The rise of the late Song Dynasty reigns supreme

Chapter 256
"Long live my emperor, long live, long live!" All the ministers shouted in unison.

Zhao Ji, who was sitting on the dragon chair, said lightly: "Everyone is flat!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" All the ministers replied in unison.

Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, glanced around and saw that everyone lowered their heads, not daring to raise their heads, and said nothing.For a moment, the entire hall was silent.Seeing this situation, Zhao Ji said lightly: "Why are you hanging your head down, don't you have something to play?"

Under the pressure, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishments stood up tremblingly, and said respectfully: "Qi Zou Emperor, I have something to play!"

"allow!"

"Last night, there was a robbery incident in the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. A group of thieves tried to rescue Li Bangyan who was escorted by the supervisory censor." The Secretary of the Ministry of Criminal Justice paused for a moment, glanced at Zhao Gou who was calm and relaxed, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Then he said: "In the end, those gangsters died in the roundup, and even Eunuch Li was shot to death."

Song Huizong said lightly: "Oh! Master Shangshu, according to what you said just now, those gangsters came to rescue Li Bangyan. Why did he die in the end with an arrow? What's the reason? Come and listen to me. !"

The Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment was startled, and tremblingly replied: "Qizou the emperor, I have made a slip of the tongue! This gang of thieves and bandits did not come to rescue, but to kill and silence."

Song Huizong said coldly: "Since it is a murder to silence the mouth, can you investigate who did it? Eunuch Li is the head of the big house personally appointed by me. You are the minister of the Ministry of punishment. There will be thieves going to assassinate! If it is known by the common people and other countries, what is the prestige of our Great Song Dynasty and how can we save face?"

The Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment suddenly knelt down and replied in horror: "I am guilty, I am guilty!"

"You are the Secretary of the Ministry of Punishments, and you are in charge of punishments. The prison is the most important thing, but you don't want such a big thing to happen in your hands." Song Huizong roared angrily, "You are duty-bound, and I miss your first crime. Investigate the crime of dereliction of duty. Starting today, you will be removed from the position of Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, demoted to Minister of Lie Cao, and your salary will be halved and confiscated as a punishment!"

"My humble minister thanked the emperor!" The Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment wiped his cold sweat, his heart was still up and down and it was difficult to calm down.

Until just now, he thought that he was sure to die, but he didn't want to just demote officials and punish salary, these were nothing, as long as he didn't lose his life, everything could start all over again.Even if he was not at fault, the Heavenly Prison is not directly under his jurisdiction, but he still deserves to be punished; moreover, he did not leave the Criminal Department at all last night, even if someone told the rumor that he was the supervisory censor to arrest criminals and ordered him to send someone to guard the capital I didn't take it to heart.

In his opinion, it was normal for Zhao Gou, the supervisory censor, to capture officials alive, so he didn't pay attention, and he didn't even go to the prison in person. In the end, when Li Bangyan was shot and died, he realized what he had missed.However, even if things have come to this point, there is no way to regret it.

When he heard that Li Bangyan had died in the prison, he was sure that he was finished, and ordered someone to arrange the funeral.Now it's just that such a punishment is acceptable, even if it is Zhao Gou's incident, he can't be completely blamed, no one knows what will happen like this.

When Zhu Xi, Tong Guan and others were arrested, such a thing had never happened. Who would have thought that a chief eunuch would be assassinated in custody, which made him only complain to Zhao Gou in his heart.If Zhao Gou hadn't been the supervisory censor, he wouldn't have been so busy as the minister of the Ministry of punishment, if not for his own official position.

Even though he thought so in his heart, he didn't dare to say it clearly. He knew better than anyone else what kind of person Zhao Gou was. The only thing he was lucky about was that all the thieves died in the end.If he didn't die, he didn't intend to let them go. All of this was their fault, but he let himself be blamed. It's really a bad time.

"Father Emperor, I have something to play!" Zhao Gou stood up with the mentality of watching a play, and said neither humble nor overbearing.

"Sure!" Song Huizong growled angrily with a livid face.

Everyone knew that Zhao Ji was annoyed by the murder of a prisoner in Tianlao by an assassin, but they didn't know what Zhao Gou was talking about when he stood up, but they heard him say: "Although the Minister of Criminal Affairs is in charge of the country's justice and prisons, the Tianlao is guarded by heavy soldiers. , but those thieves seem to have premeditated, and they will not let Eunuch Li die with an arrow."

"From my son's point of view, although the Minister of the Ministry of Punishments was suspected of dereliction of duty, he immediately rushed to the prison to deal with it. It is normal to pay off the merits. If he was demoted to the Minister of Lie Cao Shilang, he would have meritorious deeds and kill those culprits." I didn't let this matter be publicized, and my son thought it was wrong, so he should make atonement for his crimes, and neither reward nor punish him!"

Everyone held their breath, even Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice was stunned. He stared at Zhao Gou with wide eyes in disbelief, wondering why Zhao Gou wanted to intercede for himself.There is no shortage of his best friends in the civil and military circles, especially Gao Qi, Prince Zhao Huan and others, but they didn't say a word after Song Huizong's gloomy face, but Zhao Gou stood up to intercede, remembering that he still had complaints in his heart before, he couldn't help but feel guilty He took a quick look at Zhao Gou.

At this time, Zhao Gou's words deeply shocked the officials, their thinking was exactly the same as that of the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, only Prince Zhao Huan, Gao Qiu and others changed their faces suddenly, the corners of their mouths twitched and wanted to speak, but it was too late, ruthlessly He glared at the calm Zhao Gou.

Among the six books, the Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice is not a very high position, but it plays a vital role and is also an indispensable figure.However, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment is devoted to the emperor, and never contacts any forces, let alone take refuge in anyone's command, so he does not belong to Prince Zhao Huan or Gao Qiu's disciples.

Prince Zhao Huan originally planned to intercede for him, but he wanted to win people's hearts but didn't want to be preempted by Zhao Gou, which made him very regretful.If it wasn't for the embarrassment of the emperor's face, and what he did last night, hesitating for a while would have two results, especially seeing the minister of punishment looking at Zhao Gou gratefully, full of resentment.

At the same time, Xu Jingheng, Chu King Zhao Yougong and others looked at each other in dismay, looked at Zhao Gou who stood up in confusion, and thought: "Didn't you say before that you should ignore everything? Just watch the show, why did you change your mind again? Could it be that what you just said was a joke, or is there some other reason?"

Song Huizong pondered for a moment, thought for a while and felt that it made sense, and said with a stern face: "What the supervisory censor said makes sense, then according to what you said, the previous punishment will be removed, and the official will be reinstated! However, if there is a next time, it will be the same. It's not that simple when things happen!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty! Thank you, King of the County!" The Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment immediately replied gratefully. He was reinstated. This made him very happy, and he was even more grateful to Zhao Gou. If I want to be the Minister of the Ministry of Justice again, I'm afraid it will take a lot of effort.

Zhao Gou turned around and saw Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice nodded gratefully, and he responded with a slight smile.As everyone knows, all this is exactly what Zhao Gou wants to see.In fact, this scene was also Zhao Gou's determination to formally declare war on Prince Zhao Huan. Seeing that Prince Zhao Huan and others were burning with anger but had nowhere to vent, he could only suppress the anger in his heart and glared at Zhao Gou again.

(End of this chapter)