Damn! He is the Emperor!

Flooding wrecks the southern province, and Emperor Xiao Qian goes there in rags, partly to see how the relief is being handled and partly to look for the mother he was separated from. What he finds is the county magistrate and the police chief Wang Dayong skimming the relief grain, thinning the porridge until it is barely food, and squeezing money out of the survivors on top of it. He and his mother recognize each other, and the two of them are cornered. He is thrown in prison, and inside he finds his uncle and gets him out of trouble. At the governor's banquet Xiao Qian declares who he is. The prime minister turns it against him, and he is locked up as an imposter instead. General Zhang Meng reaches him in time. A dusty imperial robe and half a bowl of stale porridge are what the case against the officials rests on.