I'm really not King Jing of Zhongshan

Chapter 275 The Essence of Game

After the first day of hunting, Liu Sheng was not in a hurry to return to Chang'an.

This time, Liu Sheng was hunting in Shanglin with his brothers, and naturally he had a mission;

But apart from the missions and business, apart from the titles of monarchs and ministers among each other, Liu Sheng is still the younger brother of Liu Rong and Liu Yu, the current bloodlines and clan princes.

——Once upon a time, the "youngest" among the brothers did not refer to Liu Zhi, the king of Jiaodong today, but Liu Sheng, the son who once made a great reputation in Chang'an!
Playing together since childhood, they are siblings whose blood is thicker than water. Liu Shengzi is also happy to take this opportunity to catch up with his brothers.

Take a ten thousand step back and say: Even if Liu Sheng and his brothers really don't have much real feelings, as the eldest son in law and actually the younger brother, Liu Sheng should still take this opportunity to communicate more with his brothers emotion.

After all, no matter what, Liu Sheng borrowed the hand of Emperor Qi this time to call all his brothers to Chang'an, mainly because of money.

As for this matter, the brothers cooperated so well, of course not all because of fear of the prince;
More, it still depends on the face of Liu Sheng, the younger brother, or the former "Little Nine" and "Gongzi Sheng".

By taking part in a banquet after a hunt, or rather a 'picnic', Liu Sheng got a positive attitude of 'absolute cooperation' from his brothers.

But this doesn't mean that Liu Sheng can feel at ease and start pawing at the bowls of his brothers and those clan princes who are a little further away without any scruples.

——Absolute cooperation, just attitude;

How to cooperate specifically, of course, also needs Liu Sheng to chat with these brothers in detail.

It's just a detailed chat, so there's no need to bring together a dozen or so brothers, as well as the youngest, Mrs. Wang, Liu Zhi's old lady, to discuss...
·
"The imperial court wants to cut down the vassal, and I'm not sure about the specific measures;"

"What my father entrusted to me is mainly about money."

"—To be precise: I should not have intervened in the matter of reducing the feudal clan;"

"I don't want to be this villain either."

"Just from the very beginning, my father entrusted all matters related to the money system to my hands."

"For the sake of money, I have to discuss with my brothers about the copper mining and private coin casting of the Kanto clan princes in the country..."

In the afternoon of the next day, go to Lin Sixian Garden, the main hall of the Prince's Palace.

Compared with the previous ones, where they had a happy dinner with the brothers in the Palace of the Crown Prince in Chang'an City and outside the hunting ground in Sixian Garden, the atmosphere of today's meeting is undoubtedly much more solemn.

Later generations often say: to solve small problems, hold a conference, and to solve big problems, hold a small conference;

Today's talks undoubtedly confirmed this point.

——In the palace room, which is ten feet wide from east to west, and more than fifteen feet long from north to south, except for the palace people standing quietly on the edge of the pillars, there are only a few figures.

The eldest Linjiang King Liu Rong, and the fourth eldest Lu King Liu Yu, respectively, as representatives of the princes of the former Phoenix Hall and Xuanming Hall, sat next to each other in the East Seat;

The crown prince Liu Sheng and the seventh son Liu Pengzu sat hand in hand with the teacher.

This is the best way Liu Sheng can think of.

——In the name of a crown prince, but meeting these brothers as a younger brother, Liu Sheng, it is really awkward...

On the monarch and his ministers, or on the elder and younger?
In this matter, the public is justified, and the woman is right;
But in the final analysis, Liu Sheng really had to take care of both.

If you only talk about monarchs and ministers, you will gain the reputation of being "iron and selfless" in the eyes of outsiders;

Courtiers and officials flocked to this reputation, wishing they could do everything they could to gain such a reputation.

Because for courtiers and officials, being unselfish means being clean and capable—this is a good reputation.

But with the same four words of 'iron face and selflessness', Liu Sheng, as the prince, was a little respectful and insensitive.

Because for the prince and prince, being stern and selfless means being unkind and not showing favoritism.

Not only is this not a good reputation, it is even a 'stigma' that is likely to cause disasters for Liu Sheng today.

The logic couldn't be simpler;
——Officials are 'stern and selfless', which means they are clean and fair.

Take a step back and say: Even an official who is useless and can't even manage a village well, with a reputation of being "iron and selfless", is at least a pure waste, not a traitor among waste.

