Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 338 Court
"Is Miss Keqing still so aloof?" Li Qiang usually didn't pay much attention to her, but suddenly he thought of Qin Keqing and realized that he hadn't seen her for a long time, so he asked casually.

"I also went to invite Miss Qin to come. She would come every time I invited her, but if I didn't invite her, she would not leave her yard!" Lin Daiyu shook her head helplessly and said.

Lin Daiyu still felt very sympathetic towards Qin Keqing, who was a miserable person.

But her attitude left Lin Daiyu helpless. She couldn't send people to invite Qin Keqing every time.

"I don't know what she is thinking!" Li Qiang said puzzledly after hearing what Lin Daiyu said.

Qin Keqing herself took the initiative to join his side. He also gave Qin Keqing the opportunity to choose. Before moving into the East Palace and the Daming Palace, he gave Qin Keqing the opportunity to choose again every time.

"Sister Lin, regarding the matter of taking Miss Keqing as your concubine, we should wait and see if there is any problem with her attitude. We should not make it seem like we are forcing her!" Li Qiang continued.

"I'll listen to you. Her personality makes it difficult for her to get along with the other sisters!" Lin Daiyu said with a sigh.

Lin Daiyu remembered that Qin Keqing was not like this when she first moved into Li Qiang's mansion. Qin Keqing was extremely charming at that time.

But somehow, ever since the death of the Qin father and son, Qin Keqing has become more and more withdrawn, and recently she has even locked herself up and rarely sees outsiders.

In a courtyard on the edge of the Daming Palace, Qin Keqing was sitting on a brocade stool, her eyes empty, as if she was wandering in a trance.

"What's wrong with me?" Qin Keqing shook her head vigorously and muttered to herself.

Since the mourning period was over, she wanted to integrate into the harem of Daming Palace.

Although Emperor Jingwen was deposed and it was somewhat related to Li Qiang, Qin Keqing did not have the slightest resentment.

To her, Li Qiang was closer than Emperor Jingwen.

In fact, she had already made up her mind to marry Li Qiang when the mourning period was over.

But before the New Year, she found that something seemed to be wrong with her.

She often heard a faint voice in her head, which kept repeating that she should get closer to Li Qiang as soon as possible.

This was something she was very willing to do, but under the urging of the voice in her head, she felt something was wrong.

Qin Keqing had deep feelings for Li Qiang. She had lived in the boudoir since she was a child, and was sent to Li Qiang's house by her family when she first came into contact with the outside world. Apart from her younger brother Qin Zhong, Li Qiang was the only man she had close contact with.

In addition, there is a legendary hero like Li Qiang, who is very heroic and rose from a marquis to a prince, then to a crown prince and finally to an emperor. It can be said that Li Qiang's story is almost the ultimate in what a young girl can imagine her husband to be.

But the faint voice in her head made her feel that there seemed to be some malice towards Li Qiang. In order to prevent Li Qiang from getting hurt, she suppressed her emotions.

Suddenly, Qin Keqing pinched her forehead lightly with her hand, and a faint voice sounded in her head again.

The voice seemed to have a kind of magic that made her want to obey it.

If she had not meditated frequently during the years of mourning, which made her mind exceptionally strong, perhaps she would have listened to the voice's instructions.

In the illusory world of Taixu, Fairy Jinghuan was continuously performing magic on a wooden sign.

The wooden sign in front is the token left by Qin Keqing in the illusory world of Taixu. Fairy Jinghuan uses this token to contact Qin Keqing and influence her through spiritual guidance similar to that of the mundane world.

The reason why Fairy Jinghuan was able to contact Qin Keqing was not only because Qin Keqing's breath remained on the token, but also because Fairy Jinghuan was Qin Keqing's sister in her previous life.

Only by relying on this relationship was he able to influence Qin Keqing in the palace.

Of course, even if she could contact Qin Keqing, Fairy Jinghuan would not be able to use her magic, let alone make Qin Keqing obey her orders completely.

Therefore, Fairy Jinghuan could only use the worldly emotions to guide Qin Keqing to do her bidding.

"Could it be that Keqing has recovered some of her strength?" Fairy Jinghuan stopped what she was doing and muttered to herself uncertainly.

Qin Keqing is in the palace and is influenced by the dragon of Daqian's destiny. Even the magic of divination cannot predict Qin Keqing's situation.

Qin Keqing is not Jia Baoyu. Jia Baoyu is a man and has no worries. Under the guidance of Fairy Jinghuan, he found Shuiyue Temple. Fairy Jinghuan restored Jia Baoyu's memory of his past life at some cost.

