Empress: Your Majesty, please respect yourself, I don't want to be promoted

With the vigorous promotion of the imperial court and the formal introduction of charcoal into the market, the people of the entire Gyeonggi region were finally completely freed from the threat of severe cold.

Stone coal costs a penny a piece, and it burns longer than charcoal. It can be used not only for heating, but also for cooking. The government also sells iron stoves at low prices...

Whether it is cost or function, charcoal crushes traditional charcoal. Therefore, in addition to the dignitaries who also use charcoal, ordinary people use charcoal in almost every household. At the same time, with the propaganda of caring people, they also learned the reason why they can Using this cheap and easy-to-use charcoal, you no longer have to suffer from the cold, all thanks to Lu Chen, the minister of the Ministry of Industry and the chief minister of the Tiangong Department.

As a result, Lu Chen's longevity tablets once again began to increase in number by the tens of thousands.

After countless people were alive again, the golden body of merit in his body also unknowingly became more powerful.

At this time, even if he walks alone without any guards, he does not have to fear the existence of evil spirits.

Of all the weird and unpredictable evil spirits in the world, only a handful of them could pose a threat to him.

One year passed quickly, and with Lu Chen's continuous push, the Tiangong Division played an increasingly important role.

Although the spiritual power project Liyue is responsible for has not made much progress, other projects have made breakthroughs one after another.

After continuous verification and development, charcoal can be used to smelt metals, and can also be used to replace the flame array to a certain extent. This also means that the court's demand for spiritual stones has once again decreased, and now the treasury is hoarding spiritual stones. Stone, even with the previous usage, can last for several years.

Even if Xun Gui monopolizes the supply of spiritual stones and threatens small merchants not to participate in the Ministry of Industry's bidding, relying on the replacement of coal, the court can survive until it recruits new mineral deposits.

At the same time, Lu Chen openly proposed to the court that important mineral deposits related to national security, such as spiritual stones, iron, and mithril, should be nationalized and private mining would no longer be allowed to further strengthen the court's control over the world.

As soon as this advice was put forward, it immediately attracted countless criticisms.

In such a large imperial court, whether they were civil servants, military generals, or relatives, almost half of all the forces from all sides stood up to oppose it.

However, this advice was put forward by Lu Chen, and he risked everything to push it forward. Even if all civil and military officials in the court opposed it, the effect it could have was quite limited.

What's more, the empress is already extremely dissatisfied with the current court.

The final result is naturally that those who should settle old scores will be settled with the evidence collected secretly, those who should be fired will be dismissed, those who should be demoted will be demoted, and those who should be begged will be forced to go through the process of retiring and returning to their hometowns.

The empress holds the Forbidden Army, has the Holy Realm at her back, and is served by three strong men from the Guiyi Realm who swear allegiance to the death. She is also a peerless person who has enlightened and broken through the way of the emperor several times. If she is determined to do something, unless she is from other Holy Realms The Holy King raised his flag to attack at the same time, otherwise he would not be able to stop it at all.

If you use a mantis' arm as a chariot, you can imagine the consequences.

After this incident, Lu Chen's power was once again strengthened exponentially.

The policy opposed by more than half of the courtiers can still be implemented, and the empress does not seem to care about the stability of the court at all. She acts willfully, supports Lu Chen, and directly gives Lu Chen the power to lift the table. Who can do this? he?

Soon, all the big guys realized that fighting in court was meaningless to Lu Chen. He didn't need any city government or any means at all. He could just defeat ten guilds with his own strength, and no one could resist. Live.

Unless he ignores the rules of the game and forcibly removes this person with the power of thunder, there will be no second voice in the court except for those censors who are not afraid of death and the officials who give Zhongke Dao.

Fight?

Why argue with someone who ignores the rules of the game?

The research and development of charcoal has achieved remarkable results, and cement is naturally not far behind.

You must know that before the advent of cement, the court most of the time relied on the power of the magic circle to build roads, and activating the magic circle required a large amount of spiritual stones. Even so, the roads built were difficult to describe, and they were basically completed every few years. Need to be repaired once.

Not to mention that cement can not only build bridges and pave roads, but can also build houses, build cities, reinforce city buildings, etc., changing the current situation of large-scale construction projects.

These three aspects have always been the bulk of the national treasury's expenditures, consuming countless spiritual materials every year. Sometimes they are even equivalent to military expenditures, allowing the noble families who monopolize spiritual materials to make a lot of money.

