Chapter 229 Jinyiwei have to stand aside

Behind the screen, His Majesty the Great Xia spoke again, "Why didn't you commend your disciple Mei Juncang in your memorial? And you recommended him to Qingkong Gui to run the Legal Daily? Aren't you afraid that your disciple will harbor resentment?"

Zhou Tieyi had already been prepared for this question.

Zhou Tieyi took credit for all the other people who published the Tianjing News, except Mei Juncang, because Mei Qingchen was still a thorn in the heart of the Emperor of Great Xia.

Even if Mei Juncang 'abandons darkness and joins light', it is hard to guarantee that the Great Xia Emperor will not have other ideas.

So one of the solutions is to hide Mei Juncang, and then look for ways to get promoted after the matter of Mei Qingchen is resolved.

But Zhou Tieyi chose another solution.

"My disciple is guilty of a crime. His father has clearly stated this in the memorial. So even though he has made contributions to the Tianjing Newspaper, they are only to atone for his sins. I should not ask for credit for him."

"But I recognize his ability. In order to prevent people from thinking that my disciple is just taking credit for my work, I will recommend him to Si Lu. If his Legal Newspaper does well this time, Si Lu, who enforces the law impartially for the world, will naturally recommend him for credit. This will naturally gain recognition from people all over the world."

The Great Xia Emperor thought about it seriously, then smiled and said to the Queen, "This is what a teacher should do to plan for his disciples."

The Queen echoed, "It's not easy to do things in a reasonable and measured way."

The Great Xia Emperor looked at Zhou Tieyi through the screen again, "If he does a good job in running the Legal Daily, I will reward him even without the need for the lawyer to ask for credit. Merits are merits and faults are faults. His father is his father, and he is him."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

His Majesty the Great Xia was in high spirits after reading the first memorial regarding the Legal Daily. Originally, he had been thinking about how to admonish Zhou Tieyi these past two days, telling him not to act too arbitrarily in the Tianjing Daily. However, Zhou Tieyi had a good sense of proportion, and before his admonition came down, he knew that it was good for him to give up too much power in his hands, unlike the Confucians who were greedy.

"Your second report on the restructuring of the God-Slaying Division..."

The Great Xia Emperor drew out the last syllable of his words, and for a moment he himself was lost in thought.

The restructuring of the Zhushen Division, Zhou Tieyi's selection and training system, and the performance evaluation system are all public documents.

The secret article was about how to abolish Da Xia's system of Bu Yin officials, or at least abolish the influence of Bu Yin officials within the Zhushen Division, which involved the Emperor of Da Xia himself.

The king is a man of few words. Since the imperial decree has been issued to confer titles of Hundred Households and Thousand Households, these titles were earned by the other party's father through his merits, and the whole world recognized it at that time. It is naturally not easy to take them back now.

Although His Majesty the Great Xia wanted to take it back, he still cared about his own face. In fact, this was not only a matter of face, but also a matter of His Majesty the Great Xia's own credit.

Zhou Tieyi started by asking the question that His Majesty would be most likely to agree to. "Your Majesty, please open a military tomb for the elite soldiers of the God-Slaying Division to cultivate new forces for the God-Slaying Division and resist the evil gods that are ready to move from all sides."

The Great Xia Emperor sneered and said, "What evil gods have you heard are preparing to make a move?"

Zhou Tieyi's expression became serious. The sneer was not entirely because he blamed him for bringing up this topic, but because the Emperor of Great Xia had fallen from the throne and was now indeed very afraid of the problem of divine evil.

The Emperor of Daxia can abide by the rules for all the officials in the court, so even if his strength is reduced, he still believes that he can control the overall situation.

Because the mainstream doctrine in the court was still "monarchy", even the Mohist school, which was the most people-oriented, did not have any idea of ​​abolishing the monarchy. At most, it demanded that more power be given to the grassroots people.

Therefore, the Emperor of Great Xia, who is born with a sense of righteousness, has a stronger control over the officials.

But the evil gods don’t follow so many rules. They are the ones who least want the Emperor of Great Xia to truly ascend to the throne, even more than the Crown Prince and the Confucians.

Zhou Tieyi answered honestly, "Each state's pacification envoy has made a corresponding report. I will go back and compile a document and submit it to His Majesty."

He did not specifically mention the matter of Taihang Mountains in front of the Great Xia Emperor, because many arrangements had already led to Taihang Mountains, and there was no need to follow the line of the Great Xia Emperor. Doing so would make everyone realize that the whole process was too deliberate when they reviewed it in the end.

After listening to Zhou Tieyi's music, the Emperor of Daxia tapped the music book with his fingers.

Soldiers’ tombs are one of the cultural heritages of Daxia.

Every time a military tomb is opened, a large number of new generations will rapidly improve in strength, but it will also consume its own foundation.

So generally speaking, only when great merit has been made on the front lines will Daxia open the soldiers' tombs, and by sending the corpses of the meritorious soldiers into the tombs, other people will benefit at the same time.

"Even though the God-Slaying Division has not made any contributions over the years, it has worked hard. It's time to open a few military tombs for the God-Slaying Division."

The Emperor of Daxia finally made the decision.

When it comes to killing evil gods, the God-Slaying Division has always been the front-line force. Compared to the God-Slaying Division, the garrison troops of each state have to lag behind.

"I thank His Majesty for the reward on behalf of the God-Slaying Division."

Zhou Tieyi bowed.

