Aspiring to the Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 302
Wende Hall.

Empress Fu sat beside the bed, softly talking about the memorials she was dealing with today.

"The Confucian family in Qufu sent a letter to apply for land tax exemption, which was approved by the three prime ministers. However, I feel that the most holy teacher taught without distinction, and passed on culture to the world. He is a model for all generations and deserves the respect of the world. The court can To build a temple for Confucius, you can arrange for the descendants of the Confucius family to be officials in the temple and often offer incense. This is the respect that Confucius deserves. However, there are hundreds of descendants of Confucius, and everyone owns a large piece of land. What merits do they inherit from Confucius? Holy blessing?"

"The concubine rejected the proposal of the Confucius family. The Confucius family in Qufu pays rent and taxes according to the common people's rules, and does not grant any privileges."

"There is also a severe drought in Huainan this year, and many wastelands that have been reclaimed have not been harvested well, and there is not even enough to repay the loan for rice seedlings. The people in Jianghuai are distressed and do not know how to repay the loan."

Jianghuai has always been a land of plenty and plenty of fish and rice. After Da Zhou took Jianghuai, he organized the people to reclaim wasteland and restore people's livelihood.

Last year, the Jianghuai harvest was bumper, and the imperial court received a large amount of grain and grass for the Northern Expedition.

Guo Rong was overjoyed, and specially ordered Jianghuai officials to continue to organize the people to reclaim wasteland.

Unexpectedly, the weather is abnormal this year. There has been no rain in the Jianghuai River for many months, and the water level has dropped sharply. Most of the fields cannot be irrigated in time, and the harvest is not good.

Ordinary people seldom cultivate seedlings and rice seeds. Most of them are specially cultivated by special personnel. The common people either buy or rent from the government, and return them in grain when they harvest in autumn.

A loan of conscience chartered by the imperial court.

No matter how conscientious a loan is, it has to be borrowed and repaid. Now the people in Jianghuai are affected by the drought, and they can't repay the imperial loan, and they are panicked.

Jianghuai officials reported the situation to the court.

Empress Fu said softly: "During the spring plowing, Tai Shiling noticed that the climate in the Jianghuai River was abnormal. Some officials said that they borrowed rice seedlings from the people at this time, fearing that the people would not be able to repay them. I remember that Your Majesty said at that time, 'I am the Son of Heaven, and the people of the world are like my Son. , how can there be a reason why the son hangs upside down and the father is not generous'. Therefore, regardless of gains and losses, the seedlings and rice seeds are distributed to the common people."

"My concubine cherishes His Majesty's benevolent government, and boldly decides to exempt Jianghuai from this year's land tax..."

……

Empress Fu spoke word by word, detailing the government affairs she handled today.

As he spoke, tears flowed down unconsciously.

Empress Fu is extremely intelligent, she knows that her husband is afraid of her father Fu Yanqing's intimidation, she has never intervened in government affairs, and also knows that he has a bad temper, whenever he is angry, she always calmly persuades him, so as not to affect the morale of the soldiers by violence.

This time, he had no choice but to hold the power of the world.

Facing the intrigue in the temple, facing the situation where the power of the prime minister is too great and the imperial power is gradually falling.

Empress Fu was also a little haggard.

It's just that she can't fall down, her husband's entrustment, and her six-year-old son have to hold on.

Empress Fu did not dare to slack off in front of others, but in front of her husband, she still couldn't help but shed tears.

"Don't cry, don't cry!"

Empress Fu raised her head in amazement, and looked at her husband who was barely smiling on the bed, she was stunned for a moment, and couldn't make any sound.

Guo Rong smiled weakly: "Don't make any noise, I just want to see how many clowns there are in this temple."

His condition was getting worse and worse. Six days ago, he had a splitting headache and passed out.

Fortunately, the imperial doctor in the palace revived Guo Rong with golden needles and rescued Guo Rong from the brink of life and death. Even so, Guo Rong fell into a coma for three days and three nights, relying on nasal feeding to survive.

