"Is the following part also about the knowledge of 'Chu'?" Hu Yin finally spoke.
"Yes." Gou Longruyuan bowed slightly in response. "The former is the end, the latter is the beginning... If you can follow the beginning, you don't have to worry about the end!"
"So the 'first' in your words is actually one of them?" Hu Mingzhong asked frankly. "Since you realized the truth of 'first', your own 'first' is to rise to prominence?"
Gou Longruyuan was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes... But as far as the emperor is concerned, as far as the court is concerned, my beginning is just the end. My end may become your beginning... Please, Minister Hu, convey my words to you."
"I will go to see the emperor with Minister He." Hu Mingzhong was silent for a moment, then stood up and replied. "I have a photographic memory and an auditory memory since I was a child. I will not change a single word of your words. Minister He will bear witness as you wish... Are you going to wait here or go home and wait?"
He Zhu understood everything and stood up quickly.
Gou Longruyuan thought about it, then stood up and bowed earnestly: "I will wait for you here."
Hu Yin nodded, then left the public housing with He Zhu without saying a word and walked away.
After about half an hour, He Zhu and Hu Yin did not come back, but the chief guard Lan Gui led several imperial guards to the Ministry of Works. As soon as the latter entered the Shangshu's public room, they spoke to the trembling Gou Longruyuan:
"The Emperor's oral instruction: Since Lord Gou Long knows my beginning, he should also know that I always like to be unbridled and abandon the beginning and keep the end."
After saying this, the chief escort of the Ministry of Internal Affairs turned around and left without looking back, leaving Gou Longruyuan completely speechless in the room... How could he not know that his last struggle was in vain?
However, Gou Longruyuan still had a glimmer of desire to survive. That day, he waited in the public housing until dark, hoping that there would be a turn for the better in front of the emperor, and that Hu Yin and He Zhu would come back to say a few words to him.
However, until it couldn't get any darker, no one returned, and Gou Longruyuan could only return home in despair under the stare of the two imperial guards in front of the door.
After returning to the new house issued by the court, the new Chief Justice of the Dali Temple summoned his wives, concubines, and children, and bluntly stated that he would not live long. He divided the national debts, gold and silver stored in the house, and asked these people to leave early the next morning and return to their hometown in Sichuan... But when it was dawn the next day, his wives, concubines, and children were driven out of the house by the servants, and they covered their faces and walked away. Gou Longruyuan wanted to die several times in order to save his dignity, but he was unable to do it several times.
In the end, he could only be trapped at home, waiting to die.
He was really just sitting there waiting to die...On this day, He Zhu, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Works, went to the capital, the Privy Council, the Censorate, and the Ministry of Justice in turn to give evidence in public, saying that the Minister of the Supreme Court Gou Longruyuan had framed his colleagues, alienated the emperor and his ministers, and even put the blame on the Emperor Taishang Daojun, thus dividing the royal family and deceiving the emperor, and his crime was unforgivable.
There was an uproar in the court.
Because the crime was committed by the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple, it was directly transferred to the Ministry of Justice for handling. In the afternoon of that day, two minor officials from the Ministry of Justice brought two jailers to Gou Long's mansion, directly dragged Gou Long Ruyuan out of the mansion, and sent him to the Ministry of Justice prison.
It is said that arresting a minister of the Secret Council is as easy as arresting a chicken or a dog.
This time, there was an uproar in the court and the country.
The matter was of great importance and no one dared to neglect it. Only one day later, the Minister of Punishments Ma Shen, with the Chief Censor as a witness and three censors as assistants, personally opened the court for questioning. He summoned the Minister Hu Yin, the Vice Minister He Zhu, and the detained Fujian villagers on the spot for a comparative "investigation and interrogation".
After the confession was confirmed to be correct, before noon, three copies were made directly to the Censorate, the capital, and the Privy Council to be presented to the emperor.
Emperor Zhao did not stop for a moment and immediately replied:
"Gou Longruyuan harbors evil intentions, deceives the emperor and his superiors with selfish motives, frames his colleagues, and brings chaos to the country. He has no integrity as a minister, friendship as a colleague, or integrity as an official. There has never been such a person! During this war, military law should be enforced, all his writings should be destroyed, and he should be executed immediately!"
The reply was quickly transferred back from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Capital Province and the Privy Council directly added the seals of the East and West Ministries to the reply documents, as if it were some ordinary imperial decree.
At the same time, after learning the news of the emperor's approval, the Censorate, who were unaware of the reaction from Chongwenyuan, obviously hesitated and held an internal meeting in Wutai. It was not until the evening that they reached a unanimous opinion, which was to suggest that Emperor Zhao bring the matter to the next court meeting for open discussion.
Immediately, Li Guang personally brought the document into Chongwenyuan and went to the Privy Council, asking the officials on duty to transfer the document to the Ministry of Internal Affairs early the next morning.
However, unexpectedly, on the morning of the next day, when this only document that publicly refuted the emperor's will was still in the process, a team of imperial guards went directly into the prison of the Ministry of Justice. They first produced all the legal documents, dragged out Gou Longruyuan, who was paralyzed into a ball of meat paste, and brought him to the front of Xuande Tower. Then they announced his crimes in public, and then one person held him down while the other swung a knife, and just like they had killed the imperial horse before, they directly beheaded this man who was a senior official of the Secret Council the day before and displayed his head to the public.
When the Minister of Justice Ma Shen and the Chief Censor Li Guang learned the news, they hurried to the scene hand in hand, but were shocked to find that even the bloodstains on the ground had been washed away. Only the horse head, which had long since rotted away to the point of leaving only bones, was hanging on the Xuande Tower, making a humming sound when blown by the breeze.
The two people who were just discussing whether to exile Gou Longruyuan to a distant place and not pardon him were completely silent.
A few days later, the court announced the conclusions reached by the emperor and the prime minister through internal documents and court bulletins, setting up six departments for the purpose of assessment rather than supervision, and placing them under the Censorate.
A few days later, when the battle was about to start again, the imperial gazette published another decree of Emperor Zhao, which said, "Everything must have a beginning. The beginning of the court's revival was not in the Central Plains, not in weapons, but in the south of the Yangtze River, and in the people." The emperor will set out in July, leading 1,500 imperial guards and 2,000 imperial cavalry to inspect Jingxiang and the southeast, and entrust the affairs of state to the prime ministers and the secret council.
.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
