The Devil's Coming [Quick Transmigration]

When Xu Mingjin was released, he was still a little dazed.

He was bathed in the spring sunshine, and couldn't help stretching out his fingers to catch the golden rays of light, watching them jump on his fingertips like elves, with a dreamy look on his face.

So much so that he didn't listen to what the people around him said.

There was only one thought circling in his mind: he was free!

—— He had been locked up in that dark cell for too long, so long that he didn't even know how long it had been, so long that his anger and resentment had been worn away.

When he was first imprisoned, he couldn't believe it and couldn't accept it. In the cold cell, he resented the cruelty of the Duke's Mansion, cursed the "Li Sanlang" who took everything from him, and cursed the injustice of fate and the blindness of heaven.

Every morning when he woke up, he hoped that everything was just a nightmare last night, and he would still be the much-watched prince of the Duke of Wei after waking up, with a high bed and soft pillows under him, and a maid would come forward to help him wash up the next moment.

But all he saw were the dark and cold prison bars, the dark and damp walls, and the cellmate next door who snored loudly. There was no high bed and soft pillows, no maids and servants, only a sloppy, embarrassed, and smelly self - and this was the real reality.

At first, he still had the energy to be angry, resentful, curse, and scold, and even held a faint expectation. He hoped that the Duke of Wei and his wife just wanted to teach him a lesson, and take him out after he had suffered enough. He hoped that they would be soft-hearted one day, and suddenly remembered the adopted son he had raised for more than ten years, even if it was just to make him live a better life in prison... But none of these were there, none of them. He was like an orphan without a father or a mother, and was completely forgotten.

As time went by, the resentment and anger he once had gradually become numb, and he began to regret why he had done so many small actions. If he could do it again, he would definitely suppress his resentment from the beginning and be friendly and respectful to "Li Sanlang".

Xu Mingjin comforted himself that it was only a year, and it would not take long before he could get out. At that time, he could go to the Duke's Mansion to sincerely admit his mistakes, appeal to their emotions, and make them understand that he was just confused for a moment. The father-son and brotherly friendship of so many years, and the efforts that the Duke's Mansion had spent on him, would not be forgotten by them. Even if they no longer accept him, they should not completely ignore him for the sake of their reputation.

Relying on these ideas that may or may not be realistic, and relying on the hope given to himself again and again, he persisted in the dim cell, counting the dates day by day, waiting for the day to regain his freedom.

But Xu Mingjin did not wait for that day.

The one-year term has expired. All the prisoners who were arrested at the same time as him and sentenced to one year in prison have been released, but Xu Mingjin has only been transferred from one cell to another, from the originally crowded Jingzhao Yin prison to another cell that he himself does not know - even the cellmate next door who he once despised is gone.

The environment of the new cell is much cleaner and tidier than before. There are no cockroaches everywhere, no cellmates snoring loudly, no jailers who order him around... But such a single room treatment did not make him happy, but made him panic.

He tried to ask what happened, but no one answered his doubts, as if he was imprisoned on an isolated island.

The treatment is much better than before, but Xu Mingjin's heart is tortured. He feels like a piglet that is fattened in a pigsty and then slaughtered. Even if he eats and drinks well every day, the fear in his heart is growing day by day.

——All this is too abnormal, so abnormal that it scares him.

When he was brought out just now, Xu Mingjin almost thought that he was going to be taken to the execution ground.

But now, the facts are very different from his imagination.

Xu Mingjin looked at the eunuch who was announcing the decree in front of him with a shocked face: "What did you just say? I am the son of the previous emperor?!" Not only that, but I was also granted a fiefdom by the current emperor? !

The eunuch could fully understand the shock of this person, but he did not mean to explain too much, but continued in a serious manner: "The imperial decree has been issued, please ask the King of Han to go to the fiefdom today."

Xu Mingjin took the imperial decree in a daze, and the whole person was confused.

While he was still in a daze, the emperor's actions were quite neat. He was just released from prison in the morning, and he packed him up and sent him away in the afternoon, and even a bunch of subordinates had been selected.

Xu Mingjin, although he should be called King of Han Gao, but the familiar name Xu Mingjin seems to be more convenient to call - when Xu Mingjin finally woke up from the huge surprise, he was already sitting in the carriage to the fiefdom.

The newly crowned King of Han asked his attendants and finally understood what had happened during the three years he was imprisoned.

On the winter solstice three years ago, the eldest prince plotted a rebellion and was imprisoned. Emperor Huiming abdicated and the third prince ascended the throne.

Half a year after the new emperor ascended the throne, the emperor died of illness.

