After the New Emperor Ascended, He First Demoted Me to Farming - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The day I returned to the capital, the sky was clear.

Three months ago, I had been sent out of the capital in the rain.

Three months later, I came back in a prison cart.

The commoners filled the streets to watch.

Some cursed me as a traitor.

Others whispered, “Is she the one from North Ridge who grew grain?”

Zheng Chong knew how to arrange a spectacle.

He did not send me to the Ministry of Justice. Instead, he had me escorted straight to Chengtian Gate.

An interrogation platform had been erected there.

All the officials were present.

The New Emperor was there as well.

Xie Xuan sat high above them, dressed in imperial robes.

He was much thinner than he had been on the day of his enthronement, and his lips were pale.

Across the crowd, our eyes met.

He said nothing.

Neither did I.

Zheng Chong stepped forward.

“Your Majesty, Jiang Wan privately misused imperial seeds, incited the refugees of Qingzhou, and colluded with former military-farm personnel. The evidence is conclusive.”

Xie Xuan’s voice was very cold.

“The evidence.”

Zheng Chong presented several confessions.

According to them, I had secretly kept shadow guards in North Ridge, bribed the villagers, and intended to use the grain case to overturn my father’s old conviction.

Every charge was half true and half false.

The hardest kind to refute.

Listening to him, I almost wanted to praise him for his seasoned cunning.

Xie Xuan asked me, “Jiang Wan, do you admit to it?”

I knelt below the platform.

“Half of it.”

An uproar swept through the assembly.

Zheng Chong’s eyes lit up.

“Which half?”

“I do not admit to secretly keeping shadow guards.”

I looked toward Shen Zhao.

“He belongs to His Majesty, and he is terrible at farming. I was not especially inclined to keep him.”

Someone among the officials failed to hold back a laugh.

Shen Zhao knelt beside me, his face numb.

I continued, “I do not admit to bribing the villagers either. North Ridge is poor. I couldn’t afford it.”

Zheng Chong snapped, “Insolence!”

I looked at him.

“I admit to privately misusing the imperial seeds.”

“Why?”

“Because Qiubai can keep people alive.”

From my sleeve, I took out a handful of grain stalks.

“Qingzhou North Ridge has heavy frost and thin soil, yet Qiubai can still bear grain. If it were only planted in the imperial fields for you honored lords to look at, that would be the true waste.”

Zheng Chong sneered.

“You, the daughter of a convicted official, dare speak of keeping people alive?”

I raised my head.

“Back then, my father guarded the northern border and escorted three hundred thousand dan of grain. It vanished halfway, and he was convicted of treason.”

“The Qingzhou Grain Transport Administration ran deficits for three years. Disaster victims had no grain. The account books were burned.”

“Chancellor Zheng, all of these matters have to do with grain.”

Zheng Chong narrowed his eyes.

“You want to overturn the case?”

“I do.”

I answered very quickly.

Another wave of commotion rolled through the court.

Xie Xuan’s hand tightened on the armrest of the dragon throne.

Zheng Chong laughed.

“Your Majesty has heard her. This woman’s intentions are plain for all to see.”

I said, “What are you so anxious about, Chancellor Zheng?”

He looked at me.

“The real accounts from Qingzhou were burned. Prefect Liang is dead. The escort party was ambushed. It looks as if the dead can no longer testify.”

“Glad you understand.”

I smiled faintly.

“But after farming in North Ridge for three months, I learned one thing.”

“What?”

“Accounts can burn.”

I lifted the grain stalks.

“Seeds cannot.”

When Uncle Zhou was brought up, he had a worn cloth sack slung over his back.

Zheng Chong’s expression changed slightly.

Uncle Zhou knelt and took dozens of thumbprinted papers from the sack.

“This commoner, Zhou Youtian, submits the grain distribution records on behalf of the people of twenty-seven villages in Qingzhou, including North Ridge, East Slope, Shikou, and Liugou.”

The papers recorded how many Qiubai seeds each village had received, how many households they had been divided among, how much grain had been lacking in previous years, and how many people had died over the past three years.

Every sheet bore the villagers’ thumbprints.

There was also a register of the dead.

Zheng Chong shouted sternly, “What kind of evidence are commoners’ records supposed to be?”

Uncle Zhou looked up.

“Then do the dead count?”

The area below the platform suddenly fell silent.

Uncle Zhou’s voice trembled, but it was perfectly clear.

“My grandson, Zhou Xiaoman, six years old, starved to death last winter.”

A woman followed with a crying shout.

“My husband, Li Cheng, carried grain into the granary and never came home. They said he fled corvée service, but his bones were found in Blackwind Gorge.”

Someone else cried out.

“My family received government relief grain. Half a dou of sand in every dou of rice!”

More and more voices rose.

At last, Zheng Chong began to panic.

“Your Majesty, these unruly peasants are being manipulated!”

Xie Xuan stood.

“Enough.”

His voice was not loud, yet it overpowered everyone.

“Summon Pei Yan.”

My head snapped up.

At the far end of the crowd, Pei Yan was being supported as he walked toward us.

His face was pale, and his body still bore wounds.

In his arms, he held a scorched wooden box.

“This subject, Pei Yan, was attacked while escorting the real accounts. Fortunately, I have not failed my duty.”

The wooden box was opened.

Inside was half a charred account book.

And a private seal of the Zheng estate.

Xie Xuan looked at Zheng Chong.

“Chancellor Zheng, may we begin the trial now?”