Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 225 If Le Yi Regenerates (1)

"Prime Minister," Zhao Ke interrupted Zhao Zhifu's compliment, "I'm not a person who likes to be overjoyed. I don't want to hear such flattery. I hope that the Prime Minister will respect himself." His tone was extremely displeased.In front of the young emperor, Zhao Zhifu's face turned from red to purple when he was over fifty years old. Even the first emperor never gave him such embarrassment.

The moonlight shines through the window edge, and the clear brilliance lightly sprinkles near the arched hall, Tong Guan seems to hear the secret sigh in his heart.After a while, Zhao Ke just broke the subtle silence between the monarch and his subjects.

"Today's admonishing officials don't care about gain or loss, the censor does not impeach 'treacherous' evil, and his subordinates do not refute edicts. They are gangsters, and the corpses are eaten without food, and the dogs are stalked. They deceive the court and bully the people. It is better to rectify it." He seems to be aware of his own. He lost his composure, his voice was slightly hoarse, and his fingers were trembling slightly, "I have made up my mind to use Chen Dong as the supervisor and censor, and also as a storyteller in the Chongzheng Hall. I will issue an edict to seek talents soon, recruiting virtuous and talented people from all over the world. "

Zhao Zhifu's cheeks seemed to twitch slightly, but he could only bow his head and say, "Your Majesty is wise."

"Also, I heard that the way of the Son of Heaven is to value morality, benevolence and righteousness, and to play with cheap gold and jade. So the world has become a custom, and it has become clear. Today, white jade is piled up for the palace, with gold and mud as the roof, and the furnishings in the palace are expensive. Extremely. I believe that useless palace personnel and palace expenses should be reduced by [-]%, so as to be a model for the world."

"I obey the order." Zhao Zhifu and Tong Guan bowed together and said.His Majesty practiced thrift and self-discipline when he was in the East Palace. Since he moved into the White Jade Palace, his first edict was to extinguish half of the stately candles in the palace to show frugality, and it was reasonable to issue this edict.

Zhao Ke stared at the backs of the two important ministers, slightly excited. He had lived in the East Palace for decades, and often thought about the gains and losses of the government. Now he finally had the opportunity to display his ambitions. Human beings are the officials of Taiwan, and the officials of Taiwan are afraid, and they are against the words of the prime minister, and they cannot be corrected. They are honest in name but not in reality. Those who advise Taiwan are the eyes and ears of the emperor. Improper intervention by the prime minister, from now on, I will personally Promote a minister who dares to speak out, and make him a custom!"

"Your Majesty is wise, and I obey the order." Zhao Zhifu was sweating slightly on his back. Zhao Ke was always taciturn when he was the crown prince, but he didn't expect that once he succeeded to the throne, he would act so vigorously and resolutely. As the prime minister, he couldn't help being a little frightened.

"Okay, step back." Zhao Ke said coldly, and continued to read the memorial. The beauty of the harem is not as comfortable as the feeling of shaking hands with the world.He watched the memorial for a long time, but felt that the officials were either saying nothing, or harboring selfish intentions, or being mediocre and pedantic, so he couldn't help feeling angry, and put the vermilion pen on the pen holder with a snap, not wanting a little bit of cinnabar to drip onto the yellow and white paper, which was shocking like a drop of blood , Zhao Ke felt even more angry, and sighed:

"I am not a foolish king, but my ministers are all ministers who have wronged the country, what can I do?"

Looking at the back of the resigned prime minister, Zhao Ke took a sip of ginseng tea, but his mouth was full of bitterness. "Chen Shaoyang is loyal and straight, but he is available, but unfortunately..." Thinking of this time, he couldn't help but look forward to it.

Tong Guan sent Zhao Zhifu out of the White Jade Palace, saw Zhao Zhifu sighed, and asked in a low voice, "What is the prime minister worried about?"

Zhao Zhifu looked around and sighed: "It's good that your Majesty wants to make great efforts to rule the country. It's just that Chen Dong is a domineering man with many followers and has an old grudge with Tong Taiwei. If he can use it suddenly, I'm afraid it won't benefit the Taiwei. .”

Tong Guan smiled slightly, knowing what Zhao Zhifu was thinking, he managed to defeat Cai Jing, and never wanted to meet a rising opponent immediately. "But I want to use the miscellaneous family as a spearman." Tong Guan secretly said, but his face was worried, and he said in a low voice: "The miscellaneous family needs to be taken care of by the prime minister, so that the holy majesty will not be deceived by this villain who holds suspicion and holds vengeance."

Zhao Ke was diligent in political affairs, and often lay alone in the Chuigong Hall without calling his concubines.In the Rouyi Hall of the harem, Empress Zhu, who had just been canonized, sat alone in front of the dressing table, reading a book silently in front of the mirror. "Young princes and grandsons follow in the footsteps, green beads shed tears and scarves. Once the waiting door enters as deep as the sea, Xiao Lang is a passerby from then on." She bit her lip and read in a low voice, thinking of the person who was still in the end of the world, tears flowed silently After that, "This feeling can be regarded as a memory, but it was already at a loss at that time."

The cold wind blows, and the dark clouds flow in the sky, unknowingly covering the moonlight. The black clouds are thick like layers, like a huge quilt, covering the sky tightly. The moonlight outside is dimmed, and the clouds are extremely low. Looking up If you look at the sky, you will feel extremely depressed.Suddenly, a flash of lightning pierced the sky, like a sharp sword slashing from the sky to the earth, and the dark clouds in the sky split in two. Then, there was a crackling thunder in the sky, and then, the sky danced like a snake. , Spring thunder came in bursts one after another, and a spring rain came crashing down.

