Chapter 97 The King's Three Wishes
Shen Zhiwei wanted to play every day and not work, but people living in this world always have a lot of things to deal with, especially for her.
The chess pieces on the board returned to their respective positions. Shen Zhiwei took the first move in the new game. The black piece fell, and the jade chess piece landed on the jade chessboard, making a crisp collision sound.
"I intend to change the fiefdoms into counties, change the country's name, and change the king to emperor."
Shen Zhiwei said a lot of words that shocked Wen Tao as if he was just chatting.
Wen Tao almost thought he had misheard. Changing the feudal system to the county system was something Wen Tao had been prepared for. Seeing that almost the entire world was in the hands of the king and the king had not even granted out a piece of land, he knew the king's attitude towards the feudal system.
The king disliked the idea of enfeoffment, and Wen Tao could understand that. The reason why the Zhou Dynasty was so chaotic before was inseparable from the princes. They were originally just princes, but later their greed was insatiable, and they gradually expanded their territory. In the end, they even called themselves kings, hoping to be on equal footing with the emperor. Such greedy people should naturally be reduced as much as possible.
Moreover, there are almost no people left in the royal family. If the fiefs are divided again, those who leave will be princes of different surnames. Princes with the same ancestors will compete with Shen Zhiwei for the world. How can princes of different surnames be trusted?
Changing the country's name is not difficult, and to be honest, the current Jingchang and the Jingchang of the Great Zhou are not the same at all.
Jingchang now belongs to the King and to the people of the world. The Great Zhou was destroyed long ago when the princes were each ruling their own territories. Later, it was actually the King who conquered the world. The King's contribution is equivalent to founding a country. If the King does not change the country's name, wouldn't that be equivalent to wasting half of his own merits?
Wen Tao lowered her head and pondered carefully. She felt that what the king said was not particularly difficult to understand, but the last sentence made her a little confused.
"Your Majesty, why do you want to change the title from king to emperor? What's the point?"
"All the princes have been called kings. To be frank, the title of king is no longer valuable, and the title of Son of Heaven sounds a bit too ordinary. Unifying the world and eliminating all the princes, such achievements, don't they deserve the title of emperor?"
There was only Shen Zhiwei's black pieces on the chessboard. Wen Tao's attention was drawn to Shen Zhiwei's words, and she had no intention of playing chess anymore.
Alas, I had thought that we should not talk about politics today, but just play chess and pitch pot and enjoy the rest time, but unexpectedly, she still brought it up.
Shen Zhiwei lamented several times in her heart, wondering if she was a bit of a masochist. Work had abused her thousands of times, but she treated her work like her first love. She didn't expect that she was still in love and would think about work even when she was resting.
"Forget it, forget it. Let's not talk about it anymore. I'll discuss it with you ministers during the morning court session. Play chess, play chess!"
Wen Tao actually understood what Shen Zhiwei meant, and in her heart she somewhat agreed with it. The title of Emperor was not something that had existed for the first time. In the future, if the king wanted to become Emperor, the title of Emperor would only belong to the Son of Heaven when the world was unified. No one in the world would object to him monopolizing the title of Emperor.
Wen Tao felt that among the three things the king had just proposed, the first one was probably the most unacceptable to the ministers.
Changing the feudal system into counties was not just a matter of one person's interests, but the interests of the nobles for generations to come.
After not being able to become a prince, the temptation to make achievements has been reduced a lot. Wen Tao thought that this matter still needs to be discussed in detail. Unfortunately, Shen Zhiwei really intends to change his love for work. He didn't mention work in the next sentence. Wen Tao said that she would not respond.
Wen Tao was in a dilemma and felt very uncomfortable. Even when she left the palace, she mentioned the three things to Shen Zhiwei, saying that she would write a memorial and submit it after returning, asking the king to act with caution.
Shen Zhiwei waved his hands, not saying whether he heard it or not, and continued to read the storybook with his head down.
Storybooks are Shen Zhiwei's favorite recently. With the advent of printing and countless pieces of paper, various literary genres have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Due to the great strides made in science and technology, literary themes have also jumped from poetry to short and medium-length novels.
Coupled with the popularization of education, the common people who had just been exposed to education for a short time did not have the concise and clear characteristics of the nobles when choosing words and sentences. Instead, their words and sentences were closer to the vernacular novels that Shen Zhiwei read in modern times.
To be precise, it is half classical and half vernacular. The current textbooks are still mainly based on classical Chinese. In the past, due to the limitation of the bamboo slips for writing, classical Chinese was very popular and it cannot be changed in a short time.
Shen Zhiwei is already very content. When she first came here, she had nothing. Now she can eat a bite of stir-fried food and read a novel. What else does she need?
…
She still needs bicycles. If the industry really develops, she will want not only bicycles but also trains and cars.
History is constantly developing and moving forward. It will not stop because of anyone's life or death, even if he is a king or a hero who is famous for a while. When he dies, he is nothing more than a handful of earth, a lifeless corpse.
Therefore, the deaths of the various princes will not affect the people of the Great Zhou who are celebrating, nor will it affect Shen Zhiwei's will to reform the state system.
As soon as Shen Zhiwei revealed that she wanted to abolish the feudal system, she was opposed by most of the ministers. They not only opposed it, but they opposed it with their lives. Death was the least of their worries. Some ministers even wanted to take their entire families of hundreds of people with them to die with them.
