Yin Shuhuai’s mood at this very moment was incredibly absurd. If looks could kill, he would have loved to machine-gun down every single one of those aristocratic officials currently occupying the high halls of the court.

“The court has issued repeated injunctions, strictly forbidding any region from neglecting essential grain farming out of greed for the profits of mulberry and hemp. Grand Minister of Agriculture,” Yin Shuhuai suddenly looked toward Kou Yannian, asking expressionlessly, “do you still remember how you promised me back then?”

Kou Yannian stepped forward with a deeply distressed look, as if he truly were a fine official who worried about the nation and its people. “Replying to Your Majesty, this minister has repeatedly instructed every local governor and military agricultural commander to place absolute importance on the court’s wasteland cultivation policy. Most importantly, they were not to delay the planting of winter wheat anywhere, so as not to affect next year’s summer harvest. However, the lords and powerful clans across various regions occupy their own lands like independent states and refuse to listen to the court’s call. There is simply nothing we can do!”

As Kou Yannian spoke, the attitude of giving up entirely like a dead fish was practically written all over his face. Not only could Yin Shuhuai not bear to look at it, but even Shentu Yang found it intolerable.

“Since the regional lords and powerful clans defy imperial decrees, driving the common people to rebel through official oppression, Your Majesty might as well issue an immediate edict ordering the court to dispatch a grand army to crush the rebellions everywhere. First, execute a few of those immense clans who forced the people into revolt to appease the public anger, and then confiscate their properties, lands, and houses. One portion can be used to compensate the people for their losses, and another portion can offset the military expenses of the army’s campaign,” Shentu Yang gestured as if he were about to request imperial permission to personally lead the army to crush the revolts.

Many of the aristocratic officials felt their hearts leap into their throats from terror, and they hurriedly stood up to block him, crying out, “Prime Minister, you must not!”

Shentu Yang looked at them sideways. “Why must I not?”

“Ever since the reign of Emperor Li, roaming bandits have sprung up everywhere. They lift bamboo poles as rebel flags at the slightest provocation, burning down government offices, slaughtering officials, robbing wealthy households, and even committing rape and pillage, stopping at no evil. They are truly treacherous rebels. If the court acts without distinguishing right from wrong and solely executes the grand houses to appease the public anger, would that not fuel the arrogance of those unruly people?”

Did that mean if the unruly people across various regions felt dissatisfied in the future, all they had to do was cause trouble, and the court would execute wealthy families to calm the public mind?

His Majesty held the noble position of the Son of Heaven, yet if he looked down upon scholars while placing weight on commoners, would that not break the hearts of all scholars throughout the realm?

The moment these words were spoken, the civil and military officials across the entire court nodded their heads in agreement.

Yin Shuhuai looked around at his ministers and discovered that the vast majority of them actually agreed completely with this absurd argument, which could not help but make him feel a bit chilled. However, having been a puppet emperor for two years under Huo Yan’s personal guidance, he had long since figured out the operational logic of the aristocratic clans. Naturally, he also understood exactly why the entire court of officials held such a perspective.

The Yin Dynasty had lasted for over six hundred years. Although it had never openly shouted the slogan of “the King and the scholar-officials governing the world together,” the aristocratic families and regional lords had passed down their status to this day, and every single one of them had painstakingly built up their respective fiefdoms and states. Their family power was deeply intertwined at the local level, having long since taken deep root in every commandery and county. They proudly considered themselves undisputed masters of this country, just like the Emperor sitting high within the bright hall.

Now, Shentu Yang wanted to launch an attack against the aristocratic families, who were fellow masters of the nation, all for the sake of some low-class common refugees who could not even be brought to polite conversation. Such a pretext was incredibly absurd and ridiculous. The aristocratic officials naturally could not sit idly by and watch Shentu Yang hold the Emperor hostage to control the nobles.

“Throughout history, whenever the court suppressed a rebellion, it has only ever executed roaming bandits and treacherous rebels. No one has ever heard of executing nobility to appease public anger. The Prime Minister is also a lord of his own region. If unruly citizens in Yan State were to rebel, and the Prime Minister submitted a memorial in the name of the Duke of Yan requesting court assistance, would you also hope that the relief troops sent by the court would chop off your head to comfort the minds of the people?”

Chen Yong, who held the position of Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, stood forward and argued righteously in opposition, “Even if the regional powerful houses did not follow the court’s decree to plant winter wheat, but instead wanted to convert their fields to mulberry and hemp to gain immense profits, what could possibly be wrong with that? They are converting the fields that belong to their own families. Those unruly tenant farmers, merely because they leased the land belonging to the wealthy houses, actually dare to forbid their masters from planting mulberry and hemp according to their own wishes. They even go so far as to rise up in rebellion and threaten the court. How utterly arrogant are these worthless scoundrels?”

