Chapter 961 Contest
Xiao Changyao's face was flushed red, he opened his mouth wide and muttered, unable to utter a word.
Filial piety is the reason, but also because he has to admit that what the concubine mother said is not unreasonable.
"I have been in the palace for more than 20 years. I have been with the empress dowager since I was a court lady. I really know the empress dowager very well. In this world, I have never seen a more selfish woman than the empress dowager. For power and Fugui, she is willing to give up her own son, let alone you are just a grandson."
Concubine Fang looked at her son sternly, "The current emperor has the same temperament as the Zhaoyang Emperor back then. In their eyes, there is nothing that cannot be said to others, and their actions are open and aboveboard. Even marching and fighting are all conspiracy. But the emperor is not Emperor Zhaoyang, he came here on his own, and it was also a plan he made for more than ten years, if he suffers the same loss as his father, do you think he will be able to have today?"
Xiao Changyao shook his head, "Lord Lu still has his eyes open!"
"That's right, one of the emperor and Mr. Lu is in the light, the other is in the dark, and there are Cui Xie and his family." Concubine Fang looked at her son and said earnestly, "Furthermore, this country should belong to Xiao Xun. Your father and emperor stole it." What have you done for the people of the world for more than ten years? I heard that the two provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are still in the hands of the Empress Dowager, and the annual tax paid to the court is only more than two million taels of silver. Do you know that Jianyuan How much was the yearly tax in these two provinces when you were a master? More than 10 million taels of silver!"
Xiao Changyao is a nerd, and he was shocked when he heard this. He couldn't help but think that before Xiao Xun succeeded to the throne, the national treasury was short of thousands of taels of silver. .
At this time, all taxes from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces went into the private treasury of the Empress Dowager.
It is unreasonable!
Xiao Changyao stood up vigorously, "Mother and Concubine, if this is the case, my son will even enter the palace!"
Concubine Fang knew that she had aroused her son's sense of justice. If she had known, she would have told her son earlier, and nodded in relief, "You still have to reason with your grandmother, don't make your grandmother angry all at once. So as not to implicate the emperor and queen."
"Son knows how to measure!"
Standing in front of the Shenwu Gate, Xiao Changyao looked at the huge, brand-new and magnificent imperial palace in front of him. He heard from Gao Bin that the emperor did not spend a penny on the common people to build this imperial city. It was all from Xiliang and Beiqi. It was built with looted property.
Gao Bin said, the emperor has said that only one person can support the world, not one person.
So, is it because of this that Xiao Xun used all his income to help the people and benefit the world?
"Your Majesty, why are you here?"
The person guarding the palace gate greeted him, and asked Xiao Changyao cheerfully, "Are you going to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, the Palace of Ningshou, or the Palace of Compassion?"
"I'm going to Leshou Palace. The Empress Dowager has announced me to enter the palace several times. Can my father-in-law inform me?"
"What's wrong with this?" The servant hurriedly sent people to trot away. After a while, Fang Palm's subordinates came in person to welcome Xiao Changyao to the palace. On the way, they inevitably scolded, "The Empress Dowager misses you and the eldest prince." Your Highness, from yesterday to today, you are finally here!"
"How can there be such a great prince?" Xiao Changyao snapped, "If you talk like this again without knowing the seriousness, this king will tell the emperor to let you guard the imperial tomb!"
The waiter knelt on the ground with a plop, "Young Lord, please forgive me!"
Only at this moment did Xiao Changyao realize how different the people around Xiao Xun and the others were from the people in front of the Empress Dowager. He had lived in the imperial palace in the accompanying capital since he was a child, and he knew the atmosphere in the palace very well. up.
It's different here. Along the way, you can see palace people who walk briskly and speak softly. They don't break the rules, but they make people feel comfortable and less hostile.
"Grandson pays homage to the imperial grandmother!" Xiao Changyao knelt down in front of the empress dowager. The empress dowager held a bowl of lotus seed soup in her hand. She took a sip and handed it to Nanny Hu, "Eat it !"
She seemed to have just seen Xiao Changyao, "Yo, it's Yao'er, get up quickly, look at the imperial grandmother, her old eyes are dim, how soon did she come here? Why has she been kneeling here for so long, and no one has said anything to Aijia ?”
The empress dowager made a gesture to help Xiao Changyao get up herself. Xiao Changyao supported the ground, stood up, and glanced at her indifferently, "Grandson has just arrived. Grandma didn't see it. It's grandson's fault!"
The Empress Dowager was very satisfied, "I heard that you left the city, what did you do?"
"To repair the river, my grandson and Gao Bin, the head of the Ministry of Industry, went outside the city to see where the rivers still need to be dredged this year. I took advantage of the slack to do all of this."
"It's hard work, isn't it?" the Empress Dowager pointed out.
"No hard work!"
"How could it not be hard work? Compared with those ordinary people, it is naturally not hard work, but if compared with the emperor who sits on the dragon chair every day, how can it be said that it is not hard work?"
Xiao Changyao stopped talking. Seeing him bowing his head, the Empress Dowager thought that he had heard it in her heart, so she sighed deliberately and got up, walked to his side, and pulled him to sit on her seat, "It's all Mrs. The blood of the ancestor emperor, your father used to sit on the dragon chair, and you are also a dragon son, are you really willing to let someone else sit in this world, not yours?"
Xiao Changyao wanted to say that he was not the eldest son of his father, let alone the son of the eldest son, even if he was ranked by seniority, it would not be his turn, but he didn't want to bring the elder brother in, so he had to say, "Grandmother, the country has been decided, what does the grandson want?" Nothing, how can I compete with the emperor?"
He raised his head and stared closely at the eyes of the Empress Dowager, and seeing her old eyes flashing with joy, Xiao Changyao couldn't help but sink in his heart.
Is this not good right now? The Leshou Palace where the Empress Dowager lives can be said to be a palace within a palace, a city within a city. In this palace city, it is the most luxurious palace, even better than the Cining Palace where the Empress Dowager lives.
It is enough to see the emperor's filial piety in supporting the empress dowager.
"Hey, you can only blame your father for this. You trusted Xiao Xun so much at the beginning that you didn't have any defenses against him. You might as well ask those ministers outside. The late emperor was not good to them back then. Why? Why don't you read a little bit of the heart of a monarch and minister?"
Xiao Changyao said, "Grandmother, father betrayed Dayong for the sake of his position. The courtiers didn't attack his grandson and elder brother. It was the emperor who suppressed him. Is grandson going to do ungrateful things again?"
The empress dowager was furious, she stood up abruptly, and slapped Xiao Changyao on the face, "What are you talking about? How did you become a son when you don't talk about your father's faults?"
Xiao Changyao simply stood up, his face was burning with pain, "Grandmother, I don't know what people in the world will think if they know that the taxes and taxes of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are in your hands?"
(end of this chapter)
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