A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1249: The No. Major Case
Changan.

Zhangsun Guojiu has been holding back for many years, and now that he has finally returned to the position of prime minister, he starts off with a big move, handling the three major cases with great fanfare and full force.

The brothers Xue Wanche and Xue Wanjun, who were both dukes of two countries and served as generals in the Southern and Northern Ya respectively, were arrested and imprisoned.

Zheng Xuanxu, the son of the late patriarch Zheng Shanguo of the northern ancestral branch of the Zheng family in Xingyang and the current governor of Huzhou, was also ordered to be arrested and brought to Beijing. Zheng Renji, the current head of the second branch of the southern ancestral branch and a doctor in the Ministry of Personnel, was also arrested.

The General of the Left Tunwei Army, Li Anyan of Dunqiu was also captured.

In addition, a large group of people were involved.
Their crimes were shocking, including treason, collusion with foreign countries, assassination of the prime minister...
This series of thundering actions shocked everyone in Chang'an. Then they became excited. They didn't expect that there was a deeper mystery behind the Luoyang assassination case.

Then, the King of Qi and the King of Wei rebelled.
Everyone was shocked.

How is this going,

Those who are older and have experienced a lot in the world can already keenly sense that something is wrong.

This is getting bigger and bigger.

The three major cases of Changsun Wuji were handled very quickly. Under his leadership, Xiao Yu led the Censorate, Zhang Liang led the Ministry of Justice, and Xu Jingzong led the Dali Temple. The three courts jointly handled the cases, and the two ministries of Zhongshu and Menxia also each sent out Jieshi Zhong and Zhongshu Sheren to participate in the supervision.

Changsun Wuji arrested people according to the list, regardless of whether they were the Xue brothers, the two Zhengs from Xingyang, or Li Anyan and others.
No matter you are a duke, a general, or a member of one of the five surnames,

All were arrested and interrogated.

The so-called interrogation is a strict interrogation, and when necessary, it must resort to torture, that is, direct interrogation.

At this time, Zhangsun Wuji was merciless and did not hold back on the punishment for the doctors. He would punish you, whether you were a duke, a provincial governor or a doctor, and after you were arrested in the Dali Temple Prison,

They were interrogated one by one, and those who did not cooperate would be punished.

Under the interrogation of Changsun Wuji, even the tough Xue brothers could not stand it, especially when Changsun Wuji already had a lot of solid evidence, the Xue brothers could not deny it even if they wanted to.

The case was heard quickly and the facts were clear.

Xue Wanche once conspired with Hou Junji that if there were any changes in the country, King Tai of Wei should be the leader.

Moreover, Xue Wanche contacted Hou Junji, who was in exile in Annan, through his son-in-law Helan Chushi, and planned to assassinate Wu Huaiyu. Hou Junji also joined forces with Li Anyan, the General of the Imperial Guards, who had conspired with him to coup, and threatened him to take action.
Li Anyan and Zheng Xuanxu and Zheng Renji of the Xingyang Zheng family finally planned and carried out the Luoyang assassination attempt.

Zhang Sun Wuji sent the confession to the palace.
Li Shimin saw the confessions of Xue Wanche, Li Anyan and others, as well as their fingerprints and signatures.
Looking at the confession, Xue Wanche and Hou Junji once said that if there was any change in the country, Wei Wang Tai should be the leader. Hou Junji and Li Anyan had sworn a blood oath, and when he was at the worst of the poison, they conspired to stage another Xuanwu Gate Incident, kill Crown Prince Chengqian, force the emperor to abdicate, and make him make Li Tai the crown prince, or even pass the throne to Li Tai.

If Wu Huaiyu had not appeared in time to cure his poison, I'm afraid these two guys would have been so bold as to mutiny.

The more he looked, the angrier he became.

Li Shimin was not too concerned about the so-called rebellion of Prince of Qi Li You. Although he had to punish him, he knew that Li You could not threaten the imperial power and the crown prince, especially after the Prince of Qi's uncle and the Yan brothers were killed a few years ago. No matter how crazy and stupid Li You was, there was no one around him who could really get things done.

But the Xue Wanche brothers were different from Hou Junji and Li Anyan.

These are all great and powerful generals, and each of them holds military power. If they really want to take the risk of mutiny, especially a palace coup, it would be extremely dangerous.

Investigate, investigate strictly, and investigate thoroughly.

Changsun Wuji was encouraged and became more motivated.

Soon, more and more people were implicated in the three major cases.

The emperor's younger brother, Prince of Jing Li Yuanjing, as well as the emperor's nephews and sons-in-law Chai Lingwu, Du He, Fang Yiai, and nephew Zhao Jie were also involved in the case.

