Emperor Ming's handsome sword eyebrows finally wrinkled, "Famine?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. I heard that many people in the village where Yunrong's family is located are starving to death! Fortunately, she has three brothers, who are still strong and strong, and they ran fast with their parents and came to the capital early, otherwise the consequences would not dare to imagine. Yuhuan sighed, pretending not to see the question in Emperor Ming's heart.

"Where is Yunrong's hometown?"

"Jizhou. ”

"Probably when"

"Half a month ago! The palace attendants are routinely only able to see their families once in three years. Yun Rong has always helped me take care of the Palace of Eternal Life well, and the concubine has the courage to ask His Majesty for this grace, and I hope His Majesty will allow it!"

Emperor Ming nodded, "I'm right." There is no need to go out to meet her family tomorrow after the Mid-Autumn Festival! Yuhuan will prepare some more things for her to take out, it will be almost the Mid-Autumn Festival, and let Yunrong's family have a good holiday. ”

"Yes. Yuhuan replied.

"The slave and maid thank Your Majesty and Niangniang for their grace, Your Majesty and Niangniang will definitely live a long life and grow old together. Yun Rong was overjoyed, and hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed to thank him.

Emperor Ming just checked the recital of this time, if it was more than half a month ago, the disaster people fled to Beijing, then the famine should have happened for at least a month and a half, the courtiers should have a report on the disaster, and the progress or results of the treatment should also have a report, even if it is properly handled, there should be a report of official punishment, but there is no mention of the famine in those recitals, as if there is no such thing at all.

Emperor Ming was in a bad mood, and he didn't like the feeling that things were out of his control. If an emperor loses control of the overall situation of the country, it means that the country is in danger. So he decided to let Yun Rong go to see his family tomorrow, and he sent someone to secretly investigate what was going on. Although he had a guess in his heart, he still had to confirm it.

When Yuhuan heard Emperor Ming say this, he knew that he had succeeded.

Emperor Ming and Yuhuan had dinner, and it was rare that they did not stay overnight, so they went to the imperial study. Let Gao Lishi declare the commander of the forbidden army, Li Mingde, to meet him.

Li Mingde is a descendant of the Li family, although the family has declined, but he still received an orthodox education and is extremely loyal to the Li family. He was shrewd and capable, joined the army when he was a teenager, and accumulated military merits to become the commander of the forbidden army. And he was a lonely courtier, and never had much contact with other courtiers.

Li Mingde came to the imperial study, and the Ming Emperor asked Gao Lishi to close the door of the palace and prevent others from approaching. He wanted to give Li Mingde a secret order, and it was difficult to ensure that there was no Li Linfu's eyes and ears in the palace, so he asked Gao Lishi to guard the door in person.

"Wechen greets His Majesty!"

"Hurry up, please get up! Zhao Aiqing came here today to explain some things and let you help me investigate secretly. Emperor Ming stepped forward to help Li Mingde and got straight to the point.

"Your Majesty, please speak! Where the responsibility of Weichen lies, he will never give up. ”

"I want you to carefully check whether there are many homeless people in the capital recently, where they came from, and why they came to the capital area. Tell me about the exact number of people and their current situation. This must be done in secret, so that other courtiers do not find out that you are investigating this matter. ”

"The minister obeys the order!" Li Mingde was not low-minded, and when he heard it, he knew that Emperor Ming was probably suspicious of a certain courtier. It's just that those who are ministers are cautious in their words and deeds, and they don't ask much, but only receive orders and errands.

Li Mingde has guarded the palace and the security of Kyoto for many years, and naturally there are many people under him. Some are subordinates on the surface, and some are eyeliner in the dark. It wasn't that hard for him.

Two days later, Li Mingde frowned and looked at the news handed by his subordinates, knowing why Emperor Ming asked him to secretly investigate. During this time, there were a lot of ragged people in the capital, and he was already a little confused. According to this careful inquiry, there are thousands of displaced people in the capital and its suburbs, and there is a trend of increasing numbers.

According to their own claims, they all came from Jizhou, saying that there was a famine in Jizhou, and many people had starved to death. There was a famine in Jizhou, and there was no news from the ministers of the court and even His Majesty. But these homeless people can't do it, they are all yellow and thin, and even dying, and they can also provide Jizhou's "public examination". "Notarization" is equivalent to an ID card at this time, with the identity information certified by the government on it.

Li Mingde knew that the matter was serious, and immediately entered the palace to report the news to Emperor Ming.

When Emperor Ming got the report, the speculation in his heart became a reality, and the previous uneasy feelings turned into monstrous anger. He threw the jade cup in his hand on the ground and shouted, "Brother Nu'an dares to lie to me!"

Brother Nu is Li Linfu's character.

Li Mingde has always looked at Li Linfu unpleasantly, because he is arbitrary, excludes colleagues, and supports cronies, but he has always been very favored by the Ming Emperor. Since Emperor Ming intended to give him power, he turned a blind eye and didn't say anything. Now it seems that Emperor Ming has always been deceived by him, and he is not aware of some of the things he has done at all.

"Mingde, you give me a good look at what Li Xiang has done over the years, the more detailed the better, and be careful not to leak any news. Emperor Ming quickly controlled his feelings.

"Obey the order!" Li Mingde bowed back.

Emperor Ming stood alone in the imperial study for a long time. When he was appointed prime minister in the past, in order to prevent the prime minister from being the prime minister alone, he always had to change people every two or three years. Even for Yao Chong, Song Jing, Zhang Shuo, Zhang Jiuling and other famous virtuous ministers, they are no exception.

