The disaster victims and the waterways could not be ignored. Suppressing his temper, the old emperor first reduced the expenses for the imperial harem.
The palace was no longer being repaired, and all departments of the court were tightening their belts and living a hard life.
The entire court was united in its efforts; they would spend a penny whenever possible, and any surplus silver would be sent to Pei Yanzhi.
Even the eldest prince and the crown prince stopped spending extravagantly and lived frugally every day.
—It's fair to say they've never been so united in their entire lives.
Moreover, they cursed the flood every day, cursing the Jin family who repaired the river channel last time for being so useless, and for the flood channel that had just been repaired collapsing again.
no way!
As soon as they stopped paying, Pei Yanzhi's colleagues in court brought up the land reform issue.
Land reform is good; it allows ordinary people to receive land and also increases tax revenue.
With tax revenue, there would be money to repair the river, pay off all the debts from the past, and the imperial harem and the old emperor would no longer have to live a frugal life.
These words made the old emperor's eyes light up and his mind go completely wild.
No one knows whether the old emperor actually wanted land reform. Anyway, Pei Yanzhi had been bringing it up for so long, and he neither agreed nor refused.
But it's impossible to say he had no thoughts at all.
In addition, resettling disaster victims and repairing river channels require a lot of money, and so many unripe rice plants were washed away, which naturally affected land taxes.
In addition, military salaries will be issued soon, which will cost money!
The astronomical sum of money stumped the old emperor.
Suddenly, the old emperor, whose health had been improving since the revocation of the prime minister's power, fell ill again and summoned his ministers to discuss the matter.
Despite their impassioned arguments, the ministers still disagreed with the land reform. When asked to find a way to raise the funds, they remained silent, which infuriated the old emperor, who scolded them for being shameless.
Left with no other option, the old emperor summoned Jiang Shuwan to the palace alone to borrow money from her.
Jiang Shuwan had no money. The sugar beets in the north had just been harvested, and it would take time to make them into sugar and to sell them.
The only way to quickly make money is to lower the prices of glass and perfume.
Glass and perfume are not necessities. If prices are lowered, sales will surge, but subsequent sales will inevitably be affected.
Moreover, this is equivalent to the old emperor using his own money to subsidize the country.
The old emperor was already poor, and he was naturally unwilling to use his own private savings to make up for it, but he eventually agreed.
But when he saw the price of glass and perfume drop, which caused a rush of wealthy families to buy them, the old emperor became increasingly displeased.
Because he discovered that he was the only one who was poor.
The imperial court was poor, and so was he.
But these aristocratic families and powerful clans have plenty of money. So when glass and perfumes are slightly discounted, they go on a buying spree.
"So the Joker was actually myself."
At this moment, the old emperor deeply questioned the meaning of life.
Up in the morning, the land reform faction and the opposition to land reform were still engaged in a heated verbal battle.
The land reform faction consisted mostly of Pei Yanzhi's like-minded colleagues. Most of them came from poor families. When Pei Yanzhi was around, they had quite a lot of influence, but without him, they were like chicks, offering no resistance in front of powerful and wealthy families.
But the old emperor was poor.
He was so poor his eyes were practically glowing red.
He thought of the debts he owed, the money for repairing the river, and the military pay that would be issued soon...
The old emperor was so worried that his hair was almost falling out, and he hated even more those noble families who were frantically buying glass and perfumes.
...
Before long, several officials whom the old emperor had previously mentioned began to side with the land reform faction.
Realizing the old emperor's intentions, the powerful clans launched an even fiercer counterattack, bringing up all sorts of ancestral laws and traditions.
The old emperor watched them coldly, and the more fiercely they fought back, the more disgusted he became with them.
Before leaving, Pei Yanzhi gave him an account book, which recorded the annual changes in land tax from the early days of the Great Jing Dynasty to the present.
In the early days of the founding of the dynasty, everything was in ruins and tax revenue was not high. However, as the political situation stabilized and the population increased, land tax revenue was already quite considerable during the late emperor's prime.
By his time, although natural disasters and man-made calamities continued, the total population was still rising, but land taxes were decreasing, because powerful families were annexing more and more land.
Silver doesn't disappear for no reason; it simply flows from one pocket to another.
In the past, everyone was doing well.
He's so poor now, yet the powerful and wealthy families still refuse to part with their wealth, attempting to continue controlling vast tracts of fertile land without paying taxes...
The whole world belongs to the king.
The old emperor's resolve to reform land became increasingly firm, and with his encouragement, the voices of the land reform faction grew louder.
However, the other side has more people and greater strength...
"Your Majesty, those ministers are kneeling outside the palace and won't leave. In this heavy rain, what if something happens to them..."
Looking at the ministers kneeling and sitting silently outside the hall, Eunuch Su served tea to the old emperor while speaking with great concern.
"kneel!"
"Let them kneel until they die!"
The old emperor gripped the pen tightly and said in a resentful voice.
Upon hearing this, the historian next to him immediately became excited. He picked up his brush with trembling hands and, with a few quick swishes, wrote down every single word.
The old emperor immediately shot him a stern look, and the historian's heart trembled, but he still stubbornly insisted that he would never change his mind.
The old emperor laughed in anger.
"Get out!"
A moment later, the historian scrambled out in a panic.
The officials who had been sitting quietly outside the palace were getting soaked in the rain for most of the hour and could no longer bear it, especially the older men, who collapsed one after another.
Seeing this, the old emperor also began to feel uneasy.
If he really died kneeling, who knows how history would record his story...
Anxious and angry, the old emperor turned his gaze to the two princes kneeling before the officials.
The eldest prince is Li Chengyou, and the crown prince is Li Chengyu.
ridiculous!
His two most beloved sons were not on his side!
"My lord, my lord, my lord, are you alright...?"
His Highness cried out in alarm again, clearly another old minister had succumbed to the strain and fainted.
The historian who had been driven out was still there, sneaking around under the eaves, excitedly recording everything he had seen that day.
With a cold look in his eyes, the old emperor pointed at the historian through the rain curtain ten meters away, "Drag him away and beat him to death."
As soon as he finished speaking, two soldiers rushed over like wolves and dragged the historian away.
"My history books, my history books..."
The historian looked at the history book lying on the ground, screamed in agony, and in the end, only a trace of his blood remained in the rain. The rain washed it away instantly, leaving no trace.
Outside the hall, the officials remained stubbornly kneeling, and the two sides were locked in an endless tug-of-war.
The old emperor was so angry that he didn't eat dinner. It was getting dark and the temperature was dropping. If he knelt down any longer, he would really die.
"Your Majesty, a letter from the Crown Prince."
Suddenly, Su Gonggong's godson rushed in with a secret letter delivered by express courier.
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