0p0 Chapter 356 General
Chapter 356 General
The group hurried back to the palace, it was already dusk.
As soon as he entered the mansion, Lu Xuan looked up and saw a person standing in the Cunxin Hall.
He was tall, wearing a low-key dark blue brocade robe, with broad shoulders. Perhaps because of the long journey, he had a half-inch long stubble.
His hair was half white, and he was upright and righteous, but between his brows there was a lingering trace of melancholy and vicissitudes of life.
"Brother Lu!" Jiang Xing had already run towards him.
Lu Xuan turned around and saw Jiang Xing and Lu Xuan walking not far away, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"Your Highness!" His voice was soothing and deep, as if it had penetrated the wind and sand of Longchuan for half a year.
Jiang Xing gave him a tight hug, a bit uninhibited, "Are you all doing well on the way back?"
Lu Xuan smiled cheerfully, "The remnants of the Ji family have been completely eliminated. Your Highness is wise."
Jiang Xing glanced at Lu Xuan behind him with a smug look, "It's not me who's smart, it's the princess who's smart."
Lu Xuan had already stepped over the threshold and was walking towards the two of them with a smile on his face.
General Lu smiled and said, "I guess this must be Ah Xuan?"
He searched his body for a while, finally pulling out a bottle and handing it to her. "Big brother has been away for over ten years, and you didn't know that Second Uncle still had a daughter. I'm really happy for Second Uncle to receive the letter from the prince. Consider this a gift from Big Brother to you. It's not worth much, but it's a token of my appreciation!"
When Lu Xuan saw General Lu, she felt reassured. She thought, if her father were still alive, he would have been a mighty general like this.
She bowed gracefully, "Axuan, greetings to Big Brother!"
General Lu quickly helped her up and said, "You are the princess, and it is your elder brother who should greet you. I am sorry for being so rude!"
Then he looked at Lu Xuan intently for a few more times, "Almost the same as Siyu, she is the legitimate daughter of our Lu family."
Lu Xuan smiled, "From now on, Ah Xuan will have a big brother to rely on!"
Everyone laughed, and she opened the bottle, only to find dark brown soil inside.
"Brother, what is this?"
"The soil from Longchuan was obtained from the graves of my second uncle and second aunt. Ah Xuan couldn't go to Longchuan, so my eldest brother thought you must be missing your parents, so he brought it back to comfort you."
After saying that, he ordered his men to bring up a long wooden box from outside.
Lu Xuan opened it and saw a lively sapling inside.
"There's a tree as thick as an arm growing between your parents' two adjacent graves. This is its sapling. The prince asked me to bring it back for you. Since I have his tree, I thought of bringing you some soil."
Lu Xuan's eyes became hot and the tip of his nose turned red.
She glanced at Jiang Xing, then at General Lu, "Brother, thank you!"
General Lu came back from Longchuan secretly, and did not even go back to the Duke's Mansion. He could only hide in the Prince's Mansion secretly.
In order to welcome him, Lu Xuan ordered Xiao Kui to prepare a sumptuous dinner.
During the meal, several people had a pleasant conversation.
Jiang Xing told General Lu all the thrilling things that had happened in the capital in recent days, so he quickly understood the current situation.
"When the Empress Dowager passed away, I, as her nephew, didn't even attend her condolences in person, and I truly feel guilty. Fifteen years ago, Ji Xiangli used a treacherous scheme to lure the tiger away from the mountain, preventing me from investigating the truth behind Siyu's death. He then sent someone to murder her in Mengding Mansion. Now that the Ji family has fallen, who is this Jiang Yuanfeng who has appeared now? From what you've said, it seems he has a deep connection to the Ji family."
Jiang Xing shook his head. "The Ji family was considered ruined before, but that's not necessarily the case now. Ji Bozhou has regained his title from the Emperor and Empress. Although Ji Xiangli is a living dead, there's still a danger of restoration."
That Jiang Yuanfeng is the current Minister of Personnel, Jiang Shaozhao! You must have seen him fifteen years ago when you were still in the court. He was a humble, unofficial official whom the Emperor personally supported after he ascended the throne. It's just that no one noticed him back then, and he gradually rose to his current position.