Half a year after the emperor died of illness, at the first winter solstice banquet after the new emperor ascended the throne, the new emperor pardoned many traitors, including the eldest prince who had been demoted to a commoner and imprisoned and the second prince who was exiled, and selected the best among the kings to become kings and assist the emperor in governing the world.

At the second winter solstice banquet, several more princes were enfeoffed, and several county kings, although not given fiefdoms, also received official positions in the court and got rid of their embarrassing status.

In addition, a large number of clan children were tested and appreciated by His Majesty, and were assigned to do practical work according to their talents.

Who would have thought that the second prince, who had been demoted to a commoner and exiled to the frontier by the previous emperor, and who was pardoned and even named the King of Wei by the new emperor, was ungrateful and plotted evil, so he was executed.

The second prince's actions did not implicate other members of the royal family, making them no longer trusted by the emperor. On the contrary, they were more trusted by the new emperor and were assigned by the new emperor to various parts of the world to serve as his wings.

In short, since the new emperor ascended the throne, the rule that royal family members could not be officials or hold power was abolished. More and more royal family members got opportunities, from being kings to local officials, and no longer enjoying the support of the court for nothing.

After more than three years, except for the young royal family members who were still studying, there was almost no one who ate and drank for free. Even the uncooperative dandy children had to come out to work after being severely educated by their fathers.

And the newly-minted King of Han was probably the last royal family member who was still supported for nothing when he reached the age to work.

——Although his situation is special and he would not be recognized under normal circumstances, the new emperor recognized his royal bloodline.

This made Xu Mingjin ecstatic.

He didn't want to think about why he was imprisoned for two more years in vain and was only released now since the new emperor was magnanimous, and he didn't want to know what complicated reasons the new emperor had for making him king. He only knew that he was the son of the previous emperor and that he had a more noble bloodline than the current emperor!

Sure enough, he was never a humble person!

What Duke of Wei's Mansion! What Duke of Wei's son! He is a prince! He didn't blame the Xu family for delaying him in vain! Otherwise, he could have sat on the throne!

During the time he spent in the cell, Xu Mingjin was trembling with fear all day long. Now that he learned the truth about his life and was made king, all his fears turned into ecstasy. If he hadn't been urged to go on the road before he could react, he would definitely have stayed in Shangjing and taken a good look at the expressions of the Xu family father and son.

Thinking of this, Xu Mingjin was very annoyed.

But he was not in a hurry. With his current status and position, he could take revenge on the Xu family at any time. Considering that it was not good to be so focused on revenge just after becoming the King of Han, it might affect the new emperor's impression of him. Although he felt that the new emperor had just picked up his loopholes, Xu Mingjin decided to temporarily secure the position of the King of Han and then find a way to take revenge later...

And the servants and ministers around him also advised him in the same way. As soon as they arrived at the fiefdom, they began to actively offer suggestions and help the King of Han govern the place. They looked wise and wise.

Could it be that all these were carefully selected by the new emperor?

Xu Mingjin was shocked and had a little vigilance in his heart.

He thought it was better to cultivate his own people as soon as possible, so after arriving at the place, he tried to collect local talents and strive to have his own small team outside of these people.

Historically, there have always been treacherous ministers around monarchs, and they always like to use treacherous ministers, of course, because treacherous ministers speak well and are considerate. Such people who speak well gradually appeared in Xu Mingjin's team, and there were more than one or two... When the team that followed him advised him to be close to virtuous officials and stay away from villains, Xu Mingjin always felt that it was the emperor's people who wanted to deal with his confidant.

He was unhappy and always perfunctorily responded, and then turned around and chatted with the confidant who was considerate and spoke well.

Unknowingly, several months had passed, and it was the winter solstice again. King Han was summoned to Beijing in advance to attend the palace banquet.

After returning to Shangjing, Xu Mingjin, who was in high spirits, was still thinking about how to take revenge on the Xu family.

He only knew that the Duke of Wei had no real power now and was mostly disliked by the emperor. There was even a legend that the Duke of Wei's son met an immortal. A few years ago, it was written in "Shangjing Secrets" with a solemn oath that the emperor died early because of a heavenly order. It was really outrageous!

Xu Mingjin didn't believe these statements at all. It was just like the stories in "Secrets of Shangjing" about "After the Fake Prince's Background Was Exposed". There are dozens of possibilities until now, and people are talking about it with relish. But as the person involved, doesn't he know whether it is true or false? It's ridiculous that Li Sanlang, who knew that he had been raised in the countryside for many years, used this method to elevate himself, and even deceived the world.

For a while, Xu Mingjin felt that everyone was drunk and he was the only one who was sober.

And this time when he came back, he not only wanted to expose the halo on the other party, but also to "repay" the imprisonment of the year.

On the day of the winter solstice, Xu Mingjin, who knew nothing about what was about to happen, stepped into the palace of Shangjing with high spirits.

