Chapter 111
Gongsun Yin heard that the eunuch who announced the imperial edict had left Cannes in a hurry, so he hurried to find Xie Zheng and said as soon as he entered the study:
"The eunuch who announced the imperial decree is the adopted son of Wang Xi, the former chief eunuch of the imperial court. He came here on the emperor's orders. You cut off one of his ears, which is undoubtedly a slap in the face of the emperor. Are you really going to break off relations with the court?"
Xie Zheng sat behind a desk with his left arm resting on the armrest of a yellow pear wood armchair. On the desk was a map of Dayin's military deployment. He looked at the map with a faint smile on his face, but his eyes were cold. "The little emperor is still playing dumb under Wei Yan, and he doesn't even take the lives of the generals who fought for him seriously. Do you think he will be a good person when he really takes power?"
Gongsun Yin was speechless for a moment. After a moment's silence, he said truthfully, "Your Majesty has been deprived of his power for many years. Wei Yan was there before, and then Li Taifu was there. In terms of forbearance and character, he is one of the most outstanding emperors in history. But it is precisely because he has been forbearing for more than ten years that his desire for power has reached its limit. He no longer has much room for kindness in his heart. The only thing left is to take back the power by any means."
Xie Zheng raised his eyebrows slightly: "You are still as accurate in judging people as always."
After he finished speaking, he threw a thick roll of documents to him.
Gongsun Yin took it with both hands and asked, "What is this?"
Xie Zheng just said: "You will know after you read it."
Gongsun Yin opened it and took a closer look. His brows furrowed tighter and tighter, and finally anger appeared on his face. He asked, "Are these all true?"
Xie Zheng replied: "Zhao Wen gave me new evidence in order to persuade me to support Huang Chongsun."
Gongsun Yin flipped through the pile of documents, his jaw clenched, and he said angrily, "How many people died in the drought the year before last and the flood in the Jiangnan area last spring? The factional struggle between Li and Wei was over, but the inspector sent by Li Taifu concealed the disaster in order to kill more people so that he could report Wei Yan. Was it the emperor's order? Back then, the Crown Prince Chengde died in Jinzhou for thousands of soldiers and civilians, but now the man who sits on the throne is willing to use the lives of hundreds of thousands of disaster victims to satisfy his ambitions for the sake of imperial power?"
In the past two years, Guanzhong and Jiangnan had suffered from severe drought and floods respectively. The funds allocated by the imperial court for disaster relief almost emptied the national treasury. The money went through the hands of the group of people under Wei Yan, but the Li Party at least sent supervisors to go with them. In the end, more than half of the victims still died of hunger and disease!
People all over the country were outraged, and the literati led by Li Taifu scolded the Wei Party in the court.
It was also during that time that Wei Yan, under pressure from the entire court and the people of the world, was defeated for the first time in front of Li Taifu. He pushed several of his own senior officials to take the blame, and only then was the matter settled.
However, Wei Yan was already notorious among the people, no less notorious than Meng Shuyuan, who was denounced as a traitor after the Jinzhou tragedy.
Xie Zheng said coldly, "The old man from the Li family is no less ambitious than Wei Yan, but he is a scholar after all, and he is more afraid of being criticized by the people. The young emperor wanted to use him to overthrow Wei Yan, and he was also worried that one day the young emperor would turn his knife against the Li family, so he took advantage of the fact that the young emperor had no power at the time and left himself a way out.
"The supervisors he sent to provide disaster relief wrote a total of 11 urgent reports to the capital. The post stations in various prefectures and cities all had files recording the express horses that went to the capital, but there was no record of the palace receiving any urgent reports of the disaster."
Having said that, what else is there for Gongsun Yin to not understand?
Deliberately concealing the facts of a disaster, resulting in more than half of the victims being killed or injured, is a serious crime no matter when it is brought up again.
The emperor wanted to let Li Taifu take the blame, but Li Taifu was shrewd and had his subordinates send an urgent report to the capital. As for the fact that the palace did not receive the urgent report, the emperor and his minister would each have their own opinions and it would depend on how the world would judge it.
Gongsun Yin couldn't help but ask, "How did Zhao Wen get the urgent reports that Li Taifu's people sent to the palace?"
