My Husband Is Not Easy To Mess With. - Chapter 70: Say Something Human
Chapter 70: Say Something Human
Nie Yao still didn’t know that his wife and father were playing role-play.
He hadn’t been in prison for long when the fish he was waiting for arrived.
“Lord Nie.”
The person who came this time was Lin Guizheng. This man was a famous Confucian scholar with many disciples. The former Second Prince was also his student, but that person was already dead.
Now, the one he was supposedly assisting was the son of the former Second Prince.
“I wonder who it is, turns out it’s Grand Tutor Lin.”
Nie Yao lay on the bed with his feet crossed, showing no intention of getting up even with a visitor. He glanced casually, then continued to fiddle with the dagger in his hand.
The fact that he could hold a dagger while imprisoned showed the magnitude of his influence and the arrogance of his character.
Lin Guizheng frowned slightly, his old face stern and rigid. “Lord Nie. As the son of General Nie, you shouldn’t have fallen to this point.”
“You say I shouldn’t, so I shouldn’t? What, are you the Emperor that whatever you say goes?”
Nie Yao expressed contempt for his words.
Compared to Sun Ji, he disliked people like Lin Guizheng even more, those who considered themselves righteous.
“Nie Yao. The current Emperor Yan Suilan is of illegitimate birth. As the son of Nie Lengfeng, you ought to join us in correcting the chaos and restoring order!”
Their faction had already gathered sufficient evidence to prove that the new Emperor was not the former Emperor’s son.
Furthermore, Yan Suilan was even a ge’er (a male with a unique social status, often associated with childbearing in this setting).
How could a ge’er be the Emperor?
It was utterly ridiculous!
Lin Guizheng believed that every minister of Great Yu had an obligation to follow him in eliminating the thief who stole the throne and supporting the legitimate heir as Emperor.
“Sick.” Nie Yao’s own troops were developed by himself, and had nothing to do with the old toad (referring to the former Emperor) or the entire imperial family.
Obligation?
Nie Yao: “Don’t spout nonsense in front of me, or I’ll kill you!”
He was the type that was impervious to persuasion.
If you said something he didn’t like, he would humiliate you on the spot.
Lin Guizheng was naturally no exception.
“Lord Nie, are you aware that Yan Suilan is a ge’er?”
“What if I know, what if I don’t?” Nie Yao thought, no one understood this matter better than him. Did they think such a small thing could be used as a bargaining chip to negotiate with him?
Nie Yao: “As long as my interests aren’t affected, I don’t care if the person sitting up there is a ge’er or a woman!”
He didn’t care.
But Lin Guizheng did.
Lin Guizheng revered the ancestral laws. He believed the throne should only be inherited by a Prince with legitimate royal bl00d. Anyone else would be inauthentic, and not adhering to the ancestral law was more difficult for him to accept than losing his life.
“You’ve fallen to this state, are you still planning to stand idly by? Nie Yao, the current situation doesn’t allow you to choose!”
Finally, he got to the point.
Nie Yao stopped his actions and gave the other party a look.
“You want to cooperate with me?”
“That is natural.”
“On what grounds? If you truly want to cooperate, stop wasting words and show me what you’ve got directly. Let this official see if you are qualified to work with me.”
Lin Guizheng produced the evidence that could prove the new Emperor’s lineage.
Nie Yao casually flipped through it.
He raised an eyebrow, appropriately showing a surprised expression: “The new Emperor is actually Dou Jinyuan’s biological ge’er?”
“Yes!”
The fact that such a traitor could ascend the throne made Lin Guizheng furious.
He believed that such evidence was already enough to compel Nie Yao to cooperate with them.
But Nie Yao still maintained an indifferent attitude.
He tossed the documents back.
He asked: “And then? Lin Guizheng, you are so old, surely you’re not naive enough to think those two father and son can be easily overthrown, are you?”
Lin Guizheng: “As long as the Nie Family Army makes a move, the Imperial Grandson will surely win! Everything will return to the right track, and the Nie family will become loyal ministers trusted by His Majesty.”
