Chapter 171
The Marquis of Yong’an made a move to ward off the Emperor’s first suspicion, and then explained: “The sister of the old minister has won His Majesty’s favor, and is in the middle of the palace, and the whole family relies on His Majesty to have this honor, and there is no one in the world who wishes His Majesty all the happiness and longevity in the world more than the old minister’s family. No one in the world wishes for His Majesty’s happiness and longevity more than my family. What reason would I have to assassinate His Majesty?”
The Emperor knew in his heart that he was telling the truth. He would never believe that Empress Zhang would do anything against him.
While he was burning, someone outside passed the word that the captain of the crossbow battalion had discovered a new clue and asked to see the emperor.
The emperor did not bother to move, directly called him in to talk.
The captain of the crossbow battalion knelt down in fear as soon as he entered the door: “Your Majesty forgive me, Your Majesty spare my life.”
“Your sins are unforgivable, your life is unforgivable, it depends on what you said today?”
The lieutenant immediately kowtowed: “My humble servant was negligent, the day before yesterday I went back to count the weapons and found that a pair of bows and crossbows and a bag of crossbows and arrows were missing.”
The emperor glanced at Marquis Yongan, “Since you found it the day before yesterday, why didn’t you come to inform us earlier?”
“I was lucky, I think it may not be related to the schoolyard, perhaps it is the negligence of the handling or be obscured. Until someone in the crossbow battalion killed himself, I realized the seriousness of the problem, so I secretly investigated in the crossbow battalion, and now I have confirmed the destination of this bag of crossbows and arrows, so I came to report.”
“Where did it go?”
“A soldier in the crossbow battalion said that a retainer of King Kai’s family had been to the weapons warehouse of the crossbow battalion that day, and spoke to the deputy general who had killed himself a few days ago. Arms warehouse has always been an important place, there are personnel on duty to guard, outsiders are not allowed to approach. If not for the mole in the crossbow battalion, outsiders would never be able to get a new crossbow and use it to assassinate His Majesty.”
The Emperor pondered, “So, this matter is the work of King Kai?”
“I don’t dare to assert that, I ask Your Majesty to send the Department of Penal Precepts to bring up the entourage of King Kai’s residence for a trial and we’ll know.”
The emperor grunted, “People, I will try. As for your crime of being inattentive and confused, I will deal with it later!”
The lieutenant shrank his neck in fear and immediately knelt in peace.
The Emperor asked Marquis Yongan the same question, “Could this matter, really be the work of King Kai?”
Marquis Yong’an said, “I can’t confirm it, so I hope that Your Majesty will make a holy ruling.”
The Emperor immediately signaled Duan Fei, and King Kai was then dragged out from under the bed behind the screen.
Marquis Yongan’s face, which was always cold and stern, couldn’t help but show a hint of surprise at this moment.
The Emperor looked at King Kai with a face of contempt, “What else do you have to say?”
King Kai trembled and looked at Marquis Yong’an with resentment, “Zhang Huai, you old fox! As soon as father’s suspicion came to your head, you called someone to expose me!”
Marquis Yongan said, “What did Your Highness say? The old minister doesn’t understand.”
Once the emperor heard the words of King Kai, he confirmed that he was plotting treason, and immediately smashed a Ru kiln covered bowl onto his head, “If you don’t have the reality of treason and regicide, how can he frame you for it?”
Kai Wang silent for a moment since he knew that there is no way to return to heaven, venting anger as revealing, “If he did not say that the crossbow battalion vice general, the early years of his disciples, everything can be convenient for me, the son of the court will not take this to act!”
“Your Highness in order to get off the hook, there is no need for such reckless biting. The old minister is from the east sea navy, this crossbow battalion is under the control of the infantry, how could it be the old minister’s subordinate?”
