Within the Imperial Palace, Emperor Longteng was still in the Imperial Study Room reviewing morials.
There were dozens of morials on the desk, half of which were sent from Fuzhou.
The morials were written by the Fuzhou Emperor, demanding in an extrely harsh tone that Longteng increase this year’s taxes.
On the originally agreed basis, the Fuzhou ruler’s taxes this year increased by fifty percent, aning that Longteng’s taxes doubled from previous years.
As for the reason, the Fuzhou Emperor stated clearly that it was because of the Fuzhou Empress Dowager’s eightieth birthday, and as a Vassal Country, they needed to pay more taxes to send birthday blessings to the Empress Dowager.
Moreover, the Fuzhou Emperor also firmly stated that it must be a Prince or Princess from Emperor Longteng to personally go to send birthday congratulations, as a sign of sincerity.
"Fuzhou is really bullying us too much."
On Emperor Longteng’s handso face, anger gathered like dark clouds.
The morial in his hand was thrown to the ground, making a dull sound.
The Fuzhou Empress Dowager’s birthday was at the end of next year, yet the Fuzhou Emperor demanded soone to be sent by the end of this year.
The intention was obviously revealing.
The sudden deterioration in the Fuzhou Emperor’s attitude was sothing that Emperor Longteng, smart as he was, also guessed.
He thought it was because, a month ago, the Fuzhou noble Tu Suxia was sent back to Fuzhou.
Tu Suxia brazenly selling poppy, such poison grass, in the Imperial City of Longteng obviously couldn’t have been his action alone.
Moreover, after Tu Suxia returned to Fuzhou, he wasn’t punished and still lived gloriously.
It shows, clearly soone was instigating this from behind the scenes.
It’s very likely that the Fuzhou Emperor secretly ordered him to ship the poppy to Longteng; as for the Fuzhou Emperor’s intention, it was likely to poison Longteng’s people with poppy; if the people are weak, Longteng would be weak, and Longteng would be completely ruined.
Fortunately, the crisis of the poppy was discovered in ti, and only then did Emperor Longteng stop it.
But knowing this, Emperor Longteng couldn’t lose his temper, nor could he question the Fuzhou Emperor.
Just because he is the subject, and the Fuzhou Emperor is the ruler.
There is a distinction between ruler and subject, though both are emperors, Longteng was considerably lower.
Now even more so, they would have to lose sovereignty and disgrace the country, sending a Prince or Princess over. Whenever Emperor Longteng saw those morials, he felt a surge of evil energy that couldn’t go up or down his heart, making him very annoyed.
"Your Majesty, it’s getting late, which noble lady’s palace would you like to stay at tonight?"
Asked the little eunuch beside him.
Emperor Longteng looked at the hour, realizing it was already late into the night.
He originally wanted to say Shi Fei, but rembered that the Seventh Prince was also staying in Shi Fei’s palace in recent days. As for Empress Feng, she had earlier urged him to stay more in the palaces of other concubines, spreading favor evenly.
But there had been ghost disturbances in the palace these days, and several concubines he favored on usual days were frightened to a stupor. When they saw him, they would cry and complain, asking him to invite so high monks and Taoists into the palace.
Should such small matters even require the presence of Feng Xi in the palace?
Besides, the Crown Prince was also in the palace these days; if there were truly ghosts, how could he, being from the Taichang Holy Institute, not know?
Emperor Longteng was too lazy to deal with the crying and whining of the concubines, thought for a while, and decided to stay in the Imperial Study Room.
In a side chamber of the Imperial Study Room, there was also a bed, used by Emperor Longteng for resting.
Emperor Longteng rubbed his temples, ordered the palace lanterns to be extinguished, disrobed, and then lay down to sleep.
In the middle of the night, suddenly there were thumping sounds, as if soone was continuously slapping the doors and windows with their hands.
Emperor Longteng was very alert, and upon hearing the anomaly, he turned over and sat up.
"Who dares to act so mysteriously! I am the Human Emperor, harboring the True Dragon Qi. Today, I will see what demon or monster you are!"
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