Loyal ministers, my foot.
They get no benefits, but are expected to lead the charge?
Nie Yao told him to get lost.
He wouldn’t do it.
“And don’t bring up my father.” Nie Yao not only didn’t care about the royal family’s grandsons but also didn’t care about his father. “If he dared to sell out the family’s interests to work for you idiots, my father would personally kick him out of the house.”
“A wife follows her husband when married! Qi Hewen wouldn’t dare!” (Note: This is a classic saying about women obeying their husbands, which is subverted here in the context of a ge’er husband.)
“Shallow, ignorant idiot. Because you can’t respect a husband, you don’t believe my father won’t either. Go back, my father doesn’t let me play with idiots.”
“You, you all…”
Lin Guizheng had spent his life upholding the doctrine that men are superior to women and ge’er are even lower. Nie Yao’s words caused a huge shock to his worldview.
He was greatly shaken.
He never thought that Nie Lengfeng, who was invincible on the battlefield, would allow a ge’er to dominate him at home.
This was simply a disgrace to men!
“Then what do you want?” Lin Guizheng managed to convince himself to ignore the matter, but he had already changed the mind he had before coming.
He originally thought that no matter how outrageous Nie Yao’s actions were, his father Nie Lengfeng was still somewhat loyal to the monarch.
After the matter was settled, he could speak up for Nie Lengfeng. As long as he obediently surrendered his military power, they would not make things difficult for his family.
But now it seemed he had been too soft-hearted.
The Nie family must not be spared!
“I still want to be the Minister of Revenue.” Nie Yao laid out his condition. “In the future, the annual military appropriation must be at least three hundred million taels of silver.” (Note: Three hundred million taels, where one wan is ten thousand, so san wan wan liang is $3 times 10^4 times 10^4 = 3 times 10^8$ taels.)
He just wanted money.
As for how the money would be spent, don’t ask, he could spend it all anyway.
“Alright.”
Lin Guizheng had already decided to eliminate the Nie family after the matter was settled, so he would agree to any demand Nie Yao made. However, to prevent Nie Yao from sensing his true intentions, he still pretended to haggle with him.
He also, at Nie Yao’s request, disclosed most of the forces he controlled.
“Just these few people?”
Nie Yao was scornful. “You dare to plot rebellion by casually assembling a few small fries? I take back what I just said, get lost. A matter of this magnitude is not for novices to partake in with me.”
Lin Guizheng was nearly infuriated to death by his constant changes of mind.
What was even harder for him to accept was that the manpower he possessed truly paled in comparison to the Nie family’s.
Lin Guizheng swallowed his humiliation and revealed some of his other allies.
They were almost all influential, powerful, and wealthy aristocratic families of Great Yu. Furthermore, they were not short on money because Lin Guizheng had once had a student who failed the imperial examination and turned to business. Decades of accumulation had resulted in a very rich family fortune.
“Why didn’t you say so earlier!”
Upon hearing about the money, Nie Yao’s arrogant attitude quickly subsided.
He rubbed his fingers together and reached out, demanding money from Lin Guizheng. “Since Sun Ji is also your man, you should have heard that the price for aristocratic families is tripled.”
He immediately demanded three hundred million, or three hundred million taels.
He also told Lin Guizheng to quickly send it to his house.
Without seeing the money, the army would not take action.
His repeated shifts in demands infuriated Lin Guizheng to the point of liver-ache.
“No.” Lin Guizheng refused, saying that he was asking for too much.
Nie Yao shrugged: “It can’t be helped, who told Sun Ji to put you through the good life of triple the price. Anyway, my condition is laid out. If you don’t agree, go fight Dou Jinyuan and them yourselves!”
Dou Jinyuan was initially working under the former Second Prince, so Lin Guizheng knew him very well.
Although extremely unwilling to admit it, the fact was: without Nie Yao’s support, it would be very difficult for them to defeat that person.