Chapter 207 The Cruel Truth
Duke Rongrui was really angry, and he took the opportunity to vent all the fright and displeasure he had suffered.
But despite his anger, he was also somewhat happy.
Because Xiao Qidi's move was so foolish, it backfired completely, and instead allowed him to take advantage of the situation.
As a result of this incident, he will not only escape any punishment, but his prestigious position will be further solidified.
From then on, Xiao Qidi had no more opportunities to target him or the entire royal family.
This kid is still too young. He has some tricks and cleverness, but not much.
Faced with Rong Rui's confident questioning, Xiao Qidi did not answer, but simply said something seemingly unrelated, "The South Sea pearl on Rong Rui's belt is truly dazzling."
The ministers glanced over instinctively, many of them with envy in their eyes.
But they weren't surprised.
This egg-sized South China Sea pearl had already been set in Rong Ruigong's belt ten years ago, so this wasn't the first time the group had seen it.
Pearls, produced in the deep ocean of the south, are of high quality and extremely difficult to obtain; even those the size of a grain of rice are very valuable.
The one that Rong Ruigong possessed was definitely the finest among South Sea pearls.
Only a nobleman like him is worthy of such a title.
Duke Rongrui casually adjusted his belt, frowned, and said, "Is Your Majesty having nothing more to say, so you're changing the subject?"
"How much silver did you spend to buy it?" Xiao Qidi asked.
Rong Ruigong casually touched the South Sea pearl on his belt. "It didn't cost any money. It was a gift from someone else. I had a craftsman set it on my belt as decoration. If Your Majesty likes it, I will take it off and give it to you."
"Wouldn't that be taking away what someone else loves?" Xiao Qidi said with a half-smile. "Would you be willing to give it to me?"
Rongrui said, "Although this pearl is precious, it is not something that is absolutely unique in the world. Why not give it to Your Majesty?"
Xiao Qidi said coldly, "No need. I already have one. Li Yao, take it out and let everyone see it."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Li Yao took a cloth bag out of his pocket.
Untie the rope and pour out an exquisitely crafted and ornate hairpin.
The hairpin was also inlaid with a dazzling South China Sea pearl, which was slightly smaller than the one on Rong Ruigong's belt, but had a more brilliant color and texture.
Rong Rui Gong was stunned for a moment, then blurted out, "Lady Ronghua's hairpin?"
“That’s right,” Xiao Qidi said quietly, “This is indeed my aunt’s hairpin. The South Sea pearl on it and the one you have, Uncle, were originally a pair. Ten years ago, she gave you one as a birthday gift and kept one for herself.”
A sense of unease welled up in Rong Ruigong's heart again, and he hurriedly asked, "Why is my sister's hairpin in Li Yao's hands?"
Li Yao did not answer, but instead asked him, "Lord Rongrui, do you know the origin of these two South Sea pearls?"
Rong Ruigong said impatiently, "Naturally, it came from the South China Sea. Lady Ronghua bought it from a wealthy merchant."
"Do you know how much silver Lady Ronghua spent to buy these two beads?"
"How should I know?!"
Rongrui Gong grew even more impatient. "This precious pearl must be extremely valuable. My sister spent a lot of time and money to celebrate my birthday. What's wrong with that? Does Lord Li think that my sister, as a dignified Lady Ronghua, can't even afford this little bit of money?"
“Let me tell you,” Li Yao said, his eyes flashing with resentment, “that Madam Ronghua spent a full five million three hundred and sixty thousand taels of gold on those two top-grade South Sea pearls!”
Rong Ruigong was somewhat surprised, "So many?"
The other ministers gasped in shock.
"Five million three hundred and sixty thousand taels...of gold?"
"My goodness, Madam Ronghua is truly wealthy and generous! She's so extravagant for just two South Sea pearls!"
"Sigh, our annual salary plus bonuses only amount to tens of thousands of taels of silver..."
"..."
Li Yao said loudly, "Ordinary people's annual expenses for a family are roughly between two and ten taels of silver, and even the wealthier ones spend no more than fifteen taels of silver. Gentlemen, you should be content with that. Why do you need to compare yourselves with princes and nobles?"
Hearing him say that, the ministers looked slightly embarrassed.
Li Yao raised his voice again: "In our Great Xuan, one tael of gold is roughly equivalent to ten taels of silver. Roughly speaking, Lady Ronghua spent 53.6 million taels of silver to buy those two beads. Do you gentlemen find this amount somewhat familiar?"
The ministers fell into thought.
Lord Wen's lips trembled as he said, "Fifty-three million six hundred thousand taels of silver... isn't that... the amount my son obtained by selling grain and supplies in the major flood relief case ten years ago, as the presiding judge said! This..."
“Yes, I remember!” A minister immediately confirmed.
Soon, another minister subconsciously remarked, "Why is this number such a coincidence?"