On the fourth day, I gradually became conscious, but I still couldn’t move my hands or speak, as if my soul was still there, but my body wasn’t my own.

Empress Fu would tell Guo Rong about the affairs in the temple in detail every night, and that day happened to be the day when the Council proposed that Li Fang be the governor of Jizhou.

It was also the biggest conflict between Guo Rong's inability to govern and the imperial power held by Empress Fu and the power of the council headed by Fan Zhi.

Empress Fu felt that the old system should be adopted and the military official should be the governor.

But Fan Zhi, Wang Pu, and Wei Renpu all thought that the situation in Jizhou was special, and it was easier to manage the people who had been ruled by the Khitan for many years with civil servants as the governor.

Empress Fu holds imperial power, but she has no deterrent power. When it comes to eloquence, she is no match for Fan Zhi, Wang Pu, and Wei Renpu.

In the end, Queen Fu compromised.

Guo Rong heard Empress Fu talking about this matter, and faintly felt that the situation was beyond his expectations.

The power to deploy troops to Fan Zhi, Wang Pu, and Wei Renpu is to check and balance the military officials and achieve a balance between civil and military.

It's not to set up obstacles for the imperial power and affect the imperial power...

I haven't lost my breath yet, and the prime minister headed by Fan Zhi has started to provoke the imperial power?

In fact, all of this is closely related to Luo Youdu.

In history, Fan Zhi and Zhao Kuangyin secretly communicated about the song early in the morning, but the two let go of their courage to seek their own benefits, and waited patiently for Guo Rong's death.

It's different now, Fan Zhi originally planned to wait for Guo Rong's death before starting to suppress Luo Youdu.

But Luo Youdu's speed was too fast, and he captured Jizhou in just five days, ready to return to the imperial court.And Empress Fu's ability was far beyond Fan Zhi's expectations.

Fan Zhi knew from the bottom of his heart that once the capable Empress Fu got the support of Luo Youdu, he would lose most of his right to speak as a prime minister.Not to mention comparing with imperial power, even Luo Youdu can't compare...

Fan Zhi has been prime minister for many years, and his prestige is not half of what Luo Youdu is now.

Faced with the pressure of Luo Youdu's return to the court, Fan Zhi advanced his own operation to seize power.

Guo Rong got a rough idea when he was conscious but out of control.

After a day, Guo Rong found that he could control his fingers.

Under the city of Youzhou, Guo Rong pretended to be in a coma once, and got a lot of things that he didn't know when he was awake.

This time the old trick was repeated.

With the full support of Zhao Kuangyin, Fan Zhi became more ambitious and courageous, and his actions became more aggressive.

Guo Rong smelled something abnormal, and based on his understanding of Fan Zhi, he was afraid that he would get strong support.

But in the end who is the strong support, he is not clear.

"When will Youdu come back?"

Empress Fu said: "We have already passed Weizhou, it will take two days at the fastest, and three days at the slowest."

"Okay!" Guo Rong said weakly: "Tomorrow you will summon Fan Zhi, Wang Pu, Wei Renpu, Zhao Kuangyin, and Han Tong to discuss things together. Let Fan Zhi formulate a welcome charter and Youdu regains the old place of Youyan. The meritorious service needs to be greeted solemnly, and all civil and military officials above the fifth rank in the court must go out of the city to greet them. See who agrees and who opposes!"

When he said these words, he almost exhausted all his strength, and he didn't slow down for a long time.

Empress Fu was in a hurry.

After a few cups of tea, Guo Rong said: "Thank you for your hard work, queen. In your name, let me get some porridge. I'm a little hungry."

Empress Fu hurriedly wiped away her tears, and strode out of the hall.

The eunuch on duty was dozing off against the pillar, and when he saw Empress Fu coming out of the palace, he bowed immediately: "Saint!"

Empress Fu saw that it was Zhang Dejun, her confidant servant, and said: "Servant Zhang, go get a bowl of porridge, I'm hungry."

Zhang Dejun bowed immediately and said, "Obey!"

He walked away quickly.

　There will be another chapter later!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)