Two in one! To do things, you have to fight and compete, and be ambitious...
Shen Zhiwei specially created a new official position for Gui Yang, called Chief Assistant.
As the name suggests, Shoufu means the chief assistant.
Shen Zhiwei didn't say where he was the chief, nor did he say what he was assisting in. Anyway, there was such an official position, and it was given to Gui Yang.
When the ministers in the court first heard about the existence of such an official position, they did not react. Adding an official position was not a big deal, and it would not make all of them angry. On the contrary, for the nobles, the more official positions the better.
There are too many useless children in aristocratic families. If there were more unimportant official positions, they could arrange an official position for all their children.
The reason why the system of primogeniture is so prevalent is that a family’s resources are limited, and if they are not all given to one child, the family will be ruined.
It’s not like they don’t love their other children.
The nobles were still wondering how to get this newly established official position into their own hands when they heard the shocking news that the matters handled by this official position overlapped with those of the Dazai.
To put it bluntly, whatever Dazai does, the Prime Minister does the same thing, and the Prime Minister even controls more than Dazai!
The Dazai originally had great power. He was not only responsible for managing royal affairs, but also the six codes of the world. Later, as the royal family weakened, the power of the Dazai was greatly reduced, and now he is no longer among the Three Dukes.
The Prime Minister completely replicated the power of the former Prime Minister, and also added many powers of governing the country granted by the king. He is basically the head of all officials!
The nobles were not happy about this and they all advised the king to give the position of Prime Minister to a more suitable person instead of Gui Yang.
Gui Yang was still young and had not done anything major except retaking the salt fields. His ascension to the position of head of all officials was unacceptable to them.
Shen Zhiwei listened patiently to the opinions of the ministers and finally made the decision to let the former prime minister be the chief minister.
Then he promoted Taibu to Dazai.
Because the Prime Minister is the head of the cabinet, and there is no cabinet now, the Prime Minister does not have his own team of members, so if he wants to do something, he has to do it all by himself.
The original Dazai turned pale when he found out that he had inexplicably become a commander without troops.
But the king has listened to their opinions and changed the royal decree. If they continue to make trouble, the king will probably be angry. After the incidents of the salt field and Taisheng, these nobles who once looked down on the king's young age have now recognized the king's current strength.
They couldn't force the king to do things over and over again.
The best outcome would actually be to remove the Prime Minister from office, but Shen Zhiwei didn't say anything in that direction at all, just like when she brought up the system of conferring titles based on military merit before, some officials made remonstrations, but she also talked about this and that and didn't fall into the trap at all.
Shen Zhiwei has always had only one attitude towards the ministers left by the previous king, that is, I will accept whatever you say, but don't worry about what I do.
Shen Zhiwei has his own way of doing things that will definitely lead to the destruction of the country, and these old guys have no right to interfere.
When the royal family was in decline, these old guys dared not say a word in front of the princes, and they still wanted to bully her? She was not even afraid of those princes, so how could she be afraid of these incompetent old guys?
By the time Gui Yang arrived in Jingchang, the confrontation between Shen Zhiwei and the group of old guys had come to an end.
On the surface, the old guys won, and the position of Prime Minister did not fall on Gui Yang, but fell into their hands. Inwardly, Shen Zhiwei won. Not only did she make arrangements for Gui Yang, she also drove the old man Taizai down from his original position and directly sidelined him.
This is a win-win situation, Shen Zhiwei said it was a win.
For Shen Zhiwei, this matter was handled quite well. At least she fulfilled the promise she had made to Gui Yang before. Now Gui Yang was really named the Prime Minister by her.
But for Gui Yang, the meaning of this matter is completely different.
If Gui Yang didn't know that there was an official position of Prime Minister before him and that he almost became the Prime Minister, he would definitely be very happy to become the Prime Minister.
Now that she knew that the Prime Minister had been given the position of Prime Minister, even though the current Prime Minister had no subordinates and was a figurehead, Gui Yang was still jealous.
Who doesn’t want to be in a position above everyone else?
