Half an hour later, the Minister of Revenue Renault Mountain came late.

When he arrived at the Xizheng Hall of the East Palace, Renault Mountain bowed and said carelessly to Li Chenman: "Since Reno Mountain, see His Highness the Crown Prince."

Li Chen looked at Renault Mountain with a blank expression and said, "You are a minister, why don't you kneel when you see me?"

Renaultshan sneered and said with confidence: "I am naturally a minister, but my ancestors' family rules. Only when I see the emperor, queen, and queen mother, can I kneel down and bow to the prince. I just need to bow my hands."

Bang.

The memorial in Li Chen's hand smashed heavily on the table, "Since I am the governor, I am like my father coming when I see me. Now I am in front of you, it represents my father. If you don't worship you, it is a crime of great scheming!"

With this loud bang, several Jinyiwei rushed into the hall and stared at Renault Mountain with murderous intent, as if as soon as Li Chen gave him the order, they would immediately pounce on him and remove Renault Mountain from a large piece.

Renault Hill was startled.

He didn't expect that Li Chen would not follow the rules when he started to supervise the country.

When they directly use imperial power to suppress others, it is equivalent to completely overturning the rules in their court.

Renault Mountain was shocked and angry. In his opinion, even the emperor had to balance politically with the ministers like them in the court. Where did the only prince of a prisoner get the courage to challenge the rules of the game?

"Crown Prince, are you going to kill the empress?"

Renaultshan stared at Li Chen, thinking that Li Chen would not have the courage to touch him.

Otherwise, all the civil and military officials in the court would riot in an instant, putting the prince in vain.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince must consider it clearly. Once you do this, the civil and military officials will feel disappointed, but no one will dare to do anything to the Crown Prince."

Such a naked threat made Li Chen laugh extremely angry.

"Drag this disobedient minister to me and chop it down!"

Li Chen ordered that the Jinyiwei of the Dongchang factory, no matter who you are or what rank you are, the educational method of brainwashing in the Dongchang factory has long allowed them to engrave the concept of imperial power to their core.

Several Jinyiwei, who were like wolves and tigers, came up and set up Renault Mountain on both sides and dragged it away.

Renault Mountain was really panicked now.

He found that his reliance and determination seemed like a bullshit joke in front of Li Chen.

Li Chen had no intention of playing according to the so-called rules of the game they set from the beginning.

"Crown Prince! How can you convince all the officials if you are so cruel?"

Li Chen said coldly: "The head of a Wenyuan Pavilion Grand Secretary is not enough to make you afraid of me. Then, with the head of you, the Minister of Revenue, I want to see whether you literati have the hard bones or your sword is sharper."

"Do you think I will play the so-called compromise and balance with you and slowly fight for power? You think too much. Zhao Xuanji may have the qualifications, but you are just an ant. A small minister of the Ministry of Revenue dares to interfere in the struggle for imperial power. I will let you see what the outcome of making the wrong choice will be."

Li Chen finished speaking, and his sleeves were waving. The Jinyiwei didn't say anything, regardless of the crazy struggle and shouting Renault Mountain, he dragged it away.

The screams came outside the hall gate and ended abruptly.

A moment later, a Jinyiwei returned to Li Chen, holding a bloody head in his hand. The head was from Renault Mountain. He saw him staring at wide eyes and dying with his eyes open, with unparalleled fear and regret remaining on his face.

"Your Highness, the rebel minister, Reno Mountain, has been sentenced to death."

"It happened that the treasury was empty, so I went and confiscated the home of Renault Mountain. Among the three tribes, all adult men were demoted to slaves and became soldiers. All women over 14 were sent to serve as officials and women. The rest of the elderly, weak, women and children were expelled from the capital and were never allowed to enter the capital."

"Summoning Xu Changqing, the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue, is here to see. The Ministry of Revenue will cut off a few heads today before picking out one who can do business for me."

The Minister of Revenue was at least a second-rank official in the court, and he led the department. He could be said to be definitely one of the participants in the core power of the empire.

But Mount Renault was cut down like this.

The storm caused by this incident fermented rapidly. When most people heard this news, they thought they had heard it wrong, or the prince was crazy.

Li Chen didn't care much about how the outside world reacted.

He was watching Xu Changqing, who was rushing to the front of him, panting before he had time to breathe calmly.

"I am the minister of the Left Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Xu Changqing, see His Highness, the Crown Prince, Qiansui, Qiansui, Qiansui."

Compared to Renault Mountain, Xu Changqing has to understand too many rules.

After entering the hall, he bowed his head and drooped his hands, and did not dare to look at Li Chen's face. He knelt down and shouted to Qiansui.

At this time, Xu Changqing only knew that his immediate superior, Renault Mountain, was called to the East Palace by the prince, but he didn't know what he did and where the person was.

However, although the pool of blood stains in the hall had been cleaned, it might be obvious that the blood was stained, which made him feel a little uneasy.

"No gift."

Li Chen said lightly: "Renau Mountain is dead."

