Rebirth: Overthrow Song Dynasty

"My minister sees Your Majesty!" Li Gang was naturally extremely happy to see Zhao Chen!

He looked at Zhao Chen carefully for a while before sitting down.

"What are you looking at, teacher?" Zhao Chen asked.

"Your Majesty's personal expedition, I was always worried about His Majesty in Hanzhong, and now I see that His Majesty is in good health, so I feel relieved!" Li Gang said.

"Thank you teacher for your concern!" Zhao Chen said.

He felt a little emotional in his heart, it had been so many years, and Li Gang still cared so much about him! Perhaps in Li Gang's heart, he will always be that child who can't grow up! Li Gang truly regards himself as his nephew!

"Your Majesty has won such a great victory, and the people of the world are excited about it! I am here to congratulate Your Majesty!" Li Gang said.

"There is nothing to celebrate, and we have suffered a lot of casualties! Moreover, what we defeated was only Wanyanhuonu. Wanyanhuonu is just a Jurchen general who is less than twenty. Jurchens, Wanyan Zongwang, Wanyan Zonghan and others are much worse! Our overall strength is still not as good as the Jurchens, and we are no match for the Jurchens on the plains! Fortunately, we have now obtained Tongguan. As long as we hold Tongguan, it is enough for the Jurchens Can't go west!" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty is right! When Your Majesty was not enthroned that day, the minister once said the future strategy, the first step is to win Guanshan! Owning Guanshan, Sichuan and other places, this is the foundation established by Qin Shihuang and Han Gaozu. A place! I believe that His Majesty will never lose to Qin Shihuang and Han Gaozu, and he will definitely be able to establish hegemony in this territory until he dominates the world!" Li Gang said.

"I have this confidence! However, there is still a huge gap between us and the original Qin and Han. In the original Qin, there were only more than one million men in the country, but the military strength reached 600,000! Many, Han Xin laid an ambush on all sides and defeated Xiang Yu, and there were more than 500,000 ambushed soldiers that day! Now we only have more than 100,000 troops, and it is impossible to conquer the world with this force!" Zhao Chen said .

"We should conscript the army, but the people in the world are unwilling to join the army, and there is no other way for the time being." Li Gang said.

"I will entrust this matter to Wang Shu. I believe he can do it well! In addition, I have one more thing to entrust to the teacher and Wang Shu." Zhao Chen said.

At the moment Zhao Chen talked about the rent reduction, Li Gang just stayed there.

With Li Gang's political wisdom, he naturally knew that the matter of rent reduction was of great importance. It involved almost all the officials in the world, countless rich and noble families, and countless temples and Taoist temples. If it is not handled properly, chaos in the world is very likely!

"Your Majesty, you must be cautious about this matter!" Li Gang said.

"Wang Shu also advised me to proceed step by step. We can now implement rent reduction in Guanshan and Hanzhong. I plan to implement this as soon as possible! When I came down from Dashan Pass, I saw that the people everywhere were indeed living in hardship, and I was very disturbed! The common people are living in dire straits, and this is because we did not do well!" Zhao Chen said.

Li Gang frowned, and after a long time, Li Gang suddenly said: "Your Majesty, let me do this alone! Your Majesty and Lord Wang don't care about this matter!"

Zhao Chen was taken aback, and said, "How do you say that?"

Li Gangdao: "The matter of reducing rent offends the officials and gentry of the world. If your Majesty does it, I am afraid that the officials and gentry of the world will oppose your majesty. That will be detrimental to the world! This matter will be done by the old minister. Tomorrow morning, the old minister will write a letter. If the veterans do it alone, the most officials in the world will hate the veterans! In the future, His Majesty can remove the post of veterans to appease the hearts of the world's officials!"

Zhao Chen stayed there, and said, "How is this possible?"

Li Gang said: "Your Majesty, there is no need to hesitate, this matter is settled like this! This humble official has devoted himself to the Song Dynasty and died. If it is really beneficial to the Song Dynasty, even if it is pointed out by Wan Fu and scolded by the world, it is nothing! Your Majesty As a monarch, you have a relationship with the country and the country, so you can't do such a thing at the moment! In terms of the country and the country, it is the best way for mediocre ministers to come forward!"

Zhao Chen thought for a long time, he didn't want Li Gang to become a thorn in the eyes of the world's officials and gentry, but Li Gang's last sentence moved him! He is now the emperor of the Song Dynasty, and it is not the time to fight against the officials and gentry of the world, even if it is for the benefit of the vast majority of the people, he cannot do so! It would be best for Li Gang to come forward to do this now!

"So I'll bother the teacher!" Zhao Chen said.

"These are the responsibilities of the humble minister! The humble minister is the prime minister. If I don't do such a thing, who will do it?" Li Gang laughed.

*****

On the morning of the next day, the ministers arrived one after another!

After Zhao Chen arrived, Li Gang really stood up and proposed to reduce the rent!

As soon as Li Gang's words came out, the officials in the court were in an uproar, and there were voices of opposition everywhere!

"Your Majesty, the people of the world are living in hardship, so this must be done!" Li Gang said loudly.

"Your Majesty, I will never agree!" This is the new Minister of Rites!

"Your Majesty, I don't agree with it!" This is the new Secretary of the Ministry of Industry.

"Your Majesty, I also feel that this is inappropriate!" Another person stood up, and this person turned out to be the privy envoy Qu Duan!

