Steel Dynasty - Chapter 860

[Chapter 858: A glass of wine releases military power]

The maids shuttled back and forth in Baifu Hall, and delicacies were placed on the table, and the fragrance became more and more intense.

King Huainan and King Ruyang looked at the emperor and King Yong who were singing in harmony, with complicated hearts.

After all, they were not members of the royal family with the same surname. King Yong could calmly let go of his feudal kingdom, but they could not do it, because for them this was the inheritance of their ancestors, how could they give it up so easily? At least the court must give them a satisfactory arrangement.

Xiao Ming’s peripheral vision glanced at King Huainan and King Ruyang, and he had a calculation in his mind.

After pondering for a while, he did not rush to mention the matter of reducing the vassal, but greeted: “Everyone, the food and wine are ready. You have come all the way, and I will have a drink with you today.”

After that, Xiao Ming raised the Wine glass.

Upon seeing this, King Huainan and King Ruyang immediately stood up with wine glasses in hand and drank all the white wine in the glasses.

Xiao Ming nodded and also drank the white wine in his glass. Then he did not mention anything about reducing the vassal status, but instead talked about interesting things about Qingzhou.

After three rounds of drinking, the atmosphere in Baifu Hall gradually relaxed. At this time, Xiao Ming smiled. The time for negotiation had come, “The three of you came to the palace to see me today. It must be for the purpose of reducing the vassal.” He Finally the topic was brought to the right track.

King Yong’s face turned red after drinking, and King Huainan and King Ruyang also drank very happily.

“Yes, Your Majesty, this is exactly what we came to Beijing for.” The King of Huainan and the King of Ruyang looked at each other. The wine made them more courageous.

King Yong said directly: “Isn’t it just to cut down the feudal vassal? No one in the world can see it now. Today is different from the past. The emperor is an ambitious man. This country of Chongqing cannot continue to be in chaos. For the sake of the country of Chongqing, , I am the first to support the emperor.”

After a pause, he continued: “But if we cut off the vassalage, we hope that the emperor can preserve our glory and wealth.”

King Huainan and King Ruyang nodded, and King Ruyang said: “What King Yong said is absolutely true. Nowadays, all the civil and military officials in the dynasty are clamoring for the reduction of vassals. It can be seen that this is the general trend of the world. Xiao Wang dare not go against the trend and is willing to accept the decree of reducing vassals. It’s just that we defend the border and expand the territory of the Great Chongqing Kingdom. After so many years, there is no merit but hard work. I hope the emperor can consider it. “

The king of Huainan also said: “The decision to cut down the vassal is imminent. Now we don’t ask for much. I hope the emperor will show mercy.”

The topic was dropped, Xiao. On the contrary, Ming breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, he understood that the three of them had guessed that he supported the reduction of the feudal clan.

Because it is impossible for the newspaper’s manuscripts to be published without his review, which is something everyone knows well.

After thinking for a while, he said: “My dear, you are too worried. I have no intention of depriving you of the kingdom, and the ministers have no intention of putting you to death. This kingdom is still yours, but the military power will be taken back from now on.” , you will obey the orders of the imperial court in terms of government affairs. From now on, the feudal state will have to pay part of the taxes to the imperial court, which means that you will still be the king of Huainan and the king of Ruyang in the feudal state. “

Xiao Ming did not want to cause any vassal reduction this time. Be too drastic, as this will only have the opposite effect.

Therefore, he decided to take a relatively mild approach, which was to turn the feudal state into their fiefdom, only to take away their military power and make them lose their independence in government affairs.

In this way, they became nominal vassal kings and no longer posed a threat to the Chongqing Kingdom. They were just ordinary officials.

The King of Huainan was silent for a while after hearing this. This was acceptable to him. Except for military power, he retained all other rights. He was still a noble prince in Jingzhou.

“Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty.” King Huainan bowed and said.

King Ruyang also decided to accept the proposal, and stood up and said, “Thank you, Your Majesty for your grace.”

King Yong had originally planned to give up the feudal kingdom, but he was overjoyed when he heard this. He said gratefully: “Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty. “

Xiao Ming coughed and said, “But I’m going to say something ugly in front of you. You can’t be ambiguous in the imperial decree, otherwise I’m afraid I won’t be able to protect you.”

The three of them looked serious, and they bowed and said, “Yes. Your Majesty.”

Xiao Ming was in a good mood as the issue of reducing the vassal state was resolved easily. In his opinion, the success of the reduction of the vassal state was entirely due to the strength of Qingzhou Prefecture. Otherwise, the reduction of the vassal state would probably lead to rebellion.

But now that they understand their own strength, the three of them dare not take any risks, because if they do, they will completely lose everything and even drag down their relatives.

The knot in their hearts was untied, and the atmosphere in Baifu Hall became more and more soothing. The four of them started drinking and enjoying food again.

The banquet ended at three o’clock in the afternoon.

Qian Dafu asked Qian Dafu to send the three vassal kings back, and he went to the imperial study room to start writing the imperial edict. In order to avoid long nights and nightmares, he decided to finalize the reduction of the vassal vassal quickly.

Once the imperial edict comes down, the reduction of the vassal status will become a certainty.

It took half an hour to prepare three imperial edicts, and Xiao Ming was going to issue them to the three people at the court meeting, so that the matter of reducing the vassal could be concluded.

The next day, Xiao Ming announced the decision to reduce the vassalage at the court meeting. King Huainan, King Ruyang, and King Yong were all waiting for the imperial edict in the Zhengda Guangming Hall.

At this time, Qian Dafu took out Xiao Ming’s imperial edict and handed it to the corresponding vassal king after reading out one copy.

In the imperial edict, Xiao Ming clearly stipulated the content of reducing the vassal state, requiring the three people to formally hand over their troops to the accompanying Forbidden Army generals after returning to the feudal country.

The Forbidden Army generals will select elites from their army to be retrained and incorporated into the military system of the Great Chongqing Kingdom, and they no longer have the right to interfere with the army.

In addition to the imperial edict, in order to appease the three of them, he also awarded them death-free gold medals to show his sincerity.

The plan to cut down the vassals was decided, and Xiao Ming felt relieved. From then on, the Chongqing Kingdom took a step closer to the goal of unification. Next, he would concentrate on dealing with the Chu Kingdom.

At the same time, he also set his sights overseas. In recent years, Westerners can be seen in the turmoil around the country of Chongqing.

This incident made him very unhappy, but he had endured it for the sake of domestic unification. Now that he saw unification in sight, the desire for revenge in his heart was once again aroused.

After all, without their involvement, the country of Chongqing would not have lost so many people.

He was thinking about it when Pang Yukun came out and said: “Your Majesty, the first batch of firearms has been shipped to Lin’an. There are a total of 20,000 matchlock guns and 8,000 flintlock guns. Li Chuyuan is willing to pay three million taels of silver for these firearms.” “

Three million taels of silver?” Xiao Ming frowned, “You told Li Chuyuan’s people that the court does not accept money, and asked him to go to the bank to exchange it for gold dragons and then trade with us, and all his transactions with the court All have to use new currency.”

Pang Yukun understood, he smiled mischievously and said, “Yes, Your Majesty, I understand.”

(End of this chapter)