“If the court does not employ thunderous methods to inflict severe punishment, where will the court’s authority reside? Where will the righteousness of the world reside? How will the Son of Heaven have the face to govern the land in the future?” Chen Yong spoke these words with such high-sounding grandeur that even Shentu Yang was shocked. He had never seen someone capable of twisting black into white to such a degree.

“…Chancellor Chen’s eloquence is truly breathtaking,” after a long silence, Shentu Yang finally snapped out of it, unable to resist marvelling. “To turn black into white with nothing but a single mouth, serving as a chancellor is truly a waste of your talents.”

Before Chen Yong could speak, Shentu Yang’s expression suddenly shifted. “Could it be that Chancellor Chen thinks I have never seen what real common people look like?”

Forget about stopping wealthy houses from converting fields to hemp and mulberry; even when their own lands were forcibly seized by powerful houses, how many common citizens actually dared to stand forward to demand justice for themselves? Although the common saying went that when a commoner flies into a rage, blood will spill within five steps, most of the time, how could a commoner even dare to show anger? When encountering trouble, did they not simply swallow their resentment? As long as they could scrape by, even if it meant living like a dog, they would try their hardest to stay alive.

Yet, even when the common people were so cowardly and submissive, they were still pushed by the regional powerful houses to the point where they had no choice but to rebel. One could easily imagine just how excessive those wealthy houses had been!

Instead of speaking up for the people, you, Chen Yong, actually slander the citizens as worthless scoundrels. Who exactly is the scoundrel here?

Being scolded right to his face by Shentu Yang, Chen Yong’s old face instantly flushed crimson with shame. He had every intention of cursing back, but he deeply feared the sharpness of Shentu Yang’s sword. Left with no alternative, he could only kneel before the Emperor, tears streaming down his face. “This old servant was an imperial teacher. Now that I have suffered such humiliation, how can I possibly go on living in this world?”

Before his voice had even faded, Chen Yong suddenly lunged forward to smash his head against the pillars of the hall, but he was blocked by the swift hands and sharp eyes of General of the Elite Guard Wang Su. “Chancellor, why go to such lengths…”

In an instant, the aristocratic officials within the grand hall stood forward as one to protest on Chen Yong’s behalf. This one said Chen Yong was the descendant of a founding official, that one said Chen Yong was a great master of Confucian classics, and someone else said Chen Yong’s students filled the entire land, so how could he suffer such bullying?

Furthermore, people jumped out to accuse Shentu Yang, stating that as a lord of Yan State, he did not proactively safeguard the shared interests among lords when issues arose, but instead spun conspiracies to frame the major aristocratic families of the Central Plains all for his own private gain, ruining the pure reputation and names of the Central Plains families. He truly was a barbarian who understood no etiquette!

Shentu Yang fired back with biting sarcasm. I am a barbarian, so what if I don’t understand your etiquette? Your Central Plains etiquette consists of distorted logic, desperate arguments, twisting black into white, and bullying the weak. Etiquette like that is better off left unlearned!

The pure-stream aristocratic scholars flew into a rage upon hearing this, launching a group attack against him one after another.

Seeing the topic drift further and further off course, Yin Shuhuai had no choice but to stand forward to calm his ministers.

The aristocratic officials then took the opportunity to request the Emperor to issue an edict to crush the rebellion, stating that they absolutely could not sit idly by and watch the roaming bandits grow more violent, ravaging cities and causing disaster in the villages.

However, crushing the rebellion was completely out of the question. Yin Shuhuai could not possibly dispatch the court’s grand army to suppress the refugees forced into revolt by local powerful figures according to the wishes of the aristocracy, nor could he follow Shentu Yang’s intention to send the grand army to execute the aristocratic families who had triggered the refugee rebellions.

The reason was exactly as Chen Yong had stated. The Yin Dynasty had carried on for over six hundred years, and the aristocratic families had built up their influence in every commandery and county for those same six hundred years. By this point, they had long since become the true masters of their local regions. Even if Shentu Yang could lead an army to wipe out a single lord, could he possibly execute every powerful family across the entire land?

Since it could not be achieved, military force could not be lightly deployed, lest it trigger a shared hatred among the aristocratic families of the realm, causing them to raise armies together to overthrow a foolish ruler.

One had to remember that the last time the aristocratic families rebelled, the result of the eighteen lords coming to save the throne was that the previous Prime Minister, Huo Yan, died from a mysterious arrow wound, allowing Shentu Yang to take the opportunity to lead his army into Luoyang.