It turned out that after Qu Duan came to Hanzhong, he felt that he could no longer hold power, so he might as well be a rich man. So in just a few months, Qu Duan has purchased thousands of acres of land. He has been in Jingyuan City for many years, and he has been serving as a strategic envoy since then, and he has saved a lot of money, which is now spent on the land. He originally expected to rely on these lands for his retirement, but he did not expect Li Gang to propose the so-called "rent reduction", and he was angry and angry at the moment.

"Why is it wrong for Qu Aiqing to talk about it?" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, since ancient times, kings have ruled the world with officials and scholar-bureaucrats! Officials and scholar-bureaucrats rely on some land in their homes to survive! Now that Mr. Li wants to reduce rent, how can officials and scholar-bureaucrats survive?" Qu Duan Leng soundtrack.

"Master Qu, do you know how much land Li's family owns?" Li Gang said.

"I don't know." Qu Duan said. He really didn't know how much land Li Gang had. He had only heard that Li Gang was frugal.

"I don't have an acre of land in my family. I rely entirely on the salary of the imperial court. I have never accepted a single bribe. Wouldn't I be able to survive this way? My lords have a lot of land in their families, and even 30% of the rent is enough to survive. The vast majority of the people are much better off! I don’t understand why Mr. Qu must oppose this rent reduction order!” Li Gang said.

"Anyway, Qu will never agree!"

The following ministers stood up one after another and expressed their dissatisfaction. Only a few people such as Li Ruoshui and Wang Shu did not speak! Since Li Gang decided to bear all the accusations, Li Ruoshui, Wang Shu and others had been hinted before, so they just kept silent and did not agree!

"Please ask Your Majesty to adjudicate this matter!" Qu Duan said.

"Ministers have different opinions, and I don't know what to do! I don't think it's better than this. The rent reduction order cannot be implemented nationwide. Let's find some places to implement it first! Let's implement it in Guanshan, Hanzhong and other places!" Zhao said. Chen said.

"Your Majesty, no!" Qu Duan said anxiously.

"Let me think about this matter carefully... Li Gang, I will leave this matter to you for the time being. You can do it cheaply! If there is nothing else, then retreat from the court!" Zhao Chen said.

Zhao Chen has left the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but Li Gang is still arguing with Qu Duan and others! Qu Duan and others tried their best to persuade Li Gang, and some even promised to give Li Gang part of the family's land, but Li Gang still refused! This made the ministers in the court very angry!

*****

From the next day, Li Gang really implemented the rent reduction order in Hanzhong!

He sent all the officials of the Zhongshu Province to do this!

The officials of Zhongshu Province conveyed the imperial court's order in various places in Hanzhong, which means that the land rent of all landlords will be reduced to 30%! If anyone refuses to obey, it is an open confrontation with the imperial court, and the Yamen should arrest him immediately!

However, many officials in the local yamen are landlords, and these yamen officials are not willing to lower the land rent in the first place!

Therefore, it is very difficult to implement the rent reduction order!

Li Gang was in a state of desperation, and on the night of March 10, Li Gang came to the palace again and asked Zhao Chen for support!

"Your Majesty, the officials in all parts of Hanzhong are unwilling to implement this rent reduction order. It is impossible to rely on them. Now it seems that we can only rely on the army!" Li Gang said.

"Rely on the army?" Zhao Chen was taken aback.

"That's right! Let the troops from all over the world implement the rent reduction order. If anyone is unwilling to implement the rent reduction order, arrest them immediately! Your Majesty, didn't you say that you want to improve the status of the soldiers? The soldiers help implement the rent reduction order. The people of the world are grateful to the soldiers. The opinion of the army is bound to change, don't you think?" Li Gang said.

"That's right! Then leave this matter to the army! I will immediately issue an order to the Huanqing Army to let Liu Kai lead the troops into Hanzhong! Liu Kai is from Jingyuan, and the Huanqing Army is also from Jingyuan." People, they don't have land in Hanzhong, and they won't join forces with those officials!" Zhao Chen said.

"It's the best!" Li Gang said joyfully.

If you want to mobilize the army, you must have the will of the Military Aircraft Department, that is to say, you must have Zhao Chen's personal order! At the moment, Zhao Chen wrote a letter to Liu Kai, not to mention this!

Li Gang was busy with rent reduction, so he didn't stay in the palace any longer, and immediately contacted Liu Qi, not to mention that.

During this period of time, the Huanqing Army was undergoing intensive training. They followed what was said in the Infantry Drill Code. In addition, Wang Shu's Propaganda Department also arranged for many propagandists to enter the army to conduct publicity and education work for the soldiers! Sure enough, in just one or two months, the Huanqing Army has undergone great changes! Liu Kai also praised the book "Infantry Exercise Code" written by Zhao Chen!

When Li Gang arrived in person and brought Zhao Chen's order, Liu Qi naturally did not dare to neglect, and immediately led 10,000 troops into Hanzhong with Li Gang!

After the Huanqing army entered Hanzhong, the rent reduction order can finally be implemented smoothly!

Although the landlords in Hanzhong were strongly dissatisfied, no one dared to resist the army! Anyone who resists will be arrested immediately, and their land will still be subject to a rent reduction order!

Of course, as soon as the rent reduction order was released, the people in Hanzhong were overjoyed!

The people in Hanzhong don't understand the struggle between the court and the court. In their view, any decree in the court comes from Zhao Chen's will, and it is Zhao Chen who is implementing it!

The common people are grateful to the emperor, needless to say!

And at this time, Wang Shu's Propaganda Department once again entered the villages in Hanzhong to carry out publicity!

A trend of personality worship has formed in Hanzhong that Zhao Chen has never thought of!