As a result, the families that used to seize huge wealth from Daxia by monopolizing necessary resources became the first victims.

The gradual reduction of this huge expenditure has undoubtedly left them exhausted, and the new system established by Lu Chen at the Ministry of Industry means that the remaining spiritual material needs of the imperial court may not necessarily fall on them.

As the saying goes, taking someone's money is like killing their parents. Lu Chen cut off their main income one after another. They also watched the family's gradual decline and hated Lu Chen deeply.

In just one year, they have reached the point where they want to rest on their laurels.

The days are getting harder and harder.

No matter how difficult their situation was, the empress had no intention of siding with them. She always supported Lu Chen's various suggestions and kept throwing money at the Tiangong Division. Almost all the vast wealth in the entire internal fund was lost. Lu Chen has free control.

We need policy for policy, we need funds for funds, and we need power for power.

Nowadays, Lu Chen has become a powerful minister in the dynasty. Even Yan Song, the chief minister of the Three Pavilions, has the highest ministerial power, but he cannot compete with Lu Chen in terms of status.

The source of Lu Chen's power was the Empress, the Holy King Cangming behind the Empress, and the upstart forces headed by Fu Huan and Gu Simiao.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Lu Chen cannot be offended now. Even Qian Yiqian and other ministers who previously wanted to target Lu Chen, a minister who was lucky enough to be promoted, have become more and more quiet. They dare not stand up and press for it every day. I muddle through the fear and become completely honest.

However, the Wenchen Group could avoid Lu Chen's attack, but the Xunqi wealthy family could not.

The loss of their fundamental interests has reached an unbearable level.

Bang!

In the Duke of Yan's Mansion, Zheng Yue punched the table nearby.

"This can't go on like this!"

He stood up suddenly, gritted his teeth and said:

"If the mainland thieves are allowed to continue their perverse behavior, the foundations of our families for dozens of generations will be destroyed today!"

As soon as these words came out, the faces of the family heads who were invited to come over to discuss important matters suddenly darkened.

After a moment of silence, Zhao Guogong's eldest son, Sun Cheng, coughed lightly and said slowly: "What Duke Yan said makes sense. Everyone here has suffered deeply from the mainland thieves. I think you all know that if this thief is not eliminated, we will be with the country." What will be the final fate of Xio’s meritorious family?”

"I believe none of you want to be the sinner of your family, right?"

Hearing this, everyone was moved.

"no solution anymore."

After being silent again for a long time, Xia Houchang, Duke of Xing State, finally stood up and said in a deep voice: "Let's join forces. Let's stop hiding. We should take out our respective trump cards and use all means to get rid of this person at all costs." Thief, although there may be some backlash after the incident is completed, we can always overcome it by working together."

"It's better than sitting around and waiting to die."

Civil servants are unreliable. Until now, the only voice in the court is Lu Chen. Factional disputes and other factional disputes are almost invisible in the Yongchu Dynasty. No one can stop Lu Chen from doing anything he wants to do.

Since the Wei ministers headed by Yan Song can't count on them, they can only save themselves.

None of the people here are stupid. If the three princes can realize it, they can also realize it.

So, after a short conversation, everyone looked at each other, and then nodded in unison.

And the moment everyone reached a consensus——

"My lord!"

Suddenly there was a rush of footsteps outside the door.

"Old Yan Ge, please see me."

……………

Just when the aristocratic families and nobles from the capital region gathered together to discuss important matters.

Ziji City, the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry.

Lu Chen, who had just finished handling his official duties, walked to the window with his hands behind his hands. He raised his head and looked far into the distance, looking at the gradually gloomy sky not far away. He seemed to have a premonition of something, and his brows gradually wrinkled.

"You've been forced to do this, why don't those people take action..."

He murmured in a voice that only he could hear, and a hint of helplessness quietly flashed in his eyes.

One year is not a long time, but it is not a short time. If you really want to make a difference, it is enough to do a lot of things.

To be honest, he never expected that he had already reached this point, and that the Civil Service Group and the Xunqi Group could endure it without taking action until now. Not only that, but they also became more and more submissive on the surface, making it more difficult for him to do things. Come smaller and smaller.

With the current situation in the government, even a novice like him, who has only been exposed to politics for a short time, can see that if he is allowed to continue to "play nonsense" like this, the established forces that are constantly being squeezed out of their living space will be completely devastated.

