Chapter 599: Killing without Guilt

The night breeze in the lotus pond was fragrant and refreshing. Si Kotian put his hands behind his back and looked at the slowly flowing water, his mind wandering to nowhere.

Suddenly, the servant Tian Jian came over in a hurry and reported urgently: "Your Majesty, the Yangcheng Prime Minister heard that Su Mo was the Great Situ, and changed his recommendation to selection, and has already defected."

Yangcheng Zai refers to Tian Kuo. After he came of age, his brother Tian Guang became a senior official, so he served as the official of his own fiefdom of Yangcheng.

Tian Heng suddenly raised his head, his eyes widened, as if anger was rising in his heart, but he immediately took a breath, and his expression remained unchanged.

"Let him go." He said in an indifferent voice.

Tian Jian was startled: "My lord, how can this be done?"

Does the Lord mean to give up Yangcheng Zai?

Tian Heng glanced at him without any emotion and emphasized: "Let him go."

Tian Jian did not dare to express doubts anymore, bowed and left the pavilion.

After looking at the living water of the lotus pond again for a while, Tian Heng suddenly sighed and whispered to himself:

"fair enough……"

…………

In King Chen's palace, Meng Qi, Jiang Zhiwei and others, who were waiting for the first court meeting, were discussing enthusiastically what to do next.

For more than a month, they had repeatedly deliberated and rehearsed what to say when they met with King Chen, so much so that they couldn't think of how to implement their "national salvation strategy" after King Chen accepted the advice. They still had many problems after deliberating through the night.

"King Chen himself is a master, and he has the support of non-feudal officials and scholars. There are many powerful people in the field under his command. As long as he can strengthen his determination, he can vigorously implement the national policy of abolishing the Guanjin tax and promoting meritocracy. At least there is no noble. I'm afraid there will be some violent reaction in Shangying. I'm afraid that the good national policy will be distorted and implemented. Not only will it not achieve good results, but it will offend the Chu and Tang Dynasties or waste money. "

As the emperor's younger brother, Zhao Heng has the best say in similar situations. In the past, when the majesty of the royal family still existed, top families loved to do this.

Qi Zhengyan, who had always been taciturn, took turns giving lectures and became a little more active in expressing his opinions: "The scope of promoting talents and talents can be temporarily limited to the palace, a few key yamen, officials in the upper camp and the army directly under King Chen, without overly infringing on the nobles. 'Profit', this should reduce many obstacles."

These are the places where King Chen has the strongest control, and the nobles cannot interfere with them even if they want to use small means.

As for the army, the world of Fengshen is different from the world of Meng Qi and others. There are many formation diagrams left behind. As long as you select skilled players, practice with the formation diagrams more, and add the corresponding treasures, it will be enough to temporarily compete with the outdoor scene, so there is an army. space, but except for a few special formations, most of them cannot fly. If it is a surprise battle, there are not many opportunities to be useful. Defense and frontal battles are good.

"Well, at the beginning, we must try our best to avoid intensifying conflicts and attracting interference from the Chu State and the hidden Taoist sects. When the 'benefits' and 'utilities' are both revealed, and with the acquiescence of the forces that have tasted the benefits, we can take drastic measures!" Meng Qi affirmed Qi Zhengyan's method. Before the court meeting began, they would report the results of the discussion to King Chen again.

Jiang Zhi slightly frowned: "The use of energy for the virtuous and the frugal use of burials only involve King Chen and a small group of people for the time being. We are not afraid of interference. However, the abolition of the Guanjin tax requires the cooperation of the feudal nobles. Otherwise, it will be withdrawn today and set up tomorrow, or There is no way to muddy the waters with other methods.”

If the customs tax cannot be abolished, it will be impossible to attract merchants. If it cannot attract merchants, it will be difficult to see its "profit". Unprofitable things will rarely be accomplished!

Convincing King Chen is the beginning, the real difficulty is yet to come!

"Intensify inspections to scare the monkeys?" Ruan Yushu said.

Jiang Zhiwei nodded and said: "This is a way. As long as we can scare the 'monkeys' for a short time and prevent them from causing trouble for a while, we can implement it smoothly and things will be much easier."

As long as the new national policy shows attractive benefits, the 'monkeys' who dare not make trouble for the time being will no longer want to make trouble!

Although Meng Qi can just leave after a month, no matter what happens next, they still have compassion and intolerance. How can King Chen treat himself and others with such respect and importance, leaving a mess?

"Killing chickens to scare monkeys? What kind of chickens to kill?" Hearing the opinions of the two girls, Zhao Heng chuckled, "Most of the gatekeepers at most levels have only nine orifices. What's the use of killing them? The nobles have long been involved in their own affairs. It will be completely cleaned, and it will even help the watcher to abscond, so that we can’t get evidence to attack, and the majesty of King Chen will be lost.”

"And there are too many similar checkpoints. How can we have so many manpower to monitor them? As long as such checkpoints exist for a few more days and the merchants suffer losses, they will doubt King Chen's determination to abolish the Guanjin tax and no longer believe in it. , even if all the checkpoints can be cleared in the future, merchants will no longer be able to consciously make false claims to Chen Guo in a short period of time. "

"If we don't see any benefits in a short period of time, why does Prince Chen still believe in us?"

This kind of execution problem is the most troublesome. For a while, Meng Qi and others were thinking hard and couldn't find a solution. The king of hell is really easy to kill, but the kid is difficult to deal with!

