Chapter 181

The weather was sweltering, yet the emperor was nowhere to be seen.

Wasn’t this a clear snub?

Wei Zhong waited at the palace gates, sweat pouring down his forehead.

Being left to bake in the sun by Emperor Shengwu made him realize, belatedly, that he had overstepped.

How could he have forgotten that the emperor detested being manipulated?

His mind raced, trying to figure out how to handle the situation.

Soon enough, the entire palace knew that the old imperial uncle had been left waiting.

When Empress Dowager Wei heard about it, her face turned red with anger.

She felt that Feng Liwu was making too big a deal out of things because of that Jiang Xiurun.

But her temper no longer fazed Feng Liwu, and he had barred her from Fengming Palace.

Even if she wanted to plead for her father, she had nowhere to go.

After waiting for what felt like an eternity, Wei Zhong finally got to see the emperor.

When the two met, Wei Zhong humbly apologized and begged for severe punishment for Wei Shan’s offense against the empress.

Given that they were in the midst of a military campaign, Feng Liwu couldn’t afford to alienate the Wei family too much.

He spoke in a neutral tone, saying that the empress’s dashing appearance in male attire was indeed charming, and it was understandable that Wei Shan had mistaken her for a man.

However, it was disgraceful for a young lady to behave so improperly, bathing half-naked in the wilderness and throwing herself at someone.

If people didn’t know better, they’d think she was a country bumpkin, not a daughter of the prestigious Wei family.

It was an embarrassment to the Wei name!

Wei Zhong could only nod in agreement, then quickly excused himself, not daring to see the empress again.

As for Wei Shan, after being released from prison, she was sent to a nunnery to reflect on her actions.

The Wei family no longer dared to push any more women onto the emperor.

Meanwhile, the war in the three counties had reached a stalemate, but things were about to take a turn.

The counties occupied by Feng Wu were major grain-producing regions.

However, since the three counties’s troops took over, taxes had increased by thirty percent compared to when they were under Great Qi’s rule.

Farmers could barely keep any of their harvest, as most of it went to feed the occupying army.

This left families starving despite a year of hard work, something the villagers couldn’t tolerate.

On the other side of the river, in Great Qi, the government had built irrigation systems years ago, turning wastelands into fertile fields.

The Ministry of Agriculture issued a decree: anyone who could clear five acres of land would receive a deed for three acres, with the remaining two acres becoming public land.

If the public land yielded a certain amount of grain by harvest time, taxes would be reduced.

This policy attracted many landless peasants from neighboring regions, who flocked to Great Qi to claim their own land.

Moreover, skilled farmers could receive free seeds from local governments.

The contrast between the two sides of the river couldn’t have been starker.

Even if you owned good land and a house in the three provinces, what was the point if your family starved?

If you couldn’t pay the taxes, you might even be arrested by the authorities.

It was better to cross the river and seek a livelihood in Great Qi.

At first, the migration was subtle, with only a few young laborers sneaking across the river to test the waters.

But once they secured land and established themselves, they quickly sent for their families.

Word spread like wildfire, and soon entire villages were secretly crossing the river.

By midsummer, a sudden drought hit the three counties, and the exodus became a flood.

Whole villages were abandoned as people fled across the river.

By the time Feng Wu realized the severity of the situation, half the labor force in the grain-producing counties had already fled.

Some remote villages were completely empty.

Furious, Feng Wu ordered his men to patrol the riverbanks and execute anyone caught trying to escape.

The bloody crackdown temporarily stemmed the tide of defections.

The emperor of Northern Qi had previously focused all his efforts on military matters, assuming that as long as there were fertile fields and laborers, grain production would take care of itself.

But now, with the labor force dwindling, he faced the prospect of not having enough food for his army next year.

Enraged, Feng Wu launched an investigation, only to discover that the heavy taxes burdening the villagers hadn’t been ordered by him.

Instead, they had been imposed by two powerful families who had defected to his side.

These families, accustomed to luxury, had fled to the three countiess and needed funds to rebuild their lavish lifestyles.

They had no qualms about squeezing every last drop from the already struggling peasants.

