Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 775 Xia Daosheng Arrives

For most people, especially those who have already diversified their investments, the change of imperial power is not a big deal. After all, no matter who is the emperor, there will always be officials. So, whether it is a foreign invasion or internal strife, they can rest easy.

But with Xia Daosheng's arrival, this matter became so serious that they needed to convene an emergency general meeting.

As for the messenger, when he got home and told his parents what had happened, they were all so shocked that they could hardly stand up straight. It was as if a thunderbolt had struck them. The first thought that popped into most of their minds was whether they should pack up and run away again.

Soon, the news spread like wildfire, raising a high alert in all sectors of Chang'an. Various factions spread the word, creating quite a stir.

"Your Majesty, in just one day, rumors of Xia Daosheng's arrival began to circulate in the city. Families closed their doors to guests and refused to hold banquets, and the younger generation in their families were also ordered not to go out."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Upon hearing this, Third Sister burst into laughter. This was truly hilarious. As the emperor of a nation, the rightful ruler of the Li Tang dynasty, she had repeatedly warned and intimidated him. Yet, despite her gentle persuasion, the emperor himself, couldn't withstand the weight of a mere rumor, which was of dubious veracity, and treated it with such alarm. It was truly amusing, incredibly amusing.

Of course, besides the amusement, there was also a huge surge of anger hidden beneath the laughter. After dismissing her subordinates, she sat alone in her study, lost in thought. But one thing was certain: these people had no respect for her whatsoever.

If that's the case, it seems it's time for this usually easy-going empress to take some drastic measures.

Xia Lin wandered around Chang'an City for two days, and as expected, he was immediately struck by the strong smell of the classic online game. He had experienced this feeling before in Luoyang, Yangzhou, and Jinling. He had traveled there before and found that the people there were not necessarily kind, but at least they had gone into hiding.

Chang'an, though not far from Luoyang, presents a completely different scene.

Speaking of which, Xia Lin had also been to India to carry out a mission back then. Besides the unpleasant environment, the strict hierarchical system also piqued his curiosity. Although they had officially abolished the caste system, the entire country did not treat people of lower castes and untouchables as human beings, and even they themselves did so.

The feeling he had when he was in the Chang'an Nostalgia server came rushing back. He hadn't paid much attention to this kind of thing when he came before. This time, he mainly came to investigate this matter. Only after seeing it did he realize that this was not a small favor that required his help. San Niang had used herself as bait to trick Xia Lin into coming here to disassemble and clean the range hood that had been used for fifteen years.

Chang'an was the first city in Northwest China and a very important distribution center on the Silk Road. It connected the Central Plains, Jiangnan, Kashgar, and Persia, and held the bargaining power for the import and export of various goods. There was a lot of money to be made from it.

Xia Lin didn't even need to investigate in detail. He only needed to look at the average price of goods in the market and the overall transaction volume, and then combine that with the total tax revenue that San Niang reported to Fuliang for audit last year. With a little calculation, he could tell how much of it had been embezzled.

This is not something we know. Although the exact number is unclear, a rough estimate is that this region has consumed about half of the Tang Dynasty's bloodline through kickbacks.

This is clearly bullying the orphaned and widowed Li Tang dynasty.

No, we must summon Li Shimin! Summon Li Shimin!!!
"At that time, the woman's husband was seen spitting by the young lady of the wealthy family. The young lady found it unseemly and complained a few times. Then, the young lady's husband's family sent people to arrest him, charged him with theft, beat him into a cripple, and he died of illness a few days after returning home. After that, the whole family had no food, and the parents and children starved to death. The woman also went mad."

Xia Lin sat in front of a water vendor's cart at the entrance of a dilapidated temple, holding a bowl of water, listening to the old man tell the story of the madwoman who was sleeping inside the temple.

"Could you please bring her a bowl of water?"

Xia Lin took out another copper coin and handed it to the old man. The old man sighed and said, "She has survived until now thanks to kind-hearted people like you. This world is bad, but there are always good people out there."

Watching the woman in the dilapidated temple pick up the water and drink it all in one gulp, Xia Lin sighed, tilted his head back, and handed the bowl back to the old man. He then took out a fifty-tael silver note and handed it to the old man: "Consider this money as her food expenses. Please take care of her for her."

"Oh...this sir, you can't do this! This old man only earns a dozen or so taels a year, this is far too much..."