Why were the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers so highly respected by the nobility? It was because of their lofty status and immense power! The power and status of the Prime Minister had the potential to be on par with those of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers.
And now, he has become Dazai, a Dazai who has become dispensable with the decline of the royal family.
Even if the king regains control of the world in the future, the position of Taizai is destined to be replaced by the Prime Minister, a position with no future at all.
Gui Yang sat upright on a high seat, looking down at the guests sitting on both sides, her face as gloomy as water.
He looked around at the many guests in the room and asked, "Everyone seated here today must have heard that due to the disapproval of the ministers at court, Yang lost his position as Prime Minister and was forced to take on the position of Grand Chancellor. What are your thoughts?"
"The position of Prime Minister may seem unimportant at the moment, but if it weren't a good one, why would those ministers fight so hard to snatch it from the Grand Astrologer? We can't give it away so easily."
"Hey, the Grand Diviner is now the Grand Chancellor, don't call him Grand Diviner anymore."
Some retainers spoke impatiently, wanting to snatch back the position of Prime Minister.
Some retainers were just trying to get by and didn't want to cause any disputes, so they used the change of official titles as an excuse to talk about the topic and didn't mention the lost position of Prime Minister at all.
"In my humble opinion, the positions of Grand Chancellor and Chief Minister only require one person. Now they've become two, like the east wind and the west wind, fighting each other. If the Grand Chancellor is strong, the Chief Minister must be weak, and vice versa. Your Majesty currently values the Grand Chancellor, who has made great contributions to the East Sea. If the Chief Minister is not valued, what good will it do even if he holds a more noble title?"
A retainer spoke with a disdainful tone, which made Gui Yang's frown relax a little.
"Isn't having a reputation enough? With a reputation, it won't take much effort for the other party to deal with Dazai in the future. Why should we coexist with him? The east wind will definitely prevail over the west wind!"
"It sounds simple, but how can we completely suppress the west wind?"
"It seems that Prime Minister Qi Luan is from the Northern Kingdom?"
Qi Luan, clan name Qi, surnamed Yao, the king of the Northern Kingdom was surnamed Yao.
"The North Country is in chaos right now. Qi Luan doesn't seem worried at all. I guess he has no connection with the North Country anymore."
"After all, it's the motherland. Qi Luan's old mother seems to be still alive. When people get old, they always miss their homeland. I heard that Qi Luan's old mother had a personal relationship with the old Beigong's wife."
Gui Yang listened to the guests' discussion. When she heard this, she raised her eyebrows in surprise and asked, "How do you know this?"
The private relationship between noble ladies is a very private matter and few people know about it, not to mention that Qi Luan is in his forties and his old mother is at least sixty.
After leaving the North for decades, I have probably lost contact with my old friends from my youth. How could a young person know about our past friendship?
Gui Yang narrowed her eyes and looked at the guest who was speaking, and doubts arose in her heart.
The retainer had been following Gui Yang for several months and knew her very well. When he saw Gui Yang's expression, he knew that his words had aroused suspicion. He immediately began to explain to avoid getting himself killed.
"Taizai, I learned this from a merchant named Zheng. Shang Zheng is a merchant from the Northern Kingdom. His family has been doing business in the Northern Kingdom for generations. Some time ago, he surrendered to the king and is working for him."
The retainer explained the matter clearly and blamed Zheng for the authenticity of the information. If it was false, then Zheng was deceiving him and it had nothing to do with him.
Gui Yang knew that there was a businessman named Zheng by the king's side.
He even knew more details, for example, the merchant originally wanted to inform the king about the civil unrest in the north, but unexpectedly the king suddenly had an idea and called him directly to answer.
The merchant did have some skills and caught the king's eye, so the king brought him back to Jingchang.
"Zheng is very close to the Tao County Magistrate. He will probably follow him to Taisheng this time. You should avoid associating with him in the future."
Gui Yang believed the source of the information given by the retainer, and warned everyone to stay away from Zheng.
Is it an honorable thing to let others tell you all the information?
Moreover, Wen Tao and he are both favorites of the king. There are only a few high-ranking officials, and the king's heart is only so small, and there are only a limited number of people he can let go of.