With the lesson of the past right before his eyes, no matter how little Yin Shuhuai understood about politics, he ought to know that under extraordinary circumstances, one must absolutely avoid taking reckless action.

Seeing this, Shentu Yang was also thoroughly dissatisfied. He immediately earnestly requested His Majesty to dispatch the court’s grand army to the south to crush the rebellion, stating that he would personally lead the troops to wipe them out completely. “If refugees rebel, I will kill refugees; if powerful houses rebel, I will kill powerful houses. I will treat everyone equally, surely that is fine?”

That was even more out of the question!

Heaven only knew what true intentions Shentu Yang harbored by suddenly proposing to lead troops to crush the rebellion. Perhaps he simply wanted to use the opportunity to wear down the court’s military forces, and then incidentally trigger total chaos across the land? Unless pushed to an absolute dead end, Yin Shuhuai would never easily launch a war.

Since the people on both sides were completely unreliable, Yin Shuhuai could only make a balanced decision. He had the court issue an edict to severely reprimand the wealthy families who defied orders by converting wheat fields to mulberry orchards, commanding them to compensate the people for their losses, specifically providing at least a year’s worth of rations for a family of five.

As for the matter of planting winter wheat, after such a delay, the seasonal window for planting winter wheat had long since passed. Even if the powerful regional houses stopped planting mulberry and hemp to replant winter wheat now, it would likely result in the wheat plants having weak root systems and poor tillering capabilities. Simply put, they would be unable to grow into strong seedlings capable of withstanding the upcoming low temperatures and harsh winter weather. The survival rate of the winter wheat through the winter would plummet, or the seedlings might all freeze to death.

Yin Shuhuai guessed that this was precisely the true intention of the aristocratic families. They intentionally ruined the fields, causing the common people to harvest absolutely nothing, so they could force the desperate people to sell off their lands, utilizing this method to expand the cultivation area for mulberry and hemp. They even schemed to draw the common people into working in their workshops.

After all, citizens stripped of land and property could conveniently sell themselves into slavery, acting as forced labor in the weaving workshops opened by the powerful aristocratic families. When that time came, they would not even have to pay wages; they would only need to provide a bite of food to keep them alive.

Thinking about it this way, it was highly likely those shameless aristocratic families would even pin the blame for causing the common people to be displaced onto the back of the court. Because it was the court that invented the water-powered spinning wheel, and it was also the court that issued the order to promote the water-powered spinning wheel on a nationwide scale.

This was probably the talent of all aristocratic officials serving under feudal dynasties; they possessed the ability to execute every good political decree to the point of ruining the country and harming the people, and then shift the blame entirely to the Emperor.

Yin Shuhuai sneered inwardly. How could he possibly sit back and watch the aristocratic families twist his political decrees to enrich themselves at the public expense?

“The regional powerful figures daring to ignore the court’s political decrees and destroy agricultural fields is my own failing. This is not a natural disaster, but a man-made calamity. I have failed the innocent, suffering people. Transmit my imperial edict: if the common folk across various regions cannot find a way to survive, they may enter the passes to flee the famine. The coal yards and weaving workshops across our Guanzhong and Henan regions are all recruiting refugees, and we will even provide workers with four types of insurance and a housing fund.”

The moment these words were spoken, the faces of the hundred officials in the court changed drastically. Someone could not help but ask, “May I ask Your Majesty, what exactly are ‘four types of insurance and a housing fund’?”

Four types of insurance and a housing fund naturally referred to pension insurance, medical insurance, work injury insurance, maternity insurance, and a housing provident fund. The reason there was no unemployment insurance was because it was completely unnecessary in this era.

The crowd of officials was left dumbstruck, the looks they directed at the Emperor turning thoroughly strange.

Regarding four types of insurance and a housing fund, the Yin Dynasty had never put forward such explicit concepts, but similar welfare benefits had actually existed long ago. All regional lords and aristocratic families would provide similar treatment to their own house guests and bondservants, but absolutely no one had ever provided such treatment to common citizens who did not sign a slavery contract.

But now, it existed.

Sitting high upon the upper seat, Yin Shuhuai looked at the aristocratic officials whose expressions were shifting between light and dark, revealing his very first smile since the court session began. “Broadcast the edict to every region: no one is permitted to stop refugees from entering the passes. If the regional powerful and wealthy houses wish to recruit refugees, they must also provide equal treatment according to the standards given by the court. No one is permitted to force the common people to sell themselves into slavery, and no one is permitted to forcibly detain the citizens of any region. Violators shall be punished severely without leniency.”

