latelenovela Chapter 412 Natural and man-made disasters
Chapter 412 Natural and man-made disasters
Chapter 412 Natural Disasters and Man-Made Calamities
"Your Majesty, please calm down!" Wang Chengen hurriedly cleaned up the broken teacup.
Zhu Youjian was furious. Shen Zizhen deserved to die! How dare he levy three taxes ten years later! Where was the dignity of the court? It was nothing short of robbery. How could the court be as shameless and despicable as a robber?
"Your Majesty, please don't upset yourself. This old servant will make you another cup of tea," Wang Chengen advised.
Zhu Youjian said angrily, "I really didn't expect that the local officials in Shaanxi would be so audacious as to disregard the law and treat the people like dirt. No wonder Wang Wenzhou kills local officials wherever he goes. Well done!"
Zhu Youjian said viciously, "These people deserve to die! I wish I could exterminate their entire families to vent my hatred!"
Wang Chengen advised, "Your Majesty, please calm down. Although these people deserve to die, Lord Wang's killing them on the spot was against the rules of the court, which led to so many memorials impeaching him for favoritism and perverting the law."
Zhu Youjian smiled wryly and said, "These civil officials are quite skilled with words; they can turn white into black. If I didn't deeply trust Wang Wenzhou and believe he wouldn't make baseless accusations, I would have dismissed and investigated him long ago. These civil officials actually said that Wang Wenzhou killed Shen Zizhen because he was fighting with him for a girl."
"Haha!" Zhu Youjian laughed loudly: "It is true that Boxin likes pretty girls, but I believe in him. He would never commit murder out of jealousy."
Zhu Youjian had a deep understanding of this. He had once "competed" with Wang Wenzhou for Chen Yuanyuan and was beaten up by Wang Wenzhou for it. Of course, Wang Wenzhou stopped there and it could not be considered bullying.
Wang Chengen nodded and said, "It's only because of Lord Wang that someone else would offend so many officials."
"Yes!" Zhu Youjian said helplessly, "Looking across the entire Ming Dynasty, the one most loyal to me is still Boxin!"
Wang Chengen couldn't understand why the Emperor trusted Wang Wenzhou so much. After all, Wang Wenzhou had slept with Consort Tian. No wonder those ministers were sour and complaining in their hearts, because Wang Wenzhou was your own father.
Zhu Youjian vented his anger and looked down at the book again.
"Brother Zhu, you don't know. I don't know which villains are spreading rumors and slandering me as a lecher. The simple and honest people of Gaoling County believe it and are lining up, crying and begging me to buy their daughters."
While I may be a little too compassionate, I am certainly not a lecherous man! Therefore, I have no choice but to let them join my women's guard. Who says women are inferior to men? Not only can good men protect their homes and country, but women can do the same.
"Haha!" Zhu Youjian laughed loudly. Bo Xin's skin is really thick. If you're not lustful, then there are no lustful men in the world.
Wang Chengen carefully handed over the teacup. At this moment, he truly admired Wang Wenzhou. No wonder the Emperor trusted him so much. Wang Wenzhou could make the Emperor laugh heartily just from the words in the letter. If the ladies in the palace knew this, they would be extremely envious.
Zhu Youjian took a sip of tea and continued reading the memorials.
"His Majesty must already know that I was kidnapped by thieves. I don't know how those bastards slandered me. The truth is, I was indeed kidnapped, but it was of my own free will."
After all, the generals at the front were not willing to persuade Gao Yingxiang to surrender. If the entire rebel army surrendered, their military achievements would be lost.
I had no choice but to play along. After all, the thieves wanted to seek refuge with Gao Yingxiang anyway. Brother Zhu, you know Gao Yingxiang is my father-in-law; even if the offer of amnesty fails, he won't make things difficult for me. So, Brother Zhu, there's no need to worry about me.”
After reading Wang Wenzhou's first memorial, Zhu Youjian picked up Wang Wenzhou's second memorial.
