novelhk Chapter 432: I warned you, but you didn't listen
Chapter 432: I warned you, but you didn't listen
"What the county magistrate said is absolutely right." Shen Chengjing immediately agreed.
Song Hanyi suddenly felt more confident.
You know, Lord Jing is a new upstart in front of the emperor. What he said proves that he did nothing wrong.
"Master Jing, you should take a rest first. I will prepare a welcoming banquet for you in the evening. Please come and have a look."
"Is it just a welcoming banquet?" Shen Chengjing hinted.
"Of course not. There are some small gifts from this humble official."
Only then did Shen Chengjing nod with satisfaction.
Along the way, he planned to pass through several county towns and plunder some property. After all, he didn't have much money on him.
……
Song Hanyi's memorial was finally presented to the emperor.
Xiao Yan'an went to the palace to ask for an audience with the emperor.
"Your Majesty! Please do the deed for me!" Xiao Yan'an suddenly knelt down, looking furious.
"What do you want me to do for you?" the emperor asked in a deep voice.
"The merchant caravan of the Crown Prince's Mansion was robbed in Qutan County. All the goods in the caravan were looted! I have suffered a great loss! Moreover, the governor of Qutan County neglected his duty and did not deal with the matter!"
The emperor's brows tightened slightly, and his eyes fell on Xiao Yan'an dimly.
It seemed as if he wanted to see through what Xiao Yanan was going to do.
"Your Majesty, this incident in Qutan County must be taken seriously. Those people even dared to rob the goods in the prince's mansion. What's the difference between them and those bandits? Do they still have your Majesty in their eyes? Do they still have the laws of our Great Xia?"
"The governor of Qutan has an unshirkable duty! Although they have suffered from the flood, I deeply sympathize with them, but the emperor has already allocated relief supplies at the first opportunity. They have already received the relief supplies, but they still dare to defy the law and commit evil acts such as robbery! The governor of Qutan failed to supervise them properly, and the emperor must not tolerate it."
Xiao Yan'an became more and more excited as he spoke, and it seemed that he was indeed very angry.
The emperor listened to Xiao Yan'an's words, his eyes became more and more serious. He picked up the memorial and threw it in front of Xiao Yan'an.
"Take a look. This is a memorial from Song Hanyi, the governor of Qutan, impeaching you."
"He dared to impeach me!" Xiao Yan'an roared, and looked at the contents of the memorial with emotion, "Your Majesty, he is crying thief! He even dared to say that my caravan was disrespectful to him!"
"I will ask Song Hanyi to retrieve your goods. You also know that Qutan was hit by a disaster and there is a lot of work to be done after the disaster. As a county magistrate, I have a lot of affairs to deal with, so it is inevitable that there will be omissions." The emperor casually sent Xiao Yan'an away.
"Okay, I will listen to your Majesty and wait for the governor of Song to retrieve all my goods. I will not bother your Majesty anymore and I will take my leave."
"Wait." The emperor suddenly spoke.
Xiao Yanan stopped.
"Now that your caravan has lost its cargo, will you come to the imperial capital or return to Huaiyang?" asked the emperor.
"Your Majesty, they are still coming to the imperial capital as planned. Since they are doing business, they will definitely make little money in one trip. If they come to the imperial capital and bring some goods back, they can make some money." Xiao Yan'an responded casually.
"After they come to the imperial capital, no matter what news they tell you about the disaster-stricken counties, you should pretend that nothing happened." The emperor gave a direct reminder.
"Your Majesty, has anything happened in those county towns?" Xiao Yan'an asked fearlessly.
"Prince, your problem has already involved the affairs of state." Chao Sihai reminded quickly.
"Oh, so that's how it is. Thank you for reminding me, Eunuch Chao."
Chao Sihai secretly glanced at the emperor's expression and added, "Sir, what the emperor just said also involves court affairs. You must listen to the emperor."
"I understand!" Xiao Yan'an nodded.
As soon as he left, Chao Sihai immediately put the memorial back in front of the emperor.
"Chao Sihai, tell me, what is his real purpose for coming here today?" The emperor asked indifferently while flipping through the memorial.
"Do you want to get back the batch of goods that were stolen?" Chao Sihai responded tentatively.
"He better just do it for that shipment."
……
The news that the goods from the Prince's Mansion were sold out when passing through Qutan spread quickly throughout the imperial capital.
The people were talking about it.
"How come you became a bandit after suffering a disaster?"
"That's right. I used to feel quite sympathetic towards them, but now I don't feel any sympathy at all! Among the goods they stole were things I wanted to buy!"
"Yes, I have been waiting for the fans from Huaiyang for three months. Now that the goods have been snatched away, I am afraid I will have to wait another three months!"
"Weren't they afraid when they robbed the caravan from the Prince's Mansion?"
"Yes, this is a matter of life and death. They are not afraid of having a life to rob but no life to use."
"Don't you think there's something fishy about this matter?" A person's voice suddenly rose several degrees, immediately attracting the attention of people around.
"When do people generally stop being afraid of death?" he asked again.
"It must be when there is no other way out." Someone answered.
"That's right. They were desperate and dared to rob this batch of goods. This batch of goods must be very important to them! Even if it costs their lives, they will rob it."
"Didn't the court allocate disaster relief supplies? Haven't the people been properly resettled?"
“Who knows what the situation is like over there?”
"Perhaps the disaster relief materials have been allocated, but it is hard to say how much of them will reach the people."
"Hush, don't say that, or you'll get into trouble."
Xiao Yan'an walked around the street and found that people were talking about this matter, so he felt relieved.
At this moment, he admitted that manipulating public opinion can really achieve twice the result with half the effort.
"It seems that the merchant caravan from the Prince's Mansion has entered the city!"
"Let's go, let's go and have a look! Maybe we can hear some news about the county towns that were hit by the floods!"
People rushed towards the city wall.
Xiao Yan'an also quickly came to the city wall.
The one who returned to the team this time was Chunsheng, who had received a secret letter from his wife a long time ago.
His eyes searched the crowd, and as soon as he saw Xiao Yan'an, he immediately walked towards Xiao Yan'an and knelt down in front of him.
"Your Highness! I failed to do my job well, and the goods were looted, resulting in heavy losses! I hope Your Highness will punish me!"
Xiao Yan'an raised his hand and helped Chunsheng up. "Tell me what happened first. What exactly caused the goods to be robbed?"
"Prince, the situation in Qutan County is really too dire! It's not just Qutan, but also several other county towns, the same is true!" Chunsheng's voice suddenly rose several degrees.
The surroundings suddenly fell into silence.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on Chunsheng. They had a feeling that what he would say next would shock everyone.
"Prince!" Suddenly, a voice sounded.
His arrival interrupted the conversation between Chunsheng and Xiao Yanan.
"Master Jin! Why are you here?"
"I just happened to be passing by." Lord Jin smiled and bowed to Xiao Yan'an, "Your humble servant greets the prince."
"Master Jin, there's no need to be so polite." Xiao Yan'an raised his hand.