Chapter 279

Everyone was shocked!

Everyone's scalp was tingling!

Everyone swallowed hard!

They were shocked to the point of scalp tingling!

But... what shocked them even more was... Ying Su actually issued a decree to reduce taxes for one year?

Exempting the people from taxes was nothing; anyway, that was the court's tax!

But... what did increasing taxes for the nobles mean?

The first time he made the nobles pay taxes, he set up something called "Tanding Rumou," making all nobles pay fifty percent tax!

All the nobles' resistance started because of this!

After Xiang Yu's army was defeated, he immediately increased the tax by another ten percent!

Now... after a battle was fought, he was going to increase the tax by another ten percent!

Adding it up like this, it meant the nobles had to pay seventy percent tax?

What is he doing!

Is he not letting people live?

At that moment, in the entire court, everyone was furious!

Even Ying Zheng couldn't help but swallow hard!

Seventy percent tax!

This is seventy percent tax!

Is it okay to make the nobles pay seventy percent tax?

Ying Zheng's brows were tightly knit!

And everyone shouted: "Don't pay! Absolutely don't pay!"

"Right! This ten percent tax, absolutely will not be paid!"

They shouted to the heavens!

Everyone was furious beyond measure!

And just as these words were shouted, Zuo Zuo Zongtang's eyes turned cold instantly: "The Emperor's decree, who dares to disobey?"

Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan: "Those who resist the decree will be killed immediately!"

As his words fell!

Bang!

Suddenly! A loud noise shocked the court!

Li Li Yuanba smashed a hammer into the ground!

Instantly, the earth cracked, and the entire palace began to shake gently!

This scene shocked everyone and made countless people tremble!

Everyone was panicked to the extreme!

Li Li Yuanba!

This is Li Li Yuanba!

When he rebelled with Ying Su, he killed fifty thousand people alone!

Later, facing Xiang Yu, he killed over three hundred thousand people alone!

Later, during the Taiyuan crisis, he killed nearly seven hundred thousand more!

Annihilating the Xiongnu, he killed over a million!

This record is simply terrifying, frightening!

Everyone might not be afraid of Zhuge Liang, not afraid of Zuo Zuo Zongtang, and even facing Fu Hao's two hundred thousand troops, they weren't that afraid!

But... seeing Li Li Yuanba, they were truly afraid!

At that moment, everyone was trembling!

Even Ying Zheng couldn't help but shiver!

There was no way!

There was truly no way!

In this world, he, Ying Zheng, was not afraid of anyone, except Li Li Yuanba and Li Li Cunxiao!

Either one of these two could make him have nightmares!

At this moment, he didn't even dare to say a word!

But... him not speaking didn't mean Zuo Zuo Zongtang wouldn't let him speak!

Just when everyone was panicked, Zuo Zuo Zongtang bowed to Ying Zheng: "May I ask the Retired Emperor if you have any objections to the Emperor's decree?"

"You..."

Zuo Zuo Zongtang's question almost choked Ying Zheng to death!

What did it mean to make him express his stance at this time?

Disagree?

Disagreeing meant letting Li Li Yuanba go crazy!

Agree?

He, the First Emperor, agrees with Ying Su's decree?

The key is how many people this would offend!

He was currently in need of people!

And he needed the help of the nobles to take back the imperial throne and gain the right to speak, so how could he offend the nobles?

He was furious to the extreme!

At this moment, he just wanted to stay out of it.

But Zhuge Liang and Li Si wouldn't give Ying Zheng a chance to stay out of it!

They all bowed to Ying Zheng: "Retired Emperor, do you have any objections?"

"You... you all..."

With them like this, Ying Zheng was even more furious!

Angry that they forced him to express his stance, and even more angry at their attitude and words!

They weren't asking if he agreed with this decree, but asking if he had any objections!

This was bullying too much, truly bullying too much!

He was very angry, but... looking at Li Li Yuanba in front of him, what could he do?

Finally, he had no choice but to stand out and say: "The front line has won a great victory; we should indeed celebrate together!"

After saying this, he left directly!

He couldn't say any more; if he kept talking, he would offend everyone!

But even this one sentence made all the nobles tremble!

Almost all the nobles were in despair!

They had originally hoped that Ying Zheng could resist a little, but... he... he actually agreed?

"Ah!"

Everyone wailed in their hearts!

But at this moment, there was not a single way out!

Fu Hao's two hundred thousand troops were enough to deter everyone and make them afraid to move!

Now Li Li Yuanba was added!

They were truly shocked to the core!

No one dared to say anything!

Finally, they could only nod: "Yes!"

"Good! Xiao He, prepare to collect taxes!"

Li Si ordered!

In the blink of an eye, the court meeting ended.

Everyone dispersed!

And Li Si, Xiao He, Zhuge Liang, and Zuo Zuo Zongtang all surrounded Li Li Yuanba, asking about the battle situation on the front lines, and Ying Su's current situation!

