Chapter 208: Du Fugui

Li Jiancheng returned to Ganlu Palace, where he reviewed memorials, read books, had meals, and summoned concubines to sleep with him. The empress lived in Lizheng Palace not far away and was still recuperating from childbirth.

The emperor first inquired about the prince's condition. He only had this one son, so naturally he asked him three times a day, fearing that he had overlooked anything.

Then he asked about the empress and the imperial concubine. In his harem, there were currently only two people: the empress Xiao and the imperial concubine Ashina.

According to the rules, in addition to the empress, he should have four concubines, namely, noble, virtuous, virtuous and virtuous.

The nine concubines were: Zhaoyi, Zhaorong, Zhaoyuan, Xiuyi, Xiurong, Xiuyuan, Chongyi, Chongrong and Chongyuan.

There were twenty-seven ladies in the imperial family, including nine imperial concubines, nine beauties, and nine talented ladies.

There were eighty-one imperial wives, including twenty-seven concubines, twenty-seven imperial maids, and twenty-seven court ladies.

That's why Li Yuan advised him to quickly enrich the harem and expand the family. It was true that there were too few concubines, and Li Yuan and the royal family and court officials were not happy to see that the emperor's second son had Turkic blood.

After all, in this era, even the probability of a prince dying young is very high. If the eldest son dies young, the title of eldest son will be taken by the second son, which is not a good thing.

After Li Jiancheng sat at the imperial desk, a handsome young eunuch came forward to serve him tea. This was the servant of the Li family. Originally, if one person succeeded, the whole family would benefit. After Li Jiancheng became emperor, as long as the servant could learn some literature and archery, he would have a bright future.

It's a pity that the child was a eunuch, so he was taken into the palace to serve. After all, most of the eunuchs in the palace were left over from the previous dynasty, and naturally they were not as trustworthy as family-born children.

"Li Wei, are there any rumors in the palace?"

Li Wei replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, the palace maids are praising your majesty's kindness and celebrating the dowry you have given them to leave the palace and start a family, while the eunuchs are complaining about the reduction in food and clothing. Apart from that, there is nothing else."

Li Jiancheng thought for a moment and said, "Did I cut too much? Most of the eunuchs and servants are miserable people. Although I want to set an example for the world, increase income and reduce expenditure, and change the extravagant style left by the previous dynasty, I don't want to let the palace people starve."

Li Wei could not help but look up. The emperor was truly as majestic and kind as a god, just as he had heard since he was a child.

"Your Majesty, those in the palace who have enough to eat do not need this reduction, and those who don't have enough to eat will just become even more hungry."

Li Jiancheng was slightly surprised by the mature words, and his eyes fell on his little servant: "Then can you let those who eat too much eat less, and let those who are not full eat more?

"As long as it is His Majesty's wish, I am willing to do anything."

"Okay, then I'll wait and see."

"promise."

...............

The emperor issued a decree to rest the people, but it was only implemented to some extent in Guanzhong, Guandong and the northern border counties. The rest of the places were worse, and the situation was even worse the further south you went. There were even county officials who still imposed taxes, corvee labor and enslaved and exploited the people according to the system set by Yang Guang.

The most annoying thing is that most of these county officials were officials who responded to Li Jiancheng's call early on and were the fastest to obey the Tang Emperor's position, so they were considered to have the merit of following the dragon. Their political sense in the troubled times was not insignificant, but their greed still overwhelmed their reason.

They thought that the emperor had just ascended the throne, and there were chaotic factions in the court. There were also so many bandits and pirates lurking in the world. Your Majesty must deal with these first, and then come to care about the affairs of official administration. It would not be too late for them to stop then.

With the merit of following the emperor, the worst that can happen is that they are dismissed from office. With a little effort, they can be reinstated. They are very familiar with this routine, but it's a pity that there are few people as honest as Duke Yuwen nowadays.

In the Xuanzheng Hall, Wei Zheng held up the reports of the implementation of the decrees from various places and reported: "This is the crime of deceiving the emperor. They eat the imperial salary without thinking, disobey the imperial decrees and harm the people. How can the people survive? If they can't survive, they will rebel. Do we have to wait until bandits rise up frequently before punishing them?"

Xiao Cong, the Minister of the Chancellery, sighed as his face was sprayed with saliva, and turned to the emperor and bowed: "I am old and incompetent, please allow me to resign and let the wise take over."

This was the fourth time. Li Jiancheng nodded and said, "Mr. Xiao has made great contributions to the country. I really cannot lose him. However, since the government affairs of the Shangshu Province are tiring, I will allow Mr. Xiao to resign and become the Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince."

"I, your Majesty, thank you as an old minister." Xiao Cong thanked calmly amidst the angry gazes of the officials from the Jiangnan gentry, while the officials from Guanlong were all very proud of themselves.

Li Jiancheng's eyes fell on You Pushe Pei Ji, who was a close friend of the retired emperor and the second most meritorious official in stabilizing Chang'an. His role was second only to Xiao Cong. It was he who contacted and persuaded most of the Guanlong families in Chang'an.

Therefore, when Li Jiancheng became the Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty, Pei Ji was appointed as the chief official of the Prime Minister's Office due to his merits. After the founding of the country, he was appointed as the Right Prime Minister. At this time, he had been recommended by the court officials for a long time, hoping that he would replace Xiao Cong.

At this time, it was natural to follow the wishes of the Guanlong officials, so Li Jiancheng issued an order: "Pei Ji, the right servant of the Jin Shangshu, will be the left servant, in charge of all matters of the Shangshu Province, and find out the reasons why the government orders are not being implemented smoothly as soon as possible."

"Your servant Pei Ji, I thank you for your grace and accept your order."

Wei Zheng frowned as he watched the alternation of power in the court, and then continued to make remonstrations, asking the emperor to issue an imperial decree to bring those corrupt officials who disobeyed the emperor's will to justice. In addition, he should thoroughly investigate who was covering up for the incident in the court, causing it to be discovered only now.

But soon Wei Zheng was attacked by other officials, who all avoided the issue.

After the court was dismissed, the Minister of Works Dugu Huai'en returned to the official residence of the Ministry of Works with resentment towards Wei Zheng, and said to his subordinates and confidants: "If this thief is not killed, His Majesty will eventually find out about us."

The confidant advised: "Wei Zheng is quite favored by Your Majesty. He has repeatedly made direct criticisms and has never been punished. He is not an ordinary nobody. If he acts rashly, he may incur Your Majesty's wrath.

You are the nephew of Empress Yuanzhen, and are a true relative of the Emperor and Your Majesty. Although you have accepted some tributes, it won't matter if something happens, so you should keep calm."

Speaking of this, Dugu Huai'en's face became even uglier. His family had produced three queens, but none of them was destined to be the emperor. He angrily said, "Is my daughter the only one who is rich and noble?"

Is it true that my family can only be rich by relying on women?

Ignoring his terrified confidants, Dugu Huai'en felt that the world was unfair. It was fine that he didn't have the fate to be an emperor, but he had to be so worried just to get some wealth. He couldn't live this life anymore!

When the young Jiancheng ascended the throne for the first time, he did not seek stability, but instead wanted to disturb the local areas. Under the slander of Wei Zheng, he wanted to capture the heroes who had supported the emperor and bring them to the capital to be punished. It was obvious that he wanted to force the counties to revolt. Perhaps I could contact my old friends, try to lift the tripod of the world, and establish the Dugu family's country!
………………

(End of this chapter)