Chapter 456: Scapegoat
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation | Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“With the blessing of the Imperial Heavens and the protection of my Phoenix
Body.”
Lord Wei forced himself to smile. “Your Imperial Highness is so humorous.”
“Are you suspicious of my identity?”
“I don’t dare. I just have some doubts.” He said he didn’t dare, but his eyes were full of suspicion.
Su Ying didn’t want to waste her breath on him and said outright, “Immediately send people to set up tents outside the city and set up pots of porridge to distribute porridge. Make sure that the disaster victims can get a mouthful of hot porridge.”
Lord Wei sneered in his heart when he heard this. This impostor really had the guts to order him around.
He gave a scornful laugh and said, “That’s enough. I wanted to play along with you and see what tricks you were going to play. To my surprise, you even went overboard and ordered me around. What Empress? As far as I know, the Empress has turned into a pile of bones in the floodwaters. Who on earth are you? How dare you impersonate the Empress? You really have a lot of guts!
Men, arrest this swindler!”
The officials swarmed in and surrounded Su Ying. Upon seeing this, the convoy guards also crowded around to shield Su Ying.
Su Ying didn’t move. She simply looked at Lord Wei as if she was looking at a dead man. “Lord Wei, I’ve given you a chance to turn over a new leaf. If you start to provide disaster relief properly now, perhaps I can even let you keep your corpse intact.”
Lord Wei felt a chill run down his spine when he met Su Ying’s gaze. However, he was dead certain that Su Ying was a fake. He honestly didn’t believe that she could do anything to him.
“What are you guys waiting for? Hurry up and take her down!
The officials and convoy guards started fighting, but how could these officials be a match for these assassins whose sabers had tasted endless blood? The officials were quickly captured and thrown into the courtyard.
Lord Wei didn’t expect Su Ying’s men to be so powerful. He was so frightened that he turned around and tried to flee. Not surprisingly, Su Ying didn’t give him the chance to leave.
The convoy guard grabbed him and brought him to kneel in front of Su Ying. “Who… who are you guys? Let me go. I am an official of the Imperial Court. If you dare to hurt me, all of you will be beheaded!”
Su Ying stood up and walked up to him. Her gaze swept across his neck. “If you don’t do a good job of administering disaster relief, I guarantee that your head will fall off even faster.”
“Who… who on earth are you guys?”
Su Ying took out the phoenix token from her robe. “Do you recognize the
Phoenix Token?”
Lord Wei’s two eyes widened in shock, but the gleaming golden Phoenix Token in front of him made him a little suspicious.
Logically speaking, if the Empress had really fallen into the floodwaters, she would not have survived. If the person in front of her was really the Empress, then there was only one possibility. The person who had fallen into the water back then was not the Empress at all!
Lord Wei’s heart raced, and he finally made up his mind. He then said, “Your Imperial Highness, please forgive me. It’s not that I don’t want to administer disaster relief, but the granary in the city has been burned down. Almost all the grain stored in the granary has been burned. The government office really doesn’t have the grain to help the disaster victims.”
Su Ying raised her eyebrows. “Oh? Is that so?”
“That’s right, Your Imperial Highness. I don’t want to cause trouble for the Imperial Court, so I’ve been trying to think of a way in my office. But I haven’t been able to come up with any solution.”
Su Ying nodded. “I see. I’ve wronged you, Lord Wei. But we can’t just leave these disaster victims unattended. We can’t just idly watch them starve to death. How about this, Lord Wei? As the local official of Luo City, you will set an example. Zhou Qing, follow the caretaker to their granary in the government office to check how much grain there is left. Leave sufficient amount behind so that they don’t starve to death and send the rest to the disaster victims.” Lord Wei was very displeased. However, he thought since it was only a bit of grain, so he decided to let them take it. He also felt that even if Su Ying was the real Empress, she was only capable of doing this much. What else could she do to him?
“Yes. We will do everything in accordance with Your Imperial Highness s wishes.”
“Mm-hmm. But this bit of food is definitely not enough. There are also the commoners staying in the city. We have to solve the problem of their hunger as soon as possible. Lord Wei, you have been an official in Luo City for the past two years. You should know some merchants in Luo City. Go and tell them that I want to borrow the grain in their hands. If they are willing, I will definitely reward them generously in the aftermath.”
Lord Wei’s eyes darted around, secretly thinking that Su Ying was really crafty with her plans. Those merchants would surely know in their hearts that if they took out their sacks of grain, they wouldn’t be able to get them back.
However, he still couldn’t figure out Su Ying’s identity right now, so he could only reply that he would try his best to communicate with the merchants. However, whether or not they had the goods was another matter.
Su Ying didn’t ask him to make any guarantees but only told him to send his men out of the city to set up tents for the disaster victims.
Lord Wei left after acknowledging her order.
Zhou Qing followed the caretaker to check the food supply in the office. Zhou Qing knew that the government office stockpiled grain, but she didn’t expect that there would be so much. She was furious inwardly. This fellow Lord Wei was living a good life but didn’t care about the lives of the commoners at all.
Zhou Qing left behind a small portion of the food as their supplies, and the rest were moved out. The disaster victims had been starving for so long, so they had to give them porridge as soon as possible. Otherwise, if things dragged on like this, there would be serious trouble soon.
After Lord Wei left, Su Ying had her guards spread the word to all merchants in the city that as long as they made a contribution to the state and the commoners in times of need, the state would definitely reward them afterward. For example, bestowing the benefit of sitting for the Imperial examination for the younger generation, or allowing family members to study in prestigious academies and so forth.
In this era, the status of merchants was not high. In the early days of the Chu State, merchants, including their descendants, were not qualified to sit for the Imperial examination. As a result, the status of merchants had never been able to rise.
Later, an Emperor proposed that anyone with both ability and of good character could sit for the examination. This gave the merchants some hope, but even so, the status of merchants in the eyes of aristocratic families and nobles was still very low.
Now that Su Ying had offered conditions that would benefit the development of their descendants, she believed that there would be many people willing to contribute at this time. She still needed that fellow with the surname Wei to perform tasks for her, so she would not touch the food hidden in the cave for the time being. She would save it as evidence to interrogate that beast later. After Lord Wei left the main hall, he did not rush to set up tents to help the disaster victims. Instead, he immediately sent a message to the capital city, saying that someone was impersonating the Empress and impeding him in his efforts to roll out Luo City’s disaster relief.
Initially, he wanted to conceal the disaster, but this scapegoat Su Ying delivered herself to his door. He could conveniently blame the fire in the granary on her. This person dared to impersonate the Empress. The Emperor would definitely be furious and behead her directly. When the time came, he could formulate a crafty escape plan, and all the grain would be his!
When he thought of this, Lord Wei’s mood was uplifted and he became very pleased.
However, in order to pacify Su Ying, he still had to go through the motions. After he finished writing the letter to be sent to the capital city, he sent his men to set up tents outside the city to settle the disaster victims down. When the officials from the Imperial Court arrived, they would be able to see what he had accomplished.
“My Lord, should we tell those people about the food donation?” The merchants in the city were all waiting to make a fortune when the food supply had really run out.. Would they be willing to donate food now?