Chronicle of Emperor Jing

Later, Emperor Jing spent countless long nights thinking sadly that if he could have predicted that after he ordered a thorough investigation, the situation would develop rapidly and eventually deteriorate to the point where even he could not control it. Please, would the ending be different?

Maybe, maybe not.This question will never have an answer.

At this time, there were many upright and loyal ministers in Emperor Jing's court. In fact, the imperial censor had already filed a memorial to this case, stating that there was something strange about it, and begging Emperor Jing to order a retrial. However, due to various considerations, Emperor Jing never prosecuted it.So after he made the decree on the second day, the loyal officials in the court had the support of the emperor, and immediately occupied an overwhelming situation. They quickly agreed to three joint hearings to reconsider the case.

Then, like a snowball, a small case of dereliction of duty finally led to the trial of many cases of dereliction of duty, large and small, involving countless officials from Jingzhou to the capital.

When Emperor Jing received these memorials, he was obviously furious on the surface, assuming he wanted to be severely punished. In fact, he was already having a headache as to how this matter would end up.

Among the emperor's tactics, a very important one is balance.This matter involves too much, and seeing that more officials will be involved, it is not a good thing for the stability of the people and the balance of the court. Besides, even if all these officials are really at fault, it is not a good thing. It may be that there are no ministers available in the court.

What's more, for Emperor Jing, even corrupt officials and courtiers have their own necessity. If his court is full of loyal ministers who think about how to serve the country and the people all day long, his life as an emperor will not be easy.

On the other hand, there are also some very bad signs in this matter.

At the beginning of Emperor Jing's decree, he didn't explain that he ordered a thorough investigation because of Wei Yan's various pleadings, but started with the censor's memorial he received.From the very beginning, he expected that a large number of officials might be involved in this matter, and of course he didn't want Wei Yan to be involved in it to offend so many people, so he never mentioned him in the court from the beginning to the end.

However, the market soon began to circulate that the case could be retried because the Marquis of Yongning submitted the Wanmin Letter and knelt down to beg the emperor.When the common people heard about this, of course they applauded and praised the righteous deeds of Marquis Yongning.However, Emperor Jing, who received this secret report, quickly changed his face. He ordered the secret guards to track down the source of the rumor, and ordered Gao Yong to carefully check the people around him. , all rode to death.

At the end of January in the eighth year of Tianxi, the retrial of Sun Ke's dereliction of duty case came to an end. Emperor Jing punished a group of officials involved in the case according to the law, and later pardoned most of them extrajudicially, and replaced them with reprimands, suspension of salary, or demotion. He was punished and stayed in his post in order to make meritorious deeds.

This matter had just subsided, and one day, there was a censor who suddenly mentioned an old story of being an official prostitute who had escaped from his status, implying in his words that Marquis Yongning had misbehaved and was suspected of corrupting the law.

The "Yanshan Mountain Listening to the Waves Picture" back then went around and went around, and finally returned to Emperor Jing's hands. No one may know the details of the small disturbance caused, but if someone is careful to investigate, it may not be impossible to find out some clues .

Didn't Emperor Jing know that all the top and bottom of the Sanfa Division were slapped down by him because of Sun Ke's dereliction of duty case. Naturally, they hated Wei Yan who reversed Sun Ke's case in front of him to the bottom of his heart, and they would find out some mistakes, not to mention that Wei Yan had indeed done this back then.

Therefore, when he received this report, he was not polite at the moment, he reprimanded Wei Yan and punished him to contemplate behind closed doors for three days.

Emperor Jing's handling method is what he used to do, that is, the so-called board is raised high and lowered gently.It not only gave the Sanfa Division a great deal of face, but also didn't make Wei Yan suffer any substantive punishment.

A discerning person knew that the emperor would at most just want to deal with it, and let it go if he got a sweet.But the censor didn't stop, and continued to report some trivial matters about Yongninghou.

Wei Yan has been serving as a guard for these years, big mistakes are not counted, there are always some small mistakes, it is not a thing to be stared at like this and go over the old things one by one.Moreover, some courtiers saw that the emperor had never severely punished the censor, and wondered if the emperor had other thoughts in his mind, and began to follow suit.Three people become tigers, one mouth makes money, and everyone pushes the wall down. Even if Wei Yan is a saint, he can't stand being picked on by so many people.

At this time, Emperor Jing was really in a dilemma.The censor is responsible for hearing the news, so he has not severely punished the censor.As for the fact that he didn't put on an obvious attitude towards Wei Yan at the beginning, it was because he didn't want to intensify the conflict between Wei Yan and the ministers of the Sanfa Department because of these trivial matters.

Later, he finally understood that someone was planning to take this opportunity to make trouble.However, he wanted to protect his people, and no one could move them, so even though he was angry, he didn't take it seriously.

In this way, one day, Emperor Jing was furious, and he punished the censor who caused the trouble and several courtiers who followed suit.That afternoon, he received the memorial that had obviously been carefully prepared for many years.

Wei Yan has been contemplating behind closed doors at home since February.In fact, as early as the end of last year, Lord Wei heard rumors that he had made great efforts in the Sun Ke case, so he punished the nephew who took Fang Mingsheng to see him to kneel in the ancestral hall all night, and scolded him bloody head.

Later, after the New Year's Eve, he was punished to stay at home and think about his mistakes. Old Master Wei scolded him again and ordered him not to run around. He began to treat guests to dinners and exchange ideas with relatives and old acquaintances.

On this day, Wei Yan received the imperial edict announcing him to enter the palace in the middle of the night.

At this time, the palace gate has already been locked.Wei Yan didn't know why the emperor called him urgently at this time.He hastily entered the palace, only to find that after midnight, candles were still brightly lit in Zhaoren Hall.

