Wang Chengen and Wang Dehua looked at each other in surprise when they heard the words of the Son of Heaven.

Wang Chengen couldn't help but ask: "Holy Lord, a few days ago, King Qi came to persuade the Holy Lord to kill the traitor, isn't the Holy Lord unwilling to start a killing spree?" ”

Zhu Youzhen paced a few steps in the study and said, "I can't kill the civil and military officials who collaborate with the enemy. But the king of Qi was killed. ”

Wang Chengen looked at the Son of Heaven, thought about it, and understood.

The Son of Heaven is now alone, and using national law to kill the Manchu ministers will not only fail to establish authority, but will arouse the anger and resistance of the gentry in the world. Now that Li Zhi is powerful, if the Son of Heaven fights with the gentry again, it will make Li Zhi's influence even greater.

For example, if the Son of Heaven starts to attack the gentry, if the Jiangnan gentry jumps over the wall in a hurry and organizes a Jiangbei army to come out, I am afraid that the Son of Heaven will be in trouble both internally and externally. When the time comes, I will ask Li Zhi to quell the rebellion, and what will I do to seal Li Zhi after the matter is completed?

Li Zhi is already a prince, the Son of Heaven really can't let Li Zhi make great contributions anymore, otherwise what will he do to seal Li Zhi?

And Li Zhi's killing is completely different, Li Zhi holds the army in his hands, who else can he be. Even if the Jiangnan gentry had the intention to organize soldiers and horses, they would be vulnerable in front of Li Zhiri's army, which was stronger than a day. Therefore, Li Zhi killed the traitor, and he did not look forward and backward like the Son of Heaven.

Now among the three forces of the Son of Heaven, the gentry and Li Zhi, any one of them hopes that the other two parties will fight, so that they can win the battle. And since Li Zhi is willing to take the initiative to provoke a death match with civil officials, Zhu Youzhen, the son of heaven, is naturally optimistic.

Wang Chengen thought about it before and after and figured it out.

He kowtowed to the Son of Heaven and said, "Emperor Shengming! ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Chengen and did not speak. He turned and looked out the window at the majestic palace again, and pondered.

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To the east of the capital, the Xiaoyumen section of the Grand Canal "Tonghui River" is a vegetable field. Farmers on the outskirts of Beijing grow vegetables here, and then every few days they pick up vegetables and sell them in the capital to make a living.

But today, these vegetable fields have suffered, and Li Zhi has set up a huge altar on the canal embankment. In front of the altar is a bronze tripod, which is filled with huge incense.

More than 1,000 officials dressed in red and blue robes poured into the vegetable patch.

For these high-ranking magnates, what are the vegetables in these vegetable fields? Seeing Li Zhi's altar, the officials stepped on the vegetable field without hesitation, trampling those green vegetables to the ground, and they could no longer be used.

However, although the officials were arrogant, they were still quite dissatisfied with Li Zhi's arrangement to worship the heavens in the vegetable field.

Unlike the farmers in Tianjin who use guano fertilizer, the farmers in Beijing use farm manure to fertilize the vegetable seedlings, so there is an embarrassing smell in the vegetable fields.

Chen Wenyue, the secretary of the Ministry of War, stood on the ridge of the field, looked at the officials with sad faces in the vegetable field, and snorted coldly and said: "This Li Zhi asked me and other scholars to stand in this vegetable field drenched in dung and urine, I am afraid that he wants to give us officials a dismount." ”

In Chen Wenyue's view, Li Zhi did not have a good relationship with the civil officials. Although Li Zhi has the intention of relying on the power of civil officials, it will take time to run in between the two. At this stage of running-in, the two sides will inevitably test each other's bottom line, and various means of contempt, delay, deception and even intimidation will emerge in endlessly.

And today, Li Zhi asked the officials to sacrifice in the vegetable field, obviously deliberately belittling the civil officials, wanting to see where the bottom line of the civil officials is.

