Chapter 247: National Treasury Disaster Relief Funds
Su Zhenzhen really wanted to say, "Yes, there are plenty."
If it weren't for the strangeness of the Jiang Dynasty, this land would have seen many more dynasties rise and fall.
Rebellion by officials was a common occurrence during dynastic changes.
"You said at the beginning that if no one comes, no one will know this secret. Are you referring to General Hu Buwei as your son?"
Actually, this isn't a big secret. It doesn't even mean that Hu Buwei had any rebellious intentions, since he died before he could even start a rebellion.
"No, young lady, do you all think that he died of old age? Actually, he was murdered, and there was no one to collect his body after he died."
For a moment, Su Zhenzhen felt like her CPU was about to explode.
If even General Hu Buwei's death was suspicious, then what else hasn't been covered up?
"Could it have been done by one of General Hu Buwei's subordinates?" This was the first answer that came to Su Zhenzhen's mind.
After all, if General Hu Buwei was the supreme commander of the Huzhou army, and the cause of his death was questionable, the first to be uneasy should have been his three subordinate generals.
The official statements from Huzhou were consistent, with the message being that General Hu had passed away peacefully.
Conversely, these three generals are the most likely to have committed the dirty trick.
Whoever benefits the most is most likely the murderer.
Mrs. Huo suddenly looked up at the sky, her eyes, devoid of any light, staring blankly at the heavens.
"At first, I also thought it was Buwei's three subordinates who seized power, but when I helped Buwei collect his remains, I found a secret letter that he had hidden close to his body."
Madam Huo pulled out a crumpled stack of papers from her bosom. The papers were yellowed and faded, and there were also torn and damaged parts. One could imagine how many twists and turns this stack of papers had gone through.
Mrs. Huo handed the paper forward, and Su Zhenzhen reached out and took it.
Opening the paper, after only a few quick glances, a slightly chubby face scrunched up in a frown.
"Can't you see it? How do you know what's written in this letter?"
“My dear girl, you can’t just look at things with your eyes.” Madam Huo rubbed her palm. “Look at this paper. After all these years, it still feels so smooth. This is not paper that ordinary people can afford. And the ink on it, if you come closer and smell it, you can still smell the faint fragrance of ink. As for the words on it, the texture of the parts of the paper that have been written on is different from the parts that haven’t.”
Su Zhenzhen admired Madam Huo more and more; her eyes were indeed just a tool she used to see the world.
Heaven took away her eyes, but gave her a clever and insightful mind, which is far more useful than her eyes.
Do you know what's written in this letter?
“I know, and that’s why I’ve been holding on to living in this world all these years.” Madam Huo looked over, a glint of light flashing in her bright eyes. “My dear girl, my world is dark every day. Sometimes I don’t even know if I’m already dead. But I’m not willing to die like this.”
"What do you want me to do?" Su Zhenzhen asked calmly.
“Find the person who wrote this letter and tell him that the people of the world have suffered enough, and I will not blame him for forcing him to his death.”
The summer night breeze was silent, and the moon in the sky was quiet and cold. Su Zhenzhen heard herself softly reply, "Okay."
As the words faded, Madam Huo seemed to lose all her strength, slumping against General Hu Buwei's tombstone, her outstretched arms losing their curve.
“Girl, after I die, please bury me next to Buwei. He never had a biological mother, and his adoptive mother was also muddle-headed. He suffered a lot from childhood. I thought that in the afterlife, I would take good care of him to make up for the decades of debt I owed him.”
After saying that, Madam Huo gently closed her eyes.
When Su Zhenzhen reached out to check, the person had already stopped breathing.
At that moment, Su Zhenzhen seemed to understand the profound meaning of life.
The living can die, and the dead can live.
Logically speaking, it would be considered strange for Madam Huo to have lived to this age.
But fate allowed her to persevere out of sheer willpower.
The way of Heaven may seem ruthless, but at times it is quite reasonable.
Throughout her life, Lady Huo came from a poor background. Her parents were shrewd and calculating, and in a society where a woman's reputation was more important than her life, she was given away by her parents to be abused. Both of her sons were renowned generals of the Jiang Dynasty and were remembered by the world. However, Lady Huo suffered this misfortune in middle age, leaving her without anyone to care for her in her old age.
Despite enduring numerous hardships, she remained true to her original aspirations, which explains why such a woman could give birth to two great generals of the Jiang Dynasty.
This pure and noble heart is the purest and most precious thing in the world.
Su Zhenzhen spent an entire night digging the pit, without bothering to make a coffin. After all, a wise and insightful woman like Madam Huo probably wouldn't care about such material possessions—after death, a person turns to dust, and whether or not there's a box to hold the body won't change this irreversible process.
The two graves stood close together. Su Zhenzhen deliberately built Mrs. Huo's grave higher, so that it would look like a mother holding her child, sheltering the child from the wind and rain.
The coffin can be saved, but the tombstone cannot.
In accordance with Madam Huo's last wishes, Su Zhenzhen inscribed "Tomb of General Hu Buwei's Mother" on the tombstone.
This child, who came into the world because of a mistake, was not blamed by his mother; instead, she always kept him in her heart.
Of course, his mother's love also made him want to rebel—the general, who had been a loyal minister and general all his life, felt disloyal to his emperor for the first time, and it was only to seek justice for his own mother.
The dead are gone, and the past has faded away with the wind.
The debts of the living need to be settled.
Su Zhenzhen did not teleport, but instead followed the mountain paths of Huzhou southward to meet up with Hensheng.
In those years, the south suffered from frequent natural disasters, and Jiang Yichun opened the national treasury to provide disaster relief. However, some people secretly pocketed a portion of the silver.
Although the letter from Mrs. Huo did not reveal the writer's identity throughout, it repeatedly mentioned military expenses.
In the vast Jiang Dynasty, where was there such a large expenditure on military equipment?
There is only one answer: the Northwest Army, which has been fighting against the barbarians for many years.
The Northwest Army was the Huo family's army.
The letter stated that the world was not yet in chaos. If General Hu Buwei were to die, Huzhou would inevitably descend into turmoil, while the border states would be restrained by barbarians. When the southern refugees revolted, the capital would surely be wiped out, leaving the powerful families and the refugees to exhaust each other's military strength. After the great chaos, it would be time for those who held significant military power to rebuild a new order.
The letter writer promised General Hu that he would take good care of Madam Huo.
If General Hu Buwei does not agree, he will be accused of embezzling disaster relief funds. After all, when he embezzled the national treasury money, he took the route through Huzhou and then secretly transported it to the border prefecture by crossing mountains and valleys.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
