Chapter 253 Cleaning Up the House
Prime Minister Xie was brought before the emperor.
"What does the Prime Minister want?" The emperor's voice was calm, and no emotion could be heard.
What Prime Minister Xie wanted was naturally for the emperor to cancel the imperial decree to appoint Wei Qingyan as the crown princess, and then find another prince to be appointed as the crown prince, and then continue to fulfill his promise and appoint the daughter of the Xie family as the queen.
Even if the emperor's current adult princes have no chance of becoming the crown prince, it doesn't matter. He can just choose from among the younger princes. After all, his Xie family has no shortage of girls, and there will always be one who can suit the new emperor.
But now they were on the city wall, and there were many people around the emperor. How could he say it? He just said, "A woman being the emperor is unheard of. It is really inappropriate. Your Majesty, please revoke your order."
"What if I don't take it back?"
The emperor lowered his brows and looked at the kneeling Prime Minister Xie, his eyes sharp, "Prime Minister, are you going to use the handle of the late emperor to threaten me?"
What he said before was already clear, and there was no need for Prime Minister Xie to deny it, so he remained silent as a tacit agreement.
"I've even issued an edict of apology, so why should I fear the Prime Minister's threats?" The emperor's eyes were icy. "The secret the Prime Minister kept for the late emperor was Du Changyuan's death."
Prime Minister Xie was shocked beyond words.
How does Your Majesty know?
"The Crown Princess has long suspected this and informed me. I will of course investigate. I have even issued an edict of apology, so how could I be afraid of such a secret?"
"Your Majesty, Du Changyuan served the late emperor with great military exploits, yet the late emperor killed him out of personal vengeance and then allowed the Guan family to torture the descendants of the Du family. If word of this were to spread, wouldn't you be afraid it would chill the hearts of the soldiers?"
This is the leverage that the Xie family has over the royal family. How could he let this leverage become ineffective?
Wei Qingyan sneered, "So we're going to let your Xie family bully our father? Father is doing his best to make up for the mistakes made by the late emperor. The people and the soldiers are all good at what they do, and they'll eventually see the truth.
"Prime Minister, don't even think about using this as evidence to manipulate my father. If you insist on spreading this, then we can investigate whether your Xie family is involved in this matter."
The Xie family must not be an outsider to know this secret.
However, the Xie family has a deep foundation and has acted cautiously over the years. My father will not easily touch them until he finds that the Xie family has done something wrong.
"Xie Shoufu, if you find out that your Xie family was responsible for my grandfather's death, I, Du Xueyi, will fight your Xie family to the death."
Du Xueyi had also climbed onto the tower at some point, and stood before Prime Minister Xie, saying sarcastically, "Your Majesty, after verifying the facts, informed me of this matter. It was only because of my unwillingness that Your Majesty did not include this in the edict of apology."
The general had already informed him of this suspicion, but his grandfather had asked the late emperor for Guan's return before, so only the parties involved knew who was right and who was wrong.
Unlike General Wei's case, which involved the general's background and had to be made public, my grandfather was plotted against by the late emperor simply because of love between a man and a woman.
Once it is exposed, some people will stand up for my grandfather and curse the late emperor, but there will also be many people who will use my grandfather's love affairs as a topic of conversation after dinner.
It might even end up as the grandfather stealing the previous emperor's woman.
It was the late emperor who killed his grandfather, not the emperor, let alone the general. He didn't want to cause trouble for the emperor and the general because of this matter.
He will seek revenge for his grandfather on the late emperor.
However, he didn't expect that the Xie family had already known about it and wanted to use his grandfather's affairs to benefit his family. Du Xueyi took note of this.
Prime Minister Xie didn't expect that his threat failed and he was threatened instead. His face turned pale. This was a heavy blow to the Xie family, and his actions today were as ridiculous as a clown.
The emperor didn't have much time to waste on him. He said calmly, "The Prime Minister, please go back. I hope the Xie family will behave themselves in the future."
This was the emperor's warning to the Xie family, and Prime Minister Xie's face turned gloomy.
In just a short while, the content of the memorial handled by Wei Qingyan was also spread out.
The people did not have enough good land and could not get enough food, so she proposed that the court allow the people to reclaim wasteland and distribute the reclaimed land to households based on the number of people.
There is a hierarchical system for taxes. The more good land one owns, the higher the tax rate one has to pay. This can to a certain extent avoid the situation where rich households and officials hoard large amounts of land and the common people have no land to cultivate, and the land can be returned to the people.