After Tiangongsi launched coal and cement, which greatly increased revenue and reduced expenditure for the imperial court, it did not rest on its laurels, but continued to increase investment. Under his strong promotion, relying on his authority which was less than ten thousand people, Daxia's agriculture, military industry, medical care, manufacturing and other aspects have all made breakthroughs one after another.

More and more emerging industries are on the right track, and these industries are basically firmly controlled by the empress;

The Xuanji Guards in various places are also growing in strength, continuously transmitting local news back to the capital, further intimidating the ministers and officials.

The resource monopoly that aristocratic families relied on for their livelihood has been continuously broken.

Everything is changing in a direction that is beneficial to the Empress and him. If nothing is done, when he gradually completes the top-down comprehensive changes, those old forces will inevitably be swept into the garbage of history. heap.

Of course, there are not families that have changed their family development strategies in response to the current situation, but more often than not, they are old-time powerful people who are used to making money while lying down, and are extremely disgusted with changes in the world.

As for those wealthy families that have lasted for hundreds or thousands of years, Lu Chen didn't believe that they didn't have their own trump card.

But until now, they still haven't made any move, and even small actions are rare, which is somewhat beyond his expectation.

Although there is always a calm before the storm, this calm lasted a little too long.

While thinking, he subconsciously turned his head and glanced at Chai Hongyu outside the door.

"Sure enough, Chai Hongyu put too much pressure on them..."

Over the past year, Chai Hongyu has been almost inseparable from him, always waiting by his side whether he is eating or sleeping.

Even when going to the toilet...

The intimidating power brought by a strong Guiyi Realm warrior with ancient bloodline was obviously much higher than Lu Chen expected.

And in this world, the only person in this world who can be willingly protected by a strong man in the Guiyi Realm, besides him, is the Empress.

Even though Fu Hua and Chai Hongyu both broke through to the Guiyi Realm at the age of twenty-five or six, Gu Simiao is even the youngest Guiyi Realm expert in the history of Daxia. It seems that it is easy to break through to the Guiyi Realm. , but it is not the case.

As the highest level of cultivation under the Immortal Way, there is a ceiling for cultivators. Even among hundreds of masters of the Hollow Void Realm, not one of them may be able to successfully break through.

There are only a handful of powerful people in the Guiyi Realm in the entire Central Continent. Almost all of them are the ancestors of big families, the heads of the ten major sects, or the worshipers of the top forces. Even the imperial court, before the Yongchu Dynasty, most of the time. Only the general of the Zhu Kingdom who guards all directions is in the Guiyi Realm.

The Dongxu Realm can almost be regarded as the highest combat power walking in the world.

Being protected by Chai Hongyu so dutifully is enough to break most people's minds.

Thinking of this, Lu Chen couldn't help but feel a deep sense of powerlessness deep in his heart.

If you want to move him, you need at least three strong men above the Guiyi Realm to have any hope, and you have to find a good time. After all, Gu Simiao will return to Beijing from time to time, and Fu Hua's whereabouts are even more elusive. No one knows about her. Whenever I'm in Beijing or when I'm out on a mission, if one of them happens to happen to be bad, then it's Barbie Q.

The risk is so high, and the powerful ones in the Guiyi Realm are the pinnacle of the big forces and can't be easily moved. It's no wonder that even though it has reached a desperate situation, no one has taken action until now.

After thinking about this, Lu Chen sighed heavily.

"The road to immortality is so slim..."

After emulating for a while, he shook his head, turned back to the Taishi chair without thinking any more.

at this time--

"Lu Qing."

A beautiful figure suddenly appeared outside the door.

"have time?"

Lu Chen looked up and immediately saw Jiang Chengwan, who was dressed in casual clothes for some reason, standing at the door and looking at him with an inquiring expression.

Seeing the empress coming, he quickly calmed down and went to meet her.

"Wei Chen has met your Majesty."

Jiang Chengwan waved his hand and said softly: "Lu Qing, there is no need to be polite."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

After Lu Chen stood up, he asked, "I wonder why your Majesty is here..."

Jiang Chengwan ruffled the hair beside her ears out of habit.

"I want to leave the palace to observe the people's sentiments and see the current living conditions of the people in the capital. If Lu Qing is free, you might as well go with me."

Understand the sentiments of the people?

Now?

At this time when you are about to get off work?

You did it on purpose, right?

Lu Chen complained secretly in his heart, but did not refuse.

This year he has been busy at the government office and has rarely gone out. As one of the six ministers, he holds a high position, so naturally he does not need to do many things himself.

Since the Empress wants to go, it would be good to go and relax and change her mood.