But Qin Keqing was in the imperial palace and was a woman, so Fairy Jinghuan did not have the ability to influence her as she did Jia Baoyu.

"Am I a little anxious?" Fairy Jinghuan stood up, her light body floating on the ground. She looked at the wooden sign and continued, "Wait another two months. If it still doesn't work, then increase the spiritual guidance!"

These two months are reserved for Qin Keqing. If Qin Keqing still fails to complete Fairy Jinghuan's plan, Fairy Jinghuan will have to consider forcibly guiding Qin Keqing at all costs.

You must know that once you forcibly increase the spiritual guidance, even if spiritual guidance is only a mundane means, you must know that Qin Keqing is also a mortal at this time. Increasing spiritual guidance will have side effects and may even destroy Qin Keqing's brain.

Once Qin Keqing's physical body is destroyed, her soul will enter reincarnation without the help of fellow practitioners.

This year's top scholar in the imperial examination has been announced. According to the usual rules, all the successful candidates who participated in the palace examination were assigned corresponding official positions.

Officials in the capital discovered something strange: all the successful candidates in this special examination were arranged very well. None of them had to wait for a good position and stay in the capital. All of them took office in just a few days.

Before Li Qiang came to power, the treatment of Jinshi was good, but not to this extent.

The first and second classes are better off, but the third class generally does not have any very good official positions. Those Jinshi who are unwilling to follow the arrangements will wait for suitable official vacancies in the capital.

In the past two years, it seems that the good positions for Jinshi have been intentionally left vacant. No matter whether you are a first-class, second-class or third-class Jinshi, you will have a very good position.

This was the result of Lin Ruhai's intervention. After learning that the Jinshi candidates in the past two years were all people trusted by Li Qiang, Lin Ruhai used the power in his hands to allow these Jinshi candidates to grow as quickly as possible.

At the beginning of May, the morning court was held just like any other day, and Li Qiang was the last to enter the palace and sit on the dragon throne.

After all the officials had performed the ceremony of paying homage, Jin Dong loudly announced the start of the court meeting.

The daily government affairs were reported one by one, and when they were finished, before Jin Dong could ask any questions, Ji Yushi strode out of the queue.

"I have something to report!" Ji Yushi stood up and all eyes in the hall fell on him.

The Imperial Emissary's report would not have anything else to say, he was preparing to impeach someone.

"Envoy Ji, just tell me what you want to say!" Li Qiang waved his hand and said.

"I heard that Your Majesty is buying a lot of land. Is this true?" Envoy Ji asked loudly.

"It is true!" Li Qiang looked at Ji Yushi with some hostility and replied indifferently.

He had long guessed that someone would make a fuss about the purchase of land. You have to know that given how much importance the people of Daqian attached to land, his purchase of land would affect the interests of many large landowners.

Many officials in the court came from large landowner families. Even those who came from relatively poor backgrounds had received favors from large landowners. "Your Majesty's move is extremely inappropriate. Confucius said, 'When the land is abundant but the people are insufficient, a gentleman is ashamed of it; when the people are equal but others work twice as hard as he does, a gentleman is ashamed of it.'" Ji Yushi turned his head and looked at the ministers and said loudly.

"Be bold!"

"presumptuous!"

Many officials rebuked.

Ji Yushi was actually satirizing Emperor Li Qiang for occupying too much land, which originally belonged to the farmers, and was something a gentleman would not do.

"Envoy Ji, why can't I buy the land? Haven't you heard that all under heaven is the king's land and all the people in the world are the king's subjects. I am using silver to buy the land, but Envoy Ji is anxious. Did I do something wrong?" Li Qiang was not angry, he retorted calmly.

"Your Majesty used his power to forcibly purchase the land!" Envoy Ji said loudly and confidently.

"Hahaha, why don't you give me an example? You can't just accuse me without any evidence. I want to know, whose land was forcibly bought?" Li Qiang asked with a laugh.

Lin Ruhai helped with the purchase of the land.

But Lin Ruhai cannot be allowed to come out to confront the enemy at this moment. Lin Ruhai's position in the cabinet is not yet stable, and he cannot be involved in such matters.

Li Qiang has her own intelligence system and knows a lot of inside information about purchasing land.

Indeed, when Lin Ruhai sent people to purchase the land, he engaged in forced purchases.

However, these acts of coercion were carried out by the nearby military, who, through investigation by the intelligence organization, found the guilt of the landowner and used this as a threat to complete the purchase of the land.

This kind of thing can be said in private, but it cannot be said openly.

