Chapter 158: Marquis Cheng'en is slapped in the face
The prefect wrote down in detail the deeds of Shen Qingtan and Zhao Yi, as well as the situation in Guanzhou, in a thick stack of secret letters.
Just by reading his letters, you can understand the passionate emotions he felt when he wrote them.
After reading the secret letter carefully, Emperor Jing'an laughed heartily. His laughter was exceptionally loud, sweeping away his previous gloomy mood.
The ministers looked puzzled, not understanding why Emperor Jing'an was laughing so happily.
They had just been discussing how to resettle the victims in Guanzhou, but had not yet come up with the most appropriate strategy.
This is because the national treasury and granaries are all restricted.
Emperor Jing'an's face was gloomy, showing clear signs of anger.
Could it be that the issue of the Guanzhou disaster victims has been resolved, which made Emperor Jing'an happy?
"My dear ministers, the Guanzhou incident has been well resolved." Emperor Jing'an sorted out seven or eight pieces of plain paper, and suspected that the prefect had used the writing skills he had used in the palace examination to praise Zhao Yi and Shen Qingtan to the skies.
He was deeply impressed by the prefect, and every memorial he wrote was a long one, elaborating on a lot of irrelevant things.
Just read the beginning and the end to understand the core content of the memorial.
This letter was about Shen Qingtan and Zhao Yi, and there was not much truth in it. He finished reading it with great interest.
Emperor Jing'an handed the secret letter to Eunuch Cao and said, "Please show it to my dear ministers."
Eunuch Cao held the secret letter and handed it to the nearest chief minister.
The Prime Minister took the secret letter and felt its thickness, and he guessed who wrote it.
It was his talkative student.
He looked a little further away and scanned it, looking only at the core.
However, after reading a few lines, the Prime Minister slowed down his reading and read word by word.
The prefect of Guanzhou explained in the letter that after returning home, the people of Guanzhou had no houses to live in and had to rely on relief porridge to fill their stomachs every day.
The relief supplies and donated grain sent by the court seemed to be a huge amount, but the area affected in Guanzhou was very large, and it could only guarantee that the victims had food to eat in the short term.
Because the people of Guanzhou had been oppressed for a long time, most of them abandoned their farmland to escape famine, leaving the land completely barren. Therefore, unlike the people in other places who were cultivating wasteland and about to have a big harvest,
Even if we want a good harvest, we have to wait until the second half of the year.
However, during this nearly half year, relying solely on disaster relief supplies is completely insufficient.
Every grain of food needs to be carefully calculated.
Therefore, everyone has a fixed amount of food, and either they are not full or they get hungry quickly.
The profiteers of Guanzhou smelled the huge profits and hired the disaster victims to work for only a bowl of sweet potato rice or two steamed buns. One person was doing the work of two people, and the victims were miserable.
Afterwards, Yongkang Trading Company hired the disaster victims and offered them fair wages and food. However, the victims, who were exploited by the unscrupulous merchants, began to riot, causing the unscrupulous merchants to suffer heavy losses.
They found out that the owner of Yongkang Trading Company was Zhao Yi, so they planned to take revenge and arranged for someone to assassinate him in Xishan.
Zhao Yi believed that a single merchant was not capable of such great power and suspected that remnants of corrupt officials were still supporting the unscrupulous merchants in Guanzhou. If the remnants were not completely eliminated, they would resurrect and continue to cause trouble in Guanzhou.
What’s more important is that they are in the open while the assassins are in the dark, and they might be assassinated again.
If you want to find out who did it, you can't alert the enemy.
Zhao Yi arranged for Shen Qingtan to pretend to be assassinated and her whereabouts were unknown. He handed the jade token of Yongkang Trading Company and the dragon-patterned jade pendant given to him by Emperor Jing'an to Shen Qingtan, and asked her to take the token to see the prefect, and then give the letter he wrote to the prefect.
He returned to the capital injured and arrived in Guanzhou a day late to meet up with Shen Qingtan.
When Shen Qingtan saw the miserable plight of the people in Guanzhou, he felt compassion and negotiated with the prefect on behalf of Zhao Yi to lease the abandoned farmland from the people and hire them to cultivate it for the Yongkang Trading Company.
They will be paid their wages normally every month and provided with three meals a day.
Under the leadership of Shen Qingtan, Qin's Trading Company and Gu's Trading Company joined in and properly resettled the victims.
Not only that, Shen Qingtan also suggested that he lure out the evil profiteers and find out that they had colluded with corrupt officials in Guanzhou. The government arrested them all, raided their homes, and seized a huge amount of silver. They have already sent people to escort the silver back to the capital.
The people of Guanzhou regard Shen Qingtan as a living Bodhisattva who saves people from suffering, and everyone is grateful to her.
Finally, the prefect emphasized that he had just discussed matters with Shen Qingtan, a woman, because he had seen the dragon-patterned jade pendant that she presented.
As expected, she is worthy of being a person favored by the emperor, and she is as capable as any man.
When the Prime Minister saw these words, his eyes jumped, he couldn't bear to watch it.
This is flattery...
He couldn't help but look at Emperor Jing'an, who looked at him and praised him: "You have taught your student well."
Prime Minister: “…”
If there is a monarch who loves to be flattered, it is no wonder that his subjects also love to flatter him.
Although he thought so in his heart, the heavy stone pressing on his chest fell to the ground, and he passed the secret letter on.
The letter was circulated among the officials, and everyone who read it felt extremely complicated.
If they heard words praising Shen Qingtan and Zhao Yi from the market, they would definitely not believe it, and would suspect that someone was deliberately creating momentum to clear Shen Qingtan's name.
No one involved came forward, and no one in the streets leaked the news. It was the prefect of Guanzhou who first sent a secret letter praising Shen Qingtan's achievements. It goes without saying how credible it was.
Unless the prefect feels his life is too long, he would not deliberately fabricate such a thing that can be easily verified.
Everyone present was a smart person and they soon realized that someone was deliberately framing Shen Qingtan.
After all, at first there was news that Zhao Yi was assassinated, and then there was news that Shen Qingtan eloped with someone. It was obvious that someone wanted to assassinate Shen Qingtan.
If Shen Qingtan was really assassinated and disappeared, her reputation would be ruined. Even if she returned to the capital alive, death would be waiting for her.
The person hiding behind this is too vicious.
Fortunately, when she went to Guanzhou to hunt down the murderer, she rescued the victims out of kindness, and the prefect praised her for her achievements, thus clearing her name.
The ministers couldn't help but look at Marquis Cheng'en in the corner. If Marquis Cheng'en had not publicly severed his father-daughter relationship with Shen Qingtan, they would not have believed the rumors outside.
Now Shen Qingtan is going to Guanzhou to do charity work. I wonder what Marquis Cheng'en will feel when he sees the secret letter.
Marquis Cheng'en keenly sensed something was wrong and looked at his colleagues in confusion.
Their eyes were filled with deep meaning, hinting at their exploration and scrutiny of him, perhaps even sympathy.
Marquis Cheng'en was puzzled and was about to ask his colleague when he saw his colleague handing him a secret letter.
He suppressed his confusion and flipped through the secret letter.
The more he looked down, the uglier his expression became.
"This... How is it possible..."
Marquis Cheng'en couldn't believe that Shen Qingtan was going to Guanzhou to provide relief to the victims.
It is more likely that Zhao Yi bribed the prefect of Guanzhou and wrote such a letter specifically to commend Shen Qingtan.
He quickly stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the prefect of Guanzhou is lying!"
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