Chapter 65
There was a violent storm all night, and Wei Zhen also did not sleep all night.
Since entering the palace as an heir, this is the biggest dilemma Wei Zhen has faced.
After suppressing the rebellion of King Chu, Wei Zhen disobeyed the emperor's will. Not only did he rescue Chu Miaomiao privately, he also wrote to the emperor to request that the lives of the Princess of Chu, the Crown Prince and his wife, and others be spared.
The sage knew this, but he didn't punish him immediately, which means he could still turn the situation around. But now that King Huai had reported Miaomiao's survival to the sage through the Imperial Censorate, he was effectively cutting off his escape route.
Once the charge of sheltering a criminal was confirmed, even if Wei Zhen could save his life, he would no longer be able to take the position of crown prince.
Once he lost his position as crown prince, he would no longer be able to protect Miaomiao.
Wei Zhen's eyes closed slightly, his expression weary. Chu Miaomiao's disappointed yet forced expression seemed to appear before his eyes, as if to say, "See, I told you this was the outcome."
Obviously, she had begun to believe him.
Chu Miaomiao's disappointment was what Wei Zhen was most reluctant to face. He slowly exhaled, as if trying to expel all the anxiety in his body and calm his mind.
no.
Wei Zhen suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes sparkling in the dark night.
The situation may not be at a dead end now, so he cannot give up mentally.
Xu Zizheng hadn't returned to the capital yet, and his return would likely bring new changes to the situation. Jiang Weiqiu wasn't a fool either; with his abilities, he should be able to think of a way to break the impasse.
The only thing he had to do now was to wait patiently for a turning point.
Besides Wei Zhen, Jiang Weiqiu was also waiting for Xu Zizheng to return to the capital. The next morning, before the rain had stopped, he sent someone to the city gate to wait for Xu Zizheng, instructing them to invite him to their house as soon as they saw him.
Xu Zizheng was unaware at this point how anxiously his colleagues in the capital were waiting for him. He waited until the rain subsided before setting off again with the village chief and others. By the time they reached the city gate, the sky had cleared.
Xu Zizheng said to the village head with a smile: "It was sunny as soon as we entered the city. What a good omen."
The old and kind-hearted village head was also a little excited: "Then I'll take advantage of Master Xu's good words."
Just after passing the inspection and driving into the city, Xu Zizheng and others were stopped by Jiang Weiqiu's men, so they turned and went to Jiang's Mansion with full of doubts.
When they arrived at Jiang's house, the village head and others were arranged to stay in a hall alone, while Xu Zizhen went to see Jiang Weiqiu alone.
As soon as they met, Jiang Wei Qiu told Xu Zizheng about the prince's current danger and his plan to turn the tide.
"Now whether we can win a little respite for the prince depends on you."
Xu Zizheng nodded solemnly: "I understand."
The next day was the day of the court meeting. As the emperor and his ministers were discussing the matter, they could hear the faint sound of drums outside.
As everyone looked at each other, a soldier came running over and reported: "Report--"
In front of the main hall, a soldier knelt on one knee and said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, someone is beating the drum to report a serious injustice."
The sound of the Dengwen drum indicated that the visitor had something to complain about or something to file a lawsuit. Furthermore, the Dengwen drum outside the palace was heard by the emperor, and the emperor personally inquired into the visitor's complaint.
The saint looked solemn and ordered his men to bring the visitor to the main hall. After a while, a short, thin old man with gray hair and dressed in cloth hobbled into the hall under the gaze of everyone.
Having grown up in the countryside his entire life, the old village chief had never seen such a scene. He had never seen so many high-ranking officials in his life, let alone the emperor in front of him. Without even daring to look at the emperor's face, the old village chief was overwhelmed by the pressure here and knelt down tremblingly.
"Tian Yong, the village head of Sui County, pays his respects to the emperor. Long live the emperor." Even his voice was trembling uncontrollably.
Sui County?
Hearing this place name, King Huai frowned slightly.
The sage said, "Stand up."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Tian Yong stood up again tremblingly.
"You're beating the drum to report a grievance. What grievance do you have to complain about?"
Speaking of this, anger immediately replaced tension. With tears in his eyes, Lao Lizheng knelt before the saint again.
"I...I am going to sue King Huai for occupying our fertile farmland!"
Upon hearing this, King Huai's eyes widened. He looked at the old village head in disbelief and scolded him, "You slander me without any evidence. You—"
Before King Huai could finish, the sage on the high throne spoke calmly, his tone filled with dissatisfaction and warning: "King Huai."
After the sage spoke, King Huai had to endure his displeasure for the moment and just glared at the head of the village with a murderous look in his eyes.
"Village head." The sage's tone was light but full of intimidation. "You said that King Huai occupied the good farmland. Do you have any evidence?"
The old man fumbled in his shirt for a while and pulled out a few thin pieces of paper. "These are the land sales contracts signed between the families in our village and the He family. There were originally twenty households involved, but some were torn up by the He family. Now only these few pieces are left."
The chief eunuch beside the sage hurried down the platform, took the contract, and presented it to the sage. After taking the contract and glancing over it, the sage said to the village chief, his voice already filled with displeasure, "What does your contract with the He family have to do with King Huai?"
The word "He family" seemed to touch King Huai's heart. His anger gradually faded away, and a trace of panic flashed in his eyes.
