"After my father checked, he found that there was no water in the hearts and lungs of the officers and soldiers, and there was no sediment in their throats, and there was no sign of struggling after falling into the water. He concluded that they definitely did not drown."
"The matter was so important that my father immediately wanted to report it to the prince, but was stopped by Lou Yong'an."
"Lou Yongan used my mother, me, and other members of the Zhou family to blackmail my father into keeping silent. He said that if he dared to tell the truth, he would destroy the entire Zhou family. He also ordered people to kidnap my mother and me as a blackmail."
Zhou Fengchun's voice was not loud, but in the extremely quiet hall, it was enough for everyone to hear clearly.
"In order to protect my mother and me, my father had no choice but to agree to come down and make peace with Lou Yong. He wanted to find an opportunity to inform the prince later, but he didn't want the news of the shipwreck to be spread."
"There was a riot in the south, and Prince Li was forcibly recalled to the capital because of his incompetence. The third master of the He family, who was able to make the decision, went to Rongjiang again. My father had no choice but to go there. When he went there, he saw the scene of officers and soldiers massacring the city."
When Zhou Fengchun said this, his face turned a little pale and his voice trembled, but he tried his best to explain the matter clearly, and what he said was similar to what Prince Hate had said before.
He told how his father went to Rongjiang, how he hid outside the city and saw the officers and soldiers siege the city with his own eyes, and how he saw He Wenzhuo on the city wall shouting questions to people outside. After being shot with arrows, the officers and soldiers outside fired torches with crossbows. Entering the city, he told everything about the burning of Rongjiang.
Zhou Fengchun's tone was trembling: "Father never expected to encounter such a scene, he just felt depressed."
"Those people later released floods that flooded the entire Rongjiang River. My father tried his best to find a relatively complete corpse. From the body, it was found that he had been drugged before being burned. The nearly 10,000 people in Rongjiang City were He was first drugged and knocked unconscious, and then burned alive in the city."
"My father was shocked to realize that he was involved in something terrible, and he fled in embarrassment with fear. Not long after, the news came that the third master of the He family, He Wenzhuo, had colluded with southern officials and embezzled food relief funds and was killed by the mob. Immediately afterwards, the Lu family and the five members of the family at that time were killed. The prince was ordered to take over the Southland and began to clean up the troublemakers in the Southland."
"At that time, there were rivers of blood in the three places of Shezhou, and most of the officers who accompanied the Changxin County government to recover the bodies were killed or injured due to the riot. My father realized that someone wanted to silence him, and he did not dare to mention the Rongjiang incident at all."
"In order to reassure Lou Yong'an and others, he pretended to be greedy and asked for money to keep quiet. In addition, my father was somewhat distantly related to Zhou Jungui, the Shezhou guard who suppressed the rebels at the time, so he took the opportunity to save his life."
Zhou Fengchun could feel that after he finished speaking, many people in the entire hall were breathing in the air-conditioning, and some people were breathing heavily.
Some were shocked, some were doubtful, and some were angry.
Zhou Fengchun ignored them and continued slowly:
"My mother and I never knew about this matter, but my father was troubled every day and woke up from nightmares every night. He didn't tell us about it until he died of illness. He kept crying and complained that he was timid and afraid of things, saying that he felt sorry for those officers and soldiers. He Rongjiang and those who died in vain did not close their eyes until they died."
"I originally wanted to swallow this matter to death, but who would have thought that Lou Yong'an and Zhou Jungui died suddenly, and many officials related to the incident also died tragically one after another."
"I was already feeling uneasy, and my mother was extremely frightened, so I took her to pray to Buddha and repent for peace of mind. I didn't expect to be bumped into by someone. After the news came out, I knew it was not good and ran away with my mother. But who would have thought that people who would silence them would come one after another.”
"My mother and I fled all the way. Fortunately, we met the people who hated the prince and were saved by them. But my mother...she died at the hands of those people on the way to escape."
Zhou Linchun's eyes turned red and he shed tears.
"My father concealed the truth and watched so many people die in vain. My mother and I lived a good life with the money he gained from greed, but Rongjiang's soul is still alive, and innocent souls are everywhere in the south."
"This is all retribution from the Zhou family, this is our retribution!"
Zhou Linchun couldn't help crying, and the female relatives who followed him in also burst into tears after listening to his words.
They are all those who have enjoyed the benefits of the flood that year. Their husbands, sons and nephews have risen to great heights and become rich and powerful because of their complicity with others.
They were more afraid than Zhou Fengchun.
Almost without waiting for anyone to ask, they all knelt on the ground and confessed their identities and what they knew.
Some people talk about how their husband colluded with the Lu family, spread rumors to destabilize the people, and framed the violent prince and He Wenzhuo.
There is talk about how his nephew received a huge amount of money and deliberately obstructed Prince Ru and others from providing disaster relief.
Some people also talk about how the family, together with the people sent by the imperial court to suppress bandits and suppress rebellion, colluded with the real bandits in the South to trap refugees, pretending to be bandits, and pretending to be rioters and looters who were "cleared" by the imperial court, and used them afterwards. Gain military glory and let those thieves and bandits sneak into the officialdom of the South.
They talked all over the place, even intermittently when they were choked and scared, but every incident made the people in the palace breathe heavier and heavier, and the generals such as Marquis Wenxin even gasped for breath.
Veins appeared on the back of Yin Bao's hands. He looked directly at the woman who said "use people as bandits" and said word by word: "You mean that when the DPRK sent troops to suppress the rebellion and suppress the bandits, all the news returned to the capital was Fake?!"
The woman trembled: "Yes, it's fake..."
"The original mob in the Shezhou area were disguised as mountain bandits who had been causing trouble all year round. My brother-in-law was one of the bandits who led people to rob disaster relief grain funds."
"I accidentally heard my husband mention it once, saying that at that time, some people bribed the bandits privately to help them cause chaos in the south. After Prince Ruan's official ship sank south, they were also the ones who took advantage of the chaos to instigate the refugees and common people to come to provide relief. Those who worked against us made it impossible to carry out the disaster relief work."
"Prince Ru was recalled to Beijing and new people took over the relief work. The imperial court sent troops to suppress the bandits. They had already known the news and colluded with the officers and soldiers who later went south and the local government in Shezhou to kill a large number of people affected by the disaster. The refugees pretended to be thieves, while the original rioters took advantage of the opportunity to take credit, clear their identities and return them to official positions.”
Yin Bao's eyes widened with anger and he was in disbelief.
Marquis Wenxin was even more furious: "How dare they?!"
Cao Dejiang pursed his lips tightly, grabbed his palms and said in a cold voice, "Keep talking!"
The woman was so frightened that she trembled all over, but she didn't dare to shirk the blame. She just lowered her head and whispered:
"The leader of the army in Shezhou at that time was Zhou Jungui, and my husband was working under him. They colluded with the thieves, pretended that the people were bandits, and quickly put down the riots in the south."
"My husband received a reward and was promoted to the third level and became a military general in the Shezhou Prefecture. Zhou Jungui entered the Dudu Prefecture and became the leader of the army. Because he was afraid of being discovered and had interests at stake, my husband also married his concubine. He killed a bandit leader who had sneaked into the government office at that time, and that man later became a sixth-grade warrior..."
