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Chapter 166
10. Even if there is no right and wrong in the world for a long time, the loyal heart is hard to burn
Pei Nianzhen was silent for a moment, recalled the relationship in those courts back then, and continued:
"The main force of the second child is in the army, and the officials who spoke in the previous court are all important officials who cannot be tampered with. He will never use it just for a bachelor Shen. On the contrary, the third child has extensive contacts with Capital. Your fatherIt is right to go to the third child."
"I don't know how the deal between him and the third child was done, and most of the latter was slowly guessed by me later——"
"The youngest sent someone to write a letter and put in some effort to save Bachelor Shen. But it must have been conditional - with his calculating temperament, Bachelor Shen couldn't be used by him, how could he save him for nothing?People. If he can't win Shilang He, he can only exchange conditions."
"Based on my guess, although He Shilang is not a high-ranking man, he has been in the Ministry of Revenue for a long time, and some old accounts were closed and sealed in his hands. The third child may be... Let He Shilang goFind out an old account reported by the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi a few years ago."
He Yanjun frowned and said:
"Old account? What's wrong?"
Back then, because He Qi and He Yanjun were still young, Father He only discussed with their eldest brother about court affairs, so naturally she didn't know many things.
He turned to look at Pei Nianyu:
"Do you still remember whose territory Guangdong and Guangxi belong to?"
Of course Pei Nianyu remembered.
The prince's fief in this dynasty is not a feudal city, but a custom: after the prince finishes studying in the study, when he is about fourteen to sixteen years old, he will be assigned to a fief to assist in local governance.In this way, the emperor can observe everyone's temperament and ability, and prepare for the establishment of the reserve.
Pei Nianzhen's mother's family is a big family in the south of the Yangtze River. When he was sent abroad, he went to the south of the Yangtze River. It can be said that he went through the back door.Pei Nianyu's two brothers were not so lucky. One went to the Cloud Province in northern Saibei, and the other went to the southwest border. They were not rich and easy to make political achievements.
And the Guangdong and Guangxi regions are just...
"You mean the second child?"
"That's right. But the second child went to Guangdong and Guangxi from the 29th to the 32nd year of Zhaoyuan, and only stayed there for less than three years. And the old account that the third child asked He Shilang to go over was in the 30th year of Zhaoyuan.For four years, He Shilang saw that the years did not match, so he might not have thought that the deficit in the account was caused by the second prince, but that the local officials were not clean."
"In fact, when the second child was there, in order to make achievements, he wanted to attack the small country in the south. In the past three years, he wanted to build a naval force, but he was inexperienced. The military expenditure and loss were huge, and there was no real gain."
"However, in order to report to my father a good performance in the end, how can I admit that what I have done is nothing more than a waste of money. It is just eating more than I need, diverting military expenses from local finances, and transferring this year's deficit to the next year.It’s nothing more than the east wall filling the west wall. As for how the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi will be on business in the next few years, he will no longer be there by then, so how can he care about it.”
"He Shilang might not have thought that the account that the third child asked him to check for thirty-five years was rooted in the fiefdom of the second child, so he reported it. At that time, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue was his father's confidant, and he was dedicated to being a lonely minister.Which prince do you have a good relationship with? After the Ministry of Revenue re-booked, it must have discovered the tricks of the second prince, and a secret document was sent to the imperial case..."
When Pei Nianyu heard this, his heart suddenly tightened:
"But things didn't ferment as you imagined... right? Otherwise, it would be a blow to the second brother anyway. But I remember that your father didn't order someone to investigate further back then, and the Minister of the Household Department also suffered.fall."
"……yes."
Pei Nianzhen turned his head slightly to look at He Qi, trying to explain:
"The deal between your father and the third child, as well as what happened in the Ministry of Revenue, I didn't see it with my own eyes, but I just figured it out after a few years of idle time and looking back..For me, it was my father's sudden attack at a court meeting—"
He Qi frowned:
"Why did you attack you?"
"Because no one except the third child knows that I have broken up with the He family. Your brother has been a prince's companion, and the princeling mark on the He family is not so easy to wash off. And the third child knows this very well—"
"So, he wants his father to think that I instructed He Shilang to deliberately overthrow the old account, so as to hit the second child who is in full swing, and leave father with the impression that the prince is cultivating his party members and trying to bring down his brother..."
There was a moment of silence in the room.
Then Pei Nianzhen's eyes suddenly became hollow, and his voice was as cold as ice:
"...If the account of the second child is true, it's fine, but it is not. The military deficit of Guangdong and Guangxi is far more than ten years, so that it has already reached the point where it affects the national treasury. Those bad accounts are clearly the father himself.Instructed the second child to find a way to smooth it out. Therefore, the second child has used swords and soldiers in the two areas, and the food and wages are extremely frequent, so he can do tricks from it."
He Qi looked at Pei Nianzhen in shock:
"How is this possible!"
Pei Nianyu sighed, Lou Yefeng looked at He Qi with a complicated expression, and said:
"...You were still in the Shadow Guards during the most tense years in the court, and you may have never seen it——The late emperor did a lot of absurd things, and this one is not bad. But I am curious,I checked the unsolved case many times afterward, but I didn’t find it out, I don’t know how you knew about it.”
Pei Nianzhen shook his head: "Commander Lou, you are very capable. But the fourth brother was only in his teens back then, and he was not the prince his father liked. He was on the edge of the court and the news was not smooth, so naturally he couldn't get a clue. Waiting for you for many yearsCheck it out again, and it has already been sold out by my father's shadow guards."
