Wu Chao: Take the whole family to escape the famine

"Get up." Ji Xun got out of the carriage, his face was indifferent and could not see any joy or anger, and the ministers couldn't figure out his thoughts, all of them were very upset.

The atmosphere was silent, at this time the palace gate slowly opened, and all the courtiers followed the Night King into the palace.

After waiting outside the Golden Luan Hall, several other princes also arrived, and they all saluted the Night King tremblingly.

Except for the crown prince Wei Yuande, the other princes in the Great Zhou Palace did not dare to make any disturbances, and they were not involved in it.

After waiting outside the hall for a while, Eunuch Li came out of the hall with small steps, and sang at the top of his voice with a flick of his whisk.

"Going up~~"

Hearing this sentence, the ministers all filed in with their robes in their hands.

As soon as he entered the main hall, he saw Emperor Qiheng wearing a crown, sitting high on the throne, with a majestic expression and full of energy, more imposing than before.

The ministers glanced at them and bowed their heads, lined up neatly in two rows and knelt down and shouted.

"Long live the Emperor.'

"Everyone loves you." Emperor Qi Heng raised his hands to the ministers, and then looked at Ji Xun with kind eyes, "Give the night king a seat."

"Yes." The eunuch who was waiting by the side brought an armchair, and Ji Xun sat down respectfully.

Emperor Qi Heng looked at the prince he had loved the most since he was a child, and his heart was filled with indescribably strong fatherly love.

He once wanted Ah Xun to inherit the great rule, and brought Ah Xun to court, but was driven out of the Golden Palace by "Prime Minister Zhou", but he didn't say a word, which broke Ah Xun's heart .

Afterwards, Ah Xun went to the battlefield and returned to Beijing once in a while.

Now the emperor can finally be passed on to him. Of course, before that, he has to remove all obstacles for him, so that he can inherit the throne in a legitimate way and without any compromise.

And all the ministers were silent, and no one dared to show any emotion.

Although I was still kowtowing to a milk baby yesterday, and obeying the empress dowager and "Prime Minister Zhou", the situation in the court is unpredictable, who doesn't know how to play the rudder wisely and protect oneself?
Emperor Qi Heng sat in a high position in a stable manner, looked down from a high position, and saw that everyone did not dare to have any resistance to his return, so he opened his mouth.

"Ministers, I was framed by Princess Xia Luoluo and the fake prime minister and almost died. If the Night King hadn't used a golden cicada to help me escape from the palace, how could I come back again?"

"Princess Daqi deserves to die, and the fake prime minister deserves to die!" Emperor Qi Heng wanted to say a few more words, but he never thought that a minister would come forward and appeal, "Your Majesty, as officials of the court, we have not seen their true colors clearly, so we can share the worries of the emperor. , deserve death.”

The minister flattered, and the others followed suit, shouting loudly.

"Princess Daqi deserves to die, and the fake prime minister deserves to die! The ministers are useless and did not share the emperor's worries. They deserve death." Emperor Qi Heng exchanged a look with Ji Xun when he saw this, and both of them had a look of satisfaction in their eyes.

These courtiers were indeed useless, and those who were useful had already resigned. For example, Duan Houye, Zhang Neng's father Jianninghou, and many other upright and upright people all resigned and left the capital.

Most of those who remained were cowardly and incompetent people, and they did not make any big mistakes. Emperor Qi Heng and Ji Xun did not plan to replace them immediately, after all, they still needed to take care of the affairs of the court.

However, Lu Anhe, Song Shangshu and others have already confiscated their homes and been imprisoned, so it is impossible to keep them to continue doing evil.

Since all the courtiers are on the side of Emperor Qiheng, there is nothing to say, and they will directly interrogate "Prime Minister Zhou" Zhou Qian.

Zhou Qian's mask was exposed by Queen Zhou herself, so he could not tolerate sophistry, and after the trial was clear, he was directly sentenced to death.

