Chapter 84 - Lord Tan
In the end, Jin Yu is not angry anymore and satisfied his wife urge and needed the whole night. Ni Qing knows, and she follow his lead until she falls to sleep. She forgets to tell her husband about the chaos in the capital city. She did not have enough sleep the night before when she was angry to her husband. She sleeps like a baby when all her need and her opium has been pumping into her body.
Jin Yu is happy to know the most important person in his life not angry anymore. He can be ruthless and defeat any problem relate to his enemy and problem, but he cannot use his brain when the most important person in his heart is angry and give him the cold shoulder.
Jin Yu knows about the chaos in the capital because of the empress dowager. He walks to the table on her room and read the letter she wrote about the appointed of the Empress by the empress dowager. His royal mother is using her veto power to appoint her own niece as the Empress as the leader of the harem and inner Palace. He decides to deal with it later when he come back to the palace. His priority is solving this treachery act by the governor of the southern region.
He slides into the bed next to his wife and join her into the realm of dream. He is tired as his wife anger make him could not sleep for the last two night. He has been practicing his martial art and sword inside his room for the whole night after finished the all the urgent report sent by the prime minister. The prime minister also sends all the news regarding the capital and Palace. He has been aware about the problem in his harem and hope Ni Qing can keep them in check. However, it will be hard for her with the new empress appoint in the Palace with the support of the Empress Dowager.
The sound of roster and bird is coming through the window which make Jin Yu stretch his body. His wife still snoozes in his arm. She is only moving her body into him. however, Jin Yu needs to find out the reality of the southern region. He is walking out from Ni Qing\'s room and going to his own room to get dress. He wants to take the boy to his villages and find out the real story behind of this region.
He cannot believe that this rich region from the harbor and with the neighbour country. The gold mining in the area also become one of the supports for the financial for the capital and the whole country.
Wang Bo is managed to come back and report to Lin Yue about their own army from the export of their gold nugget. It means the governor is exporting the good quality of gold into the neighbour country and send the lowest quality gold into the capital with the letter about the drought and resulting into lowest quality of Gold. They use the money to make themselves rich and making their own army.
Lin Yue is reporting to Jin Yu about this problem from the governor. Apparently, Lord Xu is reporting to the emperor about the rice corruption. The governor is taking the rice from the capital for the common kitchen which can help the people in the southern to live until the government can solve the economical problem. However, he is selling the good quality rice with a high price to rick people while the poor and low income eat the bad quality rice. He even sells the dirty rice with a good money for a rice mixes with the grain and stone. They cannot say anything to the governor if they do not want to get whipped or hard labour for free.
Jin Yu is really angry to hear about this practice in the region, the governor is appointed based on their family merit. The Lord Tan is ruling the region with the excellent service. However, as soon as the youngest generation from the Lord Tan family takes over, they become greedier about the money.
Jin Yu is taking everyone to ride into the boy village with the rice sack as promise to help the village from the hunger. His village is the outskirt of the capital of southern region near the river. As soon as they reach the village with few sacks of rice and barley, the boy is jumping out to meet with his father as the village head. They all look malnourish and skinny. Some of the people even not be able to stand up due to the extreme weight loss from the draught.
Wang Bo and Eunuch li are setting up a common kitchen with the help from the boy and cook a congee with vegetable for the village before dispersing the rice and barley to each house. However, it will not enough for the whole region in the southern area. Zhao Yun is analysing the soil in the area to find something weird about it. Jin Yu also notices the weird crack on the soil of the fertile land. It seems someone tried to tamper the perfectly fertile land to become unproductive and barren. Jin Yu is looking for the explanation from Zhao Yun about the soil condition.
They are going and checking the surround area to find the same problem with the soil. As there is not enough job in the village, the young is sent by their parent to work in the capital or end up to do cheap labour for the gold mining.
"We have to get more rice into this region as there is shortage of rice on the region. Do you think we will need to meet with the An Yan King Dom about the rice?" Jin Yu is pacing in his place to think the consequences. He needs to think about his people problem and condition rather than anything else.
"Your highness, I think you need to meet him and asks help for borrowing the rice from his royal highness King An Yan," Ni Sheng is giving out of advice to his emperor and the advisor of the tactical.
"I think you needs to take Consort Qing with you. It will be easier for her to make the request to the King An about the rice and barley," Lin Yue is giving out the advice to the emperor.
"Why? I am the one ruling in this country and calling for truce for everyone in this country with the King An. Yet, it will be easier for consort Qing to do the dealing with the King of An Yan," Jin Yu is looking sharply to Lin Yue about his idea regarding his wife.
"King of An is owing a big debt to Qing. Their relationship is going back a long way," Lin Yue is explaining the general information of their relationship. However, he did not talk about the proposal of King An for Qing to marry his crown prince. The Crown prince of An is falling head to his toes after meeting Ni Qing in person.
"So, you mean that the King of An can repay his debt to Qing with the rice and barley for this region? How about the distribution of the rice after we manages to get it from the An Kingdom?" Jin Yu is thinking hard as he does not want this valuable rice and barley goes into the wrong hand again. The amount of rice from the capital will take time to reach this region and it will alarm the corrupt governor. Jin Yu did not have any other choice rather than to take his wife into diplomatic mission the neighbourhood region of AN Kingdom.
They area going back to the motel when the day almost dark. Apparently, Ni Qing did not sit idle inside the Inn. She is going around the city and gather her intel about the city and Lord Tan. The news is he loves to party and gamble. The other nasty business in his hand is doing human trafficking into the An Kingdom. He loves women and wine, yet he keeps adding wife and concubine into his house. At the same time, Ni Qing manages to secure the invitation into their party of the season. The prestigious party held in the southern region will include an action for rare item found in the black market.
Lord Tan dares to do everything in the open when he knows that he got absolute power to control the people and his region. Their wealth and power is going all the way into the next three descendant. It is because of his cunning plan to take over the Gold mining. His father did not want to take part into this corruption and in the end, he makes him to be inside their home with his mother, crippled. It was his father fault to keep nag and lecturing him, and in the end, Young Lord Tan manages to bring wealth to the family.