The Great Xia Emperor's tone returned to normal, "Reward if you have made contributions, work hard." He then whispered to Su Xibi, who then took out a tiger talisman and asked the eunuch to pass it to Zhou Tieyi, "The Soldiers' Tomb will be opened in two and a half months. You will have a chance when you take this tiger talisman in. This is a special reward from me to you. After the Soldiers' Tomb is opened, you will return this tiger talisman."

The tiger talisman is made entirely of heavy iron from a soldier's tomb, and is gilded with forty-nine changing dragon emblems. It looks extremely cold as a whole, and it feels cold even when held in the summer.

The moment he got it, Zhou Tieyi knew that it was an extremely precious treasure, and the tiger talisman has been a symbol of mobilizing an army since ancient times...

His Majesty the Great Xia continued, "You opened the soldier's tomb with such fanfare, the evil gods must have known the news, so this matter is not only a reward, but also contains dangers. I don't want you to turn your merit into a bad thing."

Zhou Tieyi said seriously, "I understand."

The Tomb of Soldiers exists in the underworld under Yujing Mountain. It was suppressed by the Great Xia Emperor in the past, so of course it was fine. But now that Zhou Tieyi has opened the Tomb of Soldiers, even if the Shinto is not prepared, it is estimated that some special third-grade gods will come and try it out.

If it fails, only one or two third-rank gods will be lost, which is an affordable price. If it succeeds, the benefits will be huge.

It was confirmed that the Soldiers' Tomb would be opened in two and a half months, and the next step was to determine the salary of the God-Slaying Division for these two months.

In the memorial, Zhou Tieyi also elaborated in detail on the source of the salary of the God-Slaying Division.

Tax Reform.

At least it was a preliminary reform of commercial taxes in Tianjing.

Since ancient times, taxation has been an important link that the country and the people cannot avoid, and its core lies in the artificial control of the redistribution of social wealth.

It’s just that in the feudal era, this core idea was not clearly defined, so the country’s taxation had a kind of messy beauty.

In the early days of a dynasty, when the country was recuperating, taxation was generally very light. However, once it reached the middle and late stages, when the wealth of the entire society became unbalanced, taxation would not only fail to help redistribute social wealth in a better direction, but would instead aggravate the polarization between the rich and the poor in society.

The lower class people face all kinds of heavy taxes, while the upper class who earn money can be exempted from taxes through their power and status.

Among them, commercial taxes are even more difficult to collect accurately because of the high mobility of merchants. That is why Confucianism and Legalism strongly disparaged the merchant class because their doctrines made it difficult to profit from the merchant class.

On the contrary, it is the stable production relationship of the peasant class, which is even tied to the land for life, that is advocated by Confucianism and Legalism.

"Will the business tax you mentioned affect the lives of ordinary people?"

This is the issue that His Majesty the Great Xia is most concerned about.

Zhou Tieyi answered affirmatively, "Your Majesty, please rest assured. The strategy I mentioned only involves middle and upper-level officials and businessmen. We will collect taxes from the transfer of interests between them to support the God-Slaying Department. The excess money will also go into the national treasury. Moreover, this round of tax reform can be piloted in Tianjing first. If there is any disagreement, Your Majesty can hold me accountable to calm the public anger."

The Great Xia Emperor suddenly smiled at the Queen and said, "Before, I said he was very slippery, but I didn't expect that today he would really worry about the country and the people."

Then he pondered for a moment and said, "Just do it yourself. As long as you don't hurt the people, don't worry about the rest."

He could already imagine how many civil and military officials Zhou Tieyi would offend in this round of tax inspection after he cut off the path for officials to get promotion through relatives. Moreover, this was a "mortal enemy", a more serious "mortal enemy" than those upright officials who spoke out against corruption, so he could feel more at ease in reusing Zhou Tieyi.

Before Zhou Tieyi could speak up for the third thing, His Majesty of Daxia continued, "As for what you said about abolishing the hundred and thousand households, this matter needs to be considered."

The meaning of "needing to be considered" is not to do it for the time being. Zhou Tieyi understood it of course. Anyway, he had also written it clearly in the memorial. First, the matter of having all the officials block the monthly salaries of the Zhushen Division would be solved. The Zhushen Division would block the monthly salaries of the hundred and thousand households, so that they would give up. Naturally, the Emperor of Daxia would prefer this more reliable method.

Moreover, Zhou Tieyi has made many reforms to the Zhushen Division. Even though he has proven his ability, who knows if he will make mistakes in a hurry with so many reforms mixed in. So it is better to do less than more. Change the grassroots level first, and then deal with the middle level after the grassroots level stabilizes. This is also a safe way to deal with it.

"I know."

Zhou Tieyi had no intention of arguing with the Emperor of Daxia over this matter. In fact, the simplest way was to let a group of centurions and thousand-householders of Tianjin die in the battle with the evil gods. By then, those who were not capable enough would naturally know to retreat.

Coming out of the imperial study, Zhou Tieyi walked briskly through the imperial garden. This time, except for the small issue of abolishing the system of hundred households, the system of thousand households still remained to be discussed.

The most important thing for him was to get the Emperor of Daxia to agree to expand the power of the God-Slaying Department again.

A department that has complete control over public opinion, military power, and financial power.

This monstrous power organ is about to be born in his hands, and most people in this era are still unable to realize the power of these three powers combined.

He is also the inspector general of this department, so even if he is a fifth-rank official, he is enough to sweep away all the officials in Tianjing.

Confucianism is the uncrowned saint, so I am the uncrowned third judge!

If his plan really succeeds and he achieves his ideal final form of the God-Slaying Division, then the Jinyiwei from his previous life will have to stand aside.

(End of this chapter)