In the twelfth lunar month of the seventeenth year of Taiping, the late emperor passed away. The imperial edict ordered the Queen Mother to listen to the government behind the curtain, and the regent Xiao Heng assisted in the government. In front of all the ministers, the Regent personally handed the jade seal to the Queen Mother with a respectful gesture - but no one saw him. When he handed the seal, his thumb lightly scratched the back of the Queen Mother's hand.
Shen Hanzhou, a member of the household department, became a man in the game at that moment.
The next day, the Queen Mother issued an order, ordering Shen Hanzhou to serve as the censor of salt inspection and go to Yangzhou to investigate and deal with the salt transportation envoy. Everyone in the court knew that this was a dangerous job. Seven days after the last censor took office, his body was hung on the gate of the Salt Transport Department. It has not yet been exhumed.
Before leaving, the Queen Mother whispered "take care"; outside the palace gate, the Regent smiled and said, "I would like to say hello to all the salt transport envoys on my behalf." Shen Hanzhou suddenly understood: He was just a pawn on the chessboard between the Queen Mother and the Regent, and he was destined to die.
However, his trip to Yangzhou made him see a darkness deeper than that of the court - the bones of hard workers in the salt field, private salt profits flowing directly to the capital, and secret letters clearly stamped with the seal of the Regent's Palace. There was also a group of people, including Chen Yushi's old subordinates, Zhao Qian, the deputy envoy who had lost his son, and Zhou Ji, a salt merchant who had nowhere to turn to, desperately trying to get the evidence into his hands.
More than 20 people were killed in the sea during the storm, and Zhao Qian died of severe torture. Shen Hanzhou returned to the capital with the blood-stained secret message, only to find that the chess game was far from over. Between the Queen Mother and the Regent, no one wins or loses - and he, from a mortal pawn, is becoming the one who changes everything.
The situation in the court began from then on.
Purpose: To use the body of an ant to do bright things; to open a path to life in the midst of death.