The heat wave gushing out of the hall continued to bake, and the snow on the eaves was gradually melting, and the snow water fell on the bluestone slab drop by drop, and it was shattered. The door of the imperial study was open, and there was a handsome and dignified official kneeling in front of Li Yuan.

Li Yuan glanced at the music in his hand, his face was very ugly, and his kind eyes were with a hint of fierceness, which made people shudder...... And the beautiful man in front of him is his son-in-law Zhao Cijing, the official worship of the military department, is one of his most trusted and relied on relatives, and asked in a condensed voice: "The state affairs are difficult, you actually want to resign, what's going on?" ”

Zhao Cijing's face was still angry, and he said loudly: "Shengshang, Weichen, the secretary of the military department, really can't do it anymore, I would like to resign and return to my hometown, please give permission!" ”

Although Li Yuan was very displeased, he also knew that Zhao Cijing was loyal, filial and generous, and he was not a person who had nothing to do, so he knew that there must be a reason, so he patiently asked: "You are already a father, can you not be so bookish?" Don't threaten me with your resignation at every turn, you get up and make it clear to me, what happened? ”

"Weichen didn't threaten the saint!" Zhao Cijing stood up and saluted: "Weichen's ten subordinates had dinner at the Weinan wine shop at noon, but they were all arrested by Wuchuan in front of the public, and the minister went to the king of Qi to reason, only to know that eight of the ten subordinates had been beaten to death, and although the other two were still alive, they were also beaten to death, and life and death were unpredictable. The king of Qi showed his ministers a confession on charges of colluding with the Sui Dynasty and attempting to cooperate with the outside world. The minister, who was the secretary of the military department, let the enemy infiltrate under his nose, and felt deeply guilty, and could no longer serve as the secretary of the military department, so he must take the blame and resign, please ask the Holy Lord for approval! ”

In the end, Zhao Ci trembled with anger, Li Yuanji was so lawless, he couldn't imagine that the dignified official actually said that he would be killed, if the emperor was still protecting, he would say nothing

When Li Yuan heard this, he couldn't speak for a long time, the establishment of the Wuchuan Division was his approval, and Li Yuanji's monitoring of hundreds of officials was also his intention, but this time it seemed to be too much, he took out a gold medal, handed it to the guards on the side, and said: "Immediately order the King of Qi to release the people, the injured are sent to the Imperial Doctor's Office for treatment, and the bodies of the deceased are returned to their families, in addition, let the King of Qi come to see me quickly." ”

"Whoa!" The guard saluted and hurried away with the gold medal.

Only then did Li Yuan say to Zhao Cijing in a soothing tone: "You can't be so angry, you are not an outsider, it doesn't hurt to tell you some things, I have received accurate news, there are many, many officials who see that the situation in my Tang Dynasty is not good, and they are secretly communicating with the Sui Dynasty, preparing to cooperate with the outside when the Sui army invades the territory." I was just worried that it would cause turmoil and didn't do anything, but if I didn't suppress it with deterrence, these people would be presumptuous, and more people would secretly defect to the Sui Dynasty, so I asked the King of Qi to make an example of it and deter Xiangyang. ”

Zhao Cijing said angrily: "If the saint wants to kill a hundred people, you can use the spies who colluded with the Sui Dynasty to start with it, why do you want to kill innocents indiscriminately." ”

Li Yuan smiled bitterly, "Some people, once I deal with it, it will cause more turmoil, and I can't do it, do you understand?" ”

Zhao Cijing was extremely sad in his heart, and Li Yuan's words made him understand a truth.

That is—whoever has a great backer, even if he commits treason, will be fine, will not be punished, will not be sentenced to death, and can continue to be a great official, sitting on the heads of many people and making a fortune; And those officials who do not have a good background and no big backers, no matter how loyal they are to the court, how diligent they are to their own positions, and how high their personal positions are, they are just pawns that are sacrificed by the court.

"I also feel very sorry for this incident, but people are dead, and even I, the emperor, can't bring them back to life. The only thing that can be done is to give them a generous burial with the gift of knighthood, and double the care for their families, and you can go and comfort them! Li Yuan sighed.

Zhao Cijing was already speechless with grief and indignation, he knew that the emperor did not mean to punish Li Yuanji, at most he only reprimanded Li Yuanji, but those military officials died in vain. For a while, Zhao Cijing only felt disheartened, he really didn't want to be the secretary of the military department, if he really couldn't do it, he would be too guarded in the local area, out of sight and out of mind.

At this time, a eunuch reported outside the door: "His Royal Highness the King of Qi asks to see!" ”

Li Yuan and Zhao Cijing were stunned, Li Yuanji obviously entered the palace by coincidence.

Zhao Cijing didn't want to see Li Yuanji, so he got up and said, "Weichen wants to appease his subordinates and retire first!" ”

"Okay, I'll ask you clearly and give you an explanation."

"Thank you, Holy Lord, the minister retires!"

Zhao Cijing walked out of the imperial study, met Li Yuanji head-on, put Li Yuanji who was smiling and greeting aside, and passed by him with a cold face; Li Yuanji looked at the direction where Zhao Cijing was walking, snorted coldly, and walked quickly to the imperial study.

