boyutpedia Chapter 430: Big Reshuffle
Chapter 430: Big Reshuffle
"Okay, Duke Wu has been in the palace long enough. I'm sure your family must be missing you. I'll send someone to take you back."
After Ruan Yuhu finished speaking, she looked in the direction of Wu Jingyuan and his son.
Wu Shide immediately understood what she meant.
"It is true that I have some important matters to attend to at home, so I will take my leave now."
"After I have taken care of my family affairs, I will bring my grandson Chengjun to the palace to express my gratitude to the Empress."
After saying this, Wu Shide looked at his unfilial descendants and his expression suddenly changed. His face turned frosty and even his eyes became fierce.
Even without the grace given by the Queen today, Wu Shide would never let Wu Jingyuan and his brother Wu Long go.
Wu Shide is a very cautious person. Although he has reached the high position of Duke, he does not have the arrogance and self-superiority that comes from being a superior.
In his daily life, whether he was facing someone of higher status or someone of lower status than himself, he treated them all equally and never had two faces or treated them differently.
How could such a low-key person allow his children and grandchildren to have people like Wu Jingyuan and Wu Long who were so treasonous and wanted to rebel against the emperor?
Wu Shide never asked the Wu family to stay in the high position and enjoy unlimited glory as they do now. He only asked that the people of his family could live a long and peaceful life.
Now Wu Jingyuan and Wu Long completely ignored the dignity of his father and grandfather, and for their own selfish reasons, they wanted to drag the Wu family into an endless abyss.
This is something that Wu Shide can never forgive or tolerate.
"Mrs. Ruan, I'll take my leave now."
After Wu Shide greeted Ruan Yuhu, he turned and left.
As soon as he turned around and left, several eunuchs from the palace came up and picked up Wu Jingyuan who was lying on the ground, and also lifted up Wu Long who was lying beside him.
Then he followed Wu Shide's footsteps and left.
As soon as Wu Shide's family left, the rest of the people began to feel uneasy.
The fact that Duke Wu's Mansion was pardoned by the Queen today may seem like the Queen's generosity, but there are many unexpected implications behind this.
Yunli is now in a state of disunity due to the previous purges of treason and rebellion.
Among the ten great families, one He family, one Liu family, and one Su family have already fallen.
If the Wu family is also liquidated this time, Yunli will become even more unstable.
Although aristocratic families often become obstacles to imperial power, it is undeniable that Yun Li's regime can be stable because of the existence of aristocratic families.
How could the queen, who is such a smart person, not understand this truth?
Therefore, now it is more important to maintain stability within Yunli than to deal with those traitors.
Besides, it is possible that Duke Wu did not know that Wu Jingyuan and Wu Long had defected to Li Chaohui and participated in the rebellion.
Because Duke Wu has grown old in recent years, he no longer lives in the Duke Wu Mansion, but lives alone in a quiet villa.
Also, before this incident, Wu Jingyuan and Wu Long, father and son, had never done anything out of line.
I have never seen them have any contact with Li Chaohui or Li Chaohui's accomplices.
Another thing is that since the Queen is already determined to deal with Li Chaohui, how could she not investigate everyone who has had contact with her?
The Queen should know exactly who did what and who didn't.
The Wuguo Mansion can be pardoned, but they may not be.
Unlike Duke Wu, these people were all active participants in Li Chaohui's rebellion.
Even if the queen can let their family go this time, she may not be able to let them go.
Ruan Yuhu looked at the people in front of him and felt extremely angry.
There are indeed many reasons behind the pardon of Duke Wu's Mansion.
This was due to political considerations and the intention to maintain internal stability, but more importantly, it was out of samurai ethics, and they did not allow their children and grandchildren to participate in rebellion.
Shen Tianjiao was not the kind of person who would disregard everything and kill people for the sake of power.
It is impossible for her to kill people who have not made any mistakes without asking reasons, as she did when Li Rui was in power.
