One year brought a great drought, the next year floods, and then, in a blink, a plague.
The Xu family fled from the north to the south, and then from the south back to the north.
Before...
In the palace, the concubine was still sentenced to death.
The emperor was so angry that he killed a few eunuchs because he failed to steal the chicken and ended up losing the rice!
In the end, he was so happy with the killing that he didn't even have anyone clean the floor. He called those trusted ministers into the palace for a secret talk that night.
One or two were still in Jiang Yan's secret room. After receiving the news, Jiang Yan also asked them to hurry into the palace.
Just at this time, the servant remembered a strange letter he had received during the day. After giving it to Jiang Er, Jiang Er handed the letter to Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan opened the letter and the familiar handwriting with missing limbs told him that it was written by his girl named Aning.
Xu Ning had long stopped liking to write letters. If it weren't for the early stability of Xu Yuan and the Daqing Dynasty, she wouldn't even want to write these few dozen words.
The letter written by Xu Ning was very concise, and the gist of it was that it was easy to fish in troubled waters!
In his letter, Xu Ning suggested that Jiang Yan should first use the power of public opinion to disrupt the entire capital city.
Start by attacking the smaller officials, replace the smaller ones with your own people, and finally kill the biggest one!
Jiang Yan laughed after reading the letter, and Xu Ning's thoughts coincided with his.
In fact, he is not the one who is anxious now. He originally wanted to take it step by step.
But today's Hongmen Banquet made him feel that there was nothing wrong with speeding up the pace.
However, after receiving Xu Ning's letter, Jiang Yan felt that it would be better to proceed slowly. If he went slower, he could prepare more thoroughly, and perhaps there would be unexpected results.
"Young Master, what have you thought of that makes you so happy?" asked the minister who had not left yet.
Jiang Yan folded the letter and put it close to his body. He said in a good mood: "I do have some new ideas."
"But it's a letter from the young master's wife." Someone's eyes flashed with gossip.
Jiang Yan did not deny it. The minister who was eating melons bumped the shoulder of the person next to him and gave a look that showed that they both understood each other.
"Then what did the young master's wife say?"
Jiang Yan smiled and told them to go back and find out all the dirty deeds of the people involved in the other party, and send people to spread them in major entertainment venues.
When these people heard it, they understood immediately.
However, they had a concern, which was that Jiang Yan himself had something that could easily be used as a handle for attack.
"Don't worry, my father and his second wife will be released tomorrow, and they will be released happily."
"As long as Young Master is successful, I will go back and start preparing."
"Um."
After everyone in the secret room had left, Jiang Yan took Jiang Er to the backyard where the head of the Jiang family and Zuo Jing were locked up.
The head of the Jiang family was relatively normal, just thinner and older. Zuo Jing looked like he was crazy, sitting on the rockery in disheveled clothes, singing, and looked like he was about to jump.
Jiang Yan ignored Zuo Jing and said to the head of the Jiang family, "Father, I will help you realize what you have always wanted."
Jiang Yan left after he finished speaking. The head of the Jiang family remained expressionless, but his hands were shaking.
The head of the Jiang family is an old fox, so he naturally knows what Jiang Yan wants.
He shouted: "Come here, take a shower and change clothes!"
At the same time, he did not forget to ask someone to bring down Zuo Jing, who had gone crazy on the rockery.
Zuo Jing, who was brought down, was about to go crazy, so the head of the Jiang family kicked her and said, "If you go crazy again, I'll send you home tomorrow!"
Zuo Jing shuddered, and his eyes quickly became clear.
The head of the Jiang family didn't bother with her. After being married for so many years, he had long known that she was pretending.
In recent years, Zuo Jing's family members have been killed or disabled by Jiang Yan, so she doesn't have any family members left.
When the head of the Jiang family said he would send her home, he actually meant sending her to the King of Hell.
Zuo Jing didn't want to die. If she dared to die and was willing to die, she would not choose to act crazy or stupid.
With the help of his servants, the head of the Jiang family seemed to have become the same head of the Jiang family again.
After being picked up again, Zuo Jing seemed to have turned back into the noble lady she once was.
But only they themselves know that from now on they can only be puppets looking at the respectability.
The next day, all kinds of rumors spread on the streets of the capital. The incident was described in such detail that some victims smelled an opportunity and went to report to the authorities with evidence.
The people of Jiangyan had already made preparations in front of the yamen so that these victims could see the Dali Temple Minister as soon as possible.
The Dali Temple Minister was from Jiangyan. After receiving the complaints from the victims, he immediately ordered the trial.
Various trends began to collide in the capital, and a wave of complaints was set off in the prefectures, counties and districts outside the capital!
The local government offices, Shuntian Prefecture and others were extremely busy, and even the Xu and Pei families far away in the valley heard the news.
However, neither family had any grievances to appeal. They simply felt that the Daqing Dynasty was so corrupt that even public opinion was pushing it to fall.
As the saying goes, even a pig standing in the wind will be blown away.
The emperor was now at the center of the storm and had no choice but to kill or disable his own people. In less than two months, the emperor found that he did not have many people left.
The emperor was ill and had not attended court for a week, but strangely, everything in the court was functioning normally.
It seems that there will be no problem without him as the emperor.
Prime Minister Song and his men had suffered almost all casualties. He secretly came to see the emperor at night, hoping that the emperor would make a decision.
The emperor stared blankly at the ceiling of the tent, "My dear minister, am I completely useless?"
The emperor was very sad. What really made him sad was not that he had no one to use, but that those ministers whom he had once placed high hopes on were so incompetent.
He was sad that he once believed in them so much and believed that he could do better than his ancestors.
Looking back, it was all a joke.
The emperor started to cry as he spoke. Prime Minister Song was surprised, then disgusted. Thinking that the emperor was of no use, he kept silent and left the emperor lying there as he walked out.
As soon as Prime Minister Song walked out of the palace, the emperor stopped talking.
"Someone come here."
"Your Majesty." The emperor's secret guard jumped down from the beam.
"There's no need to keep that old guy." Since everyone has failed, let's go together. At least we won't be lonely on the road.
"Yes." The secret guard took the order and left.
Prime Minister Song walked towards the palace gate with a gloomy look on his face. He never thought that the emperor would drag him down with him at this time.
The coachman from the Song Mansion had already seen Prime Minister Song outside the palace gate and was about to open the door when suddenly a black shadow flashed by. When the coachman turned around, he found that his master had been broken into two and was lying only ten meters away from the palace gate.
The guards at the gate didn't react at all. The coachman shook off the chaff and drove the empty carriage towards the mansion.
The coachman's wife and children were secretly taken to the back door by the coachman. Because it was dark and Prime Minister Song entered the palace secretly, no one noticed that the coachman had run away with his wife and children.
Prime Minister Song's body, with his eyes open, was discovered by passing ministers when he was attending court the next day. The ministers could not bear to bury his body.
At that time, Prime Minister Song's body was not only frozen, but his blood had also been drained.
Coupled with the fact that his skin and flesh were loose due to old age, his appearance after death was not much different from that of a mummy.
The emperor, who had been awake all night in his bedroom, finally felt that he should say goodbye properly. He went to court like a skeleton, served by the palace servants in fear.