Li Shiming was so angry that he was trembling and couldn't say anything.
Li Ke's words were actually right. He really couldn't kill Li Ke now. He couldn't even punish him.
Now, even if Li Ke was scratched, the people would blame it on him.
At that time, the people he valued would leave him.
He no longer had the capital to seize power from the aristocratic families.
He would be a puppet emperor for the rest of his life.
"You're ruthless!"
Li Shi Min gritted his teeth as he glared at Li Ke.
"I lost to you this time, I admit it!”
Li Ke was stunned and could not help but nod.
"You can still calmly admit defeat in such a rage. Your temperament is much better than ordinary people. No wonder you can sit on the throne.”
"You are indeed extraordinary."
Li Shimin was ashamed and angry.
Li Ke was actually like his elder, commenting on him as if he was a child.
This was simply an insult to him.
But before he could say anything, Kong Yingda spoke.
"Li Ke, do you think you'll be fine just because you took so much money from us?”
Kong Yingda sneered.
"Two million strings is not a small amount.”
"If you don't give us an explanation, we won't let this go.”
"And Your Majesty."
Kong Yingda looked at Li Shimin.
"We are not interested in the feud between His Majesty and the King of Shu.”
"But this time, it seems that Li Ke can't afford to pay back the money. He can only pay for his father's debt. After all, the reason why we can take out this money is to make contributions for His Majesty.”
"Your Majesty, you don't want to see us lose everything, do you?”
Li Ke didn't say anything and looked at Li Shiming with interest, wanting to see how he would deal with it.
"I understand."
Li Shi Min took a deep breath, knowing that this matter couldn't be avoided.
"What kind of compensation do you want?”
Kong Yingda said with a smile.
"The Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Rites, and the local officials, a total of thirty spots.”
Official!
The best way for aristocratic families to control the government was to let their descendants become officials and obtain power.
In a feudal society, especially in an era like the Great Tang where paper was scarce, books were especially precious. Only the aristocratic families had a rich collection of books and sufficient resources to cultivate scholars.
Only such scholars were qualified to be officials.
Ordinary students from poor families who occasionally studied would use the investment bank paper if they wanted to find their way.
He would hand over his poems or policy theories to officials or aristocratic families to become their aides or even disciples, waiting for them to recommend him as an official.
After becoming an official, he was also controlled by officials and aristocratic families, and was called a benefactor.
He would never be able to raise his head in front of others for the rest of his life.
Therefore, the more officials the aristocratic families had, the more people they could control, and the greater the power of the aristocratic families.
This was their goal.
"No, fifteen at most."
Li Shi Min said seriously.
Puchi.
Li Ke couldn't help but laugh out loud. He thought that Li Shimin was rejecting him, but it turned out that he was bargaining.
It was really enough.
Was this how the emperor of the empire acted?
Li Shi Min glared at Li Ke angrily. He knew how embarrassing it was. If it was someone else, Li Shi Min would have reprimanded him.
But Li Ke…
He was afraid that after reprimanding her, he would scold her again and make her feel uncomfortable.
The current Li Ke did not put him, the emperor, in his eyes at all.
"Alright, we'll do as Your Majesty says."
Kong Yingda said with a smile. She wasn't disappointed. In any case, one more was one more.
The aristocratic families had plenty of time and talents. There was no hurry.
Kong Yingda looked at Li Ke.
"Li Ke, I should talk to you next.”
In the inner court of the royal family, within the Dew Hall, Kong Yingda and the other aristocratic family officials completely ignored the Emperor Li Shimin and wanted to negotiate with Li Ke.
Don't think it's an exaggeration.
In real history, the five families and seven kings clans were even more exaggerated, and they had all sorts of political manipulation that had caused chaos in the Great Tang.
It was even more exciting than a novel.
"Old thing, what do you want?"
Li Ke smiled, not showing any respect to Kong Yingda, his tone frivolous.
"Hmph, hand over the small-flower vaccine."
Kong Yingda didn't mind and said directly.
"In the future, the King of Shu and the Imperial Court will not be allowed to keep the vaccine. Our aristocratic families will produce it together and keep it. The Imperial Court will buy it for people to use for the vaccine.”
"As for you, you will return to Yizhou in a few days. You can't return to Chang 'an in your lifetime, and you can't use your vaccine production anymore.”
"This matter ends here."
Li Ke smiled, understanding the aristocratic families 'intentions.
Even though 300,000 small-flower patients were gone, and the imperial court and Li Shiming had lost the opportunity to accumulate fame, the aristocratic families did not care about fame. They cared about benefits.
During this period of time, they already knew that as long as they were injected with cowacne, they would no longer get small-flu.
There were still tens of millions of people in the Great Tang who hadn't received the vaccine, and there would be even more people who would need to receive the vaccine in the future.
Even if a vaccine was sold for a penny, it would be worth millions of dollars. Moreover, it would be a long-lasting and profitable business that could continue to be done.
It was worth ten million strings.
If the loss of two million strings of strings was compensated by this kind of business, then it was still acceptable.
"It's all wishful thinking."
Li Ke smiled.
"I say, you people from the aristocratic families are really shameless.”
"Do you think this king doesn't know the value of this?”
"Don't even think about it!"
Kong Yingda seemed to have thought of this scene and knew that Li Ke would refuse. She then slowly sneered.
"You can refuse, but you have to understand.”
"If you offend our aristocratic families, there will be all kinds of disasters in Shu. There's no need to talk about natural disasters.”
"All kinds of accidents will happen in your mansion and under your rule.”
"The history books will also record that the King of Shu, Li Ke, was cruel and heartless, and had a bad character. The heavens sent an ominous warning, so that you would be despised by future generations.”
This was a common method used by aristocratic families. It was very despicable, but it was very effective.
The ancients had a hard life. It was very difficult to eat a full meal. If a fire burned away the food, many people would really starve to death.
The ancients also paid great attention to reputation. For people like aristocratic families who held the lifeline of culture and wrote history books, they could really ruin your reputation.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was the best example. He forcefully turned an ambitious but incompetent emperor into a tyrant, a fatuous ruler, and all kinds of sh * t.
It was really too disgusting.
However, Kong Yingda had miscalculated one thing. Li Ke was no ordinary prince. Facing Kong Yingda's provocation, Li Ke laughed out loud.
"Hehe, I didn't accuse you wrongly when I said you were despicable.”
Li Ke said with interest.
"Old thing, I'll use you as a wager.”
"Within ten days, this king will make your Kong family disappear from this world. Consider it as killing the chicken to warn the monkeys.”
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