Although Pei Nianyu was not involved in the bloody case back then, he could already imagine what would happen next——
Pei Nianzhen continued:
"The second child blamed his father, but this account was deliberately uncovered. Of course, it is impossible for the father to continue to investigate. He asked Yu Yingwei to check it out and pretended that he had found out that the second prince was innocent.Yes, it directly refuted the Ministry of Revenue's notes."
"But the old man's trick of borrowing a knife to kill people has succeeded. My father was already angry that He Shilang investigated something that should not be investigated, and thought I ordered it. During the following period of time, my father used this incident to attack him, and used the method of forming a partyMany people have been punished by name. Some people are related to me, and some just happened to catch up with him and don't like it..."
"Your father is the first to bear the brunt... The crime is forming a party for personal gain and framing the prince. Your brother He Min was implicated and imprisoned at that time, because Yu Yingwei was reviewing my private dealings with your two brothers a few years ago."
"...He had been avoiding me for a long time at that time. Naturally, he tried his best to prove that the He family was not my party member. But it was father's will to convict the He family of the crime of attaching to the Eastern Palace. Under torture, he..."
"Suicide."
He Qi slammed his fist on the table, and the water in the teacup on the table was shaken out.
He Yanjun stood aside and listened quietly.The second time she heard the news of her brother's death from someone else, she found that she was calmer than she expected.
She looked at the second brother who was in deep pain again, and suddenly said:
"It doesn't matter if he commits suicide, the emperor won't let him live anyway. It's better than holding on for a long time and still being ordered to die by an edict."
He Qi turned a deaf ear, stared straight at Pei Nianzhen, rolled his throat twice, and finally spoke out with difficulty:
"Then you, did you not argue with the first emperor...? Or, try...to protect my father?"
The more he talked, the redder his eyes became, and finally he asked in a hoarse voice:
"Even...even if they never put their bets on you, but you have been friends with me and my brother for many years. Can you...can you really watch them die because of trumped-up charges?"
He Qi knew that he had asked too much.In the imperial court, since his father and brother had made it clear that he would not choose him as a team, they were not his allies.How could he not know that the officialdom is ruthless, and the so-called friendship between the two brothers is nothing in front of the interests of seizing the heirloom.
If the prince chooses to be wise and protect his life, it is understandable to only pick himself out, but... He Qi can't think about it.Since his father and brother were implicated because of the prince, others could not save him if they wanted to. At that time, their only hope was that the prince could take action.
Pei Nianzhen's face was already pale at this time, and his fingers unconsciously grasped the edge of the table tightly, as if he would lose his strength in the next second.
"...He Qi, I don't know if you will believe me, but I... have indeed tried. I can't use any other means to protect them, otherwise I will only be accused of being a henchman of the prince of the He family.On the day I learned that He Shilang and your brother were sent to prison for interrogation, I went to the inner study to explain to my father."
"Who knows...Father only asked me one question - whether the He family and his son belong to you."
Pei Nianzhen remembered the scene in the inner study at that time, and he still feels cold sweat.
As the prince beneath one person, above ten-thousand others, he knelt at the feet of the most honorable person in the world, just because his father had the right to crush two ants to death.And he trembled, lest he say a word wrong.
"Naturally, I deny it. I said that I only met the eldest brother of the He family when we were young, and that we have nothing to do with him in the court... I tried to persuade my father that He Shilang is usually an upright person, and if he behaved like this, he might arouse criticism from the court."
"And then...then he..."
Pei Nianzhen looked away, staring at the blank table with eyes full of pain.
"Father just laughed a few times in front of me, and then said——Since they are not your people, it doesn't matter if they die."
"Then he... left without giving me another chance."
He suddenly raised his head and looked at Pei Nianyu, as if he wanted to grab some life-saving straw:
"If you change places, how can you answer him?"
Pei Nianyu fell silent.
He is not a quick-witted person, and he is not good at using and trying to figure out the emperor's mind.This was clearly a dead end. No matter how Pei Nianzhen answered at the time, he couldn't control his father's desire to silence him.
Pei Nianyu was silent for a moment, then laughed at himself: "I don't know."
Then he suddenly said seriously to the middle-aged man in front of him who had lost his soul:
"So it's neither you nor me who sat in that position in the end."
"You are in an important position but you can't keep your own wings. You have never learned how to win political resources. You can even push out such a natural alliance as the prince's companion...Pei Nianzhen, you are not wronged.It's not suitable for that position."
Pei Nianzhen smiled miserably: "I have understood this truth for a long time."
"Of course I am not suitable, but I know the limits of my ability, what I can protect, and what I can't do, so I will not let this happen in the first place."
"But you don't seem to know."
"You were established as the crown prince for various reasons when you were young. It is impossible not to know the special status of this identity. Since you don't even have the determination to protect their safety, why do you repeatedly provoke the He family brothers?"
"I just... I just..."
Pei Nianzhen couldn't go on.
He wanted to say that he didn't deserve a friend who put aside his identity and had a sincere friendship with him.However, he himself was not pure, because he didn't lend a helping hand due to the momentary mood and interests, which finally led to all these things that he never thought of.
The matter has come to this point, and all that can be said has been said.
Instead, Pei Nianzhen calmed down and looked at his waist, which was still tied with the sword that He Yanjun had given him before.
He sighed, untied the saber, pulled it out gently, and handed the hilt to He Qi.
"...Although I didn't kill your father and brother, they died because of me. If you want me to pay for it, you can do it. In my life... I have involved many people. You are the only one I am willing to pay with my life."
There was a bitter smile on the corner of his mouth:
"I just hope you can act faster for the sake of some friendship in the past."