When Fang Yiai was also taken away from the Duke of Liang's Mansion by Zhangsun Wuji's men, the anxious and frightened Lu immediately sent someone to find her husband Fang Xuanling to inform him of the emergency.

Fang Xuanling was also shocked. He was the Prime Minister of the Left and had been the Prime Minister for almost twenty years. He was still in office, but Zhangsun Wuji dared to attack him.

He immediately went to see the emperor.

After the meeting, Fang Xuanling also cried and apologized to the emperor, saying that he had been busy with official duties in the past and neglected to discipline his son, and now his son was involved in a treason case.

Li Shimin was also surprised.
He didn't expect that Zhangsun Wuji would involve the Fang family as well.

"Don't worry, Xuanling. I will look into this matter right away. Yiai is both your beloved son and my son-in-law."

After comforting Fang Xuanling, Li Shimin immediately summoned Zhangsun Wuji after he left.

"What happened to Fang Yiai? And Chai Lingwu, Du He, Zhao Jie and the others?"

"Your Majesty, I was ordered to try three cases. I dared not neglect it and tried them personally. I did not expect that I would be involved in the case and implicate several of them."

After saying this, Changsun Wuji, who had been prepared for this, took out a stack of confessions. He was very fast, and only arrested people after he had gathered a lot of witnesses and evidence. He immediately interrogated them after they were caught, and did not hesitate to torture them, in order to get their confessions as quickly as possible.

Fang Yiai was the consort of the Emperor's daughter, Princess Gaoyang. He had supported the King of Wei before. In fact, his father Fang Xuanling also secretly supported the King of Wei before. However, the old Fang was more experienced and did not express his attitude directly and publicly, but he tacitly allowed his son to interact with the King of Wei.
But this time Fang Yiai was arrested not because he participated in the rebellion of King Wei, but because he participated in the rebellion of King Jing.

Fang Yiai's younger brother Fang Yi was engaged to the daughter of Jing Wang Yuan Jing.
Because of this relationship, Fang Yiai had frequent contacts with his relative Li Yuanjing, Prince of Jing. Once, when Prince of Jing returned to Beijing to celebrate the New Year and pay homage to the emperor, he told Fang Yiai after drinking that he had dreamed of the sun and the moon in his hands, which must be a symbol of destiny.

Although Fang Yiai was the son of Fang Xuanling, his father Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui were known as Fang's strategies and Du's decisions. However, he did not inherit any wisdom from them, but only martial bravery.

He didn't know what was wrong with him, but he thought that the fat Prince of Wei, Li Tai, was a hopeless person. On the contrary, Prince of Jing, Yuan Jing, was very ambitious. He actually had the idea of ​​supporting Yuan Jing as the leader if he had the chance.

To this end, he also won over some dissolute young men who were his friends, and even had frequent secret contacts with ministers such as Shangshu Youcheng Yuwen Jie, and also had frequent contacts with Xue Wanche.

Now Zhangsun Wuji is investigating a case that involves Fang Yiai. Zhangsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling used to be confidants of the Prince of Qin's mansion, but they have been fighting overtly and covertly since the beginning of the Zhenguan period.
Later, he was forced to resign as prime minister. He knew that Fang Xuanling had contributed to this. Even his uncle Gao Shilian's dismissal from office was related to Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui.

Fang Xuanling is not only the emperor's confidant in the court, but also the representative of Shandong gentry. He is from a different faction from Changsun Wuji, the new leader of the Guanlong Group, and they have conflicts of interest. Changsun Wuji has been suppressed by Fang Xuanling for many years, so he will not let go of the opportunity for revenge.

So, in addition to the three major cases, another case of treason involving Prince of Jing Li Yuanjing and Fang Yiai was brought up.

Fang Yiai is a man of courage but no strategy, simple-minded,
How could he be a match for Changsun Wuji? Changsun Wuji first sent people to interrogate him severely and even torture him. After Fang Yiai was killed, Changsun Wuji came out and, with an appearance of an elder who cared for and wanted to save him, persuaded Fang Yiai to confess some useful information in order to get leniency and atone for his sins.

He also used Hegan Chengji as an example, saying that he was originally sentenced to death for participating in a rebellion, but because he had made meritorious reports, the emperor not only pardoned his death sentence, but also granted him the title of county duke, and promoted him to the rank of fourth-rank commander of the Zhechou Mansion, thus promoting him and granting him a title.

You are the son of Prime Minister Fang, the Left Prime Minister, and the emperor's son-in-law. Although you have made mistakes, as long as you can explain clearly and report others, you can be rewarded and be treated leniently.

Fang Yiai was so frightened that he actually believed it, so he honestly confessed everything, including some things that happened in the Prince of Wei's mansion in the past, and those things that happened when he was dating the Prince of Jing, Yuan Jing.

He admitted that he had said after drinking that he would support Yuan Jing as his master if he had the chance.

