Chapter 779: The King's Back is Straight

Before leaving home early in the morning, Xie Yuan heard that over a hundred corpses had been dragged out of the South Great Camp of the Old King's Mansion; he was still shocked at how the army could mutiny at this time, and immediately learned the answer from the next piece of news.

The Emperor launched a night raid on the Old King's Mansion.

The mystery was solved.

While waiting for the morning court, upon seeing the King block his face with a memorial and yawn, Minister Xie stepped forward calmly.

"Your Majesty, please take care of your health! I observe that Your Majesty… seems not to have rested well last night?"

As soon as the King heard someone finally mention this, he sat up straight in excitement; Xie Yuan intuitively felt something was off.

His meaning at this time was to hint that he already knew the Emperor stayed up late at night meddling in affairs, which had affected the morning court; from now on we must pay attention not to put the cart before the horse.

Obviously the King did not think so.

This creature immediately extended three pale, tender claws; there was no sign that these claws had pounded a colonel last night.

"I, yesterday in disguise raided the South Great Camp and in one fell swoop discovered three major loopholes in the camp! Three!" the King said proudly, self-satisfied·JPG

Xie Yuan: ……

Changli: ……

The meeting's content was forcibly shifted to military responsibility reform and a sweep of loopholes; as the usual time for adjournment approached, everyone relaxed.

When everyone assumed the meeting was ending and they could soon get off work to eat, the King suddenly threw a powder keg without warning, successfully blowing up the splendid Chengguang Hall.

"Today's final order: I wish to recall all feudal lords before setting out southward."

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire hall fell silent; even the composed Xie Yuan and Dong Fu changed countenance.

Xie Yuan, fearing he had misheard, asked the King what he meant by this, and why so suddenly.

The King, with a solemn demeanor, said: "I have given this careful thought. Throughout history, dynasties have fallen for various reasons—some due to external relatives and aristocratic clans, some due to growing weakness, some due to—feudal princes."

The officials below began whispering, "Which dynasty fell because of feudal princes? How could they not know!"

They had no idea the King had read far more histories than they had seen; feudal dynasties span two thousand years, with countless examples of failure.

The Three Dukes up front all had strange expressions; this person above—could it not just be a feudal prince taking the throne! But this is different; although the King is a feudal prince who took the throne, Great Jin still bears the surname Baili, so it's not considered fallen. But if the current situation of feudal princes holding fiefdoms cannot be changed in the short term, dragging on for decades or even centuries, should other changes arise… then falling would not be difficult.

"Your Majesty, please see clearly, the rebellion of the feudal lords of Great Jin has not been quelled; moving all feudal princes at once might, might directly shake the foundation of the state! Your Majesty, this is absolutely inadmissible!" The Grand Secretary of the Imperial Clan was terrified silly; hearing this, one would think the Emperor intends to summon the feudal lords back and wipe them out in one fell swoop!

"I second that!" a large crowd knelt down clamorously in the hall.

The King calmly shifted his posture, casually tossed the paperweight, and said, "Foundation of the state?"

"What is the foundation of the state? The crown prince, rites and laws, the people's livelihood, the economic lifeline. Not mentioning those earlier, what else in the current court could be shaken?"

Minister of Finance Zhang, you're quick to echo! Want to report how much silver the national treasury owes your privy purse? The army, disaster relief, and prefecture-county operations should be funded by the national treasury, yet the feudal lords control the emperor's mineral veins, the prosperous lands of Jiangnan are entirely in the hands of the princes, leaving the emperor himself to sip wind on his high throne! This emperor's life is worse than that of a mere prince! Since ascending the throne, I have become poorer than when I was the King of the North.

Minister of Finance Zhang was sweating profusely.

Below, cries of "I am incapable!" began again, and the King couldn't be bothered to listen.

"The court now survives by borrowing silver from the Zhu Ti Merchant Convoy; yet you still dare to shake the foundation of the state at the drop of a hat! Great Jin is on the verge of collapsing into ruins, and you still fear earthquakes? Go ahead and shake something for me to see—let's see what you can bring down!"

Xie Yuan: ……

Dong Fu: ……

Xue Lin'an: ……

Damn, that makes sense.

Whoever puts up the money, stands tall.