Chronicle of Emperor Jing

Wei Yan sat on the couch with his knees hugged, staring blankly at the busy figures of the people in the hall.

He was in a daze just now, and didn't notice where he was taken. Now that he came back to his senses, he realized that this was not the Dongnuan Pavilion where the emperor always lived, but probably a side hall in the palace.

"Master Hou, it's late at night, let's go to rest early." Gao Yong went to the emperor to answer the words and turned back. Seeing that he was still in the original posture and not moving, he sighed softly and went forward to take off his clothes for him. He stuffed it into the quilt and carefully pressed the corners of the quilt, "The old slave is here to guard, if you need anything, just ask the Marquis."

Wei Yan nodded, without making a sound, but slowly buried his head in the quilt.

The quilt on the couch was as soft and warm as usual, and the brazier had been placed in the hall long ago, but he still felt very cold, and could not restrain himself from curling up into a ball.

He didn't understand, really didn't understand, why did the Queen Mother set up this trap so many years ago?Why did the emperor refuse to believe his words?

What did he do wrong that required the Queen Mother to deal with him so hard?Over the years, he asked himself that he looked up to the sky and bowed down to the ground. The only fault might be his relationship with the emperor, but the queen mother didn't understand that he was never up to him in this matter.

This matter, the emperor wants, there is no room for him to say no, unless he dies, but this matter is obviously the emperor's fault, he did nothing wrong, why should he kill himself?What's more, even if he wanted to die, the emperor would not allow him to seek death.

Could it be that it was his fault that he was afraid of harming his family back then and survived?Is it just because the king loses virtue, it is the fault of the courtiers, so many years later, he still has to pay the price of harming his family for this mistake?

Wei Yan's mind was disturbed, and countless thoughts swirled in it, but he still couldn't figure out a clue.I don't know how long it took, but when he finally calmed down a bit, he realized that besides him, there were several people breathing in the hall.

The emperor asked so many people to guard him because he was afraid that he would commit suicide.

Wei Yan smiled wryly.

"Privately indulging the remnants of King You, intending to conspire against him", this is the crime of punishing the nine clans.If he could show his ambition by death, he would certainly not be stingy with his own life.However, given the current situation, even if he is afraid that he will die, he will not be able to escape the stigma of "suicide in fear of crime". Things have come to this point, how dare he commit suicide?

It's just that after the interrogation, he pleaded guilty to the law, will the Queen Mother be willing to let his family go?Or, the Empress Dowager originally intended to put him and the Wei family to death, whether he admits it or not, the result is actually the same?

Wei Yan opened his eyes and slept all night.

At the same time, the candles in Zhaoren Hall also remained on overnight.

In order to help Wei Yan get rid of the crime, Emperor Jing tried to erase the evidence against him. After careful planning, he realized that this matter was very difficult.

Two points need to be proved to prove the accusation against Wei Yan.One is that Wei Yan really indulged the woman named Luzhu privately, and the other is that the woman named Luzhu is indeed the remnant of King You, both of which can be proved to be charged with this crime, but these two points, they Can provide witnesses.

There are two physical evidences: one is the handwriting left by Wei Yan when he redeemed people in Youzhou, and the other is the roster of King You's accomplices, in which the woman named Luzhu is impressively included.As for the witnesses, there are countless. The officials who went to Youzhou with Wei Yan to be imprisoned that day, the officials in charge of criminal names in Youzhou, and the people in Jingzhou who had contact with the remnants of King You can all be called as witnesses.

When Emperor Jing saw the evidence listed in the memorial and the transcript of the physical evidence, he knew very well that there was no need for interrogation at all, and these evidences alone were enough to convict him.If Wei Yan dared to refute, he acted according to the order of the Queen Mother that day, but it was just adding to the crime and making his death even worse.

If he didn't know Wei Yan's character too well, after reading these so-called evidences, I'm afraid even he would have believed it, and probably didn't need them to force him, he would have done it himself.

It seems that in order to deal with Wei Yan, his mother and his queen obviously spent a lot of effort.

Emperor Jing squinted his eyes and thought about it. It is obviously unrealistic to erase so many witnesses. First, he does not have a detailed list of witnesses here, so he is afraid that there will be fish that slip through the net. Start with the physical evidence.If there is no physical evidence and there are only witnesses, the case will turn into a war of words, which will be dragged on slowly until he finds an appropriate way to fight back.

It is not easy to just erase physical evidence.

After the physical evidence was presented by Xie Meng, the magistrate of Youzhou, it stands to reason that it should be in the Ministry of Punishment at this time.However, considering such an important physical evidence, his mother may not rest assured to stay in the Ministry of Punishment, and it may be unknown in some unknown place.Taking a step back, even if it is really in the Ministry of Criminal Justice, the custody must be strict, and it will take a certain amount of time for him to do something.