"What a timely rain!" Jin Changtai laughed, "After this rain, wild vegetables and mushrooms will grow a lot." As the mountains gradually melted, the Han army and Sergeant Chengying began to coerce the people everywhere. The Khitan and Jurchens were originally helpless under the iron hoofs. Except for those powerful outdoors, most of them left their homes without much resistance, and took a few farm tools, dry food and seeds into the mountains.

Zhao Xingde's complexion was not very good-looking, at dawn, he and Jin Changtai took a hundred riders out of the mountain, passed by a village inhabited by Han people twenty miles away, but found that it was already a piece of scorched earth.Not long after the fire was extinguished by the spring rain, white mist and green smoke hissed from the ruins.

"The Han army attacked in front of us. It's really ruthless." Ma Rui discerned the traces in the rubble. "If the village is burned down, the people will have to follow them even if they don't want to."

Sergeant Chengying found several charred bodies among the rubble, which added to the haze in Zhao Xingde's heart. "The loss of life is my fault." He thought sadly, looking around, he couldn't see a living person. The spring rain was pattering and falling on the ground. Outside the village was fertile soil that had been reclaimed. The fields were neat and tidy. I'm afraid that when the rain comes, the people will start farming.But now, it's just a wasteland, and weeds are growing wildly.Occasionally, one or two survivors scurry among the rubble.From the moment he made the plan to coerce the common people, he had anticipated what would happen today. Although the soldiers of the Chengying Camp would not do this, the Han army scattered in more than 40 villages would not be relentless.It is extremely difficult to distinguish between coercing the people and looting the people.

Mrs. Xia's face is not very good-looking.Wang Tongdeng and others have also participated in revenge against enemy countries, but this is the first time they have encountered such a way of treating their own people.Jian Cheng said angrily: "These Han soldiers are too under-disciplined. In this way, how are they different from horse thieves?" Let's go." Others also echoed.

"The terrain here is flat, and we can't defend the village. If the people stay here, they will be robbed by Jurchen and Khitan people sooner or later." Jin Changtai whispered beside him, kicking the horse's belly lightly, and walked several miles. Seeing the smoke rising from the kitchen, all the soldiers were overjoyed, Jin Changtai turned his head to look at Zhao Xingde, Zhao Xingde hesitated for a moment, then nodded.In the early stage of the sentinel, there is a Han'er village of about [-] families in front of it.Seeing the captain's order, all the sergeants urged their horses one after another, and their hoofs stepped chaotically on the black soil that had just melted away. More than a hundred riders turned into two teams, and quickly opened up a large area, covering the village in a radius of Lixu. Outflank it.

The speed of the cavalry was not fast, even very slow, slow enough for the farmers who were busy in the fields and mountains to see them, and then ran towards the village in panic. Loudly order them to gather in the village.

In this kind of action, the cavalry of the Chengying Army only wore half armor, but the tall horses galloped up, and the aura of metal and iron clanging still made these villagers unable to resist in the slightest.In the village and the nearby crop fields, there was no one in the half stick of incense after Chengying Ying appeared, except for the sound of horseshoes and the clang of iron armor, there was a dead silence everywhere.Not long after, the sound of knocking on the door was heard everywhere in the village, "Don't be afraid." "Don't panic." "We are the Han army." "The officials want you to speak, and quickly gather at the entrance of the village." "No delay." The soldiers of the Chengying Camp yelled loudly in a Liaodong accent, pacifying the people and threatening them at the same time.

Fang Lianjiang tremblingly watched the iron hooves of the horse pass by from the crack of the door. A general in armor and armor jumped off the horse. Almost fell to the ground limply, and then the door panel was slammed.Fang Lianjiang had seen some of the world, and after the general called out twice, he opened the door and walked towards the open space at the entrance of the village trembling.

Zhang Pu heard the door panel being slapped loudly, but he only guarded his old mother, wife, son and daughter, with a stool against the door of the back room, holding a notched kitchen knife in his hand, without blinking his eyes. against the door.The military master outside took pictures for a long time without seeing any movement, so he broke into the door, came to the back room, and yelled twice, "Is there anyone here? My lord ordered that all the people here gather at the entrance of the village!"

Zhang Pu looked back at the old mother, wife and children, hesitant in his eyes, but he still didn't dare to open the door. The sergeant shouted impatiently and kicked the door open. The kitchen knife rushed towards the black shadow at the door, the sergeant Xie Hengye only moved slightly, dodged the blade, and took his body around, Zhang Pu fell to the yard with a slap, at this time the two children in the back room came again I couldn't help it, and cried out loudly.

"I'll fight with you!" Zhang Pu heard the baby crying and was anxious, and was about to get up and fight desperately.But the military master frowned slightly, stepped back a few steps, stood in the courtyard, kept a distance of three steps from Zhang Pu, and shouted in a deep voice: "Put down the knife, we are court sergeants, not bandits, my lord. Order, you must hurry to the entrance of the village and gather."

Xie Hengye was tall and strong, with a dark complexion, but he didn't draw out his weapon. Zhang Pu froze on the spot. After a while, he realized that he was not here to rob. He lowered his head and said, "Yes, yes, Mr. Jun Your Excellency." He turned back into the house to greet his family, but forgot to put down the kitchen knife in his hand.Xie Hengye didn't take it seriously, and went out, Zhang Pu looked at the empty courtyard gate, for some reason, his heart was also empty, full of doubts.