to all bookstores, increase prices tenfold!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a servant rushed out of the courtyard.
"Haha, I wonder what the Empress's expression will be when she hears this news?"
“I think it will be exciting!”
"I'm looking forward to it, hahaha!"
The laughter echoed in the manor.
Palace!
Yan Jiaoran was the first to receive the news of the book price increase.
Bang!
She slammed the table and stood up suddenly, her chest heaving as she shouted angrily, "These noble families really don't even have the slightest bit of dignity!"
"In order to encourage scholars to fight against the land tax, they even raised the price of books. Books that cost just ten cents can be raised to hundreds of cents by them. It's really a disgrace to the aristocratic family!"
"It's not enough to suck the blood of the common people, yet you're still sucking the blood of the scholars. How shameless! How shameless!"
"Hateful, hateful!"
Murong Yanran smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, isn't this a common tactic used by these noble families?"
"This shows that the plan of paying taxes on land is really hurting them and damaging their interests, but they can't find any excuse to shirk responsibility, so they have no choice but to resort to this last resort."
Yan Jiaoran shook her head and slowly sat down: "How could I not know all this?"
"It's just hateful! I never thought these noble families would be so shameless!"
"It would be fine if they secretly instructed Xiaoshouduan to conceal the land and resist the tax collection, but I didn't expect that they would dare to openly incite the scholars to rebel against the court!"
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty! Why don't we go and invite Lord Qin?" Murong Yanran suggested.
Yan Jiaoran nodded and said, "Go ahead. This is the only way."
Murong Yanran immediately felt relieved and quickly left the imperial study.
Aristocratic family!
This move is really vicious!
The scholars were already dissatisfied with the abolition of their "privilege" of exemption from corvee labor, and now the price of books has soared, almost blocking their path to advancement.
If the aristocratic families take any action again, adding fuel to the fire and igniting their resentment, the consequences will be unimaginable!
…
Jingzhou government office.
"One stone stirs up a thousand waves, and troubles are sure to follow."
Qin Yuan held the back of his head with both hands, lying back in the chair, sighing repeatedly.
He already knew about the Empress's forced implementation of the land tax and the aristocratic families' collaboration in causing the price of books in Jingzhou to skyrocket at the grand court meeting that morning.
As expected.
Murong Yanran is coming soon, right?
Speak of Cao Cao and he will appear.
Just as Qin Yuan had this thought in mind, Murong Yanran pushed the door open and walked in, saying hurriedly, "Sir Qin, please follow me into the palace. His Majesty has something important to discuss with you!"
"No." Qin Yuan replied indifferently.
"Hurry, don't delay, don't keep His Majesty waiting..."
Murong Yanran was talking when she suddenly froze. She stared at Qin Yuan blankly and asked, "Master Qin, what did you just say?"
Qin Yuan changed his posture and slowly uttered two words: "No."
"Why!" Murong Yanran asked loudly, anxiously.
Qin Yuan was speechless. He rolled his eyes at her and criticized her, "Do you think I'm stupid?"
"If I follow you into the palace, wouldn't even a fool know that this tax was my idea?"
"Then all my efforts were in vain."
"Well……"
Murong Yanran was stunned, it seemed that this was really the case.
She was asked to pay the land tax.
The Empress carried it out.
The aristocratic families fought back.
Qin Yuan went into the palace to come up with ideas and crush the enemy's plot.
It is indeed impossible to distance Qin Yuan from this matter.
Murong Yanran hesitated and stammered, "But Sir Qin's matter is urgent and cannot be delayed. Delaying will lead to unexpected events..."
"You better think of a solution quickly. If you really stir up the scholars and provoke a civil uprising, everything will be over!"
Qin Yuan squinted at her, dismissive. "That's easy. I'll tell you the emergency solution, and you can just tell His Majesty, isn't that all?"
"Uh...but..." Murong Yanran hesitated to speak.
Qin Yuan knew what she wanted to say, so he immediately said, "No need to worry! You can figure it out yourself."
"We agreed at the time that you would take the blame and I would help you solve the problem."
A glimmer of cleverness flashed across Murong Yanran's eyes, "Okay!"
"I wonder how Lord Qin thinks we should deal with the current predicament?"
"It's very simple." Qin Yuan smiled slightly, "Print the book."
"Printing books?" Murong Yanran asked, "How should we print them?"
Qin Yuan explained, "Most of the books sold by aristocratic bookstores to scholars are copied by others, and a small volume costs thirty coins."
Murong Yanran nodded: "Yes, that's true."
"If Your Majesty were to organize people to hand-copy books now, I'm afraid it wouldn't be enough to meet the needs of the entire Great Zhou..."
Qin Yuan took out his official seal, placed it on the table, and asked, "Master Murong, do you understand?"
Printing books?
Official seal?
Murong Yanran suddenly had an idea and connected everything together: "Master Qin's intention..."
"Do you engrave the contents of the book on a seal, then dip it in ink, print it on paper, and sell it to scholars?"
Qin Yuan nodded and said, "Not bad."
"If I could find a craftsman to carve the contents of a scroll onto dozens of wooden boards, apply ink, print them onto paper, and then bind the paper into a book."
"As long as we have carved the woodblocks, we can print as many books as we want."
"Do we still need to worry about not being able to meet the needs of the scholars of the Great Zhou Dynasty?"
Murong Yanran's eyes lit up.
Carving wood blocks and printing books is really a good idea!
How come she never thought of such an idea?
Qin Yuan's words at this moment seemed to open a door to a new world for her, and everything in front of her suddenly became clear!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