Lu Xuan poured them some wine. "Jiang Yuanfeng's true identity is Prince Ding's bastard son, a child he ignored. He harbored resentment towards the palace, which is why he killed Prince Ding's family fifteen years ago. Come to think of it, wasn't that time shortly after he entered the court as an official?"
Lu Xuan frankly told Jiang Yuanfeng and all the current actions of the emperor, and told him that Jiang Yuanfeng was actually the former protector of the Shenji Sect and had profound mystical skills.
General Lu's brows knitted together after hearing this. "So, isn't His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in great danger?!"
Jiang Xing nodded. "This is what we are most worried about right now, but we can no longer rashly enter the palace. Cousin Siyu died at the hands of our brother, the emperor. We never imagined that. Qingyuan and Qingdai discovered the underground secret passage, but I still feel that there are more secrets inside..."
General Lu spun the wine glass in his hand. "Years ago, I suspected Ju Siyu's death. I didn't expect it would take so many years to uncover the truth for her. I brought back all the troops that the prince conquered in Longchuan. Several generals stationed them in separate camps, most of which are located eighty miles outside the capital.
Ever since Ji Xiangli was on the verge of death, I led my troops back to the capital, and surprisingly everything went smoothly! The officials around here only wanted money, and they turned a blind eye after taking some silver to bribe us, so there is no need to be afraid of them!
Jiang Xing clinked glasses with him, "Let's investigate secretly first. If they find out, tell Sun Wei and Zhou Hu to come in. They assassinated my mother, and I will avenge them no matter what!"
Then, he was a little incredulous. "I rarely attend court unless there's something important going on, so I'm not fully aware of these circumstances. Big brother just said that the officials who came back only wanted silver, and they didn't even stop you from bringing troops?"
The matter of raising an army was of great importance to national defense. He used his own treasury in Longchuan to recruit more than 200,000 soldiers from the surrounding areas to surrender, in order to defend the border while protecting his own safety.
So on the surface, Longchuan is adjacent to Mengding Prefecture and the surrounding areas, and it seems that they are independent of each other, but in fact, they are all his people.
If he hadn't had to, he wouldn't have let him return to Beijing.
It has been covered up for so many years, but I didn't expect it to come back so easily?
So what on earth is his scheming and calculating brother doing?
Could it be that the Ji family has always controlled the government of Daliang, and until now, all the people are still his?
General Lu pondered for a moment. "Actually, when I think about it carefully, it makes sense. Wasn't all the silver that the Ji Mansion had previously extorted tributes from these people? After the fall of the Ji Mansion, there were indeed fewer officials under the Ji family. Even those who collected the silver were almost all in remote places.
However, after the fall of the Ji family, the emperor did not order the complete overthrow of many systems established by Ji Xiangli. Empress Ji still sat firmly in the palace, and the Ji family was not even charged with any crime except for the removal of their titles!
In addition, in order to show that we are different from the Ji family who control the government, our Xie family has not replaced many local officials. Everyone must think that the Ji family may make a comeback, so they still retain the habit of hoarding silver from the previous reigns of Ji Xiangli and Ji Cheng. After all, if we are not careful, they may be asked to hand over a large amount of silver again.
"Stupid!" Jiang Xing was speechless. "I thought my brother, who was so cunning and scheming in the fight for the throne, would also be able to make some achievements in handling political affairs. I didn't expect that even after I eliminated the Ji family's power, he couldn't clean up this mess! Or rather, he didn't put in the effort to clean it up!"
General Lu shook his head. "Not necessarily. Could it be that he left a way out for Empress Ji?"
"Now it seems that this is indeed the case."
Isn’t Ji Bozhou’s reinstatement of the title the best proof?
General Lu was a little confused. "Then I don't understand. The decision made by the emperor is too strange."
Just in case, Jiang Xing called Fei Xing and said, "Send someone to investigate. Apart from the officials in the capital, what's going on? Why are they only accepting money and not taking care of anything else?"
"Yes!"
Looking at Fei Xing's receding figure, Lu Xuan held up his chin and said, "I always feel that there seems to be some intricate connection between Jiang Yuanfeng, Ji Xiangli, and the Emperor, or in other words, some secret!"