Chapter 264 The Queen Mother and the Regent Who Turned into a Cat 26
The little emperor recognized the jade ring as the one he had seen in the Chajiu Palace before.
There is an affair between the Regent King and the Queen Mother!
After discovering this huge secret, the little emperor returned to his carriage with a pale face, trembling and muttering: "It's over, it's over now."
If these two people get together, will he still be able to sit firmly on the throne?
After hearing about His Majesty's worries, Xiaoluzi, who was serving beside him, hurriedly comforted him, "Your Majesty, please be patient. The relationship between the Queen Mother and the Regent Prince may not be a romantic one."
The little emperor was anxious: "Are you blind? How did Zong Yue show concern for the empress dowager and pour her tea along the way? What's more, the empress dowager's jade pendant was still hanging on him. If the relationship between the two is not this, what other relationship can it be?"
Xiao Luzi analyzed, "The Queen Mother is on your side because of the late Emperor's kindness. Otherwise, she would not have let go of the witchcraft cat-transforming incident, and she also helped you to give the Regent a job. Now, I'm afraid that the Regent has lowered his status to curry favor with the Queen Mother for the sake of the power in his hands."
The little emperor asked suspiciously, "You mean, it was Zong Yue who took the initiative to climb into the Queen Mother's bed for power?"
"Exactly."
The young emperor recalled Zong Yue's attentiveness and flattery along the way, as well as Cha Jiu's calm acceptance of the other party's service, and he felt that Xiao Luzi's guess was very reasonable.
"A dignified Prince Regent actually sells her body and becomes a male favorite. How shameless!" He sneered, feeling vaguely happy in his heart.
At this moment, Zong Yue, who was following the Cha Jiu carriage, suddenly sneezed.
Cha Jiu leaned her hand on the edge of the window, looked at him with her chin in her hand, and smiled: "It's so cold outside, Your Highness the Regent, would you like to get in the carriage?"
Zong Yue thought she was teasing him, so he lowered his head and smiled, "If I go in, some secrets will be exposed."
Cha Jiu looked at him calmly, her almond eyes serious: "I'm not joking."
Zong Yue was surprised.
"So do you want to come in?" Cha Jiu's almond-shaped eyes were smiling, even more dazzling than the exquisite snow scenery on both sides of the road.
"Then I, the minister, would be disrespectful."
Zong Yue curled his thin lips slightly, got off the horse immediately, and got into the Queen Mother's carriage in the astonished eyes of everyone.
…
The holy chariot soon arrived in Dongzhou.
Lin Minfeng, who was in charge of patrolling and supervising relief funds in Dongzhou, had been waiting for a long time.
When the little emperor saw Zong Yue coming out of the tea carriage, he was no longer surprised, but instead there was a flash of disdain in his eyes.
The patrolling officials all knelt down and saluted.
"Your Majesty, the Queen Mother, and the Prince Regent are all here to pay their respects. You must be hungry after all the long journey. We have prepared some simple food, please enjoy it."
Unexpectedly, the little emperor waved his hand and declined.
"No need. The drought in Dongzhou is urgent. I will go check on the people first."
Does the little emperor really care about the people?
Of course not.
This was what Duke Lin taught him. Once he arrived in Dongzhou, he should go straight to the people and spread his reputation of loving the people like his own children.
Sure enough, the historian who followed nodded in approval and recorded it in the book.
Cha Jiu seemed to be smiling, while Zong Yue's eyes were indifferent.
Both of them seemed to see through the little emperor's plan.
Xunfu and Lin Minfeng exchanged glances with each other, and calmly took the little emperor to inspect the porridge shed built nearby.
…
Although the winter is bitterly cold, the porridge stall is full of warmth.
There is thick rice porridge in the pot, each one is crystal clear and plump, and the aroma of rice wafts far into the air.
The people lined up with their bowls in hand to receive the porridge. Everyone had a grateful smile on their face, and they kept praising the current emperor for his wisdom and speaking well of the court.
