The Three Spirit Stones

The Kaifeng prison was filled with prisoners, including the more than one hundred bandits.

This morning they drove a mule cart out of the capital, and just a few miles outside the city, a large number of soldiers were lying in ambush. Everyone was ready to grab their weapons and fight to the death.

But the two shopkeepers stopped them and said, "Do you believe in the Marquis? If you believe in the Marquis, put down your weapons and he will definitely save us.

Upon hearing this, Li Sanleng and his companions also ordered their men to lay down their weapons. They all believed that the Marquis would not betray them, so these people were easily captured.

Inside the prison, everyone sat anxiously. Although they believed Cheng Yu would not harm them, no one was sure whether he could save them.

Time passed by little by little until noon when there was a commotion outside. A group of soldiers came in with several eunuchs. One of them shouted to them,

"Zhang Fugui, Zhao Zhuanzi, Li Sanleng, Xu Gouzi... the ten of you will follow me to the palace to see the emperor."

These people were stunned when they heard this.

Meeting the emperor? Meeting the current emperor? Meeting the emperor?

Is this a dream?

Seeing that these country bumpkins were all staring at him in a daze, the eunuch repeated impatiently, "Zhang Fugui, Zhao Zhuanzi, Li Sanleng, Xu Gouzi... all ten of you stand up and follow me into the palace. Do you dare to keep the emperor waiting for so long?"

The warden and the head of the prison next to him immediately said, "The people on the list, please stand up."

The ten people finally reacted and stood up trembling.

These people followed the eunuch into the palace, where they saw the imperial guards standing in rows and the Purple Palace filled with officials in red and purple robes.

When they were brought to the temple, they were so frightened that their legs weakened, and they knelt on the ground with their heads bowed, trembling all over.

At this time, a familiar voice came from above my head.

"Don't be afraid. The official is kind and wants to hear your experiences of why you went to the mountains to become thieves. Just tell us the truth."

After hearing the Marquis' voice, they calmed down a little.

Cheng Yu continued, "Zhang Fugui, you go first,"

"Yes... yes, I am a commoner. I am Zhang Fugui, from Tangzhou in the west of Beijing. I am the fifth child in my family. When I was ten years old, my hometown suffered a flood, and then there was a drought for three years. My family had no harvest, but we still had to pay taxes. If we couldn't pay, we would be captured and made into slaves. My parents and one brother starved to death, and my three brothers and I were captured. I escaped, and later I heard... I heard that they were... beaten to death..."

He choked up several times when he said this.

"I...I later fled with my fellow villagers to the mountains and became a bandit to make a living. Otherwise, I would have starved to death!"

After saying that, he wiped away his tears!

Cheng Yu clicked on the next person.

"Zhao Zhuangzi, you say,"

"Yes, yes, I am from Dengzhou. My parents died early, and my brother and sister-in-law raised me. When I was fourteen, there was a pest and only one load of millet was left in the family. But we still had to pay land tax, personal tax, and exemption money. My brother and sister-in-law asked the officials to keep half of the millet, but they refused and took it all away. They also... they also arrested my brother and me and sent us to the mine to serve as soldiers. My brother let me escape in order to save my life, but... but my brother... was beaten to death,... woo woo..."

At this point, Zhao Zhuanzi burst into tears.

"I later fled to the mountains with others,"

"Li Sanleng,"

Cheng Yu continued to call out names,

"Yes, I am from Nanyang County, I was a butcher in the market. A local squire named Du took a fancy to my wife, so he bribed the county constable to frame me for collusion with bandits and put me in jail. When I returned home, I found out... I found out that the beast had raped her. She was so upset that she... she jumped into the river and committed suicide with my six-month-old son in her arms."

At this point, the sturdy man couldn't help shedding two lines of tears, wiped them with his sleeves and continued, "I went to the county government to file a complaint, but the constables had already been bribed by that beast. They accused me of being a witch and beat me with a hundred sticks before driving me out. I was so angry that after I recovered from my injuries, I sneaked into that beast's house in the middle of the night and stabbed him to death with a knife. Then I went up the mountain and became a bandit."

After he finished speaking, Cheng Yu asked the remaining seven people to continue speaking. They all chose to become bandits because of successive years of famine, frequent conscription and heavy taxes, which made their livelihood difficult and they had no chance of survival.

After hearing about the experiences of these ten people, all the officials in the hall talked to each other. Some showed sympathy, some shook their heads and sighed, some remained calm, and some did not take it seriously.

Cheng Yu bowed to Zhao Heng and other ministers and said, "Your Majesty, my colleagues, I believe everyone has heard clearly about the experiences of these people, but they are just a small number of individuals. There are tens of thousands of them all over the Song Dynasty who have experienced these tragic experiences and become thieves in the mountains."

"It is inevitable for bandits to plunder in order to make a living, which will seriously endanger the normal production and life of the people, causing the land to be abandoned and taxes and labor service to be unable to be collected. A series of problems will follow. When these problems accumulate to the point where they cannot be further aggravated, that is when society will collapse. I beg Your Majesty to pardon their crimes and allow them to start a new life."