Li Yao said, "A coincidence? Not at all! Let me tell you a story!"
"Ten years ago, Lady Ronghua was traveling and sightseeing when she came to Jinquan County in Shannan County, which is adjacent to Luoxia County. There she encountered a caravan that had traveled far and wide and collected countless rare treasures, including a pair of top-quality South Sea pearls."
"Madam Ronghua took a fancy to the pair of South Sea pearls, but unfortunately, the silver she brought was far from enough, so she set her sights on the granary in Jinquan County."
“In previous years, Luoxia County was often plagued by floods, so the imperial court set up reserve granaries and emergency warehouses in Jinquan County, stockpiling a large amount of grain and supplies that could not be used on a regular basis, in preparation for unforeseen circumstances.”
"Unexpectedly, in the years before Lady Ronghua visited Jinquan County, the weather was perfect, and Luoxia County enjoyed favorable weather for several years in a row, with no floods occurring."
"Lady Ronghua felt that it would be alright to divert these reserves of food and supplies intended for emergency disaster relief, so she ordered local officials to sell them all, thus obtaining 5.36 million taels of gold. She then used this huge sum of money to purchase two top-quality South Sea pearls from the caravan."
"One of them was given to Rongrui as a birthday gift, and the other was set into a hairpin by her."
By this point, Rong Ruigong's face had turned deathly pale.
All the ministers were too shocked to speak.
Li Yao continued, "Unexpectedly, not long after, Luoxia County, which had not experienced floods for several years, suddenly encountered a once-in-a-century rainstorm. The river embankment collapsed overnight, and floods descended upon the land in an instant! And then... the case of Lord Wen's son embezzling disaster relief food and supplies. I have now revealed the truth of this case to you all from beginning to end."
After he finished speaking, the hall fell into a deathly silence.
"No...impossible!" Duke Rongrui broke the silence, exclaiming incredulously, "These so-called truths must be...fabricated by you!"
Li Yao's eyes sharpened. "Regarding the case of the Prefect of Longyuan, Lady Ronghua and several members of the royal family rushed to Hewan County to protect and rescue the Prefect of Longyuan, but to no avail. Instead, they were all captured and imprisoned by His Majesty. I was ordered by His Majesty to suppress the news and conduct a secret investigation and interrogation. All of the above facts were confessed by Lady Ronghua herself! Otherwise, why do you think I would have Lady Ronghua's hairpin inlaid with South Sea pearls? This is the evidence! Furthermore, the officials involved in the case in Jinquan County back then were also secretly arrested by me and confessed to the matter without hesitation!"
With a loud clang.
Rong Rui fell off the chair, and the chair overturned on the ground as well.
Lord Wen was slumped on the ground, his eyes lifeless, as if he had lost his soul.
The expressions of the other ministers around him also became extremely complicated, with a hint of resentment.
Li Yao stepped forward, tore open his belt, and pried off the South China Sea pearls embedded in it. He then handed them, along with Madam Ronghua's South China Sea pearl hairpin, to Xiao Qidi.
Xiao Qidi held the two items in his palm, coldly surveyed all the ministers in the hall, and his thin lips moved slightly.
"Ten years ago, nearly 100,000 people starved to death in Luoxia County, and countless others were displaced. It also led to a shocking miscarriage of justice, all because a member of the Great Xuan royal family coveted these two beads!"
“Lord Wen, you already know why your son died, and you know how much injustice your son suffered. The culprit who caused your son's tragedy is the very person you desperately tried to protect.”
"If before you were asked to imagine yourself as an ordinary citizen suffering exploitation and oppression from royalty, and you couldn't empathize, and still stubbornly defended the royal family with righteous indignation, then... how about now? Are you in pain?"
"And you guys too."
Xiao Qidi's gaze fell on the remaining ministers whom he and Minister Wen had called out together.
Do you know why I also asked you to step forward?
"It's not just because you, like Lord Wen, are court officials who most support the princes and nobles, but also because your hometowns are all in Luoxia County! You all have relatives and friends from your hometowns who died in that natural disaster and man-made calamity!"
"Lord Zhao, your elderly mother survived the flood, but starved to death because she couldn't get the relief food, right?"
"Lord Qi, the old village chief and fellow villagers who once devoted the entire village's resources to your education, enabling you to embark on your official career and enter the imperial court, also froze and starved to death due to a lack of disaster relief food and supplies, didn't they?"
"And you, Lord Zhang, Lord Sun... you dozen or so people who cried and pleaded most fiercely for Duke Rongrui before me..."
"Do you... now feel the pain?"
Xiao Qidi's every word was like the sharpest knife, mercilessly stabbing into their deepest, most painful wounds.
laugh--
Lord Wen coughed up a mouthful of blood on the spot.
