Chapter 278: An Zisheng's Ending
An Youshang recognized Lin Ye at first sight.
The reason is simple. Although three years have passed, Lin Ye's appearance has not changed at all.
But his words "Uncle Lin" caused Qingmei and Qi Feng's expressions to change instantly.
The smile on Qi Feng's face disappeared, while Qingmei's face showed surprise.
She didn't know who this "Uncle Lin" was, but since the young master knew him, he must be on their side.
"Shoot!"
Qi Feng didn't hesitate at all. He waved his hand and the armored soldiers standing on the hillside raised their bows and crossbows again, and arrows fell from the sky again.
As for Qi Feng, he was also shocked by Lin Ye's strength, because he did not notice the other party's figure, which made him feel wary.
The best way right now is to let the soldiers shoot arrows.
The soldiers he brought with him were all elite soldiers from his senior brother's hands. They were equipped with special bows and crossbows and arrows that could break through the protective blood and qi of a warrior. Even a mid-level warrior in the Jingzhe realm would find it difficult to remain unharmed by such arrows, not to mention that the other party had to protect the boy from the An family.
As for whether this would result in the boy from the An family being shot to death, Qi Feng had no worries in this regard, because he knew very well that since this man came out to save the boy from the An family, he would definitely protect the boy from the An family first.
In his eyes, the other party was definitely a mid-level strong man in the Jingzhe realm. It was easy for a mid-level strong man in the Jingzhe realm to protect a child under the arrows flying all over the sky, as long as he was willing to be shot by the arrows himself.
All he has to do is wait until his opponent is injured before taking action.
However, what Qi Feng could not have expected was that the arrows in the sky were still shooting out. The man in front of him drew a few times in the air with his right hand, and the arrows in the sky changed direction and shot towards the hillside.
puff!
Puff puff puff!
The armored soldiers on the hillside were thrown into panic by the change in direction of the arrows and turned around to run, but with the heavy armor on their bodies, they were caught up by the arrows after only a few steps.
These arrows directly pierced through their armor, and in a short moment, they all fell to the ground.
The few who were not shot in vital parts of the body such as the heart and head, although not dead, also lay on the ground wailing.
"Practitioner!"
This scene made Qi Quan's pupils shrink, and he instantly understood the man's identity.
It's not that warriors can't do this. Warriors can also make the arrows in the sky turn around, but that is relying on their own strong blood and energy. To put it bluntly, they use brute force to reflect these arrows back. It's impossible for this kind of arrows to turn around.
In addition, the few strokes that the man had drawn in the air before were clearly the seals of a cultivator. Combining these two, he judged that the man in front of him was a cultivator.
"Your Excellency, as a practitioner..."
"Tianno!"
Lin Ye flicked his right hand, and Qi Feng fell to the ground before he could even finish his words. Even though he fell to the ground, his eyes were still wide open, and he obviously couldn't believe that he would die so easily.
Qingmei looked at the situation that had suddenly changed and was a little slow to react.
"What's going on? An Zisheng can't hold on any longer. Is he going to be thrown out?"
“No…it’s not that.”
After hearing this person's question, Qingmei finally reacted and quickly explained, "It was those treacherous officials in the court who have been forced into a corner by you, and they have teamed up with those merchants to capture the young master to deal with you."
Lin Ye smiled and pointed at the person on the ground: "This is a disciple of Zhenwu Palace, and these people are from Marquis Zhenwei. Marquis Zhenwei is also the prince consort, right?"
"Um."
"Then do you think that as the son-in-law of the emperor, he is also involved in this. Will the emperor know about it?"
Qingmei was stunned, she had never thought about this. Your Majesty... Your Majesty trusts you very much. Without your support, you would not have been able to preside over the reforms for so many years. Many officials in the court reported you to the emperor because you had violated their interests, but they were all rejected by your majesty in the end.
The emperor's trust and reliance on you are known not only to the court but also to the people of the capital.
"Marquis Zhenwei is only the son-in-law of the emperor. He is not..."
"Just a consort?" Lin Ye interrupted Qingmei, with a meaningful look on his face: "It's because he's just a consort that I don't think it's even more strange. A consort actually attacked the current prime minister, Lord An, who the emperor relies on the most."
Seeing Qingmei still had an expression of disbelief, Lin Ye sighed in his heart. In fact, he felt that the reason why An Zisheng would ultimately fail was not because of the opposition of court officials, nor because of the obstruction and assassination of businessmen, but because of the crushing of imperial power.
The development and growth of merchants will inevitably give birth to new classes, and these new classes will step by step seek their own status. Once this society cannot give them the status they want, unrest is bound to occur.
Perhaps at the beginning, the one sitting on the dragon throne also wanted the people to live a good life and his country to be more prosperous, but the deepest reason for his desire to achieve these goals was that he wanted to maintain the stability of the dynasty and the rule of the royal family.
After ten years of recuperation and commercial development, the people's lives in the Shang Dynasty have been greatly improved and have indeed been stabilized.
As a member of the royal family, they knew one thing very clearly: as long as the common people had something to eat, they would not rebel.
The common people will not rebel, but conflicts of interest still exist. In the conflicts between these bureaucrats and businessmen, the royal family knows very well how to choose. To protect the bureaucrats is to protect his dynasty.
I noticed this, and An Zisheng obviously noticed it too.
That is why An Zisheng created the Merchant Supervision Bureau and carried out strict supervision on merchants. In fact, it was to protect the merchants. Otherwise, once the bureaucrats found the loopholes of the merchants, the royal family would join forces with officials to deal a fatal blow to the merchants.
The stability that the Shang Dynasty had spent more than ten years to achieve would be completely shattered, and the wealth created by the merchants would be swallowed up by the royal family and bureaucrats.
An Zisheng felt that by strictly restraining the merchants, he could protect them and maintain stability in the world.
But what An Zisheng didn't know was that for the royal family, the common people didn't need a lot of wealth, as long as they could have enough food to eat and not starve to death. It was not a good thing for the common people to be too rich. Once the common people lived without worries, it meant they had more free time to think.
This is not good for the royal rule.
The biggest obstacle to An Zisheng's reforms was the imperial power, but Lin Ye knew very well that even if he told An Zisheng all this, An Zisheng would not do anything against the royal family.
This is the limitation of the thinking of people from another world.
"Go back and tell An Zisheng that little Youshang should stay with me. I have also reserved a house for him in Canglan County for his retirement."
After Lin Ye said this to Qingmei, he took An Youshang's hand and turned away. He believed that Qingmei would go back and tell An Zisheng what happened here. An Zisheng could guess that the emperor was behind all this.
The smart thing is to retreat while the going gets tough.
Return to Canglan County and become a rich man.
"I...I will tell the adults about this."
Qingmei looked confused, but she knew she didn't need to understand the meaning of this person's words. She believed that the adults would understand, and Liu Zhen, the traitor, had betrayed the adults. She had to inform the adults of the news as soon as possible to prevent the adults from being betrayed by Liu Zhen again.
