The capital of the Da Gan Dynasty was Luoyi City.
News of Jiang Ming's massacre of a million, the annihilation of the Xiongnu, Rouran, and Zhongshan, the dismemberment of the Jin state, and the defeat of the Qi state had long since reached the ears of Emperor Ji Buyi of the Great Gan Dynasty.
Ji Buyi is over 60 years old this year.
He was the nominal emperor for over fifty years, but his life was a complete disgrace.
The actual area controlled by the Daqian Dynasty was only equivalent to a small or medium-sized vassal state, not even as large as the neighboring states of Wei and Zheng.
But he is, after all, the emperor!
We still need to maintain a certain pomp and circumstance... at least we have to keep up appearances.
This has led to it becoming increasingly poor, to the point that it can barely support its own subjects.
In states like Qin, Jin, and Qi, the nobility was originally limited to marquises or earls.
Jiang Ming's mother's home country, the Song Kingdom, was a duchy.
Where is there any talk of a 'king'?
Within the city of Luoyi, there were many similar dukes, marquises, and earls...
However, the rulers of Qin, Jin, and Qi were equivalent to the top officials of a province, while the dukes, marquises, and earls in Luoyi were equivalent to high-ranking officials at the provincial or ministerial level in some central government agencies.
If the country is 'unified' and the emperor can control the top officials of these 'provinces', then it would be even more powerful to be an official of the same level in the central government!
But now, these high-ranking officials surrounding the emperor, who are on par with the Qin army, the ruler of Jin, the ruler of Yan, and the ruler of Qi, actually have less jurisdiction than even a prefect of a vassal state.
Although they are not as well off, their treatment has not been reduced!
They still receive extremely high salaries.
This is equivalent to the imperial court having to support a large number of high-ranking officials and richly paid "rulers" with the resources of a small vassal state. How can such a state afford to do that?
Moreover, as the emperor, he also had to carry out various sacrificial activities, which were extravagant and wasteful, and extremely depleted the people's manpower and resources.
They are clearly a middle-class family, but they have to maintain the lifestyle of the super-rich. How can they possibly sustain that?
So the emperor kept borrowing money, borrowing some from Zheng today, some from Wei tomorrow, and signing IOUs with Jin the day after...
Gradually, the debt piled up... Even the emperor himself didn't know exactly how much money the Da Gan court owed.
At first, out of respect for their ancestors, people lent the emperor some money, but later... knowing he couldn't repay it, they simply stopped lending it.
The country has reached this point, and the emperor should realize the importance of pragmatism and stop pretending.
But Ji Buyi refused!
Just like his name suggests, he firmly followed the "route of the emperor" and remained steadfast in his commitment!
If all else fails, sell off the palace's possessions to maintain the "face of the emperor" and the "dignity of the patriarch"!
The worst part wasn't the sacrifices or the high wages, but the tributary system.
Later dynasties all emphasized taxation...
The seven southern provinces and six northern provinces had to pay taxes to the emperor regularly and also perform corvée labor.
However, the Great Gan Dynasty consistently followed the ancient system of tribute: vassal states would offer gifts to the emperor, and the emperor would then bestow gifts upon the vassal states in return. These return gifts were often far more lavish than the tributes themselves!
In other words, if you give the emperor a bag of wheat, he will reward you with a bag and a half.
And so it went... Some shameless vassal states would regularly pay tribute every year, hoping to squeeze every last drop of profit out of the imperial court.
Despite knowing it was a trap, Ji Buyi remained steadfast in his "dignity" and maintained the tributary system.
In fact, this tributary system had a certain degree of rationality in its early stages.
The world is so vast now, but it wasn't always this big. It was gradually expanded by these feudal lords conquering new territories.
I was the ruler of a vassal state. I hunted a wild boar and brought it back to the emperor. The emperor was so pleased that he rewarded me with a fine horse.
This system also serves as an incentive, encouraging the feudal lords to work even harder for the imperial court.
The problem is that the situation back then was completely different from what it is now.
These feudal lords have all become behemoths, and even the emperor is practically breastfeeding them...
Inside the main hall of the imperial palace in Luoyi, the Great Gan Emperor summoned Jiang Ming and his entourage: the ruler of Jin, the heads of the Zhao, Wei, and Han families, and a large number of rulers from Jin's vassal states, and held a grand banquet in their honor...
Despite the grand scale of the event, Jiang Ming could tell that the Da Gan imperial court was currently dirt poor...
Not only was the palace old and dilapidated, but grass also grew on the brick walls.
Even some of the lacquer bowls used at the banquet had faded...
Ji Buyi was vain and suffered from intermittent dementia, sometimes confused and sometimes lucid... At the banquet, he mistook Jiang Ming for the King of Qin several times, calling Jiang Ming's father by his name...
Jiang Ming naturally didn't care about these details.
What he needed to do next was to fulfill Ji Buyi's dream.
Let the old man truly be an emperor for a day while he's still alive, and experience the thrill of being an emperor that can actually release some "endorphins" or "dopamine"!
Faced with Jiang Ming's proposal to redivide the Jin region and to confer the title of Marquis of Zhongshan Yan upon the Xianbei Murong Lie, Ji Buyi readily agreed and formally appointed Jiang Ming as 'Fangbo'.
Not only that, he also bestowed the Yuzhou Cauldron, one of the Nine Cauldrons, upon Jiang Ming, allowing him to teach those disloyal feudal lords a lesson on his behalf.
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