The Overlord of the Red Mansion

Chapter 280: Holy Emperor
The next day, Jia Rong slept in.

Few emperors could sleep until they woke up naturally like Jia Rong.

Apart from the necessary early morning work days, at least twenty-five days a month can be used freely.

It’s not that there can’t be more, but he feels too idle and bored. Jia Rong has always been a man willing to work.

"Good morning, master."

When more than a dozen big-breasted maids beside the bed saw Jia Rong wake up, they all greeted him with a smile.

Jia Rong has a group of exclusive female slaves, whose status is much higher than the temporary palace maids outside. They are female slaves selected from his own servants, and he plans to train them as his own children.

Some of these women were former members of the Jia family, and some were descendants of the Jia family.

For example, the woman in the You's Courtyard got married and had children a long time ago, but she never met the man again after having the child, and she always lived in the Jia family with her child.

These people do not need to rely on men, but on Jia Rong's power.

It is not easy to train these people. Some of them just cannot live without men, so they are often exiled. When they regret it, there is no way for them to come back, which serves as a warning to others.

Sometimes, a group of orphans are recruited from outside and raised separately.

Now that he is the emperor, he can naturally choose suitable children from some low-class families.

Jia Rong got up with the help of the maid, and his breakfast was definitely a mouthful of hot milk with a balanced combination of beef, eggs, vegetables, etc.

After getting up, I deal with various things, do some fitness warm-up, do some research, and read case reports sent by the hospital.

After lunch, I went to the hospital to help out, mainly treating various difficult and complicated diseases.

I came back in the evening to reunite with my family and chat with a group of women in their thirties or almost thirty.

After returning, I read books and looked up the scientific inventions recently published by my subordinates, as well as various latest works.

Every day before going to bed, I would practice boxing and kicking in a two-meter-deep pool to release excess physical energy.

On the contrary, men and women do not have sex every day, usually once every two or three days.

Sometimes I would have a sudden flash of inspiration and work until midnight, but basically I am busy with research and things of interest.

I'll also have a midnight snack.

Whether it is three meals a day or midnight snack, they are all very rich.

If one person could not finish the food, it would be eaten by the maids and palace servants around him. Those who served the emperor must have the best food treatment. Jia Rong did not mind letting other women and girls lick up the food he could not finish.

Jia Rong's life is quite peaceful and plain, lacking the passion of his youth.

Five days later, Jia Rong went to court to deal with matters.

"Long live my emperor! Long live! Long live!"

"Ah."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Today looks like another ordinary day as usual.

The left prime minister stood up and stayed where he was. After the others had gone back and sat down, he began to report on his work.

Nowadays, the court has more and more affairs to deal with, and the power of the two prime ministers is getting greater and greater. Naturally, matters such as reporting work are gradually integrated by the two prime ministers.

Whoever of the two prime ministers falls ill first will be eliminated first.

There is no need to impeach each other and create obstacles. We are all civil servants and we have long stopped doing that.

The most important thing is that the emperor is no longer a despicable ruler. If he fails, he might end up breaking his leg before he trips the other person.

"Your Majesty, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou has reported to you that a local chieftain has rebelled in the territory and attempted to capture the county town but failed. He has already fled back to the mountain stronghold." Jia Rong felt very bored and said casually, "Why are they rebelling? I remember that the taxes there are not heavy, right?"

The Minister of Revenue stepped forward and answered that taxation was the Ministry of Revenue's business.

"Your Majesty, taxes in Yunnan and Guizhou have always been lighter than in other places. According to your Majesty's order, the nine border areas will have light taxes and prohibit excessive levies and miscellaneous taxes."

"It is their nature that the chieftains of Yunnan and Guizhou are rebellious. These people have no regard for the law."

Jia Rong frowned. "Aren't all chieftains appointed by the court? They receive court salaries and official positions. What do you want to say?"

The Minister of Revenue saw that Jia Rong was unhappy and quickly explained the reason.

