Chapter 194
194
Governor Zhao and his men were all arrested. Cheng Yeran integrated the evidence and raided Governor Zhao's house. Not only the two of them, but also a series of officials, both big and small, were arrested. There were actually sixteen officials involved. The stolen money from Lord Lin and Governor Zhao's families added up to 50 million taels. Add in the stolen money from the remaining dozen officials' homes, and the total amount of stolen money exceeded 100 million.
Not only Cheng Yeran was shocked, the entire court was shocked, especially the emperor. He had never thought that such a poor and remote place could allow them to embezzle so much money?
Several officials recalled that the place was not poor twenty years ago but was wealthy. Poets had even written poems describing its prosperity. But after Governor Lin took office, the economy there continued to decline and became as poor as it is now.
In other words, Lord Lin and Lord Zhao are like two blood-sucking leeches, sucking all the nutrients here into their stomachs. They have become rich, but the people have suffered.
The emperor ordered that the entire family of the two be executed and all their property be confiscated.
The emperor also heard that Cheng Yeran was running a school and a fertilizer factory and selling goods to villagers on credit, so he praised him and allocated funds to him.
The ministers in the court were thinking in their hearts that although Cheng Yeran was demoted, he solved such a big case as soon as he arrived there, and added more than 100 million taels of silver to the national treasury. They couldn't even imagine what this meant.
Some people even thought they were dreaming, because that was 100 million taels!
Many high-ranking officials do not have so much money at home, but they do have tens of millions of taels. Three or five officials can pool together to make up this money, but this number still shocks them.
However, some corrupt officials were trembling with fear when they saw Lord Lin and Lord Zhao's entire families being executed, and they dared not make any big moves recently.
There were also some officials who had thoughts of corruption and withdrew their tentative steps. Although they enjoyed wealth and glory, the price was that their entire family was beheaded, including their sons and grandsons, which meant that their family line was extinct. It was not worth it.
The princess had just bought a set of jewelry that cost her one million taels in total. When she heard about the corruption case, she stroked her jewelry and said, "One hundred million taels means she can buy a hundred pieces of jewelry like this. They are really brave."
The eldest princess put on the jewelry and went into the palace to see the emperor. She had recently fallen in love with a top scholar. This top scholar was young, unmarried, handsome, and most importantly, his temper was suitable for her.
The eldest princess had already looked for him privately. He acted like he was not afraid of power and would rather resign and go home than be with the eldest princess. This attracted the eldest princess's attention and aroused her desire to get him.
When the eldest princess entered the palace, it was in chaos. She thought she had come at the wrong time, but she still asked around and heard that the second princess had hanged herself.
Your Majesty has a total of five princesses. The first two princesses existed before the emperor traveled through time, and the remaining three have been born in the past two years.
However, only the emperor himself knew about the time travel. In the eyes of the eldest princess, these children were all his, but she discovered that His Majesty was particularly fond of the children born after the Fourth Prince. The children before the Fourth Prince were like adopted children. No, even if they were adopted, they would be treated well. Those children were more like the children that the emperor got after being cuckolded.
The emperor's eldest princess reached marriageable age two years ago and was sent to marry.
In fact, their country is very powerful and there is no need for a marriage alliance. There was a small defeated country that sent them a certain amount of food and horses every year. That year, their prince delivered the food and horses personally. During the banquet, the prince kept secretly looking at the princess. This defeated small country actually offended the princess. A more aggressive emperor would have dug out his eyes, but Your Majesty married the princess to him anyway.
The eldest princess didn't understand at all, but it was none of her business. She had been loved by her father and mother since she was a child, and now she was indulged by the emperor's brother. She had never had the worries of marrying a foreign princess, and she would not sympathize with the fate of the princesses who were sent to marry a foreign princess.
This time the second princess hanged herself. Did the emperor do something outrageous again? Are we going to send the second princess to marry? There haven't been any envoys from small countries coming recently, except for the envoy from the small country that was just defeated by Shao Hui and his men. Does the emperor want to marry the second princess to that country? That's too outrageous. If the emperor really did this, the princess would despise him.
She went to ask the Empress Dowager, who was her biological mother. The Empress Dowager loved the Emperor and the eldest princess the most, and her love for the eldest princess was even more unbridled.
The princess asked the empress dowager and found out that the emperor was very happy when Shao Hui and his men returned triumphantly. He personally hosted a banquet for Shao Hui and some of his generals. During the banquet, he also listened to them talking about spies. Among them was a wild dog general who was seduced by the enemy with a beauty trap. He took advantage of the enemy's trick and made great contributions.
