Impeachment will make me stronger, and I will be invincible on the road to death.

Chapter 61 Zhou Xing committed suicide out of fear of crime

While Yang Yanzhang was busy teaching farming techniques at home, Zhou Xing, who was imprisoned in prison, had already begun to try some of the torture methods he invented in the past.

As Yang Yanzhang said, the first torture Zhou Xing tasted was to stuff Western Region mole crickets into his nostrils.

Zhou Xing naturally didn't have Yang Yanzhang's stature, so after being penetrated by this thing, his expression became vivid and rich.

"No, don't put it in...please! Ah!!"

"Take it out quickly! Please! Oh, kill me and give me a good time!"

However, no matter how miserable Zhou Xing screamed, the torturers remained unmoved.

After playing with the mole crickets, Zhou Xing was almost exhausted, but there was still hard food to come.

Nail pulling, burning, and Zhou Xing's own torture methods that made him unable to sleep.

Seeing that these people had no intention of letting him go, Zhou Xing finally couldn't hold on anymore after being tortured for two days, so he bit his tongue and committed suicide.

After the news reached Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian was naturally unwilling to add insult to injury. After all, there were still some cruel officials in the court. If she went too far, those people would never work for her again in the future.

But Wu Zetian didn't want to, and there were many people who didn't want to just let Zhou Xing go.

Although Yang Yanzhang rarely went to court these days, Su Liangsi and others stated Zhou Xing's crimes and asked the people to jointly request severe punishment.

Seeing this, Wu Zetian could only follow the same tactics as Lai Junchen, and also told Zhou Xing: "Zhou Xing's crimes are too numerous to record, and even though he died, the people were angry! He immediately sent people to search Zhou Xing's family property, and sent his family members to Lingnan. pardon!"

……

"Zhou Xing is finally dead!"

Yang Yanzhang, who was still lecturing, suddenly felt enlightened after hearing the news.

"Wu Zetian can still be saved. Killing two cruel officials, Lai Junchen and Zhou Xing, can save a lot of reputation! If I assist her, she won't be poked in the back by too many people!"

"Of course, I still can't admit that I'm hers. She will die in a few years. I have to plan for the future. I can't be regarded as a thorn in the side of the Li family."

"As long as I have nothing to do to offer a treasure, enrich the country's strength, and act very capable, then no matter who becomes the emperor, I will be able to enjoy it."

People who are not Wu Zetian must keep a few things in mind.

First of all, you cannot be fed or housed by Wu Zetian, and you must not go to bed with her.

Secondly, we cannot imitate Junchen, Zhou Xing and others to help Wu Zetian suppress her enemies.

Like the impeachment of Zhou Xinglai Junchen this time, Yang Yanzhang even successfully rehabilitated many people, which paved a good path for his future.

In addition, killing Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen indirectly protected those ministers loyal to the Tang Dynasty. From this perspective, although Yang Yanzhang has not done anything to help Li Danding so far, he is indeed kind to him.

"The matter between these two people has been completely settled, and it's time for me to start farming officially!"

Without hesitation, Yang Yanzhang took potatoes and corn and started sowing on his 2500 acres of fertile land.

Thanks to their careful listening in the past few days, the people hired this time performed extremely well.

The plow was plowed very deep;

The old manure bought from various places was evenly spread in the fields. In addition, these people also remembered the importance of ventilation, so they insisted on maintaining row spacing and did not crowd the seeds together.

After three days of such busy work, 2500 acres of fields have been planted.

As Yang Yanzhang calculated, potatoes and corn were planted on 2500 acres, no more, no less, just enough seeds were used up, and the land was just full.

The returns from growing potatoes are very objective. From 200 kilograms of potato seeds, you can get a harvest of about 3000 kilograms. The return rate is more than ten times!
And growing corn is even more awesome!For two or three kilograms of seeds, you can get a return of about 2000 kilograms, which is a thousand-fold return rate!
As long as the imperial court vigorously promotes it, within a few years, this thing will be popularized throughout the world.

By then, the population of the Tang Dynasty will expand rapidly, and without food problems, there will be a long period of peace and prosperity.

Maybe in a hundred years, the population of Datang will exceed [-] million.

Of course, at the beginning, potatoes and corn will not be used as food for the people on a large scale. First, the basic amount must be continuously increased. Once a certain scale is reached, they can be grown and eaten at the same time. Otherwise, they will be eaten before they have a chance to grow. Light, all that is in vain.

Wu Zetian naturally knew all this.

"This guy is finally finished! Now, it's time for him to go to court, right?"

But the fact is that after Yang Yanzhang rested for a few days, although he did start to go to court, he did not come for a few days, and even when he came to go to court, he was always late.

As a result, Suo Yuanli, the official who had been observing for several days, lost his temper.

Suo Yuanli was a barbarian, ruthless and cunning, and rose to power by slandering others. Lai Junchen and others imitated him and rose to prominence.

But Suo Yuanli did not learn the lesson about Lai Junchen and Zhou Xing.

In his opinion, although Yang Yanzhang was favored by Zhengnong, the two men were convicted because they were ignorant of current affairs and their teachers were unknown.

And now, as the Censor Zhongcheng, Yang Yanzhang doesn't even come to the Censor's Stand to perform his duties every day. He doesn't even come to the court and is late when he comes. This is a great contempt for the court and Wu Zetian!

"When the Queen Mother gets angry one day, I will definitely take part in her! As long as Yang Yanzhang is deposed, I am afraid that the position of Censor Zhongcheng will also be destined for me!"

Coincidentally, a few days later, in the morning, Yang Wenyu, the minister of household affairs, wrote a book: "Your Majesty, the treasury in various places has been empty recently and there is not much food in stock. If this situation continues, I am afraid that we will not be able to provide enough food and grass for the frontier fortress next month!"

When Wu Zetian heard this, he couldn't help but frown.

Food and grass are the basis of war. If there is insufficient food and grass, it is very likely to collapse without a fight.

The root cause of Wei Dai's heavy losses in the Western Regions was not that the Tubo and Turks were too strong, but because military rations were not supplied in time, which led to the morale of the army being in chaos and being easily defeated by the Hu people.

As for Wei Taiji's new defeat, if she suffers a big defeat due to food problems, her prestige will inevitably be weakened, which will be extremely detrimental to her subsequent plans to ascend the throne.

"What's going on? Wasn't there a bumper harvest last year? Why is it that it's only August and there's not enough food?"

Wu Zetian immediately asked with a solemn expression.

"Did the Queen Mother forget? Yu Shi Zhongcheng rehabilitated many ministers. In order to settle these people, the Queen Mother not only allocated a large amount of land, but also compensated a large amount of money and grain! Naturally, the national inventory was suddenly reduced a lot."

Wu Zetian was stunned: "How many people have been rehabilitated? How much money and food can be used?"

Yang Wenyu smiled bitterly: "Every one of those who were rehabilitated had a prominent status, and compensation for each one was a considerable expense! What's more, hundreds of officials later followed this advice and rehabilitated many local officials, which caused Luoyang and the local treasury to Reduced, hence the current predicament!”

(End of this chapter)