Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 831: Taking Power Imminently
When Zhao Ke heard that the Firearms Bureau founded by Yang Yuan in Sichuan had been taken over and incorporated into the Military Equipment Bureau of the Song Dynasty, he felt relieved.

Firearms at this time are limited by natural factors such as weather and technical factors of scientific and technological development, and may not be able to overwhelm cold weapons.

But it's easy to use, and that alone is enough.

With this advantage, the Song Dynasty can "expand its troops" faster than its opponents.

Compared with the Jin Dynasty, the Song Dynasty's population and economic advantages enabled it to support the objective demands brought about by the "explosion of troops" better than the Jin Dynasty.

In this way, the Song Dynasty became invincible.

"Okay, very good!"

The little emperor tapped the table with his fingers, a smug smile on his slightly childish face.

When he was a child, he witnessed with his own eyes his father's cautious life under the ostracization and suppression of the powerful minister Qin Hui.

At that time, his father was still the Prince of Pu'an.

After Zhao Chen and the officials of the Eastern Palace kept giving him advice, he gradually formed a special impression of Yang Yuan.

He had a particularly terrifying fear of Yang Yuan.

He worried that one day he would follow in his father's footsteps.

Especially the Western Xia Emperor Li Renxiao, who is now under his nose.

He saw with his own eyes what happened to this emperor who had been trampled under the feet of Ren Dejing, the prime minister of Western Xia.

He didn't want to follow in Ren Dejing's footsteps.

"Have Yang Yuan's sons returned to Beijing?"

Another former official of the Eastern Palace responded, "Tongchuan Road General Manager Shen Xuzhong has already urged the emperor to do so.

However, the local people in Yangjiachuanxia took advantage of Yang Yuan's power to expand their business sources and did a lot of business.

Yang Yuan left behind several concubines who were good at business and were managing the related industries.

Yang Yuan's offspring will return to Beijing with them."

Zhao Qi frowned and said, "Hurry up. Yang Yuan's potential power is outside the court. If his descendants don't return to the capital, I will be worried."

An old official of the Eastern Palace chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. The local authorities are keeping an eye on them. They can't run away."

Another former official of the Eastern Palace said: “Before, when Yang Yuan was appointed to Tongchuan, it took his wife, son and family a full year and a half to settle all the properties in the capital and move them all to Tongchuan.

It has only been a month since Yang Yuan returned to Beijing. It is not unusual for them to not be able to return in time. The emperor does not need to worry too much. "

"Yes, Yang Yuan has lost his military power now, and he is under your Majesty's nose. The people from the Imperial City Department are always keeping an eye on him. Your Majesty should just be at ease."

Zhao Qi sighed softly and said thoughtfully, "Before, Yang Yuan's family went to Sichuan to manage the Lin'an business for a full year.

After going to Sichuan, the Yang family's business has expanded further. I'm afraid they are now rich enough to rival a country, right?"

Several former officials of the Eastern Palace looked at each other, and one of them said cautiously, "As far as I know, although the Yang family's assets are complex and huge, they may not have that much money."

He explained: "After Yang Yuan went to Sichuan, he invested a huge amount of money to build paper mills, printing houses, steel smelting and other industries. The investment was large, but the returns were slow.

The reason why it takes so long to close an industry is that a lot of money cannot be withdrawn, and transfers and redemptions all take time. "

Zhao Qi smiled slightly and waved his hand, saying, "You all worry too much. This world belongs to me. I am rich. Even if the Yang family is really rich enough to rival a country, I will not plot against them.

I just don’t want Yang Yuan to spend the money on something he shouldn’t spend it on.”

The old officials of the Eastern Palace secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although they wanted to overthrow Yang Yuan and do the "one whale falls, all things come to life" strategy, they attached themselves to the corpse of Yang Yuan, the giant whale, and sucked everything from him.

However, they definitely didn't want their emperor to have the same idea.

Because if the emperor can target Yang Yuan today, he may target them tomorrow.

On this point, they still hoped that Zhao Ke could abide by the duties of a king.

An old official of the Eastern Palace said with understanding, "I understand. I will have people keep an eye on Yang Yuan's property in the capital. If he commits any crime, I will take immediate action."

