strictlysupreme Chapter 228: Song Ruyi and Lu Haoran's Conflict
Chapter 228: Song Ruyi and Lu Haoran's Conflict
Song Ruyi asked Xia Yingying not to say anything and let them choose for themselves. After expressing his own thoughts, he went out.
Song Ruyi hadn't heard the name Qin Qingfeng for a long time. Since coming to Qingshui County, Qin Qingfeng seemed to have disappeared. Now, when he heard the familiar name from Xia Yingying's mouth, Song Ruyi's heart was pounding.
When she first met Qin Qingfeng, Song Ruyi always felt annoyed. Having a freeloader at home made her feel annoyed.
Since Qin Qingfeng left, life went on as usual, but Song Ruyi always felt that something was missing in her life and she felt unhappy.
Because Xia Yingying was very busy running the pastry shop during this period, Song Ruyi also helped wholeheartedly and was so busy that she forgot the name Qin Qingfeng for a while. When she suddenly heard the name Qin Qingfeng, Song Ruyi's buried memories came flooding back like a tide.
It was not Song Ruyi's original intention to drive Qin Qingfeng away. Song Ruyi just wanted to satisfy his desire to talk and have an argument with Qin Qingfeng, but he didn't expect that he would really drive Qin Qingfeng away.
Qin Qingfeng must hate her, right?
Otherwise, with Qin Qingfeng's love for food, he has never come to Xia Yingying's place to eat and drink since they had a fight in Qingshui County. Doesn't this just prove that Qin Qingfeng hates her?
Song Ruyi has always wanted to say sorry to Qin Qingfeng, but is this belated apology too late?
Xia Yingying asked Lu Haoran to think about it again. Lu Haoran knew Xia Yingying's concerns and knew the real purpose of Tang Qingye bringing him back to the capital. In fact, he wanted to use his identity as Lu Ziren's son to force those officials who stood by Lu Ziren to join the prince's party.
The Crown Prince is now fighting fiercely with the Sixth Prince. There are no military generals supporting the Crown Prince, only civil officials. It can be said that the Crown Prince has always been in a relatively weak position in the struggle between him and the Sixth Prince.
This time, an official under the Crown Prince abused his power and did not follow relevant regulations. He was caught by an official under the Sixth Prince and has been holding on to this small handle.
It was originally just a small matter, but the prince was like being bitten by a wild dog and couldn't get rid of it. The root cause was that they never took the prince seriously, and they also wanted to destroy the prince's image in front of the king.
The Crown Prince was kind and generous, but was portrayed by the Sixth Prince as cowardly and incompetent. Some officials under the Crown Prince turned to the Sixth Prince's camp.
But this year Yuzhou happened to be hit by a frost disaster, all the cotton and wheat were frozen to death, houses collapsed, and countless people in Yuzhou city were killed or injured.
As soon as the imperial court heard the news, they immediately sent people to open warehouses for disaster relief. Generally speaking, disaster relief is a job that no one should do, but the officials in the imperial court made a fortune from this lucrative job, while many people starved to death and the land was in mourning.
When it comes to disaster relief, the Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince always race against time.
Yuzhou City is no exception this time.
The main reason why the prince fought for it was that he wanted to serve the people, to use all the grain and money that was being used to help the disaster victims in the right way, and to bring peace to the people of Yuzhou as soon as possible.
But the Sixth Prince is different. He has countless corrupt officials under him. They use their power to oppress merchants, levy heavy taxes, and squeeze the people's wealth. They help the Sixth Prince raise troops privately in an attempt to subvert the country.
Even though His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wrote to the Emperor many times requesting that the matter be thoroughly investigated, the Emperor always ended up leaving it unresolved.
The emperor's mind was not on state affairs, but on longevity, wanting to extend the foundation of the Liang Dynasty to thousands of generations. He didn't care at all that his inaction had caused the court to be in a mess. The court was full of treacherous officials, and the emperor was blinded by one leaf. Even if he could live that long, his country would probably no longer be his.
The Crown Prince had no direct and powerful support and could only allow the Sixth Prince to act arrogantly.
