Chapter 312 Disaster
The matters concerning disaster relief have also been arranged, and now they are waiting for news from there. Concubine Zhou and Chu Linglong are both waiting in the harem. In this regard, they are more anxious than Xuanyuan Ling, after all, it is related to their own father.
This attention lasted for about twenty days.
Chu Linglong now has someone to take care of her every day. This pregnancy was not hard for her. Although she was a little anemic, she was nourished and the care was thoughtful, so she was in good spirits.
The servants were all arranged accordingly and no one dared to be negligent, for fear that the emperor would blame them if anything went wrong.
That day Ming Su found out the news from the previous dynasty and hurried to report to Chu Linglong.
"My lord, good news."
Chu Linglong has been relying on Ming Su to inquire about the affairs of the previous dynasty these days. The harem is not allowed to interfere in state affairs, but some information can still be found out. After all, disaster relief is no secret. She was really worried, so she just listened to the news.
Now that she heard the good news, Chu Linglong was also happy: "What do you mean?"
Ming Su happily replied to Chu Linglong: "Master and his men have finished their mission to suppress the bandits. I heard that they captured the bandit leader and won a great victory."
Chu Linglong smiled widely, and her heart, which had been hanging for more than twenty days, was finally at ease. It was good news. The father and son of the Chu family were going to suppress the bandits. The news had just arrived, so the bandit leader should have been captured a few days ago.
Concubine Zhou also received the news. Although she did not hear about her father, she knew that the bandit suppression was over and there should be no danger. She gradually put her mind at ease.
The news received by Xuanyuan Ling was naturally different from that received by Chu Linglong and Concubine Zhou. He had received a formal memorial from Yingzhou, but when he saw the report to Xuanyuan Ling, he got angry.
There were bandits in Yingzhou, and the suppression of the bandits was successful. However, after the bandit leader was captured, trouble arose.
The bandit leader claimed every day that he was forced to join forces with his fellow villagers to become bandits. Only then did they realize that these people were not bandits at all, but villagers. The specific reason had to be traced back to the beginning of the snow disaster.
It turned out that the snow disaster was not just beginning, but the first time it snowed in Yingzhou this year was a heavy snowstorm, and it snowed for many days in a row. It seemed that this year would not be easy, but the governor of Yingzhou did not report the news directly, but kept it secret.
In the past, when officials submitted their greetings, they mostly reported good news but not bad news. Nothing major would happen because the emperor was far away and Xuanyuan Ling could not see them. There were disasters in various places, and some of them were mentioned in previous years, but as long as the signs were discovered early or relief was provided in time, the people would generally not suffer.
As a result, the governor of Yingzhou was so good, deceiving his superiors and subordinates, and trying to cover it up. As a result, more and more places were affected, and he couldn't hide it anymore, so he reported it, and the report only said that it was not serious. As a result, the current report showed that it was not serious at all? The number of destroyed houses and farmlands and the number of casualties reported were all false. How could Xuanyuan Ling not be angry?
Xuanyuan Ling directly ordered people from the Ministry of Justice to investigate the case. This kind of thing could not have been done by the governor alone, there must be other people involved, and it must be investigated thoroughly.
As soon as Xuanyuan Ling issued the order, Chu Linglong and Zhou Guiren, who were originally keeping an eye on this matter, knew about it. Chu Linglong had not expected this either, because she knew that Zhou Guiren's father was the governor of Yingzhou, but she did not expect that such a thing would happen. She was a little speechless for a moment.
When Lady Zhou heard this, she was in disbelief. How could this be possible? Could she not know her own father? Her father loved the people like his own children. He would never do such a thing.
Concubine Zhou was suddenly panicked. When she heard that Xuanyuan Ling had sent people to investigate, she did not dare to go to Xuanyuan Ling for help. In fact, she felt powerless in her heart, because if this was true, even if she went to Xuanyuan Ling for help, he would not do anything about her words.
At this moment, Concubine Zhou was somewhat disheartened. In fact, she had been a concubine for two years, but when her father got into trouble, she could not help at all. She had no favor from the Emperor and no heirs. On the one hand, she was burdened with the affairs of her father, and on the other hand, she blamed herself for being so useless.
However, she didn't know that Li Yu, the official from the Ministry of Justice who tried the case, was an old acquaintance of the governor of Yingzhou. The two had some friendship in their early years. Although she didn't know him well, she didn't think that the governor of Yingzhou could do such a thing at first, so she was more careful when investigating.
After a careful investigation, they actually found out that there was something else going on. Yingzhou didn't just have a governor, there were other officials of all ranks as well. One of them had always had a bad relationship with the governor and had wanted to bring him down for a long time, so he took advantage of the snow disaster to make a fuss about it.
It turned out that the governor of Yingzhou had already opened the granaries to release grain at the beginning of the snowstorm, but a large portion of it was secretly withheld, and very little reached the hands of the people. At first, they thought that the grain in the granaries was enough to survive the winter, and the governor was also selfish, thinking that it would be better not to report the matter, lest the emperor think that he was not doing his job well.
As a result, this incident gave those with ulterior motives the opportunity to make trouble. At the beginning, it was not reported, and most of the grain was withheld after it was released. They even sent people to the disaster-stricken people to make a statement, saying that the governor did not report the matter to the emperor and ignored the disaster-stricken people. The people under him were instigated and thought of robbing the granary.
When the common people robbed the granary, they were naturally enemies of the government. Once they caused trouble and lost lives, there was no turning back. With new and old grudges, it really became a bandit disaster. As the snow disaster became more serious, more people were affected and more people were hungry. Some people joined in to make a living and started to rob the rich and help the poor.
In the end, the banditry was getting bigger and bigger. The governor of Yingzhou himself did not expect that just because he wanted to conceal the incident for a while, he would be tormented like this by his subordinates.
Now that the case has been tried clearly, all the officials implicated have been thrown into jail. Li Yu was sent by Xuanyuan Ling to handle this matter. Originally, he should have been fully responsible and could decide on how to deal with people and then report back. However, the matter of the governor was difficult to handle now.
It would be fine if it was done by Zhou Zhoumu, and he could just deal with it directly. However, he was responsible for concealing the matter at first, and although it became a big deal later, it was at most considered dereliction of duty. Although he should be punished, it would not be punishable by death. It was a bit difficult to grasp the scale. Moreover, Li Yu was also a smart man. Zhou Zhoumu had a daughter in the palace.
He didn't know whether Concubine Zhou was favored or not, but he knew that women's pillow talk was very powerful. If he punished her severely today and she hated him, and then turned around and talked to him, wouldn't he be in trouble?
Therefore, after much thought, he could not make a unilateral decision on the matter of Mu Zhou. It was not unfair for others to do as they wished. So he wrote a memorial to report the matter of Mu Zhou.
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