Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

Chapter 1520: Legend of the Hidden Sea 40

Xiao Xian was eventually officially canonized as the Crown Prince, and the imperial edict was announced to the world. Of course, this caused dissatisfaction among many members of the Xiao clan. But even though they were very dissatisfied, they could not outweigh the imperial edict of Emperor Zhenshun and the retreat of court officials.

The salt administration, waterways, hidden fields, and even the large ships going out to sea in Jiangnan were all handles for the court officials. It took Xiao Jinyue more than two years to finally complete the investigation of the salt administration, waterways, and hidden fields, and he placed and supported his own people, thus earning Xiao Xian the identity and status of the crown prince.

And she finally had time to send the ship out to sea.

Zang Hai made great contributions to the affairs of Jiangnan, but unfortunately, she was trapped by her title of Princess Qinghe and her official position remained unchanged. Emperor Zhenshun intended to make Zang Hai's special case a routine, fearing that a similar situation would occur again in Dayong in the future.

As for the immortality that Emperor Zhenshun pursued, he still didn't want to let it go, especially when the Zhang family sent people to get close to Emperor Zhenshun again. Emperor Zhenshun tried his best to cover up for the Zhang family and even used the connections of Zhang Tianshi's lineage, which made Xiao Jinyue completely disappointed in him.

Fortunately, Emperor Zhenshun didn't do anything disgusting like virgin blood. He just pursued special times and "magic medicines" and "minerals" from all over the world. He didn't harm people's lives, otherwise Xiao Jinyue would have drawn his sword and attacked him directly.

As the Pillow Tower sheltered more and more people who had lost their homes, Mingxiang and Antu realized belatedly that there had been more disasters in various parts of Dayong in recent years. They turned around and made a statistics according to Xiao Jinyue's habit, and sent the results to the Qinghe Palace. They also donated ten thousand taels of silver in exchange for ten thousand kilograms of grain to send to Dongxia.

Because of the continuous natural disasters in Dayong, Xiao Jinyue spent a lot of effort to purchase food and grass from overseas. He also joined forces with Canghai to adopt the method of work-for-relief, and only then was the victims barely appeased and no major chaos occurred.

But even so, the native gentry still suffered heavy losses, and some families were even destroyed by the attacks of refugees.

Xiao Jinyue was not happy about this, but he could not help but publicly mock those gentry, saying that they had seen the power of "the people".

Logically speaking, even a family entrenched in a town or a village should know that they cannot force ordinary people into desperate situations. Otherwise, if they are slightly instigated and can no longer survive, they will of course be overwhelmed by anger and attack the local wealthy people, which is very disadvantageous to them.

So in fact, whenever a major disaster occurs, the local wealthy families will come forward to distribute porridge and medicine. Even if it is just for show, their main purpose is to appease the people first. Taking advantage of the fire to loot is only done in secret, so how dare they make a scene?

But as the saying goes, people are always diverse. Some are bright-eyed or kind-hearted, willing to support the weak, while others are stupid and take advantage of the situation to rob, attract public anger, and cause their families to be destroyed.

Whenever there is a great disaster, when wealthy families are broken up and their loved ones die, they are often too stingy to give even a bite of food or water to those who are dying, and they even turn around and exploit those people on their last breath.

Of course, there were some people who were misled and plotted against by their opponents and died unjustly, but such people were very rare.

As for this kind of family, Xiao Jinyue certainly couldn't bear to see these "good people" suffer injustice, so she turned around and sent the opponents who framed them away as well.

For the imperial court, local forces, most of the time, play a role that is almost like a villain and cannot keep up with the imperial court. However, on the surface, they do maintain regional stability to a certain extent.

It’s just that what Xiao Jinyue wants to do is too big and cannot be accommodated by these local forces, so he has to take heavy-handed action.

Because Zang Hai is often away on business, the Qinghe Palace is very bustling. There are always some people who hope to take a shortcut from Xiao Jinyue, or sneak into the Qinghe Palace to frame Xiao Jinyue, or simply kill the Crown Prince.

It’s a pity that Xiao Jinyue has seen too many stunning men and women, and her willingness to marry Zang Hai is just a temporary measure. How could she accept anyone else?

What's more, the purpose of those people was so obvious that it seemed as if they had never concealed it. They were either coming for her or for Xiao Xian, which was really boring.

Emperor Zhenshun in the palace, perhaps because he saw that the world was now at peace, or perhaps because he was finally disappointed with the so-called elixir of life, even though people from the Zhang family kept appearing around him and constantly bewitching him, it was of no avail. He would never give down the golden elixir and red pills he had refined again, and he no longer took them himself. He even began to become very concerned about the Crown Prince's studies, and personally took the Crown Prince, who had just begun his enlightenment, to deal with memorials.

Xiao Jinyue had to go to the palace to buy more rest time for her poor child. "Father, Xian'er is still young. If your body is not ruined by the so-called Golden Pill Red Pill, you still have at least ten years to live. There is no need to be so anxious to put everything on Xian'er."

Emperor Zhenshun really felt a little regretful. He regretted wasting so much time, but he did not regret at all fighting for the title and status of Crown Prince for Xiao Xian. He even wanted Xiao Xian to learn everything that an emperor should have without stopping for a moment.

Seeing that Emperor Zhenshun was not convinced, Xiao Jinyue turned hostile, "Father, you really don't have to behave like this. My child must grow up healthily and not become a tool in the hands of others. He must not bear any responsibilities too early, even if that person is father!"

Emperor Zhenshun also broke down, and directly shouted out what he had kept in his heart for a long time: "Don't you think I don't know that you stole the seal and returned it to Dong Xia?!"

"It's just because you are my only child, I have loved you for many years, and after thinking it over, I decided to do my best to make it up to you!"

"If I had never truly loved you, how could your child have had the chance to become the Crown Prince?"

"If I had never truly loved you, would you, a descendant of my blood, still be able to stand here and accuse me?"

Xiao Jinyue's mind was working quickly. After listening to what Emperor Zhenshun said, she understood a lot of things. "So it wasn't Zhao Bingwen's people who killed Ming Yusuti. It was you!"

"Do you think I replaced the seal of the gui clan, took the fake one to mourn Zhao Bingwen and the three bronze fish, and gave the real one to Ming Yu Suti and brought it back to Dongxia?"

"Then I will tell you, I was the one who destroyed the real Guixi in front of Mingyu Suti. I used sunlight and it took almost ten days to burn it."

Emperor Zhenshun couldn't believe that the Guixi was gone. He stumbled to Xiao Jinyue, grabbed Xiao Jinyue's shoulders, and confirmed again and again with an unbelievable look on his face: "The Guixi is not an ordinary treasure. How could you destroy it? Yue'er, tell your father, you are joking, right?"

Xiao Jinyue let Emperor Zhenshun pinch her shoulders and sway her, and just repeated a fact stiffly: "The Gui Seal is Yin, and I racked my brains before I finally decided to use the sun to destroy the Gui Seal. Even though that period was the hottest, it still took almost ten days to destroy the Gui Seal."