But the rest of the people are different. They are not good people. While enjoying the grace from the emperor, they are not satisfied and want to rebel against the emperor.
He wanted to rebel and become a meritorious official who could help the new emperor, so as to gain greater benefits and satisfy his greater ambitions.
Although Ruan Yuhu really wanted to bring all these people to justice at this moment, those who should be killed should be killed, and those who should be exiled should be exiled.
But for the sake of the overall situation, she had to swallow her anger and endure it for the time being as if nothing had happened.
If all these people were questioned today and received the punishment they deserved, then Yun Li's court would not just be half empty.
Instead, the entire court would be paralyzed and unable to function normally.
This is not a good thing for a country.
Rather than waiting for the entire country to be paralyzed and a new round of riots to begin because no one in various departments is doing their work, it is better to be patient and use them for the time being.
It will take some time for the people I have trained to be useful.
When those people are fully capable of doing their jobs, that will be the time for Ruan Yuhu to take ruthless action against them.
Seeing that Ruan Yuhu didn't say anything, some of those people finally lost their patience.
Things have already happened and need to be resolved. Dragging it out is no solution.
Then someone else stood up and said, "Madam Ruan, our Xingyang Marquis Mansion is unfortunate to have produced some useless descendants. We are truly unworthy of the emperor's great grace."
"I know I have committed a grave sin for what happened today. I have failed the Emperor's trust and the late Emperor's high regard for me."
"Today, I dare not hope that the Empress will not pursue this matter. I only ask that the Empress be merciful and give those young children in the Xingyang Marquis's mansion a chance to live."
"I voluntarily relinquish my title of Marquis of Xingyang, and allow the younger generation of my family to live a peaceful life as commoners from now on."
"Of course, I am also willing to take this group of unworthy descendants to apologize to the late emperor."
The person who spoke out was Huang Yan, Marquis of Xingyang.
When the late emperor was alive, Huang Yan was the most important person in Shangjing, except for the Marquis of Zhenbei.
This old man looks gentle and amiable, but he is actually a bad guy to the core.
When the late emperor was still alive, Huang Yan assisted the tyrant in committing atrocities, giving him advice, framing loyal and good people, and harming innocent people.
Since the passing of the late emperor, he had been as dead as ever for a while, disappearing from sight and staying at home, pretending to be indifferent to worldly affairs.
But in fact, he is the only one who knows what shameful things he is doing behind the scenes.
Huang Yan's appearance at this time was really beyond Ruan Yuhu's expectation.
It seems that Huang Yan, who has been pretending to be dead for more than ten years, can no longer pretend and his true colors are beginning to show.
Ruan Yuhu looked up at Huang Yan, wanting to stab him in the back of his head, but now was not the time for this old man to die.
Letting Huang Yan die like this would be too easy for him. It would be unfair to the innocent souls who died under his knife.
At this time, Huang Yan jumped out and said that he was unworthy of the late emperor's trust in him. In fact, it was obvious that he was telling Ruan Yuhu that he was the late emperor's confidant and had a lot of shameful things in his hands.
If you don't want him to make those things public, causing the image of the late emperor as a wise ruler that he has maintained for many years to collapse and causing dissatisfaction among the people.
Ruan Yuhu should be more sensible today, just like he just let go of the Duke of Wu's Mansion, and let go of the Marquis of Xingyang's Mansion, and stop pursuing the matter of Li Chaohui.
But Huang Yan had miscalculated. He was a ruthless man, but Ruan Yuhu was even more ruthless than him. Otherwise, how could Ruan Yuhu have survived in this deep palace until now?
What Ruan Yuhu hated most in his life was being threatened by others. Those who had used their power to threaten Ruan Yuhu have been lying underground for who knows how many years, and their bones are almost turning to ashes.
"Marquis Xingyang's words really reminded me of the past. When the late emperor was still alive, he really valued Marquis Xingyang very much."
