Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 233 Monitoring the World
Wei Zheng had a very good character, which Li Yuanji admired very much. That was that no matter who he served, he would do his best to give advice to them.

When Li Yuanji was under Li Jiancheng, he knew that Wei Zheng had often advised Li Jiancheng to kill Li Shimin, and several times he almost persuaded Li Jiancheng to eliminate Li Shimin directly.

After joining Li Shimin, he planned for Li Shimin wholeheartedly, and his attitude was very positive.

Wei Zheng's courage to speak out and his ability to give advice were his special characteristics. Li Jiancheng was often lectured by Wei Zheng on important matters, and if there were any mistakes, Wei Zheng would really dare to speak out.

This man is impartial and ruthless, and rarely interacts with others in private. Li Yuanji saw these things in him, and now he has to start making use of him.

Wei Zheng listened to Li Yuanji's words with great calmness, not moved at all. After a moment, he slowly spoke.

"If the king does something wrong, I will naturally write a letter to advise him. If this is the kind of person who dares to speak out and advise, then I am the one."

Wei Zheng bowed immediately. He had targeted Li Yuanji before, but at that time he was working for Li Shimin, so naturally he had to put Li Shimin's interests first. Now that he was under Li Yuanji's command, he naturally had to work for Li Yuanji.

Now that Li Yuanji suddenly asked, Wei Zheng didn't know what Li Yuanji meant. He also didn't think that Li Yuanji would use him. Even if the result was not good, he still didn't hide anything and didn't bend at all.

Li Yuanji looked at Wei Zheng's unyielding and resolute expression and wanted to laugh for a moment, but he did not laugh in the end. Can Wei Zheng be said to be disloyal?
He defected to Li Shimin because Li Jiancheng was already dead. According to history, many of Li Jiancheng's confidants eventually defected to Li Shimin, including Feng Li and Xue Wanche.

And now Wei Zheng turned to him, with the mission of calming Li Shimin's anger. Wei Zheng also did an excellent job and considered Li Shimin in all aspects.

It seems a bit wrong to say that such a person is loyal, but it is also a bit inaccurate to say that he is unfaithful. He has never let down anyone he has followed.

And this character has not changed at all from Li Jiancheng to Li Shimin, and then to him.

Li Yuanji stopped thinking about it. No matter how much he thought about it, it would only become more complicated and useless.

"Well said, I admire people like you, and I hope you can continue to do so.

You have heard what happened just now. Now there are troubles in the local area and some people have started to mess up. This shows that the supervision system needs to be put into operation.

I intend to set up a Censorate to supervise all prefectures. Each prefecture will have a Censorate, and the duty of the Censorate is to supervise all prefectures, states, and counties.

If such incidents occur in other places, they must be reported to the Censorate as soon as possible, and then the Censorate will report back to me.

If there are problems with certain officials, the local Inspectorate can directly write letters to impeach them, and the Inspectorate can directly write letters to me.

To put it simply, the duties of the Censorate are equivalent to those of the Censorate, but there are subtle differences between them.

I plan to let you take charge of the Censorate, do you have the confidence to do a good job?"

As the person in charge of the Censorate, Li Yuanji was very clear that he had to be cautious and had to have someone who was impartial and just, especially someone who was not afraid of difficulties or being targeted by others. Only such a Censorate could play its role.

Because of its duties, the Censorate is in opposition to other officials at all levels. If the person in charge of the Censorate lacks courage and is afraid of things, and instead gets along with other officials, then there is no need for the Censorate to continue to exist.

In the officialdom where human relationships and worldly wisdom are everything, if the Censorate wants to play a role, it needs people like Wei Zheng who are not afraid of offending others and dare to speak out and make remonstrations. With such people taking the lead, the Censorate will definitely not be too bad.

After hearing this, Wei Zheng knew that Li Yuanji was going to use him. Wei Zheng was very interested in the Censorate. He didn't dare to say how well he did in other aspects, but being in charge of the Censorate?

Wei Zheng was very confident. Once he took charge of the Censorate, he would be justified in giving advice to Li Yuanji, and Li Yuanji would have to accept it, unless Li Yuanji wanted to abolish the Censorate himself.

The more Wei Zheng thought about it, the smile on his face grew wider. As for offending people, he had never even thought about it. Li Yuanji was ready to die for his advice, let alone others?

Isn't it just being a lone minister?
Wei Zheng was not afraid at all. Instead, he was more afraid that he would not even have the chance to be a lone minister.

