Chapter 369 Impeachment

Chapter 369 Impeachment

Together with Huang, they chose an auspicious day for moving, and Xie Wanniang began arranging for people to clean, repair, and decorate the new house she had just bought.

The original owner of the house had maintained it very well, so the cleaning and repair work was not heavy. It only took one day for the servants and guards brought by Xie Wan Niang to work together to take care of the house properly.

After Xie Wanniang moved in the ready-made furniture she had bought, the servants cleaned and swept it all over again. Then, Xie Wanniang led everyone to move their luggage over.

On the first day of moving, all the necessary rituals and procedures must be followed. Xie Wanniang, adapting to local customs, arranged everything in a very professional manner.

Of course, all the ceremonies and procedures were simplified for her. Even for the warm pot banquet, she only invited the Xie family, the Duchess of Du, with whom she had a long-standing relationship, as well as the mother of a child she had once saved and her two aunts.

These were all relatives of officials in the capital who had maintained contact with her. On the second day after Xie Wanniang arrived in the capital, they all sent her visiting cards and congratulatory gifts.

At that time, Xie Wanniang was still living in the Xie family, so it was not appropriate to put on a show to entertain them, but fortunately she quickly bought a house and moved out.

Now that she has her own home, she should start to take charge of social interactions and other such matters again.

It should be noted that the Du Guogong's wife, who was originally a merchant, now has a son and a daughter of her own.

Although Duke Du treated her and her two children very well, she did not take advantage of his favor and remained dutiful.

She never coveted the title of Duke of Du; all she thought about every day was how to raise her children well so that they could stand on their own two feet in the world.

From Xie Wanniang's drastically different circumstances, she realized that as long as one is born as a human being, regardless of gender, one must ultimately possess one's own skills to make a living in this world.

Otherwise, she would end up like him. No matter how much her father loved her or how much she humbled herself before her stepmother, she would inevitably be pushed into hell by those with ulterior motives.

On the other hand, Xie Wanniang also encountered danger and misfortune, but she always managed to turn the tide with her own abilities.

Others can stand up for their father, the Prince, and rise from a helpless orphan to a princess through their own efforts, even choosing their own husbands. But she can only cling to her current husband like a vine clinging to a tree.

Of course, she was also very satisfied with her husband. Although Duke Du had a bad reputation outside, he was still a good husband at home, by her side.

Even after she entered the household, Duke Du sent all his former concubines to his son's house to enjoy their "later years".

Yes, Duke Du had already separated his adult sons from his concubines ahead of time.

He did this not for his young wife—he hadn't even met her yet—but for the children he had with his first wife.

On the surface, Duke Du is a carefree and irresponsible old playboy, but when it comes to doing things, he is more reliable than those seemingly shrewd family heads. He not only knows how to cut off delusions, but he will also take action without hesitation.

Thanks to him, the Duchess of Du's family got along relatively well with her stepsons and stepdaughters.

They gave her the most basic respect, and she, being sensible, never acted like a stepmother, but simply dutifully took care of her husband and raised her children.

As for her maternal father and stepmother, as well as her clansmen and relatives, she had already retaliated against those who had harmed her and repaid those who had been kind to her. As for those who were greedy and wanted to take advantage of her becoming the Duchess of the State to rise to power and do whatever they wanted, she handed them all over to the Duke of Du to deal with.

Duke Du never indulged even his own son, so naturally he would be even less lenient with his second wife's relatives. He instructed the local government to severely punish all those who tried to cause trouble in the village and bully others.

As for the other party's parents and brothers making a fuss with his father-in-law, or coming directly to his wife to complain, his wife has always been on the same side as him. His father-in-law really wanted to protect his relatives and friends, but he had already been frightened by Duke Du and was too scared to do anything about it.

As a result, Lady Du became increasingly favored by her husband, and her life became more and more peaceful and happy.

The boy who had once been on the verge of death changed his surname to his mother's after returning to his mother and uncle's side.

His public identity also changed from his mother's biological son to his mother's adopted nephew.

