Zhang Xiaowu nodded to express his understanding. The Governor of Longdu is equivalent to a senior official in the Republic's capital city or a senior official in the Magic City, and his administrative level is naturally higher than that of many provincial officials.
Ruan Qingwen continued: "The reason why King Ning served as the prefect of Longdu was because the children of the powerful in the capital acted excessively. They often drank, fought, and molested the women of the people, which disturbed the people of Longdu. Emperor Taigan appointed several Longdu Fu Yin, but they didn't dare to fight against those young masters, or they had to release them under pressure after arresting them. Emperor Taigan had a headache, so he had to send Prince Ning to govern them. Prince Ning knew that the silver-clad guards and yamen servants of Longdu Palace They were incompetent, so they formed a long-sword team, each with a slaying sword. After killing three people, the young masters in the capital were so frightened that they became honest and did not dare to mess around again. "
Zhang Xiaowu smiled and said: "My grandfather is one of them. No wonder he uses a machete."
Ruan Qingwen said: "The young masters in the capital who had no one to govern were managed by King Ning for three months and became obedient. All the dignitaries in the capital respected him. This move even made Emperor Taiqian jealous. Longdu Governance After that, King Ning resigned from the post of Longdu Governor, but the Chang Dao Team had no other place to go, so King Ning accepted them as his retainers. It was precisely because of the Chang Dao Team that the late emperor was even more afraid of King Ning, although King Ning successively Xu resigned and left many of his followers, but no one can guarantee that Prince Ning's long sword team will not cause trouble."
Zhang Xiaowu suddenly thought of something. Could it be that his father left Prince Ning's Mansion that year because Prince Ning had reached some kind of agreement with the Long Knife Team in private in order to avoid suspicion?
"Then something happened, which eventually led to King Ning's rebellion."
"What's going on?"
"It is said that a concubine in the palace wrote a poem to King Ning to express her admiration. This poem was accidentally seen by the young eunuch and secretly reported it to the chief eunuch. The chief eunuch reported it to the late emperor, which caused a stir. The late emperor was furious."
"This... is this really seducing my sister-in-law?" Zhang Xiaowu couldn't help laughing, "Don't he like girls? Why did he seduce a mature woman?"
"It's unclear whether this matter is true or not. Maybe it was framed to get rid of Prince Ning, or maybe he really seduced his concubine - sister-in-law." Ruan Qingwen couldn't help laughing, "This Prince Ning is excellent, but he doesn't work hard. The matter of seducing the wives of other officials. There was once a court official whose wife was very beautiful. After King Ning learned about it, he went to see her and wrote love poems to express his admiration. In the end, the official was so angry that he killed his wife and then hanged himself from a beam."
Zhang Xiaowu's eyes widened and he couldn't help blurting out: "Holy crap! Is this Prince Ning a stallion? Can he do this kind of thing?"
Ruan Qingwen said: "So King Ning has mixed reputations and reputations. It is up to the historians to judge his rebellion, but the historians obey the late emperor."
Zhang Xiaowu remembered that his grandfather said that Prince Ning was very good at his subordinates. Even if others said that Prince Ning's character was bad, they did not feel any resentment. They just did not want to talk too much about the life in Prince Ning's mansion. It seems that Prince Ning's character is indeed It is debatable, but King Ning's talent and ability cannot but be admired.
"Prince Ning has so many concubines and beauties, where are his children?" Zhang Xiaowu said curiously, "He must have more than a hundred children, right?"
"King Ning's one hundred and twenty children were all poisoned." Ruan Qingwen's answer made Zhang Xiaowu almost fall off his horse in fright. All one hundred and twenty children were killed. They were the nephews and nieces of Emperor Taiqian. Because his father, Prince Ning, was killed because he could threaten the throne? His biological nieces and nephews, Emperor Taigan and Prince Ning were born from the same mother and father, and all one hundred and twenty nieces and nephews were killed. After all, Emperor Taigan was indeed much more kind-hearted than his son Emperor Dade.
The Great Virtue Emperor just killed some Nishou who had seized the palace and exiled Nishou's family, which was simply not one-tenth as good as Emperor Taigan.
The most ruthless emperor's family, as expected.
The story of Prince Ning made Zhang Xiaowu more aware of the horror and cruelty of imperial power. The saying that accompanying the emperor is like accompanying a tiger is not just talk. It may not be that he offended the emperor, but it is most likely that he was jealous of the emperor. Thinking of this, Zhang Xiaowu suddenly felt that he was even a bit powerful. Feeling bored, he thought about the time he had traveled through time.
First for survival, then for revenge, and then for the Qinglong Army in the north of Saibei, and for his 10,000 brothers. Zhang Xiaowu suddenly realized that it seemed that he had never lived for himself in this world.
"What do I like?" Zhang Xiaowu thought about it. He didn't like wine, sex, money, or power. He seemed to have nothing else in mind.
Ruan Qingwen saw him thinking hard and asked with a smile: "General, why should you lament this? The time of King Ning happened too long ago."
Zhang Xiaowu smiled and said: "I am not lamenting about Prince Ning's story, I am lamenting for myself. Prince Ning's hobby is beautiful women, but what is my hobby and what is my pursuit? Mr. Ruan, do you understand me?" Do you know what my hobbies are?"
Ruan Qingwen thinks this question is ridiculous. Now that Zhang Xiaowu has fame and wealth, he wants power and beauty. As a civilian, he has become the lord of a place. He is in charge of the military and civilians in the northern part of the country. He is famous all over the world for holding the ghost guard army. How can he lack What? He thought Zhang Xiaowu was insatiable. In other words, he was full of food. After thinking about it, Ruan Qingwen shook his head and clicked his tongue: "You like to be free and unconstrained."
Zhang Xiaowu put his hands on his hands and said with a smile: "That's exactly it!"
Huizhou City, the capital of Huizhou, is in the east of Huizhou. The official road from Qingfeng Mountain does not pass through Huizhou City. Naturally, Zhang Xiaowu and others cannot see the thousand-year-old city of Huizhou City. If they saw it with their own eyes, they would see what they saw. It was a real disaster. There were countless hungry people inside and outside the city of Huizhou. The people cried and begged the government to release grain to help the people, but the government never dared to release grain. Half a month ago, a famine occurred in Xuzhou, and Jiyang Prefecture released grain to help the people, which triggered several Hundreds of thousands of victims swarmed in, and Jiyang Mansion ran out of food a few days after the food was distributed. So the people in Jiyang rioted, broke into Jiyang Mansion, and caused chaos throughout the city, causing Jiyang Mansion to be massacred by a mob.
Huizhou learned its lesson and did not release food to help the people. It only asked the victims to go south to Lingnan. But at this time, the victims had no strength to go south. They were so hungry that they were starved to death under the walls of Huizhou City. The people of Huizhou City were also panic-stricken, fearing Disaster victims riot.
On the road to Huizhou, corpses and bones also appeared from time to time. The morale of the ghost guards gradually dropped, and they began to doubt the value of their own existence. They defended their home and country and expelled the dog barbarians. But looking back behind them, what was they protecting? What kind of country? A Holy Han Empire with countless hungry people, corrupt officials, and partisan fighting within the court?
It was the first time in the Holy Han Empire that Zhang Xiaowu and others felt so heavy and helpless.
"General, are we... wrong?" Wang Yijin asked.
Bao Yin said angrily: "What country are we guarding?"