Divorced by her husband's family and rejected by her own! She defiantly turned her life around

Cai Mingqi's advisor, Wu Lin, advised, "My lord, please calm down. My lord, please calm down."

This matter may seem to be targeting Guo Changfeng, but it is actually a show of defiance against you, sir. The leaflet clearly states that Guo Changfeng's actions were at your behest.

Now is not the time to assign blame. The subordinates have caused such a huge mess for the prince. This is no small matter and will definitely alarm the court. At that time, those who oppose the eldest prince will surely use this as an excuse to make trouble in court.

To give the court officials an explanation, the Crown Prince will definitely target you, Your Excellency. Why don't you first pin the blame on the people below? Then, you can use both kindness and severity to make them admit their guilt, confessing that they themselves created pretexts to increase taxes, and that Your Excellency was completely unaware. At most, it will be a crime of negligence in supervision.

Once the evidence is confirmed, the Crown Prince will definitely protect you, so you can continue doing what you were doing.

What we need to do now is give the Crown Prince an explanation and appease those unruly people.

We'll discuss this further later.

Cai Mingqi stroked his beard and nodded repeatedly. "Mr. Wu is right. I have no choice but to sacrifice the pawn to save the king and not give others any leverage."

"Mr. Wu, I'll leave this matter to you. Two days later, I will have Magistrate He investigate and report to the court."

"Don't worry, sir, I'll take care of it right away."

Dongping Prefecture has 11 counties under its jurisdiction. Mr. Wu needs to get all these people under his control within two days. He called over his trusted confidants and said, "Listen up, you 10 men. The Prefect has a very urgent matter for you to handle. Time is tight and the task is heavy."

"If you do it well, you'll be richly rewarded; if you don't, you'll be beheaded."

"We are ready to go through fire and water without hesitation. Please give us your instructions, sir."

Mr. Wu then explained the mission to them: "After you have conveyed the prefect's message, have them write a letter of confession and bring it back. As long as they show a good attitude in admitting their guilt, the prefect will not only take care of their families, but also arrange a good future for their children."

"If there are any stubborn fools who refuse to confess their sins, you should know what to do." Mr. Wu made a throat-slitting gesture.

"Understood."

From a house in Dongping Prefecture, 10 people rode out at breakneck speed, heading towards 11 county towns without stopping.

Two days later, ten fast horses entered Dongping Prefecture again. Mr. Wu obtained eight confessions. Guo Changfeng was already dead, and two others refused to write confessions and were executed on the spot.

Cai Mingqi was very satisfied with Mr. Wu's approach and immediately arranged for the Vice Prefect Yan Zhixu to investigate the matter. "Lord Yan, in order to collect taxes as soon as possible, this prefecture has specially assigned someone to be in charge of this matter."

This government never expected that these people would be so audacious as to invent pretexts to increase taxes, forcing the people to riot and causing deaths and injuries to officials.

This government hopes that Lord Yan can investigate the case as soon as possible and report the results to the imperial court.

At the same time, tax collection cannot be stopped; it will continue according to the original regulations of the imperial court.

"Rest assured, sir, I will handle this matter well. I will discuss everything with you beforehand."

"Very good, very good. Lord Yan's future is limitless."

"I will need your guidance and support in the future."

While Judge Yan was investigating the matter, tax collection work in various counties was also proceeding in an orderly manner.

Within five days, Judge Yan compiled the results of the matter into a file and handed it over to Prefect Cai Mingqi.

Cai Mingqi was quite satisfied with Yan Tongpan's work ability, and he immediately wrote a memorial to report to the court.

The imperial court had already received news from Dongping Prefecture that an imperial censor was impeaching Cai Mingqi in the court.

Just as the eldest prince was at a loss, he received a memorial from Cai Mingqi. He had originally planned to abandon Cai Mingqi, but unexpectedly, Cai Mingqi extricated himself first.

Faced with attacks from various forces, the eldest prince threw Cai Mingqi's memorial on the ground. "Take a look, everyone. This is a memorial written by Cai Mingqi. It's not that he's inactive or incompetent, but there are all sorts of birds in a big forest. Can one person supervise everyone?"

Cai Mingqi bears responsibility for inadequate oversight in this incident; he will be fined one year's salary and ordered to redeem himself through meritorious service.

The courtier picked up the memorial that the eldest prince had thrown down, read it carefully, and then snorted coldly. "That's a brilliant move of sacrificing a pawn to save the king. He claims it's to appease public anger by arresting and killing the offending officials."

This was probably not to appease public anger, but to cover up the truth. They didn't even wait for the imperial envoy to investigate before destroying the evidence.

The Crown Prince's faction immediately voiced their support for him, saying, "Your Highness is wise. This is the most appropriate course of action. Although Cai Mingqi has made mistakes, he was able to investigate the truth of the matter at the first moment, eliminate the corrupt elements for the court, and collect all the taxes. This can be considered as making amends for his mistakes."

The other factions dispersed with dark expressions. They had intended to use this opportunity to strike a heavy blow against the Crown Prince, but they hadn't expected Cai Mingqi to preemptively strike with this move.

Cai Mingqi kept his official position, and the eldest prince arranged for a group of his trusted confidants to be sent to Dongping Prefecture to fill the vacant positions.

Su Yimin was severely suppressed by Cai Mingqi, and his real power was squeezed again, making him a puppet. The entire Dongping Prefecture returned to peace.

Liu Siyue stayed in the county town for five days before returning to the village. During those days, Qingwu had been racking her brains, trying to figure out who had the power to empty the entire Guo mansion in just two or three hours with so much food and wealth.

"Qingwu, are you still thinking about the National Government?"

"Yeah, I just can't figure out who could steal so many things without anyone noticing or leaving a trace."

"So, have you figured it out yet?"

"No!

"Miss, I suspect this was not done by human hands."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I suspect this wasn't done by a human, but by a spirit."

"Ha, you certainly know how to think!"

"Isn't it because I can't figure it out that I can only think about it in this way?"

Where could they possibly hide so much food?

"Alright, don't think about things you can't figure out anymore, or you'll get forehead wrinkles."

The two men drove the oxcart into the village, where the village chief immediately inquired about the situation in the county seat. "What's the situation in the county seat in April? I've heard it's very chaotic. How is the government deciding on tax collection now?"

Liu Siyue then recounted what had happened in the county town. When the village chief heard that County Magistrate Guo had died, and died so tragically, and that his house had been ransacked by the villagers, he was shocked.

Will the imperial court collect taxes again?

"I heard that taxes will still be collected as usual, but according to the old regulations, without all those other miscellaneous taxes."

"That's good, that's good. The villagers can still scrape together enough money. Neighbors can help each other get through this winter, and the wild vegetables on the mountain will grow next spring, and everyone will be able to survive."

The village chief of Bainiwan contacted me a couple of days ago, and we were planning to go to the county town together, but now it seems unnecessary.

Two days later, the officials came to Liujia Village again and explained the tax collection standards to the village chief, urging everyone to pay their taxes as soon as possible. Those who had grain should pay grain, and those who did not should pay money. No delays were allowed, and all taxes had to be paid by today.

The village chief conveyed the official's message to all the villagers, urging them to hold the event as soon as possible.

There are always a few households in the village who take chances, either paying too little or simply not being able to pay at all.

Huang Lanhua said that her family had no money and asked the village chief to help her think of a solution.