After Defeat, the Empress’s Negotiating Chip Turns Out to Be Me

Chapter 331

331~ The Proposal is Centralization of Royal Power!~

"Princess!"

"What is it, Xiao Xi?"

The Little Princess turned her head.

"I'm very sorry to interrupt Princess and His Majesty's conversation, but it's time for breakfast now."

Maid Xiao Xi placed the food on the table in the bedroom.

"Did you prepare some for Cecilia?"

"Please rest assured, Princess. I've already instructed someone to deliver it to Miss Cecilia."

"That's good then."

No matter what, Cecilia was the benefactor who helped her drive that imposter away and let her return to Glaze Nation. She could shortchange anyone but not Cecilia.

"Then you may withdraw first. I'll come find you after I chat with Father the King."

"Yes."

Maid Xiao Xi bowed and left the bedroom.

"Father the King."

"Mm... I'm sorry, Mo. I've heard from Miss Cecilia about the matters during this period."

"I was actually controlled by that imposter, treated you as fake, and even attacked you..."

"It's fine. As long as you're alright now, that's all that matters."

As long as her cheap Father the King had no problems now, then everything could still be salvaged, no matter what that imposter had done using her identity.

"By the way, Father the King, regarding the disaster relief grain embezzlement matter, how much do you know?"

After a moment of silence, Gong spoke:

"Basically everything."

"Basically everything?"

So that meant this cheap Father the King knew full well someone was embezzling, yet turned a blind eye?

If that was the case, then didn't her Father the King actually already have other arrangements for this matter? Then wouldn't she have disrupted her cheap Father the King's plan?

"Plan? I don't have any plan. I just let it be because I was too lazy to manage it."

"Too lazy to manage!?"

Such a serious matter, and he was too lazy to manage it!?

You should know what embezzlement and corruption was? This was the ruling class's disloyalty to the supreme ruler! If there'd already been one instance of embezzlement and corruption, then there would definitely be countless more! Yet her Father the King had actually let embezzlement and corruption run rampant for several decades or more?

"Father the King! This is a very severe matter!"

"I know..."

Gong was somewhat hesitant, not knowing how to explain to the Little Princess.

"Father the King!"

"This... this problem actually already existed when you were young. It's just that at that time, I never had the mood to manage court affairs. Even until now, I don't have much ability to curb this situation anymore."

That's right. After his empress died, he no longer had any heart to manage court affairs. He'd always known about the ruling class. The reason he indulged this situation was because the Glaze Royal Family alone could no longer reverse the situation...

This embezzlement and corruption situation, after so many years of development, although it quite rarely shook the Glaze Royal Family's position, had already become more than just official-merchant collusion. It was officials, merchants, civilians, even the royal family all colluding together.

In fact, even he had used this secretly developed "trade line" to conduct a certain degree of grain recovery... purchasing back a considerable portion of grain from the market at cheap prices.

As well as using this trade line to suppress food prices on the market.

At that time, because there were no better suppression methods, official suppression would definitely arouse merchants' dissatisfaction. But because this trade line mixed in many merchants, it gave him channels to distribute grain to the common people and suppress grain prices on the market.

Even... within this trade line were people he personally planted.

Besides this, many princes and princesses also used this trade line to accumulate wealth...

This embezzlement and corruption phenomenon had already formed a delicate balance with Glaze Nation's current governance. Although it impacted the Glaze Royal Family's income and national treasury revenue and expenditure to a certain degree, it was stable, and could conveniently resolve the merchant dissatisfaction problem caused by official intervention. Precisely because of this, plus there truly was no way to remove it, they simply left it unmanaged all along.

But he hadn't expected that today, his precious daughter would come up and directly want to eliminate all these embezzling and corrupt officials, as well as the trade line behind them.

"Like this..."

The Little Princess pondered for a while.

If it truly was as her cheap Father the King said, then she truly had ruined things...

No wonder, no wonder at the start they said this matter could only be told to her cheap Father the King. So that's what it was! So the meaning was that her cheap Father the King also participated in it...

No, if it was truly like this, then it couldn't be called embezzlement and corruption, but rather it had the king's tacit permission...

But the problem was that now this balance had already been broken. Her wave of operations at court today was equivalent to directly declaring war on the collective beneficiaries of this trade line. Even if she was a nation's princess, she'd still suffer frenzied attacks from the beneficiaries!

A nation's princess? Ridiculous! Before absolute interests, who still cared whether you were a princess or not? Moreover, the policies this princess implemented only benefited commoners, but placed restrictions everywhere on them, the merchants!

Things like price increases not permitted to exceed 20%, improper competition not permitted... various restrictions on merchants selling goods had long caused some merchants to wish they could force her to change all these regulations!

