Li Zhi looked at Wang Zheng, but Wang Zheng sat back on the brocade stool, leaning on the wooden stick and pretending to doze off.
Wang Zheng did want to return to the court in the early years. After all, everyone has a heart to serve the country. However, after spending ten years in Yuzhou, all his enthusiasm had been worn away.
After returning to Chang'an, Wang Zheng didn't want to bother with these trivial matters anymore. The aristocratic families had already fled to the border areas with the Yuzhou group, and the officials in the court did not actually impose much constraints on Li Zhi.
The more strained the dispute between the two sides becomes, the more beneficial it is for Wang Zheng. After all, the Yuzhou faction, to be precise, is still in the opposition, and discord between the monarch and his subjects is exactly what the Yuzhou faction wants to see.
As the founder of the Yuzhou lineage, Wang Zheng should not be a drag even if he does not help gain political status.
As soon as the Minister of Works made the proposal, many people followed him. Some came to join in the fun, some thought it was a good idea, and some came to take advantage of it.
Loyal ministers and treacherous ministers are actually the same as good and bad people. In many cases, they are not absolute. Most of the time, they just have different interests and positions.
Lu Chunyi was stunned. He looked at Li Zhi, then at Wang Zheng, and finally at the ministers around him, as if he didn't quite believe what he had just heard.
The correct version of this content can be found on 6/9*Shu.ba%! 【6*9*S*H*UBA.CX】
"Your Majesty, this is wrong!"
Now everyone turned their eyes to Wang Zheng, wanting to see how Wang Zheng would respond.
Li Zhi looked behind him with eyes as sharp as knives, and no one dared to remind him.
Li Zhi looked at Wang Zheng and asked, "I wonder how much money the steward wants?"
But now Li Zhi looked at these guys and felt that each of them was a big treacherous minister. They were eyeing his treasury all day long, trying to empty his money.
But what Li Zhi didn't expect was that this time it wouldn't work. As soon as he finished speaking, the Minister of Works jumped out as if he had been injected with chicken blood.
Wang Zheng sighed, stood up and said, "It depends on how Your Majesty plans to build those reservoirs and how much power you plan to give me. If you can let me make all the decisions, not only will the tax revenue not decrease in the future, but you won't have to spend a penny on building reservoirs, and you should be able to make a little profit in the end."
There were too many people talking, and finally Li Zhi had to come up with a way to delay time. Wasn't this how things were done before, where he investigated first and then dealt with it slowly?
If this money was given to someone else, Li Zhi would definitely calculate it carefully. However, there was no need to do so when giving it to Wang Zheng, because no matter how much it cost to build the reservoir, it could not be more than the profit that the imperial farm paid in a year.
"You guys first survey the situation, make a plan and submit it to me, and I'll approve it."
Isn't this a disguised way of competing with the people for profit? What's the difference between this behavior and that of Emperor Ling of Han? An emperor should be like Emperor Guangwu of Han, Liu Xiu. Except for sacrificial ceremonies, he should not wear heavy clothes at ordinary times, like the steward, who wears plain clothes. Don't you know that dyes are expensive? The expenses of the palace should also be reduced to the minimum. We don't need your rewards. You take out the money and we will spend it ourselves.
The country's money is the emperor's money, and correspondingly, the emperor's money is naturally the country's money. The entire country belongs to you, so why do you save money?
All the money and expenses are to be paid from the palace, so someone must be found, otherwise who would be paid for food and clothing?
Li Zhi nodded and said with a smile, "I think it's very good. Minister of Works Lu Chunyi roared in the court and lost his moral character in the palace. He was demoted to Lantian River Engineer and set out to build a reservoir immediately. All the money and grain expenses will be paid by the palace."
As soon as the Minister of Works said this, he himself couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and the expressions of the others were extremely strange. Wang Zheng raised his eyebrows slightly, and Li Zhi even narrowed his eyes.
Li Zhi sneered and said, "Oh, I don't think you are hysterical, you just showed me your true nature."
Li Zhi waved his hand, and after the guards in front of the palace pulled the crying Lu Chunyi out, he looked around the hall and asked in a creepy tone: "My dear ministers, if you have anything else to say, let's talk about it today. It's great that the chief steward is here to court, so he can explain a little to you, and I can cooperate with him."
The ministers murmured, and dared not speak. They had just been demoted to the position of Minister of Works. Who would dare to speak out at this time? Aren't they afraid of death? Li Zhi sneered, sighed and said, "Since there is nothing else to do, let the chief steward take over the position of Minister of Works for a while. Since you think that the construction of the reservoir has reached a point where it can't be delayed, then leave and start."
If Wang Zheng needed money, he would not need to embezzle it now. Not to mention the profits from the imperial farm, just any one of Wang Zheng's secret methods would be enough to pass down the family tradition.
The Minister of Works flicked his sleeves and said in a loud voice, "This is a matter of life and death for millions of people and the interests of future generations. How can there be any delay? Your Majesty should allocate funds quickly and let me build a part of the reservoir first to deal with the emergency. It won't be too late to investigate later. What do you think?"
Although the words were not serious, the voice was really too loud. This was caused by being too excited. Many people speculated that this guy didn't know what he was thinking just now, and he actually made himself so excited? "I, what is wrong with this statement, please ask Minister Lu to explain it to me."
What are you waiting for? How can you wait? Since the emperor has given in, you must naturally seize the opportunity to pursue the victory. In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to deduct money from the emperor's inner treasury.
It was not until the palace guards came in and stripped off his court robes and official hat that Lu Chunyi came to his senses. He quickly broke free from the palace guards, fell to the ground and cried, "Your Majesty, I know I was wrong. I was hysterical. Your Majesty, please forgive me."
If God wants to kill a man, he will first make him mad. The Minister of Works was already immersed in his own world and did not hear the murderous tone in Li Zhi's voice at all. Someone behind him pulled his sleeve, but he shook it off.
Li Zhi laughed wildly for a while, then after looking around, he sighed and said: "Why not eat meat paste? You should eat meat paste; why not eat meat paste? You should eat meat paste! When I first heard this, I just felt happy and joyful, but in the end I just laughed it off. After all, no one would take this seriously.
Until today, I thought of this sentence again, and I felt deeply moved. The people should eat meat. If the people cannot eat meat, it is definitely not my fault alone. "
Why not eat meat porridge? This allusion was told by Wang Zheng to Xiao Yuehua as a joke, but was passed on to Li Zhi by Chen Fengning and spread to the whole world.
When Li Zhi finished speaking, instead of being furious, he felt a little bored. After all, although there were many loyal ministers, there were basically no ones like Wang Zheng who didn't care about money at all. After all, this was an era of family, country and the world, and family came before country.
Everyone's starting point and purpose is just for their own good.