Chapter 277: Killing and Destroying the Heart
Xiao Yan's voice was particularly cold.
"The official ship, which had been inspected repeatedly before leaving Beijing, sank without warning. Nearly one million in disaster relief money and grain disappeared, and none of the officers and soldiers transporting the relief money survived. Yet, Your Majesty was able to maintain his position at court in just a few short years. Do you really think you could have done this simply by marrying a daughter of the Lu family?"
"If the daughter of the Lu family is really that easy to marry, considering your status among the princes back then, Lu Qingfeng is just a concubine's daughter from a side branch. Why can't you get what you want?"
King Cheng was stunned by Xiao Yan's words.
Xiao Yan taunted, "It was the Lu family who chose Your Majesty long ago, and the person you mentioned was forced to separate from you because of the marriage granted by the late emperor also chose someone else long ago."
"You're talking nonsense!" King Cheng hissed, "You're talking nonsense!!!"
Qingfeng was forced to separate from him, she had always loved him.
When the late emperor issued the decree of marriage, she wanted to jump into the lake to clear her name. It was the Lu family who used her biological parents to force her to marry Xie Tianyong so that he could ascend the throne.
She gave her virginity to him, and even wanted his bloodline for her child. After marrying Xie Tianyong, she had been secretly helping him, gathering information for him, and even helping him behind the Lu family's back. It was only because of his bad luck that he lost to Xie Tianyong...
Prince Cheng looked at Xiao Yan with bloodshot eyes: "I don't know what you want to do, but don't try to alienate the relationship between her and me. We are inseparable until death. You, a eunuch, will never understand!"
"Until death do us part?"
Xiao Yan suddenly laughed as if he heard something funny. He took out two things from his sleeve and unfolded them directly in front of King Cheng.
"What are you doing..."
King Cheng was so surprised that he subconsciously wanted to step back, but Xiao Yan grabbed his hair and pressed it in front of the blood letter.
"What you mean by 'loyalty until death' is that she knew the truth about the disaster relief efforts back then, that the Lu family assisted His Majesty in embezzling the funds, yet she took advantage of your trust in her and intercepted the evidence obtained by your men, keeping you in the dark for years?"
"Your unwavering loyalty means that she knew the Lu family was interested in a marriage with His Majesty long ago, and she secretly encountered His Majesty many times, causing him to fall in love with her. Then, she lied about her illegitimate status and took the initiative to ask to be adopted into the main branch, kneeling before Lu Chongyuan to beg for this marriage?"
"What did you say……"
"You know what I'm saying. Open your eyes and look at this thing carefully!"
King Cheng was forced to raise his head and open his eyes wide to see clearly what was so close to him. He was originally surprised, but when he saw clearly what was written in the dried blood on the silk cloth, his eyes widened little by little.
"I, Tao Zi'an, the Magistrate of Rongjiang County, report to Your Majesty that Inspector Lu Chongyuan, following the Emperor's orders to provide disaster relief, has disobeyed the Crown Prince's wishes and arbitrarily mobilized the garrison to blockade Rongjiang, intending to massacre the city and forcefully quell the epidemic..."
"There are only a few dozen people in the city who are sick with the disease, while the rest are nearly ten thousand healthy. Before returning to the capital, the Crown Prince ordered doctors to find a cure and set up an epidemic area separated from the people. However, the bandits on land wanted to destroy the Crown Prince's reputation and used this as an excuse to forcibly massacre the people. I begged the Fifth Prince to do this, but he was refused. I had my feet cut off and was imprisoned in the government office."
"That night, a blaze engulfed the city. I was trapped in the government office, listening to the wailing and weeping of over ten thousand people. The blaze melted the bones of the innocent in the city. I risked my life to leave this letter in blood. I hope that Heaven will punish the evildoer, otherwise I will die with regrets!"
The blood-stained words soaked through the silk, and the four characters "die with eyes open" were even more messy.