Gui Yang didn't want to be weaker than anyone, including the daughter of Master Wen, who inherited the skills from a famous teacher.
Even if they are future enemies, it is better not to get too entangled in the early stage. Helping Hu Youan train together is already the most good interaction they have.
“Here!”
All the guests responded in unison. The scene was quite spectacular, like a small imperial court.
This is the case with today's nobles. They hold high positions, but they don't do everything themselves. Instead, they keep a bunch of retainers to work for them.
Some of the retainers were commoners who had a chance encounter and were educated, and some were other children from aristocratic families. Most of the aristocratic family's property would be inherited by the eldest son, and the other children who did not get the property could only make a living on their own.
If you can't become an official, just become a retainer of a high-ranking official. You can still eat and drink well, use the official's skin as a banner, and enjoy the happiness of holding power.
After Gui Yang finished chatting with his retainers, he already had an idea in his mind that he would definitely get the position of Prime Minister. It originally belonged to him, so why should he give it to others!
When Hu Youan returned to Jingchang, Shen Zhiwei personally led people to greet him outside the city.
The army has returned victoriously, so of course we have to give them a warm welcome. Hu Youan is a real hero, and we can't let him down.
Moreover, Shen Zhiwei could also take a look at the farm outside the city. Recently, beans have been planted in the fields, and some have been planted with millet. The emperor's fifty acres of land is still empty. Shen Zhiwei has been thinking about whether to tell the common people about the intercropping method.
Intercropping has its own advantages. Beans can fix nitrogen and increase soil fertility, while crops such as millet have well-developed root systems, which can help beans better absorb water and nutrients.
However, intercropping also has disadvantages. At the moment, the most obvious disadvantage is that Shen Zhiwei has no experience.
Intercropping certainly cannot mean sowing seeds randomly and letting the crops grow freely.
Intercropping has its own requirements, and the requirements for intercropping between different crops are also different. Shen Zhiwei is not a professional agricultural student. Her understanding of the land almost all comes from her childhood experience in the countryside.
It was when she followed her family to the fields that she learned to distinguish between wheat and weeds, and knew how to grow crops well and how to make fertilizer.
But she is only a dabbler in farming, and one cannot trust her completely. If there were experienced farmers or agricultural officials on the farm, she would dare to give it a try.
Now she really didn't dare to try. She had worked so hard, but the millet yield was still very small. If she tried again and caused a decrease in grain production, would she really ask the common people to take the grain from their private plots to pay the tax?
She couldn't possibly oppress the lower-class peasants like this.
But if she doesn't do this once the grain production decreases, it would be tantamount to condoning it and breaking the rules. In the future, it is likely to foster the bad habit of the common people only caring about their own private plots and not caring about the life and death of public land.
There are pros and cons to both moving forward and moving backward. Shen Zhiwei fell into deep entanglement. She didn't figure out the result until Hu Youan returned to Jingchang.
The weather was getting hotter day by day. If she didn't make a decision, she would miss the opportunity to plant crops. Then she wouldn't have to plant anything. Nothing would grow anyway, so she would just leave the fields idle.
Hu Youan could see Shen Zhiwei's dilemma at a glance.
Hu Youan had never seen such an obvious expression on the king's face.
Shen Zhiwei held a banquet in the palace to entertain the meritorious officials. She asked the meritorious officials to hold the banquet in the evening, and she would go to the farm during the day.
Hu Youan had been traveling for several days and was not tired. The army was not moving fast, so she told Shen Zhiwei that she wanted to go to the fields together to take a look.
Not only her, but her deputy general Dutong Qiu also wanted to go.
Qiu had farmed before, and all the land he had for military settlements was given to slaves to harvest. They had all been harvested two days ago, and Shen Zhiwei didn't take a single grain of rice, as he used it all as military rations.
The grain yield from the swollen land of military settlements is relatively average. The soldiers have to train and farm at the same time, so they cannot cultivate the land intensively.
"Okay, let's go together. Now that you're back, it's time to plant some new crops. It's a good opportunity for you to think together about how to plant them better."
