Chapter 236 The Emperor's Attitude
Jiang Tong was bombarded with questions and doubts by his colleagues with whom he did not get along. His so-called benevolent fatherly heart, which was originally an act, was quickly exposed as a hypocrite.
Without the emperor saying anything, Jiang Tong dared not mention that Jiang Yuan was his son.
After all, the mystery hasn't been solved yet, and he's already been exposed as a loving father. If people hear Jiang Yuan's name from his mouth again, they'll know exactly what he's thinking. Only a fool would understand.
Jiang Tong dared not say anything more about wanting to acknowledge his relatives. He covered his face with his sleeve, feigned shame, and knelt down to confess his guilt. He said that he had been reckless and should not have rushed to send people to the northern border, which aroused the vigilance and misunderstanding of the soldiers stationed at Zijing Pass. He promised that he would summon all his subordinates back as soon as possible.
The emperor nodded and said nothing more. The others then stopped there and began discussing other important military and national affairs.
After finally enduring the court session, the emperor was escorted away by a large crowd. Jiang Tong hurriedly turned around, his eyes lowered, and tried to slip away.
However, he had only taken a few steps when the same group of people who had pretended to be objective and fair but were actually seizing the opportunity to criticize him had already surrounded Jiang Tong in their midst.
Jiang Tong's family affairs might seem like a trivial matter in court, not worth everyone's time or gossip, but after court, people can still dig deeper into this interesting gossip.
They were extremely curious about who Jiang Tong's so-called "long-lost eldest son" really was.
After all, Jiang Tong was not the kind of loving father in the usual sense; his actions were clearly driven by self-interest.
So, this eldest son, whom he had originally abandoned but who has now made him want to acknowledge his kinship, is certainly worth exploring.
Although combining the labels of "Northern Frontier" and "orphan," they could easily associate it with Jiang Yuan, who had made great contributions recently but had not been granted a higher rank by the emperor because of his youth and short military service, speculation was still just speculation. If possible, they would certainly prefer to get definite information from Jiang Tong.
However, Jiang Tong was clearly not in the mood for a verbal exchange with them. He didn't want to be tested by these people, nor did he want to reveal his secrets out. So no matter what they said, he just kept repeating, "I have other matters to attend to at home, so please do not block my way."
Seeing that he was determined to go, those people had no choice but to make way for him and let him go.
However, they did not give up. Instead, they secretly sent people out of the capital to deliver messages to the group of people they had sent to inquire about Jiang Yuan.
The reply arrived slightly earlier than they expected. The letter not only confirmed their speculation about the relationship between Jiang Yuan and Jiang Tong, but also detailed the outrageous things that Jiang Tong's subordinates had done in Yi County and around Zijing Pass.
Those who received the reply from their subordinates had a variety of expressions as they read it.
Leaving aside how they lamented losing the opportunity to win over Jiang Yuan while mocking Jiang Tong for being blind and losing more than they gained, let's just talk about Jiang Yuan and Xie Wanniang.
Around the same time, Jiang Yuan received a material reward from the emperor, which was presented to him by Chang Yao.
Although the emperor did not explicitly say that he approved of Jiang Yuan's refusal to acknowledge his ancestors, his act of rewarding Jiang Yuan with gold, silver, brocade, tea, and fine wine indirectly told everyone that he did not want his promising young general to be associated with the nobles who had joined his ranks halfway through his career.
Yes, Jiang Tong was not in the same camp as His Majesty the Emperor from the beginning. He surrendered voluntarily after the death of the previous emperor and the current emperor came to power, due to the circumstances.
The emperor always treated those who voluntarily surrendered generously, in order to attract more people in similar situations.
But as I said before, the emperor doesn't mind giving them wealth and glory, but he won't let them keep their own private army.
He could even "sell himself out" by taking concubines to win people's hearts, but the emperor always tried his best to keep military power in his own hands.
He would try every means to divide the enemy's forces whenever someone surrendered to him under duress and was not truly loyal to him.
Especially after the overall situation was settled and he ascended the throne, he directly put his bottom line on the table, giving those nobles who still held military power to some extent an opportunity to voluntarily relinquish their power.
Due to the circumstances, no matter how unwilling they were, they had to hand over their military power in order to protect themselves and their families.
Ultimately, however, these people are still somewhat unwilling to accept this situation.
Jiang Tong was the same. Just because he was sensible at the time didn't mean he would always be sensible. After the storm had passed, he still couldn't help but test the emperor.
In particular, his second legitimate son was neither good at literature nor martial arts, and although his illegitimate sons had some cleverness, they had never experienced the full test of the battlefield or the imperial examination.
Therefore, although he favored his illegitimate son, he was also very clear that there was a big difference between being clever and being able to use that cleverness to carve out a bloody path in both the literary and martial arts.
It's rare to see such a promising talent as Jiang Yuan emerge, so it's really hard for him not to be tempted.
But now, he is clearly unable to continue his plan to reunite with his family.
The emperor's attitude toward military power remained unchanged. If he insisted on recognizing Jiang Yuan, he couldn't say what would happen to Jiang Yuan, but he would certainly be seen by the emperor as someone with rebellious intentions.
Jiang Tong had no such intention, mainly because he knew he didn't have the ability. His desire to seize military power was merely a way to bring more power and wealth to his family.
Since the emperor remained as wary of those who had joined him halfway through his life, he naturally dared not continue to harbor any ulterior motives for the sake of his family.
He truly didn't recognize Jiang Yuan, his son, at this moment.
Since then, Jiang Tong has kept a low profile and continued to live his life as a wealthy idler, while Jiang Yuan has also resumed his routine military life.
As for Xie Wanniang, after the matter was temporarily settled, she immediately wrote back to Wang Xiaozhi. On the one hand, she told them the final result of the matter, and on the other hand, she advised Wang Xiaozhi and Chen Lizheng to never confront those people directly in the future.
In addition, Xie Wanniang hired a disabled former guard from the Marquis's mansion and asked him to stay in Mingfu Village for a few years to teach the talented children in the village martial arts.
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