This move of Yin Shuhuai’s could be considered offering a peaceful choice before resorting to military force. If the regional powerful figures remained unsatisfied and insisted on handing over a pretext, giving Shentu Yang the opportunity to lead troops and launch an attack, then they could not blame Yin Shuhuai for not warning them beforehand.

The court indeed could not use the aristocratic families converting wheat fields to mulberry orchards as a reason to launch a military campaign. Because Chen Yong was right; although the powerful families were blinded by greed, the fields they ruined were mostly their own family lands. Even if the court wished to punish them severely without leniency, it lacked a solid stance. Throughout the world, there was simply no logic that allowed interference in how someone disposed of their private property.

As for whether the fields those powerful families ruined truly belonged to their own households, with the sky high and the Emperor far away, whenever the court wished to investigate the matter, would you believe that before the dispatched imperial envoy could even leave Luoyang, those ruined fields would have already been registered under the names of the aristocratic families? Therefore, pursuing those details was utterly meaningless.

However, the common people and refugees were by no means the private property of the aristocratic families. The reason the powerful families wanted to plant more mulberry and hemp was to fully utilize the water-powered spinning wheels to weave hemp yarn. They could not possibly go to the workshops to act as forced labor themselves, so they had to hire weavers. Where would the weavers come from? Naturally, they would come from among the common people. And given the bone-scraping, marrow-sucking greed of those powerful families, they would absolutely never provide generous treatment to refugees and citizens who had lost their lands.

Thus, Yin Shuhuai stood forward.

Whether one called it showing compassion for the masses or winning over the hearts of the people, as long as the workshops opened by the court laid out their hiring conditions, if the powerful families wanted to compete with the court for labor, they would be forced to provide similar treatment. Otherwise, they would have to sit back and watch the common people of the land gather toward Guanzhong and Henan.

Of course, they could also choose to use force. But then it would depend on whose soldiers and horses could win in a fight against Shentu Yang’s army.

“Your Majesty’s methods are truly brilliant.”

After the court session dismissed, Shentu Yang followed the Emperor back to Chongde Hall, leaning right up to his face to ask, “Your Majesty just pushed me out like that? Your Majesty wishes to make me the target of public criticism, but did you ever ask if I am willing?”

Yin Shuhuai extended a single finger against Shentu Yang’s forehead, preventing him from getting too close to his person. “The Prime Minister was filled with righteous indignation during the grand court session just now. Was it not because you wished to act on heaven’s behalf and strengthen the prestige of our court?”

“Didn’t Your Majesty think I lacked a proper justification?” Shentu Yang pressed forward unyieldingly, speaking with his face pressed close to the Emperor’s ear, “That old scoundrel Chen Yong relied on his aristocratic background to argue desperately in the hall. Those aristocratic officials are all birds of a feather. Faced with such shamelessly hypocritical gentlemen, Your Majesty actually still chose to comfort them with kind and gentle words. How is a loyal and devoted minister like me supposed to feel?”

Hearing Shentu Yang proudly call himself a loyal and devoted minister, Yin Shuhuai’s teeth felt thoroughly set on edge, yet he still had to patiently comfort him. “For the Prime Minister to say such words, where does that leave me?”

Looking at the Emperor who had suddenly begun to display weakness, Shentu Yang smiled pleasantly, yet he still could not resist stepping right into his trap. “What does Your Majesty wish to say?”

“The regional lords across the land all know that I am merely a puppet emperor. When Marquis Wen of Wei was alive, the court’s political decrees could not even be delivered down to the various commanderies. Furthermore, now that Marquis Wen has passed away from illness, the lords of various factions will look down upon a puppet emperor like me even more. They covet the court’s water-powered spinning wheel and long for the profits of mulberry and hemp, yet they cannot listen to the warnings of me, their Emperor. They even went so far as to openly twist black into white and spout nonsense during the court session. What else can I do?” The underlying meaning was clear: back when the previous Prime Minister Huo Yan was alive, the court’s political decrees could not manage the regional lords. Now that Shentu Yang was Prime Minister, the regional powerful figures continued to secretly defy orders. If Shentu Yang did not reflect on his own lack of capability, how could he blame a puppet emperor?

Shentu Yang laughed uproariously. He had known long ago that the young Emperor would not be so thoroughly compliant.

Shentu Yang reached out his hand to pinch the young Emperor’s chin. “Is Your Majesty driving a wedge between me and the aristocratic families?”

“The Prime Minister is so loyal, upright, and loves the people like his own children. Do you really still need me to drive a wedge?” Yin Shuhuai countered.

The two stared at each other like the tip of a needle facing the edge of a blade for a long moment, before Shentu Yang finally smiled. “If Your Majesty wishes to use me as a blade, you must at least give me a little sweetness.”