Mu Mingtang was surprised and speechless. After a while, she probed in a low voice, “You don’t mean…?”
Xie Xuanchen looked at the falling snow outside the window and said nothing, his thin lips tightly pressed.
Beginning in November, requests for disaster relief were everywhere. Not only the border of Jingji, but Jiangnan also ushered in a severe cold wave that had not happened in a century. In fact, the grains in Jiangnan were already running dangerously low, let alone other places.
However, at this time, the capital was too busy to take care of itself during the intermittent snow that lasted for two months. Ice was hanging everywhere on the streets, roadsides and eaves. These days, there were even a few people seen on the side of the roads who had frozen to death.
Business in the capital still remained prosperous and most of the people had small savings. Even so, the people here were already dying from the cold, let alone the other states.
The civil officials were impassioned every day as they attended court meetings, worrying about the country and the people. Now, disaster relief had become the general trend, but how to provide relief, how to solve the disaster in the capital and how to balance the situation across the country was a big problem.
The Emperor was frowning all day long— Xie Xuanchen’s crisis had not yet been resolved and civil strife broke out again in the country, which really exhausted him physically and mentally. The Emperor progressively felt that he was old and lacking in energy. Even if his courtiers didn’t say anything on the matter, he knew that he should prepare an heir.
The Emperor looked at the courtiers arguing endlessly in the hall and at Xie Xuanji who stood aside without saying a word before he suddenly sighed in his heart.
There was no time to cultivate an heir who suited his wishes in every way, the Emperor could only support Xie Xuanji and let him be incorporated into the centre as soon as possible. Even if Xie Xuanji was not a very suitable person to be a leader, even if the Emperor knew that his decision might very well bring the Ye Dynasty, which had finally settled down, into turmoil again. But at the very least, that would happen after the current Emperor’s death.
The throne would still be in the hands of his descendants and from generation to generation, there was bound to be one who could become a wise king. From there, the child would regain lost land and regain glory for the country. If the throne fell into the hands of Xie Xuanchen, then nothing would be left.
At this moment, everyone in the court didn’t know what decision the Emperor had made and before the disaster relief regulations had been discussed, they suddenly received an unexpected letter.
It was no exaggeration to say that it was unexpected because this note was written by Prince An, Xie Xuanchen, and the content on it was to actually remind everyone to beware of Beirong. What’s more was that he had asked the Emperor to transfer their troops now and relocate to the border.
When the courtiers saw this memorial, they immediately exploded in rage. Just this summer, Beirong and the Imperial court had just signed a contract. The two countries, as brothers, withdrew their troops from the border and opened a mutual trading market. If their troops were deployed at such a time, wouldn’t it be a breach of the agreement?
The civil servants who grew up reading peace treaties immediately decided to write brilliant parallel essays one after another, arguing the importance of faith and righteousness. Xie Xuanchen had long thought that this group of nerds wouldn’t be able to get their traditional point of views out the gutter, but when he really arrived at this day, he was reasonably enraged.
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