But what greeted him were the clan children who looked nervous, frowned, and even sighed.

Xu Mingjin's heart skipped a beat.

- Is this the Hongmen Banquet set by the emperor?

Before he could ask clearly, the emperor himself had appeared.

The face of this emperor was actually full of the same nervousness. There was also anticipation in the nervousness, as if a candidate who was about to take the imperial examination was facing the most rigorous test in history, and this test was related to his future.

The following winter solstice banquet greatly opened Xu Mingjin's eyes. The first thing everyone did was to pray to the gods and worship the immortals.

And the immortal was the "Qiyun Jun" made up by Li Sanlang.

Xu Mingjin didn't want to cooperate, but he had to follow the crowd. Just as he bowed down reluctantly, large shadows fell from the sky, and his eyes suddenly became dark.

Then, a sharp pain seemed to spread from his bones, burning his soul like a raging fire.

He rolled on the ground and screamed. From the corner of his eye, he saw several royal family members rolling like him, while more people just stood there, sweating like a pulp, trembling, and everyone was burning with ominous black fire. Everything in front of him seemed to be burning in the flames.

——Even the emperor was no exception.

Xu Mingjin looked at this scene incomprehensible.

Just like he couldn't understand where the flames on his body came from.

When he was burned unconscious, Xu Mingjin finally remembered the "Secrets of Shangjing" that he had forgotten - is there really a punishment from heaven in this world?

He tried hard to recall the messy words in his mind.

The emperor was tortured by the punishment from heaven for half a year and passed away...The new emperor was worried and worked hard to govern the country...

But he couldn't remember more content.

When this unique winter solstice banquet ended, everyone seemed to have experienced torture, especially Xu Mingjin.

He finally asked the truth from other royal family members.

The flames formed by the resentment of the world are the so-called "heavenly punishment". They were originally concentrated on the emperor. On the day when the new emperor ascended the throne, half of them were divided on the new emperor.

After the former lost power, he was trapped in the palace, burned by the flames every day, and heard the wailing of countless people in his ears. Finally, he died in torture. After the new emperor came to power, he worked hard every day to govern the country, and the symptoms were alleviated.

This heavenly punishment is firmly locked on the emperor like a curse. Once he indulges in fun, he will burn his mind. Once he works hard and contributes to governing the country, it will be greatly alleviated.

As the fire of heavenly punishment left by the emperor gradually dissipated, the new emperor thought that the sky was high and the fish could jump, but with the arrival of the winter solstice in the first year of his accession to the throne, the resentment of the world boiled again, and this time it was aimed at the emperor himself!

The emperor then learned from the ghost through Xu Mingjue that this heavenly punishment had become a rule that came once a year.

It was simply an audit of the emperor's governance of the country in a year.

It just so happened that the previous emperor only cared about himself when he was in power, leaving behind a huge mess. Corrupt officials were rampant, civil uprisings continued, the people of the world were living in misery, and people's grievances were everywhere. Even if the emperor himself tried his best, it would take at least ten years to repair the country that the emperor had ruined.

——This heavenly punishment does not look at whether the emperor has tried hard to govern the world. It looks at the final result, not the process.

As long as the country that was ruined by the emperor is not repaired, it means that the emperor has not done a good job, and the heavenly punishment will not disappear.

Should he be punished by heaven for ten years to make up for the mistakes of the previous emperor?

The emperor had an idea and decided to find other people to share the burden.

He first targeted the ministers, and found that it didn't work after the test, and then he targeted the royal family, and found that it was actually feasible.

—— If the world is a company, the ministers are just workers who get paid by the emperor, and the royal family members are shareholders who receive dividends. The emperor is supported by the people of the world and holds supreme power, so the emperor is responsible for the unrest in the world. The royal family members were also supported, but they just had no power.

The emperor, who had an idea, began to think about letting the royal family members work, which was equivalent to sharing the power in his hands with them. Then he was surprised to find that they could help take the blame.

In this way, more and more royal family members who ate and drank for free were picked out by the emperor to help him share the responsibility. So on another winter solstice, they also enjoyed the treatment of heaven's punishment, and couldn't help but madly insulted the two successive emperors in their hearts!

But they didn't dare not do it.

——The killed King Wei is a lesson from the past.

—— No one really thinks that King Wei was killed because of rebellion? Of course it was because he refused to take the blame for the emperor!

In such a situation, have they ever thought about simply uniting to rebel against the emperor and then taking the throne themselves?

The idea of ​​uniting to rebel against the emperor comes every day, and they curse the emperor who is not a human being in their dreams every night.

But they really don't have the idea of ​​taking the throne themselves.

