Ming: I am fake, walking on thin ice

Chapter 97 Zhu Qizhen: This matter cannot be done without death
Yang Guifang raised a half-smile at the corner of her mouth and said slowly, "Speaking of salary, this imperial envoy needs to deal with one thing first. When you eat the salary of the emperor, you should be loyal to the emperor and worry about the emperor. This is the duty of the minister. However, some people took advantage of the famine to kill the people. This is really an act of betraying the emperor's grace."

At this point, his voice suddenly became as cold as a knife, his eyes were like torches, and he shot directly at a fat man in official uniform, and shouted sternly: "County Magistrate Wang Heng, do you admit your guilt?"

Upon hearing this, the fat county magistrate Wang Heng immediately knelt on the ground and said in fear, "My Lord, I am innocent!"

"Unjust?" Yang Guifang shouted coldly, pulling out a long roll of cloth from her sleeve and throwing it in front of him, "Look, this is a blood letter from the people, and all your crimes are written on it."

This was prepared yesterday. Today, at the Hongmen Banquet, the county magistrate will be the first to be punished. At that time, Emperor Zhu Qizhen said something that made Yang Guifang feel cold.

This cannot be done without the death of someone!

"You usually help the tyrants to commit atrocities and help the gentry to seize the people's land. In times of disaster, you even embezzle the relief grain from the imperial court." Yang Guifang's eyes were burning with anger. "As an official, you should 'slim down yourself to enrich the country', but you 'harm the people to enrich yourself'! Come, drag him out and behead him in public!"

Everyone in the hall turned pale with fear when they heard this.

Without giving the crowd a chance to catch their breath, Yang Guifang turned to look at Wan An coldly and asked, "Master Wan, is it the order of this imperial envoy that you dare not obey? Shouldn't such a heinous criminal be brought to justice?"

"Sir, even if he has indeed committed a crime, he must be tried according to the law," Wan'an replied.

"This imperial envoy holds the power to execute first and report later!" Yang Guifang said in a powerful tone, "Do you dare to disobey orders? Or are you also involved in what Wang Heng did?"

Wan An hurriedly shook his head and denied: "I know nothing about this. Come, obey the order of the imperial envoy, drag Wang Heng out and behead him in public."

Fatty Wang, who was kneeling on the ground, was almost frightened and almost fainted. He hurriedly shouted for help: "Master Wan, help me! Master Wan, what I have done is..."

"Quick! Drag him out and behead him!" Wan'an ordered urgently.

Four soldiers rushed up and dragged Wang Heng away. Soon, the screams stopped, the smell of blood drifted in, and the whole hall fell into silence.

……

Yang Guifang glanced at them and said in a cold voice, "Okay, let's get back to the point. I asked you to come here today because I have something to ask of you. There are so many victims, please lend a hand and help the court."

Everyone in the hall bowed their heads. Wan An winked at Qian Mao, who stood up and bowed to Yang Guifang: "Your Excellency, we have also suffered from the disaster, but we will not cause trouble to the court and will tighten our belts to make a living."

"Yes, yes." Others echoed.

At this time, Wan An stood up, with a helpless expression: "Your Excellency, we really have no money, and we are also hungry."

Yang Guifang smiled coldly and glanced at Zhang Lun behind him. Zhang Lun understood what she meant, picked up the letter he intercepted yesterday, walked to Wan'an, and said in a low voice: "Is this the letter you wrote to Duke Cheng?"

As he said this, he unfolded the letter and let Wan'an take a look. When Wan'an saw the contents of the letter, his face suddenly changed. This was the letter he wrote to Duke Cheng yesterday. If some of the contents were known by the court, it would definitely implicate Duke Cheng.

"This letter..." Wan'an was extremely flustered. He didn't expect that the letter would fall into the hands of the imperial envoy.

"Master Wan, don't panic." Zhang Lun smiled. "As long as you take the lead in donating, I will return the letter to you intact. We are all working for the court."

Wan An nodded repeatedly: "Okay, I am willing to donate..."

Zhang Lun suddenly raised his voice and interrupted him: "Mr. Wan generously donated 30,000 taels! Come, bring up the donation book."

When the others in the hall heard that Wan An was going to donate 30,000 taels, they were stunned. They had previously agreed to pretend to be poor and complain in front of the imperial envoy and refuse to donate. But now that Lord Wan has taken the lead in donating, and it is 30,000 taels, how can they not donate?
"Oh, by the way, Qian Mao, Lord Wan has already decided for you. Your Qian family will donate 50,000 taels, plus 5,000 dan of grain." Zhang Lun turned to Qian Mao and said.

Qian Mao looked at Wan An, who gritted his teeth and nodded. Qian Mao had no choice but to bow and say, "I am a commoner and I pledge my donation."

Seeing that these two people had donated, the rest of the people could only respond actively. Although Xiangfu County was small, these officials and gentry donated a total of 500,000 taels.

……

County government.

After returning from Taibai Tower, Yang Guifang immediately used the 500,000 taels she had just received to purchase grain, clothes and other supplies.

Zhu Qizhen was not very happy. He looked at the victims in the county government office, all of whom had numb expressions and some were even dying. He thought of the wealthy businessmen in Taibai Tower just now, who had greasy faces.

"The rich have wine and meat, while the poor freeze to death on the streets." An unknown fire rose in his heart.