"It doesn't matter."

Xia Lin got up, patted himself, and shook his head helplessly.

The longer he walked through Chang'an, the more he dispelled the illusions of this so-called prosperous Chang'an. Perhaps for most people, or even for hundreds of years to come, this would be considered the best of times, but Xia Linsheng had raised the bar for it. He was very dissatisfied with the governance of Chang'an and was now full of resentment and anger.

Third Sister was still sitting in the study when she heard footsteps outside. She didn't even need to look up to know that there were probably only one or two people in the world who could enter without announcing themselves.

"Oh, worried about something?"

Hearing the noise, she knew that bean sprout had arrived, and Third Sister couldn't help but sigh, "So annoying."

What's bothering you?

"Naturally, the worry is how to handle the aftermath."

Bean Sprout laughed and sat down next to him casually: "You still have the mind to worry about these trivial matters? You're just waiting to get scolded."

"Huh? Getting scolded?" Third Sister frowned. "Who dares to scold me?"

"What do you think?" Bean Sprout clapped his hands and laughed like a mischievous monkey. "I heard he's been missing for several days. Guess what he'd be doing, given his personality?"

The muscles on Third Sister's face first relaxed and then tightened, her expression became increasingly solemn, and her eyes revealed a panic that was inconsistent with her status.

If it were someone else, they might go to experience the local customs and culture of Chang'an, such as the songstresses from the Western Regions, the dancers from Persia, and all sorts of wonderful little tidbits, whether it's a hero rescuing a damsel in distress or teasing the beauties scattered among the common people.

However, that person wouldn't do such things. San Niang had trained with him for a while. Every time he went to a place, he would start from the bottom and gradually grasp the most realistic situation and come up with solutions.

However, how could San Niang not know about the problems in Chang'an? It's just that he really had no choice. Chang'an was not like Jinling. Li Tang's ascension to the throne was also due to the support of many aristocratic families. The distribution of benefits had already been determined back when Li Yuan was still alive.

Now that Li Yuan is still alive, if San Niang openly breaks the alliance they made, it's not just a simple matter of disloyalty and injustice, but a matter that could bring down the entire court.

Therefore, she knew better than anyone how poorly Chang'an was managed. And if Xia Lin returned from his trip down there, she would inevitably receive a severe scolding.

He wouldn't dare? What wouldn't he dare? When he was cursing Emperor Jingtai, he didn't treat him like a human being at all. Don't think that just because he gave birth to a son for him, he'll be treated specially. That's impossible. Just look at Douyazi; he's been oppressed like this, and yet Douyazi still got pregnant with his second child. "It's over."

Third Sister looked up, and at that moment she felt like she was seeing stars. In her daze, she even had the hallucination of Xia Lin slamming the table and cursing.

Bean Sprout remained motionless with its eyes half-closed for a long time. At this point, Third Sister, somewhat desperate, asked, "Do you have any ideas?"

"Me?" Bean Sprout opened her eyes and looked at the woman in the dragon robe with amusement: "It's not that there isn't one."

"Tell me quickly."

"It's like when you're being scolded, I'll say a few words, and then he'll scold me too, so you'll only get half the scolding, right?"

If I had known she would come up with such a terrible idea, I wouldn't have bothered asking her in the first place...

"Your sighs and complaints won't help. Chang'an has indeed become a mess since you took power. In fact, I think it's even worse than when your elder brother was regent. But it's not your fault. After all, all those bastards from the south have come here. With so many people, things have become chaotic."

Although Douyazi's words were unpleasant, what she said was not without reason. The major powers in Chang'an had already been divided up, and all that was needed was to distribute them step by step. However, ever since Xia Lin slaughtered a city of high-caste lords, a large number of families in the south abandoned their homes and businesses and flocked to this relatively safe place.

This group of people loves forming cliques and factions. They seem to have no idea how to write the word "unity". The people who came to Chang'an immediately clashed fiercely with the local forces. After choosing sides, extreme divisions emerged.

It would be incredibly naive to think that powerful families like theirs could be linked by marriage alliances, as described in historical records.

Besides marriage alliances, their connections also included extremely heinous crimes. The more they violated human ethics and morality, the better; the more heinous the crimes, the better. They were the kind of evil deeds that would be completely erased from the world once exposed, and no matter how powerful their background, they could not cover them up.