Feng Wu was livid.

These wealthy families, already rolling in riches, were now draining the lifeblood of the poor.

It was a classic case of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.

He suddenly wondered how these families had managed to defect so easily.

Had Feng Liwu not noticed? The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like these families were nothing but fat rats, having devoured Great Qi’s granaries before moving on to his own.

But he couldn’t openly reprimand the heads of these families.

They had come over under the banner of supporting the second prince’s legitimacy.

He needed to reward and promote them to set an example for other families who might defect in the future.

So, he had to swallow his anger.

But the frustration had to go somewhere, and the perfect target was his empress, Yang Ruxu.

That night, Feng Wu visited the empress’s chambers but flew into a rage over a bowl of sweet soup that wasn’t the right temperature.

He berated Yang Ruxu, comparing her unfavorably to Jiang Xiurun.

Jiang Xiurun, he said, was a woman of both literary and martial prowess.

She had designed the irrigation system that would benefit Great Qi for generations and had once shot an enemy leader in the eye during a battle in Bo.

But what could Yang Ruxu do? All she knew was filling the palace with women, with no thought of how to be a virtuous empress and support her husband’s ambitions.

He cursed his luck for ending up with Feng Liwu’s cast-off.

Yang Ruxu, having grown up in the lap of luxury, had never been subjected to such harsh words.

And to be compared to Jiang Xiurun! She knew full well that Feng Wu spent his free time gazing at Jiang Xiurun’s portrait.

In her view, Feng Wu’s rebellion wasn’t just about seizing Great Qi’s throne—it was also about taking his brother’s wife for himself.

Unable to hold back, she retorted, asking about the portrait in his study and whether he was dissatisfied with the women she had brought him.

How could he turn around and curse her after enjoying their company?

The argument escalated, with both hurling insults at each other.

Yang Ruxu wasn’t stupid.

She knew Feng Wu still needed the support of the two powerful families.

If she let him berate her now, her position as empress would be untenable.

But Feng Wu’s anger wasn’t really about the women in the palace.

When Yang Ruxu hit a nerve by exposing his obsession with Jiang Xiurun, he slapped her across the face and stormed out, smashing everything in her chambers.

After he left, Yang Ruxu quickly summoned her father to discuss the crisis of laborers fleeing due to heavy taxes.

The Yang family, realizing they couldn’t handle this alone, brought in the Meng family patriarch, Meng Jin, for a meeting.

Accompanying Meng Jin was a man with a veiled face—Qin Zhao, who had been hiding in Feng Wu’s court.

He revealed his identity as a member of the Qin family, which reassured the Yang and Meng families that they had more allies than they thought.

When the Yang clan patriarch mentioned Feng Wu’s furious reaction, Qin Zhao remained calm and unhurried as he said, “Those barefoot commoners are nothing more than headless flies, easily swayed by rumors and prone to follow the wind. Right now, they’ve heard that if they go to Great Qi, they can receive free land and be exempt from taxes, so naturally, they want to taste the sweetness of it. But if they discover that this sweet treat is deadly, do you think they’ll keep eating it?”

Meng Jin sensed that Qin Zhao had some kind of plan, so he leaned forward and asked, “General Qin, what do you mean? Are you suggesting that Great Qi has deceived those villagers?”

Qin Zhao took a sip of tea, speaking leisurely, “I have been laying the groundwork for this matter for quite some time. Now, it is time to see the results. If His Majesty questions you two about this, you may as well make it clear to him—Great Qi may appear to be thriving, but in the end, they will bear the blame for deceiving villagers into leaving their homes and abandoning their ancestral lands.”

Growing impatient with his cryptic words, Meng Jin urged, “What plan do you have? General Qin, please speak plainly.”

“The clerk in the granaries over there have already been bribed by me with a hefty sum, and I’ve planted covert agents among them. Right now, it’s the season for the second round of summer planting, yet the seeds they’re distributing to the villagers have all been roasted. They’ll plant them all summer long, only to find that not a single seed sprouts. Tell me—won’t that be enough to incite rebellion and unrest?”