Tang Dynasty: Taking the Empress Dowager to a brothel, Father Emperor, what a coincidence!

The following day, at the Taiji Hall.

"Bang!"

Li Shimin pointed at the memorial thrown on the ground and angrily cursed:

"Hedong Road is the stronghold of the Wang family of Taiyuan. Look for yourselves at what good things these local officials have done."

The entire court was silent, as if trembling with fear.

At this moment, the officials of the Wang family in Taiyuan became like quails.

Li Shimin turned to look at Fang Xuanling and said:

"Xuanling, you tell them what a mess Hedong Province is in now."

Fang Xuanling stepped forward, cupped his hands, and said:

"Your Majesty, according to a secret report from our spies in Hedong, the number of displaced people in various prefectures and counties has reached tens of thousands."

Local officials not only refused to open the granaries to distribute grain, but also kept the city gates tightly shut, allowing the people to starve to death outside the city.

Even worse, the prefectural government took the lead, colluding with local gentry to forcibly buy land from disaster victims at low prices.

Those who refuse to sell will face imprisonment at best, and execution by beating at worst.

Upon hearing this, a collective gasp of astonishment rippled through the court.

Li Shimin sneered:

"Very well! My lords have taken up banditry. They've turned my empire into their own backyard."

Cui Mingan stood in the queue, pretending to be dead.

He was the one who planned this whole thing.

The purpose was to lure Li Chengqian out of Chang'an so that he could begin his subsequent plans.

As for Hedong Road?

That's Wang family territory. They can just throw out a few county magistrates and behead them.

"clever."

"Your subject is here."

"I bestow upon you the Emperor's Sword, and you shall patrol the Hedong region on behalf of Heaven. Wherever you go, it shall be as if I were personally present! Uproot these corrupt officials and bureaucrats from the ground up."

Upon hearing this, Cui Minqian's eyes revealed a look of joy.

Cui Mingan gave a wink to the censor next to him.

If you're going to put on a show, you have to go all the way.

Sun Fujia stepped forward with a heavy heart:

"Your Majesty! His Highness the Crown Prince is of noble birth; how can he so easily leave the capital? The journey to Hedong is long and arduous, and there are many refugees. If anything were to happen to him, it would shake the very foundation of the nation!"

"Shut up!"

Li Shimin grabbed the paperweight from the imperial desk and threw it at the emperor.

The paperweight flew past Sun Fujia's scalp, smashed against a pillar in the main hall, and shattered into pieces.

"A body of a thousand pieces of gold? The Tang Dynasty is about to be devoured by these parasites, what do we care about a body of a thousand pieces of gold? This matter is settled."

Li Chengqian took the Emperor's Sword from Wang De, turned around and smiled at Wang Gui.

Wang Gui returned the smile without any concern.

After the court session, Li Chengqian returned to the Eastern Palace.

"Your Highness, how many people should we take this time?"

Cheng Chumo asked excitedly,

"Should we bring all the Imperial Guards over there? We could just raze the ancestral home of the Wang family in Taiyuan to the ground."

Li Chengqian rolled his eyes at him:

"Can't you use your brain? Ten thousand men set off, and before they even reached Hedong, the Wang family had already burned all the account books."

"If you can't even find a single piece of evidence, what are you going to use to demolish someone's ancestral home?"

Fang Yi'ai scratched his head and said:

"Then shall we take the Crown Prince's guards? A few hundred men will be enough."

"Even the Eastern Palace Guard Commander is not suitable."

Li Chengqian tapped the table.

"To display the Crown Prince's entourage, with a procession of several hundred people slowly walking along the official road, would be too conspicuous."

When we arrived in Jiangzhou, those corrupt officials had already covered up their crimes and put on the face of honest officials to welcome us at the city gate.

What will we watch then? Their acting?

"What should we do then?"

"Openly repair the plank road while secretly crossing the Chencang pass."

Li Chengqian gave the instructions.

"Xiao Shunzi, go prepare a few sets of merchant's clothes. Chu Mo, go to the Hundred Cavalry Division and the Guard and pick ten of the best-skilled brothers."

"Your Highness, you mean...?"

"Tomorrow morning, have the Eastern Palace Guards escort my empty carriage with a full ceremonial procession, making a grand entrance along the official road towards Hedong. The slower the journey, the better, and loudly proclaim along the way that the Crown Prince is on a royal inspection tour."

Li Chengqian sneered:

"Let's change into civilian clothes and ride fast horses out of the city tonight."

They sneaked into Hedong ahead of the ceremonial procession. I want to see just how arrogant the Wang family of Taiyuan really is in this region.

Late that night.

A dozen fast horses quietly drove out from the side gate of Chang'an City and galloped northward.

Li Chengqian and his entourage endured wind and rain, traveling for three days straight.

The closer one gets to the Hedong region, the more bleak the scene becomes on the official road.

