Liu Bian's unusual behavior surprised everyone.
The three paused, exchanged glances, and then Wang Meng and Gongsun Yang spoke first.
After Meng helped General Bai capture Youfufeng, he knew that everything was accomplished and returned to Jinyang.
When he first met the young emperor, his gaze was evasive, showing no trace of imperial bearing.
Gongsun Yang nodded, "That's right. The young emperor has always entrusted state affairs to others, unlike today."
Li Ru frowned slightly. "Back in Luoyang Palace, I also faced the young emperor directly. My behavior was consistent with what you two have said."
All that has happened today is perhaps because the young master eliminated Dong Zhuo, which resolved the resentment in the young emperor's heart.
Then, the young master spoke frankly and passionately in court, which stirred the young emperor's imperial ambitions, hence this appearance?
Zhao Hao nodded slightly. "I hope so. Wenhe, there's something you might not know. Although my surname is Zhao, sooner or later I will have to change it back to Ying."
Li Ru was taken aback. The surname Ying was Zhao...?
"Young master, are you a descendant of the pre-Qin dynasty?"
"That's right, you'll find out about this sooner or later, which is why the generals I've placed in various places are all descendants of people from the pre-Qin era, and they're absolutely trustworthy. But these old stubborn royalists are not."
As I mentioned before, I need you, Li Ru, to act as my undercover agent and properly discipline these aristocratic families who disregard national interests and only know how to enrich themselves at the expense of the public.
Now that the war is over, production has begun to resume in various places.
It's about time those people started to make their move.
Li Ru's eyes shone even brighter with determination, and he quickly returned the gesture with his hands clasped in response.
"Rest assured, young master, I will begin making arrangements tomorrow, and we will commence operations next spring!"
"Yes, Gongsun Yang, you will provide Wenhe with legal support. The laws I'm talking about need to be updated with the times and modified according to the actual situation. Do you understand?"
"Don't worry, young master, I understand."
"Very good, Jinglue. I'll leave the administration to you here. I'll give you the intelligence that Lu Buwei secretly sent me first, and then you can pass it on to me."
"Rest assured, my lord, I will not miss a single piece of information."
"Well, now that the water conservancy projects in Bingzhou are mostly completed, Shi Lu knows that he can go to the Western Regions. He will first go to Liangzhou to observe the terrain with Jia Sixie, and then go to the Western Regions for a while. I don't know how long it will take to return."
Fortunately, before they left, they each handed over a plan for consolidating water conservancy and developing agriculture in the capital region. The three of you can take turns reviewing it.”
After the three of them finished reading Shi Lu and Jia Sixie's plan, they praised it repeatedly.
If the capital region develops in this way, in the next few years, the commercial tax revenue collected from the capital region alone will definitely increase significantly, and the output of various crops, fruits and vegetables may even increase several times over.
With such a promising future, what is there to worry about in terms of the prosperity of the world?
"Haha, you're all wide-eyed with amazement. The plan is good, but we lack a suitable person to oversee its implementation. Gentlemen, do you know anyone suitable for this task?"
Faced with Zhao Hao's question, the three fell into deep thought.
Zhao Hao hasn't brought any civil officials with him lately, but instead has assigned quite a few military officers to his personal guards.
In an instant, it became difficult for them to say what kind of person with the character and talent they could recommend.
Wang Meng rolled his eyes, then a flash of inspiration struck him, and he quickly said.
"Young Master, Lu Zhi and Huang Wan are suitable for this task!"
Zhao Hao was stunned for a moment. That's right, these old geezers can be put to good use!
As expected, Wang Meng was the one who best understood their thoughts. Weren't these old fogies trying to place their younger generations in the imperial court? This was the perfect opportunity for them!
"Hmm... Master Lu is also helping farmers, and he is responsible for encouraging them to engage in farming and sericulture, which is quite suitable for him."
Huang Wan had also served in Yuzhou, where he repaired water conservancy projects, won over the people, and fought against bandits. Although he wasn't a specialist in water conservancy, with the help of plans and blueprints, it wasn't a difficult task.
I'll request that they be allowed to do this first thing tomorrow morning. We can't let these people live a life of luxury and act like big shots forever.
Among the royalists, only the Wuqiu family is truly capable. I intend to put Wuqiu Xing, the younger member of the clan, in charge of the palace guards. What do you think?
“Young master’s arrangements are excellent; we have nothing to add.”
Soon, they had arranged several matters, both big and small, in private.
Finally, there's just one small thing I want to remind them of.
"Now, Guo Tai and a few of his former Black Mountain followers have become yamen runners in the Jinyang government office. Hai Rui and Bao Zheng have my orders to rid the people of this scourge and investigate lawbreakers."
If possible, try to avoid the things they are investigating, especially for Wen You. They are people who are dedicated to the country. When dealing with the powerful families, be careful that someone might shift the conflict and cause the two of you to clash.
"I've sent Hua Xiong to General Bai's command to train the cavalry. In a couple of days, I'll send four more men to be your deputies—two civil and two military. How does that sound?"
"I will obey your arrangements, young master!"
...
With Zhao Hao declaring himself a duke, the various feudal lords across the land began to take their own actions.
Liu Yu submitted a memorial to the Jinyang court, requesting to take up a post in Jinyang and to appoint another person as the governor of Youzhou.
Of all the people in Youzhou, only Gongsun Du accepted Dong Zhuo's appointment as King of Liaodong; none of them paid any attention to the appointments made by the puppet dynasty.
Therefore, if Liu Yu were to enter Jin, the only one with the greatest hope of taking over as governor of Youzhou would be Gongsun Zan.
In Shu, Liu Yan accepted Dong Zhuo's belated investiture and proclaimed himself King of Shu. However, he soon received news of Dong Zhuo's defeat and death, and hastily and pretentiously abdicated, calling himself Duke, and submitted a memorial to the Jinyang court to plead guilty.
Zhao Hao was too lazy to pay attention to Liu Yan. The price for opposing him was that the merchants from Shu had very strict requirements and paid much heavier taxes.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