He also proposed that the court set up an agricultural department to be responsible for researching how to increase crop output and prevent disasters such as locusts.
Among the four classes of people, scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, officials have power, businessmen have money, and workers have skills. Only farmers can only rely on nature for their livelihood and are the poorest group.
Most of the people watching today were farmers. Upon hearing Wei Qingyan's suggestion, someone, led by someone else, immediately knelt down and shouted, "Long live the emperor, long live the princess..."
They will support whoever can provide them with land to farm and food to eat.
This was an expected scene, and the emperor raised his lips in satisfaction.
During a war, food and fodder must be sent before the troops move. Qingyan had been a general, so she naturally understood the importance of food and fodder. She had been in the civilian population for three years and had experienced hunger like in Huangshaling, so she naturally attached great importance to agriculture.
Farmers make up the largest group in the Wei Dynasty. With their support, Princess Qingyan's status as Crown Princess will definitely be secure.
As for those wealthy officials whose interests were damaged as a result, the emperor believed that Qingyan had the ability to convince them.
The matter was settled. Wang Chen looked at Su Mao, who was dressed as King Jing and had his hands and feet tied and dropped on the city wall. He said coldly, "Your Majesty, the identity of the Crown Princess has been confirmed. Next, please allow me to clean up the mess."
The emperor nodded, "Yes."
Had Su Mao brought here so that he could be executed in public.
At this time, Su Mao was shocked and regretful!
What was shocking was that Emperor Jingde was still alive. When he was in the previous dynasty, he was very afraid of this imperial uncle. When he saw Wangchen walking towards him, he shuddered inexplicably.
He also regretted that he had trusted King Jing so easily, thinking that he really had the ability to take over other people's bodies. He followed him to the capital and fell into the hands of the Emperor of Wei.
In order to make him look like King Jing, the Emperor of Wei not only had a mask made of human skin glued to his face, but also poisoned his throat to make it mute and castrated his lower body.
Now he was hung upside down on the city wall with his feet tied, feeling more miserable and miserable than ever before.
"Put it down a little so I can talk to him." Wang Chen's voice sounded.
Su Mao's body was falling rapidly, and when he was about to hit the ground, the rope was strangled. Wang Chen did not speak to him, but just gestured upwards.
The person above understood and pulled the person up again. Before Su Mao could react, he felt his body falling rapidly. A huge fear of death came over him. Su Mao howled in his heart, but could not make a sound.
Repeat this several times.
He walked on the brink of death again and again. His face was already pale, he was incontinent, and his leg bones were completely broken after several falls. Only his skin and flesh were still holding on.
Su Mao dreamed of becoming an emperor, and he had been pretending to be a decent person over the years, often dressing like a scholar and caring very much about his reputation. It was more painful for him to look like this in public than to kill him.
The last time, when he was hanging at a height that allowed him to look Wangchen in the eye, he begged Wangchen to save him with his eyes.
Wang Chen's face was calm, but his eyes were shocking. "You are unwilling to lose your country and want to restore it, which is understandable, but you treat human lives as ants, you really deserve to die.
You are as despicable as a rat in a sewer, wearing human skin but can only hide in the dark. You have brought shame to our Su family. Today, I will take your flesh and blood, and in the next life, you will not be worthy of being a human being. "
After saying this, he looked at Wei Qingyan and said, "This man colluded with Beiling and caused the deaths of 20,000 of your country's defenders at Huangsha Ridge. Today, the first lesson I will teach you is that you must never show mercy to your enemies."
The truth behind the Huangshaling Incident was clearly stated in the Repentance Edict. It was King Jing who colluded with Beiling and lured the Crown Prince and Queen of Wei into the incident, which led to the tragic Huangshaling Incident.
The edict of blaming himself explained that King Jing at that time was Su Mao in disguise, and let Su Mao take the blame for the little ghost.
But Wei Qingyan knew very well that it was the little ghost who conspired with Su Mao and his son, so Su Mao was also the culprit who killed 20,000 national defense soldiers.
He has harmed countless people of the Wei Dynasty by eating it over the years, so it would be too easy for him to be tortured to death.
Su Mao had already experienced the fear of death many times, and being tortured by Wei Qingyan with his sword made him live a life worse than death.
The audience felt very happy and no one felt sorry for him.
No one suspected that he was taking the blame for the little ghost. They just wished that Wei Qingyan would act slower and be more cruel.
But some people feel sorry for Wei Qingyan.
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