Changsun Wuji first ordered a table of the best food from Fanlou and brought some good wine to accompany him for a good meal. Then he cleared away the leftovers, took out the four treasures of the study, and asked Fang Yiai to write the confession himself and finally sign and seal it.

So when the emperor summoned Zhangsun Wuji to the palace to ask,
He directly took out the confession written by Fang Yiai, the ink of which was not even dry yet.

After Li Shimin saw it, his face turned pale with anger.

Fang Xuanling just came to apologize, and he thought Wuji was taking the opportunity to retaliate against Fang Xuanling, or just to embarrass Fang Xuanling. Who knew there would be such things.

That bastard, as the son of the prime minister and the son-in-law of the emperor, actually tried to rebel again and again.

First, seeing that Prince Tai of Wei was favored, he wanted to support Prince Tai in his bid for the throne. But now that Prince Wei had no chance, he even wanted to support Prince Yuan Jing of Jing.
This also involved Shangshu Youcheng Yuwenjie, Princess Jiujiang's husband, the general, Duke Anguo Zhishisili and others.

Li Shimin's face was as gloomy as water.
After reading the other confessions submitted by Changsun Wuji,
"Immediately summon all the prime ministers of the Political Affairs Hall to the Purple Palace to discuss important matters."

"Send a carriage to bring the Right Servant Wu Huaiyu into the palace as well."

The emperor almost bit his cheek as he issued his order.

In the palace,

It took Li Shimin a long time to calm down.

He said to Changsun Wuji, "Stop here, don't delve into it any further."

"What about Fang Yiai, Prince of Jing Yuanjing, Yuwen Jie, and Zhishisili? Or should we not punish them at all?" Changsun Wuji asked directly.

Li Shimin gritted his teeth, stretched out his hand to stroke his beard, but again he stroked nothing. The last time he trimmed his beard he used as a medicine guide for Wu Huaiyu, the newly grown beard was still very short.

"Xue Wanche, Hou Junji, and Li Anyan are the main culprits of the rebellion. They shall all be beheaded and thrown into the streets." Li Shimin made a ruling, "Prince of Qi Li You, Prince of Wei Li Tai, and Prince of Jing Yuan Jing shall all be demoted to county princes and be granted fiefs in Nanzhong, Lancangjiang and the southwest. They shall not leave their fiefs or return to the capital without an imperial decree."

"Zheng Xuanxu and Zheng Renji were ordered to commit suicide."

"Fang Yiai, Du He, Zhao Jie, Chai Lingwu, Zhishisili and others, because they are relatives of the emperor or sons of founding heroes, I will spare their lives and exile them all to Suiye, Beiting. They are not allowed to return to the capital without an imperial decree."

"Yuwen Jie, Xue Wanjun, Xue Wanbei and others regarded him as an accomplice and exiled him to Lingnan for a long time and never allowed him to return to the Central Plains."

Zhang Sun Wuji asked again, "How should he deal with Fang Xuanling's son's rebellion?"

Li Shimin was silent for a long time.

"Let him suspend his duties and go home to reflect on his mistakes."

This result made Changsun Wuji somewhat disappointed. He was merely suspended from his post and allowed to go home to reflect on his mistakes. He would surely be reinstated soon.

"That's it. You go to Yanying Palace and wait. I want to be alone for a while."

Li Shimin did not expect that there would be so many unexpected things.

What he just said to Changsun Wuji actually set the tone for the case. Let's stop here and not investigate further.

Kill some and exile some.
He did not kill any of his sons, brothers, or sons-in-law.

The relatives only killed Xue Wanche, the brother-in-law, and Hou Junji, the partner whom they had forgiven before. This time, they had to kill him too.
Li Anyan, Zheng Renji and Emperor Zheng Xuanxu will show no mercy.

Sitting alone in the Purple Palace, Li Shimin felt dizzy.

So many traitors,
Two sons, one brother, two brothers-in-law, and three sons-in-law.
Compared with these people, Wu Huaiyu is truly loyal.

a long time,

Zhang Ananda came to ask for instructions, "Your Majesty, the prime ministers have all arrived at Yanying Palace. The person who went to pick up Prime Minister Wu said that Prime Minister Wu was unwell and could not come. He apologized to Your Majesty."

Li Shimin stood up, but felt very dizzy. Zhang Ananda saw that the emperor was unsteady and hurried forward to support him.

"I am only 45, but I am not as healthy as you, Zhang Jian, who is 80 years old. Sigh." Li Shimin sighed, "Go to Yanying Palace and tell Wuji to report the trial results to all the ministers.
then,

Then let Wuji follow what I just said and close the case."

"I won't go there,"

"Sage, I will send for the imperial physician immediately."

"No need, I just need to rest for a while, go ahead."

(End of this chapter)