Chapter 074 River Tour
"The people who come to buy military rations are merchants from the northwest. They trade at Lai Fu Inn in Zhending on the fifth day of every month at a fixed time."
Although he was frightened just now, Zhao Chunming became calm and composed once he made the confession.
He stopped trembling and confessed everything he knew.
The emperor was not stupid. He could deny without even thinking whether the other party was an ordinary businessman.
Knowing that it is military rations, why would an ordinary businessman, who has nothing better to do, rush to seek death?
Zhao Chunming was taken to the Tianlao prison to await his sentence. The emperor then handed the case over to the Minister of Justice to handle it with full authority, and he must find out the origin of the party that purchased the military rations.
In fact, it is very simple to investigate the origins. Just call the Duke of Zhenguo and ask him, and everything will be clear.
But can the emperor punish the Duke of Zhenguo based on Zhao Chunming's solid confession?
He can't!
Even if he was the emperor, he couldn't deal with the Duke of Zhenguo, the military power in the Duke of Zhenguo's hands...
At this moment, the emperor regretted deeply. Why did he temporarily hand over the military power in Su Qingqing's hands to the Duke of Zhenguo when Su Qingqing was plotting treason?
Since he couldn't, it was impossible for him to hear any useful information from the Duke of Zhenguo. The Duke of Zhenguo could only give him a scapegoat that was important enough.
and……
Even the Ministry of Justice may not be able to find out.
Such a commotion would have alerted the enemy.
The emperor looked at Rong Que with extremely complicated feelings. If the prince was a little stronger, Rong Que would have used today's incident as a powerful attack point to attack the Zhenguo Gong Party if he encountered such a thing today, and maybe the person who purchased the grain would have been found out.
But he had always suppressed the prince quite heavily, which resulted in the prince's strength being unable to compete with the Duke of Zhenguo, or... maybe the prince didn't even want to compete, otherwise why would he alert the enemy.
The emperor sighed gloomily.
He wanted to let Rong Que investigate the case together with the Ministry of Justice, but then he changed his mind and was afraid that Rong Que would fall victim to the murder of the Duke of Zhenguo during the investigation, and the case might not be solved and the people would be killed.
After a moment of thought, the emperor finally waved his hand and let the prince and princess leave.
As soon as they left the palace, Su Qingqing said to Rong Que, "Guess what His Majesty is thinking about in the Imperial Study?"
Rong Que didn't expect her to say this and was stunned for a moment, "I regret giving the military power to the Duke of Zhenguo."
Su Qingqing said, "So, Your Highness, this act of alarming the enemy was intentional, right? Do you want to overturn the verdict on your General Su?"
She suddenly came in front of Rong Que, blinked her eyes, and there was a smile in her eyes.
This smile caught Rong Que's eyes unexpectedly.
Once upon a time, there was also someone who looked at him like this...
Feeling as if someone was pinching his heart, Rong Que clenched his hands, but this time he did not turn hostile and walk away. He just said, "Since you like to guess people's thoughts so much, why not guess the fate of the Zhenguogong Mansion."
Su Qingqing had not expected the prince to give a direct answer, so she curled her lips and said with a smile, "The Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion has three legitimate sons. The eldest is in Shuzhou, the second is in Jinzhou, and the third is in the northwest. There are four illegitimate sons. The fourth is in the northwest, and the fifth, sixth, and seventh are all in Kyoto."
When it comes to the people in the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion, Su Qingqing knows them all.
Rong Que had long passed his initial state of surprise.
This man really knows more about the situation of the court officials of their Great Yan Kingdom than he does.
"The incident has become so serious that the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion will not be able to calm His Majesty's anger if it doesn't pay a little. What's more, the rebellion of the Xishan Camp has already aroused His Majesty's anxiety. In addition, Zhao Chunming said that the merchant was from the northwest...
Therefore, no matter from which perspective, the third and fourth sons of the Duke of Zhenguo could not be saved this time.
As a concession, he will definitely hand over part of the Northwest Army's military power this time, and the emperor will arrange for his own people to take over."
In fact, it was just as Su Qingqing said.
Three days later, the case was openly executed in the court, and the execution method was almost the same as what Su Qingqing said.
In addition, as a father, the Duke of Zhenguo failed to discipline his son strictly, and was fined three years' salary.
Zhao Chunming took the lead in the rebellion and was executed ten days later. The military discipline in the Xishan camp was disrupted, so another person was chosen to take charge.
After the punishment was issued and spread to the Prince's Mansion, Su Qingqing was lying on the beauty couch under the flower stand eating fruit.
Jixiang half sat on the side of Su Qingqing, holding her chin with one hand and fanning her with the other hand, "Madam, I don't quite understand."
Su Qingqing looked at her frowning and thinking, and couldn't help but stood up and pinched her little face, "What don't you understand?"
"Doesn't the Xishan Camp have a commander? Why is it that the person in charge of this military camp is actually a civilian official?"
You know, this is impossible to happen in their Zhao country.
In the military, it is the world of military generals. As long as there is a commander-in-chief, you, a civil servant, are nothing!
Su Qingqing said, "Because the Xishan Camp is close to the capital, its mission is actually to prevent rebellion. The emperor needs someone to use when he is in danger. Maybe he thinks that civil officials are relatively easier to control. So even if the Xishan Camp has a commander, Zhao Chunming has the final say."
Jixiang curled his lips, looking disapproving.
"Those scholars have so many twists and turns in their minds. It's hard to control them, so they become cunning!"
Just like Shen Ye.
When she humiliated her master in the past, she used a lot of roundabout ways.
Anyway, Jixiang has no good feelings towards literati.
"On the day the incident happened, did the commander also rebel?"
Su Qingqing smiled and said, "The commander is not in the camp."
"Not here?"
"Half a month ago, the commander returned to his hometown to visit his relatives."
Jixiang blinked, "Then Zhao Chunming was selling military rations, but the commander didn't know anything about it?"
Su Qingqing reached out and scratched Jixiang's nose, "Of course I know."
Otherwise, she and Rong Que wouldn't have alerted the enemy like this.
After all, we still have to catch the person who bought the grain!
As they were talking, Minglu came in from outside, walked up to Su Qingqing and bowed to her, "Your Majesty, His Highness just sent a message back saying that he has rented a boat on the Jinshui River, and invites Your Majesty to take a night cruise on the Jinshui River."
Jixiang jumped up immediately, "Cruising the Jinshui River? Is there a girl to accompany you?"
Ming Lu: Huh?
Su Qingqing immediately didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she pulled Jixiang by the hand, and then said to Minglu, "Okay."
After some packing, Su Qingqing took Jixiang out of the house and headed straight for Jinshui River.
The Jinshui River of the Great Yan Kingdom is filled with various floating lights and night dreams.
When she was alive, she was the commander of an army and had entertained envoys from neighboring countries on the Jinshui River. She was almost drunk to death by those beasts, and in the end...
She was clearly extremely drunk that night, so how did she get home?
To cruise the Jinshui River again, Su Qingqing wore a simple men's suit and boarded the large boat that Rong Que had rented. In the light and shadows, she saw the man standing at the bow, "Your Highness, why are you so in the mood to take me to cruise the Jinshui River?"
Rong Que turned around and saw the Crown Princess dressed in men's clothes. The beautiful figure that had been pressing on his heart overlapped with the person in front of him again.
