Jiapingguan Chronicle

"what?"

Not to mention Shen Cha, everyone except Master Jiang was shocked by Chu Han's words, and all of them had expressions of disbelief.

"Grand Uncle, are you serious? You're not joking?"

"How can you joke about something like this?" Chu Han looked at them, who were indeed completely unaware of the matter, then turned to look at Fourth Master Jiang, "You've never told them?"

"Don't look at me, Uncle Wang. I've only heard about it from others; I've never actually heard of it," said Fourth Master Jiang, glancing at the children. "Even Commander Liu, who deals with pirates and Japanese pirates year-round, might not know about this, let alone us who have never seen a warship! Among us, the only one who probably knows a little is that Elder Tantai, but he secluded himself for many years, and when he emerged, the Great Xia Dynasty had already been established. He probably doesn't know very well what happened in the previous dynasty. Besides, the previous dynasty was a hundred years ago; their affairs are far removed from us. Even if there was collusion, we can only treat it as a rumor because there's no concrete evidence, so we can't take it seriously."

Chu Han glanced at Master Jiang and sighed softly. He couldn't refute it because he felt that what Master Jiang said made sense.

"Grand Uncle, do you have concrete evidence?"

"Yes." Chu Han nodded, looking at Shen Haolin and Shen Cha. "No wonder you don't know. We took some of the files concerning the previous dynasty." Seeing that Shen Cha was about to say something, he waved his hand. "We originally thought those were unimportant, just useful to us. When we took them, we never thought that such a case would involve you."

"It's alright, we'll just listen to what our great-uncle has to say."

Chu Han took a sip of tea, thought for a moment, and said, "The collusion between the previous dynasty's royal family and the Japanese probably started with the generation of Little Mudfish's grandfather. As you all know, they had long been dissatisfied with the aristocratic families controlling the government and treating them like puppets, but they had no choice. They had neither power nor money. Those royal children who weren't in Xijing City could secretly do business and make themselves a little more prosperous, but the family in the palace had no choice. Their food, clothing, and daily necessities were all decided by the aristocratic families. If there were no natural disasters or man-made calamities, they might be better off, but if there were natural disasters or man-made calamities..."

"Should we really reduce their taxes?" Shen Cha frowned slightly. "They are, after all, rulers. It's really outrageous for them to be restrained like this by their subjects."

"The emperor and the aristocratic families sitting on equal footing over the world is the greatest challenge to imperial power in itself." Chu Han sighed. "But the previous dynasty had been like this for more than two hundred years. Even if people were dissatisfied, it was useless. No one in the world stood on the side of the royal family."

"But...is their life really that difficult?"

"Yes!" Chu Han nodded, looked at Shen Cha, and said, "Have you seen the palace's expense details during the period when Little Mudfish was born?"

“It seems so,” Shen Cha thought for a moment and nodded slightly. “I’ve read a little bit about it. I even told my brother and His Majesty before that the royal family of the previous dynasty didn’t live a very good life. The empress is about to give birth, and her meals are very simple every day. They are a little better than those of ordinary people, but no one would believe that such meals are for the empress of a country.”

“That’s not all.” Chu Han waved his hand slightly and said, “Their clothes for all four seasons, fruits, and all other expenses that seem ordinary to us all require the approval of the aristocratic families.” “That’s indeed hard to tolerate,” Xue Ruitian sighed and said, “Isn’t it a bit too difficult for them to make some money and improve their lives?”

"That's true. After all, the entire palace is full of spies from powerful families. So, if they wanted to improve their lives, they had to find another way, and in the end, they chose to cooperate with the Japanese."

"So, how did you get in touch with the Japanese?"

"The imperial harem of the previous dynasty had Japanese concubines. Their food, clothing, and daily necessities, including their communication with the outside world, were all unrestrained," Chu Han sighed. "But we don't know exactly how they discussed it. Anyway, after that, the lives of the people in the harem improved a little, but it was completely different from the luxurious life they imagined. However, this good life soon ended because the aristocratic families discovered it, and their lives returned to a very poor state. But things were much better during the reign of the last emperor because by then, the influence of the aristocratic families was not great, and they wanted to wash their hands of it, so they didn't care what the people did."

"Now that we've hooked up, there's no way we can give up. So, even though we've severed the current connection, we've actually always been connected, haven't we?"

“That’s right.” Chu Han nodded at Shen Cha. “They send good things into the palace through various channels. As long as it’s not silver, the aristocratic families turn a blind eye. But what they don’t know is that although they don’t send silver into the palace, there’s a lot more silver in the banks outside the palace. Can you guess where all this silver comes from?”

“Where else could it have come from!” Xia Chen sighed. “At the end of the previous dynasty, pirates and Japanese pirates were rampant at sea. The previous dynasty’s navy was ineffective in suppressing the pirates and suffered repeated defeats. The merchant ships and even official ships that were robbed suffered huge losses. And now it seems that we have found out where these losses went.”

"Very good, very good, they really are very good!"

Before the others could react, Eagle Leopard and Eagle Falcon slammed their fists on the table. Seeing Chu Han's unpleasant expression, the two restrained their tempers, exchanged glances, and sighed simultaneously.

"Your Highness, please allow me to explain. My family and friends all perished at the hands of pirates and Japanese invaders." Eagle Leopard sighed, glancing at Falcon. "His family suffered the same fate, so..."

"Understood!" Chu Han waved his hand. "After the previous dynasty fell, the Japanese pirates disappeared for a while, and somehow they got involved with Little Mudskipper. Although Little Mudskipper was sent to Xiangguo Temple when he was very young and has basically never shown his face except on very important days, those who know his identity know it. So, it is only natural that the Japanese came to him or he came to him."

"He came knocking on our door?" Shen Cha thought for a moment. "Oh, the silver he kept in the bank, what does he want? The Japanese are all greedy people, would we give it to him so easily?"

"Nobody knows what the terms were, but you've seen the result," Chu Han said, spreading his hands. "They were in cahoots, the Japanese were his henchmen, fighting for him. He must have agreed to quite a few conditions, and that's all we can guess."

"If we take over the Jin Kingdom, we'll allow them to live there." Shen Cha sighed, glancing at Chu Han. "Yan You told us this himself." (End of Chapter)