Chapter 32 The Truth

When Zhaoqing saw that his brother was different today, he was a little confused for a moment.

Li Yueyao followed from behind and saw Zhao Qing kneeling on the ground and said with a smile: "You are confused, right? This trick doesn't work anymore."

After Sun Fu followed Li Yueyao in, he saw the emperor waving at him and walked forward.

"Go and fetch the imperial edict and let the princess have a look."

"Yes."

Sun Fu turned around and took the bright yellow imperial edict from the imperial desk.

Zhaoqing snatched the imperial edict from Sun Fu's hand, looked at it carefully, and found that it was exactly as Li Yueyao said.

She was stripped of her title of eldest princess, demoted to princess, and her fiefdom was taken back.

"No, no...I was wrong, I was really wrong...You can't do this to me, my brother."

"Before my father and mother left, they told you to take good care of me. I've been a widow at home all these years, living a hard life...

My dear brother, you can’t do this to me…”

Li Yueyao was too lazy to listen to the wailing and refuted: "You have concubines all over the yard, the princess's mansion is magnificent, and you live a hard life?

Please don't insult the word "hardship" here.

If you dare to whine again, I will send you to the Taoist temple next to the Chunshan Palace to let you experience what true hardship is."

When Zhaoqing turned around and saw Li Yueyao with a bad face and the ruler in her hand, she was so scared that she stopped crying.

The emperor said angrily, "This imperial edict has not yet been stamped with the imperial seal. You now have two choices.

1. Get rid of all the male favorites in the house, give up all the fiefs, confiscate all the property, and just be a well-behaved princess.

Second, you will lose your title of Princess and be demoted to a commoner. From then on, you are no longer a member of the royal family.

You can have as many male favorites as you want, and it’s up to you if you like to do business and think about those money-making things.

But from now on, if you dare to commit corruption and abuse the power, you will be punished according to the law."

Zhao Qing hurriedly knelt down and cried, "Brother Emperor, please don't drive me away, don't make me a commoner..."

I dismissed them, all those people were dismissed.

I don't want the fiefdom anymore, nor do I want the money from my shops.

Brother Huang, I beg you, you can’t abandon me. I already have no father, the emperor, and my mother, so I can’t live without you, brother Huang…”

Li Yueyao snorted coldly, "You still have some brains. I thought you were going to choose your money and your lover."

After that, he cleared his throat and said, "You have been disrupting the government for many years, seeking personal gain from the Zuozang Office and the Changping Warehouse, and you even dared to get involved in the Ministry of War.

The death penalty can be avoided, but the living punishment cannot be escaped."

Zhao Qing was dissatisfied after hearing this and said, "Aunt, I only have the empty title of Princess. What else do you want?"

Li Yueyao glared at her and said, "If you deal with these illegal things like this, you can silence the ministers in the court, but you can't silence our ancestors.

If you want them to beat you up in your dreams every day, you'd better listen to me."

After hearing this, Zhao Qing thought about what happened last night and shuddered all over.

"Aunt, you said, you said, I am willing to make amends."

Li Yueyao laughed and said, "With your courage and brains, you still want to imitate others and meddle in government affairs. You really don't know your own limitations."

Seeing that Zhaoqing was frightened to death, Li Yueyao said compassionately, "Get up."

After hearing this, Zhaoqing slowly stood up, staggering a little. Seeing that no one came to help her, she struggled to stand up on her own.

"Are you very fond of gold and silver?"

Zhaoqing nodded subconsciously, then quickly shook his head after realizing what was happening.

The emperor was puzzled and said, "You are a princess, you have been living a life of luxury since childhood, what can't you have?

Why do you love these gold and silver things?"

Zhao Qing was devastated after hearing this and said, "Royal brother, you make it sound so easy.

My father, the emperor, and my mother passed away, and my husband also died, and I don’t even have a child.

Even though I am the eldest princess, so what?

People still talk about me behind my back and look down on me.

Do you know how cold it is in my Princess's Mansion?

