After half a stick of incense, Ren Huai and Zhu Yuancun left and returned. Ren Huai's eyes were subtle, and Zhu Yuancun's face was earthy.
Yan Xiu frowned: "What?"
Ren Huai said word by word: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the people said that they are not short of charcoal..."
When Yan Xiu went south to suppress the bandits, there was a sudden snowstorm. Even Jianmen Pass was dripping with water and turned into ice, let alone Xijing?
Before he left Beijing, all three hundred carts of charcoal were transported to the north for disaster relief. The charcoal dealers in Xijing City would definitely join forces with powerful officials to take advantage of this opportunity to raise prices, disrupt the order of the market, and make more civilians starve and freeze.
That's why he rushed south, not just for a surprise attack.
Zhu Yuancun was unhappy: "I didn't expect that it was Prince Yi's Mansion who took the initiative to distribute charcoal without asking for any money from the people. Why didn't he report the matter of hoarding charcoal in the mansion to the court in time? He had to wait for the snow to fall heavily before he jumped out to save the people. A saint? What kind of intentions does King Yi have?"
When Zhu Yuancun thinks about the suppression of bandits at Jianmen Pass, he still feels frightened.
Growing up, the farthest place he had ever been was Shanglinyuan. When he first set foot on the Shu Road, he saw ladders of stone stacks, thousands of gorges and rocks, and below was a rolling river with twists and turns and empty waves.
And Jianmen Pass is also known as one man can guard the pass and ten thousand men cannot defeat it. Although Feilong Village was attacked by the imperial troops and horses, they quickly used the terrain to fight back, leaving the imperial troops and horses with nowhere to hide.
The elite soldiers under Yan Xiu's command were the most powerful he had ever seen, but they seemed helpless in front of Jianmen Pass, not to mention the wind and snow in the deep mountains, which made them unable to help the court.
If Ren Huai hadn't been so good at Qinggong that he risked his life to sneak into Feilong Village at night to join the bandit-suppressing army, and even injured his hand because of it, otherwise this battle would never have been successfully resolved within half a month.
The imperial court returned with a great victory, but did the soldiers who sacrificed their lives at Jianmen Pass deserve to die? Three thousand bandits were wiped out, and more than a thousand of the soldiers brought this time were also killed.
Behind these hundreds of cars of charcoal seized were the lives of living soldiers one after another.
If Yan Xing had revealed all about his hoarding of charcoal, the imperial court could have used a different strategy to suppress bandits and would not have sacrificed so many people.
He did not expect the deeper meaning of Yan Xing's move because he was not worthy of the sacrifice of those soldiers at Jianmen Pass.
At the critical moment, Yan Xing, a powerless and idle prince, won the hearts of the people before Yan Xiu. What does he want to do?
Ren Huai raised his elbow and congratulated Yuancun: "Wu Xingbo has my sincere words."
After all, Yan Xiu's face looked ugly.
The non-stop wind and snow make people extremely calm.
After a long time, Yan Xiu raised his thick eyelashes stained white by snow: "There is no shortage of charcoal, so we will transport these hundreds of charcoal carts back to the palace first."
"Summon King Yi into the palace."
…
Tai Chi Palace.
Yan Xing had known that this day would come, so he was calm and composed when he knelt in front of Yan Xiu.
After all, he was the one who gave the order to Eleven to distribute charcoal fire in large quantities. The bigger the array, the more likely it would alarm the court.
He knew his royal brother's temper all too well: he was suspicious, jealous, jealous, and arbitrary.
After all, he had spent half his life as a powerful minister with one hand, and in his new life, he would not respect and fear Yan Xiu like he did in his previous life.
Uncharacteristically, Yan Xiu was surprisingly calm now. Before he had washed off his travel dust or changed into his military uniform that was dripping with snow after the snow melted, he was quite leisurely making tea with his own hands in front of him.
The aroma of tea in the room overwhelms the faint scent of ambergris in the Tai Chi Palace. It is indeed a famous tea from the south of the Yangtze River. Once boiled, it feels like smelling the tea fields that fill the mountains and plains after the spring rain.
