All Hail Cousin Brother

Chapter 910: Balancing

Translator: Atlas Studios    Editor: Atlas Studios

When the case was promoted to the government office and the case was publicly tried, it meant that they had further grasped relevant people and physical evidence. There was a breakthrough in the case.

Liu Dagen’s death seemed complicated, but it was actually not difficult to investigate. With Ye Xiaoci’s ability, this case could be investigated in three to five days.

Any brilliant doctor could tell if the ox bezoar was real or fake.

After carefully sorting out the many things that had happened recently, Yu Youyao understood.

The vassal lords, the government, and the nobles restrained one another, forming a stable and deeply rooted balance that was not easy to break.

The first time the balance was broken was when the Di people invaded on a large scale. Whether they won or lost, it seriously threatened the interests of the nobles.

The nobles did not really have the strength to resist the vassal lords. The balance was based on the fact that the strength of the three sides was the same, and no one could shake the position of the others.

The former Marquis of Weining had discovered that Ning Yuanbo’s participation had tilted the balance of power towards the nobles, preventing the government from interfering. In the end, it ended with the tragic death of King Li of Zhou’s family.

The second time this balance was broken was this sudden drought.

This drought caused some subtle changes in the interests of the three sides.

Princess Shaoyi planted sweet potatoes and eased the drought in the North, allowing King Yue Fei, who had helped Princess Shaoyi promote the planting of sweet potatoes among the commoners, to gain the initiative under the balance of the three sides.

The center of gravity began to lean towards King Yue Fei.

After that, King Yue Fei’s recovery caused the nobles to panic. They did not dare to sit still and wait for death. They tried to use the same trick again.

Using the method they had used to deal with King Li of Zhou back then, they would restrict the You army in terms of supplies and further achieve their goal of restraining King Yue Fei.

As a result, the checks and balances further cracked.

However, the noble still did not know it because they had a death exemption card in their hands.

The Imperial Court placed King Yue Fei in an important position and even gave him many honors because he could stabilize the situation in the North.

However, at the same time, the Imperial Court had also sent Ning Changbo, an old general who had been on the battlefield for a long time. During the rebellion in Shandong, he had fought side by side with King Yue Fei to support the battle. On the surface, it looked like it was because King Yue Fei’s legs were disabled and he couldn’t go to the battlefield, but in fact, it was to let Chang

Ningbo replace King Yue Fei in the future to guard the North.

In fact, they wanted to remove his governance of the North.

The imperial court was more at ease with the generals guarding the North than the vassal lords.

It had to be said that the emperor’s plan was indeed brilliant.

However, King Yue Fei’s sudden recovery undoubtedly foiled the emperor’s plan. While the emperor valued Yue Fei, he would also be more afraid of him.

This was the result of the nobles restricting King Yue Fei.

However, in Yu Youyao’s opinion, this was courting death. Once the balance was broken, there would always be people who would be sacrificed for benefits. King Li of Zhou’s family was number one.

However, King Li of Zhou had died tragically previously, so Yin Huaixi would definitely not become second.

This was the best time for Yin Huaixi to deal with the nobles.

Yin Huaixi knew very well that if he wanted to defeat the “nobles”, he had to obtain the support of the Imperial Court first.

It was necessary to dismantle the Imperial Court’s trust in the nobles.

Yin Huaixi quietly began to make arrangements, intending to further dismantle the balance between the three sides. He deliberately accommodated refugees wantonly in the area with more resources in Liaodong and actively helped the Imperial Court relief the disaster.

This was the outcome that the Imperial Court was willing to see.

He had let the world see that in the face of a drought, the Imperial Court was not helpless.

It further gained the trust of the Imperial Court.

However, those nobles who were indifferent in the face of the calamity naturally invited criticism from the commoners, causing the Imperial Court to be dissatisfied.

After accepting a large number of refugees, food became the biggest problem.

How to resolve this problem was even more logical for Yin Huaixi. In the name of further expanding the planting of sweet potatoes and alleviating the drought in the North, he invited Princess Shaoyi to the North to help promote the planting of sweet potatoes and obtained the support of the Xie Residence in Quanzhou.

At that time, the Empress Dowager was still in charge of the royalists. Princess Shaoyi belonged to the royalists and was impartial. She was only there to help the country. The court officials were happy to see all of this.

This move received strong support from the court officials.

Yin Huaixi had further gained the trust of the Imperial Court, and the cracks in the balance were becoming bigger and bigger.

After completely taking control of the situation, Yin Huaixi began to induce the wind in the refugee camp. The refugees had fled to Liaodong and were bound to live here in the future. However, the North lacked supplies. How were they going to settle such a huge number of refugees?

This could be done by teaching the refugees how to raise silkworms, fish, and so on. However, could refugees settle down just because they had a skill? Of course not!

In fact, the resources in the North were controlled by the nobles. Without the support of the nobles, there was no way for a large number of refugees to survive in the North.

The spearhead was directed at the nobles, further inflaming the Imperial

Court’s dissatisfaction with them.

Only at this moment did Yu Youyao come to a realization.

Earlier, after talking to her maternal grandfather, she had mentioned

Emperor Gaozu. Back then, the various “national policies” that he had implemented in the North had enlightened her. She suddenly thought of using the “national policies” to take in refugees wantonly and settle them down, so as to increase the population of the North and resolve the embarrassing situation of low productivity and insufficient supplies.

However, what if all of this was caused by Yin Huaixi?

Yin Huaixi had helped the Imperial Court resolve the problem of the refugees.

Taking in the refugees was in line with the interests of the Imperial Court and King Yue Fei. King Yue Fei and the Imperial Court had reached an agreement on the benefits, and the relationship was unbreakable.

However, the resettlement of the refugees required the strong cooperation of the local nobles. This seriously violated the interests of the nobles.

The series of schemes seemed complicated, but they were actually just to completely dismantle the Imperial Court’s trust in the nobles step by step.

When the interests of the Imperial Court conflicted with the interests of the nobles, the nobles had unknowingly become the opposite of the Imperial Court.

More than a million refugees had gathered in the North. The nobles had only donated symbolically and did not support them strongly. This was not in the interests of the Imperial Court.

Was it because they were bold and ignored the national policy?

NO!

Were they too stupid to ignore the calamity?

Not really!

Was it that they couldn’t see the situation clearly and ignored the Imperial Court?

Instead, they were already in a dilemma under King Yue Fei’s meticulous plan.

On the one hand, they were worried and wouldn’t dare to give King Yue Fei too much support and let him gain power, lest he arouse the emperor’s suspicion. If the aristocratic families were related to the vassal lords, that would be a disaster.

On the other hand, King Li of Zhou’s death had already caused most of the noble families to walk towards the opposite side of King Yue Fei. Such enemies of the country were irreconcilable. The nobles had no way out. They did not have the guts to ignore the national policy. They could only “perfect” the national policies and try to use resources to further restrict King Yue Fei.

If incidents, such as riots and epidemics, in a refugee camp were caused by a lack of supplies, this was the outcome that the nobles were willing to see..