You, with your three harems and six courtyards, naturally cannot feel my pain."

When the emperor heard this, he said, "You are still blaming me. This is outrageous."

Li Yueyao raised her hand and waved towards the emperor, then said to Zhaoqing, "Go on."

Zhao Qing thought for a moment and said aggrievedly, “Later, I accidentally researched a gorgeous dress and bought it in a shop.

I felt very satisfied when I looked at the small box of silver in front of me.

That was the first time I achieved something through my own efforts.

That night I fell asleep holding the box of silver.

Later, I rescued Ji Cheng on the roadside. Seeing that I was so passionate about gold and silver, he gave me a lot of advice.

My business was growing, but I was becoming less and less happy.”

"Then you thought of keeping a lover?" Li Yueyao said unhappily.

Zhao Qing listened and whispered, "It wasn't my will at first. It was those people who came up to me on their own accord."

"Come up and take it all."

Li Yueyao was not satisfied after hearing this, so she reached out and hit Zhaoqing on the arm with a ruler.

Zhaoqing was caught off guard and was hit, shaking with pain.

"You were supposed to be a phoenix soaring in the sky, yet you had to land in this muddy ground. I really don't know what's going on in your head every day."

Zhao Qing quickly said, "Aunt, I was wrong. Please stop hitting me. It really hurts..."

"You won't learn your lesson unless it hurts. Next time you make a mistake, I'll let your aunt beat you."

The emperor said angrily at the top.

Zhaoqing listened to what the two said and said nothing.

"What ideas did your subordinate Ji Cheng give you? Was it his idea to establish Zuo Zangshu?" Li Yueyao asked.

Zhao Qing frowned after hearing this, and after thinking carefully, he said, "Well, not really. He just mentioned it."

Li Yueyao listened to her and felt that something was wrong, so she said, "Speak more carefully."

“At that time, I had already cooperated with Jin Mantang, the richest man in Beijing, and I had no shortage of gold and silver.

But one day, Ji Cheng suddenly mentioned that he had a friend who worked as the director of the Zuozang Office.

Every year, a few dozen taels of silver from the mineral tax is not reported, and is considered the hard work fee for the people in the Zuozang Office.

I didn't pay much attention to it at the time.

But business has its ups and downs. Half a year later, I had some problems with the cash flow of my business.

At this moment, I suddenly remembered the Zuozang Office. It happened to be the day to collect mineral taxes.

So I thought of taking the money. I just wanted to make some money at that time and would pay it back later.

But later... later..."

"Later, I found out that His Majesty didn't notice it, so I embezzled the money for my own use?" Li Yueyao said.

Zhaoqing lowered his head and nodded.

Li Yueyao sighed and shook her head when she saw this. "You were working with the richest man in Beijing at the time, and you were struggling with cash flow. Why didn't you borrow from him?"

Zhao Qing listened and said, "Jin Mantang's business in the northwest was losing money, and the silk in the south was soaked. He was also very short of money during that period..."

"Then have you ever thought about why both you and Jin Mantang suffered setbacks in business at that time?"

Zhao Qing thought for a moment, then raised his head and asked doubtfully, "Aunt, are you saying this was man-made?"

"Why is your brain working better now?"

Zhao Qing was puzzled and asked, "What is this person's purpose?"

"The purpose is to make you attack the Zuozang Office, build up your courage, and then attack the Changping Warehouse, gradually disintegrating the foundation of our Great Jin."

The emperor was furious when he heard this and said, "The person behind this must be killed."

Zhao Qing belatedly looked at Li Yueyao and said, "Aunt, are you saying there's something wrong with Ji Cheng?"

"We'll know if there are any problems after Gansu and Qinghai have reviewed them."

Zhao Qing was surprised and asked, "Has Gan Qing already arrested the person?"

"By the time you realized it, the plan was already ruined. After you returned yesterday, Gan Qing brought people to monitor your Princess's Mansion.

At this moment, Hua Qingfeng and Ji Cheng are both in his hands."