amaotonovel Chapter 1191 You two, father-in-law and son-in-law, are just scheming against each other.
Chapter 1191 You two, father-in-law and son-in-law, are just scheming against each other.
Even as they prepared to return to the palace, Emperor Zhu was still in a daze, feeling as if he were walking on clouds and his heart was filled with warmth.
"It was worth it."
As Emperor Zhu walked, he said with a smile, "All these years of hard work have finally paid off; the people still remember our kindness."
Yang Shaofeng immediately became happy.
I've finally got my chance!
You old bastard, you've been holding grand court assemblies for days on end, conspiring with those old scoundrels Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen to scheme against me, and constantly sending Jin'er and Yu'er to bring Yang Baobei into the palace.
Today you've finally fallen into my hands!
Just watch how I annoy you today, and that's it!
Yang Shaofeng coughed and said with a smile, "Ordinary people are the easiest to fool, but also the hardest to fool."
"They know perfectly well who is truly good to them."
“My father-in-law is truly good to them. He has genuinely exempted them from taxes and corvée labor, bringing tangible benefits to the people. They will naturally be grateful to my father-in-law.”
Emperor Zhu immediately became wary and waited quietly for Yang Shaofeng to say the word "but".
As expected, Yang Shaofeng only offered a few words of praise before directly unfolding the map of the Yan Kingdom.
"But..."
"Some time ago, before the provincial governors left Beijing, the Sichuan governor got into a fight with Hu Weiyong over labor issues."
"Zhao Muyang, the Sichuan Provincial Governor, said that he was prepared to implement the policy of replacing the native chieftains with centrally appointed officials in Maozhou, Weizhou, and Songpan. In particular, the Songpan area is geographically important and can be called the "gateway to northwestern Sichuan". It is a real strategic stronghold. If he does not implement the policy of replacing the native chieftains with centrally appointed officials in Songpan, he, Zhao Muyang, will be letting down his father-in-law and the people of Sichuan."
"But before the abolition of the native chieftain system, Sichuan needed a large number of laborers—hundreds of thousands would not be too many, and tens of thousands would not be too few."
"Provincial Governor Zhao wanted to borrow 100,000 laborers from Hu Weiyong, firstly to build roads, and secondly to drain and dredge the Songpan grasslands and reclaim them as farmland."
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, even though Emperor Zhu had already prepared himself to be annoyed, he was still somewhat frustrated.
As for?
I've only dragged you to a few court meetings, you bastard!
In those few court assemblies, you fell asleep in the court several times, watched the civil and military officials fight and brawl several times, and caused trouble for us and Mr. Shanchang several times!
Even when things are already like this, you still can't resist making things worse for us?
Emperor Zhu was displeased, but Yang Shaofeng's tone gradually became heavy: "I heard from Governor Zhao that Songpan is cold and damp, with long winters and no summer, low temperatures, long frost periods, many rainy days, and unpredictable winds and rain. Sometimes it snows heavily, sometimes it hails suddenly, and the land is covered in swamps, where birds and beasts cannot survive, and the people find it difficult to live."
"I greatly admire Governor Zhao; at the very least, he dares to think and dares to act."
“Even that old shrew Hu Weiyong was forced to hand over 30,000 laborers.”
"There's not much to be stingy with on my son-in-law's side, so in the end I could only promise that the Dengzhou border market would help Sichuan sell more local products so that he would have money to manage the Songpan grasslands."
"..."
Emperor Zhu stopped in his tracks, then suddenly burst into laughter twice, saying, "Fine, we were just saying that the people of Ningyang County appreciate our kindness, and now you're telling us that the people of Sichuan might not appreciate our kindness and want us to pour money, resources, and manpower into Sichuan?"
Yang Shaofeng remained silent, but Emperor Zhu snorted and muttered, "You win!"
"So what if they want money, people, or things? We'll give them to them, damn it!"
"We are the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the sovereign and father of all the people under heaven. Even if we cannot treat everyone equally, we cannot be too biased towards one or the other."
"We not only need to throw money and people at the Sichuan Provincial Governor, but we also need to throw money and people at Gansu, Shaanxi and the Western Regions."
At this point, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but kick Yang Shaofeng again, cursing, "You bastard, you always pick times when we're happy to upset us!"
Yang Shaofeng rolled his eyes, but Emperor Zhu smiled mischievously and looked at Yang Shaofeng, saying, "Well, son-in-law..."
What the hell?
Son-in-law?
Yang Shaofeng's heart tightened, but Emperor Zhu said with a smile, "We need to throw money and manpower into places like Qin, Jin, Gan, Sichuan, and even Yunnan, Guizhou, and the northern deserts. You'll have to put a lot of effort into the money and supplies needed for this."
Yang Shaofeng blinked, unconsciously uttered a "Huh?", and asked, "Who? Me?"
Emperor Zhu nodded with a smile, and Yang Shaofeng immediately shouted in a fit of anger, "Isn't it Minister Yang's business to worry about money and grain? I am only the prefect of Dengzhou and the magistrate of Ningyang County. How can I concern myself with the affairs of the court's finances?"
Before Emperor Zhu could speak, Black Sesame Dumpling interjected, "Brother-in-law, have you forgotten? Minister Yang has been transferred to the national treasury. He will gradually relinquish his positions as Minister of Civil Affairs and Chief Minister of Taxation. Moreover, brother-in-law, you are not only the Prefect of Dengzhou and the Magistrate of Ningyang, but you also receive the salary of a cabinet advisor."
Emperor Zhu added menacingly, "Don't forget, you promised me back when you petitioned us to establish ancestral rules that you would help Yang Siyi with his advice on matters such as taxation and paper money."
Yang Shaofeng blinked again.
Is that right?
Seems to be.
So, I successfully annoyed Lao Deng, but I also successfully got myself into trouble.
This is it, Old Deng is going to evolve from a scoundrel to a tyrant, he'll be harder to fool from now on!
Yang Shaofeng cursed inwardly, but Emperor Zhu couldn't help but laugh. "Well, you rascal, you've grown up. At least you're no longer just focused on your own little corner of the world. You know how to see things from the perspective of the entire Ming Dynasty."
Before Yang Shaofeng could speak, Emperor Zhu interjected, "By the way, do you remember what you said?"
"I'll take 95 out of 100 turns. You know my methods, right?"
"Think about it these next few days. Try to shift the blame to Li Shanchang and Yang Siyi. Even if you can't get 95, getting 55 would be good."
"We're counting on this money to invest in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and the northern desert regions."
"..."
Seeing that Yang Shaofeng still looked completely bewildered, Emperor Zhu added insult to injury without hesitation: "Alright, son-in-law, you don't need to see us off anymore. We'll stroll back to the palace with your mother-in-law. You can go home and be with your darling."
……
"Hahaha," Emperor Zhu laughed twice as he walked, and said to Empress Ma, "Sister, you didn't see that scoundrel's face. Tsk, it's like he's opened a dye shop. One minute it's blue, the next it's red, and every now and then it turns a little white. Tsk tsk."
Empress Ma glanced at Emperor Zhu and said, "You two, father-in-law and son-in-law, are just scheming against each other. I've never seen anything like you two in the entire five thousand years of history!"
Emperor Zhu laughed twice and said, "In the past five thousand years, which emperor has ever had such a scoundrel as his son-in-law?"