Xie Zheng raised his eyes calmly: "Who do you think is the one who took the blame for the little emperor in the palace?"
Gongsun Yin pondered for a moment and said a name: "Wang Xi?"
Xie Zheng said nothing more, which was considered as his tacit agreement.
After a moment's thought, Gongsun Yin understood the various interests involved. With the decline of imperial power, it was impossible for the eunuchs in the palace to only plan a way out for themselves.
Wang Xi had been the chief eunuch for many years, but he had never offended Wei Yan and was even valued by the young emperor. This showed that he was a shrewd man.
The emperor wanted to frame Li Taifu as the first step to overthrow Wei Yan by using disaster relief as a major case. Li Taifu also wanted to drag the emperor into the water. The urgent reports sent to the palace could not be presented to the young emperor, so Wang Xi could only intercept all the urgent reports in his own hands.
As long as the emperor and Li Taifu were united in dealing with external affairs and did not expose each other's secrets, he would be safe.
When the emperor and Li Taifu come into conflict in the future, whoever wins will be helped by him, which will be a win-win situation with no harm at all.
The young emperor won. He destroyed the eleven urgent reports about the disaster, and the blame was firmly placed on Li Taifu.
Tutor Li won. He produced the eleven urgent reports and served as a personal witness. These were undoubtedly ironclad evidence of the young emperor's misconduct.
Even if Wei Yan won in the end, he could quickly produce these evidences to restore Wei Yan's reputation and make public the fact that the young emperor and Li Taifu conspired to frame him.
After his fury, Gongsun Yin suddenly felt a little sad. He sighed, "The water in the court of Dayin has long been so turbid that it is unbearable to look at."
The Wei Party might be a group of corrupt officials, but the emperor and Li Taifu, who used the lives of hundreds of thousands of disaster victims in order to overthrow Wei Yan and aroused the anger of the people all over the world, were not good people either.
He turned to look at Xie Zheng and said, "The one sitting on the throne has been so immoral and is now planning to make trouble in the army. I know you are unwilling to be loyal to such a monarch. But even if you cooperate with Zhao Wen and support Huang Chongsun, who knows if Huang Chongsun will become a little emperor in ten or twenty years?"
Xie Zheng simply said: "I will not become the second Wei Yan."
Gongsun Yin said: "Of course I know that you have different ambitions from Wei Yan, but even if you go far to the northwest and no longer interfere in the affairs of the court, as long as you still have military power in your hands, the person sitting on the dragon throne will always miss you when he grows up."
This time Xie Zheng remained silent for a long time.
Gongsun Yin stood still for a moment and sighed, "Forget it. If I want to worry about it, it will be a matter of ten years. For now, I should just..."
"If the new emperor has a benevolent heart and loves the people, I will hand over the military power and live a carefree life. Xie was not born to lead the army. As long as there are people to continue to guard the Dayin River and Mountains, I will not mind giving up the power."
Gongsun Yin was interrupted. He looked sideways and could only see the cold and handsome profile of the person sitting on the armchair.
Xie Zheng half lowered his eyes: "If he becomes like the little emperor, I can kick him off the throne just like I helped him to the throne, and choose a new emperor."
Gongsun Yin was stunned at first when he heard this, then he laughed softly: "Yes, this is like you."
He suddenly changed the subject and said, "The Grand Princess told me in her letter that the young emperor was going to take action against Miss Fan. If Miss Fan stayed in Chongzhou, it would be extremely disadvantageous. How about I send more people to protect Miss Fan?"
His throat felt itchy again, and Xie Zheng pursed his lips to suppress his instinctive urge to cough, saying, "No need."
Now Gongsun Yin's expression became extremely strange again.
He thought that this guy was in such a hurry to come back because he received his letter, but now it seems that is not the case?
He thought about the news Xie Shisan had sent back, and said slyly, "That's fine. Although He Jingyuan is no longer in Chongzhou, he sent his favorite student there. That person is called Zheng... Zheng something. I heard that he is not only handsome, but also good at both civil and military affairs. The key point is that when Miss Fan was being chased by Wei Yan's assassins in Lin'an Town, that person led his troops to rescue Miss Fan. So, it can be considered that he saved her life, right?"
