Although Li Li is a mediocre person, he also knows very well that Ye Chang is advancing by retreating.

Ye Chang is the son-in-law of the former emperor, a hero of the Tang Dynasty, and his uncle, if he came to power, he would order Ye Chang to resign and go to guard the mausoleum for Li Longji, which was extremely bad for his reputation. In the history books, it is rare to leave an old name that forced the former emperor to perform meritorious deeds.

But at the same time, he was very excited.

If Ye Chang leaves his post and goes to guard Li Longji's mausoleum, it means that he has three years to operate and gather back the imperial power and the influence of the Son of Heaven that were scattered because of Ye Chang's rise. He didn't want to directly confront Ye Chang, so Ye Chang's "concession" might be the best way to solve the problem in his opinion.

"And then, Your Majesty just approved Ye Gong's resignation?"

More than an hour later, Yuan Zai got the news and hurried to the palace, at this time Ye Chang had already left the palace, he listened to Li Li's words, and asked with wide eyes.

"Stay in the middle and don't send it." Li Li smiled bitterly: "He has prepared a recital, well, here it is." ”

Yuan Zai couldn't help but lock his brows tightly after reading the folds handed over by the little eunuch.

"Alas, I am now a knowledgeable man, and whether he advances or retreats, it is embarrassing...... It's really embarrassing. Li Li muttered.

He really didn't expect that Ye Chang could make him embarrassed to such a point no matter whether he advanced or retreated. This can only be said that Ye Chang's influence on the political situation of the Tang Dynasty is too great.

"Accurate!" Yuan Zai thought about it again and again, and suddenly gritted his teeth.

"What?"

Ye Chang will inevitably write again to ask for his resignation, he pretends to be pretty, and he has to do enough tricks to be true. When he resigned for the second time, His Majesty would like to give him a knighthood and an official rank - oh, he has nothing to add, and His Majesty will give his children the title of junior to show his favor. Now that the emperor has just gone, he will definitely not accept the reward, and he will have to resign for the third time, and at this time, His Majesty will allow him to resign! ”

"Is that good?" Li Li was stunned.

"His Majesty has been retained again and again, he still doesn't appreciate it, who is to blame, does it have to be His Majesty to give him this great treasure, so that he is willing to stay in the court?" Yuan Zai said: "Anyway, His Majesty's posture of meeting the former emperor's old ministers has been made, and others can't blame His Majesty for going down!" ”

"Oh......"

Li Li thought for a while and felt that this was the best choice he could make.

Everything was as Yuan Zai said, after Ye Chang returned to the house, not long after, he came to the palace again - he wanted to guard Li Longji's spirit, and at the same time he handed over the second resignation note. Li Li did not reply immediately, the next day when he went to court, he handed over the matter to the ministers to discuss, and sure enough, the ministers all spoke out to retain, Li Li also "from the good as the stream", not only retained, but also gave three titles to make Ye Changyin his son and nephew.

Ye Chang really declined the gift, but still insisted on resigning. This time, Li Li agreed directly without the court meeting.

When this news came out, both the government and the opposition were shocked, and Ye Chang was guarding Li Longji's spirit in the palace, and Yuan Highway couldn't see others, so it was inevitable that he would have some guesses. In a hurry, Yuan Highway came to see Lonely Ming again, but found that Dugu Ming was the same as him, and his face was gloomy.

"What does King Wei think, if he stays in the palace like this, isn't he sending meat to the anvil?" Before the two of them sat down, Yuan Highway hurriedly said: "And now that he has approved his resignation, the meaning behind this can be seen by anyone with a discerning eye, why has he not made any moves, what is he going to do?" ”

"You ask me, who do I ask?" Dugu Ming listened to his series of questions, his heart was unhappy, and he also lost his temper: "Who knows what he thinks...... Doesn't he know that this son of heaven surnamed Li is all thick-skinned and black-hearted! ”

This is a bit rebellious, but the two belong to the same party, although their positions are still slightly different, but of course Yuan Highway will not tell the whistle about this kind of talk. Seeing that Dugu Ming was also anxious, Yuan Highway said: "What about Bian Ping, why don't you summon Bian Ping to ask?" ”

"Don't mention that guy, King Wei will summon that guy as soon as he returns to Beijing, and then send that guy to Japan." Dugu Ming smiled bitterly: "To put it mildly, it is to let him go to Japan as an envoy, stay in his country, find out the port and population situation of his country, and prepare for the next step. ”

Yuan Highway was dumbfounded: "Could it be ...... We all guessed wrong, King Wei didn't mean that at all, he really wanted to be a filial son-in-law to the emperor and a loyal minister? ”

"King Wei was bold when he was young, and he has never been a loyal minister and filial son-in-law!" Dugu Ming shook his head: "Didn't you say that you commented on King Wei in your early years, and he was bold and reckless, and sooner or later he would cause trouble for himself?" ”

Yuan Highway's old face was slightly red, he didn't expect Dugu Ming to know the Tao back then.