Li Linfu served by his side when he was young, and he was capable and sophisticated, which made him satisfied everywhere. Over the years, he has long relied on him as his right-hand man, thinking that he is the person who knows his mind best and listens to his own words. So let him be the prime minister for the past ten years. As a result, he betrayed himself, and he remained in the dark.

The famine is such a serious thing for a country that is based on agriculture, the victims of the disaster have already fled to the capital, and Li Linfu has not even reported it to himself, what exactly does he want to do? Emperor Ming shuddered when he thought about it.

In addition to the personal guards around the Ming Emperor, there is also a secret force - the secret guard. These two forces, light and dark, are his personal guards, and they are only at his disposal. Each of them is carefully selected from among thousands of people, specially trained and highly skilled. He summoned the commanders of these two groups of guards and asked them to secretly investigate what Li Linfu had done over the years and monitor his daily behavior.

After the arrangement, Emperor Ming felt a burst of fatigue, not only physically, but also mentally. Even though he grew up in the whirlpool of politics since he was a child and experienced the treacherous power plots, he has never lost his trust in human nature and his yearning for light. Li Linfu and the two of him can be said to have grown up together, and have experienced the darkest and hardest years together, and the relationship between the two is not only the relationship between master and servant, monarch and minister, but in his eyes, Li Linfu is also his precious friend and the relatives who can give the greatest trust.

is such a person, and in the end, he also lived up to his trust. Is his vision too bad and he sees the wrong person, or is human nature unreliable?

Emperor Ming rubbed his forehead, walked out of the imperial study with a complicated mood, and unconsciously came to the Hall of Eternal Life. The maid in the hall said that Yuhuan was listening to the water pavilion. Emperor Ming walked towards the Tingshui Pavilion.

Tingshui Pavilion is located on the side of Daming Lake, and there is a trickle flowing into the lake next to the pavilion. You can listen to the murmuring of the stream, and you can see the sparkling lake, and there are hibiscus reflecting green, white jade verandah, it is an excellent place to visit.

Emperor Ming came to Tingshui Pavilion and saw Yuhuan sitting on the bluestone next to a stream tearing flower petals and playing. Red, yellow, white, purple...... Colorful hibiscus petals floated from Yuhuan's hand to the green stream, and then drifted away with the current.

"Yuhuan!"

"Your Majesty!" Yuhuan rarely didn't get up, she was waiting for him here.

Yuhuan looked at Emperor Ming with worried eyes, and asked softly, "Do you have something on your mind?"

Emperor Ming nodded lightly and sat down beside Yuhuan.

"Can you talk to the concubine?"

"There is a man I always thought I could trust him absolutely, but unfortunately I found it wrong. You say, isn't my vision very bad?" Emperor Ming said with melancholy, turned his head and saw Yuhuansu's hand flying, still tearing the petals, and then asked, "What's so fun about this?"

"Your Majesty, do you look at this flowing water, is it still the water you saw just now?" Yuhuan knew that Emperor Ming relied on Li Linfu. Ever since he had revealed the famine to him that day, he knew that he would be devastated when he found out the truth. So he quietly persuaded him.

"Huh?" Emperor Ming looked at Yuhuan with puzzled eyes.

"You see, I'm tearing off a white petal and throwing it into the running water. The piece of water it fell on flowed away with it. The flowing water under my hands now doesn't look the same as it was just now, but it's not that water anymore. Yuhuan's dark eyes looked at Emperor Ming fixedly, "In this world, everything is constantly changing, including people. ”

"What do you mean?"

"What the concubine means is that if that person can win your trust at the beginning, then he must be trustworthy at the beginning, not that you have a bad vision and believe in the wrong person. It is his blessing to have your trust. It's a pity that he doesn't know how to cherish, and instead of being strict with himself and working diligently, he indulges himself* and uses your faith to redo things that fail you. This is his own bad character and lack of self-discipline, how can he blame you?Why should He punish himself for the mistakes of others?" Yuhuan admonished.

When Emperor Ming heard this, his eyes gradually cleared, and his heart was not so congested. Li Linfu was loyal and trusted him at the beginning, but then he failed the grace of God, it was his own choice, so why should he doubt himself?

"Everybody longs for something that lasts, but how can everything stay the same? People are in different positions, their needs will be different, and their psychological states will be different. Some people are industrious, thrifty, and conscientious when they are weak, and when they gain power, they will indulge themselves wantonly, while others will be stricter in self-discipline, but it is difficult to guarantee that they will not have other demands. In the beginning, it was difficult for others to see which direction he was going, and even he probably didn't know what he was going to do. But if there are enough external forces to restrain him, it shouldn't deviate too much! Trust and suspicion are not opposites, they are two sides of the same copper coin, and they complement each other......"

Emperor Ming's eyes lit up, like an empowerment. Trust and suspicion are not necessarily opposites, and Yuhuan's statement is new.

Yuhuan saw that Emperor Ming listened to it, and continued to explain: "The concubine doesn't understand national affairs. But I heard my father say back then, when he was the secretary of Shuzhou, he would never let a subordinate stay in a position for too long, preventing him from having the opportunity to cultivate his own power and use power for personal gain. Since ancient times, people's hearts have been unpredictable, and we must not trust him but also supervise him, and not condone him because of trust, so as to prevent the other party from abusing power. Therefore, the integrity assessment of his officials is all excellent. ”

"It's a pity that Yang Sihu died young, otherwise we can train a group of good officials for Datang!" Emperor Ming sighed regretfully. He stroked Yuhuan's sideburns, his eyes full of pity, "Yuhuan, you are really a flower of my interpretation!

"Your Majesty is praised! It is the luck of the concubine to be able to relieve your worries for Your Majesty!"

Emperor Ming caressed Yuhuan's cheek lovingly, his fingertips touched the mole under Yuhuan's ear, his heart moved, and he kissed it deeply.