The eldest princess curled her lips and said, "General Wild Dog? This name is too vulgar. It's obvious that he is from the countryside. The Queen Mother specifically mentioned him. Could it be that Your Majesty wants to marry the Second Princess to him?"
The Queen Mother nodded, "Yes, the Emperor was drunk, and when he was happy, he said he wanted to marry the princess to him."
"How can a country bumpkin like him be worthy of a princess?" The eldest princess said disdainfully, "No wonder the second princess wanted to hang herself. If it were me, I would hang myself too."
The Queen Mother took the eldest princess's hand and patted it. She would never be so cruel as to marry the eldest princess to such a man, but she still wanted to say a word for Wild Dog, "Without those soldiers fighting on the frontier, how could we have such a peaceful life with luxurious clothes and delicious food? If the Emperor betrothed the second princess to
IA
It would be fine if it was given to other generals, so what if he came from the countryside? Our ancestors were also farmers, but General Wild Dog was blind in one eye and was a mute. It was said that he had a cruel personality. On the battlefield, he killed people as easily as cutting melons and vegetables. He once killed his beloved with his own hands. For a person like him, most people would not dare to marry their daughters to him, let alone a princess. ”
The eldest princess nodded. "Mother is right. Your Majesty is too cruel. The second princess just got married. She is in her prime. And the man she loves most is the scholar. How could she possibly be with that evil ghost?"
"But the emperor has already spoken. Can we ask him to go back on his word?" The empress dowager also had a headache about this.
"It's just drunken talk, do you need to take it so seriously?" The princess thought again, this might be a good opportunity, "If I help His Majesty solve this problem, will His Majesty agree to let me be with that number one scholar..."
The eldest princess thought this was an opportunity because she happened to have a boy at home. He was her child, but not her biological child. This child was brought in by her ex-husband.
Some people like widows, but she likes widowers. It was just that she was in a whim at that time and saw a handsome man with a dead wife and children.
That handsome man always had a melancholy temperament that made people fall in love with him. Moreover, his identity was not ordinary, so he could not be snatched away to be a male concubine. So the eldest princess married that man. Only three years after the marriage, he fell ill and died. The eldest princess was fed up with him at that time and did not notice that he was sick. She did not feel sad when he died and continued to marry her next target.
She didn't take much care of that boy, but she gave him a courtyard. I heard that before the widower died, he arranged everything for the boy. He found maids and servants to take care of him, and gave all the inheritance to him. The boy was also able to live in the princess's mansion, so he must have lived a good life.
The princess felt that she had done him a favor. If she had not allowed him to live in her mansion, he would have starved to death on the street. Now it was time for him to repay her.
The eldest princess immediately went to see the emperor and said that she wanted to confer the title of princess on the boy and marry the princess to the wild dog.
The emperor was originally still having a headache about this matter, but after hearing what the eldest princess said, he knew that the status of the county princess was also noble, but it was different from what he said at the time about marrying the princess to a stray dog. However, there was a lot of room for manipulation here. In order to marry a foreign princess, the previous dynasty also canonized palace maids as princesses. The brother of the eldest princess could also be canonized as a princess as an exception.
The emperor also found an excuse. He said that he was sick some time ago, and it was the eldest princess's brother who copied Buddhist scriptures for him overnight and knelt in front of the Buddha to pray for blessings. Only then did his illness recover. He named the brother Princess Fu'an.
Generally, boys born in the royal family are also named princes. There are very few boys in the royal family. Among the emperor's many children, only the fifth prince is a boy. The previous emperors were similar, with only one or no boys. Therefore, it is not customary for boys to be named princesses.
This time, the emperor had no choice but to do this in order to find a princess who was willing to marry Wild Dog.
The eldest princess just went back to inform Princess Fu'an and asked him to marry her.
When the eldest princess notified him, she met him once. When they first met, he looked about five or six years old, soft and cute, but the eldest princess was not happy with raising a child, and she never took care of him again.
When they met again now, Princess Fu'an had grown up and turned into a handsome girl, but she looked timid and didn't dare to speak. When she heard that he wanted to marry her off to that dreaded Wild Dog General, she was so scared that her eyes turned red, but she didn't dare to say a word of rebuttal. She only dared to say "hmm" in a low voice and lowered her head, not daring to say a word.