Shen Zhiwei felt a bit like he was playing a game. If farming was something that didn't tire him at all, it would be really fun.
She plays farming games nowadays and doesn’t feel tired even if she does 627 every day in the game.
On the way to the farm, Hu Youan learned about the king's distress.
In Hu Youan's opinion, this is not actually a worry.
"The king has made his decision. No matter what the king decides, Youan will go through fire and water for the king without hesitation!"
Hu Youan opened her mouth and started to express her loyalty. She was not lying. Every word she said was sincere and came from her heart.
Because it was all sincere, Shen Zhiwei became even more entangled.
She is a person who will show no mercy to bad people, but she really can't be cruel to good people.
Especially those who are wholeheartedly good to you, it is really hard to harden your heart towards them!
Shen Zhiwei now despises himself. Why can't he learn from the protagonists in some novels and be a willful "dictator"?
"But if the food production is insufficient, they will be disappointed. They have all worked very hard."
Arriving at the farm, Shen Zhiwei looked towards the busy fields.
Some time ago, this piece of land had been harvested, and then the common people kept turning the soil and sowing new seeds.
I haven't had a single day of rest.
Shen Zhiwei informed the Hundred Workers' Workshop to make iron farm tools. The farm tools were much more powerful than before, making it much easier to plow the soil. However, no matter how easy it was, it was still farm work.
It is farm work that involves dealing with the land under the scorching sun.
When the sweat drops from their bodies fell into the black soil and merged with the land, there was no bitterness on their faces, only smiles. How could one not be moved?
There is also Meng Nu. When Shen Zhiwei saw her some time ago, he told her to have a good rest. Shen Zhiwei saw her again these two days and found that Meng Nu was still the same as before.
He has dark circles under his eyes, is very thin, and is tanned.
But her eyes were really bright, brighter than the sun in the sky. Every time Shen Zhiwei met Meng Nu's eyes, he could not bear to treat this land perfunctorily.
"Without the king, they wouldn't have any private plots, and they wouldn't be able to cultivate just this little land, nor would they be exempt from military service and cloth taxes."
Hu Youan didn’t think there was anything wrong with the low yield of rotational crops. How much lower could it be?
The worst that could happen was that they had to pay taxes on all their output, and then they would still have one season's worth of food left, enough to last them a year.
In the past, common people would not even dare to think about such a thing.
"Your Majesty is kind and cares about the people. That's a good thing." Hu Youan looked at Shen Zhiwei with respect in her eyes. She really felt from the bottom of her heart that Your Majesty was the best monarch in the world. "Just don't treat them like children. Consider everything carefully. Change is not a bad thing. As long as there is a possibility of improvement, you can give it a try."
Shen Zhiwei was stunned when she heard this. She was used to being content with the status quo, because in the modern era, everything was stable.
It is difficult for people who grew up in a peaceful and prosperous era to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
In the current Great Zhou Dynasty, the princes are divided and the world is about to fall into chaos. Classes are like mountains, pressing everyone to the point of suffocation. The gap between the strong and the weak often represents whether a country can survive tomorrow.
Everyone is striving to reform and become stronger, hoping to exist longer. In this environment, people are not afraid of change at all, and even urgently seek change.
To them, the status quo means death.
Therefore, even though those princes knew that their countries might not be able to successfully implement the system of conferring nobility based on military merit, they still tried to promote it anyway, because they saw the success of the system of conferring nobility based on military merit and wanted to learn from it to make themselves stronger.
Before they implemented it, they had already imagined the worst consequences, but they still tried it.
In fact, Shen Zhiwei was far less brave than the princes.
Fortunately, she is not someone who refuses to listen to advice. She is still young, and she hates a boring and unchanging world in her bones.
"Okay, then start interplanting. Call Ms. Meng over."
Shen Zhiwei ordered the palace maids around him, and they quickly called over Meng Nu, who was squatting on the edge of the field, wondering what she was thinking.
Lady Meng stepped forward and bowed, saying, "I come to see Your Majesty, and to meet Doctor Hu."
"Here is a set of planting methods. Are you interested in learning it?"