When they learned that everything was going well, they all breathed a long sigh of relief!

Learning that Li Li Yuanba couldn't stay in Xianyang for long,

Li Si, Xiao He, Zhuge Liang, and Zuo Zuo Zongtang were all anxious!

Finally, they hurriedly wrote letters and wanted Li Li Yuanba to take them to Ying Su.

Li Li Yuanba nodded, and finally, slipped away!

He still had to go pick up Zhang Liang!

Take Zhang Liang to the Xiongnu!

After coming down from the court, Ying Zheng didn't return to his bedroom.

Instead, he went to the Great Qin Inner Palace Department, the Examination Office!

Actually... this wasn't the first time he had come here!

He had come many, many times!

Since Ying Su left Xianyang, he almost had to go to the Examination Office of the Great Qin Inner Palace Department that very night!

Because... the magic this place brought him was too much!

Paper, tea, porcelain, cannons, gunpowder, and so on!

According to Zhao Gao's report, all these things came from the Examination Office!

He had to see this place no matter what!

However... it was night, and Zhao Gao was worried about his safety, so he advised him not to go!

There was no way, he could only wait patiently until the next day!

And when he arrived at the Examination Office for the first time, he was stunned on the spot!

It was too big!

It was truly too big!

This building area completely exceeded the standards of the Qin Examination Office at that time!

That's right!

After several months of expansion, the current Examination Office was truly huge!

Just the land occupied reached a terrifying ten mu!

And the largest of them was undoubtedly the so-called steel factory!

Just one steel factory reached three mu!

And even more terrifying were the furnaces!

Steel-smelting furnaces as tall as seven or eight people!

Molten iron was poured out from time to time, and there was the sound of countless workers forging!

Seeing the extremely refined steel products taking shape, Ying Zheng was shocked with his mouth wide open!

He had used a steel sword forged in the steel factory to hack at a bronze sword!

With just one sword, he had split the bronze sword in his hand into two!

And this steel sword didn't even damage its edge!

Such terrifying weapons made Ying Zheng terrified!

However, even more terrifying than the steel sword were the cannons!

Although because of the saltpeter mines, gunpowder was almost cut off, Ying Zheng could still see one shot fired!

Under his order, Dai Xin had no choice but to have someone pull a cannon to outside Xianyang City and point the muzzle directly at the small courtyard where Ying Zheng had lived before!

Hmm?

Why point the muzzle here?

What do you want to do?

You kid have a rebellious bone!

Ying Zheng was very angry!

Zhao Gao was also furious!

Finally, under the threat of the two, Dai Xin pointed the muzzle elsewhere!

Boom!

With just one shot, a small hill was directly blown flat!

This scene made Ying Zheng excited beyond measure!

If he could possess a few hundred more cannons, what would he be afraid of Li Li Yuanba for?

If one shot couldn't blow him up, then fire another!

A few hundred cannons pointed at Li Li Yuanba, blow him to pieces!

He didn't believe that this wouldn't make Li Li Yuanba submit!

Ying Zheng was excited to the extreme!

He wanted to fire two more shots, but was stopped by Dai Xin:

"No saltpeter, no black gunpowder!"

"Uh..."

"What is saltpeter?"

"And what is black gunpowder?"

Ying Zheng asked curiously!

Dai Xin explained the composition of black gunpowder to him and explained why cannons could explode!

After Ying Zheng finished listening, he was full of praise!

Ying Zheng sighed while asking Dai Xin about cannons, firearms, and various other firearms!

After learning the principles of all this, Ying Zheng couldn't help but praise Dai Xin as a genius!

At the same time, he asked the key question!

Where could he find saltpeter!

Dai Xin said: "The Emperor has ordered those alchemy alchemists to look for it!"

"Alchemy alchemists? They went to look for saltpeter?"

Ying Zheng was very surprised!

He had always thought Ying Su had killed them all; he didn't expect them to be looking for saltpeter mines!

But he didn't understand why he had to let these people look for saltpeter mines!

"Because... in the entire Great Qin, only these people understand saltpeter!"

"They?"

"Why?"

Ying Zheng asked about everything like a curious baby!

Dai Xin said: "Because... they need to use saltpeter to refine pills!"

"Refining pills... need... to use saltpeter?"

One sentence almost choked Ying Zheng to death!

He didn't know what saltpeter was before, but today he knew.

And those alchemy alchemists actually used saltpeter to refine longevity pills for him?

At that moment, he was shocked to death!

And what shocked him even more was... Dai Xin talked about the origin of this saltpeter!

It was actually... actually all scraped from the latrine?

"Things scraped from... from the latrine to refine pills for me?"

149. Li Li Yuanba: I want to find Ying Zheng to chat!

At this moment, Ying Zheng only felt his stomach churning, rising with a strong desire to vomit!

He almost vomited out his overnight meal!

You must know that he was counting on those immortal pills for longevity!

These people actually dared to use things scraped from the latrine to pass off as immortal pills?