books44 Chapter 186 Breakthrough Round (1)
Chapter 186 Breakthrough Round (1)
The furious Empress Dowager wished she could tear Yao Daqing to pieces.
In her opinion, if Yao Daqing hadn't broken his promise and abandoned his wife and children, Li would not have brought Yao San Niang to the capital.
That prevented all the messy things that followed.
The Empress Dowager wanted to target the Yao family, but the Emperor was still in someone else's hands.
If the other party goes all out, that would be bad.
Moreover, the emperor's people cannot be known to anyone, so there is no suitable reason to cause trouble for the Yao family now.
Even the Empress Dowager wouldn't dare to suddenly execute an entire family.
She had no choice but to have someone keep an eye on the village where the Yao family lived, in case Yao San Niang committed a crime and returned to her hometown.
Little did she know that in the storyline Gu Shijiu had read, the Yao family bullied Li Shi and her family every day and even sold Li Shi's two daughters.
Yao San Niang felt only hatred towards her clan and had no feelings for them whatsoever.
Gu Shijiu naturally wouldn't do anything superfluous by going to the Yao clan.
She was unaware of the things the Empress Dowager was doing, and everything seemed peaceful and calm everywhere.
Gu Shijiu even took a stroll around the palace, and things seemed even more stable than when the emperor was in power.
She ran back and mocked the emperor: "When you were here, there was constant infighting in the palace. Now that the Empress Dowager is in charge, she's managing things much better than you were."
The emperor, with mixed feelings, asked, "How is the Empress Dowager?"
"They're doing great. Not only do they manage the harem very well, but they're also handling the affairs of the court quite well."
Anyway, that's what Gu Shijiu saw.
"No one was sent to find me?" The emperor couldn't believe it.
But he had spent several days with Gu Shijiu and probably knew her personality; she wouldn't think of lying to him.
Gu Shijiu thought carefully: "No. Anyway, you rarely attend court, why would I need to talk to you?"
The emperor was quite speechless.
Consort Cao added fuel to the fire from the side: "If it weren't for the Empress Dowager, this throne might not have been yours in the first place."
All these years you've managed it have been mediocre; you might as well return it to the Empress Dowager.
Anyway, you're practically a eunuch now. If you really go back to the palace, the Empress Dowager might be the first to kill you."
The emperor fell into seclusion.
He was unaware that his personality was slowly changing since he was castrated.
Time flies, and two months have passed since the emperor was taken out of the palace.
During this time, they kept moving westward, and with Gu Shijiu around, their safety was not a problem.
That day, they finally arrived in the southwest region.
Once you get here, you're far from the reach of the emperor.
Over the past two months, the emperor has become more and more silent each day.
They rarely traveled on main roads, passing mainly through various towns and villages along the way.
In these places, the emperor saw many sights he had never seen before.
Sometimes they would stay at farmhouses, most of which were built with mud and thatch.
The walls were full of cracks, and the roof had many holes;
After a rain, the house was covered in mud, and the people could only use old pottery jars and wooden buckets to collect water.
Some families even live in cramped spaces without proper beds;
There was only dry grass on the ground, and the old man and the child huddled together, shivering in the cold night.
There were only some wild vegetables and a small handful of brown rice on the stove, and the whole family barely survived on this meager food.
Medical clinics were only found in larger towns.
In many villages, once someone falls ill, they can only leave it to fate.
An elderly man died in agony because his leg wound became infected and he did not receive timely medical treatment.
Local government officials levied countless exorbitant taxes and levies.
The officials were like wolves and tigers, caring nothing for the lives of the people, only concerned with urging them to pay taxes.
Because he could not pay his taxes, the farmer was chained in front of the courthouse by officials who threatened to confiscate his only small plot of land.
After a year of hard work, most of the harvest is plundered by the government or local powerful figures, leaving the people unable to even have enough to eat.
Small vendors who set up stalls on the street are often charged exorbitant stall fees by officials for various reasons, and if they do not comply, their stalls will be smashed and they will be driven away.
The powerful and wealthy lived in luxurious mansions, dressed in fine silks and satins, ate delicacies, and were surrounded by servants.
The poor, dressed in rags, begged at the doors of the rich, and were often driven away by wicked servants.
The rich throw lavish banquets and waste more food than the poor eat in a year.
This stark contrast deeply shocked the emperor, who realized that the gap between the rich and poor among the people had reached an extremely serious level.
The powerful and wealthy are even more tyrannical and domineering.
He galloped wildly through the street, knocking pedestrians to the ground, and instead of apologizing, he whipped them twice.
Landlords and bullies seized the people's land and forced the farmers to work for them without pay.
If the farmers resisted even slightly, they would be beaten black and blue.
Those tyrants also colluded with the government, leaving the people with nowhere to seek justice.
The farmers toiled under the scorching sun, their backs bent, like tireless oxen.
Their skin was tanned dark, and their hands were covered with calluses and wounds;
They toil from dawn till dusk, yet can only reap meager harvests.
Due to barren land and natural disasters, their efforts often come to naught.
The emperor once witnessed a farmer sitting despairingly on the edge of a parched rice paddy, tears welling in his eyes...
In the town's workshops, artisans crammed into small, dimly lit spaces, working long hours of arduous labor.
They create exquisite and valuable items, yet they receive very little reward in return.
A ceramic artisan works for more than ten hours every day next to a high-temperature kiln.
His face was covered in soot, and his body was thin and weak from long-term fatigue.
Even so, due to market instability and intense competition, he faces the risk of unemployment at any time.
In the corners of the city, large numbers of homeless people gathered.
They have no shelter, no food source, and mostly rely on begging or theft to survive;
Or perhaps they are waiting for kind-hearted officials or wealthy families to provide the displaced people with some clear porridge.
At first, the emperor spent all his time trying to find ways to send messages to those around him.
Gradually, he adapted to this kind of life and even wanted to see more of it.
Gu Shijiu was greatly shocked; it just goes to show how remarkable a person's adaptability is.
"I knew you couldn't even manage your harem properly, you're definitely not a good emperor."
The emperor was speechless.
He traveled and observed along the way, and now he could only admit that he was indeed not a very good emperor.
Gu Shijiu said smugly, "Look, this is what they call not sweeping what you don't sweep?"
Consort Cao added on her behalf: "How can one govern the world if one cannot even sweep one's own room?"
The emperor has become numb.
This man not only had an aptitude for poetry and classical allusions, but also a basic understanding of politics and policy, and was even proficient in arithmetic.
Even Yao San Niang, who was exceptionally skilled in martial arts but was called illiterate by Consort Cao, was not bad at arithmetic.
The emperor felt that his understanding of the world had been greatly shaken.
It's no wonder that someone as talented as him was chosen as a maid or servant in the palace; his current predicament is not entirely unexpected.