Chapter 22 Secretly Happy
twenty two
Fu Jiangyu's expression remained the same, but Lin Baige noticed that Fu Jiangyu rubbed the ring on his thumb.
Although he didn't show it on his face, he must be secretly happy inside. Lin Baige knew that Fu Jiangyu would do this little action every time he was happy.
What Lin Baige said had different meanings for each person. The victims below thought that he was an imperial envoy, not a member of the court or the emperor's men, so how could he be from the enemy country?
He is truly a good official who loves his people like his own children. They misunderstood the imperial envoy.
But to the ears of Marquis Nan'an and the others, it became seduction. It was not enough to seduce the emperor in the court, he also wanted to seduce the emperor on the execution ground. No wonder the emperor was bewitched by him. He never forgot to exert his strength on the emperor. He really regarded being a concubine as a job. He worked so hard that he could succeed in whatever he did.
Lord Wang and the others have always thought that Lin Baige is the cousin of the emperor's favorite concubine, and should stand on Lin Xing's side with the favorite concubine. Now it seems that the favorite concubine is on Lin Xing's side, and his cousin is on the emperor's side?
The cousin wanted to overthrow the power of the favorite concubine's brother and collect evidence to kill Lin Xing? After Lin Xing and the favorite concubine were overthrown, he could ascend to the throne and become the emperor's favorite concubine?
I heard that His Majesty loves that favorite concubine very much, but no matter how much he loves her, he is only attracted by her beauty. Now, Lord Lin may not be inferior to the favorite concubine in appearance.
One is a favorite concubine who cares about outsiders, and the other looks similar to the favorite concubine, but is devoted to the country and the people and has the emperor in his heart. If he were the emperor, he would also choose this imperial envoy.
Lord Wang never expected that at his age he would fall into the hands of a young man, and his death became part of their plan.
At this time, the two sons of Nan'an Hou had captured another group of rebels. The other group had even fewer people and were dressed almost like savages. Most of them were old, weak and sick.
Lin Baige pointed at them and asked Lord Wang, "Are these the rebels you mentioned? What can they do? They can barely walk, and you still want to rebel?"
Lord Wang lowered his head and said, "I'm in your hands now. Whatever you say is true. If you kill me, there are still others in my family. My eldest brother is still an official in the capital, and my nephew has a title to inherit. They will avenge me. Do you think that if you kill me and gain merit, you can rise to prominence? Dream on."
Lin Baige was amused by his words: "His Majesty has sentenced you to the death of your entire clan. Oh, and your eldest brother has been arrested a long time ago. You may not know this, but all of Lin Xing's followers have been arrested. Even Lin Xing had his hand chopped off by His Majesty and thrown into the water dungeon to soak."
"What?!" Lord Wang's eyes widened, and the other officials collapsed to the ground in fear. Their positions were handed down from generation to generation. They shouted, "Our ancestors have made great contributions to the court. You can't execute our entire clan. We need to see the emperor's decree. Without it, you can't kill us at will!"
While they were crying, the soldiers under the Marquis of Nan'an had already brought all their families.
They are all wearing gold and silver, and any piece of clothing or jewelry is enough to cover the expenses of an entire village for half a year.
Lin Baige noticed that when they were being taken to the execution ground, they could still smell the stink of the disaster victims. He covered his nose with his hand and said, "Why are you arresting us? Shouldn't they be arrested? How can you, an imperial envoy, have the right to execute an entire clan?"
"You have squandered all the achievements of your ancestors. Now it's time to settle the accounts again." Lin Baige said to Jiang Erwa in the audience, "Come up."
Jiang Erwa was well prepared. He was the leader of the rebel army. The imperial envoy could let others go, but he could not let him, the leader, go.
He was probably going to be executed along with the corrupt officials. The other victims knelt down and begged for mercy: "Please, sir, please don't kill Erwa. Erwa is a good man."
"Don't cry. Everything I've done is worth it to be able to watch these crooked officials die with my own eyes. I have nothing to be nostalgic about anymore." Jiang Erwa said as he walked up to the platform of the execution ground with a heroic look on his face. He knelt beside Lord Wang, waiting to be beheaded.
"Jiang Erwa, you have made great contributions in treating disaster victims and reporting corrupt officials. I will temporarily appoint you as the governor of this province." Lin Baige said.
"Ah? Me?" Jiang Erwa thought he had misheard. "I just had dinner, how could I still be hallucinating?"
Lin Baige felt sad when he heard this: "I'll let you take over this position temporarily. You will manage it for three years first. After three years, I will come to supervise and inspect it in person to see how you manage it. If you are qualified, you will be officially appointed. However, your descendants cannot inherit your position. To become an official in the future, you must take the exam. I will also have to take the exam when I go back. If I fail, I can't become an official..."
