Chapter 48 Countermeasures

  The county lieutenant understood that the young master of the provincial governor's house had not only defecated on the king's head but also urinated, and if this matter were to occur in the capital city, it would be possible for them to tear apart even a random imperial prince, let alone the king. The gates of Kaifeng Prefecture have been smashed by these people countless times. In their eyes, the humble Tongzhou Prefecture is nothing but a fart. Even someone like the county lieutenant who serves at the imperial palace's gate would also try to avoid them if possible.

  "Was the young master of the prefecture's family beaten badly? Did the prefect also suffer a great loss?" Wang Xiao Wei asked cautiously, thinking to himself that the little silver in his pocket might not be enough, if not he would have to borrow some quickly, or else he could only pawn his pants.

  "It didn't cost much!" said the class head, pointing west and saying: "Originally, our county magistrate had more than 200 mu of land and 5,000 yuan sold to Duke Wang. Duke Wang added a cat and exchanged it for a hundred or so mu of land in the manor!"

  "A cat exchanges a manor, is it a golden cat?" Wang Xiao Wei asked in surprise.

  "Get away from me, you're spitting on my face!" Li Ban Tou wiped his face with his sleeve, looking annoyed. Wang Xiao Wei smiled awkwardly and moved to the side. Li Ban Tou was satisfied with his reaction and leaned in close, whispering mysteriously: "That cat is much more valuable than the golden cat. It's said that it's a lion cat from the Xuanwang Fu, exchanged for a painting by Cai Chengxiang, given to the current Guo Gong as a gift for his nephew to play with. The king loves it so much that he can't sleep without holding it every day. During the New Year, Zhang Zhi County and his family came to pay their respects to the governor, and when they saw the cat, they praised it repeatedly. The governor was annoyed by the commotion caused by the cat, so he sold it to them. I wonder how much money he got for it?"

  "Oh, five thousand guan should be enough!" Wang Xiao Wei gritted his teeth and quoted a high price.

  "Cut!" Li Ban said with a smile, flipping one hand over several times. "Thirty thousand taels is still a discount for an old colleague of Governor Chen's!"

  "My goodness, 30,000 taels! Not even a golden cat is worth this price." Wang Xiao Wei's jaw almost dropped. Li Ban Tou looked at Wang Xiao Wei with even more disdain. What kind of person from the capital would say such a thing? He was simply a country bumpkin. Let alone 30,000 taels, if the governor said it was 50,000 taels, would this little county magistrate dare say it wasn't worth it? This guy really had no sense of propriety. No wonder he'd been serving in the imperial city for so long and still only held a lowly position as a Xiao Wei."

  "So, it seems that Chen's land wasn't a loss, but rather a gain. Tsk, tsk, the Wang family is indeed wealthy, one cat is worth so much money!" Wang Xiao Wei sighed and said, but in his heart he didn't think it was right. After all, the young master of the Wang family was still young and didn't know the market value, thinking that a farm was more valuable than a cat. If I could have caught up with this good deal today, that would be great."

  "I'm not necessarily rich, but the king's followers didn't even finish their meal that day until they added two more dishes. I heard the king only eats one meat and one vegetable dish per meal. With so many people in the mansion, can you imagine how much money is spent on food and drink every day?" Li Banhou sympathized with Zhao Shi instead.

  "What about the son of the Magistrate?" Wang Xiao Wei asked again.

  "This is a secret, it's just you, Wang Xiao Wei. I wouldn't dare tell anyone else. Several of the strong men who participated were exiled to Lingnan along with our governor's brother-in-law. Master Wang showed mercy and only made him kneel on the street and slap himself one hundred times!" Li Ban Tou said quietly to his colleagues.

  "Ah!" Wang Xiao Wei nodded, thinking to himself that the young master was only lightly punishing him, but this move was a bit "unscrupulous". He had made someone slap their own face in public on the street, wasn't that humiliating? From now on, he wouldn't be able to mix with others in the "circle" anymore. "Li Ban Tou, how will the young master punish me?"