The eldest princess looked down on his useless appearance and said, "You are sensible. If it weren't for me, you would not have the chance to become a princess. This is a blessing that you will never get in your lifetime. You should learn to be grateful."
Seeing that he was about to cry, the eldest princess frowned impatiently, "Don't worry, you will definitely get the dowry. Don't be like the second princess and make a fuss. You are different from her. Her father is the emperor and her mother is a concubine. What do you have? If you were born from my belly, you could make a fuss, but your parents died a long time ago. A child without a father or mother can have such good fortune. Just be happy."
After the princess said this, she left.
Although Fu'an has always lived in the princess's mansion, he lives worse than a servant.
It was for him that his father had to marry the eldest princess. Although his father left him a sum of money before he died, the servants in the princess's mansion were all snobbish. Seeing that he was a helpless boy and a child, they always bullied him and stole his things. Not only did he have no one to take care of him, he had to do everything by himself, and his money was taken away by the servants around him. Although he had a yard, he could not work and receive monthly wages like other servants. Fortunately, a cook in the kitchen felt sorry for him and would call him over to eat with them every day. The cook loved him like her own child, made clothes for him, and told him about things outside.
He also heard about the wild dog from the cook. When people outside were talking about General Shao Hui, they all said that General Shao Hui was brave and good at fighting, and had courage and strategy. But when it came to the wild dog, they all said that he was General Shao Hui's killing tool. He was no different from a demon, killing people without blinking an eye, and even killed his beloved woman.
Later, the rumors became more and more outrageous, saying that he was bloodthirsty and would kill a few people every day to satisfy his passion even when he was not on the battlefield. Fu'an was afraid that if she married him, she would be killed on the first night.
When the cook heard that he was going to get married, she was worried about him and felt sorry for him, saying that he had a bad fate. Yuanbao also felt sorry for Ye Gou, saying that with Ye Gou's achievements, it didn't matter if he was matched with a real princess. The emperor was obviously just trying to please Ye Gou.
Besides, Princess Fu'an is the eldest princess's child. How good can the eldest princess's child be? What if they become arrogant and bully the wild dogs?
Yuanbao felt sorry for the wild dog. He had been worried about the wild dog since he heard about the affair between the wild dog and the spy. The wild dog couldn't speak, and he couldn't tell anyone about his sadness and depression. If he kept it in his heart for too long, he would easily get sick.
He hasn't recovered from that incident yet, and now he wants to marry the eldest princess's child. Isn't this deliberate torture?
If the emperor had not granted the marriage, Yuanbao would have tried every means to cancel the engagement, but since the emperor had granted the marriage, there was nothing he could do.
Yuanbao said to the wild dog: "Why don't we move in with you? If he dares to bully you, we will help you beat him up."
When Ye Gou came back this time, he felt bad seeing Yuan Bao and Yang Shiming being so affectionate, so he wanted to go out and buy a house. It happened that the emperor gave him a general's mansion, so he moved out.
He had no way to refuse the arranged marriage. If he refused the emperor's arrangement, not only would he lose his life, but Yuanbao would also be implicated, and even Cheng Yeran might be implicated. He didn't want anyone to die because of him, so he had to accept the marriage.
He shook his head at Yuanbao and gestured with his hands to say that he could handle it.
In fact, he came back this time to completely let go of his previous feelings and be just a brother to Yuanbao. He couldn't let Yuanbao disrupt his original life because of him.
Nanxi
live.
On the day of Fu'an's wedding, he brought with him the dowry and servants prepared by the princess. He also specifically asked the princess to give the cook over as well. The princess didn't take the cook seriously and agreed.
…
He sat in the bridal chamber, his hands and feet shaking with nervousness. When he heard the wild dog pushing the door open, his body froze.
The veil on his head was lifted by a wild dog, and he saw for the first time the man who was like an evil spirit in the rumors. The man's body was so strong, his chest muscles bulged out and pushed up his clothes, his facial features were strong, his eyes were firm, and there was no emotion in his eyes when he looked at him.
He hid backwards in fear, afraid that he would be torn to pieces by the wild dog in the next second. When he retreated to the corner of the bed, he saw the wild dog also got on the bed. He closed his eyes in fear, not knowing whether the wild dog was going to kill him or sleep with him.
After waiting for a long time without hearing any sound, he quietly opened his eyes and found that the wild dog was lying next to him, sleeping with its eyes closed.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