"Your Majesty, the chieftains who are causing the rebellion this time are hereditary chieftains of foreign ethnic groups. Seeing that the people in the county are wealthy, they came down from the mountains to plunder. There are 155 chieftains in Guizhou alone. Most of them were recruited by the court and given silver and rewards. In recent years, the rewards have decreased, so they started to rebel."

Jia Rong lacked attention to these matters and basically ignored the affairs of the ethnic minorities in the nine borders.

The Minister of War quickly said, "Your Majesty! If there are a few thieves causing trouble, just send troops to kill them!"

The rest of the people had no objection. They believed that any foreign race that dared to cause trouble in such a peaceful and prosperous time was simply courting death and did not understand how strong the fist of the orthodox dynasty in the Central Plains was.

The Left Prime Minister doesn't want to deal with it casually. If this matter is not handled properly, it will cause a big mess.

"Your Majesty, it is easy to suppress the rebellion, but I think we should not mobilize the garrison troops from the local area to suppress it, otherwise if this continues, the officials will surely force the people to rebel. I think we should mobilize troops from the capital to suppress the rebellion."

What the Left Prime Minister was wary of was military men trying to rack up kills and gain merit.

It's not about suppressing military men. It's about military men who, once they have power and guns, will show off their power and cause trouble.

Sometimes these warriors are aliens, or man-eating beasts.

Once they have too much power and have food and weapons, these people will disobey the discipline of others.

Why listen to others when you have a gun in your hand?
All dynasties have strictly controlled military personnel and the military, so the Left Prime Minister naturally has to suppress the arrogance of the military personnel.

It's not hatred or prejudice, it's just the fact.

The Minister of War immediately retorted: "It takes at least two or three months to get from the capital to Yunnan and Guizhou. Counting the time it took to send the message, it has taken more than half a year to go back and forth. Things have been delayed! I think it would be better to mobilize elite troops from Yunnan to quell the rebellion, or send troops from Guizhou if there is trouble in Yunnan in the future."

The Minister of War proposed a compromise.

However, Zuo Xiang refused to back down at all.

"No! Yunnan and Guizhou have many ethnic minorities, and since ancient times, they have easily produced arrogant and fierce soldiers who do not observe military discipline. I believe that the troops of the capital must be used to quell the rebellion here!"

The Minister of War looked at the Left Prime Minister and asked angrily, "You can't just let the Beijing troops go whenever something goes wrong in the future, right? If this continues, something bad will definitely happen!"

Jia Rong was too lazy to listen to the people below quarreling, since he was not a woman.

"The Inspectorate will send someone to investigate why there is a rebellion. I will not send a single soldier this time. When the Inspectorate arrives, they will just have someone tell the local chieftains. Whoever is willing to quell the rebellion can go and quell the rebellion."

"Since it is the Tusi who are rebelling, let the other Tusi solve it. It is now the end of July, and it won't take a few days for a fast horse to get there. Let them solve the problem before winter comes. Don't use the local garrison this time."

The Minister of War asked, "Your Majesty, if those chieftains are unwilling to quell the rebellion, what should we do then?"

"We'll talk about it later." Jia Rong did not give a specific reply, and said casually: "I want to see whether those chieftains are loyal. The Inspectorate should not pass on this message. Just say that the court has no time to send troops and needs them to go over to quell the rebellion. Don't say anything else."

The Inspector General said respectfully, "As you wish."

How to check and balance the border troops under his command and those warriors who are crazy about wanting to make meritorious deeds is the biggest problem at the moment.

We must find a good system to solve these problems, otherwise the conscience of the people below will definitely not be able to overcome their greed, and they will create troubles to gain military merits and get promoted.

In particular, after making meritorious service, the taxes of an area could be reduced or exempted, which led to the local clans' absolute support for war, especially war against neighboring foreign races.

It would be unfortunate to be a neighbor of the Holy Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)