"Your Majesty, I beg you to let the nephews and nieces of the concubines go, please." Seeing that Zhou Qian was sentenced to death, Queen Zhou cried bitterly and knelt in the court hall and begged, "As long as you let them live , and my concubine Gan Yuan went into exile with them."

Queen Zhou knelt on the ground with disheveled hair, crying bitterly.

Zhou Qian, a dog slave, insisted that he was instigated by his brother to pretend to be him, saying that his brother was seriously ill, so he came up with this method to preserve the prosperity and wealth of the Zhou family.

Of course, the reason why Zhou Qian said this was not to help anyone, but to reduce his guilt, so as to preserve the litter of children he gave birth to when he pretended to be Prime Minister Zhou.

It is completely different for the master to authorize and instigate and kill the master himself to replace it.He is instructed by his master to do things for his master, he is a loyal servant, what is wrong with him?
The courtiers were skeptical about this kind of rhetoric.

Everyone has not forgotten how the prime minister's wife died, and there was a lot of trouble at that time.

Prime Minister Zhou caught Zhou Qian and the prime minister's wife for adultery, and then executed Zhou Qian and the prime minister's wife went to prison. Now it seems that Prime Minister Zhou must have been replaced in this scene.

Zhou Qian's explanation is that this play was also directed by the master, and the purpose was to deal with Mrs. Zhou who might cause her identity to be revealed.

Anyway, these people are gone, how can it be said that Zhou Qian has the final say? After all, he has left everything behind. All the plots were planned by Prime Minister Zhou before his death, and he was only ordered to execute them.

Zhou Lenghui knew the truth about this matter, but Ah Fu had long since disappeared. Without witnesses, what weight can such words have? It's just a sophistry.

Of course, the most important thing is that Emperor Qiheng did not want Wei Yan, the master behind Zhou Qian, to be exposed. There are too many things involved, which are related to the reputation of the former emperor and the privacy of the palace, so there is no need to shake it out like this.

So the case of the fake prime minister was completely pinned on Prime Minister Zhou and the Zhou family.

Queen Zhou could not refute at all.

Knowing nothing about the inside story, she actually believed in this matter more than anyone else. According to her brother's temperament, if he suddenly became seriously ill and his days were running out, he might indeed make such a bad plan.

Therefore, the Queen's position is definitely not going to be kept, I just want to save everyone's lives.

Empress Zhou knelt on the ground and dozed her head heavily, she refused to stop when her forehead was scratched, begging bitterly.

"Your Majesty, although the concubine's elder brother is guilty, he has also made meritorious service in suppressing the rebellion of several princes. Please spare the Zhou family and save their lives!"

Emperor Qi Heng took a deep breath. Although Prime Minister Zhou did not play tricks for forming a party for personal gain, he did not have the intention of conspiracy. All the crimes were committed by the "fake prime minister" and the master behind him, Wei Yan.

Therefore, Emperor Qi Heng didn't have the intention of killing the Zhou family, so he thought about it and spoke loudly.

"Prime Minister Zhou deserved to die for the crime of deceiving the emperor, and his children should have been sentenced to death as a warning to others, but I think that because of his meritorious deeds, I will spare his children.

After he finished speaking, he paused, and glanced majestically below.

"According to the laws of the Great Zhou, I will deprive the Zhou family of the title of empress and demote them to common people. I will be exiled to the extreme north along with the Zhou family and will never be allowed to return to Beijing."

Queen Zhou breathed a sigh of relief when she heard that her life was saved.

But as soon as he heard that he was exiled to the extreme north, he immediately mourned and cried.

"Your Majesty, the extreme north is so cold that even ordinary people can't afford that crime, please change your place~~"

"Otherwise, what is the difference between this sentence and the death penalty? I beg the emperor to have mercy!"

Emperor Qi Heng remained expressionless, seemingly unmoved.