The biggest problem now is that his mother doesn't give him time to make arrangements at all.

They have been planning for many years, but he hastily fought the battle and has already lost, so now he can only act cautiously and cautiously.Because he couldn't afford to lose, and Wei Yan couldn't afford to lose even more.

By the time Emperor Jing arranged his men to search the place where the evidence might be stored, the east was already turning white, and it was time for the morning court.As he expected, his mother didn't give him time to react at all. In the early morning of the court, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment attacked him and asked him to hand over Wei Yan to the Ministry of Punishment for interrogation.Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate also condemned him at the same time, thinking that he detained the criminals in the inner court and refused to hand them over to the Ministry of Punishment for interrogation, which was suspected of covering up the criminals.

Because of the Sun Ke case, the three courts were indeed in unison on this matter like never before, and all of them looked like loyal ministers who were severely punished for the country and the people.

Even if he was accused of being stupid or immoral by the court, Emperor Jing didn't care, and he would never let go of his mouth.Knowing that Wei Yan had offended so many people in the Sanfa Division, how dare he hand Wei Yan over to them.At that time, it is still good to beat them into a trick. If someone is determined to give him a death sentence, even if he can kill them all in the future, he will not be able to save Wei Yan's life.

In the afternoon of this day, the atmosphere in the inner study of Old Master Wei in the Wei Mansion was heavy.

In addition to Wei Yan's elder brothers, there are also elders in the clan who have received the news and are discussing how the Wei family should act in this turmoil.

If Wei Yan's accusation is confirmed, it will definitely bring disaster to the Nine Clans. Of course it is not feasible to do nothing and wait for death. What to do and how to do it need to be discussed carefully.

Wei Yan's matter is obviously only a superficial reason, behind it is actually a power struggle between the empress dowager and the emperor, and a power struggle in the emperor's harem.Now that the empress dowager and the empress clans joined hands, the emperor is obviously weak, and even with their Wei family, there is no possibility of winning, so they need to think carefully about which side their Wei family will stand on.

If you stand on the side of the emperor and the emperor loses, the queen mother will definitely force the emperor to be the first to attack their Wei family in order to weaken the emperor's power; if you stand on the side of the queen mother, you may be able to escape now, but The Japanese emperor settled the accounts after autumn, how should the Wei family deal with themselves?

"First, Xiao Qi is my nephew of the Wei family. How can we abandon him at such a critical moment? Second, His Majesty has supported the Wei family for many years, and everyone knows it. There is no possibility of staying out of the matter. Now we are standing on His Majesty's side. We don't want to win, but only hope that His Majesty's loss will not be too ugly, so that we can have more room to bargain with the Queen Mother. Judging from the current situation, His Majesty still trusts Xiao Qi. He didn't doubt him because of this matter. That being the case, as long as His Majesty is willing to protect Xiao Qi, Xiao Qi's life will be fine. We might as well endure the hardship for a while in order to plan for the future. After all, this world will belong to Your Majesty one day. "The speech of Wei Yan's eldest brother, Wei Ze, established the position of the Wei family on this matter.

Regarding the eldest son's words, Old Master Wei nodded in agreement, and everyone present did not express any objection.Since the Wei family had already intervened in the Tian family's mother-child dispute, how could they get away easily, even if they knew they would lose at this time, they could only lose.

As the Wei family expected, even if the Wei family stood behind Emperor Jing, he would not be able to win, because the queen mother and his mother did not give him time to arrange it properly.

"I heard that His Majesty has been detaining the guilty minister in the inner court and refused to transfer him to the Criminal Ministry for interrogation. Ai Jia suggested that His Majesty should guard him at every step." Two days later, Emperor Jing went to pay his respects to the Queen Mother as usual, and the Queen Mother sat upright. In the first sentence, he smiled and said this to him.

"Why does the queen mother have to put him to death?" Emperor Jing's face changed when he heard this. Of course, he couldn't guard Wei Yan every step of the way. Others might not be able to take him away from the palace, but the queen mother has such a Capability, "Although I have spoiled him all these years, I asked myself that firstly, I have not neglected the political affairs, and secondly, I have not neglected the harem. What mistake did he commit that must be killed, so that the queen mother can't tolerate him so much?"

"Firstly, there is no neglect of political affairs, and secondly, there is no neglect of the harem? Your Majesty still dares to say this? No neglect of political affairs? This is also true. Your Majesty has not neglected political affairs, but they are just swayed by him. Did you neglect the harem? If Your Majesty has no plans to be negligent in the harem in the future, will there be the vow never to accept concubines? If Your Majesty has not neglected the harem, will you still have no heirs?"

For the queen mother, there is no need for other faults, influencing the king's will, and involving the king's lack of heirs, these two are enough to make Wei Yan die without a place to bury him.