But if it is said that the crown prince is "stern and selfless", everything is fair, and he does not show favoritism?
Hey!
You are your prince, who registered it?

Where did the edict to establish the crown prince come from?
Unselfish?

And my natal family - relatives of the Dou family, you also talk about being stern and selfless?
Come, come, come to Changle Palace, and talk to my old lady: What is Timo, who is called Timo's stern and selfless...

Therefore, even though he knew that this was wrong, Liu Sheng could only helplessly admit that in this generation, the words 'iron face and selflessness' are not the qualities that a crown prince should possess at all.

——At least until the Ninth Five-Year Plan, these four words can hide as far as Liu Sheng can hide.

Because in this era, people's requirements for the prince and prince are quite different from what later generations take for granted.

In this generation, you can say that the prince is intelligent and may be a wise king in the future;

It can also be said that the prince is capable and may be the hero in the future;

It can also be said that the prince is a martial artist, and may be a martial emperor in the future.

At worst, you can always say: the prince is benevolent, gentle and kind, and will be a benevolent king in the future.

But only the four characters of "iron face and selflessness" must not be associated with the crown prince.

Because the prince of this era, in addition to the status of 'quasi-emperor' or 'reserve emperor', also has an extremely important role.

- Lubricant.

Lubricant between clan princes and Chang'an court;

Lubricant between the Liu clan, relatives of the later clan, and the emperor.

As well as the lubricant between the East-West Palaces, Xuanshi-Jiaofang Second Hall.

To put it bluntly: Almost everyone in the world hopes that officials will be impartial;
But there will be absolutely no one, hoping that the emperor will be unkind.

Almost all people in the world yearn for fairness and justice;
But those who are truly influential do not want the crown prince to be an unkind person.

Therefore, when meeting his elder brothers who are both elders and ministers, Liu Sheng must not only talk about the emperor and ministers, regardless of the age.

After all, Liu Sheng, the crown prince, is not only the prince of the world, but also the crown prince of the Liu family;

In the future, Liu Sheng will not only be the father of the people in the world, but also the patriarch of the Liu clan.

Then someone asked: Since we can't just talk about monarchs and ministers, regardless of age, can it be reversed?

This, of course, needless to say.

——Only talking about seniors and young people means regardless of monarchs and ministers;

Regardless of monarchs and ministers...

"Even in front of my father, my grandmother, and my mother, I don't dare to 'regardless of my subjects'..."

Looking at the vacant seat in the hall, and the two elder brothers Liu Rong and Liu Yu sitting about five steps away from him, Liu Sheng sighed in his heart.

In order to take care of the emperor, ministers, seniors and young, Liu Sheng could only vacate the main seat, and did not sit in it himself, let alone let Liu Rong, the 'big brother', sit in it.

After all, Liu Sheng tried his best to rescue Liu Rong from the hands of the emperor Qi, not to let Liu Rong experience what happened to Liu Fei, the King of Hui Hui of Qi, in Chang'an.

And when Liu Sheng's mind was scattered, thinking about these seemingly meaningless, but in fact, headaches, the two brothers Liu Rong and Liu Yu also sat up straight.

"Please make it clear, Your Highness."

"This time, the court intends to deprive us of the power of our clan and princes, what to do in the feudal kingdom?"

Almost as soon as he opened his mouth, Liu Yu quickly entered the state - with his head held high, his face solemn, and he clearly possessed some of the majesty that a prince of one party should have!
After Liu Yu, Liu Rong, with a characteristic shallow smile, seemed to be asking Liu Sheng, and as if helping Liu Yu, he asked the following questions.

"Yesterday, His Highness seems to have mentioned some details of this matter."

"I want to come to King Lu, and the kings of Jiangdu, Changsha, Jiaoxi, etc. who are waiting anxiously, are also a little confused about this."

"—Yesterday, His Royal Highness seemed to have said that the court forbids anyone except the Shaofu from minting money, including clan princes, who are also in the ranks of 'forbidden to mint money'."

"As for the clan princes, the copper mines mined in their respective lands need to be transported to Chang'an and sold to the Shaofu."

"If that's the case, please speak more clearly, Your Highness..."

···
"Chaotang's cutting down the vassals this time has already been determined to prohibit the clans and princes from making money;"

"As for the free mining of minerals in the feudal country by clan princes, it will not be prohibited."

"That is, between the two, a new problem has emerged: the private coining of money is prohibited, and the copper obtained by the clan princes from mining can no longer be melted into coins on the spot as usual."

