The Empress's First Running Dog

Chapter 16 Empress: How do you explain this?
The Empress will not attend court today.

The place for the confrontation was chosen to be a side hall.

When Zhao Du'an and Zhang Changshuo followed the palace maids and passed through the classical buildings with flying eaves, they arrived at their destination, only to see palace servants standing outside the door with their hands behind their backs.

The palace door is open.

There were already two figures standing inside, one on the left and one on the right, facing each other, like two clearly divided rivers.

The man on the left is wearing a black flying fish suit. He is thin and sturdy. The hands hanging by his waist have thick joints and are slightly red, probably because he has been holding knives for many years, so he has thick calluses.

His thin and long face was stern and beardless, and he was resting with his eyes closed.

Two slightly gray eyebrows grow diagonally on the slightly protruding brow bone, giving people a temperament that is irritable and irritable.

The person on the right is the exact opposite.

He was about forty or fifty years old, wearing an indigo official robe, a black gauze hat, a goatee, and he held his head high, looking righteous.

He has a typical clean-minded demeanor and sharp eyes.

"Ma Yan, Luliang!"

Zhao Duan immediately guessed the identities of the two.

The original owner had met Ma Yan, and in his remaining memories, he was quite afraid of this eunuch who was in charge of the imperial yamen.

It is rumored that this man was born in the royal family and was originally loyal to the previous emperor. Later, he followed the prince. During the "Xuanmen Coup", Ma Yan fought a desperate battle with the rebels.

Outstanding performance.

After the empress ascended the throne, she took over the subordinates of the old emperor and the prince. Ma Yan was given an important position and promoted to the supervisor of the "Zhao Ya".

A role similar to that of the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

He is responsible for supervising all officials and is also the main force in arresting rebels. He is a sharp knife in the hands of the empress.

He has the nickname "White-browed King of Hell" and is said to be moody. The original owner kept his distance from him and the two sides had few interactions.

Zhao Duan couldn't help but complain, thinking that the original owner was such a coward, but he still dared to steal other people's credit. It can only be said that he is a loser.

As for the censor named "Luliang", he was completely unfamiliar to him.

All I know is that he is from the Prime Minister's faction and is the main force behind this impeachment of me.

"Please wait here for a moment, my two envoys. I will go and inform His Majesty."

The palace servant who led the way left after saying a few words.

at the same time.

The two people in the hall also turned their heads and looked over.

"The governor has arrived early. I am so ashamed to be late."

Zhao Duan was the first to speak, and he bowed to the "White Eyebrowed King of Hell" with a guilty look on his face:
"I have offended many people in the past because of the rebellious party. I wanted to apologize in person, but I didn't find the opportunity during the past two days when the situation was at its peak."

Ma Yan, wearing a flying fish official robe and with a stern expression, looked at Zhao Duan's familiar appearance with a strange look in his eyes.

He had imagined the scene of the two sides meeting today.

Based on his old impression, Ma Yan thought that Zhao Duan would roar at him angrily, or shrink and beg.

After all, the cause of this impeachment was that the imperial court accused him of exceeding his authority to arrest people and leaking the rebellious party.

Zhao Duan had reason to hate him.

But the scene before my eyes was far beyond my expectations:
There was no anger, nor pleading, but rather a calm and nonchalant manner, like the casual greetings among court officials.

Is this still the legendary pretty boy?
"Your Excellency is too polite. It is normal for officials in the same dynasty to have friction with each other."

Ma Yan spoke calmly, paused, and added:
"Your Majesty asks today, and I will report the truth."

There are two implicit meanings in this sentence:
First, I am not targeting you on purpose. I am just speaking based on facts. I am not the main force behind your impeachment.

Second, although you are very polite, don't expect me to cover for you. I will answer whatever His Majesty asks.

Zhao Duan said seriously: "It should be so!"

As he spoke, he breathed a sigh of relief... In this interrogation, Ma Yan's attitude was crucial.

Different from Lu Liang who represents the power of civil officials, Zhao Ya is the knife in the hands of the empress. If divided by camp, he and Zhao Duan both belong to the empress's faction.

And there was no hatred in the past.

That is to say, the imperial court impeached him purely to shift the blame and prove to the empress that it was not our fault that the rebels were killed.

Perhaps he was also a little annoyed that Zhao Duan had interfered and caused him to lose credit.

But in Ma Yan's subsequent investigation, he will definitely know about the sorcerer's descent into the bamboo forest.

Although he did not have complete information, he might not realize that Zhuang Xiaocheng was fishing.

But more or less, I will also be thankful——

If our own people were to make the arrest, they would most likely fail.

When the time comes, he will have to take the blame.

From this perspective, the resentment towards Zhao Duan would naturally fade a lot:

Who would resent a colleague who takes the blame for them?

After thinking about this, Zhao Duan realized that his main enemy was the censors who represented the civil officials group.

And through the test just now, this point has been basically confirmed.

"Ahem," At this time, the Imperial Censor Lu Liang, who was standing on the other side of the side hall and felt ignored, spoke in a cold voice:
"I will also report the truth to Your Majesty and will not let Your Majesty be deceived by the hypocritical faces of the traitors!"

Who the hell are you calling the villain? It's clearly a lackey... no, a bootlicker... Zhao Duan has a clear idea of ​​the original owner in his mind...

He had an expressionless face and stood beside Ma Yan.

