Chapter 546 Taichu
With a loud laugh, Han Zhao strode out of the palace gate and left.
It is estimated that it won’t be long before the Gu family and the Zuo family will be completely wiped out.
Of course, there must be some descendants of these two families left outside the capital, and they will surely fight to the death with the Wei family in the future.
But none of that matters now.
The important thing is that Wei Xianzhi killed two people in just a few dozen breaths, and the two people didn't even finish their words. Looking at the two bloody corpses lying in the middle of the hall, no one, whether standing or kneeling, said a word.
As for Ruan Tianfu in the corner, while he was glad that he knelt in time, he was also extremely surprised.
It's not that he hadn't thought that Wei Xianzhi would kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, but he certainly didn't expect the latter to be so decisive.
You have to know that it is unrealistic to kill all those who oppose you.
After all, if more than twenty court officials died at once, the forces behind these people would definitely not let it go, and once the matter got out, it would have a very bad impact on Ning Wenjun's "reputation".
Everyone agreed that it was what everyone wanted.
Killing all those who disagree is a complete power grab and usurpation of the throne.
So under normal circumstances, we should definitely kill as little as possible.
However, Wei Xianzhi was a madman who had led people to surround the palace . For a moment, Ruan Tianfu was not sure whether the commander of the Xuanjing Division would continue to kill people.
The latter quickly gave the answer with practical actions.
"Lord Sun, are you also going to disobey His Highness?"
“You just have to answer yes or no.”
"Wei, Wei Xianzhi, don't push me too much."
"Bang!!"
With a quick and decisive palm strike, he turned to look at the other person.
"Master Mei, what about you?"
"I"
"Bang!!"
He put his hands down and turned around, and there was another person.
"Master He, you..."
"ah!!"
"I, I am willing to assist His Highness in ascending the throne!!"
“.”
When the number of corpses in the hall increased from two to four and the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice named He Zhang fell to his knees screaming, Wei Xianzhi finally paused his crazy behavior.
His eyes calmly swept over the other people who were still standing one by one. It was not as if he was looking at a living thing, but more like he was looking at meat on a chopping board.
Although he did not ask another question, wherever his eyes went, within three breaths, everyone he was looking at would tremble and kneel down without exception.
Everyone understood that Wei Xianzhi couldn't possibly kill them all, but they also knew that killing four and killing five wouldn't make much difference to the former.
Obviously, no one wanted to be the fifth corpse . Just like that, when the last person knelt down tremblingly and shouted with a trembling mouth, "I am willing to assist Your Highness to ascend the throne," no one was left standing in the hall except Wei Xianzhi and Ning Wenjun.
Turning his head to look at Ning Wenjun, who looked a little pale but somewhat excited, Wei Xianzhi took a step forward, turned around, and knelt down facing the former.
He shook his sleeves, then cupped his hands to his forehead and shouted in a deep voice: "Use force to put an end to calamities and use virtue to bring peace!"
"We implore Your Highness to ascend the throne immediately!"
"Your Highness, please do not refuse!"
For an emperor who seized the world through "abnormal" means, he usually had to go through a process of "three refusal and three concessions" before ascending the throne.
That means he had to be persuaded three times by his ministers, refuse three times, and then "reluctantly" agree on the last occasion and ascend the throne to become emperor.
It is obvious that this process was intended to save face for these "illegal" emperors.
To put it more bluntly, that is -
If he is decent, make him decent; if he is not decent, help him to be decent.
For Ning Wenjun, his situation was definitely "undignified", after all, his father was not dead no matter what.
But the current situation did not allow him to go through the "whitewashing" process of "refusal and refusal three times", so Ning Wenjun immediately accepted the request of the "ministers" and transformed himself from a prince to an emperor.
Of course, the change of identity still requires a coronation ceremony.
The ancients attached great importance to rituals, so this grand ceremony was indispensable no matter what.
Although preparations for the ceremony will take at least a few days, the "propaganda" work can be started first.
Thus, the Beijing News, which had been established for a year and almost monopolized public opinion, began to play its real role.
Only half an hour later, the morning court ended.
The warehouse of the Beijing headquarters of Chunshen Bookstore was opened, and the newspapers piled up inside were delivered to every household for free like snowflakes.
The branches in each state were doing the same thing at almost the same time, and spread everything that happened in the capital to the thirty-six states of Daning as soon as possible.
