Chapter 832 The Queen is bluffing
After Shi Qingrong was captured and the Shi family was besieged by the Black Armor Guards, there was an uproar in the court.
Liang Guangyi immediately went to the palace to plead for mercy, but was repeatedly refused by the Queen. Later, he persisted and knelt in the palace for more than an hour before he finally saw the Queen. However, the result of their meeting was not good. They started arguing after only three or five sentences.
No one knew what they said, but all they heard was the constant shouting in Lulingtai, and the sound of the quarrel between the king and his minister could be faintly heard even outside the hall.
Not long after, Liang Guangyi came out with a grim face. He ignored the eunuchs in front of the hall and left with his sleeves slammed. The queen even smashed porcelain all over the floor. When the eunuchs went in to clean up, they saw the hall was in a mess.
That afternoon, the Queen not only did not let Shi Qingrong go, but instead directly ordered a search of the Shi family's house.
The black-armored guards were like wolves among a flock of sheep, showing no mercy at all. All the male members of the Shi family were locked up and the female members were detained in the mansion.
The aristocratic families were completely panicked when they saw how ruthless the queen was. They had not yet arranged things properly, nor had they prepared a retreat plan after falling out with the queen. Even if they really wanted to do something, it would take some time to plan.
A group of people who had fallen out with Liang Guangyi before came to the Liang family, hoping to use the conditions set by the queen to make the queen stop. Unexpectedly, Liang Guangyi refused outright, and became furious when he mentioned the queen.
…
"Did Liang Guangyi really say that?"
In a secret courtyard of the Min family, Duan Zhiru and others, who had not been seen since arriving in Beijing, were temporarily living here.
Duan Zhiru had a long face and a decent appearance, but the sinister look in his eyes made him look a bit vicious. After hearing Min An's words, his expression became even uglier: "Could it be that Liang Guangyi deliberately did not help the dying? How could the Queen be so ruthless?"
Min An's face was equally grim. "Liang Guangyi cares most about the future of the family, and no one wants to protect Shi Qingrong more than him. Even if he's angry that we argued with him before, he will never stand by and watch him die."
Prince Hui also said in a deep voice: "My people in the palace said that after Shi Qingrong's accident, Liang Guangyi immediately went to the palace to ask to see the Queen, but was blocked outside by the Queen's orders. Later, he knelt in public in the palace and almost broke his knees. Only then was he summoned by the Queen."
The people in the palace had been investigated once before, and many spies from outside had been expelled from the palace. However, King Hui was a royal prince after all, and had experienced three dynasties. As early as when the deposed emperor Xie Tianyong was still young, King Hui had already planted spies in the palace when he had not yet given up his ambition to seize the throne.
Only Emperor Taizu valued the son of the previous emperor, and because of Xie Tianzhao, Prince Hui no longer had the intention to seize power, so those secret lines became dormant and almost half-abandoned. It was not until the incident in the Eastern Palace and the deposed emperor ascended the throne that Prince Hui re-employed those people and used them to get some news from the palace. However, because Prince Hui was "honest and dutiful", no one ever noticed.
This time, King Hui had an idea, and after being persuaded by Min San and others, those spies became the most important information channels in their hands.
Prince Hui said in a deep voice, "When the Queen summoned Liang Guangyi, she dismissed everyone except Pan Xi. Although no one knows what they talked about, there was indeed an argument in Luling Terrace. Liang Guangyi was furious when he left, and he was even more furious after returning to the Liang family."
"You all know Liang Guangyi's temper. He would never lose his temper like that unless there was something truly unbearable. So the Queen's demand for five times the amount before she would let Shi Qingrong and the Shi family go is probably true. Otherwise, Liang Guangyi wouldn't be so angry."
Min An and the others all had gloomy expressions.
Min San couldn't help but yelled angrily, "Is the Queen crazy?"
She had already asked for a huge sum of money when she "ransomed" Guo Changming before. Now that she had touched the Shi family, Liang Guangyi went to plead for mercy, willing to agree to her previous request in exchange for her stopping, but she actually wanted five times the amount.
Fifty thousand war horses, seven and a half million taels of silver, plus one and a half million dan of grain...
Why doesn't she go grab it?!
Min San stood up and paced back and forth, cursing: "She thinks the aristocratic family is the money bag of their royal family, or that all the horse farms and granaries in the world belong to us. Even if our family has gold and silver mines, they can't withstand their plundering."
Back then, Xiao Yan's hundreds of thousands of taels of gold had cost them half their lives. Now, with over seven million taels of silver and so much food and war horses, why didn't she just send people to raid their homes?
This crazy woman really won't give them a chance to live.
Wang Huailu sat aside with a changing expression. He was not as furious as Min San, nor as gloomy as the others. He just frowned and said:
"The Queen might not really want these things. Not to mention that your families can't produce them at all, even if they can, it would almost cost your entire clan the survival. She shouldn't be unaware that forcing you to take them is tantamount to forcing you to rebel."
"Then what does she mean? Could it be that Liang Guangyi is lying?"
"No, Prime Minister Liang will not lie to you about this matter." Wang Huailu shook his head.
Min An's face suddenly turned cold when he heard this: "It's neither this nor that. What do you want to say?"
King Hui also turned to look at him and said, "My Lord, we are all on the same page now. If you have anything to say, just say it directly. Don't beat around the bush."
Wang Huailu no longer felt the embarrassment of being ridiculed that day. Instead, he said calmly, "I'm not beating around the bush. I'm just thinking about the Queen's intentions."
Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Wang Huailu said, "What the Queen and Prime Minister Liang said must be true, otherwise Prime Minister Liang wouldn't be so angry. But the Queen may not really want to force you into a dead end."
"A few days ago, a secret letter arrived from Southern Qi, saying that tribes from Western Xinjiang had also joined the battlefield. The King of Qi, who had originally intended to negotiate peace, is wavering. I'm afraid the war with Southern Qi won't end so soon..."
"What?" King Hui looked up suddenly. "When did this happen? Why doesn't the court know about it?"
"It was the Queen who concealed the news."
Wang Huailu said in a deep voice, "Before, the war in the northwest was going badly. The Queen tried to appease the court officials by saying that the war with Southern Qi was about to end and that Your Majesty would soon return to the capital. As a result, many people in the court calmed down, fearing that Your Majesty would settle accounts after returning to the capital. They also felt that after the Southern Qi army marched north, Beiling naturally no longer had to fear it. But now that the various tribes in the western border have intervened, the war with Southern Qi has been hindered..."
King Hui suddenly said, "Is it difficult for Xiao Yan to return to the capital?"
Wang Huailu nodded: "Yes."
He looked at the other people beside him, and his eyes swept over the changes in their expressions.
"The Queen proposed this condition, but she may not be truly confident in forcing the noble families."
"The war in the northwest is difficult, and Southern Qi is struggling to end it quickly. It's simply impossible for the court to sustain simultaneous fighting in both the north and south for a long time. If Southern Qi can't end its war quickly, the money and grain that Your Majesty and the Ministry of Revenue have previously prepared will be unsustainable..."
Min An seemed to understand what he meant and raised his head suddenly: "Are you saying that the Queen is bluffing?"
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