"Then, the concerns of our clan princes are obvious."

"——In the past, our clan and princes spent a lot of manpower and material resources to mine mines to get copper, and the copper we got could be used to make coins."

"Now, the imperial court prohibits private minting of money, which means that the copper we get from mining needs to find a new place to go."

"In short: since copper mines cannot be used to mint money, they must at least be sold and exchanged for money."

"And His Highness said yesterday that all the copper mines obtained by the clan princes must be sold to the Shaofu..."

"This, I'm afraid it's a little confusing..."

Seemingly saying this in doubt, Liu Rong raised his head a little uneasy, and looked anxiously at the change of expression on Liu Sheng's face.

After confirming that Liu Sheng had realized what he meant, it wasn't 'I'm puzzled', but 'I think King Lu might be puzzled', Liu Rong was a little relieved.

After calming down and breathing faster, Liu Rong began to express his doubts to Liu Sheng on behalf of Liu Yu and other brothers who were not present.

"Your Highness said yesterday: The clan princes can mine minerals because Emperor Taizong Xiaowen once issued the "Xu Min Chi Shan Ze Order", allowing the people of the world to freely use the mountains and rivers."

"And in the "Xu Min Chi Shanze Order", Emperor Taizong never said: The things obtained from the mountains and rivers must be used by themselves, or must be sold to the Shaofu."

"Since this is the case, then we and other princes and clansmen opened mines to obtain copper, which is based on Emperor Taizong's "Xu Min Chi Shanze Order" and obtained Emperor Taizong's permission."

"—Naturally, it is also our freedom to sell the resulting copper to whom."

"But now, Your Highness has asked us to transport all the copper we obtained from mining to Chang'an and sell it to Shaofu..."

"This······"

···
"This incident is a test for His Majesty;"

"For the sake of brotherhood and the dignity of the monarch and ministers, we are naturally willing to follow His Highness's arrangement."

"However, the kings of Chu, Liang, Dai, Yan, etc. have vast lands and rich mineral resources in the country. The clan princes who can really determine the success or failure of this matter may not necessarily obey."

"At least until His Highness gives an explanation as to why he did this and what is the basis for doing so, the princes and kings of these big countries will not easily nod."

"As for the reason, it's also very simple."

"——The mined copper mine has to be transported to Chang'an. Who should bear the cost along the way?"

"The copper mine must be sold to the Shaofu. Is the price determined by the Shaofu?"

···
"If in the future, I waited for the clan and princes to spend a huge amount of effort and finally transport the copper mine to Chang'an, but the Shaofu only offered a very low price, what should I do?"

"If the Shaofu tells us: this price is not negotiable, then should we refuse to sell it, or endure the loss of everything?"

"I'm afraid His Highness needs to make a promise in advance about these things, so that the clan and princes can feel at ease, so that they can get the support of the kings of Liang, Chu, Yan, and Dai."

"If not, it's just the strength of my brothers and everyone. I'm afraid..."

With a status similar to that of "the mouth of the clan princes", Liu Rong did not forget to give Liu Sheng a little more to reveal the possible doubts and doubts of the clan princes.

This obeisance seems to be polite to Liu Sheng: just discuss the matter, and there is no disrespect to His Highness;
It also seems to be explaining to Liu Sheng: I seem to be the mouthpiece of the clan and princes, but in fact, I am the entrustment of His Highness!

However, Liu Sheng's next reaction greatly surprised Liu Rong and Liu Yu...
——even Liu Pengzu's prediction.

"I've already made up my mind about these things;"

"Today, I want to tell the details of these things to the two brothers."

···
"The copper obtained from the mining by the princes of the clan was transported by the princes to Hangu Pass, and then the Shaofu sent people to transport it back from Hangu Pass."

"In this way, the Shaofu and the feudal lords will each bear half of the cost of transferring the copper ore."

"As for the price, my original idea was to give an appropriate price according to the copper content of the copper mine;"

"However, after careful consideration, it was decided that the mined copper ore should be smelted on site to cast it into copper bricks with acceptable color and uniform weight."

"In this way, whether it is Shaofu pricing or running along the way, it will be cheaper and save a lot of trouble."

"As for the basis for doing so..."

"Um······"

"I don't know Linjiang King and Lu King, but have you ever heard of "Han Law", there is such a crime called: adultery?"

(End of this chapter)