By the time everything was settled, it was already September. Many officials in the capital were involved, half of the Ministry of Revenue had collapsed, and the Censorate was also implicated. The large scale and breadth of the case shocked the court.
As long as the evidence is conclusive, the emperor will act decisively to behead those who deserve it, confiscate their property, or exile those who deserve it.
The emperor also found out that Ye Mingqing's affair had nothing to do with Concubine Ye, so he simply demoted her and asked her to stay in the harem. Unexpectedly, she had such a fierce temper that she committed suicide.
The emperor looked at the person who closed her eyes, and felt a trace of regret. He should have resolutely not taken a concubine at the beginning, and all these things would not have happened later. She would not have committed suicide because of this incident. Although he did not have much feelings for her, she gave birth to a son for him after all.
He then looked at the eldest prince who was crying sadly. He had been looking forward to the birth of this eldest son, who was already fourteen years old. He was still happy when he was born, after all, he was his first son. However, he also developed ambition and was thinking about the throne together with his maternal family.
As for the throne, they may not know that since the birth of the second son, although there was no clear crown prince, the position of crown prince must belong to the second son. The emperor has always thought so in his heart. If the queen had no children, he would consider other sons, but the queen gave birth to the second prince.
The position of crown prince was decided after the second son was born, so more attention was paid to the second son's education, which was based on the requirements of the crown prince. Some people in the court could see it clearly, but some could not.
The emperor sighed and said, "Let the Imperial Household Department take care of the funeral for Concubine Ye as a noble concubine."
After waiting for the imperial concubine to be buried, the emperor issued another imperial decree, conferring the title of Prince Ping on the eldest prince, and moving out of the palace to set up a prince's mansion when he turned sixteen.
The second prince was made the crown prince, and the third prince was named Prince Rui. The reason why he was not made the crown prince immediately was that he was thinking of waiting until the second prince was older before making him the crown prince. Unexpectedly, it caused trouble.
The eldest prince received the imperial edict and became confused for the first time. When he was twelve years old, his grandfather told him that the emperor only liked the queen and the second and third sons, and he had to make plans for himself and his mother. He believed what his grandfather said.
Because since he could remember, his father had never spent the night at his mother's house. He would only come to visit occasionally and sit for a while, but the number of times was very rare. It was obvious that his father liked the second son the most. Even the tutor who taught the princes paid more attention to the second son.
When he was young, he would ask his mother why his father didn't come. His mother would just hug him, sigh and tell him not to think too much, because his father was just busy with official duties.
Later, after hearing what his maternal grandfather said, he observed carefully and found that his father did like the second and third sons more. Then he listened to his maternal grandfather's words and secretly won over the court officials. But now his mother is gone, and his maternal grandfather's family is gone too.
He could never forget his mother's final cry as she hugged him and said, "Grandpa was wrong, and I was wrong too."
The moment he saw his mother die, he felt that he was wrong, everything was wrong.
His mother shouldn't have expected his father's favor to allow her to enter the palace, and he shouldn't have expected the illusory throne and done something wrong that could never be undone.
The emperor originally established the Censorate to supervise all officials, but he did not expect that the people in the Censorate were bribed by local officials. After this incident, a Supervisory Office was established to supervise and restrain the Censorate.
The system also put a shackle on the censors, stipulating that when selecting censors, the recommender must submit the candidate's list and resume to the Ministry of Personnel for review. If the censor has problems in the future, both the recommender and the reviewer will be held accountable.
Where there is punishment, there is reward. The main contributor to solving this major case was Wang Yu, but he had just been promoted and he had other things to do in Dingzhou. The emperor did not promote him and let him continue to stay in Dingzhou, waiting to reward him after the Dongyi incident was over. But this time he was also rewarded with a lot of gold, silver and jewelry.
Wang Yu invited Ling Chufeng and the others to dinner at the restaurant. If it weren't for them, this matter couldn't be resolved so quickly. Also coming to dinner were Wu Changchun and Zheng Xiaochuan from the Beggar Gang.
"After such a long time of hard work, things have finally come to an end. I want to thank everyone for their help. Otherwise, it wouldn't have gone so smoothly, especially the brothers from the Beggars' Sect."
After saying that, Wang Yu drank a glass of wine.
Wu Changchun also drank a glass and said, "We are all friends, no need to be polite."
"Okay, we're all friends!"
After the meal, Wang Yu handed Wu Changchun a box and said, "I'm not from the Jianghu, and I don't have weapons or secret manuals. I only have these yellow and white items. Please distribute them to the brothers in the Beggars' Sect to express my gratitude. They have worked hard during this period."
Wu Changchun did not refuse. He just felt that Wang Yu was a really good person. No wonder even someone like Ling Chufeng wanted to make friends with him. Although they were people from the underworld, they also needed to make a living. Moreover, the brothers under them were not rich. Most of them had families.
"Chongguang, are you going back or are you going to play here for a while?"
Ling Xiao finally changed out of his women's clothes and put on men's clothes. "Ling Xiao and I are going back to Feixue Villa. My mother must be worried after being out for so long."
Ling Shuang also nodded. Her mother was very scary when she was angry.
Ling Chufeng glanced at them and said, "I'll take them back."
Meng Yu: "Then I'll go too. I haven't seen Madam Ling for a long time."
Wang Yu nodded and said, "Okay, then be careful on the road and come back to Dingzhou when you have time."
Ling Shuang smiled and said, "Okay, I like Erbao very much. I will come to see him when I have time. I will wait for my aunt to find some good things for him to play with."
Wang Yu also smiled, still a child, "Okay, I'll thank you on behalf of Erbao."
Rong Jianan stayed with Wang Yu because he really had nowhere to go. As Wang Yu said, his parents also wanted him to live a good life, so when Cheng Chen asked him to wait until Erbao grew up and teach him to play the piano, he agreed.
The people who had been rescued before were all treated and sent back home, but some of them died before they arrived, and their bodies were never found.
The officials in charge said that the relatives of the children who returned were all crying with joy, but the relatives who received the news of their death were extremely sad and filled with sorrow.
When officials commit sins, the people suffer.
In the backyard of the provincial government office, the servants and maids were replaced with new ones, and everything was tidied up. The danger was over, and Cheng Chen also hired someone to look after Erbao alone. After all, he was getting bigger and bigger, and Cheng Chen could not take care of him alone.
After Wang Yu sent Ling Chufeng and the others away, he came back. Cheng Chen was playing with the second baby, who was one year and seven or eight months old and could walk and run.
"My husband is back."
"Um."
Wang Yu bent down and picked up Erbao, holding him high. Erbao really liked his father holding him like this. "Erbao, are you listening today?"
Erbao was holding the building blocks in his hands, laughing happily. Erbao was not light, and Wang Yu's arms felt sore after holding him for a while, so he put him down and let him continue playing with the building blocks.
"Ling Shuang and the others left?"
"Well, let's go back to Feixue Villa."
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