The thumb-thick wolf-hair brush was broken in Xie Zheng's hand. His face showed no emotion at all. He just said two words calmly: "Get out."
Gongsun Yin was probably not satisfied with his reaction and continued to fan the flames: "I was thinking, when these two go to the battlefield together, they will have countless life-and-death experiences. What's the phrase? Oh, love grows over time!"
Xie Zheng suddenly raised his eyes and looked towards him, and Gongsun Yin instinctively took a big step back.
But Xie Zheng did not get angry. He just said, "You haven't been to the capital for three years, but the princess still knows where you are now. Is it because the people under the princess are too capable, or did you deliberately let someone know your whereabouts?"
Gongsun Yin's frivolous smile disappeared, and he looked at Xie Zheng with some surprise and said, "You can use this to stab me. It seems that I really annoy you."
Only after Gongsun Yin left did Xie Zheng throw away the broken wolf hair brush in his hand.
The sharp and broken wood chips pierced into his fingertips. He pulled them out expressionlessly. The knife wounds and whip marks on his back still hurt slightly, but when he heard Gongsun Yin say that she would fall in love with someone else over time, the uncontrollable sharp pain in his heart and the desire for destruction at that moment were equally clear.
He suddenly didn't want to wait any longer.
When he said goodbye to her, he clearly knew that even if a good girl like her didn't meet him in this life, she would meet another good man.
But when that moment really came, he was shocked to find that the blood in his body was rushing backwards. At that moment, his mind was filled with endless jealousy and murderous intent, but he was surprisingly calm.
But in an instant, he even figured out how to make the person she liked die without a trace.
When I calmed down, I was filled with extreme self-loathing, and my palms were covered in sticky cold sweat.
He knew that his illness seemed to be getting worse, and he didn't want to become the kind of person he hated the most.
Xie Zheng leaned back, letting himself slump on the armchair like a boneless person, with his arms draped over his eyes, covering most of his face. His dark sleeves made his sickly jaw look even paler, and he exuded a gloomy air.
The personal guard who had been ordered by Gongsun Yin to prepare the troops before he came here came into the room, knelt on one knee and clasped his fists and said, "My Lord, the carriages and horses to escort Sui Yuanqing are ready, and the army can set out at any time."
Xie Zheng said solemnly: "Let's go."
When Gongsun Yin heard the news, he ran to the tower and watched the army going away. He was so angry that he almost jumped up three feet high. He said angrily: "No wonder Xie Jiuheng said there is no need to send more people. He has already led the army there. What else do we need to send?"
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Chongzhou.
After Prince Changxin's death, the Hezhou Army fought two small-scale hand-to-hand battles with the rebels in Chongzhou City. The Hezhou Army won each time. Although they were small victories, they also boosted morale.
After Fan Changyu once again entered the central military tent to listen to the battle plan, she received a new order - the vanguard army she led was about to have a large-scale battle.
I don't know if it was Tang Peiyi who made a special arrangement based on He Jingyuan's original instructions, but the general in charge of assisting the vanguard troops happened to be Zheng Wenchang.
The author has something to say:
First of all, I have to say sorry to everyone. Due to health reasons, this book has been suspended for many days. I am very grateful to every little angel who has accompanied me all the way. Due to the author's limited ability to construct the story and physical problems, the update has been slow. Thank you for your waiting and companionship, and thank you for your concern. When I was halfway through writing this book, I had physical problems many times (also due to my own basic heart disease), and the accumulation has now completely induced the cause of the disease. The story of Changyu and Xie Zheng is just about to end, and I still want to do my best to finish it, to give them in the story, and to give an explanation to you who are following the update.
Updates may not be very stable in the future (I have to give too many fluids recently, and my cat also had a major operation. He won’t eat or drink, which makes me worried. I have to go to the pet hospital to take care of him after the fluids are given every day). If I cannot update, I will post a note to ask for leave. Those who are tired of following the serial can wait until it is finished before reading.
In fact, I was diagnosed with heart problems for the first time when I was writing the book "Cooking Girl". I also adopted an angel cat when I was writing that book. This year, my symptoms relapsed and my cat also fell ill with me and had to go into surgery. It was still very sad, but we will all get better.
Health is really the greatest wealth in life. I hope my babies will be healthy all their lives. Good night~
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