Chapter 48 Emptying the National Treasury for Exile (3)
The eunuch scrambled out to find the guards who remembered the poem and wrote it down on the spot, forbidding them from peeking at it.
The Emperor was not in the mood to change his clothes and was only wearing a bright yellow nightgown. The concubines on the bed were wearing thin clothes and could not get out of bed to put on their clothes.
Upon seeing a man enter, she could only wrap herself tightly in the blanket, covering herself with only a bodice and underpants.
After the guards finished writing, the eunuchs and palace maids stepped forward and stood the papers up.
The Emperor read aloud as he looked at the document:
A lonely soul, filled with resentment, returns home through the night, seeking justice before the imperial palace.
The Purple Star has dimmed and its virtue has declined; the true dragon should belong to the Third Prince.
A son bestowed by heaven to inherit the great lineage, destined to be paired with a phoenix to determine the fate of the world.
The fierce spirit urges the decree, the heavens are enraged; if the emperor does not return to his throne, his bones will turn to ashes.
Do you want him to turn to ashes?
Is this an attempt to force him to abdicate the throne, and if he refuses, they'll kill him?
How dare a mere subject criticize him?
He is the emperor, the whole world belongs to him, he has no respect for the emperor and his father! No respect for the emperor and his father!!!
No wonder everyone says that the Prince of Zhenbei is plotting a rebellion.
He died a just death.
"Damn it! Damn it all!!!" The Emperor's voice was hoarse, almost squeezed out from between his teeth, his chest heaving violently.
"I am unworthy of my position? The third prince is the true dragon. What a fine Prince of Zhenbei! He was respectful to me in life, but now he can disrespect me, his sovereign, after death? He deserves to die. Guards, burn his memorial tablet."
The eunuch overheard that the emperor was going to burn the memorial tablets and was so frightened that he kept kowtowing, begging the emperor to rescind his order. "Your Majesty, please reconsider! The Prince of Zhenbei has already become a vengeful ghost. If you still want to harm the Prince of Zhenbei's mansion, what if he harms your imperial body?"
"I am the supreme emperor, the true dragon, and I do not believe he would dare to lay a hand on me. Burn his memorial tablet and destroy every ancestral hall in the Great Zhou that enshrines the Prince of Zhenbei. Let's see how he can continue to play the role of a god and cause trouble in my Great Zhou."
"Go to the Imperial Observatory and then to Huangjue Temple to invite Master Yuanzhen."
The emperor grew up in the palace and was used to seeing the wronged souls of palace maids. If there really were wronged souls causing trouble, most of the people in the palace would have died long ago.
"Your Majesty, something terrible has happened."
The Emperor replied impatiently, "What is it now?"
The last thing he wants to hear right now is "bad news," those three words.
"The Empress was in excruciating abdominal pain and nearly bit off her own tongue. Fortunately, the palace maids and nannies stopped her in time. She only bit her tongue and it was not severed. However, the injury was quite serious, and the imperial physicians were all helpless and could only tie her up temporarily."
"Empress..."
The emperor was so angry he almost vomited blood. He swept everything off the table, scattering it all over the floor with a loud crash!
He gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath, "Damn Prince Zhenbei! I am the true Son of Heaven..."
The palace servants of Funing Palace all felt that it was the vengeful spirits playing there causing trouble, reminding the Emperor that first it was the Empress, and perhaps the Emperor would be next.
Fearing that he would suffer the same fate as the Empress, the Emperor immediately withdrew his edict to burn the memorial tablet of the Prince of Zhenbei.
This matter needs to be considered carefully.
The third prince, who was outside the palace, heard the poem relayed by the spies planted inside the palace.
He felt as if a great disaster was about to befall him. That damned Prince Zhenbei was dead and still wouldn't let him go. Could it be that he knew that he was the one who sent the assassins and framed the Crown Prince, and came to seek revenge?
He urgently summoned his staff to discuss matters, and half an hour later, he entered the palace with the belongings of his mother, Consort Xian.
Yun Zhaoxue learned from Zhuiying that the Third Prince had gone to the palace to plead for mercy, so she asked Zhuiying to lead her out of the mansion through a secret passage, avoiding the sight of the Imperial Guards, and to the Third Prince's mansion.
He put everything he had sneaked into the mansion's storeroom back, as he was reluctant to return it all. He kept a few boxes of gold and silver ingots as a reward for his hard work during the confiscation of the property, which was a cheap trick by the emperor.