Xiao Yan looked at the pale-faced Prince Cheng and whispered in his ear, "Do you know how His Majesty provided disaster relief and quelled the rebellion back then? He ordered the Rong River to be burned and anyone infected with the disease to be slaughtered. He secured the support of the Lu family's private army and colluded with local officials and bandits, wantonly slaughtering the victims of the disaster and pretending they were rebels."
"He used the disaster relief money and grain that the Crown Prince and the He family had raised after returning to the capital, and deceived the unsuspecting victims into worshipping him as a god. When he returned to the capital, the people of the southern land lined the streets to see him off. Ninety percent of them were wealthy officials, bandits, and merchants. The Ten Thousand People Umbrella placed in the Imperial Ancestral Temple was stained with the blood of those who died unjustly."
Xiao Yan let go of King Cheng's hair and saw him lying on the ground. Then he put away the blood letter and read it word by word.
"This blood letter was handed to me personally by Empress Lu after the Fourth Prince was deposed. She resented the Lu family's cruelty."
"Others were unaware of what happened back then, but Empress Lu knew it all. After Crown Prince Li's rebellion, you and Your Majesty vied for the throne. If she had produced this blood letter, even if she had only told you a sliver of the truth, you could have forced Your Majesty to back down. Why would you have surrendered the throne to someone else and ended up like this?"
King Cheng lay on the ground with a pale face: "Impossible... No way..."
He murmured in a low voice. He wanted to say that Xiao Yan was lying to him, that the blood letter was not given to him by the Queen, but those scenes from many years ago that he had almost forgotten began to appear before his eyes bit by bit.
Before Xie Tianyong returned to Beijing after providing disaster relief, he was busy uniting court officials to deal with Xie Tianzhao, who returned to Beijing in embarrassment due to the failure of disaster relief. At that time, his men did intercept the news sent back to the capital from the South, and Lu Qingfeng was also there when the things were delivered.
He was so passionate about her at the time that he had never been on guard. She said the information on it was unimportant, so he just put it aside and didn't ask about it again. After that, he never saw the thing again...
Some things simply don't stand up to scrutiny.
After he fell in love with Lu Qingfeng, he asked the late emperor to grant him a marriage several times. However, she said that her humble status might affect his great cause and make the late emperor disappointed in him.
After the late emperor granted the marriage, she suddenly became the legitimate daughter of the Lu family and was adopted by Lu Chongyuan. She cried and made a fuss, saying that she did not want to marry anyone else and that she only wanted to be his wife.
But the Lu family forced him, and the royal family also forced her.
After he rescued Lu Qingfeng from the lake, who wanted to commit suicide to prove her innocence, and after she gave him her virginity with tears, he fell deeply in love with her and believed in her without a doubt.
But why didn't he think about it carefully back then?
The late emperor did not know any girl from the Lu family, but the person he decreed for marriage was Lu Qingfeng, the legitimate daughter of the Lu family. If Lu Qingfeng had not known Xie Tianyong for a long time, and if the Lu family had not known about the marriage, how could they have adopted Lu Qingfeng into the legitimate branch before the imperial decree?
There was also the struggle for the throne back then.
It was obvious that he was better than Xie Tianyong in every way, and it was obvious that he was only one step away from the throne, but Xie Tianyong always managed to figure out what he wanted to do before him.
He had a great opportunity and finally fought the Crown Prince with all his might, but in the end, he fell into the hands of Xie Tianyong...
"Lu Qingfeng..."
Lu Qingfeng!!!
King Cheng lay on the ground, shaking all over. The more he thought about what happened, the more he found loopholes everywhere.
Xiao Yan folded the blood letter and put it away. "Actually, I've always been curious. A powerful woman like the Empress, who single-handedly toyed with His Majesty and the Prince, would she really raise the Prince's bloodline under her wing? Leaving behind such a powerful handle that could overthrow everything they have at any time?"
He glanced at Prince Cheng and said, "The Fourth Prince and the prince are not even remotely similar."
Killing people and destroying their hearts is nothing more than this.
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