Actually, I didn't care about this at first. To me, it didn't matter who was the emperor, as long as the people of Xiaoyue could live well. However, I couldn't disobey my father's orders, so I only got Jinzhou.
Jinzhou is located southwest of Longxiao City, far from the city. The land is barren and the people are not wealthy. Because of this, Jinzhou has never been valued by the imperial court. It is easier for me to act secretly if I become the prefect there.
However, when I arrived, Jinzhou was hit by a snow disaster, and many people froze to death. I petitioned the imperial court to allocate disaster relief funds, but they were never received.
I wrote to my father to inquire, and he told me that the Empress Dowager had already sent Wu Qingyi with 500,000 taels of silver to provide disaster relief.
Five hundred thousand taels of silver was a drop in the ocean for the disaster-stricken people of Jinzhou, but it was better than nothing.
Unexpectedly, when Wu Qingyi arrived in Jinzhou, he brought not 500,000 taels of silver, but various disaster relief supplies.
The rice was either moldy or mixed with a lot of chaff, sand, and gravel. The cotton they brought was all clumped together and unusable, and the cloth was all pieced together from old scraps of fabric, some of which were stained with various black and red stains and emitted a foul stench.
The so-called medicinal herbs are all inferior, broken dregs. I had a doctor in Jinzhou who knows medicine examine them, and many of these herbs are even dregs that others have used. How can such supplies be used for disaster relief?
I went to question Wu Qingyi, but he slipped me ten thousand taels of silver and told me that as long as things were alright, these lowly people's lives were worthless, and they could just starve to death.
In a fit of anger, I beat Wu Qingyi up, crippling both of his legs.
Wu Qingyi was Empress Wu's cousin. After this incident, my father, in order to protect me, made me resign from my official post and temporarily avoid the limelight.
And it was from that moment that I deeply understood why my father and Prime Minister Lu wanted to find the Second Prince. If Xiaoyue were handed over to Empress Dowager Wu and others, the people of Xiaoyue would only live in purgatory from then on.
I returned to Dragon Sky City and began secretly searching for talented individuals, forming the Night Alliance. At the same time, I secretly searched for the Second Prince within Howling Moon territory.
This matter concerns Xiaoyue's future, and no one except her father knows about it, including Yun'er.
After Tao Zhengyu finished speaking, Su Ruojin and Xiao Yanchu understood.
The Night Alliance primarily gathers information, and incidentally takes on odd jobs to support its members.
Previously, Su Ruojin asked Rong Qizhou to inquire about the Night Alliance. The message Rong Qizhou sent back was that the leader of the Night Alliance was very mysterious and they couldn't find out about him for a while.
But the Night Alliance has never oppressed the people over the years, and those they have killed were all criminals who deserved to die.
This is quite similar to the Dark Alliance.
"Then who did you learn your martial arts from?" Su Ruojin thought of a key point: Tao Zhengyu came from a scholarly family and was able to become the second-highest scorer in the imperial examination, so he was obviously a scholar.
If he is a scholar, why does he know martial arts?
"I was born weak, and my father hired a martial arts master to teach me martial arts when I was young so that I could become stronger and lay a foundation for my health."
During the snowstorm in Jinzhou, I rescued an injured man who was starving and on the verge of death from the blizzard. Unexpectedly, this man was a martial arts practitioner who had mastered excellent skills.
After he woke up, to repay my life-saving grace, he volunteered to become my guard and protect my safety. Now he is also the Left Envoy of my Night Alliance.
I know that searching for the Second Prince is fraught with risks. If I am discovered, the Empress Dowager will send people to hunt me down.
To protect myself, I asked him to teach me martial arts. That's how I regained my old martial arts skills, and under his guidance, I practiced diligently for three years.
Tao Zhengyu finished speaking in one breath.
After three years of training, his skills, even if not top-notch, wouldn't be too bad. Being able to block Wu Xiong's sword for Lord Tao in the main hall wasn't a difficult task.
As the leader of the Night Alliance, Su Ruojin was well aware of the Wu family's situation and knew that she had saved Madam Wu and Miss Wu, which was only natural.
No wonder Tao Zhengyu sent her a message that Yueyu wanted to kill her, along with the deposit given by Yue Ning.
This was essentially repaying her for saving Wu Ziyun and her son's lives.
Su Ruojin thought of something else. She had found it strange at the time, but too many things happened afterward, so she didn't think much about it. If this matter was also related to the Night Alliance, it would also resolve the doubts in her heart.
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