Now she already felt somewhat regretful, but there was no regret medicine in the world. Since she chose to uproot the embezzlement and corruption phenomenon, then she had to see it through to the end. Otherwise, in a moment, these people would start doubting whether she truly had any real weight, and it would also greatly reduce her prestige...

What she did at court today, if nothing unexpected happened, would be known throughout the nation in a few days. That would be when the beneficiaries of this trade line began their counterattack.

"If you—"

"Father the King, I have an idea. Listen and tell me if it's feasible?"

"Speak."

He was also quite curious what good idea his precious daughter could have.

"It's just that Glaze Nation's entire management system now, I think it's time for a major overhaul?"

"Management system... major overhaul!?"

Gong was somewhat shocked.

You should know, if someone else said this, he'd definitely think that person coveted his throne and wanted to rebel, then he'd directly eliminate that person in one wave. But now the one proposing it was his precious daughter. He still had to listen to his precious daughter's suggestions.

After all, his precious daughter one, didn't covet the throne, two, didn't covet power. Plus, he'd long wanted his precious daughter to take over his position. He wished his precious daughter had designs and ideas about his throne!

"Father the King, what do you say Glaze Nation's current ruling class structure is like?"

"Ruling class structure?"

Wasn't it just that below the king were three National Advisors each controlling different powers? The National Advisors relied on their mutually restraining characteristics to stabilize power among each other. Then below the National Advisors were the various department ministers, and below the ministers were various officials!

Each time at court, those who came were these three National Advisors, various department ministers, some special officials, and overseers responsible for restraining these officials.

"Right. I think the problems existing in Glaze Nation's ruling class are too great. Perhaps right now, Father the King, you feel everything is fine, but this system has hidden dangers."

Such a not particularly stable structure, for it to support the Glaze Royal Family's existence for so long without major problems truly was already extremely fortunate!

"Hidden dangers? Where are the hidden dangers?"

Honestly, he truly couldn't see any major hidden dangers. This was probably one of the characteristics of rulers: arrogance.

Supreme rulers before absolute royal power's collapse often couldn't perceive problems in the system. It was also normal that her cheap Father the King hadn't noticed anything.

If she weren't someone who reincarnated carrying memories, she also wouldn't have discovered this problem.

"It's that right now the entire ruling class is very bloated. Among those official positions below the National Advisors, actually some fundamentally have no need to exist. These officials can be directly abolished. Also, the good deeds those three National Advisors have done behind your back are probably not few, right?"

From court affairs, one could tell that Glaze Nation's entire governance system was actually very bloated. The corruption phenomenon was also extremely serious. Those ministers actually still thought about how to brush her off, the princess!

"Then what does Mo mean?"

"Abolish the National Advisors together! Change them into three departments with dispersed power. Absolutely cannot let any kind of real power fall into one person's hands!"

Absolutely cannot let any kind of real power fall into one person's hands?

"Why?"

"What's the name of that National Advisor who controls military authority? Something something Lai? Never mind that for now. Father the King, just think, if that National Advisor wanted to rebel and just happened to collude with another National Advisor who controlled finances, what would happen?"

"...With both money and military force, they'd have the capital to rebel?"

"Correct! This is also where Glaze Nation falls short compared to Scarlet Phoenix Nation!"

In Scarlet Phoenix Nation, supreme power was monopolized by the Empress alone. Whether finances, military, engineering, diplomacy, education, justice, agriculture, light industry, even things like religious belief were all controlled in real-time by the Empress!

Scarlet Phoenix Nation's Council was an empty shell! At most, at most, it handled some edge cases, things that didn't even need the Empress to glance at.

Then there was that Scarlet Maid Corps, belonging only to the Empress. Aside from the Empress's orders, they listened to no one! Even the orders of the Council's highest director below the Empress were directly ignored. They were responsible for helping the Empress handle some relatively important government affairs that didn't necessarily need the Empress's approval when she had no time.

Each member of the Scarlet Maid Corps had signed a contract with the Empress. There was also no possibility of betrayal...

She wanted Glaze Nation's supreme power to be somewhat more concentrated in the supreme ruler's hands, that is, her cheap Father the King's hands. Otherwise, continuing with the current situation, Glaze Nation's political system would collapse sooner or later.

Moreover, directly achieving monopolization of supreme power like Scarlet Phoenix Nation wasn't impossible either...

Anyway, as long as Glaze Nation's supreme power was concentrated in her cheap Father the King's hands, then all problems would no longer be problems!

The current problem was that the Glaze Royal Family's royal authority had relatively low restraining power over those below. There was no way to curb this trade line primarily composed of embezzling officials and merchants, supported by commoners. Then they'd directly strengthen royal authority. Great force creates miracles! Use centralized royal authority to shatter the status quo with one punch!