Zhao Kai nodded with satisfaction.

……

On Qibao Mountain, Ya Ge, who is now the largest sea merchant in Song Dynasty, is standing on the peak with Yang Yuan.

Preparations for the groundbreaking ceremony are underway on the mountain.

Because Empress Dowager Wu, Empress Dowager Xie, and Princess Zhao Ning'er of the Jia Kingdom would all attend, there were a lot of things that needed to be prepared for the ceremony.

The security measures alone are extremely strict.

Although these construction workers were all officers and soldiers of the Imperial Guard Infantry Division, their safety was guaranteed.

The officers and soldiers of the Imperial Guard Infantry Division were sent, but General Wu Ting had not yet arrived.

However, Yang Yuan was not in a hurry.

After all, the Wu family was suppressed, Wu Ting was forced to "move" to Lin'an, and the twelfth son of the Wu family died in a fire. Yang Yuan's shadow was behind all of this.

It would be strange if Wu Ting let go of his worries so quickly and was willing to get close to and cooperate with him.

Yang Yuan has patience and time, so he can take it slow.

If Wu Ting can't figure it out, then this person is not worth winning over.

Anyway, when facing a crisis, he never makes more than one preparation.

The mountain road has been widened and leveled.

The road was smooth and solid after being compacted repeatedly by the officers and soldiers of the Infantry Division.

This road was not only used for the royal carriage to travel during the groundbreaking ceremony, but also served as a passage for transporting various construction materials up the mountain.

"Second brother, when you left Lin'an, you made arrangements for many of your businesses.

Now that you have returned to Lin'an and become the king, you should never return to Lijing again. Do you want to move all your assets back?"

Yang Yuan thought for a moment and said, "No, we should not move the industries that have already gone underground back.

Hojo Daisho, Mikami Chiya, Helen, and Wang Yuanwai are still in charge of their respective tasks. "

To identify jade, it must be burned for three days.

Yang Yuan agreed to Zhao Yu's request and willingly gave up his power, and from then on he became a rich and idle man.

However, he was not naive enough to think that if he let it go, the emperor would definitely let it go.

He would wait and see for three years. If Zhao Qi did not touch him for three years, he would let it go.

Otherwise, he, a small public relations man who had established the Emperor of the New Jin Dynasty, captured the Emperor of Western Xia, cheated on the Emperor of Dali, and killed the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, would not mind competing with the young Emperor Zhao Kai again.

……

"Stretch your wrist!"

An old eunuch with a fair face and no beard reminded Li Fengniang in a soft and slow voice.

Among these girls, some will become queens and imperial concubines. Who knows which one will become the most favored noblewoman in front of the emperor in the future?

Eunuchs are the most snobbish because of their special situation.

But their snobbery is hidden in their bones, and none of those eunuchs who are always bossy can go far.

Two palace maids took a tape measure and measured Li Fengniang's body.

There was another young eunuch standing by, holding a clipboard with paper in one hand and a pencil in the other, carefully recording the dimensions of Li Fengniang's hands, arms, waist, legs, feet, height, etc.

In the palace, there are size standards for selection, and those who do not meet the standards will be eliminated.

Li Fengniang naturally had no problem in these aspects and passed the test easily.

Li Fengniang was like a top student in terms of appearance. She passed all the levels without doing almost anything, not even deliberately dressing up. She defeated more than 70% of the beauties in the first and second rounds of screening.

Li Fengniang decided to deliberately make herself look ugly in the third round, and then be eliminated.

Then she would move into the Yang family for comfort.

Tae Hee, Qing Tang and A Man all said that Second Uncle is a very introverted and reserved person.

The so-called knowing oneself and the enemy will never end in a hundred battles.

The eldest daughter of the Li family has learned a lot about Yang Yuan's other side through Tae Hee, Qing Tang and A Man, so she has a good chance of winning before they even fight.

Ever since Zhao Qi learned that Li Fengniang had been riding on Yang Yuan's official ship on her way to Beijing for the selection of concubines, and that when she met Yang Yuan in the palace, Li Fengniang had no hesitation in joking with him, he became particularly interested in this woman he had never met before.