Using the yellow talisman to frame the Third Prince was a sudden inspiration during the ransacking of the palace. If they had known earlier, they would have raided the palace first and then the Third Prince's residence, avoiding all this trouble.
After leaving the Third Prince's residence, he thought about how he would starve to death on the road to exile. Even if he was allowed to buy food, if he had to eat for several days after buying it, the food would spoil. He was already exhausted from walking, and he would have to carry food with him.
It's better to buy them in advance and store them in your space for convenience.
He slipped into the alley, and while no one was in the space, he changed into men's clothing, put on a fake beard, and darkened and uglied his face, making it so ordinary that it would be forgotten if thrown into a crowd.
The silver in the national treasury is sealed with official seals, making it inconvenient to use it directly.
Some ministers' silver was all embezzled, leaving no trace, and even those with traces had them erased, saving them a lot of trouble.
Buy, buy, buy!
First, go to the farmers' market. The streets on both sides are full of vendors selling vegetables, meat, chickens, ducks, fish, geese...
Yun Zhaoxue bought a large cart for three taels of silver.
The vendors were dressed in coarse linen clothes, which were so tattered that they could hardly be ripped off, patched and patched again, with sleeves that reached their arms and trousers that were almost knee-length.
It is said that the Great Zhou Dynasty was the most prosperous dynasty in history, yet the people were poorly clothed and starving.
The ministers were incredibly wealthy; any item they owned was worth hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of taels of silver.
Arriving at a vegetable vendor, she randomly pointed to a few items and asked about their prices. They were all a few coins per pound, with the more expensive ones costing over ten coins. It sounded quite cheap. The original owner had never bought vegetables before and didn't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil, and salt were. She didn't care, since she wasn't short of money anyway.
"I want this one, I want this one too, I want them all! Let's calculate how much silver it will cost."
Next door, an old man and his grandson were selling eggs. Both of them were skin and bones. Their baskets were lined with straw, and on the straw were five or six eggs. The eggs were very clean, without any chicken droppings or feathers, which showed how precious they were.
The grandfather and grandson stared at her expectantly, hoping she would buy their eggs.
They look quite pitiful.
I don't have much stock in these few items.
She walked over and asked, "Grandpa, how much is an egg?"
The old man's voice was hoarse. He held up five fingers, then bent down another, "Five or four coins each."
There was another egg stall next door. When they saw the old man offering four coins, which was lower than the market price, they immediately became unhappy. "We took pity on your uncle and aunt and kindly gave you a spot to sell eggs. You are repaying kindness with enmity!"
Across the street, an egg vendor pointed at the grandfather and grandson and cursed, "Hey, you old fool, everyone else sells them for five coins but you insist on selling them for four. Do you want us to lose money? You're not allowed to sell them for four coins, you have to sell them for five coins."
"I..." The old man was about to explain when he started coughing in a panic, "cough cough..."
Yun Zhaoxue asked, "Grandpa, is there some kind of difficulty at home?"
The grandson nodded vigorously, his eyes full of sincerity, and replied, "Yes, Uncle, my grandmother is seriously ill and has no money to buy medicine. She's waiting to sell eggs to earn money for her treatment."
"Everyone, stop arguing. I'll take all your eggs, five coins each." Yun Zhaoxue shouted, bent down, picked up the five eggs in front of the old man, stuffed ten taels of silver into his hand, and whispered, "Don't make a fuss, take them back to see a doctor."
Ten taels of silver isn't much, but it's far more than the money from selling five eggs.
When the egg vendors heard she wanted eggs, they all lined up and led her over.
"Sir, do you want some duck eggs? I have some duck eggs here, six coins each."
"want."
"Want some duck?"
"Would you like some fish?"
"Yes, yes, I want them all, bring them over and line them up."
After they finished shopping, they noticed that Yun Zhaoxue was thin and weak, and worried that she wouldn't be able to push the cart. They kindly offered to help her push it back to the mansion.
"No need, no need, I can push it." She refused, and then pushed the cart away effortlessly, leaving everyone amazed by her strength.
Pushing the cart into the alley, he put the things into his spatial storage, then pushed the cart to Liangpu to buy several hundred catties of rice and flour. Passing by a pancake shop, he had someone make a hundred pancakes for him.
Mission accomplished, I went to the agreed meeting place to meet Zhuiying. Before I even got there, Zhuiying rushed over, "Princess, Princess, something terrible has happened! The Emperor's decree to confiscate our property has been sent to the Prince's residence."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com