  "I've told you, the king is a reasonable man. He's already let you off by not confiscating your horses. You'd better understand the situation and not mention the horse in front of the king, or he might get angry and change his mind. After all, everything under heaven belongs to him, so we'll just give him what he wants!"

  "Thanks to Li's guidance, I won't forget the lesson even if my teeth fall out!" Wang Xiao Wei smiled wryly. He listened to others' advice and ate his fill, preserving his own head first; when the sky falls, there will be a tall one to hold it up anyway. Neither of the two imperial envoys mentioned it, so he wouldn't bring it up himself either.

  Cai You sat stupidly in the carriage, his hair bun having been cut off. Chen Tang's concubine had reluctantly combed it up and pinned it with a hairpin. He no longer had any interest in seeking pleasure at this moment, and was worried about how Wang Ye would settle accounts with him when he came down. As for official rank, being the Prince of the First Rank was equivalent to his own father's rank, and as for his father, he didn't have an advantage either. Who else in the world could be more powerful than his father?

  "Right, he doesn't have much money himself!" Cai You thought for a long time and finally found his own advantage. Although he was the prince, he relied on his salary to get by and didn't have any "extra income". He heard that Chen Tang wanted to buy his land but still had to sign an IOU. Thinking of this, Cai You became excited. His family didn't have anything else, just a lot of money. This was the weapon! He would use money to crush him.

  "Come here!" Cai Yi lifted the curtain of the sedan chair, called over a trusted follower, and whispered a few words in his ear. The follower nodded, untied one of the horses pulling the cart, mounted a fine horse, and galloped away along the same road they had come from.

  Liang Shicheng sat quietly in his sedan chair, his eyes fixed on the closed gate of the Wang Mansion with a calm expression, but his heart was not calm. With the rise of Tong Guan in the palace, Yang Jia's position was threatened, and he came to instruct himself to probe Huang Jingchen's tone, if he had any intention of returning to Beijing, hinting that he could mediate and bring him back to the palace.

  "Grandma's, they used to fight each other to the death, now they want to join forces, what do they take me for?" Liang Shicheng thought to himself, he knew that Huang Jingchen had accumulated a large number of connections inside and outside the palace over the years, and was always a powerful competitor for the head of the Imperial Household Department. Although he lost power in the struggle, he retreated unscathed under the protection of Zheng Guifei, and now with the merit of protecting the young master, he would surely regain his power once back in the palace.

  Liáng Shī Běn thought to take advantage of the imperial edict to reconnect with Huáng Jīng Chén, get close and make him a future ally. However, Huáng's previous sentence "Dà Liáng Zǐ" made his heart cool down by half. He still regarded himself as a small yellow gate from the past, tightly closed door, and didn't take this 'Rui Si Dian Wen Wài Kù' seriously at all.

  "Hmph, you two are in cahoots, and I'll never have my day of glory. I'm here to proclaim the emperor's edict, not to deliver messages for you!" Liang Shicheng had already made up his mind, and ignored Yang Jia's words. Whatever he said when he went back would be on his own lips, anyway, since the two of them weren't speaking, there was no way to verify it.

  If Zhao Zhen knew what Liang Shichen was thinking, he would definitely feel that people are getting worse bit by bit. He is now just a low-ranking eunuch, but he dares to play tricks on Yang Jie, the leader of the eunuchs, which shows that Liang Shichen has already shown his reckless and presumptuous character, and it's no wonder that he dared to forge imperial edicts later!

  "Huang Bo, they've been kept waiting for quite a while now. If we don't open the door soon, I reckon they'll be cursing our ancestors eight generations back!" said Zhao Chu in the main hall, putting down his tea cup.

  "Hmm, I'm afraid it's me who was scolded, not you, Your Highness!" Huang Jingchen said with a wry smile.

