The ministers begged me to ascend the throne

The trial speed of the Tingwei Mansion was very fast. It did not take three days but two days to verify the evidence of Prince Zheng's crimes. The crimes that Princess Annan had accused Prince Zheng of in the court were all true. There was no frame-up or frame-up. imaginary.

King Zheng had killed thousands of people in his fiefdom over the years. Just this one crime caused a shocking storm in the court. Calculated this way, King Zheng would torture someone to death every day.

After reading the results of the verification by Tingwei Mansion, the emperor's face became gloomy and terrifying. He immediately asked Sun Kui to announce all of King Zheng's crimes, and then issued an edict to announce King Zheng's punishment. First of all: demote King Zheng to a commoner and remove his name from the royal jade certificate. Secondly: inspect Prince Zheng’s palace in the capital and the palace in his fiefdom. Again: Thoroughly investigate the officials in the fiefdom where King Zheng is located. If any officials collude with King Zheng, they will be severely punished. Finally: King Zheng beheaded his head in public display.

When all the civil and military officials heard that the emperor wanted to behead King Zheng, they were all horrified. They knew that King Zheng was guilty of serious crimes, and they guessed that the emperor would definitely not kill his own son. Unexpectedly, the emperor actually wanted to behead his own son this time.

The emperor felt very remorseful for King Zheng's crime, and confessed in front of the ministers, saying that as a father, he had not taught King Zheng well, and had made the royal family a beast worse than a beast. He wanted to apologize to the people in King Zheng's fiefdom. King Zheng had caused them to live in dire straits, but he, the father, didn't even know.

King Zheng did not behead him in the capital, but returned to his previous fief to behead him in public, so that the people in the fief could see it with their own eyes. Doing so can, firstly, appease the grievances of the local people. The second is to let the local people know that even though King Zheng is a prince, he has committed the same crimes as the common people. If he killed someone, he should pay with his life. The third is to let the local people know that the emperor has not abandoned them and that the emperor will make decisions for them. The fourth is to intimidate other people.

The emperor sent an imperial envoy to personally send King Zheng back to his fief to be beheaded. Of course, the imperial envoy also had another task, which was to investigate evidence that local officials had colluded with King Zheng. If confirmed, officials with serious crimes will be beheaded locally without being escorted back to the capital. Other officials whose crimes are not serious enough to die will be escorted back to the capital. At that time, those who should be demoted will be demoted, those who should be exiled, and those who should be jailed will be jailed.

When the imperial envoy escorted King Zheng back to his fief to serve his sentence, the emperor specially wrote an imperial edict to apologize to the local people.

On the way King Zheng was escorted back to his fiefdom, when the people learned of his crimes, they angrily threw stones, rotten eggs, and rotten vegetable leaves at him. The guards who escorted him did not stop him and allowed him to be smashed.

Before setting off, the imperial envoy was worried that King Zheng would commit suicide on the way, and asked the emperor if he wanted to prevent King Zheng from committing suicide. The emperor told the imperial envoy that King Zheng did not dare and did not have the courage to commit suicide. If the imperial envoy is worried, he can put a rag in King Zheng's mouth to prevent him from biting his tongue and committing suicide.

King Zheng in the prison car, no, the former King Zheng looked very miserable, his forehead and face were all covered in blood, his head was covered with rotten eggs and rotten vegetable leaves, and his body was also covered. The whole person reeked of stench.

The former King Zheng had long been frightened out of his wits, but now he could only hold on with one breath. His mouth was stuffed with rags and he couldn't make a sound. When I was in prison, I kept shouting things like "Mother, please save me, uncle, please save me, I don't want to die...".

Later, when he learned that he was going to be taken back to his fiefdom and beheaded in public, he went crazy, and then became dying. However, in order to allow him to return to the fief for beheading, the guards would give him medicine and food on the way so that he would not die on the way.

Having said that, after the former King Zheng was sentenced to be beheaded in public, no one, whether it was Concubine Shu or the Duke of Anyang, interceded for the former King Zheng. It stands to reason that as the biological mother of Prince Zheng, Concubine Shu would definitely plead for her son. In fact, not only did she not plead, Concubine Shu also took the initiative to apologize to the emperor, saying that she, the mother, did not teach her son well, so she let him He did so many heinous things. She also asked the emperor to punish her.

Concubine Shu did not intercede for her brother Anyang Gong, because she knew in her heart that if she interceded for her brother, it would only harm him. What she had to do was to take all the blame on herself and let the emperor see that because of her voluntary confession and the friendship over the years, he could spare the lives of Anyang Gong and his son and save the Wang family.

The emperor fulfilled Concubine Shu's wish, punished her, demoted her to concubine, and imprisoned her in her palace. Without his order, no one was allowed to visit her, nor could she come and go at will.

Empress Xie was very dissatisfied with the emperor for not banishing concubines to the cold palace. In her opinion, the former King Zheng had committed so many crimes, and Shubin, the mother, could not escape the relationship. Whether it was according to the law or palace rules, Shubin should be demoted to a palace maid and locked up in the cold palace.

For this reason, Queen Xie went to the emperor specifically, hoping that the emperor would severely punish the concubine. However, the emperor rejected it. The emperor said that Shu concubine did not teach her son well, but the crime would not lead to death.

After hearing this, Queen Xie was naturally angry and dissatisfied, but she could not refute the emperor. They can only do some small tricks secretly, such as deducting the proportion of concubines.