As usual, he respectfully saluted the emperor sitting behind the desk, but the emperor did not ask him to stand up as usual, and remained silent all the time.Wei Yan knelt for a moment, looked up suspiciously, only to find that the emperor was staring at him.The emperor's expressionless face was obscured by the candlelight.

"I don't know why your Majesty Xuanchen came here?" Such an emperor made Wei Yan feel very strange.

In an instant, he suddenly realized that this expression and posture was the king he served a long time ago. As for the later king, he seemed to be another person wearing the king's skin.

"This afternoon, I received a memorial, and then I checked some old things carefully. Now I announce you, I just want to hear you tell me what is going on."

Emperor Jing raised his hand, and a memorial was thrown on the ground in front of Wei Yan's knee.

Wei Yan picked it up and looked through it slowly. At the end, his wrist began to shake.

"I don't understand." He didn't understand what it means to "indulge the remnants of King You privately and conspire against him." Could it be that the emperor would believe such groundless accusations?

"You don't understand, do you? In fact, I didn't understand at the beginning why the events of Youzhou and Jingzhou were linked together. Later, I checked some old files and finally understood. Let me ask you, when you went to Youzhou Zhou Xuanzhi imprisoned, did he buy an unofficial maid named Luzhu?"

"That's true."

"I'll ask you again, where did that maidservant go?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know, but I know. I tell you, that maidservant is now in the deep mountains and old forests of Jingzhou, with the remnants of King You." Emperor Jing propped his forehead and thought for a moment before continuing to ask him, "Wei Yan , now tell me, why did you do this back then?"

It is impossible for Wei Yan to know that maidservant, so he needs a legitimate reason for ransoming a maidservant without an official in Youzhou for no reason, otherwise, the accusations in the memorial can only be confirmed.

Although Emperor Jing didn't want to doubt him, he couldn't figure out why he went to redeem a maid for no reason, and then let the maid go away halfway.

When he heard about it that day, he only thought that Wei Yan behaved badly after drinking, and he was afraid of being punished by him, so he abandoned the woman afterwards, because he was happy at that time, and there were some things that he didn't realize. He reluctantly suppressed the matter and didn't bring it up again, not knowing that this maid had a relationship with King You.

Could it be that Wei Yan was pretending to be misbehaving that day, and the real purpose was to attract his attention and make him ignore the secrets behind it?

No, with Wei Yan's temperament, he shouldn't do such a thing.He still listened to Wei Yan's explanation first, and was not in a hurry to draw conclusions.

"The minister acted according to the order that day." Wei Yan was still digesting the emperor's previous words, and suddenly found that the emperor's words seemed to have a taste of doubting him, and hurriedly defended himself.

"Acting according to order?" Emperor Jing heard his words, and the suppressed anger finally surged up, "At this time, you are still unwilling to tell me the truth. You say you are acting according to order, and I will ask you, what is your order?" Whose will is it? My will? I don’t remember that I have made such a will.”

"The minister served the Queen Mother's order that day."

"shut up."

With a crash, countless memorials on the case were swept to the ground by the emperor, and Wei Yan heard the emperor's cold voice coming from above.

"Wei Yan, think carefully before answering my words. Are you saying that you are following the Queen Mother's decree, an explicit decree or a verbal decree? If you say it is a decree, where is the decree intended? If you say it is an oral decree, are you going to confront the Queen Mother?" ?”

Wei Yan served the Queen Mother's oral order back then.But the emperor asked him to shut up at this time, but it was for his own good, because it was impossible for him to confront the queen mother.I'm afraid that as soon as he said this, he would be accused of defilement of the Queen Mother, which would only make him die faster.Because he said that, he was accusing the Queen Mother of privately indulging the remnants of King You.

Wei Yan suddenly understood that this incident was a trap from the very beginning, and when he stepped into it, he was doomed to be doomed today.

"Does Your Majesty not believe in ministers?" He looked up at the man in front of him, and was finally enveloped in endless despair.Could it be that the king he has sincerely respected is also doubting his loyalty?

"What's the use of my trusting you? Now that there are all the witnesses and material evidence, even if I believe you, there is no way to exonerate you."

Emperor Jing covered his eyes with his palms, and couldn't bear to see Wei Yan's desperate expression at this time, and motioned for someone to take him down.

For the first time, Emperor Jing felt that he was powerless. When Wei Yan said that he was following the Queen Mother's order, and combined with the secret guards to track down the source of the rumors, and in the case of Sun Ke, Fang Mingsheng was able to see Wei Yan. There were faint traces of someone else's design, and he finally understood that this time it was the queen mother and her queen's family who joined forces to do it.

He has been cautious all these years, but he is still not as good as the Queen Mother's careful planning many years ago, and he is still unable to reverse the Queen's family's contribution to this matter.

With his mother sitting behind him, the Ministry of Criminal Justice will probably ask him for someone at the court meeting tomorrow. On the premise that Wei Yan has offended the entire Three Law Departments, even if there are many doubts in this case, he will definitely be convicted in the end.Moreover, with Wei Yan's temper, he must be unwilling to recruit, and the hardships he will suffer during the trial are probably innumerable.

"Personal evidence?" Emperor Jing re-scanned the evidence mentioned in the memorial, and the thoughts in his mind were already a little crazy.If there is no so-called witness and material evidence, I don't know how they plan to interrogate?

"Your Majesty, the old slave went to settle it in person. All the utensils are used by Lord Hou. The brazier and other things in the house have been placed well, so that Lord Hou will not feel a little uncomfortable."

Emperor Jing contemplated for a long time, and when he heard Gao Yong's reply, he came back to his senses. After thinking about it, he was still a little uneasy.

"Take care of the person carefully, don't let him be wronged."

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, they are all the people who served Lord Hou before, and they know how to serve him." Gao Yong replied.