Before Lin Baige set off, Lord Zhang told the emperor that he could set the questions for other people's papers, but he could not set the questions for Lin Baige's exam, otherwise the exam would become a formality. Lord Zhang proposed that he should set the questions for Lin Baige's exam paper himself.
Lin Baige originally wanted to become an official just for the sake of formality, but Lord Zhang insisted on making things difficult for him. He looked at the emperor with grievance, trying to pretend to be pitiful so that Fu Jiangyu would reject Lord Zhang's proposal.
But Fu Jiangyu agreed. He felt that Fu Jiangyu just didn't want him to be an official, didn't want him to come into contact with other men in the court, and wanted to lock him up in the golden cage of the harem.
Lin Baige couldn't just sit there and wait for death. He had to fight for his own chance. He took the initiative to ask Mr. Zhang for the scope of the exam.
Lord Zhang did not make things difficult for him. In his eyes, he was just a useless person who could not read or write, and there was no point in drawing the boundaries.
But Lin Baige graduated from university after all, and he was very good at taking exams. This time when he went out, he brought the book given to him by Mr. Zhang with him and took a look at it whenever he had time.
When Jiang Erwa heard that Lin Baige also had to take the exam, he felt it was unfair: "Those crappy officials can inherit their ancestors' official positions from birth, but a good official like you still has to take an exam? How can this world be so unfair?"
"Although I have the ability, my parents died protecting the late emperor, leaving me alone and powerless. My cousins have taken the inherited titles, so I can only rely on myself." Lin Baige pretended to be pitiful and said this to Fu Jiangyu. He wanted to convey to Fu Jiangyu that he wanted to be an official and that he was capable of it. Then he said to Jiang Erwa, "The purpose of the exam is to pursue fairness. In the future, only those who are capable will be officials. Those who are incapable will not be able to rely on inheritance."
"Just right, everyone's here, let's get started." Lin Baige clapped his hands and ordered the officers and soldiers to take all the gold and silver they had seized from the house and pour it on the ground. Under the light of the torches, it was hard to open your eyes. "It's a whole mountain of gold and silver, so much of the people's blood and sweat. Do you treat the people as human beings?"
Lin Baige said to the victims below the execution ground: "Today, we will chop off the heads of these corrupt officials to rid the people of this evil. All this money will be used for post-disaster reconstruction. In other words, we will use it to sell you food and build you houses. This money will be spent on each and every one of you."
Following the order, the executioners raised their swords and chopped off a group of profiteers who took advantage of the disaster to make money from the rising grain prices. They were also arrested and beheaded.
Lin Baige: "You colluded with corrupt officials and forced the people to death. Today, I will act on behalf of the people. I will see your heads and distribute your food to the people."
They shouted their wishes: "The food is ours, we can raise the price if we want. Which law stipulates that prices cannot be raised in years of disaster?"
"You have raised the price too much. Rice and gold are the same price. Is this reasonable?" Lin Baige didn't expect that they would still quibble at this time.
"There was no such law before, but it will be added now. From now on, anyone who hoards grain and raises the price during a disaster year will be killed and his entire family will be exiled." Fu Jiangyu said, standing behind Lin Baige.
Lin Baige thought that it was very convenient to bring the emperor with him. He didn't have to argue too much and didn't have to worry about the imperfect laws of this dynasty being unable to deal with these bad guys.
When the beheading took place, Lin Baige didn't dare to watch. It wasn't that he was afraid of that. He studied medicine and was not afraid of seeing blood. What he was afraid of was that Fu Jiangyu would think that he was not even afraid of beheading and that he was scary.
He also has to act like a little white flower to make Fu Jiangyu love him.
After temporarily solving the problem of the corrupt official, he and Fu Jiangyu went back to rest. As soon as they returned to their residence, Lin Baige threw himself into Fu Jiangyu's arms and said, "I was scared to death just now. Look, my face is pale. Your Majesty, you have to hold me when you sleep tonight, otherwise I will have a nightmare."
"Look at how majestic you were just now. You didn't look scared at all." Although Fu Jiangyu said this, he really enjoyed his coquettishness.
"How can I be so majestic? It's because Your Majesty is always standing behind me that I'm not afraid." Lin Baige said, leaning his head on Fu Jiangyu's chest.
"Tell me, what do you want this time?" Fu Jiangyu knew that he would not act like a spoiled child unless there was nothing wrong, and if he did, there would definitely be something wrong.
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