My house was confiscated and I was exiled. I emptied the emperor's warehouse and fled.

Mother and son haven't seen each other for many years, and they have endless things to talk about.

However, as their relatives came together, both of them restrained themselves. After a while, they stopped talking and met the clan members.

Most of the sons born to the ancestors of the Qin family died in battle, and now only the second uncle Qin and the fourth brother Qin Ji are left. However, he also has many adopted sons, and he chose three of his favorite adopted sons as adopted sons.

The adopted son only occupies a title, but the adopted son has the same affection as his father and son. Those adopted sons changed their surname to Qin and became part of the Qin family. After the death of the ancestor, the superior late prince separated his unrelated younger brother according to his will and became a common branch of the Qin family.

The late prince followed the example of his father and left a will early on, asking Qin Junyi to give away all his adopted sons after his death.

However, after the catastrophe that killed the late prince in battle many years ago, and the difficult battle to regain the territory in recent years, only two of the late prince's adopted sons were left, and they became members of the family.

Now that they arrive in Beiling Village, the old lady is their nominal mother and grandmother, and all branches of the family must meet her immediately.

Since they did not have the blood of the Qin family, these concubines felt that they were a head shorter and kept their posture very low. They were more than respectful to the old lady but not close enough.

If you ignore the title, it is not much different from a retainer.

The old lady doesn't have much affection for the four-room concubine raised in the palace, let alone these adopted sons and grandchildren who are far away from each other and have no blood relationship with the Qin family. Therefore, he wore a decent expression on his face and went through the motions of socializing.

Su Yunwan sat quietly as she did last time, watching each clan member respectfully pay homage to the old lady in the order of their respective houses.

Even though the old lady was a little perfunctory, it was already noon by the time all the clan members had paid their respects.

Qin Junyi had long been worried that his beloved wife would be hungry. As soon as he saw something happened, he immediately went to serve someone.

After the meal, the tribesmen arranged for the residents to stay.

Qin Junyi accompanied Su Yunwan back to his room, and then he had time to talk privately: "Wanwan, I have asked my father-in-law to report directly to the government office. If nothing happens, the Yue family will stay in the village in the city."

These days, Su Yunwan should be eating and drinking, and was not affected by the Su family's affairs at all.

Based on Qin Junyi's understanding of Zhou Mu, the other party would probably arrange for the Su family to stay in the urban village of Fucheng as hostages.

Once the Qin family has the intention to rebel, Qin Junyi will not ignore the Yue family as the head of the Qin family, regardless of righteousness or family affection.

Qin Junyi's only current request was not to disturb Wanwan, so he got what he wanted.

"As long as they are not assigned to Yanyun County." Su Yunwan didn't want them to dominate by relying on their relationship with the Qin family.

However, none of them knew that the smooth situation in recent months was about to break, and things would soon change.

After the Su family was sent to the government office, they used the activity funds sent by the new emperor to redeem all their female relatives.

The chief bookkeeper collected a large stack of banknotes, but did not agree to the Su family's request to arrange it near the son-in-law's home: "You should stay in the village south of the city, it is safer."

Saying this, the chief clerk felt a little ashamed.

Nowadays, the city wall of Beiling Village is stronger than the city wall of Fucheng, and there are a large number of garrison guards. Even if it is located in the north, it is still safer than Fucheng.

Su's father turned his eyes and looked at the escorting leader.

The other party took out a token with the word "内" written on it from his pocket: "Take me to see Mr. Zhou Mu and then decide where the Su family will go."

When the chief clerk saw it, he was shocked and immediately sent someone to report it.

Soon, the imperial guard saw Zhou Mu.

Zhou Mu received him politely, and when he heard that the other party wanted the Su family to be assigned to be near the Qin family, he suddenly looked confused: "Do you want the Su family to be taken care of? To be honest, I have assigned the Qin family to the most dangerous place in the north. , that place is really not a good place to go.”

"Just do as I'm told." The other party said arrogantly.

As a local overlord, Zhou Mu was frustrated in front of Qin Junyi, but now an imperial guard who was far away from the emperor dared to act wild in front of him. His face suddenly turned cold and he said coldly: "I dare to ask, sir, this is the Holy One's. Will?"

The man held his head high, clasped his fists in the direction of the capital, and said proudly: "The Holy One, thinking of the righteousness of the monarch and his ministers, takes special care of the Su family."

"Scoff!" Zhou Mu scoffed without concealing his sarcasm.

"Bold! How dare you disrespect the Holy One?!"

Zhou Mu showed his true face and said disdainfully: "If you really cared about me, you wouldn't have sent the Su family there knowing that the Qin family was in danger. You are either falsely conveying the imperial edict or avenging private revenge. I don't care where you are. One kind wants me to obey orders, so get the imperial edict first!"

"The Holy Spirit's oral instructions have no clear purpose."

"There is no basis for it, so forgive me for not being able to do it!"

The Ouchi guard threatened angrily: "You! If you ruin the good things of the Holy One, I will see how many heads you have!"

Little did he know, his words made Zhou Mu's heart move, and he fell silent immediately.

Knowing that he had made a mistake, the other party immediately lowered his voice and threatened: "Master Zhou Mu, you are in a high position, you should know that certain words should be kept in your stomach, right?"

"Then you should also know that there is a word in the world called hush money."

"How are you doing?"

Zhou Mu showed a look of concern for the country and the people: "In the past few months, various parts of Youzhou have suffered from snow disasters, and the situation is extremely serious. Please help me apply for a disaster relief silver tael, not much, just one hundred thousand taels."

"That's not much! Do you know that now the treasury is empty and there is no money for disaster relief!" Ouchi's guard was furious.

As the Ouchi bodyguard, he knew that all the money from the national treasury and the inner treasury had been stolen. The emperor had been relying on squeezing courtiers and selling officials to raise money, and sent troops to kill the rebellious Prince Li. Now the war was in a stalemate, with no outcome in sight.

In addition, the Beidi Army in the northwest has been making constant moves and is likely to make a comeback. The imperial court was in turmoil, so there was no time to worry about disaster relief.

However, Zhou Mu did not relent: "That's why I need to trouble you, sir."

Seeing that he was unable to get in, the imperial guards had to inform him in detail about the current situation of the court as well as internal and external troubles.

However, what he didn't know was that after hearing about the turmoil in the court and the unrest in the world, Zhou Mu not only became less fearful of the imperial power, but also had the idea of ​​separatist rule.

But if the Qin family really breaks away and rules the roost, the Qin family will become the biggest opponent. Why not...