This is why many spoiled brats do outrageous things; to some extent, they are pitiful people who have been thrown out of their families to work.

Although it was a short time, these networks of connections were quickly rebuilt through various rituals. The rebuilt network was even more dangerous than before, and because the forces of different factions were intertwined, San Niang was truly powerless to do anything about it.

"He did a great job in Jinling. Even though I am a member of the clan, I have to admit that his swift and decisive approach was very effective. Killing is indeed the most effective way to break up an alliance. But I thought about it carefully yesterday, and I'm afraid this method won't work in Chang'an."

Bean Sprout's words made Third Sister sit up straight: "Why won't it work? I'd like to hear your explanation."

“It’s very simple.” Bean Sprout held up three fingers. “There are three reasons. First, Xia Daosheng was able to launch a mutiny in Jinling and kill many heroes because he held the late emperor’s tiger tally and had cultivated power for over a decade, using many years to control the Jinling garrison and the outer garrison. Second, the initial layout of Jinling as a new city had already brought those people together, which was also a matter spanning nearly ten years. Third, Gao Shilian’s betrayal of his class gave Xia Daosheng a pretext to take up arms. However, in Chang’an, he has no power, no plan, and no leverage. What do you think he will do?”

Although Douyazi's tone and demeanor were becoming more and more like that dead man, what she said was indeed thought-provoking. This was Chang'an, not Jinling. Even if Xia Daosheng had extraordinary abilities, he would have difficulty handling these matters.

"Let's ask him when he gets back."

But this wait lasted for sixty-nine days.

For sixty-nine days, he disappeared without a trace, as if he had vanished into thin air. The whole city was searching for his whereabouts, but no one knew what he was doing or even where he had gone.

"Could he have been murdered and his body dumped in the wilderness?" Bean Sprout suddenly asked while playing mahjong. "How come it's been so long and he hasn't made a sound? What is he doing?"

"It's not good, Your Majesty!"

Just then, a eunuch rushed in, panting, and said, "120,000 workers in the new Xianyang have gone on strike..."

Bean Sprout paused in his actions, looked up at Third Sister: "Alright, now I know what he was doing."

Just as Douyazi thought, Xia Lin was currently in Fushi County, Yanzhou. He was in a hole in the ground with a lit candle, his feet on a stool, a cigarette in his mouth, and a map in front of him.

He was surrounded by a dozen or so men. Some of them were locals, some were scholars he had lured out of Chang'an, and most importantly, they were people that Li Shimin and his gang had secretly poached from Jiangnan over the years.

Many of these people now hold high positions or are even the heads of a prefecture or county. Xia Lin simply conscripted them...

"Judging from the timing, the general strike has already begun. Have all the equipment been delivered?" Xia Lin looked around. "Don't let them go to work empty-handed."

"They've all arrived. We secretly brought all the equipment over from the Han River ferry."

"Yes, they won't hold out for long. As long as they retreat according to plan in three days, we'll meet in Tongguan County then." Xia Lin circled Tongguan with his pen: "Charge into Chang'an! How many men do we have right now?"

"It adds up to about 200,000."

"Time is still too tight. What's the situation at the Northwest Pass?"

"Upon hearing that you were here to do something, all six checkpoints responded enthusiastically. At that time, the border troops sent back by the Li Tang dynasty will be blocked outside the pass."

Xia Lin rubbed his nose: "A person's reputation is like a tree's shadow. Requisition grain and fodder from the surrounding counties. If you don't have cash, write IOUs and pay them back later. Remember one thing: keep discipline in check. Otherwise, if anything goes wrong, I'll use your heads to apologize to the people, understand?"

"understand!"

Right now, the young people who had sneaked over to respond to Xia Lin were carrying out their study activities.

"We are not doing this for ourselves, but for our descendants, for a peaceful and prosperous life. So now I'm going to tell you about the rules, and everyone needs to strictly follow them. Remember them!"

Xia Lin pushed open the small door, took a breath of fresh air, looked up at the sky of the Northwest, and said to the person beside him, "I'm afraid no one would have thought that I would attack Chang'an, right? By the way, let's sort out the objective. Let's say that there is a great evil aura in and around Chang'an, and we, the common people, are grateful for the mercy of Heaven and for the hardships of the Tang Dynasty and His Majesty, so we are here to purge the court of corrupt officials, how about that?"

(End of this chapter)