"Affection can really be self-theft!
But what exactly does this guy want to do? Stealing his own things, and hiding it from other family members, and calling himself king. Why does it feel like he's not trying to rebel, but trying to secretly find an island overseas and establish a small kingdom?
This guy really has ambition and guts.
But his ambition and guts aren't that big."
Although Ding Yun had some guesses, they were just guesses, not facts. So after muttering for a while, her curiosity still took over. She specially sent out some of her echo bugs, asking them to keep an eye on the Lin'an Marquis's mansion, including the mansion itself, and the people and treasures that had left it and were heading to unknown destinations.
Of course, she wasn't greedy for the gold and silver.
It was mainly out of curiosity about what the Lin'an Marquis was up to.
For the next few days, Ding Yun didn't pay much attention to other gossip in the capital, her attention was all focused on the Lin'an Marquis's mansion. With her close attention,
How could the Lin'an Marquis's mansion keep any secrets?
How to describe it?
Ding Yun's guess was largely correct. The Lin'an Marquis's plan was indeed to move all his assets to an overseas island, then fake his own death, and live a carefree life from then on, happy even if the environment there was worse.
The reason for this idea was a combination of his own desires and the subtle influence of his father.
The whole matter had to be traced back to his father.
The former Lin'an Marquis was originally the second son of the main wife and had no right of inheritance. Therefore, he naturally didn't have to undergo the very strict education for an heir. He was much freer in his daily life, and didn't even have to abide by the rule that nobles could not leave the capital without an imperial decree.
According to the regulations of the dynasty, all military nobles were forbidden to leave the capital without an imperial decree. Any violation, if strictly enforced, could be directly classified as treason.
However, this rule mainly applied to the holders of noble titles and their heirs, namely the Lin'an Marquis and the heir to the Lin'an Marquis. Other sons of the main wife or concubines, as long as they did not hold a title, were relatively free.
Therefore, Mu Shu's father could leave the capital and travel anywhere as long as his parents allowed it. He was also a restless person and had snuck out of the capital several times before he came of age. Later, his family saw that they couldn't control him and, since his family's title didn't require him to inherit it, it was better to let him go out and see the world, perhaps to stimulate his fighting spirit.
He could then return to take the imperial examinations or do something else.
Then, Mu Shu's father completely let himself go. With some guards, he traveled around, climbed mountains, sailed on lakes, and even went out to sea several times.
He might not have read ten thousand books.
But he had certainly traveled ten thousand miles.
However, fate is unpredictable. An accident didn't happen to him, who traveled everywhere, but to his elder brother, who stayed in the capital all the time, even within the Lin'an Marquis's mansion, and rarely went out.
His elder brother was staying warm at home during winter. Then, due to someone's plotting or some other reason, his elder brother's whole family died of carbon monoxide poisoning from closing the doors tightly in winter and incomplete combustion of charcoal in the brazier.
When the person died, he naturally had to return to mourn.
After mourning, he had to stay and inherit the title.
Originally, he didn't want to inherit it. He even wanted to pass it on to his half-brother, because he truly didn't want to be confined to the capital from then on. But his mother was unwilling to let the title fall into the hands of those concubines' children. In the end, she even threatened to commit suicide, so he had no choice but to accept it and from then on, he could hardly leave the capital.
As the saying goes, "I could have endured the darkness if I had never seen the light." It was the same for Mu Shu's father. After enjoying freedom, being confined to the capital, which was like a cage, was very uncomfortable.
He wanted to find an excuse, to join the army.
To leave the capital.
But his parents wouldn't allow it.
After he inherited the title, the most chaotic situation was actually in the capital. The princes' struggle for succession was risky, and there was no war outside. He didn't need to join the army.
Later, he learned from some of his old friends that there were pirates occupying islands overseas and living beyond the law, and some maritime merchant families also occupied considerable land overseas. This was convenient for their ships to resupply and also left a legacy and retreat for their families overseas.
Then he was tempted.
And he began to plan in secret.
When his son was older, he not only told his son every day how free and unfettered the outside world was, but also instilled his own ideas into his son.
Mu Shu had been listening to this since he was young.
How could he not yearn for freedom?
Moreover, later, his father was injured and died while defending the city during the Jingnan Campaign. After he inherited the title, although he immediately surrendered to Emperor Jin'an, who was attacking, he was still behind many other nobles. It was good enough that he wasn't punished and stripped of his title.
He didn't dare to have any other extravagant hopes. He even slept restlessly every day during that period, fearing that Emperor Jin'an would suddenly remember his father's insistence on defending the city.
And take his family's anger out on him...
These factors combined made him feel that living in the capital was truly unsafe. In the end, he naturally inherited his father's will and continued to try to develop overseas islands, planning to move there when he was fully prepared.
To prevent the news from leaking.
He never mentioned these matters to his family.
He didn't even mention it to his legitimate son, because he had no intention of taking his legitimate son with him. He had several illegitimate sons outside, and he had been raising them outside. They were now on the newly developed islands.
He planned to fake his own death and enjoy freedom.
And let his legitimate son inherit the title.
This way, he felt more secure with double insurance. No matter what happened in the capital or overseas, his lineage would not be extinguished and could be preserved.
As for why he emptied all his money, it was mainly because the islands were newly developed and extremely poor, and there were too many places to spend money. The Marquis's mansion was different. Not only did it have a fixed salary, but also a lot of land and shops. Even if all the money was emptied, it would only be a temporary hardship, and it would recover in a few years.
Anyway, the money was just sitting there, so it was better to use it to build the island and give some to his illegitimate sons.
In those days, illegitimate sons had no right of inheritance.
They could only rely on him to find ways to get something from his own family.
In addition, Ding Yun also obtained earth-shattering news from the Lin'an Marquis.
That is, like him, there were many people who had illegitimate children outside and were secretly developing certain islands. Not only were there nobles and aristocratic families, but also vassal kings.
However, they didn't hollow out their family fortunes like him.
And many of them used merchants as fronts.
In some places, even refugees were intentionally allowed to exist or deliberately created, for the purpose of plundering people when there were disasters and sending them to the territories they occupied overseas, so that there would be labor.
The reduction in population due to disasters was also reasonable.
Deceiving the emperor from afar was not difficult.
So, overall, compared to those who acted recklessly, the Lin'an Marquis's current actions were not only crude and simple, but also a bit shabby and stingy.
Fortunately, someone feared that his own family would be exposed because of him, so they helped him cover his tracks. Otherwise, how could the Dali Temple have found absolutely no evidence?