Chapter 280
At dusk, a pair of young men and women walked side by side, which was quite eye-catching, especially since both of them were well-born, and they were followed by the princess's car.When the people saw the chariot, they knew that the woman on the horse was Princess Yuzhen of Prince Ping's Mansion.The two princesses of Prince Ping's Mansion usually don't like to go out, but they are both famous.Now when they saw Princess Yuzhen, they believed that the rumors were true, that the vicious Princess Ping really gave birth to two princesses who looked like celestial beings.

Mu Linben, who was with her, was not bad, but the arrogance in his bones was not ordinary. Others took a look and murmured that the second son of the Xihai County King seemed a bit fierce.Mu Lin has deep facial features, so he likes to pretend to be deep on the outside. Ordinary people would think he is fierce when they first meet, but after getting along for a long time, they know that this person is the most worrying.

The common people didn't know this, they just took a look at it from a distance, and felt that it was a pity that Princess Yuzhen, who smiled softly and brightly, was paired with such a vicious husband. They all forgot what kind of character Princess Ping was, and they didn't know this What kind of ruthless character is Princess Yuzhen?

Not long after Yuanyuan and Mu Lin got engaged, Qin Erlang also got engaged, and it was his daughter from Shangfeng.After Erlang's scientific examination, he went to the Ministry of Household Affairs. This was due to the generous vacancies that Xu Erlang gave him preferential treatment for the sake of his master.He was already mellow and well-spoken, so he quickly attracted the attention of Mr. Cai, the servant of the household department.Mr. Cai's youngest daughter is not married yet. This girl doesn't like to go out all day because she was rejected once. Now that she is getting older, Mr. Cai is worried when she thinks about it.

He saw that Qin Erlang was a man of great talent and connections, and he was sure to do something in the future, so he wanted to betroth his daughter to him.But when he inquired later, he found that Qin Erlang had many confidante outside, so he retreated a bit.But he retreated, and his wife and daughter, who had already heard him mention it, fell in love.In addition, he himself has a concubine's room and a housemate at home, and he has always liked those elegant things that add fragrance to his red sleeves, and gradually he doesn't care too much about Qin Erlang's half-heartedness.As a man, there can never be only one woman in the family, unless he is married to a tigress, as long as the respect for his first wife remains unchanged, what does it matter if he has a few more concubines?Thinking about it this way, after observing Xu Erlang secretly for nearly a year, he found someone to talk about the marriage.

As soon as Mrs. Sun heard that it was Lele Shangfeng's daughter, she immediately approached Lele to ask him what he meant.When Lele heard this, she felt that this marriage was not easy to push, and because Yuanyuan was already engaged, he hadn't yet, and the family was pressing recently, so she gritted her teeth and agreed.Later, when he met that Miss Cai and found that she had a beautiful face, his reluctance disappeared.Fearing that he would go back on his word, Sun quickly made an engagement with the other party.Ms. Cai is also getting older, and after the two parties combined, they set the wedding date at the end of the year.

Since then, Lele has also calmed down, at least until he gets married, he will not go out with those beauties again.

On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the family returned to Beijing.He didn't expect that his second sister and second cousin were engaged to each other half a year after he went out, and the second sister was engaged to Mu Lin, who he knew before.

Hearing that the future brother-in-law was back, Mu Lin gave him a Dawan horse the next day. Even though the family didn't pay much attention to these things before, they were happy to have such a good horse and immediately regarded Mu Lin as their own family.

"Excellent stuff, what are you giving this little cunning guy?" Yuanyuan cast a dissatisfied glance at Jiajia.

"There is no shortage of good horses in Xihai Prefecture." Mu Lin laughed.

Hao Ming was afraid that he would be bored staying in the capital, so he would pick one of the best horses to the capital every year, and Mu Lin would keep a few horses for himself, and give away the rest.To say that there are not many men in the world who don't like horses, and Mu Lin has made many friends because of this.Before he got engaged to Yuanyuan, he also gave several fine horses to Prince Ping's mansion, among them was a pair of white horses that Prince Zhuhua and Prince Ping loved to ride.

Hearing that Mu Lin gave his brother-in-law a horse, Yu Boyan thought about it and gave Jia a brand new set of saddles. The front and rear saddle bridges were made of gilt copper, chiseled and engraved with flowing cloud patterns, and embedded with a few pieces of lapis lazuli.Every family was naturally happy when they got something, and even showed it off in front of a few cousins, which made them sigh why they didn't have such a generous brother-in-law.

