Chapter 495: Besieged on All Sides
The ministers who had just left the palace in the afternoon returned to the palace in the evening.
Still the daytime troops and the daytime position.
But the emperor was not there, and he was angry. At this time, the imperial physician was taking his pulse and prescribing medicine.
It was not easy for the ministers to enter the palace at night in such cold weather.
But now, everyone's face was solemn, and the most feared situation had happened.
Prime Minister Chen Wan and Grand Marshal Xiao Qun exchanged a glance and sighed. With the enemy now at hand, these ministers of state stopped fighting among themselves.
The other ministers also heard the two men sighing and understood why they did so.
The Prince of Jin, the Prince of Cheng, and Xie Zhan rebelled, and the two strategies they had discussed during the day were now useless.
It would no longer make much sense to shift the blame to Prince Gong and others, issue a self-criticism edict, and then request the Qin and Lu families to return to Dali, and Pingzhou would not agree.
Now that the emperor has not come, several ministers are talking in low voices.
"The King of Jin rebelled, his slogan being 'destroy the unjust and restore the foundation of the country.'"
"Prince Cheng used the slogan 'Crush the tyrant and restore order.'"
These two princes almost wrote down the words "plotted to murder the crown prince, angered my father to death, and came to power illegitimately".
The Pingzhou manifesto exposed the secretive nature of the current ruler's illegitimate rise to power. It was understandable that the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Cheng seized on this to rebel.
Xie Zhan should be mentioned next, but the ministers' expressions were a little hard to describe.
Everyone knows that Xie Zhan, the governor of Lingnan, published a short manifesto in which he mentioned the plight of the Qin and Lu families: "We are deeply saddened by the plight of the Qin and Lu families, but I believe that the emperor has been deceived and that there must be treacherous people around him..."
"So, in the end, Xie Zhan rebelled in the name of 'clearing the imperial court, punishing treacherous officials, and restoring the country.'"
This name both echoed the Pingzhou side and did not offend the emperor. Compared with the Pingzhou side pointing fingers at the emperor and cursing him, the name of treason used by Xie Zhan was really mild.
"Bah, shameless!" Yao Songwen complained in a low voice.
Chen Wan glanced at him, thinking back to when Yao Songwen had gotten the position of Dali Temple Minister from Xie Mingtang with the help of Lv Desheng. It was normal for him to look down on the Xie family.
The other ministers thought to themselves, "It's really shameless."
Who doesn't know the grudges between the Xie and Zhao families and the Qin and Lu families? Now, in order to justify his rebellion, Xie Zhan actually said such disgusting words.
Zhongshu Ling Sang Baiqing said slowly and quietly, "You may look down on him, but he is truly formidable. In this brief manifesto, he clearly predicted the court's next move."
They had previously intended to shift the blame to Prince Gong, but didn't Prince Gong perfectly embody the term "traitor"? The charge that Xie Zhan was treasonous was valid.
Inside the room, Song Mo was also reading the detailed information about the rebellion of Prince Jin, Prince Cheng, and Xie Zhan.
The imperial physician had already finished examining him and was now preparing the medicine.
At this moment, Song Mo happened to see the short manifesto that Xie Zhan announced to the world.
Song Mo threw the memorial in his hand and said, "Clear the emperor's side, he wants to clear this emperor, right?!"
After throwing it, he angrily said, "Does he think that I won't touch him just like that?"
Liang An on the side hurriedly said, "That's right! Your Majesty, this beast Xie Zhan must be executed!" He also felt that this man was extremely hateful.
"Lü Desheng, the Qin family, and the others have grievances and are rebelling against you for a reason."
Liang An had just finished speaking when he noticed the Emperor's sidelong glance. He slapped himself in the face before continuing, "But Xie Zhan, Your Majesty has never let him down. You've even repeatedly treated him with kindness! Yet, he's now rebelling against you, adding insult to injury. He's truly heartless!"
"If it weren't for you, as a fugitive, even if he didn't die, he would have lived a miserable life. How could he have achieved such a glorious position as the Governor of Lingnan?"
Song Mo felt that Liang An was right. Someone like Xie Zhan should have been left to rot in the dust after being exiled. He had promoted and reused Xie Zhan several times, but it was really a waste!
Thinking about it again, the arrangements made by the Emperor before his death were intended for him to show favor to the Qin family.
Song Mo felt that if he reused the Qin family, the result would probably be the same.
So, it’s not his fault that things turned out like this!
All I can say is that they all have evil ambitions!
"Have all the ministers arrived?" Song Mo asked.
"Your Majesty, they are already waiting in the Imperial Study."
"Get up, and go to the Imperial Study!" Song Mo stood up and kicked away the memorial recording the rebellion of Prince Jin and Prince Cheng. Prince Cheng and Prince Jin? They couldn't defeat me back then, so why would I be afraid of them?
Imperial Study
"The Emperor has arrived!"
"Long live the emperor."
Song Mo walked in with Liang An, "Are you all here?"
Ministers: They have all been summoned, how dare they not come?
After Song Mo sat down, he said, "Ministers, please stand up."
After the ministers stood up, they found that the atmosphere around the emperor had become even darker and more depressing.
"You all know what's going on, right?" Song Mo was very anxious at the moment and didn't want to beat around the bush with them. "Tell me what you think about how to deal with the current changes."
The ministers all looked at Grand Marshal Xiao Qun in unison.
As the Grand Marshal, Xiao Qun was in charge of all military affairs in the world, so he had no choice but to go ahead and do it.
"Your Majesty, allow me to tell you about the current distribution of our Dali enemies."
Song Mo acquiesced.
Xiao Qun swallowed his breath and said, "Now, our Dali's northwestern and northern borders and Liangzhou are occupied by the Xianbei Hu people; the northeastern Youzhou and Pingzhou are divided between the Qin and Lu families; Donghai is occupied by the King of Jin; Lingnan is obtained by Xie Zhan; and the southwest is occupied by the King of Cheng."
Even though he already knew this before, Song Mo still took a breath when he heard it clearly now.
Nearly half of the Thirteen Prefectures of Dali have been there.
He has only been on the throne for two years, and he has already lost half of Dali's territory?
The ministers present all felt as if they were surrounded on all sides and the country was about to collapse. Why did it feel like there were enemies everywhere?
How to say it, one wrong step leads to all wrong steps.
It can be said that the beginning of everything was the Pingzhou Rebellion and its manifesto.
That's not quite right. It now appears that Prince Cheng, Prince Jin, Xie Zhan, and the others have long harbored rebellious intentions. Their rebellion was merely a cover-up for their ambitions, using the names derived from the Pingzhou Manifesto.
Now all forces are waiting to divide Dali.
"I want to know now, how to deal with this situation?"
The ministers thought that they must find a way, because if there are too many ants, they can kill an elephant.
"Your Majesty, although the two strategies we discussed earlier are no longer effective, the one of them, sacrificing the rook to save the king, must be used."
Prince Gong still has to take the blame. If he doesn't, the emperor will. This concerns the reputation of forcing ministers to rebel. If the emperor bears this stigma, it will only make the current situation of the court worse.
"There's no need to issue a confession of guilt." Under the current circumstances, we can only insist on upholding the title of 'The Emperor is the True Son of Heaven'.
Song Mo responded straightforwardly to this, "I understand."
Prince Gong has to take the blame for this. It would be inappropriate to put it on Zuo Anmin or Lin Ran, Xiao Qun reminded him implicitly.
Prince Gong is a member of your Song family. It’s no big deal if he suffers a little injustice. In the current situation, we cannot let an outsider suffer this injustice.
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