Liangshan established the state of Qi, Sun Lei ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, granted rewards to all ministers, and held a banquet for the people, which soon spread.
Suddenly there was an extra country and an extra emperor in the world. This shock was no less than the death of Zhao Ji.
Tokyo, Imperial Palace.
"They're all trash!"
Zhao Ji roared angrily. He still had the latest information in his hand. Starting from Sun Lei, the official names of everyone in Qi State were on it.
This made Zhao Ji furious. A bunch of thieves dared to break the earth and proclaim themselves emperor. This was undoubtedly a slap in the face in front of everyone in the world.
"How are you preparing the food and grass?"
Zhao Ji looked at Hou Meng, the Minister of Household Affairs, and saw that the last court meeting had made a plan to conquer Liangshanbo with a large army and destroy the puppet dynasty.
"Your Majesty, we are still collecting food and grass, it will take a few more months..."
Hou Meng said helplessly that spring had just begun and spring plowing was about to begin. It was the lean season. Taxes from various places could not be collected. How could he raise money and food?
"Take the tax and suppress the thief tax! Those who don't pay the tax will be punished as rebels!"
Zhao Ji looked at Liang Shicheng and shouted, it has been nearly ten days since the last court meeting. Hou Meng has not raised enough food and grass yet. How many more months have to wait? How long will this take? If Sun Lei exists for even one day, he will be a joke to the world.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Liang Shicheng smiled and saluted, with a proud look on his face. The emperor had finally taken this step. With Zhao Ji's character, how could he let it go when he had ready money in front of him? Collecting taxes is the easiest way to get money.
"Zhang Bangchang, write a message to me and scold this group of thieves who have no king and father!"
Zhao Ji looked at Zhang Bangchang again. Liangshan not only established the country this time, but also brought out the beginning of the Five Virtues. He even threatened that the water virtue of Qi State would destroy the fire virtue of Song Dynasty. Moreover, Liangshan founded the country on the third day of March, the Si Festival. To worship heaven and establish a country by a pond is to throw the Song Dynasty's face to the ground and trample it hard.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Zhang Bangchang also saluted and accepted the order.
"Gao Qiu, what happened to my 800,000 forbidden troops?"
Zhao Ji looked at Gao Qiu. As the Taiwei of the Palace Commander's Palace, he was in charge of the Tokyo Forbidden Army. Since soldiers and horses from all over the country were mobilized to cause trouble, he would directly choose the Forbidden Army to go there.
"Um...this...don't worry, Your Majesty, the Imperial Army can go to war at any time!"
Gao Qiu bravely agreed.
Where do the 800,000 forbidden troops come from in Tokyo now? During the Renzong period, there were indeed more than 800,000 soldiers, but over the years, the army has been gradually reduced, and the number of forbidden troops has been less than 600,000, and it is only said to be 800,000.
Among them, there are still hundreds of thousands of free salary quotas, and the real Forbidden Army is less than 500,000. In recent years, the losses in the conquests of Liangshan and Liao Kingdom were not small, and now there are probably less than 300,000 who can actually fight.
Naturally, Gao Qiu did not dare to say these words to the emperor. Every year when he received military pay, equipment, and food and grass from the treasury, he received the full amount. How could he dare to say this when his head was suddenly reduced to half.
After the dispersion of the dynasty, Tong Guan returned to the Privy Council.
"When will the Jin Kingdom send troops?"
Tong Guan looked at the people around him and asked. The emperor was very impatient today. Based on his understanding of the emperor, this was an obvious signal that the emperor could not wait any longer.
"Tong Xiang, Wanyan Aguda from the Jin Kingdom just died. I am afraid that the funeral has not been completed yet. Moreover, it is bitterly cold in Liaodong. It should still be ice and snow in Liaodong now."
An official said, Liaodong is currently covered with ice and snow, and the autumn fat the war horses put on last year has probably been used up. At this time, the war horses cannot withstand a long-distance attack.
"Tell Jin Guo that as long as they are willing to send troops, the conditions are easy to negotiate."
