Closing the file, Huang Qiong rubbed his aching eyes. Picking up the brush in my hand, I pondered for a long time but finally failed to write. How should I report this matter myself? Could it be that just because of the large influx of those iron and young men, it was speculated that the King of Guilin was suspected of rebellion? Huang Qiong had a vague feeling that if there was no other evidence, relying on this reason alone would be somewhat untenable.
Not to mention anything else, just the report from Guangnan West Road. The amount of land reclamation of millions of acres in recent years is enough to overturn this speculation. But Huang Qiong always believed that this matter was definitely not as simple as it seemed. Unless you are building ordnance, especially a large number of bows and arrows. Otherwise, we would just make hoes, shovels and other farming tools. How could we use so much iron?
What's more, the number of more than one million reclaimed lands seems to be a lot, but when it comes to the total number of hundreds of thousands of refugees, it is difficult to count it as too much. On average, each refugee has not cultivated more than three acres of land in the past five years. Even though only half of the refugees who went there were young and middle-aged people, and the old, weak, women and children were not included in the labor force, this number was still a bit too low.
And looking at it now, even this land reclamation figure may not be true. Huang Qiong remembered that when he first got these files, he asked the household department. The Ministry of Household Affairs replied that due to the ancestral system, no matter how much land was reclaimed on Guangnan West Road, there was no need to pay money or grain. Therefore, the Guangxi Road Transportation Department always follows the figures from the Guilin County Prince's Palace as to how much wasteland has been opened up on Guangnan West Road over the years.
As for whether this number is true, the Guangnan West Road Transportation Department, which is responsible for the financial resources along the way, has not specifically verified it. The number of local Han residents on Guangnan West Road is small, and the Guilin County Prince's Palace is the largest landowner on Guangnan West Road. No matter how much land is opened there, it belongs to the Guilin County Prince's Palace. Even if it is found out that the Guilin County Prince's Palace has concealed the truth, it will not be regarded as his political achievements. On the contrary, it will easily offend the Guilin County Prince.
Moreover, Guangnan West Road is also where many barbarians gather. Most of the land that has been reclaimed, especially those that have been reclaimed in recent years, is in the areas where the barbarian tribes are located. Even if he is a temporary official, he must rely on the Guilin County Prince's Palace to secure his official position. Without the support of Guilin County Prince's Mansion, those barbarians would not take the killing of officials and rebellion seriously at all.
Since the founding of this dynasty, have there been few rebellions by the barbarian chieftains? Guangnan West Road is suppressed by the Guilin County Prince's Palace, which is better. But there are a few barbarians in Huguang South Road and Liangchuan area who take rebellion seriously. The Xuanzong Dynasty once spent tens of millions of military expenditures, and it took five years to suppress the Dongxi barbarians who rebelled on Huguang South Road.
If in this matter, Guilin County Prince's Mansion is offended. People may not say anything on the surface, but they have many tricks to punish you behind your back. Needless to say, he didn't even know how he lost his head if he gave some hints to the Yi tribes who were following his lead. Afterwards, the people surrendered and offered sacrifices, and the Prince of Guilin was helping with some tricks, but the court might not even look into it.
Under such circumstances, who is willing to risk offending the Guilin County Prince and do such a futile thing? At that time, there will be no success or no success, and the blame for causing civil unrest may even be borne by ourselves. The Dongxi barbarians of the Xuanzong Dynasty were quelled by the imperial court at a huge military expense. Afterwards, the leader was replaced, so what else should I do if I surrendered and paid tribute?
On the contrary, several local officials were unlucky, beheaded and exiled. Therefore, the three directors of Guangnan West Road all held the idea that doing more is worse than doing less, and almost no one ever verified it. Although he had always known that everything involving the Guilin County Prince's Palace was a mess, he had already been mentally prepared.
But Huang Qiong was still very angry by this reply. No fault is nothing but merit. Huang Qiong doesn't know how to comment on these officials of Da Qi Dynasty now. The biggest consequence of this confusing account is that the court's judgment of the Guilin County Prince's true strength is extremely easy to make mistakes. The most fatal thing is if only half of the number of land reclamation is real.
Then the Guilin County Prince's Mansion recruited millions of refugees, quietly purchased so much iron, and cleared hundreds of thousands of acres of wasteland in a few years. On average, one person cannot cultivate even half an acre of land in a year. Even if half of these refugees are young adults, this number is simply impossible. So what have those young and middle-aged refugees been doing in recent years? This is quite suspicious.
Even if the Guilin County Prince's Mansion is financially powerful, it may not be able to afford to feed these millions of people every year. With so many doubts, could it be that my always shrewd emperor really didn't see it? None of the civil and military officers of the Manchu Dynasty, as well as the officials of Zhongshu Province, Shangshu Province, and the Ministry of Household Affairs, noticed it? Thinking of this, Huang Qiong put down the brush again.
I looked at the time outside the window and hesitated. He returned to his bedroom and put on the new night clothes that Chen Yao made for himself before leaving the palace. He left his Prince's Mansion quietly and cautiously headed towards the annex of Guilin County Prince's Mansion. In fact, even Huang Qiong knew that he might not really find anything this time, and there was a high possibility that he would return empty-handed.