He was not sure whether there was an affair between Yang Yuan and Li Fengniang.

Although Yang Yuan already had a wife, Li Dao would never let his daughter become someone else's concubine.

But the problem is that Yang Yuan is now the Prince of Yan, and a prince's concubine is not the same as a concubine.

Whether it is social status or treatment.

Moreover, he was even more worried about the close personal relationship between Yang Yuan and Li Dao.

Regardless of the considerations, he decided to take Li Fengniang into the palace.

If he controlled Li Fengniang, he would have control over Li Dao, the military district commander who had been stationed in Ezhou for a long time.

Ezhou was originally Yue Fei's territory, and Li Dao was an old subordinate of Yue Fei. He had been operating in Ezhou for much longer than Yue Fei did, so he had a high degree of control over the local area.

The people of Ezhou have the deepest feelings for Yue Fei. In previous years, ministers in the court would occasionally speak up for Yue Fei, but it was the people in Ezhou who spontaneously spoke up for Yue Fei.

Whenever the imperial court sent officials to visit local areas, observe the people's sentiments, and supervise officials as envoys, inspectors, and investigators, the people of Ezhou would always present a proposal to redress Yue Fei's grievances as a must-mention.

Therefore, the people's sentiments in Ezhou are different from those in the southeastern region where the imperial court has the strongest control.

In addition, the imperial court now wants to manage Sichuan and Shaanxi and weaken Yang Yuan's influence in that area.

Ezhou is the key place to enter Sichuan Gorge.

Because of the above reasons, he cannot touch Li Dao easily.

If we can't touch him, we can only win him over.

Taking his daughter into the palace and tying him to herself is a means.

However, this woman did not avoid suspicion and came all the way east, insisting on traveling on the same boat with the romantic and lustful Yang Yuan. Zhao Kai was very unhappy about this.

Therefore, he was destined to have no chance of becoming the queen with Li Fengniang.

Zhao Kai decided to first give Li Fengniang a third-rank imperial concubine, which would also preserve Li Dao's dignity.

She had no share in the position of empress, and he didn't want to give the positions of four concubines, six upper concubines, and nine lower concubines to Li Fengniang.

If this girl is exceptionally beautiful and serves me with extra care and tenderness in the future, I will reward her with a position as one of the lower nine concubines, and that will be the end of her status.

……

The end of the year is almost here.

On New Year's Day, Emperor Zhao Ke will officially take power.

This is what Zhao Kai is most concerned about at the moment.

This is not just a grand ceremony.

After he officially took power, he completely transferred many powers, reappointed court officials, and issued his first edict on governing policies...

He has to consider all these things carefully and think them over again and again.

How old is Zhao Kaicai?
He was not trained as the crown prince for long as his father Zhao Yuan died of illness.

Zhao Ke, who was rushed into the position, had neither the opportunity to gain much experience and knowledge of a ruler from his father, nor the opportunity to gain much skills of a ruler from the masters in the Eastern Palace.

The power of the crown prince in the Song Dynasty was extremely limited. Not only did he not have an armed force like the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace Ten Commanders in the Tang Dynasty, but even many of the Eastern Palace's ministers had part-time jobs.

On the one hand, these part-time officials served as officials appointed by the imperial court, and on the other hand, they held the status of officials of the Eastern Palace.

Zhao Kai was unable to fully trust these part-time officials.

The people he trusted the most were the full-time officials who served him when he was the crown prince.

These officials of the Eastern Palace are the true ministers who follow the dragon, and it is entirely because of him that they were able to make the leap to the dragon gate.

But such officials naturally have some deficiencies in their abilities.

Otherwise, they would not have been without part-time jobs in the court.

Therefore, Zhao Kai found it difficult to handle the transfer of power, personnel appointments, and governing strategies.

After all, there were too few of these confidants who could help him.

Therefore, he gave Zhao Chen a badge in advance that allowed him to enter and leave the palace.

In this way, he wouldn't have to make a special trip to Zongyang Palace every time there was an important event.

Although Zhao Chen does not yet have the status of a attendant, he has become Zhao Kai's de facto personal secretary.

(End of this chapter)