In the past two years, Suzhou has suffered a drought that is rare in a century. All the crops planted in the fields of the people have been dried up to death, and there is no harvest in the autumn, making it difficult to survive.
Seeing that the people could not survive, the King of Suzhou asked the court to allocate grain and silver for disaster relief. Murong Zhen always loved the people like his own children, and generously asked the Ministry of Revenue to allocate grain and silver.
However, in order to prevent someone from embezzling the disaster relief silver and grain, Murong Zhen used a little trick. He specially summoned people to the Suzhou area to widely publicize to the people the amount of disaster relief distributed by the court this time, so as to shock those guys who wanted to get something for free.
However, who would have thought that the local officials of Suzhou were so bold that they did not take the imperial court seriously at all. They had long been accustomed to taking advantage of others, and the majority of the disaster relief funds did not fall into the hands of the people, but were instead embezzled by them privately.
Of course, the biggest thing was given to the biggest local emperor in Suzhou, the King of Suzhou, according to custom.
The porridge cooked in front of the government office was becoming clearer and clearer. When one looked at a bowl of porridge, one could only count the rice grains on one’s fingers. More and more people were starving to death in the streets.
Some of the brave people gathered together and went to the government office to cause trouble, demanding where the silver and grain given by the court had gone.
However, they were driven out by the guards with their legs broken, and they were also told: It is because of the prince's kindness that you have porridge to drink. If anyone else comes to make trouble, you will not even be given porridge.
Drinking this plain porridge will lead to death, and not drinking this porridge will also lead to death. Since I will die anyway, I might as well fight to the death and get a quick death.
With this idea in mind, some people came up with ideas and encouraged everyone to file a lawsuit against the King of Suzhou. As long as the rat in the rice jar was removed, the rice would naturally come out.
But who in the world, except the emperor, can rule the king of a continent
So there was this complaint to the emperor.
This group of disaster victims was also desperate. The petition not only stated that the Suzhou King condoned his officials' corruption and abuse of power, but also that the Suzhou King's illegitimate son raped women and his nephew seized good farmland. In addition, the petition also had the blood seals of tens of thousands of people, which was really shocking.
The emperor was filled with rage after seeing this, and immediately ordered people to detain the Prince of Suzhou on the spot, and asked the Ministry of Justice to investigate the matter thoroughly.
Afterwards, the emperor stopped burning incense and returned to the palace with a very unhappy look on his face.
The King of Suzhou, whose legitimate son had just died, was thrown into prison before he could recover from his rage.
When he was taken away, the King of Suzhou only had time to tell the steward: "Go and tell the old princess quickly."
The old princess had just learned of her grandson's death. She hadn't recovered yet when she heard that her son was imprisoned. She fainted from anger.
When she woke up, she hurried into the palace to plead with the emperor. Although she had always been a distinguished guest in the palace, this was the first time she was refused entry.
It was also at this time that the old princess realized: a new emperor appoints new ministers, and the little affection that she, as his aunt, had in the emperor's heart had probably been exhausted by what her son had done.
The old princess fainted outside the palace gate, but the guards at the gate just watched her indifferently.
Everyone knows that King Suzhou is finished this time.
*
The capital city in recent days has been in turmoil, one crisis after another, more exciting than the drama on the stage.
In the past, the top dignitaries fought for a piece of jade and all died overnight. In the future, the victims held a petition signed in blood by 10,000 people and stopped the emperor's carriage, accusing the King of Suzhou of embezzling disaster relief funds.
What a coincidence! Now several princes and nobles had a dispute over the imperial green and all of them killed each other.
Of the nine princes and dukes who had gone through several dynasties, except for Marquis Dingyuan who was sentenced to execution in the autumn, only Prince Suzhou and Marquis Yun'an were still safe, but both of them had lost their legitimate sons.
Now the Prince of Suzhou was involved in a case of embezzling disaster relief funds. No matter how you think about it, it feels like a storm is coming! And the scholar secretly spread the word that those princes and nobles were blocking the way and that the gods above wanted to destroy them.
As for who that heaven is, it is naturally the Heaven of the Son of Heaven.
Yun'an Marquis Mansion.
After hearing the news that the Suzhou King was imprisoned and the old Suzhou princess couldn't even enter the palace, Yun'an Hou leaned against the bookcase in despair and muttered:
"You are wrong, you are wrong. We mistook the tiger for a sheep and raised it to be fat and strong. No wonder the tiger cannot tolerate us. How can one mountain support so many tigers?"
And for people in their position, who has clean hands
Even if he does nothing, everything done by those who depend on him will be blamed on him.
Now he is the King of Suzhou, so it should be his turn soon, right
Yun Anhou looked at the letter on the table, his hands clenched into fists, his heart was full of struggles and pain. After a moment, he finally made up his mind.
Since that person intended to let him go and even returned his dead son alive, why should he ruin his good intentions
Where there is life, there is hope.
Even if our ancestors were in his position, they would understand his decision.
It's worth it to exchange this title for the lives of everyone in the mansion.
The next day, Marquis Yun'an admitted in the court that he was not strong enough and felt that he could not ensure the livelihood of the people in his fiefdom. He offered to give up his title of marquis and his fiefdom of Yun'an, which shocked all the ministers.
Murong Zhen calmly agreed and allowed Yun'an Hou to retain the title, but his descendants would no longer inherit the title and the fiefdom would naturally return to the court.
Marquis Yun'an smiled bitterly in his heart, but he still had to express his gratitude happily on the surface.
Murong Zhen could naturally see through his disguise, but he no longer cared about it at this time. He just silently admired Mingyue's perfect calculation in his heart.
Marquis Yun'an is the most kind-hearted among the nine princes. Although he has his own selfish thoughts, the people in his fiefdom are still much happier than those in other princes' fiefdoms.
So when Murong Zhen told Mingyue that he couldn't kill all the princes and leave him with the stigma of a tyrant, Mingyue suggested keeping Yun'an Marquis and she would ask him to give up the title himself.
This is a hereditary title, how could anyone give it up on their own
Murong Zhen didn't believe it at first, but he didn't expect that she could actually accomplish it.
Moreover, the actions of King Suzhou and the voluntary concession of Marquis Yun'an also gave Murong Zhen new excuses to take back the fiefs belonging to his Murong family one by one.
While the palaces of the princes and dukes are in chaos, he wants to thoroughly investigate all of them.
And how could those kings and princes withstand scrutiny
Although they are dead, their sons can pay for their father's debt, and their descendants and relatives who have enjoyed their blessings will atone for their sins.
It's going to be windy.
(End of this chapter)