To prevent his biological father and stepmother from causing trouble, he did not make a single public appearance in the capital during the first three years.

It wasn't until he grew up and his appearance changed from when he was a child due to his deliberate tanning and style transformation that he stopped deliberately avoiding those familiar faces from his past.

Of course, even so, it's not that no one recognizes him, but as long as he insists on denying it, even if others recognize him, they can't provide concrete evidence to prove that he is the person they used to know.

Others were fine with it and didn't care about his identity, but his biological father and stepmother were troubled and unable to eat or sleep because of his appearance.

His father sent people to test the waters multiple times, using every possible means, but each time he returned empty-handed.

But the more this happened, the more uneasy his biological father and stepmother felt.

They were certain that this child was the same one they had claimed to have gotten lost while playing, but they lacked conclusive evidence to prove that this was the child they were looking for.

Not every child has obvious markings that allow them to be identified from birth. This child happens to be the kind who, even if switched at birth, cannot be found by birthmarks, moles, or other characteristics.

He was healthy with smooth skin and had no obvious genetic traits such as six fingers, short fingers, toad eyes, hooked nose, or extremely dark or fair skin, nor did he have any birthmarks, moles, or red moles.

As for the fact that he looks like his mother, in his mother's words, it's not unusual for a nephew to look like his aunt.

Moreover, his mother said that the reason she adopted the child was because he looked like her son who had been lost by her ex-husband's family.

With these words, the last loophole that the child's biological father's family could use to find fault was plugged.

They couldn't produce any concrete evidence to prove that the child was the one they had lost, so they tried to use a blood test to determine kinship, taking a final gamble. However, the child's mother and uncle acted like they had gone mad. They only wanted to take a little blood from the child, but the other party acted as if they wanted to kill the child, directly confronting them head-on without regard for the bigger picture.

They thought the other party was unreasonable, but little did they know that the other party had already seen through their ill intentions.

They did indeed only want to take the child's blood at the time, but wasn't their purpose in taking the blood to bring the child back under their control?

That family, who have already lost their son and nephew once, would be foolish to let them find another reason and excuse to take the child away.

They deliberately pretended to be ignorant, insisting that the people sent by the child's biological father and stepmother were there to kill the child and cause the child's "adoptive mother" to lose her emotional support once again.

At that time, the child's two uncles were a fourth-rank official and a fifth-rank official, respectively. Although they were not yet important figures, with the ebb and flow of power, they had gained enough strength and connections to contend with the child's biological father.

The two families clashed several times, but in the end, the child's father, due to too many concerns, chose to temporarily back down and avoid the other side's sharp edge.

After that, he watched helplessly as his former brother-in-law was promoted to Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, his former brother-in-law was promoted to Right Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, and his former eldest son became the top scholar in the imperial examination at the young age of nineteen, making him famous throughout the capital.

Two brothers from the same family, one a third-rank official and the other a fourth-rank official, is a very rare occurrence in the capital.

Not to mention that the family's children were all successful, and for a time, many nobles and powerful officials included this family in their list of people they wanted to befriend.

The child's biological father, however, has not made any progress in his career over the years. Not only has his official position remained the same, but the income from his family's business has also decreased year by year.

In this situation, it would be very difficult for his biological father and stepmother to maintain a calm mindset.

They were jealous of the child's two uncles' meteoric rise to power, and also jealous of the child's mother and aunt, who were both financial experts who managed the family business to a great extent.

The child's father had long regretted his past actions, while the child's stepmother wished she could just rob her husband's ex-wife of his dowry and put it in her own name.

She didn't have much dowry to begin with, and coupled with her poor management skills, her dowry has been shrinking over the years.

Yet she always compared herself to her husband's ex-wife in everything, whether it was her own food, clothing, and daily necessities, or her children's food, clothing, housing, education, and reputation... She desperately wanted to outdo that mother and son.

She earns little and spends a lot, and her children are far less successful than her husband's eldest son, which makes her extremely anxious every day.

