Chapter 36
The next day, at Prince Shou’s Mansion.
Minister Yue unfolded the letter sent from Lord Teng.
It clearly states that the prescription for the epidemic has not yet been tested, and it also includes two prescriptions for alleviating the symptoms of the plague among the forty or so people currently being held captive on the outskirts of the city.
After receiving his letter, Minister Yue did not dare to delay for a moment and immediately said goodbye to Prince Shou. He took the prescription and personally delivered it to the courtyard in the western suburbs.
After the man left, Prince Shou and Cui Hu looked at the back of the man who was walking like the wind and couldn't help sighing.
"Minister Yue cares about the people and is willing to go in person even for such a small matter. I feel so ashamed of him!" said Cui Hu.
Prince Shou did not respond to this. He shook his head as if thinking about something and led Cui Hu to a woodshed hidden in his backyard.
When he walked into the door, he saw a servant lying on a pile of firewood with bruises all over his body. Upon closer inspection, he found that the servant was none other than one of the two servants who were captured with Luo Sanzi that day.
Seeing someone coming, he struggled to stand up and bowed respectfully to the two people who came in.
"Your Highness! Third Young Master!"
Cui Hu looked around, pulled out a bench from the side and placed it in the middle of the open space for His Highness to sit down. Prince Shou lifted his robe and sat on the bench, waiting for him to speak leisurely.
"Now that we've said everything we need to say! If you hadn't told us where the sick horse was hiding, we really wouldn't be able to do anything about Luo Feng."
"What do you want now? Tell me, I might be able to help you a little."
When the servant heard the name Luo Feng, he was stunned for a while with lifeless eyes, and then he burst into laughter, as if he was taking revenge for all the grievances he had suffered over the years.
He laughed for a long time until he started coughing. Prince Shou signaled Cui Hu to get him some water. Cui Hu received the order and went out immediately. However, the servant stopped coughing at this time and looked at Prince Shou with burning eyes.
"Your Highness, have you ever been to Liangzhou?"
Prince Shou was startled, but he still spoke calmly and without any disturbance.
"I haven't been there. I've been under constant scrutiny in the capital, so I don't have the energy to go."
When the servant heard him say this, he seemed to feel some pity for him, and his face was full of both crying and laughing.
"I thought the prince of the Tian family was much more proud than the people of Liangzhou. It seems that you are also being stepped on, no different from us. I found the right person this time."
He breathed a sigh of relief, as if unable to bear the pain in his body. He slowly leaned back against the pile of firewood, and only then did the pain ease.
"My family was originally a small merchant family in Liangzhou. We raised war horses for the imperial court because of a law requiring us to raise horses to pay taxes. At that time, the imperial court required us to hand over a war horse every three years. We lived a pretty good life back then, and we raised many mares. We made a small profit every year by selling them to other families."
"Life was good back then. Although Liangzhou was far from the capital, I always felt that the emperor's grace was great. Even in such a distant place, I could still enjoy the emperor's grace. I would just live like this and be grateful for the emperor's grace for the rest of my life."
When he said this, he seemed to remember something, took a deep breath and couldn't breathe again.
Seeing that he was speechless, Prince Shou helped him finish the sentence.
"Then there was a coup d'état, and the number of horses handed in went from one every three years to one every year."
He nodded. "Yes! The horse coup has made life difficult for everyone. Some herders even lost a foal they had just delivered the year before, only to have it die before it could grow up. By the end of the year, they couldn't turn in the horses, so they had to spend all their money to buy horses to turn in, otherwise they would be forced to do forced labor!"
"The emperor's grace has finally changed. It has become a death warrant. The people of Liangzhou are in danger and worship horses as if they were their ancestors, fearing that if the horses become sick, their lives will be taken with them."
At this point, both of them were silent for a while, because no one could bring up what was going to happen next, and even talking about it would be frightening.
A beam of light came in from the window, and the servant took the light in his hand and stared at it blankly for a long time.
"Why do hemp ropes always break at the thinnest part, and why do misfortunes always strike down the unfortunate?"
"We Liangzhou people were already struggling to survive, but suddenly, horse plague appeared out of nowhere, infecting all the horses in Liangzhou City. People who could have survived before are now completely dead! All the horses in my family have been infected with horse plague. My father also contracted the disease in order to treat the horses. He didn't even live for seven days. Do you know what his last words were before he died? He said, if the horse plague doesn't get any worse, sell my brothers and sisters! That way, at least I can still survive..."
He tried hard to hold back his sobs and swallowed the bitterness in his heart again and again before he finally managed to steady his tone.
"The prefecture and county governments have reported the disaster in Liangzhou many times, but His Majesty shows no concern for it, and even refuses to make any concessions regarding the conscription of horses. This noble family has secured their throne, and they don't even care about the lives of the local people. They just turn a deaf ear to the raging flood outside!"
"Don't you agree? Your Highness Prince Shou."
Faced with this question, Prince Shou was speechless. He had long heard about the horse plague in Liang Province, which showed how serious the situation was. However, his father had always shelved the Liang Province issue and ignored it. If the news had not reached the capital, he might have continued to play blind and let the people of Liang Province fend for themselves.
He himself was a member of the imperial family. Although his fate was uncertain, he had studied secretly with a teacher since childhood. Even he knew that the people were like water to a boat. If he didn't care about the lives of the people, he would eventually be doomed. It was unknown how an emperor who had studied the Four Books and Five Classics since childhood had become the person he was today. In his eyes, the country seemed less important than his own comfort and happiness.
Seeing that he kept silent and looked worried, the servant smiled slightly, feeling that he had made the right bet.
