Contentment with modest wealth

Chapter 340 Did the old man have a trick up his sleeve?
The emperor sneered, "Why would he harm you?"

“Because my daughter-in-law Jin was punished for making a mistake, she was resentful and conspired with her father to falsely accuse me. Your Majesty knows that I have been honest since I was a child. If they had accused me of something else, it would have been fine, but they have put such a big accusation on me. Isn’t this just fooling Your Majesty?”
"Their intentions are despicable, Your Majesty!"

Everyone in the hall was looking at Yan Shu, including the emperor.

Only after he had launched into a long and rambling tirade, wiping away tears as he looked up, did the emperor finally look down and ask, "Are you finished?"

Yan Shu was stunned and speechless.

The emperor turned his gaze to Jin Yun, who was kneeling: "Where did the silver at the bottom of the cliff go? How did they take it over? And when did you find out about these events?"

Jin Yun's throat was hoarse, and he tried several times before he could speak: "Before Father left, he had already left a message for this sinful subject."

"The Yan family learned in advance that there would be a rainstorm in those days, so they asked my father to arrive at the foot of the mountain on the day of the rainstorm."

"Then he asked his father to set off in the rain under the pretext of urgently transporting military funds to the Northwest Camp."

"They had arranged for people to wait at the bottom of the cliff beforehand. When the vehicle overturned into the pool, the people below immediately loaded it onto the vehicle and drove it away."

"Due to the torrential rain, all the tire tracks at the foot of the mountain were washed away by the rain. They made full preparations and even left people on the mountain to release the floodwater. Later, the Ministry of War and the Court of Judicial Review went there, but they couldn't find a trace of it."

"Furthermore, the pool at the bottom of the cliff was filled with rainwater, and the water was so deep that the bottom could not be seen, so it was impossible to go down and investigate. After checking the case for a few days, we gave up."

"After a while, another rainstorm hit, and the mountainside on the side was also destroyed by them, with rocks blocking all the way to the bottom of the cliff."

The emperor sneered, "No wonder that later on, even those who wanted to enter and explore could not find the entrance. It is truly well-protected!"

Yan Shu peeked out: "Your Majesty..."

"But there is still a way in!"

Jin Yun quickly interrupted Yan Shu, glancing over nervously and swallowing hard as he said, "My father was forced by the Yan family to sacrifice his own life and my second brother's life in order to achieve their wishes. Fearing that we would lose everything if things came to light, he had someone leave a secret passage there in advance. This secret passage leads directly to the bottom of the pool!"
"Whether what these traitors said is true or not, we only need to send someone to go down into the water and find out!"

"This is utter nonsense!" Yan Shu's veins bulged. "After your father's incident, he was captured by Grand Commandant Shen and imprisoned in the Northwest Camp! You never saw him until his death, and he never went to that cliff before he set off. How could he have left any secret passage? You dare to spout such nonsense in front of the Emperor! Lord He, why don't you summon someone to execute him!"

"Insolence!" Shen Bo retorted coldly, "How dare you issue orders to the imperial officials in front of the Emperor?"

"Lord Yan, please do not overstep your bounds."

Yan Shu's cheeks twitched. No one would think he was mute if he didn't speak. Everyone in the world knew that the emperor was most afraid of offending the imperial authority. He never interrupted anywhere else, but he had to try to make trouble for the emperor at this moment.

This guy surnamed Shen wants Yan Shu dead!
The emperor glanced at him, his eyes flashing with cold light.

Then she turned her gaze to Jin Yun: "You go and answer his question."

"Every word I have said is true, Your Majesty, please see the truth!" Jin Yun screamed and knelt down before the emperor: "When I brought my father home, although he was already a corpse, he had hidden the secret route he had drawn in his abdomen. This was what he had told me before he left, saying that if he left any words behind, I should search for them here!"

"Later, this guilty subject indeed cut open his abdomen and found a wax pill inside! This drawing is right here, and there is also my father's handwriting on it. As long as you find my father's official documents and compare them with his handwriting, you will know whether what I said is true or false!"

Where is that paper?

"It's in my study, in the innermost compartment of the left-hand bookcase!" The emperor glanced at He Ping in the corner, and He Ping silently walked out again.

Yan Song stood with his back to the window outside the threshold, gazing at the eaves of the palace in the distance. He listened silently to every word spoken in the main hall, his expression unwavering.

Only when Yan Shu and Jin Yun's sharp exchanges echoed through the main hall did he turn his gaze away and face the little eunuch beside him.

"Young master, could you please pass on a message for me?"

The young eunuch bowed in fear: "Your Excellency, please give your orders."

Yan Song nodded slightly, inviting him to lean closer to his ear.

He Ping acted with unimaginable speed; in just a moment, he presented a palm-sized, yellowed piece of paper to the emperor's desk.

After examining it, the emperor had it delivered to Jin Yun: "Is this it?"

Jin Yun nodded, his forehead covered in sweat: "Exactly! The route above is clearly marked. Although it's hidden, if you follow the route, you'll definitely be able to get out of the stone cave next to the pool..."

The emperor then asked He Ping, "Have you compared the handwriting?"

"I anticipated that there might be handwriting that needed to be compared, so I had someone from the Embroidered Uniform Guard who was in charge of this task waiting outside. Therefore, we have already compared the handwriting on the way here, and it is undoubtedly Jin Huai's handwriting."

How can someone serving the emperor just sit around doing nothing?

When things come to a standoff, written agreements and documents are bound to come into play, and someone as experienced as him would never overlook that.

Yan Shu opened his eyes and stared at all of this, speechless.

He couldn't believe his eyes!

Back then, when I approached Jin Huai, I spent two or three months investigating his background beforehand to make sure that this family would never have any ulterior motives before I stepped forward to find them!

The fact that things went so smoothly back then proves that he had thought things through thoroughly, but in the end, that old man actually secretly left him this trick!
Firstly, Jin Huai's poisoning already overturned the conclusion from back then. The existence of this route map further proves that Jin Yun's statement is logical. If this road really leads to the edge of the pool, the empty bottom of the pool completely proves that the silver is missing. So, is the answer to whether Jin Yun's confession is true or not obvious?

The emperor was not stupid at all. With such an obvious fact, how could he tolerate his sophistry?

Any further attempts to justify it will only hasten our journey to the brink of death!

"Yan Shu!"

Along with the emperor's roar, the kang table, which he overturned in his rage, also echoed.

The kang table rolled a few times on the ground and landed squarely on Yan Shu's knee.

"Are you going to rebel?" The emperor stepped barefoot and angrily pointed at his nose. "That 300,000 taels of military pay directly led to the defeat at the Battle of Changting Pass. The enemy was pressing in, and my country was just one step away from being conquered by them!"
"Since the reign of Emperor Gaozu, our dynasty has never yielded an inch of territory, and all the silver in the national treasury has been used to support the border defense soldiers."

"How dare you steal my man! Do you want to ruin this empire with my own hands, make me a sinner for all time, and be scorned by all the people?!"