Tong Guan looked at the department official and said, Sun Lei and others had killed Wanyan Aguda and formed a deadly feud with the Jin Kingdom. The people of the Jin Kingdom would never let Sun Lei go.
"Tong Xiang, the people of Jin are more ambitious than the people of Liao. Joining forces with them is tantamount to inviting a wolf into the house!"
Zhongshidao said, after the battle at Yanyun, the Jin people obviously wanted to annex Yanyun and continue to move south.
"Then you have a way to deal with that Sun Lei? Humph, you have to understand that the enemy of your enemy is your ally!"
Tong Guan looked at Master Zhong and snorted coldly.
…
In a butcher's shop on the outskirts of Tokyo, Cao Zheng was waving the bone-cutting knife in his hand, cutting a fat pig into eight pieces in three strokes.
In front of the stall, customers who had been waiting for a long time immediately gathered around and began to compete for the parts they wanted. Cao Zheng's meat stall is famous for its high quality and low price.
After selling two fat pigs, Cao Zheng smiled and closed the stall back to his small hotel, and went straight to the backyard to wash and change clothes.
"Brother Cao Zheng, business is good!"
Shi Qian appeared in the backyard with a smile.
"Brother Shi Qian!"
When Cao Zheng saw Shi Qian, he immediately laughed. Ever since Sun Li entered Tokyo, he had gradually faded out of sight and no longer took the initiative to contact Ma Lin, Lehe, Sun Xin, Sister Gu and others.
Although Sun Li has defected to Liangshan, after all, he is in the Song Dynasty, and people's hearts are far apart, so he still needs to be on guard. If Sun Li rebels, then use his back-up plan.
Ma Lin is now in charge of Tokyo intelligence affairs. Lehe, Sun Xin, and Sister-in-law Gu are also relatives of Sun Li, so they can't avoid Sun Li, so he went underground and moved his stall and hotel to the edge of Tokyo. , just in case something unexpected happens.
"Every business is good or not, it's all about concealment!"
Cao Zheng smiled and introduced Shi Qian into the inner hall.
"Brother Cao Zheng is well hidden!"
Shi Qian said with a smile that in order to hide himself, he didn't come to see Cao Zheng last time he came to Tokyo.
"Brother Shi Qian, do you have a mission this time?"
Cao Zheng looked at Shi Qian and asked, his current mission is to hide, so Shi Qian must have a mission when he came to him.
"Brother asked us to secretly monitor the situation in Tokyo."
Shi Qian spoke.
"Are you separated from the Ma Lin brothers?"
Cao Zheng asked.
"Well, we collect information secretly! They collect information openly."
Shi Qian nodded.
"Brother Shi Qian, look at this!"
Cao Zheng took out a leaflet with a thieves tax clearly written on it.
"The anti-theft tax? Ten yuan per person? A hundred yuan for a small merchant? A thousand yuan for a large merchant?"
Shi Qian was stunned when he looked at the flyer. He had seen a lot of messy taxes, but this was the first time he had seen such a blatant robbery.
"What was handed out today, someone will come to collect it tomorrow! Some people have already started to escape from the city!"
Cao Zheng said, this time the tax collection for suppressing thieves is very strange. It did not say how often it was collected. According to the court's practice, if the number is not specified, it is countless times. It may become once a month. This ordinary family How can I bear it?
The place where those people fled was Qi State, a paradise with frivolous taxes.
"Zhao Song is digging his own grave!"
Shi Qian sneered and looked at the tax form in his hand. Zhao Song was already in a state of turmoil, and now they were still imposing heavy taxes. It was only a matter of time before everyone decided to separate.
"Who says it's not the case? Today's business is actually a lot worse. There are more people on weekdays. Unfortunately, many people leave after seeing the flyers."
Cao Zheng shook his head and said, Tokyo has been the most prosperous place in the world for many years, but now it is much depressed. With the people fleeing, Tokyo's decline is a foregone conclusion.
