Chapter 684: Stupid
Emperor An didn't expect Xiao Yan to suddenly call on him, but he felt more confident when he looked up.
"Xiao Yan, now that you know this, you should understand that it would be useless for you to capture the capital today. My people will not obey you. If anything happens to me and my throne is shaken, they will do whatever it takes to avenge me. By then, the troops stationed in the capital will be unable to resist."
He lowered his posture as he spoke, and said with a hint of submission:
"I have served you as your emperor and minister for many years, and I supported you greatly in the past. I was confused about what happened yesterday, but I was also deceived and instigated by the Queen Mother. I thought she was just trying to use Song Tangning to threaten you, so as to force you and the Crown Prince to give in and return power to me, so that the court would be clear. I never thought that the Queen Mother actually wanted to drag you down with her."
"I admit that I knew about the Crown Prince's death. After guessing the Queen Mother's intentions, I wanted to take advantage of the situation and make a big deal out of it so I could control you. However, I absolutely have no intention of taking your life. I don't know where your misunderstanding of me comes from, nor do I know why you brought these people to frame me."
"But I am the Emperor of Great Wei, and I care about the people of the world. I believe that Duke Dingguo and the other lords would not want to see me in trouble, while the war in the south is still raging and Beiling is eyeing me covetously, and then war breaks out elsewhere, leaving Great Wei vulnerable to attacks from all sides, right?"
"you!"
The old minister who had previously angrily scolded Emperor An for being a tyrant suddenly became furious. He said what misunderstanding, what ignorance of the empress dowager's actions. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Emperor An was clearly making excuses.
He did not mention the assassination attempt on Marquis Wenxin and others, nor did he mention his collusion with Lu Jiuan and King Pingshan. He just put all the blame on the Queen Mother, and then his words were full of sarcasm. He was clearly using the more than 100,000 private troops to threaten them. If he, the emperor, is not good, then no one in the entire Wei will be good!
"A tyrant king!"
“Shameless!!!”
Some loyal people had already cursed out loud. Even Liang Guangyi and other aristocratic court officials who did not want Xiao Yan to gain power, as well as those court officials who were once loyal to Emperor An, had ugly expressions on their faces.
No one wants the person in power to be a madman with no bottom line!
There were people who cursed, people who despised, and people who were in a panic. However, Cao Dejiang looked at the rather complacent Emperor An calmly and suddenly spoke.
"Today, I finally understand why Emperor Taizu, after examining the princes and grandchildren, said that only Crown Prince Zhao could inherit my throne, and that the rest of my descendants were mediocre."
"You were both educated in the palace and share the same bloodline as the former crown prince, yet Your Majesty not only lacks the kindness and wisdom of the former crown prince, but is even more foolish."
"Cao Dejiang!!"
Emperor An glared at Cao Dejiang angrily, a distorted look on his face.
Prince Zhao!!
Xie Tianzhao!!
No one had dared to mention this name in front of him for many years, let alone put it together with Emperor An's name. After Xie Tianzhao's rebellion, the palace erased everything about him, and all those related to him died tragically. But Cao Dejiang's sarcastic words made Emperor An suddenly think of the prince in his youth who was as bright as the sun and the moon, suppressing him and other princes and grandchildren so much that they could hardly raise their heads, and was dim and dull.
It is obvious that the royal grandfather has so many children and grandchildren, but he only values Xie Tianzhao. Even his father is not in the eyes of the royal grandfather. The sentence "others are mediocre" makes everyone shrouded in the shadow of the man named Xie Tianzhao, and they wish they could skin him, tear his bones, and eat him!
Cao Dejiang met Emperor An's furious eyes and said coldly, "Your Majesty, since Duke Dingguo already knows you're colluding with the traitorous rebels, why would he dare to mention your private army and tell the world about it? Are you giving Your Majesty, who's already at his wit's end, a bargaining chip to blackmail the court officials?"
