Qianzhou, Qushan County, the imperial palace.
Officials in court robes stood trembling, lowering their heads, not daring to look up and look directly at Zheng Qiao. The palace was filled with a suffocating horror. Above, Zheng Qiao was holding a gold-inlaid jade Ruyi in his right hand, tapping the palm of his left hand from time to time, pacing back and forth. His steps were light, but they were like a heavy hammer in everyone's heart...
Boom boom boom—
After a long while, Zheng Qiao finally spoke.
He sneered contemptuously: "I heard that today another force responded to Huang Lie's call and tried to overthrow this throne, is that right?"
"They are just a bunch of rabble, nothing to be afraid of. When the king's army arrives, they will surely collapse." The person who said this was a young official. He had outstanding looks, but his temperament was somewhat treacherous, and his words were full of flattery.
This man was originally a minor official in Qushan County, with no special ability, but he was able to live a comfortable life. After marrying into the family, he coaxed his wife, and through his wife, he coaxed his parents-in-law to buy him an "official position", so he was finally not a commoner. However, he had no other abilities, but he was first-rate at flattery and bootlicking. Once he was valued by Zheng Qiao, he was promoted to a court official, and he rose to prominence on the spot.
When people become prosperous, they stand up straighter.
Even the maids in the same room dared to touch three or five of them.
Only when facing Zheng Qiao, he was still fawning and respectful.
Zheng Qiao sneered when he heard this.
"A mob? Oh, if it is really a mob, it is not so bad. We can easily recruit them to the court by offering them high positions and generous salaries, making them as rich as princes. However, some of them have great ambitions and are well connected. They are also connected with the court officials... This makes me feel uneasy... Have I let down the court officials in some way?"
Everyone remained silent.
This is a proposition! Can they say that Zheng Qiao has done countless things that have wronged them? Can they? If they say so, they will lose their heads!
Some people secretly broke out in a cold sweat.
Because they are the courtiers with a "head and tail".
Apart from Huang Lie who rose up in rebellion, most of the forces that responded to this dragon-slaying plan were from aristocratic families. The terrible thing was that after Zheng Qiao came to power, he was very strict about this. The sons of the various families who already had official positions were directly retained as court officials and were not easily sent out; those who did not have official positions were given an empty title and kept under their noses. In other words, they were all hostages.
Some of them are even the head of the family or the legitimate heirs, and their clansmen are raising troops outside...
If yellow mud falls down your crotch, it must be shit.
Do these hostages still want a good life
It's naturally not easy.
The prison rooms are extremely crowded, and all single rooms have been occupied for a long time. Newcomers can only squeeze into rooms of three, four, five or six people... The harsh living environment and the possibility of a butcher's knife falling at any time make those with weaker psychological endurance collapse on the spot... After a few days, they become haggard and their faces are dark. Those who have been in prison the longest are even more pale and thin, and they can no longer be seen as their original human selves.
Zheng Qiao's question meant that another unlucky person was going to jail. Everyone looked at the pale-faced middle-aged official in his thirties or forties with sympathy. The official uniform on his body showed that he was a high-ranking official, but this outfit did not give him any sense of security.
Not surprisingly—
He was also thrown into prison.
The further you go into the prison, the darker it gets. The air is filled with an indescribable stench. All the prisoners' physiological needs are met in the small cells. If they have a urinal, it's fine. If not, they can only find a corner to relieve themselves. That smell, ugh.
Plus the multi-person cell...
After a long time, there is no place to stay.
The living environment was terrible, and the prisoners were often brought in for torture, or pricked with needles, or whipped, or even tortured in water dungeons, and each time they were tortured, they would have died long ago if Zheng Qiao had not prohibited the use of the extreme punishment of breaking the house.
The middle-aged official was pushed in.
Almost stumbled and fell.
A familiar voice sounded in the darkness.
"Why did you come in too?"
The middle-aged court official carefully identified him and realized that he was a colleague.
The latter has been imprisoned for two or three months.
During this period, he kept using his connections to try to get the other party out, but it didn't work, and in the end, he himself was deeply involved...