After Xixi got married, although she had exchanges of courtesy with her family every year, her husband seldom gave gifts to his brother-in-law alone.Yinhua didn't have a daughter in the first place, and her son was only for watching, but Wanning heard about it in the palace, and immediately gave Xu Erlang a good set, making others laugh that Xu Erlang was lucky.

The marriage between Xu Erlang and Princess Wanning was scheduled after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the family purposely stayed in Beijing for a longer period of time, and left after the two got married.Princess Wan'an's and Wanhua's princess mansions are relatively close, but they are separated from Ping Wang's mansion, while Princess Wanning's princess mansion is very close to Ping Wang's mansion, and not far from Xu's mansion.

After getting engaged, Princess Wanning became acquainted with the Erlang of the Qin family and the Xu family, as well as their family members. In addition, Yuanyuan came back, so she went out of the palace more frequently, and it was only during the period before she got married. The days have slowed down a little.

The Holy Majesty saw that the three daughters were going to marry, at least they would marry someone they liked, and felt that a major event in life had been accomplished.He still has no heirs, and all the ministers felt that the Holy Majesty would not be able to give birth to a son.A court without a crown prince is not a good thing after all, and everyone is waiting for the decision of the Holy Majesty.

In fact, the Holy Majesty had already planned in mind.At the end of the year, the army of the Kang Dynasty conquered several small countries with unsuspecting intentions, and the general who led the army specially made a victory before the new year.The Holy Dragon was overjoyed, and rewarded the three armies, as well as the officials of the household department. If they hadn't been able to provide food and grass for the military, how could they have won such a big victory.Yuan Heng, who served as Minister of the Household Department, was naturally also included in the award.His Majesty named him the King of Beichuan, one level higher than the King of the County.

This kind of reward was also expected by everyone. When Yuan Heng married, he used the specifications of a prince. The Holy Majesty has no heirs. If he had to choose from his nephews, the eldest son of Emperor Huizhuang would naturally be the first choice.The minister guessed that the emperor conferred the title of Yuan Heng, which seemed to be the reason.

For many people, this can be regarded as the dust has settled, only Chen Wang's faction is not convinced.The Holy Majesty treated Chen Wang very politely before, and even the Queen Mother in the palace liked the second son that Chen Wangfei brought into the palace. I don't know if it was because of this that he offended Duke Qing. There are often disputes.In terms of strategy, King Chen's faction is not the Duke of Qing's opponent, but he occupies the status of the clan, even if something goes wrong, the Holy One will at most sue for a few words, and there will be no more severe punishment.

Of the few princes left behind by the first emperor, only King Chen and King Pingping are left now. The Holy Majesty has obviously valued King Chen more in recent years.If the Holy Majesty has always been a nostalgic person, it can be seen from his remembrance of Empress Jingyi.Compared with the late emperor who no longer had a successor because he missed the first empress dowager, he still gave birth to a child with Concubine Hui. Compared with that, King Ji, who had an indifferent relationship with the concubines in the harem despite becoming an empress, may be more affectionate.

Such a sage, but he had been friends with him since he was a child, Ping Wang fell out because he let Ping Wang take a concubine and he didn't want such a trivial matter. Many ministers were suspicious. People think that it is because of Prince Ping's ambition that the Holy Majesty broke with him.However, not many people believe this reason. After all, King Ping, who has been painting in the Imperial Academy, really doesn’t see any ambitions. If he has the courage, shouldn’t he suppress Princess Ping’s arrogance first and take a few concubines for himself? ?
King Ping didn't care about other people's thoughts, and the Holy Majesty granted Yuan Heng the title to stabilize the people's hearts.It's just that after that, he saw that Yuan Heng's behavior was more publicized than before, and he faintly didn't take others seriously.Later, it was Princess Changle who persuaded Yuan Heng a few words, and Yuan Heng restrained himself, and Princess Beichuan and Princess Changle often walked around because of this, and they treated her much closer than Princess Ping who was next door.

In fact, besides the seal issue, there was another case that made Yuan Heng public.Because the matter was so important, he didn't disclose any news to the outside world after discussing with the Holy Master, and just waited for the outbreak after the New Year.

