I Rely on Beauty to Stabilize the Country - Chap 43
Fortunately, the cave was big enough to squeeze in twenty or thirty people.
Tian Fusheng, who was waiting for them back at the camp, had been worried that the Emperor might be hungry, so he asked every search group to carry some tightly wrapped snacks with them. Prince He and his guards were very careful, and, by the time they took them out, they were all still intact.
However, Gu Yuanbai wasn’t hungry, and he told the guards to share the snacks between themselves.
By coincidence, when the guards ran out of snacks, the rain outside began to decrease, and, within a minute, the sky cleared up, the sun shone on the ground, and the wind and rain stopped.
Gu Yuanbai took the lead and stepped outside. The ground and mud outside stained his boots, and it was a bit slippery. Prince He, next to him, was trying to decide whether to offer his hand to support him, but before he could do so Xue Yuan, standing on his other side, had already extended his hand to hold Gu Yuanbai’s. He placed his other hand on his waist, and he said with a smile, “Please be careful when walking, Your Majesty.”
Gu Yuanbai took very steady steps, and the hem of his hunting clothes fell on the ground, getting splashed with mud with every step.
Xue Yuan glared at these mud stains and he leaned down to lift up the back of Gu Yuanbai’s robe. Gu Yuanbai looked down, glanced at him and looked away. He wasn’t willing to give him a second glance or even give Xue Yuan a smile.
Still angry.
The horses were led outside and the fur wet from the rain was wiped with a clean robe. Gu Yuanbai turned around on his horse and glanced at Xue Yuan, who stood aside. He looked down at him specifically, the corners of his mouth turning up, and he whispered in a cold tone, “Beast.”
The word was said so quietly that only Xue Yuan heard it.
Xue Yuan raised his head suddenly and his eyes met the Emperor’s condescending gaze.
Gu Yuanbai smiled nastily, raising the reins, and the horse turned around obediently, its hooves splashing Xue Yuan with muddy water. Xue Yuan closed his eyes, sighed, and looked down at his robe. The thing that had been scolded by the Emperor for being a ‘beast’ had already slightly raised its head.
“…” Xue Yuan muttered to himself in a low voice, “How can you go up from being scolded?”
The hunting grounds were wet and slippery from the rain, and hunting wasn’t possible, but the Emperor’s activities were not yet finished.
The camp had already been cleared out, and the hunted prey that was suitable for roasting was all placed together. Among them, the bear that Xue Yuan had killed was extremely noticeable, and everyone that came and went would take a look at it.
Gu Yuanbai granted Xue Yuan the paw that he had cut off from the bear to take it back to Xue Mansion. Next, rewards should be given out to comfort and placate everyone. The cooks in the dining area in the Imperial palace were busy taking care of the ingredients, the smell floating their way and reaching their noses.
Gu Yuanbai washed his own hands and had the servants set up a simple barbecue. A charcoal fire was lit and a group of officials followed the Emperor enthusiastically to learn to roast meats.
“Our officials,” Gu Yuanbai said with a faint smile, “you’ve been working hard these days, so take a good rest. After you return, you’ll be busy once more.”
The courtiers all remained humble and expressed that it was no trouble to share His Majesty’s worries.
Gu Yuanbai smiled. The Imperial cook happened to be going to take the rice to wash it. Gu Yuanbai called him over, grabbed a handful of rice, and sighed. “Good rice from a good field. But how many people can eat rice this good in the world?”
Hearing his words, the courtiers also sighed and echoed his words quietly, mulling over what the Emperor had meant by themselves, as a reminder of the anti-corruption measures.
Gu Yuanbai roasted a skewer of meat personally and had a good time with the officials, finally returning back to the capital with his huge army before the sky went dark.
Xue Yuan took the bear’s paw and returned to Xue Mansion. After training swordsmanship with General Xue for a while, he put it aside and sat down in a daze.
General Xue asked, “What are you thinking, son?”
Xue Yuan frowned. “I think there’s something wrong with me.”
“What’s wrong?”
Thinking about Gu Yuanbai all the time, that’s what is wrong.
From the hunting grounds all the way back to the mansion, except for the time when he had been practicing the sword and didn’t think of him, Gu Yuanbai was once more occupying his thoughts.
Thinking of his angry expression, of his smile, and of wanting to take his pants off.
Xue Yuan said, “I’m always thinking about the Emperor.”
General Xue was stunned, and then laughed. “Hahaha, that is a heart full of loyalty to the Emperor! As a member of His Majesty’s court, it’s natural to think of him all the time.”
Loyalty? Xue Yuan sneered.
“When I think of him my heart jumps.” Xue Yuan’s eyes narrowed. “Is that a heart full of loyalty?”
