The Supreme Being

The night breeze in the lotus pond was fragrant and refreshing. Sikotian Heng put his hands behind his back and looked at the slowly flowing water, not knowing where his mind was wandering.

Suddenly, the servant Tian Jian came over in a hurry and reported urgently: "Your Majesty, the Yangcheng Prime Minister heard that Su Mo was the Great Situ, and changed his recommendation to selection, and has already defected."

Yangcheng Zai refers to Tian Kuo. After he came of age, his brother Tian Guang became a senior official, so he served as the official of his own fiefdom of Yangcheng.

Tian Heng suddenly raised his head, his eyes widened, as if anger was rising in his heart, but he immediately took a breath, and his expression remained unchanged.

"Let him go." He said in an indifferent voice.

Tian Jian was startled: "My lord, how can this be done?"

Does the Lord mean to give up Yang Chengzai?

Tian Heng glanced at him without any emotion and emphasized: "Let him go."

Tian Jian did not dare to express doubts anymore, bowed and left the pavilion.

After looking at the living water of the lotus pond again for a while, Tian Heng suddenly sighed and whispered to himself:

"fair enough……"

…………

In King Chen's palace, Meng Qi, Jiang Zhiwei and others, who were waiting for the first court meeting, were discussing enthusiastically what to do next.

For more than a month, they had repeatedly deliberated and rehearsed what to say when they met with King Chen, so much so that they couldn't think of how to implement their "national salvation strategy" after King Chen accepted the advice. They still had many problems after deliberating through the night.

"King Chen himself is a master, and he has the support of non-feudal officials and scholars. There are many powerful people in the field under his command. As long as he can strengthen his determination, he can vigorously implement the national policy of abolishing the Guanjin tax and promoting meritocracy. At least there is no noble. I'm afraid there will be some violent reaction in Shangying. I'm afraid that the good national policy will be distorted and implemented. Not only will it not achieve good results, but it will offend the Chu and Tang Dynasties or waste money. "

As the emperor's younger brother, Zhao Heng has the best say in similar situations. In the past, when the majesty of the royal family still existed, top families loved to do this.

Qi Zhengyan, who had always been taciturn, took turns giving lectures and expressed his opinions a little more actively: "The scope of promoting talents and talents can be limited to the palace, a few key yamen, officials in the upper camp and the army directly under King Chen for the time being, without excessively infringing on the nobles. 'Profit', this should reduce many obstacles."

These are the places where King Chen has the strongest control, and the nobles cannot interfere with them even if they want to use small means.

As for the army, the world of Fengshen is different from the world of Meng Qi and others. There are many formation diagrams left behind. As long as you select skilled players, practice with the formation diagrams more, and add the corresponding treasures, it will be enough to temporarily compete with the outdoor scene, so there is an army. space, but except for a few special formations, most of them cannot fly. If it is a surprise battle, there are not many opportunities to be useful. Defense and frontal battles are good.

"Well, at the beginning, we must try our best to avoid intensifying conflicts and attracting interference from the Chu State and the hidden Taoist sects. Once the 'benefits' and 'utilities' are both revealed, and with the acquiescence of the forces that have tasted the benefits, we can take drastic measures!" Meng Qi affirmed Qi Zhengyan's method. Before the court meeting began, they would report the results of the discussion to King Chen again.

Jiang Zhi slightly frowned: "The use of energy for the virtuous and the frugal use of burials only involve King Chen and a small group of people for the time being. We are not afraid of interference. However, the abolition of the Guanjin tax requires the cooperation of the feudal nobles. Otherwise, it will be withdrawn today and set up tomorrow, or There is no way to muddy the waters with other methods.”

If the customs tax cannot be abolished, it will be impossible to attract merchants. If it cannot attract merchants, it will be difficult to see its "profit". Unprofitable things will rarely be accomplished!

Convincing King Chen is the beginning, the real difficulty is yet to come!

"Intensify inspections to scare the monkeys?" Ruan Yushu said.

Jiang Zhiwei nodded and said: "This is a way. As long as we can scare the 'monkeys' for a short time and prevent them from causing trouble for a while, we can implement it smoothly and things will be much easier."

As long as the new national policy shows attractive benefits, the 'monkeys' who dare not make trouble for the time being will no longer want to make trouble!

Although Meng Qi can just leave after a month, no matter what happens next, they still have compassion and intolerance. How can King Chen treat himself and others with such respect and importance, leaving a mess?

"Killing chickens to scare monkeys? What kind of chickens to kill?" Hearing the opinions of the two girls, Zhao Heng chuckled, "Most of the gatekeepers at most levels have only nine orifices. What's the use of killing them? The nobles have long been involved in their own affairs. It will be completely cleaned, and it will even help the watcher to abscond, so that we can’t get evidence to attack, and the majesty of King Chen will be lost.”

"And there are too many similar checkpoints. How can we have so many manpower to monitor them? As long as such checkpoints exist for a few more days and the merchants suffer losses, they will doubt King Chen's determination to abolish the Guanjin tax and no longer believe in it. , even if all the checkpoints can be cleared in the future, merchants will no longer be able to consciously make false claims to Chen Guo in a short period of time."

"If we don't see any benefits in a short period of time, why does Prince Chen still believe in us?"

This kind of execution problem is the most troublesome. For a while, Meng Qi and others were thinking hard and couldn't find a solution. The king of hell is really easy to kill, but the kid is difficult to deal with!