This case is the Jiangnan officialdom corruption case.

Because the Holy One sent troops to pacify the border, the taxes of the people have increased in recent years. Compared with when the first emperor was alive, the people's life is more difficult than before, but it is not too difficult to live without any savings.However, the taxes collected in several places have not increased much, the most prominent one is the bad luck.

Since the north-south river channel was dug, a considerable amount of tax will be collected from the passing merchant ships every year, which is collected by the local households.The taxes collected in previous years have increased every year, but in recent years they have stagnated or even dropped.Yuan Heng asked the people below to inquire, but he said that it was because the people's taxes increased and the people recruited soldiers, which caused the commerce and trade in various places to be deserted.

It seems reasonable to say this, but Yuan Heng lived in the capital, watching the people coming and going on the street, he didn't feel that the people were affected by the war at all, and the people in the capital would never be more heart-hearted than other places, I don't know Cutting down on food and clothing?He sent someone to investigate privately, and found that there were no fewer merchant ships than in previous years, and in recent years, the wars were mainly in the east, and the most developed commercial routes in the Kang Dynasty were in the northwest, which did not affect the two sides.When he continued to investigate further, he knew that the prefectural officials along the river might have some problems.

He didn't dare to startle the snake, so he reported the matter to the Holy Majesty.You must know that many of these prefectural officials are members of the Zhang faction. The Holy One has long wanted to make a move, but he couldn't find a place to start.After he secretly ordered King Ping to enter the palace, he had some discussions, and finally the two of them handed over the heavy responsibility of finding out the matter to Princess Wanhua and his wife.

After Princess Wanhua gets married, she will still go to the Ministry of Criminal Affairs with Concubine Geng on duty. Anyway, the Minister of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs will turn a blind eye and turn a blind eye. As long as the two of them don't cause trouble, he will let them go.

Concubine Geng is good at medical theory and has a delicate mind, while Princess Wanhua has a keen sense. When the two work together to solve cases, they often get twice the result with half the effort.However, the Ministry of Officials is only a place to verify criminal cases after all, and there are many evidences that are only recorded in the file and cannot be inspected in person.Under the suggestion of Geng Jieqing, the two went to the Holy Master to ask for a decree to investigate the case, and they often left the capital to review local strange cases, and occasionally encountered one or two murder cases that just happened.

The two also visited the state capital along the river last year and stayed there, and some well-informed officials also knew about it afterwards.Some officials were a little nervous at first, but when the two went back and forth more often, they realized that they were only here to investigate the murder case and didn't know much about people's livelihood, so they gradually felt relieved.They didn't know that they didn't come out again this year just for the murder case.

In the middle of the year, there happened to be a flood somewhere in the south of the Yangtze River, and some victims died of severe illness after eating moldy old grain.The Holy Majesty was furious and ordered a thorough investigation. In the end, most of the officials in the south of the Yangtze River were eliminated in this investigation, especially the officials from the Duke Qing's faction. The moldy food was provided by members of the Zhang clan.

When Duke Qing's case first came out, he knew that he would suffer some injuries this time, but he didn't expect to be so seriously injured.And the one who attacked him, besides the present, was also Yuan Heng.He wholeheartedly supported Yuan Heng, but he didn't expect him to reciprocate with grievances, so he was immediately disheartened.

For Yu Yuanheng, he was naturally grateful for Duke Qing helping him, but Qingguo had to tell him everything, especially the manipulation of Yuantai's marriage, which made him disgusted.He is the dignified son of Emperor Huizhuang, and he is threatened by his subordinates, even if this person is his uncle.

Even Yuan Heng doesn't like Duke Qing, let alone the Holy One.In addition to political differences, because of the death of several brothers in exile, the Holy One has always had a grudge against Duke Qing.Even if Duke Qing's actions made him secure the throne immediately, if one day he did not agree with Duke Qing's wishes and did not pass the throne to Emperor Huizhuang's son, he might attack him.From Duke Qing's attitude towards him and Yuan Heng, he could tell that he, the Holy One, might not hold as much weight in Duke Qing's heart as Yuan Heng.

Because of the drastic changes in the officialdom, the previous Jinshi who had been waiting for vacancies in the Imperial Academy immediately found vacancies, and some went directly to the affluent Jiangnan.And those who fell off the horse always wanted to get out, and all the people in their families came to Beijing to entrust the relationship.The people in Yinhua's family went to the trustees, and it was none other than Xu Mu's uncle Zhang Liang who was imprisoned.

