Su Qinghe smoothed her hair, her eyes red as she glared at Su Yulan.
"I'm telling you, my fate will never be the same as yours."
After she finished speaking, she grabbed Su Rong'an's arm and walked forward.
"Mother, let's go find Grandfather."
Su Yulan watched their retreating figures and snorted coldly, "At this point, no one can save us."
At this moment, a servant from the Cheng family ran over.
"Miss, the master wants you to go back. He says there's an urgent matter."
...
Su Qinghe knelt down on the ground as soon as she arrived outside the Buddha Heart Hall.
He shouted loudly, "Grandfather, please save Father, save the Third Prince! If anything happens to them, Mother and I will not live!"
Su Rong'an also knelt down.
“Father, the Ninth Prince is not targeting Sun Ke, nor the Third Prince, but our Su family. You can’t sit idly by any longer, otherwise our Su family will become the laughing stock of the entire capital.”
The two cried until they were hoarse.
A short while later, the old servant came out from inside.
He bowed and said, "His Highness is currently bathing and burning incense. He will be changing into his court robes to enter the palace shortly. You two should return now."
Su Weichuan had not worn court attire to the palace for a long time, which showed how much he valued it.
Su Rong'an and Su Qinghe exchanged a glance and both breathed a sigh of relief.
With Su Weichuan vouching for them, the Third Prince and Sun Ke will surely be safe and sound.
Su Rong'an quickly added another sentence.
"Please inform Father that there is something fishy about this matter, and that it must be thoroughly investigated."
The old servant bowed slightly, said nothing, and turned to leave.
...
Outside the Imperial Study, Mo Yunzhao, dressed in a bright yellow dragon robe, stood on the stone steps.
Below the stone steps, court officials stood in two rows on one side.
As Mo Yunhan entered the capital, the people all knelt on the ground.
The head of the Imperial Medical Academy led all the imperial physicians over.
Zhong Yuan was also sent here by people sent by the retired emperor.
They went around checking on the villagers one by one.
The results were quickly agreed upon.
No one contracted the plague.
The imperial physician had just finished his report when the dozen or so court officials who had previously instigated the massacre of the village came forward.
Each side had its own explanation, and both were indignant and resentful.
"Since there was no plague, why commit such a heinous act? Slaughtering the village in the dark was far too cruel."
"His Majesty has ordered the Third Prince to lead troops to control the plague and protect the safety of the capital, on the condition that the plague exists. Could it be that the Third Prince is trying to cover up the situation and deceive the public for the sake of political achievements?"
"It is truly disappointing that a prince would act so impulsively and cruelly."
The accusations from all sides made Mo Shaojun furious.
How can it be solely his fault?
It was clearly this group of people who passionately incited the emperor, who personally issued the decree.
Even if he is eager for quick success, we can't put all the blame on him.
But right now, he has no way to defend himself.
The only thing to do is admit your mistake.
“Father, it was wrong of me to act without verifying the plague. But my intention was to protect more people from the plague.”
"Moreover, there is something fishy about this matter. I only believed it because I heard the two imperial physicians say with absolute certainty that it was a plague, and I panicked and made a mistake. But now, the imperial physicians have been killed, and the soldiers I brought have been wiped out. Father, someone must be trying to frame me and has set up such a treacherous scheme. Please investigate thoroughly, Father."
Mo Yunhan gave a cold laugh.
"I certainly cannot wrong my good nephew. Men, bring up the bodies of those two imperial physicians."
Mo Shaojun was startled.
When he arrived, he only knew that there were corpses behind him, but he did not see the bodies of the two imperial physicians.
As the two were carried to the center, they were followed by a coroner from the Jingzhao Prefecture.
I was immediately extremely anxious.
Mo Yunhan even notified the people of the Jingzhao Prefecture. Was he determined to kill him?
The coroner examined the wounds on the spot and identified the murder weapon based on the injuries.