Yan Xiu made simple tea today, and he had no intention of adding various auxiliary ingredients to the tea according to the methods in the Tea Book.
A hand full of cracks stretched out in front of Yan Xing, like a fine white jade statue that had been broken and put back together. Then, there was a low voice that was colder than the snow outside the palace:
"Yuanzhi, have a taste."
It had been many years since I heard these two words from Yan Xiu. Yan Xing was stunned for a moment and took the tea cup: "My brother thanks you, my brother."
As soon as the tea was in his mouth, Yan Xiu interrogated him about hoarding and distributing charcoal.
Yan Xing was neither impatient nor impatient. After drinking a full cup of tea, he said: "When the emperor went south to suppress the bandits, I did not intend to offend you when I sent out charcoal fires. Even if the emperor had not left the capital, I would have done it on time." Charcoal fire is distributed to the hands of the people."
Yan Xiu motioned him to continue talking with his eyes.
Yan Xing continued: "My brother's move is not to use the voice of the people to gain a good reputation and to gain the opportunity for my brother to truly set foot in the court."
"As early as when Qin Tianjian announced that this year would be a warm winter, so that the people would not need to rush to make new clothes for the winter or store large amounts of charcoal fires, I had this intention. The laws of heaven are impermanent, and no matter how knowledgeable Qin Tianjian is, he will always make mistakes. , If this is a warm winter, it would be best; but if it is a cold winter, what will happen to thousands of unprepared people?"
This reason seems reasonable.
But this can't explain why he bought out the entire city of Xijing as soon as winter came.
"With so much charcoal, are you predicting the future, or are you dedicated to serving the people?"
Yan Xiu lowered his eyes and looked at him.
Yan Xing raised his hands and bowed and replied:
"I take full advantage of what your Majesty said, but there is one more thing. I do have selfish motives, and they are selfish for one person. I hope that this winter I can do my best to solve her problems. If she needs charcoal, I will do it for her. When she buys charcoal, she even does not hesitate to arouse His Majesty’s suspicion.”
As soon as he entered the palace, Yan Xiu heard reports that Xijing was so short of charcoal in the past few days that the Wuyi clan had nothing to do.
Yan Xiu smiled subconsciously and said: "You are very passionate about Miss Zhu. Such kind deeds are actually done because of her alone."
"If I remember correctly, next March will be your wedding date."
At that time, he would not mind giving Zhu Siyi the title of princess.
Yan Xing just smiled as calmly as water, neither denying nor confirming.
After saying these words, the scene that came to Yan Xiu's mind was that day when Zhaohua and his son visited Changle Palace.
The master and servant in Changle Palace tried their best to display the teapot made of strange materials in front of everyone. Zhu Ya got into a quarrel in front of him, introduced her extraordinary skills, and finally convinced him to allocate money to purchase charcoal, but he still hesitated. Smelting——
Don't you just want to find a reason to let him hoard a lot of charcoal?
There are not so many coincidences in the world, but Yan Xiu has never missed any coincidence since he was a child.
Tonight, maybe I should go to Changle Palace.
…
Changle Palace.
Under the candlelight, Zhu Sijia was checking the accounts of Changle Palace over the past few months.
The news of Yan Xiu's return to the court reached the palace at noon, so Zhu Sijia should go to Tai Chi Palace to take the initiative to meet him.
But the snow was so heavy at that time that no one or outside object could be seen three feet away. Zhu Sijia was worried about being in trouble on the road, and couldn't bear to embarrass the palace officials who wanted to carry her sedan to see her out in the snow, so she put the matter aside for the time being.
By this time, it was evening. It was too dark in the snowy sky, so Changle Palace lit up candles early.
The snow will light up in a while, and it won't be too late to go to Tai Chi Palace by then.
Unexpectedly, she was too immersed in it, with her head lowered and focused on the account book, and she didn't even notice when Yan Xiu walked up to her.