Marquis Yongan finished kneeling down again, “I still ask Your Majesty to be clear about this! The old minister and the crossbow battalion people, absolutely no relationship, not to mention conspiracy and assassination heart, really do not know why the King of Qi want to be so slanderous, the old minister’s heart is not guilty, willing to enter the Department of Penal Precepts to accept the torture, in order to prove his innocence!”
The emperor was so angry that his heart ached, Shen Duzhi was busy massaging him for fear of accidents.
He waved his hand, “Yongan marquis house, the whole family confined in the house may not go out. How the truth, I check one by one.”
Hearing this, Marquis Yongan sighed in relief. As long as the emperor still wants solid evidence, he has no fear for his life. In his hand, he still had a card that could preserve the Yongan Marquis’ residence.
When Marquis Yongan left, King Kai couldn’t help but ask, “Father, my son’s death is not enough, can he be left alone?”
The Emperor slowed down, walked over to King Kai, and kicked him to the ground.
“Idiot, people know to hide their tracks, and everything that is of great importance has been left to you. Now that the people from the crossbow battalion are dead, there is no evidence against them, so they naturally dumped all the blame on your head! How could I give birth to such incompetence and stupidity, and unfilial things like you?”
The emperor was in a rage, his words were fierce, I don’t know which words stung King Kai, or maybe it was because he knew that he had reached a desperate situation, instead he was fearless, changing his usual appearance of trying to curry favor in front of the emperor, and said indignantly, “I am incompetent and stupid, or else you would have already been killed by 10,000 arrows piercing through your heart!”
Looking at his eldest son’s face full of hatred, the Emperor was instantly shocked, not wanting him to be so hateful.
Duan Fei was also startled and couldn’t help but speak out to stop him, “Your Highness, you’re crazy.”
The Emperor glared at Duan Fei, “Let him speak! I have treated him well over the years, today I want to see this son, why in the world does he hate me so much.”
King Kai hummed, “You actually have the face to ask? You’re sitting on the world now, I’m afraid you’ve already forgotten how my mother died, right?”
As soon as these words came out, the people present changed color with worry.
Seeing their reaction, King Kai was rarely pained: “Back then, in order to gain Yu Taishi’s support, you promised to marry Yu after ascending the throne and establish her as the Queen of the main palace, so my mother, your original main wife ah …… became a stumbling block. Days of soup and medicine down, bedridden, sick for half a year is gone ……
After you ascended the throne, because she was a merchant girl origin, she only gave her a posthumous title of imperial noble consort. You can poison your own wife for the sake of the throne, so what’s wrong with me avenging my mother and killing my father to kill the king? Is your life not more valuable than my mother’s!”
Perhaps these words were too shocking, the emperor sat on the chair, eyes wide open, did not move for a long time, and did not make a sound, just looked at the eldest son mercilessly accusing.
Shen Duzhi and Duan Fei all lowered their heads, not daring to breathe, regretting why they stayed in the hall and heard something so deadly.
King Kai laughed up to the sky again, ”So what if the Yu family was that complacent in the beginning? The glory is fleeting, the family is copied, exiled, and imprisoned, the emperor has a new queen …… huh …… Zhou Xian Yang, this idiot, actually sacrificed his life to save you, and spoiled my good deed, he deserves to die!
Father, you have so many queens and concubines …… Do you still remember back then in Qingzhou, when you were just a royal son with no favor and no face, it was my mother who accompanied you and used her own dowry to support you to run around and find help in the dynasty? How can you be so vicious as to let her down and harm her for the sake of the throne!”
Saying this, King Kai somehow managed to get up under the bindings and slammed into the Emperor. Fortunately, Duan Fei was quick to stop him.
“Mother and I won’t let you go! You wait to go to hell!” King Kai was dragged backward by Duan Fei, his mouth still shouting out in pain, and was finally knocked out by Duan Fei with a hand slash.
Inside the Chong Hua Hall, instantly, only gasps remained.
