State of Zhou, Imperial Palace.

In the Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Zhou looked at the concerts presented by the local governments, frowned slightly, and said coldly:

"My new policy is a law that benefits the country and the people, why has it only been implemented for half a year, and there are bandits and bandits rampant everywhere."

Wang Zhi stood in front of Emperor Zhou, as if he hadn't heard anything, lowered his head, and didn't say a word.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Emperor Zhou raised his eyes and glanced at him, and said coldly:

"Why don't you speak?"

Wang Zhi hurriedly raised his head, showing a look of shame, and said:

"The slave is dull, and she doesn't know anything about the affairs of the court, so she really doesn't know what to say."

Zhou Huang snorted coldly and said, "Don't you dare to say it." ”

Wang Zhi knelt down busily, and said in a trembling voice: "The slave maid has not read for a few years, and she can't worry about the saint, the slave and maid should die." ”

After speaking.

A thousand taels of silver suddenly appeared in his mind, and there were only thirty taels left in the scholar's hands.

"If it goes on like this for a long time, it won't be long before the Great Zhou will be as corrupt as the Qianguo, and when the time comes, how should the Holy One deal with himself?"

Come to think of this.

Wang Zhi opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but he didn't open his mouth after all.

Emperor Zhou saw that he looked like he wanted to speak and stopped, knowing that he had something to hide from him, and his expression became more and more cold.

"I'll give you a chance to tell everything you know, otherwise, you, the commander of the East Factory, the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor and the eunuch Bingbi, will not do it!"

Hear this.

Wang Zhi no longer hesitated, looked at Emperor Zhou, and said:

"Holy Lord, the slave maid was in the Dongchang Yamen yesterday, and when listening to the chat of the servants, they mentioned one thing, saying that this month, they were away from Beijing on an errand, and they could often see broken palms on the side of the road.

From Jinyang Mansion to Ji'an Mansion, in just a few dozen miles, you can see more than a dozen broken palms, which have been discarded at will, with blurred flesh and blood, looking terrible. ”

Emperor Zhou's brows furrowed slightly, and he said unhappily: "I asked you to talk about the new policy, what are you doing all the time!" ”

When Wang Zhi heard this, he sighed in his heart, stopped fighting, and said very bluntly:

"The slave maid heard that the reason why there are so many broken palms on the side of the road is because when the local government implements armor protection, it increases the number of layers and recruits young and strong, with a small training in three days and a major training in ten days.

The people were so unbearable that they had no choice but to cut off their palms and avoid the conscription of this armor. ”

The so-called armor protection, as the name suggests, is to educate soldiers in agriculture.

During the slack period, young men were recruited and trained as a supplement to the government soldiers.

The starting point is to better maintain local order, and by the way, increase the military strength of the imperial court.

But for the people, it is a kind of exploitation.

After all, no one wants to sacrifice their rest time to do training that doesn't make much sense.

Of course.

If the training is not too strict on weekdays, most young people can tolerate it.

In this era, as a poor people without power and power, who does not have a few imposed burdens on their shoulders?

One more doesn't make much of a difference.

The question is.

In order to oppose the new policy, the local government increased the weight layer by layer, and made the simple training even more stringent than that of the Zhechong government, which naturally caused the people to complain.

Speaking of which.

Seeing that Emperor Zhou did not speak.

Wang Zhi hesitated for a moment and continued:

"Your Majesty's new policy is intended to be good, not only to increase the income of the imperial court, but also to reduce the burden of the people.

However, the New Deal harmed the interests of the gentry and the powerful, and they tried every means to obstruct the New Deal.

At first, they were openly opposed, but after the Holy Lord joined forces with Wei Ge Lao, they were afraid of losing their official positions, so they opposed it secretly.

Your Majesty wants to implement a new policy, and they ostensibly agree to it, and they will continue to implement it according to Your Majesty's wishes, but they will do it more intensively.

For example, when Wei Ge Lao formulated it, it was clearly stipulated that training should only be carried out during the slack time, and training would be conducted once a month.