The others either beat their chests in despair or collapsed to the ground as if dead.
They believed that no matter how much they defended Rongrui Gong before the emperor, the emperor would not be able to impose any punishment on them that they could not bear.
But to my utter surprise, I was faced with such a cruel truth.
The emperor didn't even need to punish them; he had already torn their souls to pieces.
pain!
It hurts so much!
"Give me back my son's life!" Lord Wen suddenly roared, blood streaming from his mouth, his eyes wide with rage as he rose to his feet and charged toward Duke Rongrui.
Duke Rongrui cried out in fright, "What does your son's death have to do with me! It wasn't me who ordered him to be a scapegoat!"
Li Yao suddenly blurted out, "If it weren't for Madam Ronghua finding you a gift for your birthday, how could such a tragedy have occurred? Although you were unaware of the situation, it was all because of your insatiable greed and reckless behavior."
Lord Wen had completely broken down, and his anger was fully ignited. He pounced on Rong Ruigong like a madman, beating and biting him.
"Imperial Guards! Quickly pull this madman away!" Rong Ruigong shouted in terror.
The guards nearby snapped out of their daze and quickly began to drag him away.
Just as they pulled Lord Wen away from Duke Rongrui, the other dozen or so ministers rushed over one after another to beat Duke Rongrui.
Even the ministers who were originally most attached to the royal family have started to take action against Duke Rongrui, and the other ministers present are also somewhat eager to try.
Xiao Qidi did not speak out to stop it.
Seeing that things were not going well and the main hall was in chaos, Duke Rongrui shouted at the top of his lungs to the commander of the imperial guards, "Quickly! Quickly call more imperial guards to protect me!"
Just as the commander of the Imperial Guards was about to give the order, he suddenly heard Xiao Qidi say in a deep voice, "Is the Imperial Guard meant to protect the royal city, or to protect Duke Rongrui?"
Upon hearing this, the commander of the Imperial Guard hesitated.
But then he thought that he and many of the generals of the Imperial Guards were related to Duke Rongrui or some members of the Xiao royal family. If something happened to Duke Rongrui and the royal family collapsed, his position, authority and even his life would be in danger.
It would be better to take a gamble and protect Duke Rongrui. As long as the foundation of the royal family is not shaken, there will still be a glimmer of hope for oneself.
After a brief moment of consideration, he chose to ignore Xiao Qidi and strode away.
The other imperial guards drew their swords and stood in a circle, protecting Rongrui Gong within the circle.
The drawing of swords by the Imperial Guards did indeed have a powerful deterrent effect.
Even though the dozen or so ministers, led by Lord Wen, were furious, they dared not step forward easily, after all, they were just unarmed civil officials without any armor to protect themselves.
Soon, the commander of the Imperial Guards returned, accompanied by hundreds of his subordinates, and prepared to storm into the main hall.
"Your Excellency, you mustn't!" A minister mustered his courage and blocked the entrance to the main hall.
"Get out of the way!" the Imperial Guard commander shouted. "Anyone who blocks the way will be killed without mercy!"
"Commander-in-Chief, I did not order you to summon so many Imperial Guards. What is the meaning of this?" Xiao Qidi asked calmly, his expression unchanged. "If I do not allow you to enter, are you going to kill me as well?"
The commander of the Imperial Guards raised his hand, signaling hundreds of Imperial Guards to stand outside the palace gates, completely surrounding the hall.
Then he walked to the threshold of the main hall and said loudly:
"Your Majesty, I had no such intention! But I cannot stand by and watch Rongrui Gong be in danger. I must take him away and protect him!"
"Hurry, hurry up, hurry up!" Rong Ruigong urged anxiously from behind several imperial guards.
Regardless, let's get out of the main hall first.
It would be too outrageous for him to die at the hands of those ministers.
Several imperial guards escorted him as they moved toward the entrance of the main hall.
Seeing that he was not far from the threshold, Duke Rongrui secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced back at the young king sitting on the throne and muttered to himself with a cold smile:
"You, Xiao Qidi, you think you can use the ministers to take my life? You're dreaming! Don't you even know whose people the Royal Guard is really working for... Ha!"
call out--
A soft sound suddenly came from outside the main hall.
The commander of the Imperial Guard, who was standing by the threshold, suddenly froze, then slowly raised his hand to touch the back of his head.
However, before he could even raise his hand halfway, he suddenly fell face down to the ground, landing straight at Rong Ruigong's feet.
A sharp arrow pierced through his helmet and lodged in his head. Blood flowed continuously from the edge of the helmet. He convulsed a few times and then breathed his last.
"What's going on! Where did this arrow come from?!" Duke Rongrui was shocked.
Hundreds of imperial guards hurriedly turned around and were shocked to see thousands of soldiers dressed in strange black armor, carrying long swords, charging menacingly towards them...
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