"I am grateful for your trust, Your Majesty. I will not let you down. I will make the Censorate flourish and monitor the affairs of the world, so that Your Majesty will know everything about the world!"

Seeing Wei Zheng resolutely agreeing to the request, Li Yuanji suddenly had a bad feeling. Would this guy take revenge on his personal grudges and try to fleece him in the future?

The words had been spoken, and Li Yuanji was helpless. He only hoped that Wei Zheng would be more normal in the future. He didn't want to experience being impeached by this guy for no reason all day.

"Okay, since you are confident, then go down and prepare. You can solve the problem of manpower yourself. Set up the Censorate as soon as possible and take up the responsibility."

After the deal was settled, Li Yuanji started to drive people away. Wei Zheng had no intention of staying any longer, so he immediately went down to start working on the establishment of the Censorate.

After Wei Zheng left, Li Yuanji's face darkened and he immediately called Yang Jianhe.

"I have something for you to do. You will take my personal soldiers and change them to Jinyiwei from now on. In the future, Jinyiwei will be my eyes. They will go to every part of the fiefdom. If anything happens, it must be reported to me as soon as possible.

At the same time, he had the power to supervise local officials and officials in the royal palace.

This prince does not wish for such incidents as what happened to him to happen again in the future. If anything happens in the country that this prince is not aware of, the Imperial Guard will be directly held responsible.

I'll leave this matter to you, don't let this king down."

This incident made Li Yuanji realize that the establishment of supervision was imminent. Both the Censorate and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were born for supervision.

The Censorate was in the open and belonged to the collective and the court, while the Embroidered Uniform Guard belonged entirely to him personally. This is why Wei Zheng took the lead in establishing the Censorate and also established the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Li Er already has a Hundred Cavalry Division, so it’s not excessive for him to establish an Imperial Guard, right?

The duties of the Baiqisi and Jinyiwei are almost the same. On the surface they are the royal army, but secretly they are an intelligence agency. There is nothing wrong with that.

Upon hearing this, Yang Jianhe was filled with excitement. The Jinyiwei, which was formed by Li Yuanji's personal soldiers, and especially the power of the Jinyiwei, Yang Jianhe knew that this was Li Yuanji's absolute trust in him.

Although he did not have much experience in this area, he could not afford to refuse this matter. This showed Li Yuanji's trust and respect for him.

"Please rest assured, my king. I will definitely complete this task and will never let you down!"

Li Yuanji could only trust Yang Jianhe first. Anyway, he had no one else here. Yang Jianhe was an old man in his Qi Wang Mansion and had been in the army for many years. He was familiar with intelligence and espionage, so he could only use him first.

"Get up. I'll leave this matter to you. You should prepare it as soon as possible. Now follow me to the city square and calm down the gathered people first."

The square in the old city is where his sculptures are placed. He often goes to see them on weekdays. Every time he goes there, he looks very narcissistic.

Li Yuanji took Yang Jianhe out and went straight to the square where the statue was.

At this time, there were so many people gathered in the square that Li Yuanji was moved when he walked closer and took a look.

These people just knelt on the concrete floor like this for more than an hour, and none of them cared about the pain in their knees. They looked at the statue with incomparable piety.

There were so many people, but no one was talking to each other. It was strangely quiet. Some children kept bowing to his statue. Looking at this scene, Li Yuanji was moved, but also full of weirdness. Now that he was still alive, these things in front of him always made him feel uncomfortable.

Before Li Yuanji arrived, the four old men had already started to evacuate the crowd, but no one could hold on, and the four old men were also very anxious.

Now seeing Li Yuanji coming, he immediately came to Li Yuanji.

"Your Majesty, we are really unable to persuade him to leave. We have caused trouble for you. I know my sins, please punish me."

Li Yuanji helped several people up. At this time, he already knew that these people did not have enough energy to bring so many people together. Especially after finding out the truth, Li Yuanji felt helpless.

Some of them came here to kneel and pray for something, but the vast majority of them came here just because they saw others kneeling and followed them.

On weekdays, there are not many people here, because everyone knows that they cannot disturb his peace all the time. Occasionally, when someone passes by here, they will come forward and kneel before leaving.

There was an incident in the past where an overseas businessman passed by here. Because he did not kneel down, he was surrounded by the surrounding people. The businessman was not allowed to leave until he was forced to kneel down.

Li Yuanji never issued any ban, but all the people respected this place very much. It seemed to have become a holy place that would not tolerate anyone being rude to it, let alone defiling it.

With so many people gathered this time, many people in the city knelt here together. If it weren't for the army blocking them outside, more people would have come.