Suddenly, Meng Qi remembered a certain book he had read in the past. An idea flashed in his mind and he clasped his palms together: "I have a solution!"

"What can we do?" Jiang Zhiwei and others all looked at him.

Meng Qi regained his mood, pretended to be serious and smiled and said: "This is not difficult to hear."

"Stop showing off, there's no need to show off in front of us." Jiang Zhi scolded with a smile.

Meng Qi coughed: "The fortresses at the border with other countries are all under the control of King Chen. This part of the Guanjin tax is the easiest to abolish."

Zhao Heng and others nodded lightly. This is the easiest part. As long as they subsidize the defensive masters or replace them with selected ones, it is not difficult to do.

"So, we only need to issue an order from King Chen to the merchants when they pass through these fortresses, and most of the remaining checkpoints will not be a problem." Meng Qi still smiled enigmatically.

"What order?" Ruan Yushu's curiosity was aroused, just like the delicious food was placed in front of him and he couldn't enjoy it.

Meng Qi laughed at first, and then with a serious expression on his face: "Anyone who collects taxes from Guanjin will be killed without guilt!"

"Not guilty of killing?" Zhao Heng said in a loss of voice.

Such an "order" was beyond his imagination.

Jiang Zhiwei was confused at first, and then smiled: "This is very good. There are many masters of merchants who can travel among the countries. It is only because of the intimidation of the strong men in each country that they obediently pay the customs tax. When the time comes, the guards who are not on location will not be able to do anything. Stop them!"

The countries are in chaos, how can the merchants who dare to travel around the countries not have some masters and some backing? As long as the order proposed by Meng Qi is implemented, he can "borrow" their power to alleviate his own shortage of manpower and help Chen Guo monitor various checkpoints!

"What a brilliant idea! And King Chen's determination to abolish the Guanjin tax has been clearly conveyed to the merchants." Zhao Heng praised.

Meng Qi enjoyed their praise and continued with a smile: "If the nobles use outdoor scenes or troops with formations, they will be able to escape but the monks will not be able to escape from the temple. This is enough for us to scare the monkeys."

He paused and said: "We can even take the initiative to do this. When the time comes, we will divide our manpower and mix it with the caravans of average strength. If we encounter strong people in the field or troops with formations to force tariffs, we can directly attack. Just follow the example and kill the chicken to scare the monkey. Anyway, it’s ‘no crime to kill’!”

"But don't push too hard for the nobles behind the scenes. You can punish them severely, but you can't completely intensify the conflict. This will make other nobles feel miserable, contact each other, and start a civil war. This will give the Chu State an excuse to intervene and make the new national policy fragile. Died young."

Qi Zhengyan was expressionless but said in tacit agreement: "So, you have to choose the 'chicken' well."

Meng Qi nodded and said: "Chen State is a small country. There are not many powerful nobles other than King Chen. The three families represented by 'former Great Situ' Wang Dan, 'Great Sikou' Tian Heng, and 'Great Sikong' Gong Yangzeng are the most powerful. Not only are there top masters, but they also control the situation of the government, the fiefdom is not small, and there are many checkpoints. If you want to scare the monkeys, you have to choose between them. "

The words were plain but murderous.

"Sikotian Heng's family has been passed down for many generations and has inextricable connections with some nobles of Chu State. He is not a suitable candidate." Zhao Heng first rejected the family.

Ruan Yushu's voice was neither high nor low: "Sikong Gongyangzeng is said to have a son learning martial arts in Jinguang Cave in Wudang Mountain."

"It seems that the only one who has lost my position is the 'former Situ' Wang Dan..." Meng Qi muttered, "His family is the oldest noble in the Chen Kingdom, and he is the retainer of the first generation Chen Bo. There are many masters in the clan. "Young man, you have relatives and friends all over the place, but there is no strong support outside, so it's a good time to take action. When you blend into the ordinary caravan, it's best to pass through his fiefdom."

"Okay." Jiang Zhiwei and others said.

After the calculation was over, Meng Qi and others met with King Chen again before the court meeting to explain their conspiracy.

…………

Compared with previous court meetings, because King Chen began to follow Mohism, this time it became clean and smooth, with no more red tape. Everyone quickly returned to their seats, waiting for King Chen to speak.

The only thing that made Meng Qi dissatisfied was that his mustard ring and sword were placed outside and guarded by the guards, just like when he met King Chen before.

Because this is a world with strange and powerful secret treasures, even though King Chen is a master, he has to beware of dangers. Not only Meng Qi, but also other ministers and doctors' treasures and items similar to mustard rings were removed.

"There are Huangquan hand bones and unformed Dinghai beads inside my mustard seed ring. My treasures are high-grade and medium-grade respectively. Don't let me lose them..." Meng Qi thought to himself, if he loses them, , so much good deeds!

King Chen looked around and announced the first thing, that Meng Qi would be in charge of the affairs of the Great Situ, and Jiang Zhiwei and others would be the assistants of the Young Situ.

When the announcement was made, many eyes were cast on Meng Qi, all of them were as if they were real, but one of them was quite indifferent, which made Meng Qi slightly surprised.

Upon sensing, this is a young-looking man, with a tall crown and ancient robes, a jade tree facing the wind, and an outstanding temperament.

"Tian Guang, the eldest son of Siko Tian Heng, was promoted to the location and became a senior doctor at the age of thirty..."

Meng Qi quickly recognized the man's identity, and everything about him quickly flashed through his mind.