The most urgent task now is to take control of Yuzhou's disaster relief power and prevent the Sixth Prince from taking advantage of the opportunity.
But the Sixth Prince was too cunning, and the Crown Prince could not guarantee that the right to disaster relief would fall on him without fail, so he turned to Tang Qingye for help.
Tang Qingye also knew that the Crown Prince obtained the disaster relief authority mainly to open the warehouses to provide relief to the victims, but the Sixth Prince was different. He wanted to seize the throne and exchange all the relief grain for military pay to support his troops.
Fortunately, although His Majesty the Emperor is dim-witted, he is still very rational about the affairs of the Northern Border. He is not blinded by the evil, and he uses Lu Ziren to pacify the Northern Border without shaking the foundation of the country. Because the stability of the Northern Border depends on Lu Ziren, Lu Ziren now has the highest reputation in the court.
The Sixth Prince and the Crown Prince's faction were actively trying to win Lu Ziren's support, but Lu Ziren always stood in a neutral position and never participated in any of their fights.
Tang Qingye wanted to bring peace to the world, so he wanted to start with Lu Haoran and let Lu Ziren nominally stand on the side of the prince, so that the Sixth Prince's party would at least not dare to act rashly.
Tang Qingye planned to use Lu Haoran as a bargaining chip to temporarily persuade Lu Ziren to help the prince obtain disaster relief so that the people of Yuzhou could get through this difficult time.
The Sixth Prince is only interested in personal gain and is totally unsuitable for disaster relief.
Lu Ziren is a good general who serves his country and his people. It would be great if he were in charge of disaster relief. At least Lu Ziren would not make any mistakes in disaster relief.
With Lu Haoran and Tang Qingye going to Beijing together, Tang Qingye had more bargaining chips when negotiating with Lu Ziren.
Lu Haoran naturally sensed the message conveyed by Tang Qingye. Although he was young, he had read a lot of books.
Lu Haoran has always despised the Sixth Prince's faction.
He firmly stands on the side of the prince. In his opinion, the prince is a good "leader" who truly serves the country and the people. When the prince inherits the throne in the future, he will bring peace and prosperity to the world.
Another important reason why he and Tang Qingye came to the capital this time was that he wanted to join the prince's sect.
Although Lu Ziren is on the neutral side, this does not prevent Lu Haoran from joining the prince's sect.
Besides, the capital city was indeed full of twists and turns, with undercurrents surging. If one was not careful, one would fall into the trap designed by the enemy. Because of this, Lu Haoran was very worried about Lu Ziren. He knew that Lu Ziren would definitely not want him to go to the capital city early and wade into this muddy water, but as Lu Ziren's son, he could not turn a blind eye to the suffering of his father Lu Ziren and do nothing.
But Xia Yingying's words also reminded Lu Haoran.
It’s true that he wanted to help Lu Ziren, but the prerequisite is that he had to talk to Lu Ziren before he could help him.
Otherwise, what if he insisted on doing what he wanted and accidentally ruined Lu Ziren's plan? Wouldn't that be deliberately messing with Lu Ziren?
After Lu Haoran thought it through, he immediately took out some stationery, wrote a letter, and released a white carrier pigeon, which flew towards the capital with the letter.
The reason why Lu Yuwei didn't want to go to the capital was not as complicated as Lu Haoran's. She simply didn't want to go and just wanted to stay in Qingshui County and study medicine with Qin Qingfeng.
She was not very interested in the economics and management of the country taught in the academy, she just wanted to concentrate on studying medicine.
Life in Qingshui County is not as precarious as life in Beijing, with rules everywhere. Besides, isn't Xia Yingying's Gao Xing going to be opened here? She can help Xia Yingying run the store when she has nothing to do. The store can't just be closed like this, it would be such a pity. Everyone in their academy loves to eat Gao Xing's cakes. How much money will be lost if the store is closed.
But I guess everyone in the family, except her, will go to the capital.
But Lu Yuwei was reluctant to leave her grandmother, elder brother, Xiaojie and Xiaorou.
Xia Yingying was also reluctant to leave. Once Xia Yingying left, no one would ask her about her well-being, or care about her or ask her if the food was delicious.