General Xue nodded in affirmation and he patted Xue Yuan’s shoulder with satisfaction. “That’s exactly it, an official that wants to achieve great merit for the Emperor.”
Xue Yuan was silent.
Can he still have such a thing?
After the Spring Hunt, the court’s officials started to inspect their families’ properties closely. In particular, the officials whose families were not in the capital sent them one strongly worded letter after another, asking them to hurry up and get rid of any sort of embezzlement or corruption.
Hiding their fields, not declaring tenants, they shouldn’t lose sight of the big picture!
After a few days like that, at the morning court, Gu Yuanbai, dressed in a complex, heavy Imperial robe, solemnly gave the order to launch a large-scale anti-corruption operation across the country.
On that day, the Imperial court, the Supervision Office, and the newly formed Eastern Feather Guard, which had been thoroughly vetoed by the Emperor, got to work.
Nobody in the country would know that there’d be two different waves of anti-corruption investigations. What Gu Yuanbai wanted was one in the light and one in the dark, to find out all the big bastards that were deluded enough to try to trick the Imperial court!
Flying fast, officials from the Imperial court, guarded by elite soldiers of the Eastern Feather Guard, rushed towards the nearest granary in the capital.
Among those officials, besides some older officials that had been there in the past, the new personnel had all been specially trained by the Supervision Office, moving from the dark to the light, and today the Imperial court was completely under the Emperor’s control.
Kong Yilin and Qin Sheng, who had just entered the Eastern Feather Guard, were also among them.
Kong Yilin knew that this task was a test of his skill from the Emperor, so he composed himself and decided that he had to achieve outstanding success. Leading the way was the Investigating Censor, who was also loyal to the Emperor. The censor rolled up in front of the granary and sent away his horse, ignoring the sweaty officials that wanted to step forward out of politeness, and directly sent someone to open the door of the granary.
The yield per hectare and the grain harvested in the various farms were recorded in the books, and the books had been handed over to the Imperial court and the Supervision Office by the Ministry of Finance. The Investigation Censor looked at the report in his hand and said solemnly, “Start.”
He didn’t listen to the officials at all, and he didn’t look at the data provided by them. Standing upright in front of the granary, he kept recording data as his subordinates reported it.
“Three hundred and sixty-one bags of old rice and one hundred and fifty-six bags of new rice.”
“This official performed a random search in twenty bags of the aged rice, and of them seven bags were mixed with insects and sand.”
The loud, steady voices came from all over the granary, and the hands of the officials waiting for the report started to get sweatier and sweatier and their legs weaker and weaker.
The intensity of this anti-corruption operation is terrifying!
They’re determined to turn over the entire granary!
At the same time, starting from the capital, the Imperial court officials explored all around. As they got ready to receive the first batch of anti-corruption officials, everyone started sweating profusely.
No one had thought the Supervision Office would go to such great lengths.
If there was a problem in a granary, the officials involved would be re-examined by the Imperial court. And, once signs of corruption were found, it wouldn’t be nice.
Everything was done in accordance to the law, determined by the sums of money embezzled. And if the locals said that an official had gone beyond embezzlement, then it’d be a big deal and there’d be no escape.
The Imperial court’s anti-corruption activities were energic, and when the news reached the local level, officials from all over the country tensed up. The corrupt officials panicked, planning for prison, secretly returning the goods that they had taken, and dumped their savings to buy the stuff they had sold to get it back. Some of them actually didn’t have enough money, so they could only grit their teeth and take the money from their families to make up for it, and then make plans to exchange them for money after dealing with the inspections.
Those that weren’t on the loop started rejoicing. Upright officials were even more concerned with the corrupt officials than the Emperor, and some took the initiative to arrest the corrupt officials and send them to the Emperor for processing.
They rubbed their palms together, thinking that they could get rid of the corrupt officials and even get some merit in the eyes of the capital.
The capital and the officials of the capital were the center of political power in all of the Great Heng Dynasty.
In some people’s eyes, this opportunity might or might not be an opportunity to achieve a high position.
Sun Xiaoshan was a minor official of the Supervision Office.
He had been born in a heavy snow storm, and his parents abandoned him under the roots of an old tree. After someone picked him up, he survived by scavenging food from underneath people like a dog.
The wealthy family beat him and scolded him at every turn, and when he couldn’t stand the pain, Sun Xiaoshan would rush to lick their shoes so that they’d laugh and put their feet down to have him lick them clean.
That was the least painful part. If Sun Xiaoshan was able to lick them clean, he might still get a bowl of rice instead of food for pigs. The rice was so fragrant that he drooled just thinking about it, so he would lick even harder.
The rich people would call him a beast, saying that he was worse than pigs or dogs. Sun Xiaoshan envied those pigs, because they could eat a lot of meals before being slaughtered without having to lick shoes or be beaten. Such a good life, Sun Xiaoshan was jealous. His childhood dream had been to be a pig.