But Huang Qiong at least wanted to see what his future father-in-law was doing. Moreover, Situ Huanshuang has not been here for a while since the examination. His longing for the beautiful woman was also one of the reasons that prompted him to explore the Guilin County Prince's Mansion, a separate courtyard in the middle of the capital. It was only when Huang Qiong sneaked into the villa that he discovered that the villa seemed to have loose defenses, but in fact it was loose on the outside and tight on the inside.
Even though there are not that many guards patrolling on the surface. But in the other courtyard, there are many dogs that are used to guard the house and guard the courtyard. These dogs look like they have been specially trained and will bark endlessly at the slightest sign of disturbance. Even though Huang Qiong was careful, he was almost discovered several times by these dogs with extremely sensitive senses of smell and hearing.
Moreover, after careful observation, Huang Qiong discovered that there were hidden sentries holding powerful crossbows lurking in many places in this courtyard. These secret whistles and the dogs cooperated with each other and played a role that ordinary guards could not. The security inside the entire courtyard is far from what it looks like from the outside. Even the ridges and walls of every roof were hung with bells and thin ropes painted black.
If it weren't for Huang Qiong's Qinggong, he would have been exposed by the dogs and bells almost as soon as he entered the courtyard. Even so, Huang Qiong was almost discovered several times. Fortunately, there were no dangers along the way, but in the end he was able to touch the core of the other courtyard thanks to his Qinggong. But all the way down, Huang Qiong never found the location of the Guilin County Prince.
After searching for a long time, he found the courtyard where the prince was. Adhering to the idea that it would be better if there were no fish or shrimps, after discovering that the prince had entered the courtyard, Huang Qiong followed him quietly. Cautiously, he leaned outside the window of a lighted room. He wanted to hear if he could eavesdrop on something he wanted to know from this prince.
It was just when he opened the window slightly and looked inside. But he found that the prince was pushing the head of a naked woman with marks of scratches and bites all over her body under him. And on the bed, there were two little girls with scars all over their bodies and no trace of their bodies. Facing the prince, he twisted and pinched, not even daring to cry out in pain.
Next, this very cruel prince did not treat these three women as human beings at all. Not only did he pinch and bite him, he even slapped the woman with the plumpest figure while venting her anger, and even grabbed her hair and pulled it down. After a lot of trouble, the three women had old injuries plus new ones. The words "Body and Skin" are not enough to describe the tragic situation of the three women.
Maybe he felt comfortable seeing the prince, maybe he couldn't stand the torture anymore. The older woman was the most severely injured and had the most scars all over her body. After the prince finally calmed down. Not caring that he was not wearing any clothes. Kneeling on the bed and looking at the Crown Prince, he kowtowed carefully and said: "Master Crown Prince, please be magnanimous and let us go."
"There are so many beauties in the courtyard. The prince must have been tired of the three of us in the past few months. Please be merciful and let me go back. After all, I have a husband and a family. Since I entered the other courtyard, I haven’t gone back for several months. I still have a child waiting to be fed, even if you let me go back to see the child.”
But facing this poor woman's begging for mercy, the prince smiled coldly, pulled the woman's hair with one hand, grabbed the plump part with the other and twisted it hard. He paid no attention to the woman's face, which was deformed due to severe pain. He said with a fierce expression: "Bitch, don't think that you can do whatever you want and make demands that you shouldn't make since you are so comfortable serving me now."
"Go back? When I have had enough fun, I will let you go back. As for now, you are still staying here honestly. If you annoy me, let alone you, they are your family, I Send them all to see the King of Hell. The women I like, not to mention the wife of a small trader like you, are the wives of the tribal leaders. None of them can leave before I have enough fun."
After saying this, he looked at the woman's face that was slightly deformed due to pain. He got angry again, and regardless of the new wounds all over the woman's body that he had just bitten and pinched, he pushed the woman down and violently occupied another secret. While biting the woman's body, he smiled and said: "With such a good place, how can I be willing to let you go?"
And that woman really couldn't bear the pain caused by his madness. The uncontrollable crying not only did not make the prince stop, but made him even more excited. Seeing this prince falling into madness and torturing three women endlessly, it was indeed a bit perverted. Huang Qiong, who was filled with anger, took out a copper coin from his arms and wanted to kill the prince directly.
If you kill this kind of beast, you will eliminate harm from the world. If he keeps him, no one knows how many women will suffer in the future. But just when Huang Qiong was about to throw out the coin and kill the beast on the bed, he hesitated for a moment. Killing this prince is not a problem, it is just a piece of cake for him.
But the problem is that it is easy to kill, but the subsequent reactions caused later are not something the court can afford now. Putting aside the fact that at this juncture, the imperial court really couldn't afford to offend the Guilin County Prince. And now the old man is planning to take back the power of trade. At this time, if I kill the prince, all the old man's plans may be disrupted.
What's more, after he takes action, the lives of these three women may also be at stake. This person cannot be killed for the time being, at least not like this. After a slight hesitation, Huang Qiong finally collected the coin. Although Huang Qiong's hesitation was only for a moment, when he withdrew his hand, there were heavy footsteps outside the yard.