However, when it came to the localities, the government intensified its efforts, not only for the peasants, but also for training when the peasants were busy, and the frequency of training was extremely high.

In this way, the people could not bear it, so they thought that His Majesty's new policy was not good, and spontaneously resisted the new policy.

In addition, the other measures formulated by His Majesty and Wei Ge Lao are all the same.

The Qingmiao Law stipulates that the interest rate of the government is two cents, and when it arrives at the local level, those parents and officials will arbitrarily raise the interest to three cents, or even four cents, for various reasons, which is higher than the interest paid by the gentry.

Not only that, but they also forced the people to borrow money from the government, forcing many people to die.

The purpose of the law was to curb private traders who raised the price of goods, but after it was implemented, the local government replaced private traders with worse ones.

Far from being suppressed, prices have become higher, such as the price of cloth, which has risen by 50% in just six months.

The purpose of the exemption law was to reduce the burden on the peasant households, give them more time to farm, and also increase the income of the imperial court.

But when it came to the locality, the government took advantage of this excuse to desperately loot the people's fat and ointment.

In the end, all the money that should have belonged to the treasury went into the pockets of those parents. ”

Speaking of which, after a pause, he took a breath and continued:

"The officials seem to support the New Deal and do their best, but in fact they play the opposite role.

The burden of the people has not been lightened, nor has the revenue of the state been increased......"

"If you oppose something, you will intensify it, which is a common method used by hundreds of officials."

"In addition to this new policy, His Majesty also wanted to open up sources and reduce expenditure, so that hundreds of officials could save more, use less precious inkstones, and eat less delicacies from the mountains and seas.

They deliberately forced His Majesty to make concessions in front of him, dressed in rags, eating chaff and drinking thin, as if he were going to starve all his wives to death......"

Wang Zhi gushed endlessly, sentence after sentence.

At first, he looked at Emperor Zhou's face.

After talking too much, he went up for a while and said all the words and things that were hidden in his heart.

Now.

If he raised his eyes, he would find that Emperor Zhou's face was already gloomy to the extreme.

Minutes and seconds passed.

Seeing that Wang Zhi didn't mean to shut up.

Emperor Zhou finally couldn't hold back the anger in his heart, his face was blue, he slapped the desk, and said angrily:

"Enough!"

The voice was angry, like thunder.

Wang Zhi was shocked, his body trembled slightly, and he kowtowed: "The slave should be damned!" Slaves and maids should be damned! ”

Seeing this, Emperor Zhou became even more angry, stood up from the dragon chair, and scolded:

"You dog thing pretends to be in front of me all day long!"

"I really don't know what's going on in your heart?"

"I said a word, and you fell to your knees, trembling, as if you had lost your soul, in fact, you didn't know how to laugh at me!"

When Wang Zhi heard this, he was really frightened, his head was next to the ground, and his voice trembled:

"The slave and the maid are the holy eagle dogs, and everything that the slave and the maid have is a holy reward......

"I don't know how many times I've heard these words!"

Emperor Zhou's voice was cold, staring at Wang Zhi deadly, and he said word by word: "I want to listen to your heart!" And not perfunctory clichés! ”

Wang Zhi heard this and secretly complained to himself.

"The slave maid only said a few words in her heart, and you scolded her like this."

"If you really say everything in your heart, will you still have a life?"

I thought so in my heart, but I didn't dare to say it on my lips.

He did not hesitate, and with the instinctive reaction he had cultivated over the years, he spoke:

"In the hearts of slaves and maids, the saint is a rare Ming Jun for thousands of years, caring for the people, and slacking off all night.

When His Majesty stayed up late to deal with the recital, the slaves and maids felt distressed when they looked at it.

However, the saint has just ascended the throne, and he is not as familiar with some things in the court as the first emperor.

In addition, the slave maid is old, and the work is not as sharp as before, and the role of the East Factory has not been brought into play.

This led to many traitors in the court, openly and secretly attacking the saint and fooling the saint.

It's the slave's fault to say a thousand things and ten thousand, and the slave is really damned......"

Hear this.