"What is the intention of King Wei, although Bian Ping is a little bolder, but it is for his good ......"

"I don't know what to say." Dugu Ming sighed.

"I'm a foreign minister, I can't enter the palace, you can invite the princess into the palace and listen to what King Wei is planning!"

"The woman is not to intervene in this matter." Dugu Ming shook his head: "Moreover, I have seen King Wei in the palace." ”

"What did he say?"

"I didn't explain anything else, but I just said that he can finally be idle now and do something he has wanted to do for a long time, such as compiling a historical book and gathering historical materials from the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the present, for the ......reference of those in power."

When Yuan Highway heard this, he immediately jumped up: "Ye Gong has something to say!" ”

"What?"

"If he goes to compile the classics, I will believe it, and I don't believe it!" Yuan Highway rolled his eyes: "Compiling history, that's something that Hanlin will only think about when he is idle!" ”

Dugu Ming thought about it, was stunned for a while, patted his head and said: "Why didn't I think at that time, how could he make up history?" ”

"What was the topic he brought up at that time, and he said that he wanted to make a history?"

"This ...... There is no special topic, just say that the first emperor reigned for 50 years, lived nearly 80 years, and was rare since ancient times, and then said that he had a good history and liked to read the "Historical Records......

Dugu Ming has a good memory, and basically retold Ye Chang's original words, Yuan Highway pondered for a while, and then said, "Do you have "Historical Records"?" ”

"Yes, I'll get it."

Thanks to the blessing of movable type printing, the price of books has dropped now, and the process of papermaking and printing has been continuously improved, and the printed books are more and more exquisite, and there are more and more types. The servant soon hugged a bunch of books, both "Historical Records" and other people's notes, looking at these thick books, Yuan Highway and Dugu Ming looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

"What does Ye Gong have to say, why don't you say it directly, how can you play this dumb riddle?"

The two of them still gave up the plan of turning over the books, after all, it was really difficult to turn over so many books.

In the absence of results, Yuan Highway returned to his home and sat in the study for a while, he shook his head: Don't worry about it yourself, since you know him, Ye Chang is not a person who needs others to worry about him.

made up his mind no longer to take the initiative, everything was waiting for Ye Chang's arrangement, but his curiosity was attracted by Ye Chang's dumb riddles.

He is very good, but the changes in the court are huge, first of all, personnel adjustments, Li Li has arranged a group of officials who have nothing to do with Ye Chang to various positions, although he is not the chief official now, but it is conceivable that in a few years, these people will replace the group that is close to Ye Chang. However, this action was not aggressive, and Ye Chang went to Jinsu Mountain to repair the Tailing Tomb for Li Longji, so the officials did not have any reaction to this.

"It seems that Ye Chang has left his post, and these people in the DPRK and China have lost their backbone, and they really can't become any climate." After a series of personnel appointments and dismissals were completed, Li Li summoned Yuan Zai and said to him with a smile: "Today, I know the value of the Son of Heaven!" ”

"Your Majesty, don't be complacent, things have just begun. Although there are a lot of people installed under His Majesty, they are all insignificant positions where they live now, and there are not many important ministers in the court, and there are not many who really stand on His Majesty's side. Yuan Zai said: "Your Majesty wants to really control the imperial court, the prime minister and the secretary of the book need to be appointed by Your Majesty, and the generals of all border towns and towns should be close ministers of Your Majesty, only in this way can the country be forever safe!" ”

"It's not easy to talk about, didn't you advise me not to be too anxious, if it's too urgent, it's not easy for King Wei to explain."

"Personnel appointments can be made without urgency, but there is one thing that must be urgent......

What Yuan Zai is anxious about is financial power. Although Ye Chang resigned, the financial power of the imperial court was still in the hands of the important ministers of the court, and Li Yan put forward several requests for appropriation to repair the palace and raise the new army, but the important ministers refused. Without financial power, it is impossible to gather more officials, so Yuan Zai suggested that Li Li should first collect the profits from the monopoly of mines and factories to the Son of Heaven.

