si-mexico Chapter 138 Ending
Chapter 138 Ending
"You can send the evidence to the capital for the Emperor to judge, or let the Marquis of Changxing who came to fight make a judgment, but you must not do it yourself."
Yun Yuke lowered her voice and carefully reminded Zhu Ling.
"Party struggles are a big deal; you can only trust yourself."
Zhu Ling was visibly shocked upon hearing this.
"Sister Yun! You?"
"That's all I have to say. Whether you believe it or not is up to you."
Yun Yuke patted Zhu Ling on the shoulder and got up to leave.
"I've gone to procure the grain. I'll give it all to you when it arrives. Just say it's from a merchant's supply chain. The grain will arrive gradually. The first batch will be delivered to Cangnan Town tomorrow or the day after. I won't ask for much, just the market price. Consider the first batch of 50,000 shi of grain a gift. I'll charge for the subsequent grain."
"Sister Yun, you're willing to give up the grain? Weren't you a little hesitant before?" Zhu Ling was greatly shocked.
"Yes, I'm willing to give it up now, but I don't want to have any further interaction with that Marquis of Changxing. Don't reveal my identity."
After giving her instructions, Yun Yuke went out and decided to head to her family's granary outside the city.
Just then, Yun Qingjin returned after buying breakfast, and the mother and daughter rode out of the city together.
Their travel passes were still valid, so they simply registered at the gate and left.
Zhu Ling was still inside, carefully considering what Sister Yun had just said.
Sister Yun's idea is that now that evidence against Marquis Ankang has been found, we should follow the normal procedures and let someone capable of dealing with Marquis Ankang handle it. She absolutely must not take any action herself.
Moreover, Sister Yun mentioned "partisan strife" several times.
That's right, I should now be part of the Emperor's faction.
I am certainly aware of the situation in the court.
At present, although most of the meritorious veterans are not very powerful, they can still rely on their own advantages. If they want to do something, they can bring out all the principles of propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame, and even the emperor will have to back down.
Especially regarding the matter of female scholars, although these old ministers no longer say anything, all the female scholars know that no matter what position they hold or what responsibilities they bear, they must be careful with their words and actions, and never let the old ministers catch them.
These veteran officials were eager to find fault with them so they could overthrow the women's imperial examination system in one fell swoop.
The primary targets of the current factional struggles are them.
Although the Empress Dowager's family, as relatives of the emperor, did not get along with the old ministers, sometimes the two factions colluded and would immediately join forces when needed.
I understand these things.
What Sister Yun meant by being wary of factional strife... probably meant that as someone from the emperor's faction, what if the emperor couldn't protect her...
I am the victim.
That's roughly what Sister Yun meant.
Zhu Ling paced back and forth in the room, looking very hesitant.
The Emperor has shown me great favor, and even if I were to do everything in my power, I could not fully repay him.
However, what Sister Yun said is not something that can't be considered.
At least on the side of Marquis Ankang, I cannot touch my side. If I were to take down Marquis Ankang, and problems arose in the future, I would be accused of "persecuting a meritorious marquis."
Besides that, there's one point that Sister Yun made that's very true.
The motives of Marquis Ankang are unclear.
Burning grain supplies and attacking one's own carts are not in the interests of Marquis Ankang.
If the Marquis of Ankang knew about his previous efforts to gather evidence, then attacking his own carriage would be justified and the motive would be reasonable.
He kept his actions secret and was not exposed.
That shouldn't be the reason.
Regarding the attack on the supply lines... if we analyze it rationally, the people on Uro's side would definitely be the ones who most want the supply lines to be cut off.
However, the Cangnan army has been guarding the key roads on both sides, and the fact that Marquis Changxing Xie Changyuan and his men came from the capital to provide support has been kept secret. Even their own people don't know about it, so how could Wuluo send people?
However, General Chai said that the messenger who was attacked reported that the attackers were well-trained and not ordinary bandits, but rather professionally trained individuals. The most likely culprits were the Marquis of Ankang's private troops.
Was it really someone he sent? But why would he do that?
No, Zhu Ling felt completely confused. He felt that if he really wanted to know what was going on behind the scenes, only the Marquis himself would know.
Sure enough, this Marquis... even if we arrest him, he might not listen to us.
"Ling, I'm back. I have something to tell you!" Xing Xiaoyu burst in from outside.
"Hey? Xiaoyu? What did you find?"
"That's right, I went to check the location that Sister Yun told me about as soon as possible."
Xing Xiaoyu gasped for breath, and Zhu Ling quickly poured her a glass of water to drink.
“We carefully searched that section of road, but the scene had been cleaned up. We were looking for the assassin’s weapon or anything that might have been left behind during the battle. But there was nothing there, only some bloodstains. If it weren’t for the bloodstains, and the fact that Sister Yun brought back the assassin and was covered in blood when she returned, I would have doubted whether we were really attacked yesterday.”
Xing Xiaoyu finished drinking the water in her teacup and finally came to a conclusion.
“Ling, it’s like this, I think there are many issues behind this matter, and it’s hard to say exactly what they are. There are professionals handling the scene. They are well prepared, not only for the assassination, but also for leaving no trace if the assassination fails.”
Zhu Ling looked up and said, "Let's go ask those two assassins again."
Zhu and Xing rushed to the room where the two assassins had been imprisoned, and opened the door to take a look.
The two assassins were already dead. They had hanged themselves.
The two were shocked and quickly summoned the coroner.
The two men were originally tied up separately, but they wore through the ropes, then joined the remaining ropes together and hanged themselves.
"Ling, we're really in a passive position now. At least we need to keep the assassin's matter a secret for a while. It's troublesome; there's no one to verify these two testimonies."
Zhu Ling lowered his head and pondered for a long time.
"After all the relevant files have been organized, the originals will be sent to General Tan for safekeeping."
"Our focus right now is on recapturing Uro. Let's get that task done first."
What happened next was quite simple.
The grain arrived quickly from Yun Yuke's side, and Zhu Ling proceeded step by step to transport the grain to the front line in Cangnan Town.
Inside Changgan City, there were still some troublemakers. Zhu Ling, displaying the magnanimity of a regional governor, arrested and dealt with those who needed to be arrested.
In the days that followed, everyone’s focus was on the battle against Uro.
The people sent by Marquis Changxing to the capital to collect property and buy grain returned quickly, and Yun Yuke accepted the money directly at the market price without any hesitation.
Then, Yun Yuke sent most of the food she had saved up over the years to the front lines.
With the subsequent food reserves, the flying car team was like they had a cheat code. The people of Uro couldn't resist and eventually surrendered.
Prime Minister Urolong committed suicide.
The young emperor of Uro was captured.
On the first day of the first month of the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Hegemony, the Kingdom of Wuluo was renamed Wuluo Prefecture.
On February 2nd of the seventh year of the Hegemony, the remaining two countries on this continent, Hanchuan in the northwest and Runan in the southwest, submitted to Changhong and paid tribute.