As for Anyang Gong and his son, the emperor did not punish them for the time being. The Duke of Zhenguo and Marquis Xuanping are all fine for the time being, because what they did in Annan is still under investigation and verification.

After Concubine Rong learned that Princess Annan had sued King Dai and Marquis Xuanping for recruiting troops and forging weapons in Annan, she immediately ran to the emperor to complain, saying that King Dai and Marquis Xuanping would never do such a thing, and asked the emperor not to believe Princess Annan's words. She also said that Princess Annan deliberately falsely accused the Duke of Zhen, Marquis Xuanping, and other ministers in order to shake up the Zhou court.

She was very smart and did not say that Princess Annan only framed the Xuanping Hou Mansion. If she said this, the emperor would understand that she was interceding for the Xuanping Hou Mansion. If she said that Princess Annan wanted to shake the entire Zhou Dynasty, the emperor would take it seriously. Even if what Princess Annan accuses is true, the emperor will not punish her severely.

How could the emperor not understand Concubine Rong's little thoughts? However, he didn't say much.

Queen Xie also came to plead for mercy, and what she said was similar to what Concubine Rong said. At first, she just wanted to plead for the Zhenguo Duke's mansion, and then took the opportunity to make trouble for the Xuanping Hou's mansion. Later, Concubine Rong came to her, revealed her thoughts, and warned her that if she only interceded for the Zhenguo Palace, the emperor would never let the Zhenguo Palace go. If she did what she said and begged for mercy for everyone, then the Zhenguo Palace might still be safe in the end.

Sometimes, Queen Xie is indeed stupid, but she is not stupid all the time. Although she wanted to take this opportunity to bring down the Xuanping Hou Mansion, now was not the time. What she has to do now is to keep the Zhenguo Palace.

Concubine Rong also went to see Concubine De. After all, King Han was also involved in this matter. Concubine De didn't need Concubine Rong to tell her what to do.

Seeing that Queen Xie, Concubine Rong, and Concubine De were interceding for everyone who had been sued by Princess Annan, and all said in unison that Princess Annan wanted to shake up the Zhou court, the emperor only felt funny.

"Sun Kui, do you think Princess Annan wants to shake up our imperial court?"

Sun Kui bowed his waist and replied respectfully: "This... I don't know."

The emperor glanced at Sun Kui and said, "If I ask you to say it, just say it. I won't punish you." After hearing this, Sun Kui had the courage to say: "Your Majesty, no matter how courageous Princess Annan is, she will not dare to do whatever she wants. Framing Zhou officials is a serious crime. I think Princess Annan should not dare to shake the Zhou court."

The emperor praised: "You still have brains."

Sun Kui, who was praised, smiled sheepishly: "Your Majesty, in fact, the Queen and the others should also know that it was only because they were eager to save people that they revealed that Princess Annan deliberately framed you, in order to shake the Zhou Dynasty and make people fall into disgrace. The Great Zhou Dynasty was in turmoil.”

The emperor smiled and scolded: "This brat Xiao Shi will really make trouble for me."

"Ah, did His Highness the King of Han do this?" Sun Kui looked shocked. Could it be that His Highness the King of Han asked Princess Annan to go to Beijing to sue the former King Zheng and the ministers of Zhen Guo Gong?

"It's not him, it's someone else." The emperor sneered, "Princess Annan, do you think she can know these things and get evidence."

"It turns out that His Highness the King of Han is secretly helping Princess Annan." My dear, His Highness the King of Han is really talented, he was able to find out so many things.

"Princess Annan has been in Da Zhou for a long time. She has been collecting evidence of that beast's crime during this period."

Sun Kui: "!!!!!"

"Your Majesty, how could His Highness the King of Han know what Duke Zhen and the ministers were doing in Annan?"

"That brat sent people to do business in many places in Annan. It's not difficult to find out what those people are doing in Annan." The emperor smiled, "The brat is very capable. He can't hide anything that happened in Annan. Eye."

"This..." Sun Kui wanted to ask His Highness the King of Han what he did in Annan, but he understood that this was not something he should know and did not ask. "His Royal Highness the King of Han is so powerful."

"This brat messed up my plan." The emperor said with a headache, "Did the brat do it on purpose?"

Sun Kui had no idea what the emperor was saying.

"Oh, if it's a mess, it'll be a mess. It needs to be dealt with."

Hearing what the emperor said, Sun Kui's heart skipped a beat. He thought to himself: The emperor is not planning to let Duke Zhen Guo and those ministers go.

Also, with the emperor's temper, how could he let these people go.

"I've been too kind these days." The emperor sighed, "It's time to let them know how powerful I am."

Sun Kui silently sympathized with these ministers seeking death.

"Go tell Lao He and the others to investigate as necessary. Once the investigation is completed, deal with it as necessary." It doesn't matter if some ministers are missing from the court, because there will be new ministers to replace them. There is no shortage of officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Over the years, batches of young and outstanding officials have been selected through the imperial examinations.

"Your Majesty, I don't need your orders. They will definitely investigate He Xiang."

"I asked you to announce my decree just to scare some people to death. Do you understand?"

Sun Kui immediately understood what the emperor meant, "I'll go right now."

Soon, all the civil and military officials of the previous dynasty and the ladies in the harem knew that the emperor wanted to investigate the matter thoroughly and had no intention of letting anyone go.

The ministers who were sued by Princess Annan were filled with despair: It's over, they are dead!

Concubine Rong couldn't believe that they all begged for mercy and said that, but the emperor was indifferent.

Does my cousin really not intend to let go of the Xuanping Hou Mansion? (End of chapter)