Chapter 201 I Don’t Want to Be a Loyal Servant!
As the situation developed, Lin Shu gradually embarked on the path of rebellion, so naturally he would arrange spies to keep an eye on the movements of the court.
So Lin Shu might not be unaware of things that the emperor didn't know.
The emperor sent troops to suppress the rebels, which led to such a result. It was Lin Shu who intervened and directed it. Otherwise, how could such a rumor be spread in the capital at such a timely manner?
Since they have decided to rebel, Lin Shu will naturally not give the emperor a chance to revive the country.
The emperor was kept in the dark about the tacit corruption among all the civil and military officials in the court, so he might as well remain in the dark.
Moreover, according to Lin Shu's speculation, the emperor might not be unaware of these corruption trends. After all, when the emperor was still a prince, in order to succeed in his bid for the throne, he spent a lot of money to bribe officials to work for him.
The emperor would not be so naive as to think that only he could succeed in bribing officials. If others bribed officials, those officials would be honest and impartial and would never accept bribes.
However, there may have been emperors who thought that although corruption and bribery existed, they were not that serious.
Even if Lin Shu had not sent people to investigate, he would not have dared to believe that the imperial army could be so corrupt, and that the military funds allocated by the imperial court to the army every year could be almost embezzled to the last penny.
It was done too blatantly. It can be said that if someone had reported this to the emperor, the lid would have never been covered up.
However, all the civil and military officials in the court were dragged into the water, and no one wanted to lift the lid in front of the emperor. Even the emperor's confidants got involved. The emperor was concealed by all the civil and military officials in the court, and was no different from a blind and deaf person.
But the current situation in the court was still very beneficial to Lin Shu. The emperor was deceived by his officials and did nothing. He continued to eliminate dissidents. Civil and military officials were only concerned with political struggles and personal gain. No one cared about the rebellion thousands of miles away, nor did anyone care about the countless refugees outside the capital.
A thousand-mile long dike is breached by an ant hole. What Lin Shu has to do now is to help the ants expand their victory while building his own thousand-mile long dike.
This Champa uprising army that killed officials was just a vanguard pushed out by other rebel forces to test the imperial court. Now that the imperial court failed in its first suppression, the imperial court's strength has been tested to the fullest.
When the imperial court launched a second crackdown, this insurgent army, with the secret help of other rebel forces, was able to maintain a stalemate with the imperial army.
The general who was in charge of the second operation to suppress the rebels also had his own little thoughts. He could have eliminated the rebels at all costs, but he thought about his status before he was sent to be the general, and his status now after becoming a general. Having military power and not having military power are two completely different things.
So, under the instigation of some people with ulterior motives, the general started to keep the enemy at bay.
As long as the rebel army was not destroyed, he would always have a reason to keep the army here, and the court would continue to provide him with military pay and food.
Of course, he did not dare to fail to achieve anything, as the emperor would replace him in anger. He defeated the rebels, but did not completely resolve the problem. The defeated rebels would occasionally gather some stragglers to form small armies to attack the city, forcing him to continue to lead his troops and stay in power.
After receiving the military intelligence report, the emperor was relieved to see that the rebels had become ineffective and posed no threat, so he allowed the general to stay and deal with the aftermath.
As long as the rebel army is not completely wiped out, he can still control his troops for another day.
However, the imperial court has not yet realized his ambition to establish his own military power.
When the imperial court found out about it, they could do nothing to him.
Because rebel forces all over the country have gradually raised the banner of rebellion.
Before the current emperor ascended the throne, the struggle for succession among the princes had already consumed the court's vitality. The princes formed their own factions and fought endlessly. These political factional struggles did not care about the lives of the lower-class people at all. In order to fight for the throne, these princes would do anything.
For example, cheating in the imperial examinations caused a riot among candidates, deliberately damaging dams to allow the river water to flood several cities, and sending people to rob disaster relief money, resulting in thousands of starving people... The purpose was just to attack competitors, and the means were despicable and had no bottom line.
Later, the current emperor became the final winner, but after ascending the throne, his rival brothers still refused to accept their fate and kept causing trouble for him. Even if the emperor had the advantage in righteousness, it was now a lose-lose situation.
There were countless families like the Wen family that were defeated in political struggles and had their property confiscated and exiled. But compared to these official families, ordinary people lived an even more famine-stricken life. There was a severe drought in the north, and the court was unable to provide any disaster relief money.
The emperor was worried about the empty treasury, and it was rational of him not to increase taxes. Not to mention allocating silver for disaster relief, the treasury was so empty that horses could run through it. Even if he confiscated the property of his political enemies to make up for the loss, he would soon spend all the money on wars again.
As the victims of the severe drought in the north all fled to the capital, the emperor's former political enemies and brothers kept spreading rumors, saying that the emperor had not come to power legitimately and was not blessed by God, which was why such a disaster had befallen him.
The emperor could no longer turn a blind eye to the victims, and gritted his teeth to allocate money from his own private treasury for disaster relief. However, not long after the relief money was distributed, it was skimmed off by people at all levels. It can be said that it was divided up before it even reached the hands of the lowest-level victims.
The emperor was still kept in the dark and thought that everything would be fine as long as he allocated money for disaster relief, and he continued to fight his political enemies in full swing.
It was not until the flags of rebellion were raised everywhere that the emperor realized that his throne was so unstable. Not only did his brothers who had once competed with him for the throne covet his throne, but also those traitors and rebels wanted to steal the country. Internal and external troubles broke out at the same time, and the emperor felt that he was attacked from all sides.