It was Sun Ke's long sword.
The evidence is conclusive and there is no way to deny it.
Mo Yunhan bowed slightly.
“Your Majesty, facts speak louder than words. Mo Shaojun killed two innocent imperial physicians for political gain, just to confirm the plague and complete the imperial decree smoothly.”
The courtiers were even more enraged.
"To massacre a village just for a little political achievement? As a prince, he has no compassion whatsoever; it is truly pathetic."
"In the court today, the Third Prince holds absolute power. Instead of serving the country properly, he has developed such a greedy and opportunistic mentality!"
"We beg Your Majesty to punish him severely and restore justice to the people."
The court officials all knelt down.
The court officials who had been standing beside the Third Prince all knelt down, trembling and bowing their heads, not daring to say anything.
Mo Shaojun was both anxious and angry.
"Father, I admit the guilt of being too eager for quick success, but the deaths of those soldiers are suspicious. They were all killed by extremely powerful traps and hidden weapons, posing a great threat. Father, you must thoroughly investigate who is behind this."
Mo Yunhan seemed to have anticipated that he would bring up this matter.
He immediately took out a token engraved with the character "Su".
“Your Majesty, this is the token of the Su family’s secret agent. I found it while chasing the criminal. Since the Third Prince wants to investigate the person behind the attack, then we should indeed investigate it thoroughly.”
This silenced all the previously indignant court officials.
Sun Ke said urgently, "Ninth Prince, you have harmed the Third Prince and me, and now you want to harm the Su family too? I saw with my own eyes that those soldiers were killed by traps and hidden weapons. Those traps and hidden weapons were extremely tricky and powerful. I have never seen them before. If the Su family has such things, how come I, the eldest son-in-law of the Su family, who has led troops for many years and fought in the Great Zhou Dynasty, risking my life nine times and surviving nine times, have never been equipped with them?"
At this moment, a court official cupped his hands and said, “Your Majesty, I remember that when the Ninth Prince led his troops to Qingfeng Village to suppress the rebels, the master mechanic Luo Jiu appeared in Qingfeng Village to help the Ninth Prince break the deadlock. I have investigated and found that Luo Jiu has been helping the Ninth Prince design mechanisms and hidden weapons for many years. The new type of war chariot that was previously displayed in the patrol camp was designed by Luo Jiu.”
Mo Shaojun immediately said, "Ninth Prince Uncle, is this all a case of the thief crying 'stop thief'? What did I do to offend you that made you set up such a grand scheme to kill me?"
The people kneeling on the ground immediately became anxious.
“The Ninth Prince is a very good person. It was he and the Ninth Princess who saved us. Otherwise, several villages around us would have been slaughtered.”
“I am the village chief of Xiahe Village. I personally witnessed the Third Prince sending men to besiege the Ninth Prince. General Sun even shouted that he wanted to kill Mo Yunhan. So many of us saw it.”
"They even fired arrows, and the arrows were still on fire. Several people in Stone Village were burned to death. With the Emperor above and Heaven above, how can you turn black into white and frame innocent people?"
The villagers were outraged and all knelt down to defend Mo Yunhan.
Mo Yunzhao's expression was rather unpleasant.
He repeatedly pushed Mo Yunhan into the limelight, wanting him to be condemned by everyone.
But now, the people all over the land are supporting him.
Damn it!
At this moment, Xiao Ping and He Nian rushed over.
The two knelt on the ground, took out memorials from their sleeves, and held them high.
"Your Majesty, I have a memorial to present to you that Sun Ke has embezzled military funds. The evidence is irrefutable, and it has been verified that the amount involved is as much as 500,000 taels."
"Your Majesty, I also have a report to submit. Sun Ke has been secretly hoarding iron ore and casting a large number of weapons. It has been confirmed that there are 6,000 unregistered weapons, of which 30% are mechanical weapons."
These words caused an uproar in the audience.
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