Just getting a portion of the punishment from heaven was so miserable. If he sat on the position of the emperor, wouldn't that be asking for trouble?

They couldn't rebel or go on strike. They could only curse the emperor in their hearts every day and then work honestly.

——They just hoped to clean up the mess of the previous emperor as soon as possible, so that they wouldn't have to live a life of punishment from heaven every year.

These people fantasized so humbly.

After learning the truth, Xu Mingjin finally realized it.

Why could this illegitimate child of unknown origin be recognized by the royal family and even be crowned king instead of being imprisoned for life, because the emperor was in urgent need of workers!

——The punishment he suffered today was all the water in his brain when he trusted the emperor and the treacherous ministers!

Xu Mingjin couldn't understand it.

This country belongs to the Gao family. With the noblest blood in the world, shouldn't he enjoy the support of the people of the world?

However, the cruel reality told him that the fate of the royal children was to work hard to govern the world, without any room for pleasure, and if they did not do well, they would be punished by heaven.

It would be better to be an ordinary citizen!

This cruel fact almost hit him depressed.

But he did not even have time to be depressed, and was driven back to his fiefdom to continue to be an honest worker under the emperor.

A few years later, under the multiple spurs of the emperor and heaven's punishment, Xu Mingjin, who had white hair at a young age, took his last breath on his sickbed and died young.

Before he died, he was full of reluctance and left his last words: "... I hope I will not be born in the emperor's family in the next life."

This royal blood, it's better not to have it!

The many cousins ​​surrounding him couldn't help but shed sad tears of empathy. Then, looking at Xu Mingjin who was dying on the sickbed, they beat their chests and sighed: "The King of Han didn't leave any children!"

-This is the loss of a worker but no replacement! Doesn't that mean they have to share more?

-No, go back and have more children, and the adults at home should also be taken out to work!

-Work! All go to work for the world!

.

A thousand years later.

"...If we talk about the era with the most famous ministers and the most virtuous monarchs in history, the reign of Emperor Mingzong of the Great Qi Dynasty is the first." In the history class, the history teacher spitted and was passionate, "-Can anyone analyze the reason for this?"

"I know, I know!"

The students in the audience raised their hands actively.

"…Because Mingzong was crazy about cleaning up corrupt officials, he discovered and promoted many famous and wise officials, including Chu Jizhou, who later became the prime minister and presided over the reform."

"It is necessary to clean up corrupt officials. They have oppressed the people. The emperor is the one who is condemned by heaven. How can the emperor not get rid of them? After the corrupt officials were cleared out, there were more positions vacated, and of course they had to be handed over to capable and honest officials, so there were many capable officials at that time!"

"Not only were there many capable officials, but there was also crazy internal competition."

"There is no way, who let the previous Emperor Ling leave them with a broken country, even for their own sake, they had to work hard to repair it. The emperors after them were much better, there were not so many things to repair, as long as they could maintain their achievements, the difficulty was greatly reduced."

Until the class was over, everyone was still discussing it with great interest.

"Speaking of Emperor Ling, in fact, compared with many incompetent emperors who ruined their country in history, he was still okay. As a result, he was given such a posthumous title and was scolded by his descendants for nearly a thousand years. All dynasties used him as a negative example to educate their descendants."

"After all, everyone thinks that if he hadn't done a bad job, he wouldn't have caused the immortals to come down to earth to punish the emperor. The so-called "Heaven's punishment started with Emperor Ling" means this. Mingzong gave him such a bad reputation, and no one in the court opposed it. This was a blatant venting of resentment! Not to mention Mingzong, I guess there was no one in the royal family who didn't hate him at that time."

"Hahaha, it's like the old father died and left a lot of debts. Not only the heirs have to pay off the debts, but even distant relatives have to pay them together. Who can't resent it?"

"...The rules of this heaven's punishment are too clever. I don't know if it was intentional by Qiyunjun or formed by chance. In short, whether the people live well or not determines whether the emperor is punished by heaven, whether the emperor is punished by heaven or not determines whether the officials below live well, and the officials can decide whether the people live well or not, which is a perfect self-contained cycle. "

"Yes, in this case, capable ministers will definitely be appreciated, and corrupt officials will not be able to survive at all!"

"Oh! After saying so much, in fact, a simple sentence, when the people live well or not is closely related to the emperor's life, even the most incompetent monarch can stimulate potential!"

"Don't say it, the emperors of all dynasties are quite resourceful, and have made countless attempts to escape the punishment of heaven. Various clever ghosts have taken turns to fight. Talented netizens have already summarized the "108 Ways to Escape the Punishment of Heaven", but in the end, they found that they could only govern the country honestly, which made me laugh to death."

"In short, Qiyunjun yyds!"