The next day, news of Shen Mingjiang's sabotage of peace talks, defiance of imperial orders, and defection with his troops indeed spread throughout the capital.
Emperor Cheng'an was furious upon learning the news and immediately ordered more troops to be dispatched to arrest Shen Mingjiang.
Upon hearing this, Xue Shen stepped forward and objected, saying, "Your Majesty is wise. I have heard that the reason General Shen sent troops to quell the remnants of the Northern Rong in Taiyuan was because the Northern Rong remnants were slaughtering civilians along the way, burning, killing, looting, and committing all sorts of atrocities. General Shen happened to encounter them when he returned to the capital, so he sent troops to quell the rebellion. The local people are very grateful for General Shen's benevolence and righteousness."
Emperor Cheng'an's anger faltered. He knew, of course, that Shen Mingjiang had not targeted the Northern Rong people without reason, but this matter was like someone handing him a pillow when he was sleepy. He had long intended to deflate Shen Mingjiang's arrogance, and now that he himself had committed a grave offense, Emperor Cheng'an would naturally not let it go.
He hadn't expected Xue Shen to defend Shen Mingjiang in court. Upon hearing this, he threw the memorial impeaching Qi Zhong at Xue Shen's feet and said, "I know he cares for the people, but does that mean he's the only one who cares for the people, while I, the ruler of the world, don't? He has already wiped out the remnants of the Northern Rong army, so why doesn't he surrender and return to the capital with Qi Zhong to report back? Instead, he openly confronts the court with his personal guards. Is he planning a rebellion?!"
Xue Shen bent down to pick up the impeachment memorial and read it. He said slowly, "General Shen is devoted to the country. Before the New Year, when the war in Taiyuan was urgent, he, who was nearly sixty years old, threw off his armor and went into battle. He drove the Northern Rong back more than five hundred miles, so that the Northern Rong king had to send an envoy to seek peace. This is all evident to all. Now that the situation is urgent and communication is inconvenient, there may be other hidden reasons."
As soon as Xue Shen spoke, loyal court officials such as Xie Lianhong stepped forward to plead for Shen Mingjiang.
Emperor Cheng'an looked at the court officials who had stepped forward with Xue Shen, his gaze dark, and sneered, "Prince Qin, although Shen Mingjiang is your father-in-law, I have no intention of taking my anger out on him. Why are you in such a hurry to exonerate him?"
Upon hearing this, Xue Shen bowed deeply: "Your Majesty's words are an insult to me. My defense of General Shen was not out of personal feelings, but because I could not bear to see a loyal and devoted general suffer injustice. I believe that no citizen of Wei with any sense of righteousness would stand idly by while a loyal and patriotic veteran is slandered. I am merely one of them. Throughout history, countless famous generals have been framed and falsely accused by treacherous people. I urge Your Majesty to learn from history."
Emperor Cheng'an felt a tightness in his chest from the righteous words, especially since the Crown Prince had stepped forward to agree: "Your subject also believes that the Prince of Qin is right. I beg Your Majesty to investigate the truth."
Despite the Prince of Qin's strong support, the situation in the court did not allow for a final verdict against Shen Mingjiang, unlike Emperor Cheng'an's case. Everything had to wait until the man was brought back and the reasons were investigated.
Emperor Cheng'an painstakingly set up a scheme, but it was thwarted by the Prince of Qin and his good son. After the court session, he threw a tantrum.
Empress Zhou lit incense and massaged his temples, gently comforting him, "Your Majesty, why be angry? The Crown Prince has always been of such an upright character. He may not necessarily want to help Prince Qin; he simply cherishes his old minister. Only with such character can he stand on equal footing with Prince Qin in court. As for Shen Mingjiang, who openly defied the imperial decree, Your Majesty can punish him by arresting him first. He is already old; he might fall ill on his way back to the capital and die."
Empress Zhou spoke tactfully, but Emperor Cheng'an took her words to heart.
He narrowed his cloudy eyes and pondered for a long time before saying, "What the Empress said makes sense. However, there is another matter that I am concerned about. According to Qi Zhongxin, after Shen Mingjiang wiped out the remnants of the Northern Rong army, he originally intended to return to the capital to plead guilty, but for some reason, he suddenly defied the imperial order and left with his personal guards. Qi Zhong sent troops to surround and suppress him, but he refused and led his men to the northwest."
northwest.