Shen Zhiwei didn't bother to be polite with Meng Nu and went straight to the point.
Of course, Ms. Meng would not refuse to learn new farming knowledge and immediately expressed her willingness to listen carefully.
Recently, Shen Zhiwei sent a minor official to give Mengnu lessons, mainly to teach her to speak elegant language and learn the official writing of the Zhou Dynasty.
There is no need to learn the languages of various countries. There are too many and various kinds of languages. Even Shen Zhiwei found it difficult to learn, let alone Mengnu, a scholar who changed his career lately. It is enough for Mengnu to escape the situation of being illiterate.
Perhaps because she had learned to read and write, Ms. Meng had acquired some of the quietness and profoundness that were unique to scholars. She had a particularly strong learning ability. The clerk had told Shen Zhiwei more than once that Ms. Meng was a genius.
Shen Zhiwei had not been so impressed by the fact that Meng Nu was a genius before. Her impression of Meng Nu was still that of a congenital holy body for farming.
Now that he was personally teaching farming knowledge to Ms. Meng, Shen Zhiwei realized that true genius had no age or learning foundation.
It is said that the younger the age, the stronger the learning ability. But in fact, an adult with clear thinking has a learning ability that is no weaker than that of a child. In fact, because of her stronger comprehension ability, her learning ability will be stronger.
The reason why modern people believe that adults have lower learning abilities than children is because adults have too many things to do and it is difficult for them to calm down and study.
Meng's genius lies in her ability to calm down and devote herself to one thing.
In addition, she had a strong comprehension ability and a good memory, to the extent that she could understand three sentences for every one Shen Zhiwei said.
After understanding the principle of intercropping, Ms. Meng immediately began to think, in addition to beans and millets, can some vegetables also be intercropped?
If you want to plant intercropping well, do you need to give the land a rest? Will the different heights of crops also affect the distance between seeds during sowing?
Meng Nu asked these questions, but Shen Zhiwei couldn't answer them.
Shen Zhiwei doesn't know either.
"You need to think about these things and put them into practice yourself, Miss Meng. I believe you can do it well." Shen Zhiwei did not shy away from his own shortcomings and directly admitted that he did not know how to farm. "You played a huge role in the previous harvest, so from today on, you will be the agricultural officer of the farm. Work hard, and perhaps one day you can become the Minister of Agriculture."
Ms. Meng was stunned by the sudden gift of promotion, and then she was blinded by the promises made by Shen Zhiwei.
Si Nong, that’s Si Nong!
The Minister of Agriculture was not a particularly high-ranking official. Many nobles even looked down on this position, thinking that the Minister of Agriculture had to deal with the common people's fields every day, which was really lowly.
But for the common people, the Minister of Agriculture was already a very important official, and the common people had to kneel down to greet him when they saw him.
Ms. Meng used to think that becoming an agricultural official was a great thing. Now that she has really become an agricultural official, she feels that being an agricultural official is nothing special.
What's a small agricultural official? If you want to be an official, you must be the Minister of Agriculture!
When Shen Zhiwei saw Meng Nu's bright eyes, his ambition for a career in politics burned in his heart.
That's how it should be.
Shen Zhiwei is a vulgar person. She likes money and power.
But in modern times, her background doesn't allow her to hold power, so she loves money very much, and has only loved money from beginning to end.
In ancient times, power was naturally more attractive than money.
Those who have money but no power have money bags, while those who have no money but have power have money bags everywhere and can be taken at will.
From the businessman Zheng's behavior of seeking protection from powerful people everywhere, Shen Zhiwei has seen the essence of this era clearly: power is the most important thing!
Shen Zhiwei thought, she is not the material to be a wise ruler. Which wise ruler likes his ministers to be ambitious? He also likes to delegate power everywhere.
She didn't notice that the loyalty in the eyes of Meng Nu and Hu Youan beside her was even stronger when they looked at her.
Is there any monarch in the world who can know how to use people well, not blindly seize power, and not be suspicious of everyone?
Their monarch can do it!
Your Majesty, you are truly a wise ruler rarely seen in ancient and modern times.
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