But this embarrassment was not enough for the civilian officials to retreat. For the dirt in the vegetable patch, the civil officials pinched their noses and endured it.

Shaoqing of Dali TempleWang Heze squinted his eyes and said: "Did Li Zhi find out that we were going to mention the taxation of Jiangnan, and deliberately made a dismount to intimidate us, and wanted us to swallow the words?" ”

The officials pondered for a while, and they all felt that what Wang Heze said made sense.

Li Zhi must not have wanted to agree to the conditions of the civil officials, so he put on a posture of neglecting the civil officials.

However, the civil officials are scheming one by one, and Li Zhi wants to be Sima Zhao "even dead". And since Li Zhi wants to be Sima Zhao, then controlling the imperial court will inevitably require the power of civil officials, how can he be intimidated by this mere vegetable field?

Dong Jiuqi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, snorted coldly and said, "If King Qi is not polite to us, we should not be polite to King Qi." When the king of Qi comes, we will get straight to the point and talk about the taxation in Jiangnan. ”

He promised to do this, and he agreed to it if he didn't. If he hesitates, we will all go away, leaving him alone to face the wrath of the Son of Heaven. ”

Everyone looked at the vegetable field under their feet and nodded yes one by one.

In the eyes of civil officials, Li Zhi summoned more than 1,000 officials in the capital to worship the heavens this time, and the main purpose was to show his strength to the Son of Heaven. For such a thing, the Son of Heaven is undoubtedly very jealous and resentful. But if all the civil officials leave the scene halfway through Li Zhi's "grand event", the Son of Heaven will be less jealous and more resentful, and he will inevitably aim all his anger at Li Zhi.

At that time, the civil officials will be able to watch the good show of Li Zhi and the Son of Heaven fighting to the death.

Therefore, Dong Jiuqi, Chen Wenyue, Wang Heze and others were sure that Li Zhi would agree to their request.

The officials stood in the vegetable field for two quarters of an hour, but before they waited for Li Zhi, they saw some Tiger Ben soldiers faintly coming in the distance.

The civilians were stunned and stretched their necks to look at the soldiers.

Chen Wenyue observed for a while and said, "King Qi has made a big posture, and this sacrifice to the sky also brings soldiers to guard. ”

Dong Jiuqi stroked his beard and said: "Okay, after the sacrifice, we will return to the capital with these murderous tiger army." Looking at the momentum of these tiger army, I am afraid that the Son of Heaven will really be frightened and hand over all the authority to Li Zhi! ”

When everyone heard Dong Jiuqi's words, they sighed and admired, and they all said that Li Zhi was so domineering.

Beside Chen Wenyue, Jia Sanwei, the squire of the military department, had a different reaction from others. He was covered with fine sweat, and when he saw those Tiger Ben soldiers, as if he saw the deadly Hades, he couldn't help but tremble with fright.

However, his trembling did not attract the attention of others, and everyone was still there to discuss the matter of Jiangnan taxation.

After waiting for another quarter of an hour, Li Zhi finally came.

Guided by a huge halberd, Li Zhi came to the altar from the east with the prince's guard of honor.

Li Zhi was surrounded by Zhong Feng, Zheng Kaicheng and other generals. Jiang Chong led a group of tiger ben troops to open the way in front, separated the civil officials huddled together with steel knives, and carved a road leading to the altar in the crowded vegetable field.

Those Tiger Ben soldiers were wearing Fanjiazhuang's refined steel armor, with long knives and hilts in their hands, and back-loading rifles on their backs, their faces full of murderous aura.

Seeing Li Zhi's momentum, Jia Sanwei was so frightened that he almost fell into the vegetable field.

Chen Wenyue squinted at Li Zhi and said, "Show off your might, you want to scare us?" ”

Dong Jiuqi snorted coldly and said, "The old man is not afraid, this Jiangnan tax matter, the old man will come here!" ”