After a long time of silence, the emperor’s eyes are blank and out of focus, softly said: “He is crazy, kill the king and father, but also can pile up so many lies to excuse themselves! Ming | Hui Royal Noble Consort, obviously contracted a serious illness and died without treatment …… without treatment ……”
Shen Duzhi and Duan Fei immediately knelt on the ground, “I understand, and will never allow such lies to flow out of Chong Hua Hall.”
Only then did the Emperor get up, his feet heavy, and walked out of the side hall.
Within the screen, Zhou Xian Yang slowly opened his eyes and revealed a bitter smile. It turned out that in this world, the women and children who were let down by the emperor were not only his mother and him.
As an unpopular prince, he took a merchant girl as his wife for money, and then killed her for the sake of the imperial throne. Even after his death, he didn’t even recognize her position as his rightful wife, truly drinking blood and sucking marrow to the extreme.
And one’s own body is still flowing with the blood of such people, thinking about it is disgusting to the extreme.
The news of King Kai and his wife being imprisoned quickly spread throughout the palace. The first one to know about this was Sun Mingyue.
After leaving Zhou Xian Yang for a while and changing her clothes, she went back to see that the outside of the palace was tightly surrounded by the feather guards, not allowing her to enter, saying that His Majesty was here.
She was entrusted by Rong Xiangmian, did not dare to be sloppy, and honestly waited outside the Chonghua Hall to see the situation.
When she saw with her own eyes that King Kai and his wife were escorted away by the forest guards, she immediately rushed to Fu Ning. She immediately rushed to Fu Ning Palace in fear and reported the matter to Noble Consort Hui.
Although Noble Consort Hui stopped her, Sun Mingyue still couldn’t help but barge into the side hall to find Rong Xiangmian.
Rong Xiangmian was exhausted, but could not sleep at all while lying in bed, thinking about Chonghua Palace, fearing that something might happen if Yang Xian took a risky move and used himself to lure snakes out of their holes. As soon as he heard the commotion, he immediately got up.
Sun Mingyue’s face was full of exaggeration: ”I didn’t expect that it was actually King Kai! He has always been unobtrusive in his day-to-day life, and I didn’t expect to smother such a big thing, plotting to kill the king for the sake of the throne, but also to poison King Yu.”
Noble Consort Hui also only felt a chill in her heart when she heard this, “King Kai is doing this because King Li has been demoted and feels that he has the certainty to fight for it. He is the eldest son, although he was His Majesty’s child before he ascended the throne and has not been taken seriously since, but if His Majesty suddenly dies, it is highly likely that the royal family will elect him to succeed the throne.”
“Insane! Crazy!” Sun Mingyue had a moment of fear, “If it wasn’t for King Yu saving the day, perhaps at this moment we would already be kowtowing to him and shouting hooray. Fortunately ……”
As the three were discussing, the palace men summoned, “His Majesty has arrived.”
The three immediately went out to receive the emperor, only to see that the emperor’s face was haggard and disheveled in spirit, devoid of his usual state-of-the-king demeanor.
Concubine Hui instantly understood the emperor’s intention of coming to Fu Ning Palace.
Among the high-ranking concubines in the palace, only she, who had no son at her knee and was not involved in the possibility of seizing the throne, was able to put the emperor’s mind at ease at this moment.
Noble Consort Hui was busy helping the emperor into the palace to rest.
Rong Xiangmian and Sun Mingyue stood outside and consciously did not follow them in. Instead, they went back to Chong Hua Hall.
At this moment, the entire Chonghua Hall, is simply two steps a guard, tightly guarded. Looking scary, Rong Xiangxian felt relieved.
After reconfirming with the eunuch that King Yuh is fine and will wake up tonight, Sun Mingyue let go of her heart and went to look for King Yuh.
Rong Xiangmian dismissed the palace staff and doctors, closed the door, and whispered in Zhou Xianyang’s ear, “The fish has caught the bait.”
Only then did Zhou Xian Yang slowly open his eyes, “Unfortunately, one got away.”