Even the big landowners who were threatened did not dare to tell their stories in detail, otherwise what awaited them would not be the loss of their land but the loss of their entire property.

Ji Yushi was stunned. He really wanted to tell him the person who asked him for help, but that person was a big moneybag and telling him would be tantamount to betraying the other person.

It's not that he didn't do any investigation. After some investigation, he found that Li Qiang was indeed purchasing a large amount of land, and the amount was extremely shocking.

In his opinion, it is impossible for Li Qiang to purchase a large amount of land without some trick.

Besides, which emperor would use silver to purchase a large amount of land? Who knows how much coercion was involved.

Li Qiang asked him to give a specific example, but Ji Yushi really couldn't produce one. The court was not the place to talk nonsense.

Once false evidence is found, he will not be able to bear it even as an imperial envoy.

"No evidence?" Li Qiang asked in a heavier voice.

Ji Yushi couldn't stop sweating, but he still didn't say anything.

The imperial envoy could not be punished for his words when he made a memorial. Although he offended Li Qiang, it was not easy for Li Qiang to arrest him because of this matter.

At this time, Jin Dong came up to Li Qiang from behind and presented her with a document.

"Envoy Ji, the day before yesterday, the head of the Jiangnan Chen family visited your house and presented you with a gift of a five-horse carriage. This is probably the reason why you dared to attack me in the court!" Li Qiang said coldly, waving the information in his hand.

Just when Ji Yushi stood up to accuse Li Qiang, Jin Dong went to the side to find someone to investigate.

The intelligence system in the capital was managed very well by the retired emperor, and with the help of Li Qiang, who was rich, the intelligence system was further strengthened.

The head of the Jiangnan Chen family went to Ji Yushi's residence, but he did not go there secretly, so it was naturally recorded by the intelligence system.

"I am innocent!" Ji Yushi certainly did not dare to admit it, he said quickly.

"Whether you are wronged or not is not up to you. I have sent people to capture the head of the Jiangnan Chen family. You can tell the truth from him!" Li Qiang said lightly.

Ji Yushi collapsed to the ground at once. If he criticized Emperor Li Qiang out of justice, officials and the world would only say that he was not afraid of the imperial power and was a minister who gave direct advice.

But if he criticized the emperor for the sake of money and property, even the imperial envoy's skin would not be able to protect him.

Scholar Tian sighed lightly and had already sentenced Ji Yushi to death in his heart.

In fact, all the officials in the court knew that Li Qiang had purchased a large amount of land.

But why didn't they say anything? The main reason was that Li Qiang bought the land with money.

Moreover, the land that Li Qiang purchased was not from the common people, but from the big landowners.

One is willing to buy, the other is willing to sell. Unless the big landowner raises any objection, these officials have no way to speak up.

The head of the Chen family just wanted to make a test, using Ji Yushi as a weapon to see if he could make Emperor Li Qiang stop purchasing land.

The Daqian people had an obsessive greed for land, so clans in every dynasty would annex large amounts of land to allow themselves to own more land.

In the eyes of these people, the most stable wealth in the world is land.

Li Qiang's actions shook the foundations of these people. The head of the Chen family was the first to jump out, but he will not be the last.

It's just that Li Qiang's identity and the methods he used made these clans very afraid, which is why it was not until now that the head of the Chen family made an effort to test him.

"I just have some extra money in my hands. Thinking about the hard life of the landless people, I plan to buy some land for these people to rent for farming. I am not greedy for their rent. I will adjust the amount of rent every year according to the weather conditions. At least I can't let the landless people lose their livelihood!" Li Qiang said his purpose with a smile.

"Your Majesty, you are kind-hearted, but what you are doing is just a drop in the bucket and cannot solve the difficulties of the people of the world!" Grand Secretary Tian stood up and said.

"There is only one way to do something in this world: do it or don't do it. If you do it, some people can benefit. If you don't do it, nothing will be accomplished! Besides, don't worry about the money. I will have plenty of money to buy land in the future!" Li Qiang shook his head and said.

He also knew that what he had done was really nothing to the entire Daqian territory.

But as the emperor, he took the lead, and the other lands collected much higher rent than him, so his reputation became bad.

In addition, his business of making money was still in its infancy. Once he sold the cloth to foreign countries, he would start to receive a steady stream of money.

Cloth is the vanguard of economic warfare and a powerful tool for earning silver.

How could the cloth of other countries compare with his? He used steam looms to produce cloth in large quantities and cheaply, and the price was enough to destroy the cloth industry of any country.

(End of this chapter)