  "Hmph, who made my dad the emperor? But what should we give to Cai Yong? Can't let him scold me for nothing."

  "Haha, Prince Wang is really something! But Cai Yi is not comparable to Chen Tang. After all, he's the eldest son of the current Chancellor and a close minister to the Emperor. He's one of our own people, so it's not good to be too harsh on him. A slight punishment from you, Prince Wang, should suffice!" Huang Jingchen said with a big laugh.

  "Let's just get five hundred thousand taels from him and make him take out the money for our road construction!" Zhao Ke said, gritting his teeth. He knew that Cai Jing had risen to power four times and had been in control of the imperial court for over twenty years, so he must have some extraordinary abilities that this young prince couldn't shake off. Right now, the two groups were still in a "honeymoon period" politically speaking, and it wasn't time to turn against each other yet. Everything could only be planned slowly. For now, they could only get some money from his son to spend.

  "Your Highness, you're underestimating the Minister's family. Their wealth is not just a few million, five hundred thousand taels to them is like a drop in the ocean!" Huang Jingchen teased, "Your Highness, later on, don't say anything, Cai You will give you an amount that won't be less than this, I'm afraid we'll have enough money to repair the bridge!"

  "Alright, let's listen to the official!" Zhao Fu jumped down from his chair and shouted outside, "Zheng Fu, open the door and receive the imperial edict!"

  "Open the gate wide, fire the cannon, play music, and welcome the imperial edict!" Zheng Fu loudly ordered. He had seen and received imperial edicts in the Yiguo Gongfu before, but it was the first time he saw an imperial envoy being locked outside in the cold like a king.

  Zhao Yi and Huang Jingchen, dressed in formal attire, walked out of the main hall together. The gatekeepers received orders to open the main gate wide, the servants lit firecrackers, the musicians from the theater troupe played a welcoming tune, and the incense table was already set up in the middle of the courtyard. Zhao Yi led a group of people from the mansion to welcome them at the door.

  The team outside the temple heard the firecrackers and hastily lined up, asking the two envoys to get off the car. "Open the door!" Cai You wiped his nose and got off the car with a tremble, holding the gold seal and book and following Liang Shicheng into the palace.

  "Should I go in and have some tea first?" Zheng Fu asked with a bow and a smile.

  "Thanks, no need!" Liang Shicheng coldly refused, freezing to the point where he just wanted to pee, and he's still asking him to drink tea, sincerely wanting him to wet his pants. But he turned around with a smile on his face and said to Zhao Che: "Your Highness, receive the edict!"

  "Yes!" Zhao Chen replied respectfully and stepped back to stand behind the incense table.

  "The second prince Zhao Che receives the imperial edict!" Huang Jingchen stood up straight and read out the imperial edict in a loud voice.

  "The humble son Zhao Chen has received your order!" Zhao Chen bowed and knelt down, and everyone in the mansion followed suit.

  "I, the Emperor, have received the Mandate of Heaven: when an emperor establishes a country, he must choose the virtuous and appoint the able; if vassals have merit, then they are granted land and promoted in rank. I wield the great power of both civil and military affairs, residing in the highest position of the Chinese people, with no private interests, only loyalty and diligence. The two imperial princes, Zhao Yi and Zhao Ren, are filial and righteous, and should be promoted to the title of Duke of Yan.

  Zhao Yi, with his buttocks clenched and head bowed, listened to the edict, but eight out of ten sentences he didn't understand. 'The Duke of Yan may accept the imperial decree and thank the Emperor!' This sentence he understood."

  "Long live, long live, long long live!" Zhao Xie performed a grand ceremony and solemnly accepted the imperial edict, the gold seal and the book of investiture. He was overjoyed in his heart, having obtained this powerful tool, which would make it easier for him to handle affairs in the future. With nothing better to do, he could even intimidate one person and deceive another - who would dare not to obey!