C1605 Alone (1/2)

In the eyes of the people, the Emperor was a proud son of heaven. He was revered by all the people. Was he a king of the world, or was he a king of the kingdom?

The emperor raised his arms and called out. A million tigers threw their heads to the ground to shed blood. All the elites in the world immediately fell to their knees to kowtow!

Just thinking about it made the painting feel beautiful, but was that really the case? Of course not, the above scene was in fact just a fantasy created by the commoners themselves.

However, what was even more lamentable was that many emperors themselves were caught up in this nightmare. They watched as their subjects prostrated themselves on the ground one after another, as if he truly was the master of the world.

But were the civil and military officials on their knees truly loyal to him?

If not for this occasional discovery by the Vice General Lin, Zai Chun might not have known about the existence of such a smuggling network in the distant Fortress.

Even more so, he would not understand whether the courteous gentlemen in the imperial court had a deeper conflict of interest behind their noble words.

He might not even know that the land outside was actually sold by corrupt officials! In the apocalyptic world of the late Qing, how many officials were bribed by the Western powers? How many people had been threatened with terror?

The surface of the lake looked calm and peaceful. The emperor looked at everything and thought that the world was peaceful and beautiful. However, he had no idea how many water snake monsters were lurking deep within the mud.

Since ancient times, emperors had always been disorderly. This was because no one had ever shown him the true face of the world, especially when the emperor himself had been taught by those so-called loyal officials.

Could it be that the Confucian scholar in charge of educating the emperor had thoughts of protecting the entire bureaucracy? Had he deliberately concealed something, or magnified something?

The pitiful emperor had always been by himself. Everyone around him was scheming against him, hoping that the emperor would become a puppet controlled by their own forces. Loyalty to the Enlightened Lord was just nonsense by the Confucian Scholar.

Humans were only loyal to the strong. Humans would never be loyal to the weak!

What was even more lamentable was that no Confucian Scholar was willing to tell the Emperor the truth about the world for his own benefit. They would rather weave a beautiful dream to make the Emperor enjoy life in it.

The Forbidden City is very good, you don't have to go out, the son of a thousand gold won't sit in the hall, it's dangerous to go out ah! Besides, the emperors who go out often are not good emperors. They work for the common people and pay for their wealth. Don't you see that the Emperor lost his lands just because he loved to travel?

Your majesty, you should eat and drink and sleep with women in the Forbidden City. What? You said you like the Jiang South America scenery? Not good, why don't I build a new garden for you in Beijing? Think of it as your new toy. Go and have some fun.

Layers upon layers of artificial schemes and obstacles trapped the Emperor's body, mind, and eyes in a four-sided city, and the people outside could naturally do whatever they wanted.

Deceiving and hiding, reaching out to foreign countries, exorbitant taxes, fish and people, trade and smuggling... As long as you, the Emperor, do not see, and we are a group, who in the world can make them?

If Zai Chun hadn't brought Zai Chun out of the Forbidden City by force, he would probably never know about the place where the ancestors lived. In fact, it was being sold off, and he wouldn't even know how many of the officials there committed crimes against the sovereign.

Just as the Ningguta's private guards were moving towards the east with their witness and material evidence, the pitiful Zai Chun was locked in the confinement room of the Zhiyuan Warship, bitterly awaiting his master's return.