Those who don’t know would think that Shen Zhiwei is the biggest obstacle to unifying the world.
There were only three people in the court who clearly stood on Shen Zhiwei's side: Wen Tao, Gui Yang, and Hu Youan.
Shen Zhiwei had tested Wen Tao first, and her attitude was within Shen Zhiwei's expectations. Hu Youan, on the other hand, always put the king's will first in everything. Not to mention abolishing the feudal system, even if she was asked to kill all the civil and military officials in the court, Hu Youan would not blink an eye.
What surprised Shen Zhiwei the most was Gui Yang.
Gui Yang joined Shen Zhiwei in the beginning in order to make achievements and establish his career. He has never hidden this fact. If he cannot be enfeoffed as a king, then wouldn't his efforts of the past ten years be in vain?
Shen Zhiwei didn't quite understand what Gui Yang was thinking.
Shen Zhiwei was not the only one who had doubts. Seeing that they could not threaten the monarch with their own lives, the ministers went to Gui Yang, hoping that Gui Yang could persuade Shen Zhiwei to give up.
"Your Majesty has unified the country and achieved remarkable success. You are destined to be remembered in history as a wise and benevolent ruler. If, because of such a small matter, you are labeled a tyrant in the history books, wouldn't that be a loss of the greater good?"
The man who came to Gui Yang to lobby her was from Gui Yang's mansion and had been a retainer of hers. Gui Yang often only looked at talent when hiring people, regardless of their background. After all, his background was not that good, and he liked to hang out with knights, who had a bad reputation. Therefore, the family background of this retainer was not prominent, and he fell into decline later on, so he could barely be considered a descendant of a humble family.
Gui Yang looked up in shock after hearing his words, and asked from the bottom of her heart, "Do you really think that abolishing the feudal system is a small matter, and being praised as a wise and benevolent ruler is a big matter?"
The retainer's scalp tingled at his former master's question. After a moment's hesitation, he nodded and said, "Yes, throughout history, how many rulers have truly been wise? I'm not afraid to speak frankly with the Prime Minister. The Great Zhou Dynasty was on the verge of collapse and on its final days. If Your Majesty had not been a wise ruler, you would have been branded the king who destroyed the country. Now that you've changed your reputation, from a very bad one to a very good one, it's a testament to the spirits of the Great Zhou kings. How could you change the ancestral system? Not only would you tarnish your own reputation, you'd also go against the wishes of your ancestors! You'd be violating the original intentions of Duke Zhou."
"The king is the only one left of the Zhou royal family now. Duke Zhou's original intention wasn't to give all of Zhou's land to outsiders, was it?" Gui Yang sneered and angrily scolded, "Stop pretending to be loyal subjects and pillars of the emperor! Besides, even if the king really wants to divide the land, it will be to the prime minister, the general, or even me as king. What does it have to do with you?"
Gui Yang used to engage in public opinion wars with others. Apart from other things, she has honed her verbal skills. When it comes to saying irritating things, she can say one thing after another.
After Gui Yang finished speaking, she looked up at her former retainer, now her colleague, with a cold glance, and added, "For the sake of our past friendship, I will not say anything more today. You all think the king is a benevolent ruler, but now I only want to ask one question: Can a benevolent ruler rely on his kindness to conquer the world and destroy the princes?"
What benevolent monarch? There may be benevolent monarchs among the princes who were destroyed, but their kings could never be among the benevolent monarchs.
The army of the Great Zhou is killing enemies outside. Could it be that it is all under Hu Youan’s orders?
Upon hearing this, the retainer's face turned pale. He stood up tremblingly, bowed, and said with a face full of shame: "Today, I have received a word from the Prime Minister, which is more valuable than three years of study. I beg the Prime Minister to forgive me for what happened today. I am leaving now."
When he returns, he will definitely give those stubborn guys some advice.
But since he is said to be stubborn and unyielding, what is the point of just a few words of persuasion?
Gui Yang nodded slightly, no longer focusing on those jumping clowns, but began to think about how to fulfill King T's three wishes.
The latter two are not difficult, but the issue of no longer enfeoffing princes is really full of difficulties.
It is impossible to convince the civil and military officials in the court, or even the nobles of the world, by relying on your eloquence. If you want to convince that group of people, you have to rely on real money and benefits, or irreversible power.
How much benefit could convince so many people? If such a huge benefit were to be sacrificed, wouldn't it go against the king's original intention?
So, from the beginning to the end, there is only one way to solve this matter.
What Gui Yang could think of, smart people would also think of, but sooner or later, there were also smart people among those nobles who were making trouble. Seeing that the king had not made any move for several days, the smart people reacted. Between death and life, smart people would only choose life.
If you can't even save your own life, what's the point of fighting the king? The key is that even if you really risk your life to fight the king to the end, it will not change the king's will, because for the king, there is another solution to this problem that will smoothly carry out everything, that is to kill all those who disobey.
Wouldn't things go smoothly if only everyone who could say the word "oppose" could shut up?
Death-defying remonstration never works for Shen Zhiwei.
After a while, the voices opposing this matter in the court had not ceased. Shen Zhiwei did not try to persuade them, nor did he communicate with them privately. He directly asked Yanxia and Hu Youan to join forces, one to investigate the evidence and the other to lead the troops to arrest people.
No one who holds a high position in the officialdom has a clean bottom.
Perhaps every emperor would pave a road with blood before ascending to the throne that belongs to her.
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