Emperor Zhou's expression softened a little, sat back on the dragon chair, and said coldly:

"Don't worry about what else you know, just say it."

Wang Zhi breathed a sigh of relief and said busily:

"The slave must know everything and say everything!"

Immediately after that, we talked about the New Deal.

Just compared to before.

This time, he kept a lot of things to himself, and only said a few superficial questions.

All in all.

The New Deal is good.

Your Majesty is wise.

It's just that there are many traitors in the court, and they can't see the good of the saints, and they are crazy one by one, and they try to obstruct the new policy.

As for the mistakes made by His Majesty in the New Deal, and the problems that exist in the New Deal itself.

For example, the law change is too hasty, the implementation is not decisive enough, and so on.

Not a word.

After a stick of incense.

Wang Zhi stopped and said, "That's what the slave knows. ”

Emperor Zhou's face was gloomy, with a pair of deep eyes, looking ahead, speechless for a long time, not knowing what he was thinking.

Seeing this, Wang Zhi knelt on the ground, a trace of apprehension rose in his heart, and he began to regret why he talked so much today and said these nonsense to cause trouble for himself.

"I don't talk much today, no accident, it won't be long before hundreds of officials will write a book, listing all kinds of shortcomings of the new policy, asking the saint to restore the ancestral system."

"And when the saint sees that the effect of the new policy is not satisfactory, he should also choose to follow the advice of the officials."

"Except for Wei Dongzheng and Wei Ge Lao, who strongly advocated the implementation of the new policy, everyone can return to the original situation of peace and quiet."

"If you talk more today, I don't know what kind of changes will be caused."

"Hey......"

Minutes and seconds passed.

I don't know how long it took.

Emperor Zhou's deep voice sounded again in the Qianqing Palace.

"Let Wei Dongzheng come to see me."

"Yes, Holy."

Wang Zhi didn't want to get involved in the new deal anymore, so he got up and saluted in a hurry, turned around and left the Qianqing Palace.

A moment later.

Dressed in a scarlet official robe, Wei Dongzheng came to the front of Emperor Zhou.

made a salute, neither humble nor arrogant:

"Your Majesty!"

Emperor Zhou looked at him, his eyes showed a touch of anger, and he said coldly:

"In order to escape the armor, the people of Ji'an Mansion cut off their palms, does Wei Ge know about it?"

Wei Dongzheng said lightly: "The minister knows." ”

A cloud of anger rose in Emperor Zhou's chest, and he gritted his teeth and said:

"You know why you didn't tell me!"

"You want me to be infamous among the people!"

It is said that the king humiliates the minister and dies.

Emperor Zhou's words can be said to be extremely harsh.

Wei Dongzheng listened, but he looked unimpressed, and said lightly: "The implementation of the new policy, the scholars and doctors are still controversial, not to mention the ...... of the people."

"It's normal for people to be deceived and do things that harm themselves."

"Since Your Majesty has decided to implement a new policy, you must not be afraid of customs and have the world in mind."

"How can you be shaken just because of some small changes?"

Speaking of which.

With a pair of deep eyes, he looked at Emperor Zhou, and said in a firm tone:

"The implementation of the new policy is like a strong man breaking his wrist! Your Majesty should have an indomitable determination! ”

Emperor Zhou's face was pale, and he said in a cold tone:

"The pen is like a knife, you want me to leave an infamy in the history books!"

When Wei Dongzheng heard this, a fine light burst out in his eyes, and he said word by word:

"Your Majesty should know ......"

"Even if the pen is put into the knife, the words are punishable, after a thousand years, he will be immortal!"

As soon as this remark came out.

Emperor Zhou was struck by lightning, his eyes shrank suddenly, and his heart beat violently.

After a thousand years, he should be immortal......

This sentence seems to have magic power for an emperor who wants to leave a name in history, and it has a huge attraction.

This moment.

Emperor Zhou's belief in implementing the new policy is extremely firm!

Right now.

There was a rush of footsteps outside the hall.

Immediately after, a slightly anxious voice came in.

"Xie Qian, a scholar of the Chenhua Gaidian University, beg to see Your Majesty!"