In the spring of the fifteenth year of Dayou, Zhu Zhen falsely conveyed the order of the Southern Liang Emperor and killed all the eunuchs in the court. He also ordered the garrisons of various places to kill the eunuchs who supervised the army in various places.
The power struggle in Southern Liang officially ended with the defeat of the eunuchs controlled by the royal family!
Zhu Zhen did not stop there. He concurrently held the positions of Grand Marshal, Minister of Civil Affairs, and Minister of Works. The power of the Southern Liang Dynasty fell completely into his hands. In April of the same year, Zhu Zhen summoned the son of the Southern Liang Emperor to a banquet in the name of a banquet!
Zhu Zhen killed all the adult princes of Southern Liang on the pretext of being drunk!
News of the Southern Liang Dynasty spread back to Dajing like snowflakes, and countless nobles fled overnight. Yuncheng, which Qiao Yunqing controlled, and Sizhou, which Qiao Yunxin controlled, were adjacent to Chizhou and Xuancheng County of the Southern Liang Dynasty.
Faced with a large number of refugees fleeing north, they are the first to bear the greatest pressure.
After Qiao Xin's birthday, in order to prevent Zhu Zhen from turning his army to the north, Emperor Wu ordered the two to rush to the garrison overnight to deal with the current chaos.
When the two brothers left, they thought they would be able to say farewell to Qiao Xin in a touching scene.
But when we arrived at Lao Hu Town, we stopped the car and looked around in confusion. Where could we find our mother?
After searching for a long time, they finally found an energetic old mother leading the people from Laohu Town to dig holes and plant trees on the hillside!
Seeing their old mother digging the hole with a shovel, the two of them were so sad that they couldn't say anything.
Qiao Xin's news was no later than that of the court. Shi Jingmo was a participant in the entire political changes, and any new news was passed to her first. Qiao Xin was not surprised by the arrival of the two brothers.
"The situation is so serious this time, you two brothers should not bring your family members with you. If you need anything, you must write a letter to His Majesty to complain! Don't solve everything by yourself! If His Majesty agrees, you can help each other!"
Qiao Yunxin thought that Qiao Xin would ask them to write back to ask for help as she did before, but he didn't expect Qiao Xin to ask him to go directly to His Majesty.
Qiao Yunxin couldn't figure out the key point for a moment: "Mother, why is this happening? My son can solve the problem on the spot if he can solve it himself. If he reports it to higher authorities, he may miss the opportunity!"
"Boss, although it is said that a general is not subject to military orders when he is away from home, it depends on the specific situation. You have the military power. If you can solve the problems of weapons and food by yourself, or let the second brother help you directly, then what else does Your Majesty need to do?
I know you have no distractions, and your majesty may also know that your political enemies in the court will not think so. They will only think that you have a lot of troops and are powerful enough to threaten the emperor. In order to prevent you from becoming the next Zhu Zhen, they will definitely continue to sow discord between you and your majesty!
A military officer can run himself to pieces, but he is no match for a civil official. Even if the story is false, if you hear too many lies, you will doubt it. Three people make a tiger! "
The two brothers were not stupid. As soon as Qiao Xin said this, they immediately understood the key!
Qiao Yunxin still had some hope: "Mother, are you really not going to care about us anymore?"
Qiao Xin rolled her eyes and said unhappily, "Why do you care? Do you really think I'm a golden toad and I can spit out some money for you if nothing goes wrong?
You are fighting for the court, and the army belongs to His Majesty. If you need anything, just ask the Ministry of War openly and cry poor to His Majesty. Why worry about those freeloaders in the court?
We have already separated, and I am still raising troops for you and the court for nothing. What kind of person would that make me?
Don’t blame your mother for being cruel. As mother and son, you should settle accounts clearly. This army belongs to the imperial court first. You, Qiao Yunxin, are just acting in charge!
It was a bit difficult before and I helped to raise food and supplies, it wasn't a big deal, but if it continues like this, people who don't know would think that this is our Qiao family's private army!
What's more, the money saved was not used anywhere and all went into private pockets!
What's the point?
The two brothers couldn't refute this. Being in the officialdom, they naturally knew the ins and outs of it better than Qiao Xin.
I've gotten used to Qiao Xin's help over the years, so whenever I have a problem I subconsciously come here to discuss it with my mother. It seems I have to change this in the future!
It is not easy for my mother to raise such a big family, otherwise why would she be so eager to get rid of these burdens!
Dalang is right. A Niang has given so much over the years. It’s time for her to take a break!
Why do they all take advantage of the Qiao family? Aren’t they just taking advantage of my kind-hearted mother who can’t bear to see the sufferings of the world?
The imperial court has recovered now, but when he was asked to send troops this time, the civil and military officials in the court were still passive in preparing food and fodder. They believed that they could prepare it themselves. Even the reasonable requests raised by His Majesty in the court were cut in half!
"What if your majesty and the Ministry of Revenue can't come up with the money?"
"What can we do? If they don't have money, so does everyone else? What's the matter? Dajing is the back garden of a noble family. We can come and go as we please? We don't have to pay any price at all?"
The two brothers were suddenly enlightened! They thought their mother had endured this anger, but it turned out that she was waiting here.
In the current situation, it depends on the choice of the families who escaped back to either pay money to buy safety or return to Nanliang to live a precarious life!
The two brothers came and went in a hurry without causing any splash in Laohu Town.
Qiao Xin said she really didn't care, as she had more important things to do right now.
In the winter, Qiao Xin didn't feel any difference between Laohu Town and before, but when spring came, she climbed up a hill not far away and found that the green water was still there, but the green mountains seemed very far away from her.
The hills I saw when I went out were almost bald, they were really the kind that had been chopped down!
With the rapid increase in population near Laohu Town, people have a greater demand for firewood, rice, oil and salt. Firewood ranks first, which shows its importance!
Daily firewood making, keeping warm in winter, building houses and making furniture, which one does not require a large amount of wood?
In this day and age, people can’t even get enough food to eat, so isn’t it like talking to a cow about environmental protection?
Maybe people will even scold you, saying that a full man does not know the hunger of a hungry man!
But the mountains surrounding Laohu Town basically belong to Qiao Xin. Although she tacitly allowed everyone to chop wood, she didn't ask people to chop wood so much that they would become bald and exterminate their descendants!
It rained a few days ago, and the muddy water flowing down from the mountain immediately alerted Qiao Xin.
If you don't plant trees while managing mountains and water, you will not be able to preserve the soil and water.
Environmental protection is urgent!
The tree planting activity in Laohu Town needs to be put on the agenda. If they are allowed to continue with the current self-defeating operations, those who live at the foot of the mountain might be buried underground by a mountain torrent or mudslide one day!
Li Zhongzheng was discussing spring plowing and sowing with everyone, but was called over by Qiao Xin to talk about planting trees!
"What? Planting trees? Aren't the trees on this mountain naturally grown? Why do we need to plant them?"
"No matter how fast you grow, you can't outpace the axes in our hands. Mayor Li, look at me, in these few years, the hills around my home have been almost bald from being chopped off by everyone, right?
Is he planning to move after he's done with the firewood, or is he planning to run dozens of miles away to chop some firewood in the future?
Besides, will the owners of those mountains allow people to cut down trees at will?"
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