Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

Chapter 1510: Legend of the Hidden Sea 30

If Emperor Zhenshun pursues immortality, the destructive power it brings is not comparable to that of Prince Linzi, and this time the Yongrong Palace will not stand behind Xiao Jinyue. The current situation is that she, Xiao Jinyue, is almost alone in facing the pressure from the royal family, clan members and the court, and the only thing she can use is the people's support.

Zang Hai watched Xiao Jinyue working hard and worried, but Xiao Jinyue just increased his efforts to control the three major grain-producing cities of Jiangnan, Southwest and Zhongzhou, seizing the time to control the world's military.

As for the imperial court, Shi Quan is secretly stepping up efforts to search for evidence of crimes committed by important officials of the imperial court. It is still unknown how many of them can be considered clean. Even if there are those who are willing to serve, Xiao Jinyue would not dare to use them.

During this period, Zang Hai often walked around in front of the emperor and clearly noticed the changes in Emperor Zhenshun.

Ever since Zang Hai and Xiao Jinyue got engaged, Emperor Zhenshun had been reminding Zang Hai, both explicitly and implicitly, to have a child with Xiao Jinyue as soon as possible, preferably a boy.

After the wedding, Emperor Zhenshun even personally took care of Zanghai's health some time ago, and said that if both parents were in good health, the child born would be healthier.

But ever since Xiao Jinyue discussed the matter of immortality with Zang Hai, Emperor Zhenshun has completely stopped caring about the child, and even Prince Yongrong has kept his distance from the Qinghe Palace.

For this reason, Zang Hai felt more pity for Xiao Jinyue. Although her father and uncle seemed to be still alive, unfortunately they had been alienated by power and desire and become enemies.

The court officials were the most sensitive group of creatures. In the past, they could sense that between Prince Yongrong and Prince Qinghe, Emperor Zhenshun trusted Prince Qinghe more, so when Emperor Zhenshun gave Prince Qinghe a series of conveniences, they just went along with it. Anyway, the two or three young men and women in Prince Yongrong's Mansion who were like kittens were in poor health and looked even worse than the young men in Prince Linzi's Mansion. For the stability of Dayong, they were more inclined to Prince Linzi's Mansion.

Therefore, Emperor Zhenshun gave Prince Qinghe more conveniences, which to some extent weakened the power of Prince Yongrong's Mansion. This also had many benefits for Prince Linzi's Mansion. After all, the benefits given to Prince Yongrong's Mansion might not be taken back, but the benefits given to Prince Qinghe's Mansion could be easily taken back as long as Emperor Zhenshun passed away.

However, Emperor Zhenshun suddenly changed his attitude towards Qinghe Palace. All the benefits that were supposed to flow to Qinghe Palace secretly have now been stopped. Even Prince Yongrong has not been to Qinghe Palace for a long time. When the uncle and nephew meet outside, they only exchange casual greetings.

Soon, someone well-informed discovered the secret that Emperor Zhenshun was also secretly refining elixirs.

There is no shortage of people with lofty ideals in the court, but there are more people who are in office but do nothing and pursue their own selfish interests. What is even more disgusting is that they have long been accustomed to pretending to be righteous and serving the country and the people. After a long time, they really think that they are righteous and noble people who are fighting for the greater good of the world.

So in the following period, Lian Zanghai was neglected a lot by Emperor Zhenshun.

However, Zang Hai was a person who really wanted to get things done. Therefore, in response to the severe drought and floods in Zhongzhou last year, Xiao Jinyue suggested that more reservoirs be dug around Yunmengze to store water. He agreed with this and also proposed to investigate the issue of reclaiming farmland around lakes in the downstream Jiangnan area.

Xiao Jinyue agreed without any objection: "The practice of reclaiming land from lakes in the south of the Yangtze River will do more harm than good in the long run. The waterways in the south of the Yangtze River must be dredged so that the Central Plains can avoid the severe floods that occur almost every two years."

But Zang Hai also knew the pros and cons, especially the affairs in Jiangnan were almost related to the grain production of the entire Dayong, so he did not think that tough measures would be useful. "Dredging the waterways in Jiangnan will definitely cause the people in Jiangnan to lose a lot of land. If this move is too tough, it may easily lead to civil unrest."

Xiao Jinyue, however, felt that the people's grievances were nothing. "How do you know that most of the created fields can be controlled by ordinary people?"

Zang Hai was suddenly speechless.

Xiao Jinyue's response was more than that. "Since last year, I have been preparing to go to sea. I have also attacked many civilian fleets in the name of pirates. These fleets are almost all supported by the wealthy and powerful in Jiangnan. Behind these people are either important officials of the court or the Prince of Linzi, who is in power."

"Even the collapse of the Linzi Prince's hot stove, I suspect that those gentry and court officials took the initiative to calculate, because the benefits of going to sea are too great, they may not be willing to share the profits with the royal family, especially if the Linzi Prince's family comes to power, they will definitely not give up the huge benefits brought by going to sea, so they may strike first."

Zang Hai couldn't help but take a breath, "Then the salt administration that has been cleaned up since last year——"

Xiao Jinyue smiled indifferently: "It's just a diversion of attention. Isn't this how Yongrong Palace gave up the opportunity to cultivate Jiangnan forces?"

Speaking of the Yongrong Palace, Xiao Jinyue sometimes really wanted to pry open the brain of this handsome uncle to see what was in his mind.

And Xiao Jinyue also said this to Zang Hai, "I really don't understand what Uncle Wang is thinking. Everyone can see that Yongrong Palace has a great chance, but he can't really do nothing and wait for the throne to fall from the sky!"

Zang Hai said: "Maybe Uncle Wang didn't do nothing, but he was just confident."

Xiao Jinyue sneered out loud: "Does the power he can rely on still exist?"

At the beginning, the Prime Minister Shi Yiping secretly favored the Yongrong Palace. After all, although Shi Yiping was pedantic, he was still very firm in his support for "orthodoxy".

In the past, after the death of his elder brothers, Emperor Zhenshun became the de facto eldest son of the late emperor. The late emperor himself passed on the throne, so his legitimacy was impeccable. Otherwise, why couldn't the empress dowager even help her own legitimate son to ascend the throne?

Of course, the Queen Mother herself was the biggest obstacle to Prince Linzi's ascension to the throne, but the Queen Mother herself never thought so. After all, at that time, not only was the Emperor afraid of the Queen Mother's power grabbing, but even the court officials were very wary of the Queen Mother's regent, because neither side wanted their power to be reduced.

Therefore, the orthodox position of Emperor Zhenshun was very stable. Even though he did not attend court properly for nearly ten years after he came to the throne in order to avoid the Empress Dowager's edge, the court was still not controlled by the Empress Dowager and the Linzi Prince's party.

Zhao Bingwen took the opportunity to get rid of Shi Yiping because Shi Yiping actually began to favor the lineage of Prince Linzi, which neither Emperor Zhenshun nor Prince Yongrong could tolerate.

And no one expected that Zhao Bingwen had secretly contacted people from the Linzi Prince's Mansion. If he hadn't wanted to expose the matter of the Gui Seal in advance to make everyone on guard, he would probably have revealed his true colors only after he helped the Linzi Prince's Mansion ascend to the throne and gained greater power.