He smiled bitterly and replied: "My second brother is raising an army outside..."
The second brother he mentioned was his biological brother from the same father and mother. Because he was adopted by the eldest wife, the two were only cousins in the family tree. As the direct descendant of the eldest wife, he took all the family resources, which aroused the jealousy of the second brother, which led to the bad relationship between the two brothers. However, he did not expect the other party to go to extremes and join Huang Lie's team in a high-profile manner even though he knew that he was a hostage in Zheng Qiao's hands.
Colleagues sighed when they heard this.
Comfortingly said: "As long as your family is safe..."
They were the hostages that Zheng Qiao used to control the families, and their relatives were the hostages that controlled them. Zheng Qiao also knew that he couldn't push people too hard, so he generally wouldn't kill their families. Of course, there were also some people who didn't believe in evil.
As a result, the whole family, young and old, were killed.
Even the yellow dog at the door was not spared.
The court official covered his face in shame: "I am useless..."
If nothing unexpected happens, his wife and children should have received the sad news that he was thrown into prison by now, and they should be trying their best to get him out.
But he was only half right.
The wife and children received it, but they did not rush around.
It’s not that I don’t want to, but a guest happened to come to my house.
Three people to be exact.
Old, young, and youth.
The old man in the lead had white hair and beard, and was dressed simply in a linen robe. Even the gatekeeper seemed richer than him.
But this man's eyes were bright and clear, and one could tell at a glance that he was not ordinary. The woman's tears had not yet dried, and when she saw the old man, she almost blurted out the name, but was interrupted by the other party: "Madam Qiu, I won't say anything else. I came to your house today to ask for something."
Upon hearing this, the woman hurriedly let the three men in.
The gatekeeper closed the door with a gleam of his eyes.
"Please go ahead."
The woman invited the old man to take a seat, but the old man did not sit down. Instead, he patted the boy who was already as tall as his shoulders. To call him a boy would be an exaggeration, as he looked very childish, like he was eight or nine years old, but he had cultivated martial courage, dressed smartly, and was nearly the size of a teenager.
Ask the woman: "Do you remember him?"
The woman looked at it carefully and shook her head.
But then he said: "It seems familiar..."
The old man reminded her: "The head of the Qiu family in the previous generation married for more than ten years but had no children. A maid who had served him lied that she had given birth to a son for him and raised him among the common people. Coincidentally, the child looked somewhat similar to the head of the Qiu family, and the blood test confirmed that the child was taken back to the Qiu family. However, after the child was brought back and raised for a few years, it was discovered that he was different from ordinary people, had a brain disease, and was always as short as a child... In the end, the truth could not be hidden..."
The maid was so frightened that she had to tell the truth.
The child was a homeless child she picked up on the street. He had a clever appearance and was somewhat similar to the head of the Qiu family. This discovery gave her a bold idea to steal the child and replace his parents' with their own!
But, the truth will eventually come out.
In the end, the child was thrown into the countryside to fend for himself.
Name, feast.
The head of the Qiu family was getting older and older, but the issue of offspring had never been resolved, and it had been delayed to the point where it had to be resolved. He had no choice but to adopt his brother's eldest son, the unlucky one who was thrown into prison as mentioned above.
Only then did the woman remember.
She had met the young man when she got married.
When he was a child, he looked a bit like his late father-in-law, but now that his facial features have grown a bit, he doesn't look like him at all. His cheeks are slightly chubby, his eyes are clear and bright, without any trace of worldliness, and you can see that he is still a bit ignorant.
She stood obediently beside the old man, like a silent porcelain doll, but couldn't help looking around the unfamiliar environment with curiosity.
“Could it be, could it be that he, he is that young man? But, but he is not a monster who cannot grow up…” The woman was so shocked that she almost said something rude in front of the old man. She swallowed the rest of her words, her eyes full of disbelief.
The old man avoided the question: "There is a reason for that, but I can't say more now. This time I came here to ask if the things he wore that year are still in the mansion? Can they be found?"