It stands to reason that in this situation the emperor should resolve the external threat first. After all, if the rebellion succeeded, the entire dynasty would have to change, and the emperor sitting on the dragon throne would have to change his surname and royal family.
Even if the clan members succeed in causing rebellion, the consequences will only be felt by their own people, and outsiders will not benefit from it.
But the emperor would not think so. His throne was taken away by someone else. Rather than being taken away by traitors, he would rather not accept his former rival taking away the throne.
Moreover, the traitors were thousands of miles away, out of his sight, but his brothers were in the capital, right under his nose.
The emperor did not think that his brothers would let him and his children go if their rebellion succeeded.
The emperor, who originally wanted to fight his brothers slowly, decided to take ruthless measures to solve the internal troubles after learning that he was facing internal and external troubles, so as to free up his hands to deal with external troubles.
The emperor, who had originally confined his brothers to protect his reputation, now directly sent people to attack them. Today, this prince died of a stroke, that prince fell into the water and died, and one broke his neck while riding a horse...
If the emperor was really ruthless and ignored his own reputation to attack his defeated political opponents, they would not be able to survive more than a few rounds.
So the princes who were forced into a desperate situation by the emperor sent people to secretly contact rebels in various places. They decided that even if they died, they would drag the emperor, their enemy, with them to death.
As for whether letting a wolf into the house would cause their kingdom to fall into the hands of outsiders, they no longer cared. He and his descendants are almost dead, so why should he care about the royal family members or the country of his ancestors? It would be just right to let the emperor be the king of a fallen country.
Those who have bottom lines and principles are gone, and the only ones left are the ruthless people with no bottom lines and principles.
Lin Shu, a rebel who had not yet raised the banner of rebellion, was also being tried to be won over. It was the Marquis of Zhenbei who led his troops to the capital under the pretext of clearing the court of corrupt officials who wanted to win him over.
Because the Huimin Chamber of Commerce established by Lin Shu and the Fang family had grown bigger and bigger, especially in the north, the Huimin Chamber of Commerce often provided porridge to refugees to win their hearts and minds, and it became very famous.
The Marquis of Zhenbei rebelled in the north. He had the support of the people, but not enough food and grass.
After all, the north had just suffered a severe drought, and there were refugees everywhere who were starving and had no hope of survival. When the Marquis of Zhenbei wanted to recruit soldiers, he only had to say that he would provide food and accommodation, and a large number of young and strong people would join the army.
But these soldiers need food to feed themselves. How could there be so much food in the north, which has just suffered from a severe drought? Can only be purchased from the South.
The area with the most grain in the south is Jiangnan, which is known as the land of fish and rice.
Huimin Chamber of Commerce is a chamber of commerce that buys grain from the south and transports it to the north to sell as porridge. With such a large amount of grain, it is not surprising that Marquis Zhenbei wants to bring Huimin Chamber of Commerce under his control.
The presidents of Huimin Chamber of Commerce are Lin Shu and Fang's father. On the surface, they both seem to be presidents. Judging from their age and experience, outsiders would think that Fang's father is the main president. Lin Shu was only promoted to president by Fang's father because he had a title of juren.
But in fact, the person in charge of Huimin Chamber of Commerce is Lin Shu, and Fang's father is Lin Shu's open target.
However, Marquis Zhenbei also believed that Father Fang was the one in charge of Huimin Chamber of Commerce, and the letter of recruitment was also sent to Father Fang.
After receiving the letter from Marquis Zhenbei, Mr. Fang didn't even dare to open it. He immediately delivered it to Lin Shu and expressed his loyalty tremblingly. He had never had any dealings with Marquis Zhenbei, and didn't dare to accept the olive branch from Marquis Zhenbei.
Lin Shu didn't care. He opened the letter from Marquis Zhenbei and saw that Marquis Zhenbei had spent a lot of money to win over Huimin Chamber of Commerce and was even willing to marry his second daughter to Fang's father's eldest son.
It seems that one is the second legitimate daughter and the other is the eldest legitimate son. Generally, the eldest legitimate son is married to the eldest legitimate daughter. The second legitimate daughter does not seem to be a good match, but it also depends on the family background of both parties.
The eldest son of a merchant family cannot marry the second daughter of a marquis even if he marries into the family.
It is obvious what the Marquis of Zhenbei was planning when he married his second legitimate daughter to the Fang family.
After Lin Shu finished reading the letter from Zhenbei Hou, he smiled and handed the letter to Fang's father: "Uncle Fang, you can take a look too."
When Mr. Fang saw that the Marquis of Zhenbei said in the letter that he would marry his second daughter to his eldest son, he was delighted at first, but he quickly regained his senses and realized that the Marquis of Zhenbei was just giving up his second daughter in order to take over the foundation of the Huimin Chamber of Commerce.
He said quickly, "President, this is absolutely not possible! How can my son be worthy of the daughter of the Marquis of Zhenbei?"
Lin Shu snorted coldly: "Zhenbei Hou also thinks so, so he never thought of marrying the legitimate daughter."
Father Fang was stunned and confused. Didn’t the letter say that he would marry the second eldest daughter?
Lin Shu glanced at him and said, "The Marquis of Zhenbei only has one legitimate daughter, so how can there be any legitimate second daughter? I'm afraid this so-called legitimate second daughter is a concubine's daughter who was recorded as a legitimate daughter, or an adopted daughter who was recorded as a legitimate daughter."
As to whether she is a concubine's daughter or an adopted daughter, it all depends on whether Marquis Zhenbei is willing to abandon his biological daughter.
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