Chapter 123 Forcing Dou Mingyan to Leave
The room was silent. Pei Siyan finished dressing and turned around to see his beloved pet, Taxue, staring at him.
The snowflake rubbed against his heels. Pei Siyan squatted down and gently stroked it. "You idiot, if you're so clueless again, you can forget about ever eating Fanlou's dried fish again!"
Pei Siyan got up, glanced at the window, and prepared to return the way he came.
Ta Xue meowed a few more times, sounding somewhat anxious, and paced restlessly around his feet.
Pei Siyan snorted coldly, "You're useless yourself, yet you want to go back with me? You can come back whenever she's willing to go to the East Palace!"
——
The following morning, dark clouds shrouded the entire imperial city, and a storm was brewing.
Inside the East Palace's sleeping quarters, Pei Siyan had just gotten up. He had been up all night and returned to the East Palace close to dawn. He had slept for less than an hour in total and was extremely tired.
Eunuch Anxi took a jade belt from the young eunuch, carefully dressed him, and then chose a dragon scale jade pendant to hang on him.
Eunuch Anxi stared hesitantly at the somewhat worn sachet on the plate, "Your Highness, this sachet..."
"The usual!"
Upon hearing this, Eunuch Anxi quickly put the sachet on.
"How is the situation in the palace?"
"Yesterday, after the court session, Imperial Censor Xu was invited to dine with His Majesty. The Imperial City Guard has already investigated and clarified the matter of nearly one million shi of millet disappearing from the Yuanfeng and Yongfeng granaries overnight."
"I reported this to His Majesty last night, and His Majesty was furious. This morning, Tan Tianyou, the three officials in charge of supervising the granaries, along with the granary supervisors from two other locations, as well as the relevant officials and magistrates, have all been imprisoned."
Pei Siyan looked up at the gloomy sky, a gleam of excitement flashing in his narrow phoenix eyes.
Yes, it's a perfect day for the dead!
God bless?
God bless you?
hehe!
Pei Siyan dressed neatly and, after having breakfast, headed straight for Chongzheng Hall. However, just as he reached halfway there, large raindrops began to fall from the sky.
Immediately, a guard came over to hold an umbrella over him.
Red walls and yellow tiles, flying eaves and upturned corners, jade steps and vermilion pillars, all shrouded in boundless rain and mist. This is clearly the most prestigious and powerful place in the world, where others would do anything to get in, but she is an exception.
Pei Siyan could see from afar that a concubine with her hair disheveled and dressed in a plain robe was kneeling outside the jade steps of Chongzheng Hall.
Without a doubt, that person was Consort Tan.
Strip away her imperial concubine status, and just pretend to kneel and cry here to settle such a huge deficit.
"...Your Highness, the rain is getting heavier and heavier. What should we do if you get soaked and become ill?"
"Your Highness, please return. His Majesty is in a foul mood. Even if you were to enter at this critical juncture, it would be..."
"well--"
Grand Eunuch Feng, holding an umbrella, tried his best to persuade the palace officials.
Consort Tan knelt upright, completely unmoved, her face deathly pale. Rain and tears had long since mingled together, soaking her to the bone. Her disheveled state was tinged with despair and stubbornness.
Where is even a trace of the imperial concubine's majesty?
Pei Siyan strolled to the palace gate and coldly watched this scene.
At this moment, a furious roar came from inside the hall, "This is outrageous! Millions of bushels of grain have vanished without a trace! Are you trying to make sure that all the people of Tianning City have nothing to eat? Do you really think I wouldn't dare to take their heads?"
"Have the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate send representatives to the joint trial, and also have Shen Yanzhou come!"
Pei Siyan's lips curled into a mocking smile; the evidence against the Tan family went far beyond this.
His voice was cold. "Tell them to hand over the report and all the evidence."
Anxi nodded in understanding.
Even though Tan Tianyou's son is a bully who preys on men and women and has several lives on his hands, not to mention other evidence of corruption, the Tan family is likely to fall!
——
Tan Tianyou was quickly executed, and his family was soon raided and exiled to southern Fujian. The amount of wealth confiscated shocked even the well-informed Emperor Muzong.
The cellar contained over three million taels of silver, and the Tan family mansion in Tianning City alone had over 26,000 taels of gold hidden in the walls. In addition, there were countless other gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, farmland, real estate, and shops.
This incident caused a huge uproar in the court, especially impacting powerful and aristocratic families, who feared that Emperor Muzong's sword might fall on their heads one day.
On the contrary, the lower-level officials who were struggling financially were overjoyed. The reason was simple: the national treasury was empty, the Minister of Revenue complained every day, and even the officials' salaries had begun to be in arrears.
The confiscation of the Tan family's property was like a timely rain, relieving Emperor Muzong's urgent crisis.
Dou Wenyi was still somewhat shaken when she learned that the Tan family's property had been confiscated, since it was she who had told Pei Siyan about the empty granary.
On this day, Dou Bochang made a rare visit to Yilan Courtyard.
Dou Wenyi ordered someone to pour him tea. "Father, what brings you here?"
Dou Bochang's slightly gray hair was disheveled by the wind, and his expression was solemn, as if he had suffered a great blow.
Dou Wenyi was taken aback. "Father, what's wrong?"
Dou Bochang was terrified. Recently, the atmosphere in the court was tense and everyone was on edge. Even several officials from the Ministry of Rites had been taken away for questioning by the Imperial City Guard.
Dou Bochang held his teacup, hesitated, and asked, "Do you know anything about the Tan family?"
Dou Wenyi nodded, pursed her lips, and asked, "What is Father worried about?"
"After much thought, I realized that the recent turmoil is all due to the power struggle between the Crown Prince and Prince Rui! The more I look at Mingyan's marriage, the more dangerous it seems. If Prince Rui is implicated, our Dou family will be the first to suffer."
Dou Wenyi found it amusing; marrying into the royal family was inherently a very dangerous affair.
He's finally realized why he was so preoccupied with thoughts of wealth and luxury when the marriage was arranged.
"I don't quite understand what Father is saying."
Dou Bochang frowned deeply; he had been unable to sleep for the past few nights, and his hair had turned white.
“Mingyan’s father saved my life, and I should repay this life-saving grace with all my heart. I raised her to adulthood and even groomed her to be the Crown Princess. I have done more than enough. When she gets married in the future, she should change back to her original surname and should not marry into my Dou family.”
"Whether it's the Tan family or the Zhang family, anything associated with the royal family is bound to be bad. What do you think?"
Dou Wenyi smiled.
Dou Mingyan was their proud daughter, whom they had pampered for so many years, and now they were just going to abandon her like that?
Has the double-edged sword of power finally made him fearful?
Do you really not want the wealth and status that are within your grasp?
"Father, will Mother agree?"
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