Chapter 685: Dethroning Emperor An!
"you!"
Emperor An glared at him at first, then his face turned pale little by little.
When the blood color faded, the confidence and determination gained by the private army also began to crumble.
He suddenly realized what Cao Dejiang meant by that. Since Xiao Yan and his men had already captured these people and pried open their mouths, they must have known about the private army. However, Xiao Yan did not hesitate to bring these people to the court and reveal the matter in public.
what does that mean?
Emperor An's body trembled, and he looked up at Xiao Yan's half-smile, and he felt as if he had fallen into a cold cave.
A general said hurriedly: "Duke Dingguo, what you just said are those private armies..."
Xiao Yan: "General Luo, rest assured. Marquis Wenxin and General Yin have already dispatched a large army to Yaochang. Liu Tong'en is trapped in the capital without a leader. Previously, over 30,000 of their elite troops were lost in Lucheng and Longkang. My men have interrogated the captured commanders and know that none of the men left behind in Yaochang are skilled in leading troops, so they can't stop Marquis Wenxin and his men."
The general immediately showed joy on his face, and the court officials who were originally worried nervously beside him also breathed a sigh of relief.
"Very good."
Someone said something when he was relaxing, but after he said it, he realized that it was a bit inappropriate.
It is indeed shameless that Emperor An secretly hid his own army and tried to erase the past events by threatening the country and the people, but Xiao Yan is also a "rebel" at present, and Marquis Wenxin and his men cannot be considered loyal ministers for arbitrarily mobilizing troops. This really does not deserve the word "great".
The man looked embarrassed and quickly shut up and hid in the crowd.
Cao Dejiang spoke in a deep voice, "Duke Dingguo, let's put aside the personal grudge between you and His Majesty. But you just said that His Majesty's private army is composed of refugees, and that they captured civilians to fill the troops. And that they embezzled years of national treasury funds from disaster relief funds to support the army. Do you have any evidence?"
Xiao Yan said, "Of course there is, Minister Qian."
Qian Baokun calmly stepped forward, took out two booklets from his sleeve, and handed them to Cao Dejiang:
"One of these is a detailed record of the Ministry of Revenue's withdrawals of silver and money over the years. It contains the amounts of gold and silver Your Majesty has used as excuses, as well as the actual expenditures on repairing various fortifications. The other is a list compiled by local government offices of the casualties of disasters that occurred since Your Majesty ascended the throne, villages that were massacred by bandits for no reason, and cases of people who went missing in remote areas over the past ten years."
Cao Dejiang took it and flipped through it, his expression growing gloomier the more he read.
After a while, he handed the booklet to Liang Guangyi: "Grand Tutor Liang and all the princes and lords, please take a look at it."
Liang Guangyi felt that the booklet was hot, but he had to take it. After reading it, he handed the booklet to King Hui and others, then closed his eyes lightly. He knew that Emperor An was finished.
Sure enough, after the two volumes passed through the hands of several princes and important officials, someone gritted his teeth and sneered, saying:
"In just ten years, countless people have died and been injured in disasters both large and small. Yet, less than eleven percent of these deaths have been reported to the imperial court. The imperial court has troops stationed in every region, yet villages are massacred every year. And those missing are all young and middle-aged men. Yet, even the capital has never heard a single word of such a major event!"
Minister He of the Ministry of Justice had a grim expression on his face. "In the past few years that I've been at the Ministry of Justice, I've never taken on a case involving missing persons from any prefecture, let alone a case of bandits massacring a village."
The Shaoqing of the Dali Temple also gritted his teeth and said, "The Dali Temple has not received any intelligence."
After this was said, there was nothing else that others did not understand.
Apart from Emperor An, who else had the ability to conceal such a big thing? Who else had the ability to suppress the reports submitted by local government offices without alerting others, and even make the people in the prefecture and county governments "shut up"?
Cao Dejiang turned his head and asked, "Your Majesty, do you have any explanation?"