Just like that, he survived year after year. Sun Xiaoshan grew up, and every time a bowl of watery soup didn’t fill him up, he got so hungry that he would bite himself in the middle of the night. Sometimes he’d break skin and taste some blood, and he was disgusted and eager. He wished he could eat himself, but he was afraid of pain. He was so hungry he even swallowed mouthfuls of soil, and his stomach cramped just from smelling rice.
After that, the wealthy family had a guest and they had Sun Xiaoshan lick his shoes. Sun Xiaoshan thought he brought food, so he rushed to make the guest happy. The guest kicked Sun Xiaoshan almost to death, saying in disgust, “So repulsive.”
Afterwards, the repulsive Sun Xiaoshan was thrown to a mass grave wrapped in a straw mat during a snowy day.
Sun Xiaoshan was hungry and cold, and when he finally managed to get out of the straw mat, he thought that he was really going to die there.
Death would also be a relief, he thought. What’s the point of living such a desperate life while starving?
However, on that day with the heavy snow, Sun Xiaoshan was brought back by officials from the Supervision Office.
Sun Xiaoshan first thought that it was another place where he could lick shoes, but the people from the Supervision Office gave the scrawny boy warm clothes, and the day when he was brought back, he was given a fragrant, thick white porridge full of rice.
The porridge had pickles and crunchy radish, and it tasted delicious. It was the first meal that made him feel full. Sun Xiaoshan almost swallowed his own tongue from eating it.
He was crying as he ate, and his tears fell on the bowl of porridge.
The person that gave him the food smiled and said, “Eat slowly, there’s still a big pot left. It’s such a shame you only get to eat porridge today. Wait for a few days and we’ll have a lot of fish and meat!”
“A lot of fish and meat?” Sun Xiaosan listened in a daze. “Can I eat too?”
The people from the Supervision Office laughed happily. “If you can’t eat, who’d be eating? In two days you’ll get to enjoy it.”
When they were taken to a place to sleep and took a bath, Sun Xiaoshan was at the back, and he asked eagerly, “I can lick shoes, do you need me to lick your shoes?”
The official he asked it to was taken aback, and then he patted Sun Xiaoshan’s head awkwardly. Sun Xiaoshan would remember the warmth of his palm.
“Don’t worry. With His Majesty around, nobody would dare make you lick shoes.”
Sun Xiaoshan felt scared. He knew that he didn’t have any skills. What qualifications did he have to be able to have a good meal?
But they really ate.
After many, many filling meals, he saw a big bowl of meat. The meat was placed in front of him. When Sun Xiaoshan saw the meat for the first time, his eyes went red.
It was really the best meat in the world. Sun Xiaoshan took a dozen bits for every piece of meat, and he felt that he was tainting it by eating it. He felt bad for the meat, but he couldn’t resist the craving and, bite after bite, he ate it.
That day, he ate meat until he was full, and, when he got up the next day, Sun Xiaoshan had another full meal.
It was a life he couldn’t dare think of before entering the Supervision Office.
When Sun Xiaoshan began to learn some letters and various skills later on, during the first class, the Supervision Office senior spoke to him.
Standing by the window and surrounded by the afterglow of the setting sun, the senior said, “There’s always some people in this world that treat our citizens poorly and won’t let them eat. His Majesty is the only one who is good to us. He wants to protect everyone so that they all can eat and wear warm clothes.
“But there are always some that want to mess with His Majesty’s rule and not let the citizens live well.”
Sun Xiaoshan took these words very seriously.
The loyalty to the Emperor of the officials in the Supervision Office was beyond anything outsiders could imagine.
The Supervision Office had been established early and it had been short on people. Therefore, everyone worked hard, trying to become suitable and work hard to do what the Emperor ordered.
Sun Xiaoshan studied desperately because he wanted to pay His Majesty back. When he completed his studies and started to work for the Emperor, he saw many that wanted to damage His Majesty’s rule.
The corrupt officials were the biggest among them.
The horses crossed the Lizhou border, and one of the elite soldiers behind him said, “Official Sun, we’re here.”
Sun Xiaoshan stopped thinking about his memories and he glanced with pity at the corpse-like farmers walking on the sides of the road. He said, “Let’s hurry up and find out why the peasants went to the mountains to become bandits.”
See, there’s always people trying to corrupt His Majesty’s rule when His Majesty is trying to govern the lands.
All of these Great Heng citizens are living enslaved by corrupt officials.
Under His Majesty’s rule, they could’ve eaten enough rice and meat, but that possibility was completely destroyed by those parasites.
In the Supervision Office, everyone’s goal was to get rid of those parasites that damaged His Majesty.
Nobody could stop the Emperor from improving the Great Heng.