"His head was placed around you a quarter of an hour ago. If you look closely, you should be able to see the traces."

Xu Changqing's eyes twitched, so scared that he didn't dare to breathe.

His mind was turning rapidly, realizing that this was a big crisis, and also a big opportunity for him.

Perhaps it is this opportunity to cross the hurdle that made countless officials sigh for their whole lives, achieve the second grade, and lead a Shangshu.

After weighing the pros and cons in a short time, Xu Changqing immediately said: "I don't know what crime Renault Mountain committed, but since His Royal Highness was furious, he must have died of guilt."

Li Chen smiled and said, "You are smarter than him."

Xu Changqing lowered his head and did not dare to look at Li Chen. He said, "I only know that the emperor is not safe now and cannot handle the national affairs. The prince is the governor of the country. Then everyone in the world must listen to the prince."

Li Chen became more and more satisfied.

Now he has no foundation in the court, and it can be said that Zhao Xuanji's people are everywhere.

And he urgently needs to form his own team and take control of his own power.

So when choosing these teams, the first thing is to be smart and ambitious enough, and the second is ability.

A person who is too smart will not follow him at this time.

Only smart and ambitious people will follow him when his foundation is weak, so that if you win in the future, you can get more rewards.

As for ability, after scientific research and years of ups and downs in officialdom, he was able to climb to the Ministry of Revenue, one of the six ministries, to become the second-in-command. How bad would such a person be?

"Look at this."

Li Chen no longer mentioned the matter of Reno Mountain, but threw the memorial from Nanhe Province in front of Xu Changqing.

Xu Changqing respectfully held up the memorial with both hands and then carefully read it.

As soon as he looked at the content, he knew what the prince was doing.

Xu Changqing put down the memorial and said carefully: "Your Highness the Prince, the disaster in Nanhe Province has already happened. In the past two months, more than ten memorials have been submitted, one by one, one by one."

"Then why not provide disaster relief?" Li Chen asked.

"The treasury is empty."

Xu Changqing bowed and said honestly: "Now the national treasury is only 3.7 million taels of silver. Even if it is used to pay the salaries of officials in the world, it is no longer enough, let alone disaster relief. Nanhe Province wants to provide disaster relief. It is impossible to get a disaster relief without 5 million taels. It is a drop in the bucket, the Crown Prince."

"I remember that the treasury has a tax of 60 million taels per year. Why is it so empty?" Li Chen asked frowned.

Xu Changqing smiled bitterly and said, "The salaries of officials from all over the country are: the severe drought in the north has lasted for more than a year. The floods and floods in the south have begun the year before. In addition, military expenditures have gradually intensified, and there are still..."

Speaking of this, Xu Changqing realized that he had mentioned something he shouldn't have mentioned, and he immediately stammered and did not dare to say it.

"You said, I will not blame you." Li Chen said calmly.

Xu Changqing gritted his teeth when he heard this, and said with a stern voice: "Starting this year, King Han, King Chu, King Zhao, King Jingyang and other vassal kings have begun to refuse to pay their annual payments for various reasons, and this part has lost most of their income."

Li Chen narrowed his eyes slightly.

The prince!

In the Great Qin system, after the vassal kings entered the vassal state, they had military power, regime and tax rights in their territory. They only needed to pay a certain annual offer to the court every year, which was equivalent to a country in the country.

Two hundred years after the founding of the Great Qin Dynasty, these vassal kings have become huge cancers.

"I know."

Li Chen didn't say too much about the vassal king.

Now the emperor may die at any time, and the empire is in turmoil. Not to mention that Li Chen wants to cut down the vassal states, his uncles would not want to wait for the emperor to die and hold high the banner of the king to overthrow him.

Therefore, to target the vassal kings, we must wait for the throne to truly ascend.

At this time, we still need to start solving the domestic disaster problem first.

"The disaster has been going on for years. The court has allocated a lot of money to provide relief. I know that it is impossible for officials below to work together and they don't get some oil. You report the names of the corrupt officials you know to Dongchang, and Dongchang will deal with it."

Li Chen, who was short of money, took his attention to the corrupt officials.

The poorer the country is, the richer the two types of people are.

One is corrupt officials, and the other is merchants.

"And, what are the prices of food, oil, rice, noodles and other essential things in the market today?"

Xu Changqing was frightened by the word "Dongchang". Hearing this, he replied subconsciously: "The price has soared, and the price of rice has risen to an outrageous level. At the beginning of the year, you can buy a pound of new rice with good quality with 5 copper plates. But now, even moldy old rice, if you don't have 30 copper plates, you won't be able to buy it."

"Most of the grain on the market is concentrated in the hands of those big grain merchants. They combined to raise prices. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Revenue borrowed grain from the three major grain merchants in the capital in the name of the court, but not only did they not lose a penny, but also cried poorly and complained about injustice. It was really hateful!"

"You go and gather all the officials of the three major grain merchants in the capital, and say that our palace will hold a banquet in the East Palace tomorrow to entertain them."
Chapter completed!