"King Wei has been able to move the world from the grass, because he can make his comrades rich, and the scoundrels who followed him at the beginning are now high-rollers who spend a lot of money. Moreover, after the rebellion against Heng, the people in Chang'an City felt that it was the most stupid thing to cast money into silver balls and hide them in the cellar, and it was better to go to the mountains to open a mine or set up a workshop in the city. If you can control this, then from the high-ranking officials in the court to the people in the market, you have to rely on your majesty's snort. ”

Li Yu couldn't help but nodded, the wealthy households in Chang'an City are not only richer than Yuan Zai, but they are also more than him, but they are afraid that there are a lot of family properties!

In the past, Chang'an was rich and famous for Wang Yuanbao and a few other people. But now, there are definitely more than 20 households in Chang'an City that are as rich as Wang Yuanbao. They not only opened mines in other places, but also set up a lot of workshops in Chang'an City, Yongyang, Zhaohang, Da'an and other workshops near the city wall, which were originally relatively empty and did not have many residents, but now they have been full of workshops, and even outside the city, near the water flow, all kinds of workshops that need water power are also densely populated.

According to last year's census, the population of Chang'an City not only recovered from the war five years ago, but also surpassed it in one fell swoop, reaching more than 1.8 million people, many of whom were workers employed in these factories.

"Under the whole world, it is not the king's land, and the wealth above the king's land should naturally belong to the Son of Heaven." Yuan Zai said again.

The place where the two of them said this was in Li Li's imperial study, there were only the two of them in the room, and even the little eunuch who served was beaten out by Li Li. Hearing Yuan Zai say this, Li Li's eyes lit up, and his eyes couldn't help but flicker.

Li Li's father Li Ying died early, and he was raised by his uncle Li Cong when he was a child. As the emperor's grandson, he does not take advantage of money, which makes him value wealth very seriously. Yuan Zai proposed to collect the financial power, which was exactly what he wanted.

This is not a traitor, and the opposition to the Qing Dynasty will not be so great.

"But...... When King Wei was the prime minister, he was quite tolerant of these mines, and if I did this, would it arouse his opposition? ”

"King Wei is now supervising the construction of Tailing, where is the kung fu to take care of this idle matter. Moreover, I have a plan, if someone stabs the matter to him, he will not object! Won Jae suddenly laughed when he said this.

"What's the solution?" Li Yan was very interested, leaned forward and asked.

"With the spear of the son, the shield of the attacker, look at your majesty!"

Yuan Zai presented a stack of papers, and Li Li took it and looked at it, there were not many stacks of papers, but there were several tragic incidents in the workshop written on it.

It is inevitable that the factory owners, in order to make more profits, will lower the wages of their workers, work longer hours and reduce the protection from dangers. Chang'an City and Luoyang City, including Liaodong, are under Ye Chang's nose, and they have their own people to manage and supervise, and this kind of situation is better, but in those mines and workshops that are a little farther away, even Ye Chang can't put an end to such things.

"How could there be such a tragedy?" Li Lilian looked at these examples, and couldn't help but say: "Okay, good!" ”

He shouted yes, naturally because these examples gave him an excuse to take the right to franchise the mine into his own hands.

"Although there is this excuse, but Your Majesty, this matter cannot be poked out by us, but must rely on external forces." Yuan Zai said again.

Li Yu thought it was true, if they threw these materials in the court, people would understand that they were actually aiming for financial power. But with whose external force it takes, this needs to be carefully considered, and at this time, Li Li is a little regretful, there are too few people in his hands.

"One person can be recommended by the minister to do this." Yuan Zai said: "Lu Qi! ”

"Lu Qi?" Li Li had also heard of this name, and he had a very bad impression of this person, so he shook his head: "This person is not suitable for an official, is there any other candidate?" ”

"He doesn't need to be an official, he just needs to run a newspaper." Yuan Zai said with a smile: "The minister poured all his belongings and gave him 50,000 yuan, just waiting for His Majesty's consent, he will imitate the "People's Daily" newspaper newspaper, and then the first issue will launch these materials, the first issue will be broadcast for free, printing tens of thousands of copies, Chang'an, Luoyang, and all the provinces and counties, all have to be sent, so that the momentum will be bigger, at that time, His Majesty will not mention this matter, and some people in the DPRK will also mention this matter, and His Majesty will push the boat down the river...... You can do more with less. ”

Li Li's heart jumped, he didn't want to be an official, he only ran a newspaper...... Obviously, he wanted to ask him for a convenient job, and at the same time asked him for funding.

Ye Chang uses Du Fu's newspaper as the mouthpiece, and it seems that he can also choose another one as the mouthpiece, not to mention singing against Ye Chang, at least not letting him have the right to speak!

Of course, compared to the financial power collected by such means, this is just an incidental giveaway.