The Female Lead Decides to Act Wickedly

Chapter 1296 - 483: Palace Schemes Are No Match for Rebellion (Part 20)

A new official lights three fires upon taking office.

As a young Emperor who had ascended the throne for several years yet never truly held real power, Emperor Yongcheng—

Now that he had finally obtained the Imperial Jade Seal that symbolized the Empire’s supreme authority, and at last no longer had that woman listening to and ruling over politics behind his back, he immediately felt a sense of power gathered wholly in his own hands.

As a man, and as someone who had received the education of an Emperor since childhood, in his bones he harbored an intense desire to point at the Jiangshan and command the realm.

He could finally put his ambitions into practice!

Emperor Yongcheng was like a volcano that had been suppressed for far too long and had finally found a chance to erupt; his urgency, his longing, could not have been more intense.

After taking the reins of government himself, the first "fire" Emperor Yongcheng lit was directed at the salt administration.

Uh, in itself there was nothing wrong with that.

Leaving the Emperor aside, even in just the recent period, the bigwigs of the Political Affairs Hall had been continually discussing this topic.

As important strategic resources, salt and iron had always, by rights, ought to be controlled by the court.

But in the past few hundred years, the noble families had grown too powerful, and Dynasties had changed too frequently.

Resources such as salt fields and iron mines had all been carved up and monopolized by the noble families and the various local aristocratic families.

The late Emperor unified the Jiangshan and founded the Dayuan Dynasty.

After he ascended the throne, he had once wanted to reclaim those salt fields and iron mines for the court.

The late Emperor’s fierce resistance to the noble families, his exhausting efforts to split and suppress them, was not just the most primitive "resentment of the rich."

Besides his dissatisfaction with the noble families’ monopolizing the power of appointing and dismissing personnel in the Imperial court, he was even more after these resources.

It was just that the noble families had stretched on for hundreds of years, with roots deep and tangled, their power immense.

Their influence among the common people almost surpassed that of the Royal Family.

Even though the late Emperor was the Founding Emperor, with several hundred thousand elite troops in hand, he still could not shake the foundations of the noble families.

So really, in the Dayuan Dynasty, there was fundamentally no such thing as "smuggling private salt," because all the salt in the world was damn well private salt!

On the government side, the government offices were so poor that the buildings were about to fall apart, yet they could only watch as the local noble families and aristocratic families made a killing selling salt.

At that time, the late Emperor had already thought about rectifying salt and iron: even if he could not reclaim all the salt fields and mines for the court, he still had to levy enough taxes.

Unfortunately, he died too early; many of his policies were only proposed as a concept and he never had time to implement them!

Empress Dowager He: ...So it’s my fault, huh?! If you, you scumbag, hadn’t gone back on your word, favoring your concubine and destroying your wife, would I have risked the greatest condemnation under heaven to kill you?!

As the late Emperor’s good eldest son, Emperor Yongcheng naturally had to inherit the late Emperor’s dying wish.

So, the first item of government business he handled after taking back the Imperial Jade Seal from "Empress Dowager He" was to rectify the salt administration.

Rectifying the salt administration— even if the salt fields could not be nationalized, a certain amount of tax still had to be drawn!

This was the late Emperor’s idea; Emperor Yongcheng took it up in its entirety without changing a bit.

This, in itself, was not wrong either.

The court’s tax revenue was insufficient, and even if the salt fields were occupied by the noble families, they ought to pay a certain amount of tax.

But the problem was, such an agenda should not be proposed by a little Emperor who had only just taken the reins himself.

Even if it were the Political Affairs Hall, or Empress Dowager He bringing it up, both would have more credibility than the little Emperor, and would make it less likely for the court, from top to bottom, to oppose it too vehemently.

Emperor Yongcheng?

Heh, he had just begun to rule in person, had not a single achievement to his name, let alone any talk of prestige.

Did he really think that by holding the Imperial Jade Seal, all the civil and military officials of the court would listen to him?

"Your Majesty, the matter of the salt administration is entangled with too much; it is not suitable to rush it. I beg you to deliberate carefully!"

Of the Three Great Ministers, Wang Yuan and Zhao Shuo said nothing; it was instead Feng Shou, the one who most supported Emperor Yongcheng, who stood out and earnestly remonstrated.

Although Feng Shou was "opposing," he truly was thinking for Emperor Yongcheng’s sake.

He could not let the little Emperor fixate on this kind of "reform" that was obviously going to go terribly wrong!

If he let the other party mess around unchecked, not only would it stir up great trouble, it would also cause the little Emperor’s already meager prestige to fall to rock bottom.

Once the Emperor lost his prestige, even if he sat on that seat, the court officials would still strip him of real power.

And if some powerful minister’s authority became too great—heh—the example of the Previous Dynasty’s destruction was right there before their eyes.

Feng Shou had an agreement with the late Emperor; he would not just watch Emperor Yongcheng step by step into the mire.

Feng Shou’s painstaking good intentions, alas, Emperor Yongcheng did not appreciate.

Because of the matter of conferring the Empress earlier, Emperor Yongcheng had already grown estranged from Feng Shou in his heart.

Now, he had finally taken the reins himself, and when he proposed his first policy, the old fox Wang Yuan—who was most likely to oppose—did not utter a word, yet his Master Feng jumped right out.

"Sir, you truly are My good teacher!"