"Even something as important as bathing the volcano was entrusted to the Marquis of Xingyang. This is a blessing that others dare not even think about."
Huang Yan is indeed too naive to threaten Ruan Yuhu.
Huang Yan is indeed a ruthless person, but compared with Ruan Yuhu, who has been fighting with others in the deep palace for his entire life and has survived, he is nothing.
Huang Yan thought he had the late emperor's shameful secrets in his hands and could use them to threaten Ruan Yuhu.
But he forgot one very important thing. Huang Yan had not missed any of the shameful deeds done by the late emperor.
Those shameful deeds were the criticism of the late emperor, but they were also the criticism of Huang Yan.
The only difference between the two is that no matter how big a mistake the late emperor made, as an emperor, the people would at most talk about him and say that he was a tyrant, but they could not do anything to him.
But Huang Yan is different. He is just a minister, and he has the power to completely control the life and death of anyone.
His own life is still in the hands of others, but now he is thinking of turning the tables and using the mistakes of the late emperor to threaten others. It is really ridiculous.
Sure enough, after Huang Yan heard the three words "Yuhuoshan Mountain", he immediately wilted like an eggplant hit by frost.
He originally thought that the secret of the Yuhuo Mountain was only known to him and the late emperor. Now that the late emperor is dead, he is the only one who knows this secret, but he did not expect that Ruan Yuhu also knew it.
It seems that I have overestimated the late emperor's trust in me and underestimated the late emperor's trust in Ruan Yuhu.
Seeing that Huang Yan was silent, Ruan Yuhu snorted in her heart with contempt. A vicious dog that was raised by someone to do things for him also dreamed that one day he could bite his master back and climb over his master's head. This was simply a foolish dream.
Leaving Huang Yan aside, Ruan Yuhu looked at the people in the courtyard and said, "You know best what you have done."
"What you have committed today is a capital crime worthy of death and annihilation, and the annihilation of your entire family."
"If it were my nature, I would send all of you to the Ministry of Punishment. After you've experienced their torture, your property will be confiscated and you'll be exiled. Don't even think about living a good life."
"But the Queen is soft-hearted. She always thinks of your ancestors, who were all meritorious officials who made great contributions to Yun Li."
"And thinking of how you all served our country so loyally, I can't bear to see you all end up with your families torn apart and your integrity ruined."
"Just now, Duke Wu, as you saw, is old and no longer has the strength to manage the household. He is unable to control his children and grandchildren. As a result, his children and grandchildren, due to lack of discipline, act recklessly and make the big mistake today."
"I now give you two choices. Either you, like Duke Wu, know the current situation and choose a capable person from your family to take over your position as the head of the family."
"From now on, be honest and behave yourself, keep your tail between your legs."
"Or you can continue to fight the Queen head-on, but if you do that, you will have to bear the consequences yourself."
"Okay, I've said everything I need to say. You can choose."
Ruan Yuhu said that he gave these people room to choose, but in fact they had no choice at all. The result of not obeying would only be death.
"We are willing to follow Madam Ruan's arrangements and be honest and law-abiding from now on."
"I must discipline my children and grandchildren, make them behave themselves, study, and cultivate their moral character from now on, and never let them do such a rebellious thing as today again."
"As for the children and grandchildren who participated in this rebellion, we will take them home and give an explanation to the Empress."
The person who spoke this time was Shangguan Hong. The Shangguan family was also a noble family. Shangguan Hong was one of the few kings of different surnames in Yunli.
However, he did not earn this throne by his own ability, but inherited it from his ancestors. Now he is just a prince in name only, with no real power.
After hearing what Shangguan Hong said, the others naturally followed suit.
After all, who would want to die when they can live?
Even though they knew that the reason Ruan Yuhu did this this time was to pull them down from the position of head of the family and to make their family restless.
But none of that matters anymore. The most important thing now is to save your life. If you lose your life, then you have no hope at all.
As long as I can save my life now, everything will be easy in the future.