In addition, her husband is not a considerate person. For the sake of his reputation, he will not say that he regrets it in front of outsiders, but he will throw a tantrum in front of his current wife, comparing her with his ex-wife and saying that she is not as good as his ex-wife.

His current wife dared not speak out against her anger, and lived a life of resentment and humiliation every day.

When you're in a bad mood, you look older. While the child's mother was getting younger and younger, her and her husband's lives were becoming more and more difficult.

They dreamed that the family would suffer misfortune, but the family's life only got better and better every day.

The child's mother, uncle, and aunt felt relieved and were even more grateful to Xie Wanniang's family for saving the child.

Sure enough, as soon as Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuancai arrived in the capital, they took the initiative to contact each other.

As neutral parties like the Xie family, their willingness to disregard their political stance and befriend Jiang Yuan and Xie Wanniang demonstrates their genuine gratitude towards Xie Wanniang's family.

Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan held a small hot pot feast, thinking they were being discreet and careful enough. However, Jiang Yuan was attacked by several colleagues the day after they moved.

The opposing side impeached Jiang Yuan in the imperial court for corruption and bribery, accusing him of using the people's hard-earned money to satisfy his own selfish desires.

Jiang Yuan was completely stunned when he heard this. Wait, when did he start plundering the people? How come he didn't know about this?

What he didn't know was that his impeachment was actually orchestrated by the Second Prince, Prince Chu, and the Third Prince, Prince Lu.

Both men saw the Crown Prince as a thorn in their side, and Jiang Yuan, as a young military general favored by the Emperor and relied upon by the Crown Prince, naturally became their primary target for suppression.

His and Xie Wanniang's every move since arriving in the capital has long been observed by those who are interested.

The reason he was impeached this time was quite simple—his family had actually bought such a large mansion in Rong'anfang, Beijing.

The people who spearheaded the impeachment of Jiang Yuan were censors Pang Wenyuan and Ma Chengye.

In their memorial, the two men stated that Jiang Yuan was just a poor boy with no one to rely on, and given his family circumstances and background, it was impossible for him to inherit much property from his parents.

With the salary and rewards he received during his years in the military, there was absolutely no way he could have bought such a large and nice three-courtyard house in Rong'anfang.

Based on this, the two deduced that Jiang Yuan must have embezzled and accepted bribes during his tenure, and had amassed a great deal of wealth from the people.

After Pang Wenyuan and Ma Chengye finished speaking in unison, Zhou Shi'an, the secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, and Wu Liangbi, the principal of the Ministry of War, also began to chime in with their own words.

The four men, their expressions agitated and their words flying, went on to exaggerate Jiang Yuan's "corrupt" behavior in the imperial court.

In their words, they had already swiftly and decisively convicted Jiang Yuan.

On his first day in court, Jiang Yuan was so arbitrarily accused of numerous crimes, which he found both amusing and speechless.

He stood in the ranks of court officials, listening to Pang Wenyuan and others righteously and sternly accuse him, without the slightest sign of panic on his face.

Looking down at his brand-new official robes, Jiang Yuan couldn't help but smile slightly.

He patiently waited until the four men finished speaking before slowly stepping out of the line, saying, "Lord Pang, you are mistaken."

Jiang Yuan bowed respectfully to His Majesty the Emperor on the throne, his voice steady and powerful, his enunciation clear, "Although, as Lord Pang said, I am merely a poor boy with no family background, and after many years in the army, my salary and rewards combined are indeed insufficient to buy that house. But my colleagues may not know this, but although I lack ability myself, I have married a good wife. All the money in my household is earned by my wife, and she also paid for the house."

His words caused an uproar in the court. Apart from the emperor, the crown prince, and a few well-informed individuals, everyone else's first reaction was disbelief.

Pang Wenyuan scoffed, "Lord Jiang, your words are utterly absurd! Princess Huian comes from the Xie family, a scholarly family, not a merchant family. She is just a young woman who has never been involved in commerce before marrying Lord Jiang. How could she have earned such a large sum of money in just a few years after marrying Lord Jiang? Could it be that you are deliberately fabricating lies to cover up your embezzlement?"