"Your Majesty, the He family said their daughter is the concubine of Prince Huai, and that Prince Huai has his eye on the farmland in our village, so he asked him to come and discuss the sale of the land with us."
Upon hearing this, King Huai was so shocked that he jumped to his feet. Without caring about his appearance, he pointed at Lao Lizheng and cursed, "You are talking nonsense! I don't have any concubines. You were deceived and dared to accuse me!"
The old man was being scolded by King Huai. When he thought of the hardships his fellow villagers had gone through in filing a complaint and seeking justice, he burst into tears.
"Your Majesty! Every word I say is true. If there were no one to stand up for us in Sui County, I would never have dared to rush to the capital to file a complaint!"
The village head was crying and complaining, "That He was originally a big landlord in our county. Later, his daughter married into the palace of Prince Huai and became a concubine. He even took advantage of his status as the father-in-law of Prince Huai to force several families in our village to sell their land to him at a low price.
Land is our livelihood, farmers. How could we just sell it? We refused, and He kept sending people to intimidate us, even destroying our crops, leaving us with no food to pay taxes. Later, the government pressed us for payment, and we had no choice but to pay it with silver. But we were ordinary farmers, and we didn't have that kind of money. He came again, using threats and inducements to get us to sign documents to sell our land at a low price.
We paid the taxes to the government, but we were completely deprived of our land. Mr. He hired us as tenants to farm his land. At least we had something to eat, so we were fine. But when the government came to collect the taxes again, we realized that Mr. He had never informed them of this, meaning that the land registration had not been changed. The government still targeted us for tax collection. We filed complaints several times, seeking justice, but were always beaten out by the government. We have come to the capital to file this complaint with Your Majesty, because we, the entire village, have no other options left.”
Lao Li's hands were trembling as he took out a piece of coarse cloth from his arms. He spread it out in front of everyone. There were more than a dozen bloody handprints on it, and there were also words and ink marks under the blood.
"Your Majesty, this is the petition filed by our entire village. This is also our last hope!"
While Lao Lizheng was crying, King Huai tried to speak several times but was stopped by the sage with a cold look. He could only listen to Lao Lizheng crying in anger, while his mind was quickly organizing his words and thinking about how to make excuses.
But the sage did not give him a chance to speak again, but announced publicly that the case would be handed over to the Censorate for trial.
King Huai's expression was gloomy and unclear.
After Lao Lizheng was escorted out of the hall, a deep silence descended. King Huai and the sage each looked uglier than the other, and the ministers felt quite uneasy.
The sage was quite irritated. The Crown Prince issue hadn't been resolved yet, and now King Huai had gotten into trouble again. Neither of the two heirs he had chosen from among his many sons was a worry!
Seeing that the ministers had fallen into a strange silence, the sage no longer had the mood to continue the court meeting. When he was about to leave, he heard a strong voice.
"My lord, I have a plan to report!"
The saint pressed his eyebrows together, raised his hand and said, "Speak."
"I would like to impeach Prince Huai for raising private soldiers and illegally opening an iron mine!"
The ministers were in an uproar, and their surprised eyes were all focused on King Huai. King Huai was stunned and couldn't react for a while. There was only one sentence in his mind -
Why! Why would anyone know!
Among the ministers, Jiang Weiqiu and Xu Zi were looking at each other with knowing smiles.
King Huai is not the only one who has his own people in the Censorate.
When Xu Zizheng learned about the situation in King Huai's fiefdom, he immediately wrote a letter to Jiang Weiqiu. After discussing it with Jiang Weiqiu, Wei Zhen immediately ordered the Censor to send someone to investigate.
The evidence in the hands of the Censor is more detailed than that in the hands of the head of the village.
It is not known whether King Huai could bear the charges of occupying fertile farmland, raising private soldiers, and illegally opening iron mines.
Jiang Weiqiu, who always appears gentle and elegant, now revealed a sinister smile.
Now Jiang Weiqiu is waiting for Princess Yukang and Young Master Cheng to kill the people sent by King Huai to Pingzhou, and then accuse him of false accusation, to see how he can turn things around then!
"Prince Huai, is this true?"
The sage's cold voice awakened King Huai's thoughts. He quickly turned around and knelt before the sage: "Please understand, sage, this has nothing to do with me! This is all slander!"
The Censor held up the memorial and quickly walked to the steps of the Saint. "This is a detailed record. Please review it, Saint."
The sage took the memorial from the chief eunuch but did not open it. He just said coldly, "Dismiss the court" and left.
As the saint left, the stagnant feeling in the air of the hall gradually dissipated, and King Huai felt that he had lost all his strength and almost collapsed to the ground.
A few people from King Huai's party came forward to greet him, but King Huai had no intention of responding to them. He just waved his hand and walked away.
Just as King Huai passed by Jiang Weiqiu, he suddenly stopped, turned around and looked at Jiang Weiqiu with a sinister look.
"Did you do this?"
Jiang Weiqiu remained calm and composed. With an innocent look on his face, he pretended to be clueless and asked, "What's the matter?"
Seeing that Jiang Weiqiu refused to admit it, King Huai almost gritted his teeth and said, "Don't even think about overthrowing me like this!"
Jiang Wei Qiu raised his eyebrows but smiled without saying anything. King Huai was so angry that he almost fainted.
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