Yue Jian and Cang Lang, who were standing outside the door, were both shocked. However, Tang Ning remained silent for a moment in response to Cao Dejiang's questioning: "Mr. Cao is wise."
"Don't fool me."
Cao Dejiang had seen through the little girl in front of him. She looked gentle and kind, but in fact she was full of tricks.
"Why did Xiao Yan secretly leave the capital? Do you know that if His Majesty knew about this, you would be killed for deceiving the emperor?"
Tang Ning softened his voice when he saw the old man getting angry: "We don't want to either, but things are unpredictable."
Cao Dejiang had a blank expression on his face: "I'll listen to your story!"
"..." Tang Ning looked helpless: "I didn't lie to you, my brother went to Shezhou."
Cao Dejiang frowned: "Shezhou?"
Tang Ning looked at the old man opposite him and said, "Brother accidentally found out some old stories about the Crown Prince, which were related to the Lu family. Because it was a serious matter, he dared not hand it over to others, so he left Beijing on the pretext of being seriously injured."
"For some reason, someone from the Lu family also went to the Southland, and they seemed to have noticed that someone was investigating these things. They probably thought that my brother used the matter of Lingyun Temple to divert attention and cover up the actions in the Southland, so they wanted to expose my brother's injuries and accuse him of deceiving the emperor."
Cao Dejiang frowned and thought as he listened to Tang Ning's words, and in an instant he understood the whole story.
Lu Qin's "assassination attempt" was planned by Xiao Yan in order to give him a legitimate excuse to stay out of public view. Xiao Yan probably left the capital shortly after Emperor An was assassinated.
Lu Chongyuan has always been a man who plans before he acts. He was willing to kill the Fourth Prince's wife and frame her, and even acted hastily. He also made Xiao Yan not dare to ask anyone else to investigate, and it was related to the Crown Prince and the matter in Shezhou...
Cao Dejiang looked grim: "Twenty years ago, flood relief in the south?"
Tang Ning was somewhat surprised at Cao Dejiang's perceptiveness. He nodded and said softly, "Twenty years ago, the Crown Prince was ordered to go south to provide disaster relief. His ship sank, and after the riots in the south, the Crown Prince lost the support of the people and was forced to return to the capital. Lord Cao was already in the court at that time and should have known about these things."
"Originally, my brother was just looking into the Lu family's affairs because he was not satisfied with the case of the grain transport. But who would have thought that he would accidentally find this case? My brother's people found a coroner who performed the autopsies on the hundreds of soldiers who were transporting grain for disaster relief and unfortunately died in the river. From him, we learned that those soldiers had already died before they fell into the water."
The expression on Cao Dejiang's face changed, and he listened to the girl opposite him continue to speak.
"Most of the coroners back then were silenced. That man was lucky enough to survive because he sensed something was wrong in advance and there was rioting and war everywhere in the Southland at the time."
"He not only explained that the sinking of the official ship was not an accident, but also explained that during the disaster relief, the Lu family colluded with the officials and bandits in the south, spread rumors to force the Crown Prince to leave due to the chaos, and then replaced the rioters with civilians in exchange for the credit of calming down the chaos."
"Most of the bandits who took advantage of the flood to burn, kill and loot in the south have been appointed as government officials, while those who were hanged were all civilians. Not only that, the nearly one million taels of silver on the official ship and the grain transported to the south for disaster relief also mostly fell into their hands, and..."
Tang Ning paused for a moment before speaking in a slightly hoarse voice, "In order to quell the chaos as quickly as possible and gain credit from the court, they sealed off the city with kerosene, poisoned the wells, and burned nearly 10,000 Rongjiang residents, along with the He family members who went to the south to provide disaster relief, to death in Rongjiang County."
"Afterwards, in order to cover up the traces, the sluice gates upstream were opened to release floodwaters, flooding the Rong River and surrounding villages."
Cao Dejiang was relatively calm at first when he listened to Tang Ning's words. He had long known that those people from the aristocratic families were not honest and would do anything to achieve their goals. Although he hated what the Lu family did, he could still barely remain calm. But when he heard what happened later.
Even Cao Dejiang, who had seen a lot of worldly things, was furious. He slammed the table and was shaking with anger.
"The Lu family is crazy?!"
That was the life of an entire city of people, nearly 10,000 people! !
Aren't they afraid of the wronged spirits coming to claim their lives? !
Even though Tang Ning already knew this, she still couldn't calm down when she talked about it again. She looked serious and said, "For the sake of profit and future, what does human life mean to them?"
Cao Dejiang's face turned pale.
Tang Ning said, "This matter is of great importance. he didn't want to investigate it at first, but it's hard to rest in peace if you don't investigate some things even though you know the truth. If it's something else, you can find an excuse to leave the capital, but this matter must not be known to His Majesty. Lord Cao should know why, right?"
Cao Dejiang's face turned pale and uncertain, and he certainly knew why.
Because twenty years ago, besides the Lu family, the current emperor also went to the South to take over the disaster relief work from Prince Li. Because Emperor An, who was the fifth prince at the time, won the hearts of the people and the favor of the previous emperor by virtue of his merits in disaster relief, and thus gained a foothold in the court.
Twenty years ago, after Emperor An returned to the capital after providing disaster relief, he became extremely popular. He used his achievements in disaster relief to ask for the marriage of the current Empress Lu. From then on, he gained the support of the Lu family and entered the court.
Who could believe that Emperor An was unaware of the Lu family's actions back then?
Tang Ning looked at Cao Dejiang, who was shaking with anger, and said softly, "There is nothing he can do. He can only take a risky move. Brother originally planned to come back within a month, but who knew that he would be delayed on the way and have not returned yet. The Lu family suddenly made trouble again."
"If Lord Cao hadn't come to the rescue today, this matter would have been impossible to cover up."
Cao Dejiang shook his head and said, "I didn't help you at all. You were smart enough to persuade Madam Zhao to work for you, and you also knew His Majesty's intentions. You brought up the matter between Prince Cheng and the Lu family to provoke His Majesty's anger at the Lu family. However, this matter can only be covered up for a while. Even if Lu Yin came forward, it would be difficult to slander the Lu family."
"It's not fake." Tang Ning said.
Cao Dejiang was stunned for a moment: "The person who is having an affair with Prince Cheng..."
Tang Ning: "It's Queen Lu."
Cao Dejiang's hand twisted and the teacup on the table was knocked over with a "bang". The tea fell on his legs and it was still painful even through the cloth. The old man's face was as colorful as if he had opened a dyeing factory.
…
The fire on the stove was too strong, so Tang Ning lowered the air vent before adding water into the teapot.
Cao Dejiang sat there for a long while before he digested what he had just heard.
The one who had an affair with Prince Cheng was Empress Lu. The Fourth Prince was not necessarily the son of Emperor An. Guo shi was forced to death by Empress Lu in order to save herself. Lu Chongyuan knew about it but did not dare to expose the Empress. And their Majesty had a huge green hat on his head for twenty years.*
Even though Cao Dejiang was knowledgeable and experienced, he couldn't help swallowing.
As expected, there are many royal family members.
Cao Dejiang drank some water to calm his chaotic thoughts, then looked up at Tang Ning and said, "That's fine. With this leverage in hand, it's enough to throw the Lu family into disarray. They probably won't have the time to cause trouble for Xiao Yan in the short term..."
Unexpectedly, Tang Ning shook his head: "This handle cannot be used."
Cao Dejiang was surprised: "Why?"
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T/N: Green hat means he is cuckold
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You can read ahead to chapterr 470 (100+ extra chapters) here
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