Chapter 1213 The Pain of Losing a Son
The news that the King of Yizhou died in the rebellion flew into the capital like wings. After the emperor received it, he was very sad and shed tears in the court. He then ordered people not to leak the news to the queen mother and asked her to take good care of her health.
The King of Yizhou died, and all the private armies he had raised were dug out. The next step was to deal with the aftermath.
After investigating the matter, the emperor discovered that some of the officials and aristocratic families following the King of Yizhou had followed him since the struggle for the throne more than ten years ago.
Normally, treason would result in the execution of at least three generations of the clan. With this number implicated, there would be as many as 20,000 people to be held accountable.
Wei Zhi and others submitted a petition to plead for leniency, hoping that only the main culprit would be punished.
After thinking it over, the emperor agreed and asked Wei Zhi and others to investigate the actions of the people involved in the case over the past ten years and punish them according to the law. Many people had occupied fertile land and committed murder, but they had covered up for each other and interceded for them in the past, so they had not been investigated.
This time, because of the involvement in the case of King Yizhou, many people could not withstand the investigation.
The Ministry of Justice was suddenly extremely busy, and Lord Tang and Wei Zhi had to stay in the Ministry of Justice to deal with serious criminals.
But there are also quite a few people who have been wronged.
But no matter whether it was unjust or not, those implicated would first have their property confiscated, and then it would be judged whether they were within the range of "forgiveness" stipulated by the emperor. If so, they would be released, and everything would have to start all over again.
But with so many people, it will probably take half a year or even longer to complete the review if we screen them one by one.
Then the Ministry of Personnel became busy. This time, the officials implicated, especially those from Jiannan Road, included several provincial governors.
Although they were not killed as accomplices of the King of Yizhou, people like the captured Governor Zhang and the Governor of Zizhou who wrote a letter to apologize were eventually replaced.
The Ministry of Personnel cannot mobilize so many people at the moment. The key point is that if people are withdrawn from one place, there will be a shortage of people in another place.
So the Ministry of Personnel was also at a loss, and finally proposed to the emperor that they should hold a major examination in the Ministry of Personnel after the spring. This major examination would only be open to candidates from the Imperial College, and then there would be another major examination for the whole country after the spring.
The emperor agreed after careful consideration.
Things began to get into order, the officers guarding Changqing Lane retreated, Bai Shan and Bai Erlang could go to school again, and Manbao also began to quietly try to work in the pharmacy.
Then, the news finally leaked out to the harem, which was controlled like an iron barrel by the queen. At this time, Yin Li was already on the road with the coffins of the King of Yizhou and his two sons.
When the Queen Mother heard that the King of Yizhou had died in the chaos of war, she vomited blood and fainted. Xiao Yuanzheng brought half of the imperial physicians to rescue him and finally brought him back.
The emperor was discussing matters with his ministers in his study at the time. Upon hearing this, he immediately left state affairs and went to the harem, waiting outside the empress dowager's palace.
The queen stood beside him, looking at him apologetically.
The emperor put his arm around her, patted her shoulder gently, and sighed, "I don't blame you. You've been able to hide it for so many days, which is already the limit."
The Queen said, "It wasn't Ying. It was Zhangpin's family who came to the palace to visit her and secretly contacted someone in Yunfeng Palace."
She paused and then said, "I have locked Yunfeng up in the cold palace. Has Your Majesty decided what to do with her?"
The emperor asked, "What do you think, Zi Tong?"
"Yunfeng is a girl. It's impossible for her to know about her father's affairs. Xinqing is only eight years old. Let them comfort their mother."
The emperor responded softly. This was also the reason why he did not lock Xinqing up with his father and brother.
Xiao Yuanzheng and the others withdrew and reported to the emperor, "Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager has woken up, but she refuses to take medicine."
The emperor stretched out his hand and said, "Give me the medicine."
The Queen was worried and took a step forward: "Erlang."
The emperor turned around and smiled at her, saying softly, "It's okay. You're not feeling well. Go back to the palace first."
The Queen watched him carry the medicine in with a worried look on her face. After a while, the maids from the Queen Mother's Palace also retreated tremblingly.
Only the mother and son were left in the huge palace. The emperor placed the bowl on the table, reached out and gently helped his mother up, saying softly, "Mother, take some medicine."
The Queen Mother had gray hair and turned her head away with a sullen expression, ignoring him.
The emperor held up the spoon, but when he saw that she was unwilling to take the medicine, he sighed and withdrew his hand. "What do you want me to do to get you to take the medicine?"
The Queen Mother remained silent for a long time. She turned her head and looked at the Emperor, then spoke in a hoarse voice after a while, "In my life, there are only six people who are most important to me. Your sister left me very early. The pain of losing a child is like a heartbreaking pain. I thought I would never experience it again, but you made me endure it three times. Even your father..."
The emperor clenched the bowl in his hand, his nose sore, and he looked up with red eyes, "Mother, are you blaming me for the death of my eldest brother and father?"
The Queen Mother knocked the medicine bowl out of his hand, grabbed his sleeve and angrily said, "If you hadn't killed Sanlang, how could your father's hair turn white overnight, and how could he have passed away so early?"
The emperor opened his mouth, and after a moment's silence, he said, "Mother, I do not regret killing my third brother. I have no way out. He cut off my escape route, while father, sitting in the rear, turned a blind eye. I can only kill him. Only then can I live, and so can the hundreds of thousands of soldiers under my command."
"What about Lao Wu?" the Queen Mother said, her chest heaving and her eyes red. "He can't defeat you. The tens of thousands of private soldiers he has raised are just like children playing house in front of you. Why can't you let him live? You can strip him of his title, demote him to a commoner, or exile him..."
"Mother," the emperor interrupted her, "this is all an accident. On the battlefield, swords and guns are merciless..."
"It wasn't an accident!" The Queen Mother said firmly, "If you really wanted to, how could Yin Li dare to kill him?"
She said, "Yin Li left the capital before Wu Lang arrived. You knew this a long time ago, didn't you? Then why did you wait until now to reveal it? You locked him up in the palace, so how did he escape? Tell me, how did he escape?"
The emperor said nothing.
The Queen Mother felt both pained and angry. She couldn't help but slap him in the face and cried bitterly, "I only have two sons, only you two brothers. How can you be so cruel? He is your own brother, he is your own brother..."
The emperor knelt on the ground in silence.
The Queen Mother wept bitterly, "And Xin'an and Xinping, how old are they? What do they know? Xinping hasn't even married yet. Is your heart made of stone?"
The emperor lowered his head and let her beat and scold him. The queen stood outside the hall and listened to the movements inside. After a while, she sighed, sent the palace maids a little further away, and then turned and left.
The emperor was afraid that she would faint from crying too much, so he reached out to support his mother while being beaten.
Tired of fighting, the Queen Mother leaned weakly on the pillow and turned her head to the bed, "I don't want to see you, please go away."
See you at 6pm
(End of this chapter)
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