These newspapers had been printed two days ago. Not only did they contain the original text of Ning Wenjun’s “speech” today, but they also came with a “verdict” from the Dali Temple against Ning Yongnian.
Well, strictly speaking, although the first page of "Daning Code" states that "the emperor shall be punished with the same crime as the common people", in terms of the system, only the emperor himself can judge the emperor, not even the "supreme court" Dali Temple.
But after all, newspapers are for ordinary people to read, and no one cares whether they comply with the system or not.
The common people only knew that the Dali Temple was the place where all major cases were tried and adjudicated. With this "official endorsement", the content in the newspapers naturally became much more credible.
So, Ning Yongnian was the real murderer of the incident in Yuanzhou City? The Xu family rebelled, and Ning Yuke rebelled because they were forced to do so? And, was it Ning Wenjun who instigated the Wei family to rebel? In the narrative tone of the Jingbao, Ning Yongnian was naturally portrayed as a sinister and cunning tyrant who ignored the people.
Ning Wenjun, on the other hand, was a good prince who hated evil and was willing to sacrifice his own relatives for the sake of justice.
As for the Wei family, they are certainly a powerful helper in helping Ning Wenjun to uphold justice.
Of the above three points, except for the statement about Ning Yongnian which is basically in line with the facts, the other two are undoubtedly outrageous.
However, ordinary people simply have no ability to distinguish these.
In their view, the Beijing News, which has brought them all kinds of latest news in the past year, is the most reliable information channel. At least it is much more credible than those rumors.
Therefore, in less than half a day, the entire Daning was in an uproar.
After all, the fact that the emperor was replaced overnight was too shocking. Most people would never believe it was true unless they heard it from the newspaper reader himself. "Sir! We just got here! We didn't hear what you just read!"
"Read it again!"
"Yes sir! Read it again!"
“.”
Far east, Qingzhou Prefecture.
A teahouse called "Sanrunju" is located in a small town not far from the seaside. Most of the people who come and go are fishermen living nearby.
Hearing that something big had happened, the fishermen decided not to go out to sea to fish today. Instead, they all ran to the town, wanting to hear what had happened.
Some come early, some come late.
Therefore, the few "newspaper readers" in the town were very busy today. They had read the newspapers in their hands countless times from morning to night.
But it doesn’t matter, as long as I can make money.
"Please be patient! Fellow villagers, please be patient! Allow me to have some tea to moisten my throat!"
While drinking tea, he quietly observed the increasing number of copper coins in the copper furnace in front of him.
When the copper coin reached a certain height, the old man in Confucian robe raised the newspaper and slowly read it again.
"cough!"
"On the fourth day of the eleventh month of the fifteenth year of Tianji, there was a heavy snowfall."
"The first publication of Beijing newspaper marked a dramatic change in the government"
“.”
The moon was rising above the branches, there was a cold breeze outside, but it was very hot inside.
The small teahouse was packed with people inside and outside, and the crowd would exclaim every few dozen breaths.
Today's newspaper has seven or eight pages, and it takes almost an hour to read it all.
What's more, the old man would wait for the crowd to finish talking before he could continue reciting, so it was already midnight when he finished reciting.
"My fellow countrymen, the newspapers say that the new emperor has promised to stabilize grain prices in all states within ten days."
"And in the south, they say there won't be any more wars."
There is no doubt that when these two sentences were spoken, the crowd would inevitably burst into noise again.
These fishermen didn't care whether there was a war in the south or not, but Ning Wenjun's promise to solve the grain price problem within ten days made them extremely excited.
The night was rolling, and the noisy discussions lasted for about an incense stick of time before slowly dying down.
Someone saw that the old man had folded the newspaper and asked loudly:
"Sir! Have you finished reading?"
"Is there anything else you haven't read?"
“.”
"One more thing."
He looked at the copper clock in the corner through the gap in the crowd, then turned around and looked at the night sky outside the house.
Under the gaze of hundreds of eyes, the old man reading the newspaper sighed softly with some emotion.
"Hey, fellow villagers."
"In less than an hour it will no longer be the auspicious year."
"The new emperor has changed the reign title. From tomorrow on, it will be the Taichu era."
In the beginning.
When the fishermen heard the new year name, they looked at each other, obviously not understanding its meaning.
However, the old man who read the newspaper understood the ambition implied in this year's title.
The beginning is so vast and remote that it is hard to find details about it.
There is no predetermined destiny for men, and there is no predetermined fortune for countries.
So domineering. (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