In this way, he could tell him the truth without worrying about being exposed.
He coughed twice and smiled comfortingly.
"Your Highness is caring and not as cold and indifferent as the man sitting in the high seat. In this way, I can tell you the truth behind it."
"Luo Feng didn't actually smuggle sick horses. The horse you found was actually infected with the plague I brought from Liangzhou."
“…”
Prince Shou stared at the person in front of him in bewilderment. Does this mean that Luo Feng was actually wronged in this matter?
He had already sensed something was amiss, but he hadn't expected it to be such a frame-up. It was true that Luo Feng had been embezzling money and tampering with accounts for several years, but the huge charges against him were actually fabricated.
"Who told you to do this? Who are you working for?"
He shook his head and said, "No one asked me to do this. If I had to say it, it was for the people of Liangzhou."
"I know His Majesty is turning a blind eye. The plague in Liang Province has already reached the point of infecting people, yet he hasn't sent anyone to provide disaster relief, and there's not a penny left for disaster relief. Yet, he's using his money to support Shu Hu! How could Shu Hu, a foreign country far away, compare to the people of Da Sheng under his rule? As an emperor, he doesn't ask for the ability to govern the country, but at least he shouldn't be the one selling out the country, right?"
"Shut up!"
Prince Shou was so provoked by his harsh words that he suddenly stood up from his stool and looked down at this commoner who did not respect the monarch.
No matter how wrong that person was, he would never sell out his country. This was his country, this was his Dasheng. The blood of Dasheng flowed in his veins, and he was also a member of the Xiao family. Scolding him was the same as scolding himself. He had made many mistakes in his life, but this was the only thing he would never allow anyone to slander him like this.
"How can you, a mere servant of the horse, know what it means to establish a nation and a ruler? How can a lowly person like you have the right to interfere in the actions of the emperor?"
Seeing that he was not angry but laughed instead, the servant leaned lazily against the firewood pile and forced a smile with envy in his eyes.
"I thought you were as heartless as your father, but I didn't expect you to have some sense."
He took a deep breath and explained the matter calmly and without any impatience.
"I came to the capital to ask His Majesty to visit Liangzhou and to implore him to send people to rescue the people. But when I got here, I discovered that he didn't care about the people there at all. He even spent a large sum of money to build a flood shelter on the water while the area was suffering from a disaster! He said it was built for his beloved queen, but that queen was a foreigner. His heart was completely blinded by this foreigner, so how could he see anything else?"
"From that day on, I realized that meeting him wouldn't change anything. Only by making him experience pain firsthand, only by putting him in danger, could he truly understand the suffering of the people of Liangzhou. So, I put in a lot of effort to please the officials, and finally got myself into the Luofeng Mansion."
When Prince Shou heard this, he suddenly interrupted.
"You went to Luo Feng's mansion on purpose. Why didn't you just infect the Luo family with the plague? Why did you use him to harm the Yue family?"
He smiled coldly, with a hint of helplessness.
"I also know that Minister Yue has been working hard for Liangzhou, but I really can't let this matter be suppressed. There are other powerful people above Luo Feng. Even if his entire family were to get sick, it wouldn't necessarily be as serious as it is today. I must make this matter a huge fuss, so big that no one can suppress it. This way, I can force the emperor to keep the money for aiding Shu Hu and send it to Liangzhou."
What a mournful sigh, it spread out in his chest and dispersed in the air like water waves. Prince Shou listened to him quietly.
"You don't know... Three million taels is enough to save five or six Liangzhou cities!"
In this case, Prince Shou could not say anything. The three million taels might not be enough for Shu Hu to squander for half a year, but it was enough to save the people in Liangzhou City. Unfortunately, the money was not in his hands. He had the will but not the power, and could only watch the greedy parasites chew up a lot of gold and silver.
"Then now... why are you telling me all this?"
The sound waves as cool as a cold pond spread out. Prince Shou knew that since he had told the truth, he would not be able to live anymore. If he lived, all the efforts to change Luo Feng's confession would be wasted.
He also noticed something and nodded towards Prince Shou's waist.
"Leave the dagger to me! I have never seen anything so precious."
“…”
Prince Shou looked down at the sharp blade he had brought in. In fact, he had secretly made this decision in his heart before he came in, that he should keep his mouth shut forever.
Now that he knew all this, he was not as relaxed as before while holding the dagger in his hand. It was as if something was tugging at his heart, and he didn't know how to let go of this anxiety.
"Have you thought of this day?"
"Your Highness, if you are ever released from confinement, please visit Liangzhou! It used to be a fertile pasture with vast grasslands, but now it's littered with bones, and the starving corpses on the road are indistinguishable from ghosts or beasts. If I could just get the emperor to look at me, even if I die, what's the big deal?"
He looked at Prince Shou quietly, his eyes full of peace, and it seemed that his question was unnecessary.
Prince Shou pondered for a while, frowned, took off the dagger from his waist, knelt on one knee in front of him and presented it with both hands.
"It is my Xiao family that has let down the people of Liangzhou. This is all our fault! You are leaving for justice. I promise you that I will never let this matter go unpunished. The people of Liangzhou must get justice!"
He smiled faintly, took the dagger in his hand, and gave him a last calm look.
"Xiao Heng, I hope you can become the emperor of Dasheng and change the current situation where people are worse than ghosts. If you really become emperor in the future, don't forget this day, don't forget what you promised me."
Prince Shou lowered his head and said, "I promised you a promise, and I will never forget it until I die!"
If he were the king of this world, he would definitely not follow his father's old path and would make sure that the people of the world lived happily.
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