"The queen mother clearly knows that it is not his fault that I have no heirs until now." Emperor Jing has no heirs up to now, so we really can't blame Wei Yan. More faults may be attributed to the empress, but Emperor Jing After returning from Yuncheng with Wei Yan, the relationship has become deeper and deeper, and he is still young, so he has always held the attitude of nothing or nothing, and has never been in a hurry, "As for the case of Sun Ke, he is just standing on the side of the minister. It is because I did not think well about the remonstrance, because he has never asked me for anything, and he agreed to it because he was in a fever."

Wei Yan has been by his side for these years, even if Wei Yan has no intention of intervening in politics, he will unconsciously influence his decision. Of course, there are similar things, but Emperor Jing believes that the queen mother has no empirical evidence for other things. It was because the Queen's people took the opportunity to make trouble behind their backs and directly stabbed the Queen Mother in front of her, which caused the Queen Mother to be furious.

Now that this matter was caught, Emperor Jing would only make the queen mother even more angry if he argued that there was no such thing, so he readily admitted his mistake, and he would not be so stupid as to bring up other things that had no shadow at this time.

"He never asked His Majesty anything? The Ai family has always wanted to know, what else does your Majesty want him to ask you?" The queen mother had nothing to say to the emperor's defense, "All these years, the Ai family has been watching. He needs to beg, His Majesty has already given him all the favors that can and cannot be given, even his family and friends can be blessed, what does His Majesty think he needs His Majesty?"

As for the emperor's refusal to admit that Wei Yan had caused him to have no heirs, the empress dowager was too lazy to argue with the emperor and skipped it.When he went to Yuncheng that year, the emperor said that he was going to fight and could not affect the morale of the army, and he did not want to bring his concubine with him, so the queen mother let him.Since returning from Yuncheng, the emperor has only entered the harem a few times, and he himself must be the most clear about these things, the queen mother is too lazy to talk about him.

"My mother can't tolerate him. Naturally, it is his fault that I voluntarily treat him well. Could it be that his crime is really unforgivable? Can't my mother continue to look at me for my sake and spare him?" Emperor Jing was afraid of his attitude. It was too tough and angered the Queen Mother, so she could only plead.

If the Empress Dowager insists on putting Wei Yan to death, no matter how prepared Emperor Jing is, he probably won't be able to.As long as the Queen Mother bestows a cup of poisoned wine, Wei Yan's life can be ended.The Queen Mother hadn't done this before, and I'm afraid it was for his sake that she made an exception.At this point, he had to admit that he still couldn't win his mother.

"Your Majesty, you are the Son of Heaven. You are rich and you have the world. What kind of person do you want? Why do you have to be so attached to him, to someone who doesn't love you at all?" Regarding this point, the Queen Mother has always been thinking deeply. Puzzled.

Even if the emperor likes men, there are many men who are hundreds of times better than Wei Yan, but the emperor just refuses to let him go.What's more, the emperor was not a long-term person in the past, so how could he change his temper for him somehow.

"He loves me." Emperor Jing said this firmly.Although Wei Yan refused to admit it, Emperor Jing believed that even if it was a rock in his arms, it should be warmed up after all these years. How could Wei Yan have no affection for him, "Mother, my son promises that the emperor is very happy." There will be soon, and he will be stricter in the future, and if he is not allowed to say anything about political affairs, the queen mother will spare him this time, okay?"

The title of "baby" has been changed by the supervisor since the emperor ascended the throne, and it has been useless for many years. When the queen mother heard it, she seemed to have returned to a long time ago, and saw the emperor showing weakness in front of her to such an extent. It was full of desolation, obviously heartbroken, but finally moved the compassion of a mother, and let go:

"He or the Wei family, His Majesty choose one and keep it."

For the Empress Dowager, Wei Yan without the Wei family is not a problem at all. Even if she is favored again, she is just the emperor's pampering.As for the Wei family without Wei Yan, how many days can they be prosperous?When the time comes, the emperor's injury will be an eyesore, and it will probably take a few days for him to deal with it himself.

For Emperor Jing, if there is no Wei Yan, the Wei family is meaningless to him at all; if there is no Wei family, it is the Wei family that he wiped out with his own hands, how can Wei Yan and him get along as before?

To be honest, if his mother gave him such a choice, it would be better not to.

For a while, both mother and son stopped talking, and the hall became quiet.

"If His Majesty really can't decide, it's better to give him the right to choose. Since His Majesty is sure that he loves His Majesty, why not try which one is more important in his mind, Your Majesty or the Wei family?"

After a long time, the queen mother gave the emperor another suggestion, but she already had the idea of ​​watching a good show in her heart.People's hearts have never been able to withstand provocation and comparison. The emperor is deeply affectionate at this time, but he doesn't know how to deal with such affection after being trampled on by others?