He stood with his hands in his sleeves, looking up at the sky, as if he had ignored everything. "..." Lu Liang was so angry that his goat beard was shaking.

As a scholar, he could not stand this blatant neglect and differential treatment.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Changshuo took the initiative to greet him, which made Censor Lu calm down.

The two stood opposite each other, waiting in silence for a while.

……

About a quarter of an hour later, footsteps were finally heard outside the palace, followed by the palace servants bowing in unison:
"See Your Majesty!"

Xu Zhenguan's figure appeared in front of Zhao Duan again.

Two days later, the empress had not changed. She was still wearing the same dust-free white dress, and her black hair was fixed with a jade hairpin.

Her beautiful white face is breathtaking, and her pair of eyes filled with majesty make people dare not look into her eyes.

In a trance, it is almost impossible to tell whether the person coming is a king who rules a country or a cold and elegant fairy.

"Wei minister, please see Your Majesty!"

Zhao Duan and others bowed and saluted. Xu Zhenguan walked through the crowd without looking away and sat down on the golden dragon throne on the high platform in the hall.

The cold sound is like a spring, tinkling:

"Get up."

"promise."

When everyone stood up, Xu Zhenguan glanced at everyone. After seeing Zhao Duan and Ma Yan standing together, he paused for a moment, as if surprised.

But he didn't dwell on it for too long, and got straight to the point:
"I don't need to elaborate on why I summoned you all here today. Ma Yan, you go first."

"Yes," Ma Yan stepped out. This cold and fierce eunuch was as docile as a cat in front of the empress. He bowed his head and said:

"I report that Zhao Duan, the envoy of the White Horse Guard, has overstepped his authority, disrupted the plans of my subordinates, and scared away the rebel Zhuang Xiaocheng..."

Then he described the incident exactly as it happened.

Including how he hurriedly pursued after learning the news, and how he was blocked and delayed due to the "daytime ban"...

Xu Zhenguan already knew all about this, and he was just going through the motions. After he finished speaking, he looked at the censor:
"Lü Liang, go ahead."

Censor Lu, who was full of anger, suddenly became like a screaming chicken.

He immediately spoke eloquently and excitedly:

"Your Majesty, I am reporting that Zhao Duan has colluded with the rebels... and he has committed many evil deeds in the capital over the past year. He is deliberately trying to ruin your Majesty's reputation... His crime is unforgivable!"

The censor was indeed a big sprayer, with a strong desire to express himself, and he sprayed out all the prepared charges.

In his description, Zhao Duan was simply a villain who everyone wanted to kill. He was a spy planted by the rebels beside the empress with evil intentions and had been planning for a long time...

There are many big hats thrown out, but the central idea is:
If we don't kill these evil beasts, it will not be enough to appease the public anger. If we don't kill them, the country will be in danger!
Zhao Duan was so excited and filled with indignation when he heard this.

I feel like if this speech by Lu Liang was recorded as a video and posted online, Zhao Duan would be raided and exterminated by the Weibo judges in a matter of minutes...

Xu Zhenguan waited for him to finish, then looked at Zhang Changshuo calmly and said:

"Why are you here?"

Zhang Changshuo, who had been holding it in for a long time, strode out with a righteous look on his face and bowed deeply to the empress.

When he caught a glimpse of the latter's face and the outline of the figure hidden under the white clothes, a trace of greed flashed in his eyes, but he quickly restrained it and said loudly:
"I, your Highness, want to impeach Zhao Duan for accepting bribes, interfering with the judiciary of the Ministry of Justice, and helping criminal officials to escape punishment!"

Everyone was surprised.

Even the empress frowned and said:

"What's the evidence?"

This was a new crime she had never known about.

Zhang Changshuo immediately took out the scroll from his sleeve, handed it to the female official next to him, and said loudly:
"This is the picture of Zhao Duan's private meeting with the Ning'an County Master. He even went to the Ministry of Justice yesterday to discuss this matter. Your Majesty, just order someone to go to the Ministry of Justice and ask a question, and then we will know the truth!"

Xu Zhenguan slipped his bare hands out of his sleeves, took the scroll and unfolded it. Suddenly, images like rippling water appeared on the scroll, accompanied by a voice in the painting:

"In the capital, we have to follow the rules. You took the deposit happily, but you are still reluctant to save the person..."

"Don't forget, I have evidence that you got some benefits..."

"Envoy...are you alright?"

"Don't worry. I have been tracking down the rebels these days and have no time to take care of other things. Now that I am free, I will take care of what you said."

Then there was the sound of the private room door breaking and screams.

"Ugh...you dare...you dare to hit the noble?!"

"A poor, poor county boy from a remote village dares to challenge me?"

……

There was silence in the side hall.

Only in the scroll can the conversation between Zhao Duan and Wang Xian on that day be clearly heard.

During this period, Ma Yan and Lu Liang's expressions changed to varying degrees.

The former is surprise and contempt, while the latter is excitement and excitement.

As for Zhang Changshuo, he had already looked at his "rival in love" who was standing opposite him with his head lowered, with a smile of confidence on his face.

Finally, the light in the scroll faded away.

The Empress Xu Zhenguan of Dayu raised her head calmly and threw the scroll directly to Zhao Duan's feet. There was no expression on the Empress' face:
"How do you explain this?"

(End of this chapter)