Chapter 99 The civil officials were willing to fight to the death, so why did Your Highness surrender first?

Emperor Xuanpei and his entourage traveled by simple carriages, rushing to Liangjiang almost day and night. With relief supplies and troops, their journey was slightly slower, and they arrived at Liantang Pass in succession.

With the emperor personally overseeing the disaster area, comforting the victims, and distributing relief grain, and the crown prince leading a team to personally inspect the area, the restless people's hearts were quickly calmed down.

Besides disaster relief, the most important task was naturally to find the Ninth Prince and the Seventh Princess who had left the palace to study. The flood destroyed many cities and post stations along the two rivers, and even those who were secretly protecting and contacting them were scattered in the sudden flood.

Emperor Xuanpei sat in the government office every day, hunched over his desk dealing with memorials submitted by various localities, but the search party never stopped. Even nearly half of his guards were sent out to search for the person in every possible place.

With the emperor acting this way, the crown prince naturally became even more diligent.

The most feared aspect of floods is unstable riverbanks. The two rivers are prosperous areas, and in recent years, Prince Qi has been considering retiring, and has repeatedly withdrawn from the government. As a result, the officials below him have attached themselves to the Crown Prince.

"Your Highness, a letter has arrived from the capital."

The Crown Prince had just opened the letter when his servants announced that Lin Xuzhong, the Governor-General of Liangjiang, was outside requesting an audience.

Lin Xuzhong's daughter is the Princess Consort of Prince Rui, so his relationship with the Crown Prince's faction is naturally extraordinary.

Knowing that such a natural disaster had unexpectedly occurred in the area under Lin Xuzhong's jurisdiction, the Crown Prince must be extremely anxious and worried. Therefore, the Crown Prince temporarily put away the letter and invited Lin Xuzhong in.

"Your Highness, this humble subject pays his respects."

Upon seeing Lin Xuzhong kneel down as soon as he entered, the Crown Prince immediately rose to help him up.

Seeing Lin Xuzhong's anxious expression, the Crown Prince comforted him, saying, "This is a natural disaster, which is beyond human control. The old man has been conscientious and diligent in his duties, which I'm sure Father has seen."

Hearing the Crown Prince's words, Lin Xuzhong's expression did not relax much; in fact, sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Your Highness, Your Highness...this calamity, this..."

Lin Xuzhong stammered a few times before saying, "The dam built upstream of Dagukou collapsed due to the torrential rain..."

Upon hearing this, the Crown Prince loosened his grip on Lin Xuzhong's hand.

His face was filled with shock and anger. Li Sheng angrily rebuked him: "The river embankment is reinforced every year and inspected every year!"

"Last year, the officials who returned to the capital from their inspection tour made solemn promises in front of the Emperor, in front of me, and in front of the court officials, that unless there was a once-in-a-century disaster, the city would be impregnable... Don't tell me that this heavy rain is what they call a once-in-a-century disaster!"

"Your Highness...Your Highness."

Seeing the Crown Prince's furious and seemingly genuine expression, Lin Xuzhong, whose mind had been clouded by greed, regained some clarity. But now, all he could do was stubbornly persist, his face ashen.

"Your Highness, the money spent on reinforcing the river embankment over the years... I have truthfully handed over most of it to... the Crown Prince's Palace."

Was it handed over to the Crown Prince?

"Well done, handing it over to the Crown Prince!"

Hearing this absurd, dreamlike tale, even the Crown Prince forced a laugh in anger: "How could I not know when I received such a lavish and unscrupulous tribute?!"

As expected, Lin Xuzhong, realizing what was going on, looked at the Crown Prince in astonishment.

“Your Highness, it wasn’t you who asked Prince Rui to… Your Highness, Your Highness, this money was personally handed over to Prince Rui’s residence every year, and every single transaction is recorded; there has never been a shortage.”

The Crown Prince stared intently at Lin Xuzhong with sharp eyes—

Judging from this, it's not just a year yet.

He didn't believe that Lin Xuzhong had never thought of informing the Crown Prince about such a big matter, nor had he ever suspected anything. He was just blinded by greed and deceiving himself by finding a "backer".

However, the palace had annual stipends, the court provided stipends, and the Kunning Palace and the East Palace often received subsidies. Even the Wang family regularly offered tributes, yet Prince Rui didn't even have any other concubines...

The Crown Prince took two steps closer and said coldly, "What does Prince Rui need so much money for?"

Lin Xuzhong hesitated for a moment, then said, "Prince Rui said that since you are the Crown Prince, it wouldn't be dignified if word got out that you're not well-off..."

The crown prince's face darkened as he listened to this utter nonsense. He strode back to his desk, flicked his sleeves, and picked up the letter from the table.

"Bang—!"

After reading the letter, the crown prince suddenly lost control of his emotions for a moment, and he slammed the letter on the table in a fit of rage.

"That audacious bastard!"

The Crown Prince had previously pitied his younger brother, who was born of the same mother and was frail, and even though his behavior was unruly, he could not bear to criticize him harshly.

Later, seeing that Prince Rui was becoming increasingly eccentric and aloof, the Crown Prince became annoyed. However, Empress Wang was confined to the palace, and the two brothers relied on each other for survival. It was from then on that Prince Rui's temperament became much more restrained.

The Crown Prince had thought that Prince Rui had grown up and become more sensible, but he was wrong.

Embezzling government funds, colluding with cronies, privately amassing armor and soldiers, spying on the emperor's whereabouts, assassinating his own brothers... Is there anything Prince Rui wouldn't dare to do?