Emperor An opened his mouth and wanted to say that these things were all forged by Xiao Yan, and that Xiao Yan colluded with the Ministry of Revenue and local prefectures to frame him, and that those things had nothing to do with him. But he remembered that a moment ago he had admitted that he had a private army, and saying these things at this time would only make people laugh.
Emperor An said hoarsely: "I only handed this matter over to Liu Tong'en. I don't know what means he will use..."
Everyone in the hall looked at him with disdain when they heard this.
Qian Baokun sneered: "Everyone knows that Liu Tongen is your Majesty's confidant. Without your permission, how could he dare to do such a thing?"
Cao Dejiang also said coldly: "Your Majesty was the only one who was able to embezzle the disaster relief funds from the Lu family back then. It is also you who have used the national treasury money to support your private army these years. Your Majesty, as the monarch, should know that all the people of the Great Wei have registered their residences and that the population of each prefecture is quantified."
"If it were only a few thousand people, it would be fine, but there are over 100,000 people. If it wasn't Your Majesty's order for Liu Tong'en to do this, then Your Majesty has not asked about the details for so many years, which shows how foolish and incompetent you are!"
Cao Dejiang's words blocked all of Emperor An's excuses.
Cao Dejiang said coldly, "A ruler is like a bowl, and the people are like water. If the bowl is square, the water is square; if the bowl is round, the water is round. A ruler sets an example for his subjects, and the whole world follows his conduct. Your Majesty does not know how to be diligent in governing and loving the people. You are not upright, and you act absurdly and despicably, using any means necessary. How can such a person be worthy of being a ruler?!"
The expressions of those people from the royal family changed.
Seeing that Emperor An's face was pale, Old Prince Hui was afraid that he would not be able to escape the disaster today. Moreover, Xiao Yan was "interrogating" Emperor An in court, and it was obvious that he did not intend to let him continue to sit on the throne.
Old Prince Hui took two steps forward and angrily said, "Xie Tianyong, you are simply a tyrant. How can you, as an emperor, act like this, treating the people of the world as pawns in your manipulations? Are you worthy of the ancestors of the Xie family, the Emperor Taizu, and the late emperor?"
Upon seeing this, the King of England said in a deep voice, "Xie Tianyong plotted to murder the Crown Prince, killed his own mother, and disregarded the dangers of war in the South to assassinate a leading general, disregarding the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Such a person of vile conduct and dark thoughts is truly unworthy of sitting on the throne."
He looked up at Xiao Yan with an extremely sincere expression:
"Thanks to Duke Dingguo's wisdom and bravery, we were able to see through Xie Tianyong's scheme. I ask Duke Dingguo to remove the tyrant emperor, clean up the court, and choose a wise ruler to take the throne. This prince, along with the other royal relatives and the officials in the court, will stand united with Duke Dingguo to assist the new emperor and ensure the stability of the Wei Dynasty."
"King of England!!"
Emperor An looked at King Ying and others with shock on his face.
Liang Guangyi and the others had not expected that the first person to propose deposing the emperor would be a member of the royal family, but it only took them a moment to understand the intentions of King Ying and the others.
Emperor An would definitely not be able to be the emperor. Not to mention that the things he did would make people all over the world despise him from now on, and he would not be able to sit firmly on the throne. For example, Xiao Yan is now in the court, and the capital is in his hands. It is obvious that Marquis Wenxin and Yin Bao have also defected to Xiao Yan.
The military power and the court power are all in Xiao Yan's hands. As long as he is in power, it will be impossible for Emperor An to ascend the throne. However, if Xiao Yan proposes to depose the emperor, the ownership of the throne will be unpredictable. It would be better for the royal family to take the initiative to propose this matter, so as to preserve the Xie family bloodline to sit on the throne.
Feng Qiuli seemed to agree with this and spoke directly, "King Ying is right. We agree to depose the emperor and have Duke Dingguo choose another kind, wise, and virtuous person from the royal family as emperor."
After Feng Qiuli spoke, the other court officials from aristocratic families also reacted and quickly agreed.
"I agree too!"
"I second the motion!"
"There are many intelligent people among the royal family. Duke Dingguo, please depose Emperor An and choose someone to take the throne."
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