The anger on Emperor An's face froze and his expression suddenly stiffened. When he slowly turned his head to look at Xiao Yan on the high platform, he was met with his eyes, which were as cold and calm as before, but inexplicably sarcastic.
Xiao Yan said, "A few months ago, when Minister Qian and I were investigating the grain tax embezzlement case and reviewing the Ministry of Revenue's old accounts, we discovered that after Your Majesty ascended the throne, but before Minister Qian took over, the palace had been diverting a large sum of money from the Ministry every year, claiming it was used to repair bridges and dams across the country. However, the accounts were in a complete mess."
"Minister Qian was afraid that someone was colluding with thieves in the Ministry of Revenue to embezzle money and slander Your Majesty's holy name, so he told me about it and wanted the Privy Council to secretly help investigate the matter. Whoever wanted to investigate later, the silver disappeared for various reasons after leaving the Ministry of Revenue."
"Later, the Rongjiang incident broke out, bringing up an old disaster relief case from twenty years ago. When I was investigating the Lu family, I interrogated everyone in the family and discovered that although the Lu family had disrupted the officialdom in Shezhou and other places, and colluded with bandits to murder the late Crown Prince and the He family, they had not taken a single cent of the money and grain sent to the south for disaster relief."
"There are millions of silver coins, all of which have been confiscated by the Lu family's private treasury and never circulated on the market. It would be impossible to spend those government silver coins without a way to get rid of them. I had people secretly investigate when I became suspicious, and I didn't expect that the investigation would lead to Xie Tianyong."
Xiao Yan chuckled, looking at the pale Emperor An. "Xie Tianyong colluded with the Lu family to frame the late Crown Prince and sank the official grain ship, but he had already secretly swapped and embezzled the disaster relief money."
"The Lu family only thought he was after something, so they didn't fight him to show their goodwill. They didn't expect Xie Tianyong to be so audacious. While colluding with the Lu family, he secretly sent people to disrupt disaster relief efforts in Shezhou and the three regions, using banditry and riots to delay the disaster. He also secretly abducted and lured disaster victims into raising a private army, and then used the disaster to exaggerate the death toll to cover it up."
"After he came to power, every time disaster struck, even with prompt relief from the imperial court, countless people would die for various reasons, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. Every now and then, remote villages and coastal areas would be plundered and slaughtered by bandits and pirates, with casualties of three to five hundred or even over a thousand. Yet, in just five or six years, he expanded his private army from an initial 20,000 to nearly 100,000."
Xiao Yanwei tilted his head and looked at Emperor An: "By forcibly abducting civilians to form his own private army, our Majesty has set a precedent throughout the dynasties."
Emperor An's face looked extremely ugly.
The court officials in the hall were shocked at first, then felt disbelief, and finally fell into a strange silence that was beyond words.
Emperor An suppressed his panic and said solemnly, "No matter what, they are only loyal to me..."
"Really? How long has it been since Your Majesty received a letter from Yaochang?" Xiao Yan looked at him.
Emperor An's expression changed.
Yaochang...
How could he possibly know Yao Chang? !
Xiao Yan sneered, "You're trying to threaten me with this good-for-nothing you've raised for over a decade who can't even lift a knife?"
Emperor An staggered back half a step, his face no longer showing any of his previous confidence: "Impossible, how could you know Yao Chang, how could you possibly know..."
"Since the last time you ordered someone to deliver grain to the Ministry of Revenue, you've already revealed your intentions."
"Send food..."
Emperor An was in a trance for a moment, then he suddenly looked at Qian Baokun: "It's you!!"
His mind flashed back to what had happened after the Rongjiang incident. He remembered Qian Baokun coming to the palace to complain about the Ministry of Revenue having no money, the Nandi relief and the sudden riots. He looked at Xiao Yan again with a ferocious expression:
"You set up a trap with Qian Baokun all along, just to force me to use those people and find out their whereabouts?!"
Xiao Yan raised his lips: "Otherwise, why do you think you were able to survive after the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