In fact, it wasn't that he was ruthless and insisted on putting them to death, on the contrary, he chose the extreme north just because he was planning for Wei Yuande.

At that time, the Zhou family will be exiled with Wei Yuande, so there will be a support.

Although the northern land is cold, it is not as hopeless as everyone feared. Arranging them there will also save Wei Yuande from having any undue thoughts.

Thinking of this, Emperor Qi Heng waved his hand at Mrs. Zhou. "That's it, take her down."

"Yes." Several guards took orders and quickly escorted Mrs. Zhou out.

After Empress Zhou was taken away, the hall was quiet, waiting for the emperor to continue the trial.At this moment, Emperor Qi Heng spoke slowly.

"The throne is now empty, so I will make the deceased Wu Guifei the queen, what do you think?"

All the ministers said in unison: "This is a matter of the emperor's harem, and the ministers have no right to interfere."

Everyone is not stupid, they are all veterans in the court, the emperor wants the justifiable King Fu Ye to ascend to the throne, can they stop it?
Now that the military power of the entire country is in the hands of the Night King, even if the Night King wants to drag Emperor Qi Heng from the throne and sit on it himself, no one will dare to object, right?
They only want to save their lives and officials, and they dare not interfere in the slightest.

After hearing everyone's words, the emperor relaxed his expression, turned the jade finger on his thumb in satisfaction, and looked at Ji Xun with inquiring eyes.

Ji Xun looked calm and did not hold any objection. To him, the throne does not represent power and wealth, but a particularly huge responsibility.

The emperor wants to entrust him with this important task, and he will not accept it.

Of course, once he takes this burden on his shoulders, he will definitely be responsible to all the people in the world and to the Great Zhou Kingdom.

Seeing that Ji Xun had acquiesced, Emperor Qi Heng smiled and turned his attention to a minister in the front row.

"Although it's a matter of the harem, it's a big deal to make Concubine Wu Shi the empress, so let Mr. Liu be in charge of supervising this matter."

There are naturally many important things to do after the deceased Concubine Wu Gui, such as placing a jade certificate, moving Concubine Wu's tomb from the concubine's mausoleum to the imperial mausoleum, and issuing an imperial edict to the concubine's mother clan, etc. There needs to be a minister dedicated to this matter.

And this Lord Liu was ecstatic after being named by the emperor, and hurriedly knelt down on the surface to be loyal.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, His Royal Highness, don't worry, the old minister will definitely handle this matter properly."

After speaking, he let out a long breath, and the big stone that weighed on his heart finally fell.

If the emperor is still willing to use him, it means that he will not be implicated, and the official position can be regarded as preserved, and all the ministers next to him showed envy.

But soon, the emperor named the names of three of the important ministers, and sent them to the south to inspect the disaster situation and see how the disaster-stricken people in the south were doing.

Ji Xun couldn't help curling his lips when he heard Emperor Qiheng's arrangement. His father seemed to be a master of learning. He wanted these ministers to go to the south to see how the people there were with Emperor Qiheng and the Night King. Support love cuts, so as to take the opportunity to beat them.

If they were hiding any small thoughts, they probably should restrain themselves after coming back from this trip.

The three important ministers were relieved when they heard the emperor called their names, and they all stepped forward to respectfully accept the order.

Although this is not a good job, the New Year is coming soon, who wants to go all the way south? Normally, they would find all kinds of excuses to shirk.

But this time is different from the past, after receiving their orders, they all let out a long breath.

Next, the emperor almost arranged things for the courtiers in the court. The reason for doing this was firstly that it really needed manpower to do things, and secondly, it was to dispel the concerns of the courtiers and make them feel at ease.

Only in this way can the order in the court be restored as soon as possible, and the situation can be stabilized and put on the right track.

Just after making these arrangements, a father-in-law hurried in with a letter in his hand.

"Reporting to the emperor, it is a letter from Emperor Jing Yuan of the Great Qi Kingdom."