This memorial was likely written ten days ago and was also withheld by the cabinet.
"Brother Zhu, I've killed a lot of bastards these past few days. You can rest assured, I'm not a killer who kills indiscriminately; they really deserved to die!"
But this bastard today, I have to say, I'm absolutely furious.
I arrived in Huazhou yesterday. Perhaps because I have killed too many corrupt officials these days, the Huazhou prefect, Shi Wenkai, shamelessly insisted on letting me sleep with his beautiful wives and concubines.
Do you think I'm that kind of person?! This is an insult to me!
"Haha!" Zhu Youjian laughed and scolded, "If a pretty girl is offered to you, you'd be lucky not to eat her!"
"Of course, I can't be too disrespectful to Lord Shi, after all, we're colleagues, so I have to put on a show. Brother Zhu, to be honest, I even got a good scolding from my own child because of this. Shi Wenkai is just too wicked!"
Today, I once again went on an incognito inspection tour and found that many people in Huazhou City were dressed in rags.
I was quite puzzled, because Huazhou has enjoyed favorable weather and abundant harvests in recent years, without any disasters. So I asked someone I knew for advice.
Passersby said that although there was no natural disaster, there was human error involved.
The young man was puzzled, but a passerby explained that in recent years, disasters had struck all around Huazhou. In order to provide relief to the neighboring prefectures and counties, Lord Shi had drastically increased taxes and donated all the collected grain and silver to the nearby prefectures and counties.
I am very pleased that after so many days, I have finally met a good official!
Unexpectedly, the passerby changed his tone and began cursing, saying that Shi Wenkai was heartless and ungrateful.
I retorted, "Lord Shi is wholeheartedly devoted to the people, so why do you speak ill of him?"
The passerby replied that if Shi Wenkai hadn't increased the taxes, the people of Huazhou would have been well-off. It was only because Shi Wenkai was generous with other people's money that the people of Huazhou were suffering so much.
I learned a lot of inside information from him. It turns out that Shi Wenkai, in order to achieve political success and to curry favor with Sun Chuanting, levied exorbitant taxes under various pretexts.
The people of Huazhou, who could have lived a comfortable life, were left destitute one by one. Like other disaster-stricken prefectures and counties, nine out of ten houses were empty, and refugees filled the land.
Upon seeing this, Zhu Youjian felt his face burning, because in some ways, he had been doing the same thing for the past few years. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, the additional three taxes had become an unbearable burden for the people of the whole country.
"Alas!" Zhu Youjian sighed softly, trying to console himself, "I had no choice but to do this!"
"I don't know if Lord Shi's actions are right or wrong, after all, the people of other states are also people of the Ming Dynasty. However, after my investigation, I found that this bastard Shi Wenkai has no concern for the people at all!"
He pocketed all the extra silver he collected. He partnered with others to sell grain to disaster victims at inflated prices.
The people of Hezhou were starving and freezing, while Shi Wenkai was living a life of luxury, eating and drinking lavishly! What angered me the most was that while the people of Hezhou were starving and couldn't get anything to eat, Shi Wenkai would send people on horseback to Wuchang to buy Wuchang fish from time to time.
Wuchang fish, still covered in ice, were transported thousands of miles by fast horse to Huazhou. The cost of each fish was over a hundred taels of silver. But Shi Wenkai didn't care at all; he ate several Wuchang fish almost every month to satisfy his craving.
I could no longer tolerate such a shameless scoundrel; I had no choice but to cut off his head!
"Smash!" Zhu Youjian angrily smashed another teacup. Natural disasters could be excused, but man-made disasters were utterly shameless! They deserved to die!
Wang Chengen hurriedly stepped forward to clean up the broken pieces. He glanced back at the table; there were still three memorials from Wang Wenzhou. He wondered how many more teacups the Emperor would smash. The local officials in Shaanxi were truly outrageous!