The young emperor was very satisfied and said: "You have done a great job on this mission. I will reward you according to your merits when I return to the capital."
Xunfu thanked him repeatedly.
Lin Minfeng lowered his head and said, "I dare not take credit for it. The disaster in Dongzhou was brought under control thanks to your majesty's wise decision and love for the people. I was just following your orders."
The young emperor liked such ministers who were not arrogant and self-righteous. He was so delighted that he said, "Okay, okay, I will reward you with 100 taels of gold when we return to Beijing!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Zong Yue had no interest in these scenes of boasting and flattery.
With eyes as sharp as a hawk, he observed the details of the porridge distribution keenly and finally found something wrong.
"Did you see it?" he asked Cha Jiu in a low voice.
Cha Jiu was actually observing the surroundings the whole time, and nodded in response, "I saw it."
These hungry people were queuing up calmly and orderly to be fed rice porridge. Although they had happy faces, there was not a trace of desire for rice porridge in their eyes.
Cha Jiuxu said, "People who are hungry shouldn't be so relaxed. They will desperately squeeze forward, hoping to get their turn as soon as possible and drink the hot rice porridge."
Looking down, she continued, "Although their clothes are plain, they don't have any patches on them, and their hands are very clean."
Zong Yue continued her words: "The fingernails of the truly hungry people are not clean, because they will dig wild vegetables, grass roots, and even eat Guanyin soil."
Cha Jiu nodded: "That's right."
Zong Yue's eyes darkened, and he concluded, "These are pretending to be hungry people."
Where did the hungry people go? Did they receive relief food from the government?
Cha Jiu immediately decided to visit several surrounding counties.
Xunfu and Lin Minfeng's faces changed immediately.
"Empress Dowager, it's getting late. Why don't you go back to your residence, have dinner, have a good night's rest, and see how things go tomorrow," Lin Minfeng advised.
The caresser also agreed, "Yes, it would be bad if we were to tire the nobles' precious bodies."
Their obstructive attitude made Cha Jiu more determined to go.
Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, the patrol officer pulled Lin Minfeng in panic and whispered, "What should we do? We have driven all the hungry people here to several nearby counties. There is not enough rice porridge there!"
Lin Minfeng was also panicked for a moment, but he quickly calmed down: "If it really doesn't work, just push a scapegoat out and we will just pretend we didn't know anything."
The carriage arrived at the neighboring county.
The scene before me was completely different from what I had just seen.
The surroundings were desolate. All edible things on the land had been dug up, leaving pits and holes in the land. The leaves and young branches on the trees had been stripped clean.
Everyone was pale and thin, with dull eyes. They gathered in layers around the shabby and simple porridge stall, drooling at the rising steam of rice porridge.
The number of hungry people here is more than five to six times that of before.
But the rice porridge in the bucket was very watery. There were hardly any grains of rice in each person's bowl, only a thin layer of porridge water.
But these people ate very well.
"What's going on?" The little emperor was furious and immediately asked someone to call the county magistrate.
After searching for a long time, I found out that the county magistrate was wearing coarse linen clothes and distributing rice porridge in the porridge shed.
The guards brought him here.
The little emperor looked at him and sneered, "Are you giving out porridge or water? The imperial court has rules for giving out porridge to help disaster relief. The porridge must be thick enough to be inserted with chopsticks without floating. Otherwise, the officials who give out porridge will lose their heads. Do you know that?"
People around came to look.
In order to establish his authority, the young emperor drew his sword and killed the county magistrate without waiting for his explanation.
"Wait!" Cha Jiu said hurriedly.
Zong Yue strode forward, clamped the blade that was about to chop down with his fingertips, and broke it in half.
…
…
There is only one chapter today, and three chapters tomorrow. The little emperor will die tomorrow, and it is hard for me to write.
P.S.: Actually, if I had just briefly mentioned the little emperor's suicide journey and quickly let the male and female protagonists have children, would it have been better? I feel that writing it like this now is too long-winded.
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