The crown prince braced himself on the table with both hands, his expression almost ferocious as he looked up.

How suspicious their father was!

He never showed his emotions, and was almost cold-bloodedly calm about politics, always wielding a silent blade to strike where it hurt most.

Over the years, the Crown Prince has only been doing one thing diligently—dispelling Emperor Xuanpei's suspicions.

The Crown Prince repeatedly demonstrated to Emperor Xuanpei through his actions that he would be diligent in governing and compassionate towards the people, treat his brothers kindly, and take good care of the concubines in the palace.

Therefore, all these years, the Crown Prince has remained the Crown Prince, and his position has never been shaken.

"Your Highness," Lin Xuzhong, kneeling behind him, said somewhat anxiously, "His Majesty has personally come to provide disaster relief. He will surely conduct a thorough investigation into this flood disaster. I'm afraid the matter of the breached dikes cannot be concealed for long, Your Highness..."

The crown prince slowly turned around and looked at Lin Xuzhong.

He walked towards Lin Xuzhong step by step, his voice hoarse and he even laughed.

"So, what does Lord Lin hope I will do?!"

"Suppress all the officials who know about this?"

“If you kill the officials, there will still be river workers; if you kill the river workers, there will still be laborers to serve.”

"Even if you kill the laborers, countless others will be displaced due to the breached dikes. Why don't you just kill all the people in the world to silence the masses?!"

Lin Xuzhong kowtowed on the ground, his head covered in cold sweat, unable to utter a single word.

In the suffocating silence, some incredibly good news arrived—

The Ninth Prince and his entourage have been found; they are at Mishan Academy.

The academy was located halfway up the mountain. Considering that the mountain road would be difficult to travel due to the rain, the group stayed at the academy for the time being. In recent days, there have been continuous heavy rains and landslides, which have trapped everyone on the mountain.

The crown prince smiled and sighed softly.

"My brother truly survived a great calamity; Heaven has protected him."

The Crown Prince glanced down at Lin Xuzhong, who was kneeling on the ground, and said calmly, "Let's go."

Lin Xuzhong was slightly taken aback, and couldn't help but ask, "Your Highness is going to...?"

The crown prince had already started walking, only uttering a quiet remark: "Go to see the emperor."

Lin Xuzhong trembled, but seeing that the Crown Prince had already gone far away, he dragged his two weak legs and staggered after the Crown Prince.

......

In the back hall of the government office, everyone else withdrew, and Lin Xuzhong, who was kowtowing and crying, pleading that he had made a moment of confusion, was dragged out by the guards on both sides.

Eunuch Chen stood quietly beside Emperor Xuanpei like a clay pillar, his eyes darting around as he glanced quickly at the Crown Prince kneeling before the hall.

After days of travel, even the Crown Prince looked somewhat tired.

As the sky darkened, the kneeling prince appeared to be enveloped in a faint aura of twilight, as if shrouded in a layer of gray gauze.

"Father."

The crown prince bowed and kowtowed before slowly raising his head.

Looking at the white hair at Emperor Xuanpei's temples, the Crown Prince paused for a moment, then his expression softened, and he gently advised, "Now that Ninth Prince and Jiahe have been found and the disaster has been properly dealt with, Father, you must also take care of your health."

Emperor Xuanpei looked at the Crown Prince, and after a long while, slowly nodded, "Get up."

The Crown Prince did not rise. He looked up slightly at Emperor Xuanpei, who was sitting behind the desk, and smiled, his eyes shining slightly.

“Father, I was personally appointed Crown Prince by Your Majesty in the first year of Yongchun.”

"To date, I have been the Crown Prince for twenty-three years."

"Your subject dares not say that he has been without any oversights over the years, but he certainly has not dared to slack off in any way."

“I toss and turn every day, filled with worry… I fear disappointing my mother, I fear disappointing my father, I fear that when the court officials and the people of the world mention me, there is only one sentence that is unlike my father’s.”

The Crown Prince looked at Emperor Xuanpei with eyes full of expectation.

"Father, have I disappointed you?"

In a daze, Emperor Xuanpei seemed to see Yin Mingyun as a child, learning to ride horses and shoot arrows with him, his lips pursed, yet his eyes still filled with longing as he looked at him.

Back then, Emperor Xuanpei was extremely proud, but he would keep a straight face and urge Yin Mingyun to continue his efforts.

"Mingyun, you have never disappointed me. You have always done a good job."

This was a compliment that came many years late, but it still made the crown prince smile happily.

Laughing, laughing, two lines of clear tears slid down the corners of the prince's eyes.

Once the will to fight is formed, there will be absolutely no room for maneuver in Prince Rui's case.

His mother has already... Prince Rui has been with the Crown Prince since childhood, acting as both brother and father to him for so many years. How can you expect the Crown Prince to be so heartless as to abandon them and put righteousness before family?

The Crown Prince couldn't bear to part with his position, so Emperor Xuanpei was hesitant to entrust everything to him.

But if the Crown Prince could give that up, Yin Mingyun wouldn't be Yin Mingyun.

After going around in circles, it became a dead end.

"Father, I beg you, for the sake of my son who has never disappointed you, to spare Mingzhen, spare Mingqi, spare Mother..."

The Crown Prince took out the golden seal of the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace from his bosom.

He offered it with both hands and bowed his head in reverence.

"Your subject will take them away from the capital and will never set foot in the capital again in this lifetime."

“...Myung Yoon”.

"You've always been decisive, but now that things have come to this, haven't you even considered taking a gamble?"

The crown prince slowly raised his head, and smiled through his tears: "Father, I was personally taught by you."

......