Upon hearing this, Prime Minister Kou Zhun stepped out and said,

"Your Majesty, please understand that these people were originally ordinary people who became bandits only because they had no other choice. If the court does not introduce measures to stop and guide them, and allows this phenomenon to spread and develop, the consequences will be disastrous."

Zhao Heng nodded, with a sad look on his face, and said, "You two are right. As the saying goes, if you plant a grain of millet in spring, you will harvest ten thousand grains in autumn. There is no idle land in the world, but farmers are still starving to death. I am really sad to see the people suffering so much."

After hearing what the emperor said, Ding Wei immediately came out and said loudly, "Your Majesty is kind and loves the people like his own children! I am guilty of not being able to share your worries."

Then he knelt on the ground and cried bitterly.

Vice Minister Wang Qinruo also knelt on the ground and shouted that he was guilty of not being able to help His Majesty.

Then, other ministers also knelt down, and suddenly, there was a sea of ​​people kneeling in front of the Grand Prince!

Cheng Yu looked at this group of opportunists with contempt in his heart, then bowed to Zhao Heng and said, "Your Majesty, everyone in the court is a good minister who wants to share your worries. Please don't blame me."

Zhao Heng nodded and said, "I understand. Today you have seen and heard the tragic experiences of these people. You should take this as a warning and do your job well. If I find out that you are just sitting there doing nothing, I will not let you off easily. All right! All of you get up!"

Then, the ministers stood up to express their gratitude.

"You all should get up too,"

Zhao Heng then spoke to the ten people who were still kneeling below. They still didn't dare to move. Cheng Yu quickly said, "His Majesty asked you to stand up. Why don't you thank His Majesty quickly?"

Everyone quickly got up and thanked His Majesty.

Zhao Heng added, "I will not punish you because you were forced to go up the mountain and become bandits because of the great changes you encountered. You must reform yourself and start a new life. You must not rob people on the road again."

When the ten people heard this, they were overjoyed and knelt down to express their gratitude!

Zhao Heng then issued an order to release all the people in the caravan from prison without charge, and also ordered the Secretariat to improve the local relief and taxation systems.

Li Sanleng and his men had escaped death this time, and they were completely convinced by Cheng Yu. They thought the Marquis was so awesome that even the current emperor listened to him.

However, only Cheng Yu himself knew that if he had not formed a community of interests with Zhao Heng, how could it be so easy to get away with it?

……

……

In the study of a mansion in western Beijing, several men were sitting around.

They were the Imperial Censors Wang, Zhang, Ding Wei, and Wang Qinruo who were in the court during the day.

Censor Wang's name was Wang Wei, and he was uncle to Wang Qinruo.

In the early years of Dazhong Xiangfu, Wang Qinruo forged a heavenly book, vying to offer auspicious talismans, and promoted the Fengshan Fengshan at Mount Tai in order to cater to the immortal needs of Emperor Zhenzong of Song. He was deeply trusted by Emperor Zhenzong of Song.

"That is,"

Wang Qinruo said,

"Yes,"

"You recommended Cheng Yu. What do you think of what happened today?"

Ding Wei hesitated for a moment and shook his head, saying, "This Cheng Yu... I don't know his ways. When I first met him, he said he would follow my orders, but in the past year or so, have you ever seen him take the initiative to visit me? He doesn't even socialize with his colleagues. I think... he wants to be a lone minister."

"A lone minister?..."

Wang Qin thought for a moment and continued, "Since he entered the court, the emperor has summoned him more and more often. According to the information leaked by the eunuch Hai, he has treated illnesses for the emperor and the prince."

Hearing this, everyone said "Oh" in surprise.

Censor Wang said, "He can also cure diseases?"

"I think it's true. Don't you think the emperor is in good spirits now? His face is rosy and his voice is much brighter. He couldn't last long in court before, but today he was still as usual at noon," Ding Wei said.

"You are right... If that is true, we cannot take Cheng Yu lightly. If he wants to go against us... that would be bad!" said Zhang Yushi.

Hearing this, Wang Yushi said, "It's indeed not good. You see, the emperor almost said what he wanted today. Although Kou Laoxi came out to disrupt the situation, he didn't leave if the emperor didn't agree. So I think the emperor should have known about the sugar matter a long time ago. Maybe... the sugar factory also has a part of the emperor!"

"hiss……,"

Several people were shocked. If Censor Wang's guess was correct, wouldn't they be snatching food from a tiger's mouth?

Will you still have a good life after offending the emperor?

Ding Wei said to Wang Qinruo, "Prime Minister, we still have to send someone to investigate Cheng Yu carefully. Otherwise, it would be bad if he thought he was a big piece of fat meat but turned out to be a hard bone!"

Wang Qinruo said to Wang Yushi, "Wei'er, ask Yin Wei to find someone trustworthy on the street to investigate carefully. Be careful not to alert the people in the Imperial City Division."

"Yes, uncle,"

The few of them plotted for half the night before dispersing!