Mencius said: When Yu thought of the drowning people in the world, he felt as if he were drowning himself; when Ji thought of the starving people in the world, he felt as if he were starving himself.

As an ordinary person, he might not understand. But he is now the emperor, and looking at these disaster victims lying in all directions, he seems to understand a little.

"Grandma, grandma, the porridge is here." A little girl of seven or eight years old walked towards a white-haired old woman in the corner, carrying a bowl of porridge.

She called several times, but the old woman didn't respond, as if she was asleep.

When Zhu Qizhen saw this, his heart tightened. He hurried forward, stretched out his hand to feel the old woman's breath, and found that she had died.

Although the victims were resettled in the county government, government offices, temples, etc., they had their own shelters, but some of them fell ill and could not get timely medical treatment. This old woman must have been ill for a long time. The little girl suddenly burst into tears: "My grandma... is she dead too?"

Zhu Qizhen felt a pang in his heart, because she knew about death at such a young age. He looked at the little girl and said, "Child, grandma is gone. She will go to heaven."

"My grandpa and uncle were washed away by the flood, my parents starved to death, and now my grandma is dead too." The little girl burst into tears, "I am the only one left."

At this moment, Zhu Qizhen suddenly felt guilty.

The Son of Heaven is the ruler and father of all the people, but now he is hated by God and abandoned by all the people.

……

dusk.

Yang Guifang and Zhang Lun returned to the backyard of the county government office and saw Zhu Qizhen drinking porridge. Zhang Lun smiled and said, "Your Majesty, go out and eat. I will treat you to a good meal. Everyone has worked hard these days."

"No!" Zhu Qizhen shook his head, "I will eat this. I will eat whatever the victims eat."

Yang Guifang and Zhang Lun looked at each other and decided to drink the porridge.

"Your Majesty, a team of secret guards from the Imperial Guards have entered the city. We finally have someone available." Yang Guifang said as he drank. "By the way, they also brought a secret letter from Yangzhou."

He took out a memorial and handed it to Zhu Qizhen.

Zhu Qizhen wiped his mouth, took it, and quickly opened it to read it, with a smile on his face: "Xu Youzhen made a big fuss in Yangzhou. However, he has raised two million taels of silver, bought some food, and is transporting it to the disaster area."

After that, he handed the memorial to Yang Guifang. Yang Guifang took it and looked at it, and was shocked: "Inciting the victims to enter the city? Hang lanterns on the doors of rich families, and the victims will go to the houses with lanterns to get food. Your Majesty, those wealthy merchants in Yangzhou are richer than this Xiangfu. This time Xu Youzhen has become rich."

"I estimate that the memorials impeaching Xu Youzhen will pile up into a mountain," said Zhang Lun.

"Don't worry, the cabinet will be sensible at this time." Zhu Qizhen took a sip of tea and said, "After we finish dealing with things here, we will go to Kaifeng as soon as possible to meet up with Liu Dingzhi."

Yang Guifang pondered for a moment and said, "It will take another ten days. I have asked them to buy grain from the wealthy households in the neighboring counties."

……

Qian's mansion.

The wealthy merchants gathered here, looking at the sullen-looking Governor Wan'an. Qian Mao asked in confusion, "Sir, we agreed not to donate, why did you suddenly change your mind? We're going to lose a lot this time!"

Wan An snorted coldly: "Everyone, have you eaten enough these years? Are you not happy to bleed occasionally? Let me tell you, this donation is life-saving money!"

Everyone was silent, wondering if the Imperial Envoy had any evidence against Lord Wan. They began to think, what should they do if something happened to Lord Wan?
"Don't panic, everyone. I have received news that the new governor will arrive in Xiangfu in the next two days." Wan An sneered, "I can't report the so-called imperial envoy, but the governor can! In short, I will drive them out of Xiangfu as soon as possible."

"Everything depends on Master Wan," Qian Mao said, taking the lead.

The others followed suit and said they would listen to Lord Wan'an. Wan'an gave them a few more instructions, asking them to go back and keep a low profile during this period.

After everyone left, Wan An sat down and took out the letter from his pocket. He slowly breathed a sigh of relief, as this letter was the handle to hold him in check, but he didn't expect that the imperial envoy would actually return it to him after donating the money.

"Does this young imperial envoy really just want to complete the task of donating money?" He was puzzled. "He didn't even use such a powerful handle to threaten me. What was he thinking?"

At this time, Qian Mao stepped forward and sighed: "Today's loss is really huge. Several years of work have been in vain."

Wan An came back to his senses and said coldly, "It's not your fault. Didn't you set your eyes on the fertile land outside the city? Once this matter is over, I will help you with it."

Qian Mao was overjoyed and immediately poured tea himself: "Thank you, Lord Wan."

"I feel uneasy because the imperial envoy is still here." Wan An said in a deep voice, "During this period of time, tell those people to behave themselves."

"I have already told them when I sent them away just now." Qian Mao smiled.

He was also secretly uneasy in his heart, because he had just sent those wealthy gentry away, and some of them thought that something might have happened to Lord Wan, and began to think about their escape route.

Now that the imperial envoy is in the city, Qian Mao is really worried that some people will take the initiative to curry favor with the imperial envoy and report everything that happened in previous years to him, which would cause a big disaster.

But he didn't dare tell Wan'an about these situations.

"Who is the new governor sent by the court?" he asked.

"What? You want to curry favor with me?" Wan Anheng asked.

(End of this chapter)