Zhao Qiong was unhappy when he heard this. He raised his hand and drank a glass of wine, feeling even more dissatisfied!
"It would be nice if he had concubines, but that wouldn't cost him much! But he's supporting tens of thousands of soldiers guarding the border! Today, the court stopped providing rations, and he's asking for money to buy food and send it to them! Tomorrow, the border soldiers won't have weapons, and he's asking his family to pay for the weapons department! The day after tomorrow, the border soldiers won't have cotton clothes for the winter, and they're asking for money to buy cotton again..."
"Our family isn't a bank, so we can only sell our land! I'm so unlucky to have such a stupid father!"
The rest of his friends were quite considerate and joined him in cursing.
"So, your father is a bit stupid. How could he use his own money to support the imperial court's army?"
"The imperial court is so wicked! We're counting on the border troops to protect the border, but why don't they provide them with food and weapons?"
"Yes, I heard that renovating a palace in the palace costs 30,000 taels of silver. How come the border troops don't have any money?"
They spoke freely, and because they were drunk, they criticized the court even more unscrupulously, but they didn't know that the walls had ears.
In the room to the left of this box sat a group of merchants, more than twenty of them, all listening attentively.
On the right, a dozen or so minor officials sat in the private room. They were all colleagues from the Ministry of Revenue, and they were also gathered together to drink for someone's birthday...
Chen Qiong's few complaints were insignificant, but dozens of people knew about it. The court treated the border troops harshly, and the general paid out of his own pocket and sold his land to raise money to barely ensure that the border troops had enough food and clothing...
There is never a shortage of gossipers in this world. After the banquet ended, rumors started spreading in Kyoto within two days.
"Hey, have you heard? The imperial court is truly wicked. They expect the border troops to guard the border, but they don't even provide them with rations or clothing. The general has been forced to sell off his property!"
An old woman who was carrying a basket to buy vegetables met a fellow villager. When they got together to chat, she started talking mysteriously.
The fellow villager nodded quickly and whispered, "Of course I know. I'm afraid the news has spread all over Kyoto! Our master is a censor, old-fashioned and upright. He even wanted to submit a memorial to impeach the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War, but was stopped by our wife, and then the master and the wife had a quarrel!"
"Your master is so brave!" The grocery shopping woman was full of admiration, and then she whispered around, "If you ask me, those masters in the court, including the emperor, are all very smart. How could they not know that the general was selling off his household income to support the border troops? That's right, playing deaf and dumb to take advantage, whoever benefits is happy! After all, if the general pays the money, the court doesn't have to pay, and the emperor has money to go south for inspections and build palaces!"
"Yes, yes, that's right. If it were me, I would pretend to be blind too!"
"Haha, if you don't take advantage of an opportunity, you're a bastard!"
The two old women were chatting animatedly, and the rest of the people were not idle either. The vegetable seller, the bun seller, the pig butcher, the waiter in the restaurant, the diners, the people drinking tea in the teahouse, almost everyone was talking about it.
Naturally, most people felt sorry for the border guards and the general.
If you want a horse to run, you must feed it grass. This is a truth that even a fool understands.
But the imperial court has been riding the border guards' horses for many years and is still unwilling to feed them grass. This is really unreasonable. For a great country like ours, it is shameful!
But there were also people who gritted their teeth in anger, complaining that this matter had been talked about by the people and had damaged the prestige of the court and the emperor!
So, at a grand court meeting one day, an official from the Ministry of Revenue stepped forward and accused the general of slandering the Ministry, causing citizens, unaware of the truth, to secretly throw rotten vegetable leaves at the yamen gate!
The official who filed the complaint was also a dramatic character, kneeling on the ground crying with tears and snot, feeling extremely aggrieved.
"Your Majesty, we have been plagued by natural and man-made disasters over the past few years, and our government is truly broke. We are not being harsh on the border troops. We simply believed that the border was peaceful and there were no foreign enemies invading, so a few days' delay in delivering military rations wouldn't be a big deal. We never imagined that the general would be so resentful that he would even go so far as to spread rumors and disrupt Kyoto in revenge!"
Then, without waiting for the emperor to speak, he shouted angrily, “Also, the people are all saying that the emperor took the military rations and money of the border soldiers to build a palace just for his own enjoyment!
Your Majesty, listen to this! Is this what the people should say? Or did someone teach them to do this? This is the general's dissatisfaction with you!"
The emperor sitting on the dragon throne was not too old, but his body had been hollowed out by alcohol and sex. The dark bags under his eyes said it all.
He slammed the table and cursed, "How dare Zhao Anbang! I thought he was loyal and righteous, and I trusted him greatly. I never thought he would be such a treacherous person!"
After all, there were still loyal old ministers who could not bear to see the good general being framed, so they stepped forward to help mediate.
"Your Majesty, these are just rumors. You can't take it seriously and say that General Zhao has any rebellious intentions. We still need to investigate carefully before making a final conclusion."
Immediately, someone else stepped forward to refute, and some people also joined in to support the old minister. For a while, the court was as noisy as a busy market.
Finally, the emperor got fed up and ran out of energy, so he directly issued an edict to go to the border to reprimand the border troops, and ordered the generals to reflect on their mistakes behind closed doors, and the rest of the matters would be discussed later!
The general's wife was sitting in the room discussing something with her eldest son and daughter-in-law, and neither of them looked very happy.
"Zhi'er, you'd better find out whether the rumors outside were spread from the West Mansion?" The general's wife clenched the handkerchief in her hand, thinking about going to the West Mansion to ask for an explanation.
But Zhao Zhi shook his head slightly, with a look of strangeness and disappointment on his face, and whispered, "Mother, it's not the West Mansion that's causing trouble this time, it's..."
"What is it?" asked the general's wife.
Jiang Shi didn't want to embarrass her husband, so she quickly responded, "Mother, I heard that the cause of this incident was... my second brother was drinking with a group of friends and said a few extra words. Someone heard it, and then the rumor got out of hand!"
"Bang!" As expected, the general's wife was so angry that she threw the tea bowl, "That beast!"
It's not that she didn't feel sorry for her husband. The border troops were there to guard the borders of Wei, but it was their Zhao family who supported the border troops. How unfair!
But it had been several years since the incident, and her husband was planning to lead the border troops to cultivate land and get rid of the food shortage problem, so naturally the family wouldn't have to spend money in the future.
It happened that at such a critical moment, things got out of hand. No matter how the court reacted, it had to pay attention to the border.
If her husband's plan goes wrong, the family will at least lose money, and may even be wiped out!
The imperial court and the emperor have never been at ease with their family, otherwise they would not have let them live next to the imperial palace, guarded and monitored!
In the whole family, only the second son, that fool, thinks this is an honor!
She always thought that the second child was still young and would naturally understand the difficult situation of the family when he grew up.
Unexpectedly, the idiot is still an idiot when he grows up!
At this moment, the fool Zhao Qiong hurried in from outside, his face filled with joy, and he shouted, "Mother, someone from the palace is here to deliver an imperial decree! Did my father perform meritorious deeds at the border?"
The general's wife and Zhao Zhi and his wife stood up suddenly, with uncontrollable fear and panic in their eyes.
It’s over, the court’s counterattack has arrived!
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