Emperor Cheng'an had not forgotten that Shen Mingjiang's eldest son, Consort Shen, had died in the Northwest.
Empress Zhou's brow twitched upon hearing this, and she asked cautiously, "What is he doing suddenly taking people to the Northwest?"
She thought of Consort Shen, whose whereabouts were still unknown, and her eyes flickered: "I remember that Consort Shen once guarded the Northwest, but later colluded with foreign enemies and fled to Western Xia without a trace. Could Shen Mingjiang also be going to defect to Western Xia?"
Emperor Cheng'an did not actually believe that Shen Xiuyi had colluded with the enemy and betrayed the country. He only quickly convicted her to have a pretext to suppress the Shen family.
But now that Empress Zhou has brought it up, he has become somewhat hesitant.
If Shen Xiuyi truly defected to Western Xia, and Shen Mingjiang also defected to Western Xia for his son's sake, turning around and helping outsiders attack Great Wei, it would indeed be a hidden danger.
Emperor Cheng'an pondered for a moment and said, "The Shen family's roots are in the capital, where his wife and children, as well as his most cherished youngest daughter, are all.
Empress Zhou said, seemingly unintentionally, "That Fang was promoted from concubine to principal wife, and she has a son and a daughter. Shen Mingjiang may not value them. He does value the Princess Consort of Qin to some extent, but how can a daughter compare to a son? Moreover, the Emperor is benevolent, and Shen Youying is now the Princess Consort of Qin. Perhaps he is betting that the Emperor will not touch the Princess Consort of Qin."
Emperor Cheng'an heard this, and although he did not show anything on his face, Empress Zhou noticed that his expression had indeed become more somber.
Empress Zhou pressed her advantage, saying, "If Shen Mingjiang really surrenders to Western Xia, then we're afraid we'll be attacked from both sides. We'll be surrounded by Western Xia, Tubo, and Beirong, and there's also the restless Prince Qin inside."
Emperor Cheng'an's eyelids twitched, and after a long while he said, "You may leave now. Summon the Crown Prince."
Empress Zhou looked at his gloomy face and returned to Jingren Palace with satisfaction.
Jingren Palace is quite deserted now. Having lost her son, she pretends to be heartbroken and withdrawn from the world, so it's not appropriate for her to be too lively or extravagant. Although it's quieter, the advantage is that many things are more convenient to do.
Empress Zhou dismissed the palace servants and secretly summoned the guards Zhou Jia'an had infiltrated into the palace.
"Are you sure Shen Xiuyi fell off the cliff back then?"
The guard recalled, "It did fall off the cliff; we saw it with our own eyes. But the cliff was too deep, and it took us several days to search for the body. When we finally found the place, we only saw some limbs and bones. The body had probably been dragged away and eaten by wild animals."
"What is Shen Mingjiang suddenly going to the Northwest for?"
Ever since she heard Emperor Cheng'an say that Shen Mingjiang had suddenly gone to the northwest, her eyelids had been twitching incessantly. Back when Consort Shen was fighting against the Western Xia in the northwest, she had repeatedly sent people to urge them to hurry up because of insufficient food supplies, and later even submitted a memorial requesting a thorough investigation of food and military supplies.
The person in charge of the grain supplies in the Northwest at that time was Xue Zhan's subordinate, and he did indeed embezzle a considerable amount of it.
When Xue Zhan learned of this, he came to the palace to ask her for advice. In order to prevent the situation from escalating, and seeing that Emperor Cheng'an intended to suppress the Shen family, she decided to go all out and have the Zhou family send assassins to kill Consort Shen.
Killing Shen Xiuyi and accusing the Shen family of treason not only eliminated the potential threat of a thorough investigation into the grain supplies, but also relieved the emperor of a major worry.
Later events unfolded as she had predicted. The only unexpected thing was that her son failed to marry Shen Youying into the family, which instead led the Shen family to get involved with the Prince of Qin, becoming the biggest variable.
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