The next day, Shen Wan and Xie Jingyan had breakfast together.
Xie Jingyan went to his study, and Shen Wan prepared to take a walk in the garden. Just as she stepped out of the courtyard gate, a maid rushed over, saying in a panic, "Your Highness, something terrible has happened! The Emperor has ordered the Prince to go to Wangzhou for disaster relief!"
Shen Wan frowned upon hearing this, but before she could speak, Yin Shuang said, "Why would His Majesty send the Prince to Wangzhou for disaster relief?"
The maid said, "It's true. His Majesty announced it at the morning court session. He will first allocate 300,000 taels of silver and 100,000 dan of grain to Wangzhou for disaster relief. If that's not enough, the national treasury will allocate more."
Yinshuang was also getting anxious. She looked at Shenwan and said, "If the prince doesn't return for a month or two after he goes to Wangzhou for disaster relief, what will happen to the princess?"
Shen Wan then said, "Then we'll go too."
Yinshuang asked, "The princess is pregnant, will the prince agree?"
Shen Wan, "..."
She was joking.
How could this maid actually believe it?
The Emperor knew Xie Jingyan's temperament. It wasn't Xie Jingyan's own initiative to go. The Emperor couldn't possibly entrust the disaster relief to Xie Jingyan in front of all the civil and military officials during the morning court session. Being disobeyed by one's son was not a matter of pride.
Furthermore, there was no flooding in Wangzhou at all. Even if Prince Cheng had a lot of courage, he wouldn't dare to let Xie Jingyan go there. She wanted to see how Prince Cheng would stop Xie Jingyan from going to Wangzhou.
Yesterday morning at court, no results were reached regarding disaster relief. Today morning at court, the officials continued to discuss the matter.
The disaster relief work could not be delayed, so the Emperor ordered the Ministry of Revenue to allocate 300,000 taels of silver and 100,000 dan of grain to Wangzhou.
With the disaster relief funds and provisions settled, the next step was to decide who to send to carry out the relief work. Wangzhou was King Cheng's fiefdom, so it was the most reliable option for King Cheng to take charge of this matter. It was his own fiefdom, so he should be the one to take it seriously.
However, Princess Cheng was seriously ill and Prince Cheng was unable to leave, so he had to send someone else. Prince Cheng recommended someone, but the Emperor did not agree and said, "Let Prince Ling go to Wangzhou to provide disaster relief."
Prince Cheng immediately objected, saying, "The disaster in Wangzhou is severe. If you go to provide disaster relief, it will probably take two or three months to return. Princess Ling is six months pregnant, and Prince Ling may not be able to return before she gives birth. Princess Ling has been assassinated several times when she went out. It is more important for Prince Ling to stay in the capital to take care of her. Disaster relief is not something that can be done without Prince Ling."
Several ministers also stood up to echo King Cheng's opinion and opposed sending Xie Jingyan to provide disaster relief.
The Emperor said, "If Prince Ling is not worried about Princess Ling and has taken on this task, what do you, my dear ministers, have to worry about?"
One sentence shut everyone up.
Prince Ling dotes on his wife so much that he even suffers from pregnancy complications on her behalf. If Prince Ling isn't worried about this, then they are just being overly anxious.
That was settled.
The Ministry of Revenue worked feverishly to load the disaster relief funds onto carts and transfer grain from various granaries, eager to get the disaster relief money and grain ready immediately.
Just as the Ministry of Revenue was about to complete its preparations, Prince Cheng entered the palace with a letter to see the Emperor.
The letter was sent from Wangzhou. Although King Cheng had not visited his fiefdom many times, Wangzhou would send a letter to the capital every ten days to inform King Cheng of the recent situation in Wangzhou, so that King Cheng could be at ease.
However, the letter that arrived this time did not mention the word "flood" at all. He asked the servant who delivered the letter, and the servant said that it had rained for two days in Wangzhou and the river had risen quite a bit, but it was far from being a disaster area.
The Prince of Cheng presented the letter to the Emperor for review, suspecting that there was something wrong with the sudden flood in Wangzhou, which had always enjoyed favorable weather. He wanted to see the urgent message sent to the capital that day.
The Emperor showed the urgent memorial delivered 600 li to Prince Cheng for review. After careful examination, Prince Cheng discovered that the 600-li urgent memorial was not written by the Prefect of Wangzhou himself. Although it looked very similar, it was a forgery.
King Cheng even consulted scholars from the Hanlin Academy to examine the handwriting, confirming that the urgent dispatch from 600 li away was forged. If it was a forged dispatch, then the disaster report was obviously fake as well.
King Cheng suspected that someone was using the pretext of the flood in Wangzhou to procure grain, intending to burn the grain supplies en route. Although King Cheng exposed the scheme, he still wanted to use it against Xie Jingyan, sending fake grain supplies to Wangzhou to lure the enemy out...
Will the Emperor agree?
It was exhausting enough for him to patiently watch Cheng Wang act.
Cooperating with King Cheng to cover up the lie means that he is risking the lives of the innocent soldiers transporting the grain and even Xie Jingyan.
The Wangzhou iron mine disaster and the floods left the Emperor utterly disappointed in Prince Cheng.
As the Emperor sat on the dragon throne, his eyes showed increasing disappointment with almost every word spoken by Prince Cheng.
The emperor did not expose Prince Cheng's lie, but only rejected Prince Cheng's suggestion to lure the snake out of its hole, and then sent him away.
However, the 600-li urgent dispatch was fake, which caused a huge uproar in the court. Everyone found it unbelievable and demanded a thorough investigation to find out who was so audacious. If they were not severely punished, they feared that one day the border would also send false messages, which would be too terrible.
The disaster situation in Wangzhou was fabricated, so Xie Jingyan naturally didn't need to go to Wangzhou for disaster relief.
He was supposed to set off for Wangzhou for disaster relief, but after breakfast that day, he accompanied Shen Wan out of the mansion to attend the Yun family's wedding banquet.
The Yun family was filled with joy.
Madam Yun's face beamed with joy.
Before going to see Old Madam Yun, Shen Wan went to deliver the dowry to Yun Rui. When Yun Rui saw Shen Wan, her face turned red. Shen Wan couldn't help but tease her, "Cousin is so beautiful, no wonder the heir of Xuanping Marquis said he would be happy to marry her."
Yunrui blushed so much her ears turned bright red, and stamped her foot, saying, "No cousin ever teases me like that!"
Shen Wan blinked and said, "I'm not joking, I'm stating the truth."
Yunrui became even more shy.
She knew Shen Wan was telling the truth, because her elder brother had said those words verbatim after visiting the heir of the Marquis of Xuanping. She was so embarrassed that she almost lost a shoe.
Shen Wan sat with Yun Rui for a quarter of an hour, and Yun Rui was reluctant to let Shen Wan go.
As Shen Wan approached Liushuang Courtyard, she saw Yun Mo coming from afar. When she got closer, Shen Wan asked, "Are you feeling better about your morning sickness?"
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