"Son-in-law, see father."

"No rudeness!"

"Thank you, Father."

Li Yuan said extremely dissatisfied: "What's the matter with the officials of the Ministry of War, why do you want to arrest them and beat people to death?" ”

Li Yuanji already had a countermeasure, and he arched his hand unhurriedly: "Father, they did talk about the court and spread rumors, and the people of Wuchuan Division heard with their own ears that they were disrespectful to the court and their father, so they were arrested on the spot, and they did admit to complaining to the court. As for the fact that it was not Erchen's intention to kill someone, it was entirely because the interrogator was anxious to get a confession and befriended Erchen, so he used excessive punishment and beat the person to death, and Erchen had already beheaded the interrogator. ”

Li Yuan's expression eased slightly, as for what the interrogator's name was, he didn't ask, he just needed a reasonable excuse to respond to Zhao Cijing. He felt that the death of the military official could make more people shut up, so he was willing to compensate and reward him with a knighthood.

Li Yuanji looked at his father's face, his heart was relieved, and he continued: "Secondly, Erchen found that the wind direction in Xiangyang City was very abnormal, and now rumors are spreading and people are panicking. And some self-righteous people feel that they represent the will of the people, open their mouths and say that the Tang Dynasty will die, ordinary people are ignorant, affected by this, now they don't even dare to go out, the whole Xiangyang is like a dead city, Erchen thinks that this unhealthy wind must be stopped, Erchen thinks that the troubled times should be used to re-enact, take more resolute measures, please be gracious! Otherwise, the Sui army would have reached the other side of the Han River, and Xiangyang would be in chaos. ”

Li Yuanji's words were very level, he did not deny the arrest, but his subordinates heard the military officials' false words before arresting them, and did not deny the interrogation, but let him say that it was caused by the torture of the inquisitor in order to curry favor with him, the prince, and finally he beheaded the interrogator, not only to the imperial court, but also to show that he himself was an upright person who did not like slanderous ministers and did official business. Immediately afterwards, the responsibility for the storm in the city was shifted to the people who spread the rumors, so as to take advantage of the situation to demand higher power and further expand the surveillance power.

Li Yuan pondered for a moment and said, "You are so open-minded and immature to arrest and kill people. This will not only not be effective, but will cause more panic. Your people are not regular officials, they do not have the right to arrest and kill people, and it is easy to give authority to others. This is not to lead troops to fight, it is the way of assassins, you have to be smart in the future, many things can only be operated in secret, not only that, but also to support a group of mouthpieces who speak for the court, while killing those who spread rumors, while encouraging the people with mouthpieces, so as to appease the people, do you understand? ”

He very much agrees with Li Yuanji's statement in his heart, and also supports the expansion of supervision, just because the situation in Datang is now unstable, and it is necessary to use iron-blooded means to control public opinion, if the rumors are allowed to spread unscrupulously, it will shake the foundation of Li Tang, but he does not want Li Yuanji to use his own support to do it openly and honestly, and to behave more subtly.

Li Yuanji knew that his father agreed with him, and said happily: "Please rest assured, my son will be exhausted for a while, and no one will be allowed to destroy the stability of the Tang Dynasty." ”

"I'm tired, go down." Li Yuan leaned on the dragon couch and slowly closed his eyes.

"The retainers retired." Li Yuanji said softly, and then stepped back lightly, before he went out, Li Yuan thought of something again, opened his eyes, and asked, "What I asked you to do a few days ago, how are you prepared?" ”

Li Yuanji turned around and said: "Please rest assured that the son has collected the information of all the big businessmen under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, a total of more than 2,500 households, and the son will let the Wuchuan Division clean up in the name of reselling military funds tomorrow, and raise all the money and food needed by the father and emperor in the shortest possible time." ”

"Let's start with those merchants who have nothing to do with the Guanlong magnates and who have fled from Nanjun."

"Whoa!"

Li Yuanji hurriedly left.

Li Yuan couldn't sleep again, and lay on the dragon couch with his eyes closed and thought silently.

The gap in the imperial court's finances is a big hole, and no matter how much you throttle, it makes no sense, so it can only be open source.

And to do it to the big business, it is also the first choice of the emperors of all dynasties in the face of crises, and he Li Yuan will certainly not be an exception.

But the gap is too big, and a large number of troops have to be raised to deal with the war in the coming year, and the wealth of merchants is far from enough, so in addition to the merchants of the Tang Dynasty, the most wealthy group at present is the Guanlong magnates.

However, Li Yuan also knew that in recent years, he had extorted too much and demanded too much from the Guanlong magnates, and they had no choice but to fully support the Li Tang Dynasty before, but now there are more Sui Dynasty, and if they let them bleed without giving benefits, it will cause strong resistance from the Guanlong magnates, which is inconsistent with his next plan, so he should give these people certain benefits appropriately to relax their vigilance.

Li Yuan thought for a long time, got up and wrote down an edict, stamped it with a personal seal, and handed it to the old eunuch, "You send this edict to the East Palace and hand it over to the prince as soon as possible!" ”

"The old slave obeys!" The old eunuch respectfully responded to the order, and carefully covered Li Yuan, who was lying down again, with a brocade quilt, before taking off the edict and leaving.

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