After Zhang Liang became the county magistrate, he wanted to make further progress through his relationship, but later went to Yangzhou by mistake.The prosperity of Yangzhou, even a small county magistrate, is more lucrative than being a third-rank official in Beijing.He was lost for a moment, thinking that after earning enough money for a few years, he would entrust his connections to go to Beijing, but he ended up in prison. Xu Mu couldn't believe it when he heard the letter from his hometown.

When he went to the Ministry of Criminal Justice to inquire and saw the relevant files, he knew that his uncle had really committed a crime.

He has been studying with his uncle since he was a child, and the two have a deep relationship. He can't stand by and watch, and even if he doesn't care, his mother will force him to take care of it. Go and intercede in front of the Holy Spirit.Before Wanning married Xu Erlang, he had never met Xu's mother. Knowing that Xu Erlang had such an incomprehensible grandmother, she might not marry.

Although she responded falsely, she didn't tell Shengshang, but went to Zhuhua instead.Zhuhua expressed a look of bewilderment, no matter how you look at it, it has nothing to do with her, right?Why did you come to discuss with her?
"Seventh aunt, do you think I should go into the palace to talk to my father? I told my grandmother yesterday that it was useless to plead, but she asked me to try again. I am afraid that if it is 'useless' again, she will have to go Keep urging me."

"If it's useful, what if she often finds things for you in the future?"

"Then I won't go." Princess Wanning said with a look of fear. She had never seen such a difficult person before. When Xu's mother saw that Wanning refused to agree, she knelt on the ground and refused to get up. The princess was at a loss.

Zhuhua also laughed when she heard the words. She knew that Princess Wanning was in a dilemma, so she thought about it seriously.

"Actually, you don't have to be so anxious. This time there was a big move in the officialdom. The leaders ransacked their homes and exterminated their families, but the people below didn't intend to make a big move. Your father-in-law's uncle is just a county magistrate. At most, he was greedy for some money. If he returns the silver taels, he probably won't be in danger of his life, but if he wants to be an official again, he probably won't be able to."

"How can such a person allow him to harm our Yang family's country."

"And your grandmother came to beg you, you might as well let Xiaoxiong and his father help stop it, she should still listen to her children and grandchildren."

"Are they willing?" Princess Wanning asked in a low voice. She actually had some doubts that the Xu family had deliberately asked Xu's mother to come to her to beg her.

"They still know what is right and what is wrong."

Princess Wanning nodded, and looked at Zhuhua enviously, "Auntie's place is quiet, no one comes here."

"Hmph, who made my prince and your father quarrel, if he were to persuade him, it would add fuel to the fire." Zhuhua raised her eyebrows.

In fact, the children didn't really believe the quarrel between the two sides, but the adults didn't tell them clearly that they were acting. After hearing Zhuhua's words, Princess Wanning smiled shyly and said, "It's my father's responsibility to send the concubine away." The emperor is wrong."

"That's right. If he dares to do it next time, I will send a beauty to every princess mansion. Not only will I send a beauty, but I will also send a face." Zhu Hua shouted.

"Seventh Aunt." Wanning tugged at her sleeve to beg for mercy.

Yuanyuan, who had been listening to the two talking, couldn't help but smile, raised her eyes to comfort Wanning and said, "Sister, don't be afraid, I will never let my mother spend such unjust money."

Princess Wanning was a little moved at first, but after thinking about it, she couldn't help asking, "Are you doing this for me or for money?"

Yuanyuan listened, and said seriously: "Of course it's for money. Money is so important in this world, don't you see that the prisons are full of people who are going to be beheaded in Xishi? After all, aren't they also for money? "

Princess Wanning curled her lips when she heard this, and said, "I heard that the Zhang family also chopped off several people, and old man Zhang fell ill."

"The Zhang family was famous for a while, but now it is in decline, and I don't know what will happen?" Zhuhua said with emotion.

"After all, it has nothing to do with us." Princess Wanning said indifferently.

Zhuhua looked at her and smiled, but didn't answer.

It is true that Duke Qing has been a bit domineering in recent years, but he did not choose to assist the late emperor for his own selfishness, but now he has ended up like this, how can it not be embarrassing.

(End of this chapter)

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