Born a phoenix? The husband I picked up is the young emperor

Chapter 1877

Shi Anxia raised her hand lightly, and all the jailers immediately bowed and retreated, leaving only Qiu Zhiyan and Bei Hui on the scene, and the iron chains of the prison door rattled.

Torches cast flickering shadows on the walls.

Just as a glimmer of hope ignited in Jiang Zhongxin's cloudy eyes, and his cracked lips trembled as he tried to ask for a promise...

"Jiang Zhongxin!" Shi Anxia suddenly interrupted in a calm voice, her voice like an ice blade that split the foul air in the prison, "You secretly mined the court's gold mine, and you still want to use this information to exchange for your worthless life?"

She suddenly sneered, "Naive!"

Jiang Zhongxin's whole body was shaking violently, and his festering fingers struggled unconsciously on the rack. The trump card he thought could save his life was exposed so casually, just like tearing up a piece of waste paper.

"You were once an ambitious general, hoping to achieve great things and conquer the battlefield. Ten years ago, you led three hundred light cavalrymen in a surprise attack on the Wan Kingdom camp, and even after being struck by seven arrows, you didn't retreat a single step." Shi Anxia suddenly changed the subject, "But... everything changed after you discovered the gold mine."

Gold mines cannot be seen in public. Privately mining the imperial gold mines is a capital crime punishable by the death of nine generations of the family. All gold must be laundered through the black market.

In other words, discovering a gold mine does not mean that it can be mined and circulated at will.

Direct use of large amounts of gold will expose the source of the mine, and the Ministry of Revenue has records of the gold purity, so it must be converted into silver for daily use.

Reselling grain is the best cover to obtain legal silver and cover up the traces of gold circulation.

As a result, Jiang Zhongxin established a black market network and controlled all kinds of people in Lingzhou.

In addition, Shi Anxia checked the files.

One year, there was a severe drought in Lingzhou, leaving thousands of miles of barren land. The imperial court issued three disaster relief orders, but there were still many starving people.

Starting from that year, Jiang Zhongxin secretly withheld grain in the name of disaster relief, using "life-saving food" as bait to drag those desperate officials into the water one by one.

At the same time, he also made friends with these officials, drinking fine wine together, having sex together, spending a life of debauchery together, and living a life of drunkenness and debauchery together.

Later, Jiang Zhongxin repeatedly lied about disasters to the court and succeeded every time.

Lingzhou is far from the capital due to the high mountains and long roads. Even if one uses a fast horse, it would take more than half a month to get there. By the time the imperial court sent people to investigate, he had already ordered people to dig mass graves, bury all the starving people, and then sprinkle lime on them to create the illusion that there was an epidemic.

He arranged the imperial censors who came to inspect to sit in front of the newly built "disaster relief porridge shed" and watch the neatly dressed "disaster victims" receive porridge to express their gratitude.

When the imperial envoys returned to the court, they praised General Jiang highly, saying that General Jiang worked hard day and night, served the soldiers and the people, devoted himself to the cause, and was loyal.

Shi Anxia combined the information she had found and reasoned, and then told the story as if she had seen it herself, "Am I right, General Jiang?"

Jiang Zhongxin was sweating profusely. He looked at the calm-looking woman in front of him in horror, his vision blurring out.

Shi Anxia exploded with a thunderbolt at this time, "You have to thank your sworn brother Song Yuanjiu. If it weren't for him, you would have been caught in the Qingchen Project."

Jiang Zhongxin's power had long since infiltrated the camp of Empress Dowager Jiqing, simply because the empress dowager was strong and the emperor was weak at that time.

Emperor Mingde was being held down by Empress Dowager Jiqing at the time, and Jiang Zhongxin fell over.

But they didn't fall over completely, like a fence-sitter, living on the wall. They lean on whichever side is stronger.

He no longer had any ambitions and just wanted to live peacefully as a local emperor in Lingzhou.

There, he has the final say.

Empress Dowager Jiqing sent someone to contact him, saying that she would take control of the court. Isn't that forcing him to abdicate?

Jiang Zhongxin received him warmly and promised well, but when he turned around, his expression changed.

He would not participate in rebellion, let alone sell out his country to the enemy.

He just wanted to live quietly guarding the gold mine.

He agreed only because he thought that if Empress Dowager Jiqing succeeded, he would have a way out.