bookrebus Chapter 356 Thick Letters
Chapter 356 Thick Letters
Ye Jintang was sitting on the Arhat bed, leaning lazily on the soft pillow. Xiao Mo moved over and sat down beside her.
"Even though I have more than 3 people at my disposal, it still feels like it's not enough when I actually use them."
Xiao Mo reached out and gently put the hair that had fallen from Ye Jintang's temples behind her ears, and continued, "I will send people to clear the official road from Ningchuan City to Yushan City in the next few days, and then send the city defense army to clean up Yushan City. I'm afraid it won't be done without more than 10,000 people."
"If I had enough people, I could have taken care of the nearby Stone Tree City at once, but I don't have that many people, so I can only do it one by one."
The five cities that Xiao Mo wanted to capture were not far from Ningchuan City, but clearing the official roads was not an easy task, especially in such a cold winter.
"Your Highness, are you planning to catch the other cities off guard?"
"Well, you really can't hide anything from me. I thought that while the city was blocked by heavy snow, I would deal with the Hua and Ke families. The news hadn't spread yet, and those who colluded with Hua Cailiang hadn't reacted yet. I would just kill them by surprise."
"We'll take down five of them before the New Year, and then the remaining small cities won't be a big deal."
Ningchuan Prefecture is extremely remote. Several cities with large populations are all gathered together. Other cities scattered far away are relatively small. Some of them are not even called cities, but they are not much bigger than small counties in other places.
Xiao Mo cleaned up the cities around Ningchuan City before the New Year, which really made him feel a lot more relaxed after the New Year.
"Then you'll have a lot of work to do."
"Well, I guess I'll have to make a few more trips myself."
"Are your legs okay?"
Ye Jintang was a little worried about Xiao Mo. For the sake of his image, he recently threw away his wheelchair and only used a cane.
It doesn't seem like there is any big problem, but only Ye Jintang knows how inconvenient it is for him to move around with a cane. To put it more exaggeratedly, every step he takes is a test of his kung fu.
"It's no big deal. I'll just show up in other cities. I'll ride on the cloud when the time comes. I'll leave in the morning and should be back in the afternoon."
"You'd better not rush like that. Just go to another city and stay there for a few days."
"I can't sleep without you."
Xiao Mo walked forward and rubbed Ye Jintang's cheek. Their relationship was pretty good recently, and he didn't want to move to another city at this critical moment.
Feeling Xiao Mo's beard pricking his face, Ye Jintang pushed his face away.
"You have to come up with a plan as soon as possible about how to deal with the property that was confiscated from the Hua and Ke families. You can't just leave it there forever."
"Wait a few days and go to other cities to confiscate some industries. All the things are piled up at the same time. I'm afraid you won't be able to sort out everything until the New Year."
"I have already thought about it. All the properties that were confiscated will be handed over to you to manage. We will split the money we earn in the future in half."
"Ah, isn't it going to be confiscated?"
"I am the Duke. The entire Ningchuan Prefecture belongs to me. The confiscated property of the Hua and Ke families is naturally mine as well."
Ye Jintang then realized that Xiao Mo was a king, and everything in his fiefdom belonged to him alone, and he did not need to pay any money to the court.
"Okay, then send me the account book. I'll take a look at it in the next few days and integrate all the assets of the Hua and Ke families to see how to manage it."
Ye Jintang and Xiao Mo were busy in Ningchuan City, and Imperial Noble Consort Dehui in the capital was also busy.
Although there is no custom of offering sacrifices to heaven on the winter solstice in the capital, sacrifices to heaven are still required before the New Year. Imperial Noble Consort Dehui used all sorts of tricks and persuasion before finally convincing Emperor Jing to let Xiao Yi offer sacrifices to heaven on his behalf.
"Your Majesty, this is a letter from the King of Qin."
In the imperial study, Zheng Hai presented a stack of letters sent by carrier pigeons to Emperor Jing.
Seeing so many notes, Emperor Jing was obviously stunned.
"Why so many?"
"I guess the King of Qin has a lot to say to the Emperor."
After opening the first note, Xiao Mo said a few words of nonsense, which roughly meant that he had finally arrived in Ningchuan City after untold hardships, and that he would stay here honestly and miss Emperor Jing.
The second picture starts by talking about how poor Ningchuan City is, how hard life is for the common people, how there are many refugees, and how difficult it is to manage. It's just a bunch of complaints.
It wasn't until the third note that Hua Cailiang's crimes were mentioned.
Emperor Jing took the small piece of paper and read it quickly, and finally his eyes fell on the end of a small piece of paper.
"According to the accounts that can be checked now, Hua Cailiang gave more than 700 million taels of silver to Imperial Noble Consort Dehui. As for the other amounts that cannot be checked, we don't know how much they were."
"Good, very good. The national treasury does not even have 700 million taels of silver at the moment."
Emperor Jing slammed the table in anger.
"Your Majesty, please do not get angry. Don't let your anger damage your body."
"Humph, I don't know how many people are hoping for my death. I have always been very tolerant of Imperial Noble Consort Dehui. She likes to save her own money, so I let her openly build a private vault in the palace."
"She wanted the fourth son to offer sacrifices to the heaven on my behalf. Although I was dissatisfied, I finally agreed."
"She actually reached out to Ningchuan City and took 700 million taels of silver from there. Xiao Mo said in the letter that the entire Ningchuan City was in ruins and the people were having a very hard time without enough food. Under such circumstances, she still squeezed 700 million taels of silver out of the people's teeth. Isn't this forcing the people to rebel?"
Emperor Jing had a gloomy look on his face, and it was obvious that he was furious.
"Is this true, Your Majesty? The Imperial Concubine doesn't seem to be someone who is short of money."
"Do you think the Imperial Concubine's vault is filled with stones?"
Zheng Hai shut up immediately when he saw Emperor Jing's grim expression. The carrier pigeon message sent by Xiao Mo this time was really powerful. Xiao Yi almost had to offer sacrifices to the heaven on behalf of Emperor Jing. Now it seemed that Noble Consort Dehui's efforts would be in vain.
Emperor Jing read the letter in his hand again, and his expression became uglier and uglier the more he read it.
Just then, a young eunuch came over and asked whether Emperor Jing would go to have dinner with Concubine Ke tonight.
"No, Zhenghai, you go there in person and tell Concubine Ke that the Ke family was imprisoned, so that she doesn't have to plead for her father. The Ke family embezzled tax silver and should be executed according to the law. The King of Qin spared Ke Wenhai's life because of her face."
What Emperor Jing meant was that Concubine Ke should not make a fuss about this matter, as the matter had already been settled and it would be of no avail even if she made a fuss.
Zheng Hai went to deliver the message. Emperor Jing stayed in the study for a while, then got up and went to Noble Lady Liang. Noble Lady Liang was a noble lady he had just conferred this month. She was relatively young and looked 70% similar to the late queen when she was young.
It was only after Zheng Hai visited Concubine Ke that Noble Consort Dehui learned about the carrier pigeon incident.
"How is it possible? A few days ago, Hua Cailiang came to me in an urgent message, saying that Xiao Mo had been suppressed by him and he was looking for a chance to kill him. How could it be that Xiao Mo had executed the entire Hua family in such a short time?"
Imperial Noble Consort Dehui thought she had misheard, but it was only after the eunuch in charge said it twice that she had to believe that the news was true.
She was suddenly panicked.
"Go and find out what else the King of Qin said to the Emperor."