Suddenly, Meng Qi remembered a certain book he had read in the past. An idea flashed in his mind and he clasped his palms together: "I have a solution!"

"What can we do?" Jiang Zhiwei and others all looked at him.

Meng Qi regained his mood, pretended to be serious and smiled and said: "This is not difficult to hear."

"Stop showing off, there's no need to show off in front of us." Jiang Zhi scolded with a smile.

Meng Qi coughed: "The fortresses at the border with other countries are all under the control of King Chen. This part of the Guanjin tax is the easiest to abolish."

Zhao Heng and others nodded gently. This is the easiest part. As long as the guards are well subsidized or replaced with selected people, it will not be difficult to do.

"So, we only need to issue an order from King Chen to the merchants when they pass through these fortresses, and most of the remaining checkpoints will not be a problem." Meng Qi still smiled mysteriously.

"What order?" Ruan Yushu was curious, just like a delicious food in front of him that he could not enjoy.

Meng Qi first smiled, then his face was stiff and his expression was solemn: "Anyone who collects customs taxes will be killed without guilt!"

"Killing without guilt?" Zhao Heng said in a lost voice.

Such an "order" was beyond his imagination.

Jiang Zhiwei was puzzled at first, and then smiled: "That's great. Merchants who can travel between countries are not short of masters, but they pay customs taxes obediently because of the deterrence of the strong men in various countries. At that time, the guards outside the scene will not be able to stop them at all!"

The countries are in chaos, how can the merchants who dare to travel between countries not have some masters and some backers? As long as the order proposed by Meng Qi is implemented, they can "borrow" their power to alleviate the danger of insufficient manpower and help Chen State monitor various checkpoints!

"What a great idea! And it also clearly conveys the determination of King Chen to abolish the customs tax to merchants." Zhao Heng praised.

Meng Qi enjoyed their praise and continued with a smile: "If the nobles use the troops with external scenes or formations, then the monks can run away but the temple cannot, which is enough for us to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys."

He paused and said: "We can even take the initiative to do this. At that time, we will separate people and mix in the caravans with average strength. When we encounter the strong men with external scenes or the army with formations forcing customs duties, we can directly attack them, follow the clues, kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, anyway, 'killing is not a crime'!"

"However, don't force the nobles behind the scenes too much for the time being. You can punish them severely, but you can't completely intensify the contradictions, which will make Other nobles were grieving, contacting each other, and starting a civil war, giving Chu an excuse to interfere, so that the new national policy died when it was fragile. "

Qi Zhengyan said expressionlessly but tacitly: "So, we have to choose the right 'chicken'."

Meng Qi nodded and said: "Chen is a small country. There are not many powerful nobles besides the King of Chen. The three families represented by 'Former Grand Tutor' Wang Dan, 'Grand Minister of Justice' Tian Heng, and 'Grand Minister of Works' Gongyang Zeng are the most powerful. Not only do they have top masters, but they also control the government. Their fiefdoms are not small and there are many checkpoints. If you want to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, you have to choose from them. "

Although the words are plain, they are murderous.

"Minister of Justice Tian Heng has been passed down for many generations and has a close relationship with some nobles of Chu. He is not a suitable candidate." Zhao Heng first denied one family.

Ruan Yushu said in a moderate voice: "It is said that Sikong Gongyangzeng has a son who is learning martial arts in Jinguang Cave in Wudang Mountain."

"So it seems that the only one left is Wang Dan, the 'former Si Tu' whose position I took away..." Meng Qi pondered, "His family is the oldest noble family in Chen State. He is a retainer of the first generation of Chen Bo. There are many masters in the family, and his relatives and friends are all over the place, but there is no strong support outside. It is just right for action. When you sneak into the ordinary caravan, it is best to pass through his fiefdom."

"Okay." Jiang Zhiwei and others said.

After the calculation, Meng Qi and others met with King Chen again before the court meeting to explain their own conspiracy.

…………

Compared with the previous court meetings, because King Chen began to follow the Mohist school, this time it became clean and refreshing, without red tape, and everyone quickly returned to their positions, waiting for King Chen to speak.

The only thing that made Meng Qi not very satisfied was that his mustard ring and swords were placed outside and guarded by the guards, just like when he met King Chen before.

Because this is a world with strange and powerful secret treasures, although King Chen is a master, he has to beware of danger. Not only Meng Qi, but also the treasured weapons and items similar to the mustard ring of other ministers and doctors were taken down.

"My mustard ring contains the Huangquan hand bone and the unformed Dinghai Pearl. My treasured weapons are of top and middle grade respectively. Don't lose them..." Meng Qi muttered in his heart. If they are lost, how much good deeds will be lost!

King Chen looked around and announced the first thing, that is, Meng Qi will be the Grand Tutor in charge of politics, and Jiang Zhiwei and others will be the assistants of the Junior Tutor.

When announcing, many eyes were cast on Meng Qi, all of which seemed to be real, but one of them was quite indifferent, which surprised Meng Qi a little.

In the induction, this is a young man with a tall crown and ancient robe, handsome and outstanding temperament.

"Tian Guang, the eldest son of Sikou Tian Heng, was promoted to the outer scene at the age of 30 and became a senior doctor..."

Meng Qi quickly recognized the identity of this man, and bits and pieces about him flashed through his mind quickly.