Li Yuanji looked at the old men and said with a smile, "It's okay, you guys get up, I'll go talk to everyone."

Li Yuanji comforted the four old men and then walked towards the statue stand.

The people also noticed Li Yuanji's arrival and looked at him with wide eyes. Everyone was excited and then burst into strong enthusiasm.

"Your Majesty!"

"See you, Your Majesty!"

From the initial suspicion, to the certainty later, and then to everyone shouting together.

Li Yuanji's heart was filled with excitement. These people were so enthusiastic. This was surely an affirmation of everything he had done. These were his most loyal people.

Li Yuanji pressed down with both hands, and everyone gradually stopped shouting and looked at Li Yuanji quietly.

Li Yuanji then said in a loud voice: "Everyone, get up. It's so hot. Don't get a heat stroke. I have prepared clean water for everyone. Li, quench your thirst first."

Although Li Yuanji's voice was loud, there were still too few people who could hear it. Yang Jianhe brought some of his personal soldiers to convey Li Yuanji's words, and at the same time began to give each person a plow and pour cool water.

The people were reluctant to get up, but after hearing what Li Yuanji said in person, they began to stand up one after another. Everyone wanted to take the plows that were delivered to them, and at Li Yuanji's strong request, everyone put them away, but no one ate them. Everyone treated the plow in their hands as a treasure, put it close to their bodies, and then drank the water.

Li Yuanji watched this scene and said nothing more. He could probably understand why these people didn't want to eat it. This plow would probably be taken home by these people as a sacrifice. Even if it would break, they probably wouldn't want to eat it.

Then, with Li Yuanji's constant comfort, after nearly half an hour, these people finally left slowly.

There was no need to maintain order, as the people left spontaneously in groups without causing any congestion.

When everyone left, Li Yuanji finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After this incident spread, everyone had a new understanding of Li Yuanji's popularity in Lingnan.

Three days passed in a blink of an eye. One day, Li Yuanji brought Kong Yingda to the Craftsmen's Bureau.

"Your Majesty, please tell me directly what is going on. I am currently sorting out what you said that day and I really don't have time."

Kong Yingda had a look of reluctance on his face. He was extremely excitedly sorting out what Li Yuanji had talked about that day regarding the academy system and the imperial examination system. It could be said that he had been working so hard that he had forgotten to eat and sleep. In addition, he had some other matters to deal with, so he had no time at all.

Li Yuanji asked him to come to the Craftsmen's Bureau, but Kong Yingda refused. However, Li Yuanji had him dragged here by force. Kong Yingda was in a very bad mood at the moment.

Li Yuanji looked at Kong Yingda's helpless and angry expression and immediately laughed.

"Chongyuan, don't be angry. I came to you this time for good reasons. Didn't I tell you at the beginning that I would take care of the paper issue?
I have asked you to come here just to see this newly made paper, so you must take a good look at it when you get there."

Kong Yingda curiously followed Li Yuanji to the craftsman's bureau, where the newly made paper had already been taken out.

"This is bamboo paper, and this is parchment paper. Take a look."

Li Yuanji himself was also looking at them. In terms of the quality of the two types of paper, they were better than before. Even Xuan paper was not as good as these two types of paper.

Now that he had succeeded, Li Yuanji was relieved. The paper problem had been solved and printing could be liberated.

Li Yuanji asked Kong Yingda: "How about Chongyuan?"

Kong Yingda had already started writing, and was not filled with amazement until the very end.

"Your Majesty, both bamboo paper and parchment paper are very good. How much do these papers cost?"

Li Yuanji smiled immediately and then talked about bamboo paper and parchment. Kong Yingda's face was full of excitement and his eyes were shining.

Li Yuanji put away the smile on his face at this moment.

"Now that I have prepared the paper, it is up to you. After selecting the books, you can start printing some of them first.

You have to speed up the progress in all aspects. In addition to these preparations, the establishment of the academy also takes time, so don't delay it too long."

Kong Yingda agreed to all the requests excitedly.

"Your Majesty, I have been working hard to prepare it. In half a month, it should be almost ready and I will hand it over to Your Majesty then."

Li Yuanji nodded and then returned to the palace. Kong Yingda really didn't want to say much to him and just wanted to get things done quickly.

As soon as I returned to the palace, Cen Wenben came hurriedly.

"Your Majesty, we have already investigated the fact that Guangzhou Prefecture, Leizhou Prefecture, and Nanzhou Prefecture ignored the people's going out to sea to do business."

(End of this chapter)