Along the once wide official road, one could see refugees who were barely clothed.

The bark of the trees was completely stripped away, and the grass roots were all dug up.

You can see corpses of starving people lying dead by the roadside from time to time, with a few stray dogs wandering around nearby.

Cheng Chumo, seeing this scene, angrily cursed:

"These corrupt officials eat meat every day in the city, while the people here don't even have grass roots to eat."

Ahead, by the roadside, an old man was holding a skinny little girl and leaning against a tree trunk, panting.

The little girl was so hungry she didn't even have the strength to cry; her lips were chapped and she was barely breathing.

Fang Yi'ai couldn't bear to watch any longer, so he dismounted, took out a flatbread from his satchel, and handed it over.

"Grandpa, please give the child some food."

When the old man saw the flatbread, he trembled and snatched it away, stuffing it into the little girl's mouth.

"Slow down, don't choke."

Fang Yi'ai handed over the water bag.

Several refugees, drawn by the aroma of the flatbread, swayed and gathered around, their eyes gleaming with greed.

"Grandpa, please have mercy and give me some food."

"Please save my son..."

Just as Cheng Chumo was about to take out his dry rations, Li Chengqian grabbed his wrist.

"I can't give it to you," Li Chengqian said in a low voice.

"Your Highness, they are so pitiful."

"How much food did you bring? How many people can you save?"

Li Chengqian surveyed the growing number of refugees gathered around him.

"Once you open this door, hundreds of starving people will pounce on us, and we won't even have any bones left."

Cheng Chumo gritted his teeth and pulled his hand back.

When the refugees realized they couldn't get any food and didn't have the strength to rob anyone, they could only scatter in despair.

Li Chengqian walked up to the old man, squatted down, and asked:

"Grandpa, didn't the autumn harvest just finish in Hedong? How did things turn out like this?"

The old man sighed:

"Sir, you must be from out of town. The autumn harvest has been completed, but the government is collecting taxes in a way that doesn't follow the imperial court's rules at all."

The old man pointed to the little girl in his arms:

"After the regular taxes were paid, the governor's office said that they needed to repair the river embankment, so each household would be charged an additional three dou of tax for the repairs."

The county government said there were bandits in the mountains, so they added an extra two bushels of tax to suppress the bandits.

Even this little girl has to pay some kind of "additional birth tax."

"What if we can't afford to pay?" Fang Yi'ai couldn't help but ask.

"Can't afford it?"

The old man gave a bitter laugh.

"If they can't pay, they'll take the land to pay off the debt. If they lose the land, they'll sell their children."

The Wang family ran a pawnshop in Hedong, and they only paid half a string of cash for an acre of good paddy field.

This isn't collecting taxes, this is taking our lives!

Li Chengqian stood up, his face grim as he looked toward Taiyuan.

What a fine example of the Wang family of Taiyuan!

This is using the imperial court's taxes as a tool to seize land and plunder the people.

"Walk."

Li Chengqian mounted his horse.

"Go to Jiangzhou. I will personally chop these beasts to pieces."

The group resumed their journey and increased their speed.

To avoid the congestion of refugees on the official road, Li Chengqian decided to take a shortcut.

"Master, the path ahead passes through this forest, which will save you most of the day's journey and take you directly to the outskirts of Jiangzhou City."

A Hundred Cavalry Guard familiar with the terrain pointed ahead and said.

Since they were traveling, Li Chengqian instructed them to address him as "Master."

"Go into the woods." Li Chengqian shook the reins.

The dozen or so riders turned directly into the mountains and forests.

The forest was extremely dense, with towering trees blocking out the sun, preventing any sunlight from getting in.

The woods were eerily quiet.

You can't even hear a bird chirping.

The only sound was the soft rustling of horses' hooves on the thick layer of fallen leaves.

Cheng Chumo gripped the hilt of his knife warily and looked around.

"Master, this place is a bit eerie. It's too quiet."

Xiao Shunzi followed closely behind Li Chengqian's horse, his palms sweating nervously.

Li Chengqian remained silent and continued to urge his horse forward.

Sudden.

Li Chengqian's black horse suddenly stopped.

"hiss!"

The warhorse reared up on its forelegs and let out a shrill, terrified neigh.

It frantically pawed at the soil, shaking its head wildly, refusing to move forward even a single step no matter how much Li Chengqian pulled on the reins.

Immediately afterwards, Cheng Chumo and Fang Yi'ai's horses also became restless and retreated.

"What happened?"

Cheng Chumo drew his sword and shouted.

The guards of the Hundred Cavalry Division quickly dispersed, protecting Li Chengqian in the middle.

"Protect our master!"

A strange rustling sound came from deep within the woods.

It looked like some heavy object was being dragged across the dead leaves.

The air was instantly filled with the stench of blood.

The bushes in front of them began to shake violently.

"Who goes there? Show yourself."

Cheng Chumo shouted loudly.