If this madness is unleashed, given the absolute authority of the current official, I'm afraid that both the students and the literati will immediately shut up, while the common people who don't know the inside story will happily continue to mock Emperor Zhao in secret.

But no matter what, Hu Mingzhong was saved.

The advantage of doing this, as opposed to directly using the royal power to force the ministers to come forward and protect Hu Yin, is that the public opinion against Hu Mingzhong will disappear and be diverted, and the ministers will not be blamed.

The downside is that Emperor Zhao’s reputation is likely to be damaged again.

But it was obvious that Emperor Zhao didn't care.

Moreover, if it were Hu Yin and a few other gentlemen, they would probably also be grateful to the emperor.

Just like this, the hall was silent for a long time. Everyone's minds were racing, some like Lin Jingmo and Qu Duan, some like Zhang Jun and Liu Ziyu, and in the end, even Wang De could sense something was wrong.

But no one dared to speak easily.

Finally, it was the Minister of Justice Ma Shen, who knew that this matter had nothing to do with the Emperor Taishang Daojun, who stepped forward and angrily broke the silence: "Why did the emperor go to such lengths?!"

"Yes, why is it so?" Zhao Jiu fiddled with the silk in his hand and sighed. "I am almost dead from exhaustion here for the Northern Expedition. He is practicing in Shaoshi Mountain, but he despises me for not visiting him... It's as if he is the emperor, and he has the final say in filial piety? What is the greatest filial piety? Didn't I risk my life and fight so many battles to get him back? But you are not satisfied with getting him back, and you still want to do this? I won't tolerate this injustice! In my opinion, we can post this matter in the court newspaper and ask people all over the world to judge... Ask the students and the civil and military officials of the country, whether I am filial or not? Then, put Hu Mingzhong's matter up there, and let people all over the world judge together with me!"

This is as close to open admission as any.

"Your Majesty...I..." Hu Yin bowed his head, but he felt mixed emotions and was unable to continue speaking.

Soon, Emperor Zhao's next words frightened Hu Mingzhong, who was deeply moved, "If these people still want to say that I am unfilial, then I will have no choice but to acknowledge Emperor Zhezong as my father... and not suffer this injustice!"

Hearing this, Minister of Revenue Lin Jingmo, who had already guessed Emperor Zhao's intention, was the first to react. He was about to step forward and make a statement, asking Emperor Zhao to smooth the wall for him who had done such a disgusting thing.

However, in a flash, someone reacted a moment slower than him, but his actions were much faster.

"Your Majesty!" Gou Longruyuan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, hurried out of the line and confronted Lin Jingmo sternly. "I think these two things can't be such a coincidence. Maybe someone did it on purpose. And the previous attacks on Minister Hu are probably in response to this incident... I am in the southeast, and I have heard that the ministers who have resigned from the government in the southeast are resentful and often dissatisfied with the central government's policies. It is possible that there is a lunatic like Wang Ciweng among them! Your Majesty, Liu Mianzhi is a well-known Taoist scholar in the world!"

"Official!" Ma Shen reacted and glared at Gou Longruyuan fiercely, then angrily folded his hands. "How can you implicate innocent people?"

"Don't implicate the innocent, just let the world judge." Zhao Jiu responded calmly, the hard wings on both sides of his head swaying until only shadows remained. "Besides, with Shangshu Ma in the Ministry of Justice, how could he implicate the innocent?"

Ma Shen wanted to say something else, but when he heard Emperor Zhao promise not to get involved, and met the emperor's slightly mocking look, he finally became discouraged and could only bow his head in silence.

The ministers around him also came to their senses at this time and came forward one after another. Most of them agreed with Gou Longruyuan and urged the government to conduct a thorough investigation to prevent anyone from alienating the royal family.

Among them, Zhang Jun, Lu Zhi, Qu Duan and others were the most intense, but that was also expected.

The next day, the imperial gazette issued a small-scale supplement, which included the Emperor Taishang Daojun's accusation that the emperor was unfilial, the remarks in the initial document accusing Hu Yin of being unfilial, the emperor's own defense of filial piety (finally, he did not include Emperor Zhezong's words), and Hu Yin's defense of himself.

As soon as the supplement came out, the Imperial College immediately became quiet, and several Fujian scholars packed their bags and prepared to return home.

As for the reply sent by the Emperor Taishang Daojun the next day, in which he said he had "suddenly realized" after seeing Emperor Zhao's explanation, no one paid any attention to it.

Although this incident caused a lot of uproar, it was finally easily resolved after Emperor Zhao personally stepped forward to protect his subjects.

Things seemed to have a perfect ending.

"Official, that man confessed."

May 25th was the day when Mongolian, Tibetan, and Tangut hostages, as well as Taira no Tadamori's son Taira no Kiyomori and others officially joined Liu Yan's Red Heart Team. Zhao Jiu personally came to the martial arts school and issued swords to these foreign noble sons one by one. Just after the ceremony, Zhao Jiu climbed up Xinggang, ready to use his monocular telescope to take a peek at the scenery of Tokyo, when Yang Yizhong, who had hurriedly come from somewhere else, also climbed up to the post, but he said something inexplicable as soon as he came up.

"What do you mean that person confessed? Who is that person?" Zhao Jiu put down the telescope and looked back in surprise.

"It was the person who mentioned Liu Mianzhi at the gathering of fellow townsmen that day, and then said that Liu Mianzhi's bleak career was all due to Minister Hu!" Yang Yizhong bowed his hands in a serious manner. "After this person finished speaking, he did not participate in the imperial court, and no one paid attention to him... Until two days ago, I found that among the Jianzhou scholars in Beijing who hurriedly packed up and returned to Fujian, there was a person who was not on the record, and this person deliberately did not go with those who were mourning the emperor. I felt strange and sent people to stop and interrogate him, but as soon as I asked, he was frightened and then he told everything."

Zhao Jiu was stunned for a moment, and finally realized what was happening while holding the telescope: "Is there really a mastermind behind this?!"

"yes!"

"who?"

"According to this person, it was Gou Longruyuan, the former governor of Quanzhou and the current left vice minister of the Ministry of Works!" Yang Yizhong still looked at him seriously. "According to this person, Gou Longruyuan asked him to run around and facilitate the Quanzhou Fan Temple's ambush that day... and the latter incident was a sudden idea of ​​Gou Longruyuan after he came to the capital."

Zhao Jiu stood there in shock... After a long while, he asked again: "Why did he do this?"

"Your Majesty." Yang Yizhong was speechless for a moment, but could only bow his head. "He had wasted more than ten years in the prefectures and counties before, and after coming to the capital, he became the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works..."

"For promotion...?"

"It should be."

"Was it deliberate the first time?"

"yes."

"Did you get an advantage the second time and couldn't help wanting to do it again?"

"It should be."

"You are pretending to be ridiculous and flattering in front of Xuande Tower. Are you trying to test my attitude towards this matter?"

"Maybe..."

"In the end, I didn't expect that I would protect Hu Mingzhong to the death, so I regretted it right after I did it. Instead, I tried my best to protect Hu Yin, fearing that I would be exposed?"

"This is not something I can know."

"I'm going to kill this guy." Zhao Jiu blurted out, and then he realized that the anger was burning in his heart and lungs, and he could no longer suppress it. "I'm going to kill this villain!!!"

PS: Routine sacrifice "Actors Have No Holidays"... Good night