The "Drum of Wrongful Retribution" was struck by the Du family a few years ago and then stopped. After a few years, it was struck again, which made the emperor, who was about to go to the harem to relax, feel unhappy. However, he considered himself a good emperor, and even if he was in a bad mood, he asked someone to bring the person who struck the "Drum of Wrongful Retribution" up.

"Who are you?"

The emperor looked at Wanqing and couldn't remember which family in the capital had such a woman. Could she be from another place?

"I, Xia Wanqing, pay my respects to His Majesty. Long live the Emperor!"

The word "common woman" made the emperor's eyes flicker. Not everyone could beat the injustice drum at the gate of the imperial palace. If it was an official, it would be fine, but ordinary people had to be beaten with 20 sticks before they could submit a complaint.

"Do you know the rules for beating the drum of injustice?" The emperor looked at Wanqing with interest.

"Your Majesty, I know. I am willing to be caned just to redress the injustice of my family members who died unjustly."

Before Wanqing came, Xiao Yunrou told her that she was not afraid of twenty strokes of the cane. As long as she could seek justice for the Xia family, it would not matter if she, a criminal of the Xia family, took his life.

The emperor looked at Wanqing for a long time. If she was beaten with the cane twenty times, he wondered if the woman in front of him could still stand it. He was still very curious about how a commoner dared to come and file a complaint. After thinking about it, the emperor made a decision.

"Tell me what injustice you have suffered."

Wan Qing's eyes were moist. Her eyes, which had always been as clear as a pool of spring water, now contained a hint of determination and anger.

"I have a complaint."

The emperor was surprised to see Wanqing's thorough preparation. The eunuch beside him hurriedly ran over to take the petition and handed it to the emperor.

After the emperor read the complaint carefully, the calmness on his face did not change at all. He stared at Wanqing closely, trying to see the truth from her face.

"You want me to convict a first-rank official of the imperial court based on your one-sided statement?"

Wanqing didn't quite understand the emperor's thoughts, so she just kowtowed to him three times.

"If there is no evidence, how dare I make a fuss? I met that man again when I was at my wit's end, and only then did I know that he was the Duke of Yue. For my father's sake, I had no choice but to become his concubine, but he didn't want me to find out the ironclad evidence."

Wanqing recounted all these events one by one, and finally took out an account book, the confessions of the doctors in the clinic, and the portraits they had drawn to prevent them from practicing medicine.

The account book recorded the record of the army secretly raised by the Duke of Yue, and the doctors in the clinic were secretly collected by Xiao Yunrou for Wanqing. After all, she had been seeking medical treatment for a year, and the Duke of Yue had been obstructing her, so there must be traces left.

"Your Majesty, I am just an ordinary citizen. Duke Yue used his power to kill my relatives and fiancé, and even made it impossible for my father to seek medical treatment for a year. He could only rely on rural doctors to keep him alive. I know I can't fight back, and after getting the evidence, I think only Your Majesty can give me justice! Please, Your Majesty, make the decision for me!"

The emperor tapped the table lightly and said after a while: "Duke Xuanyue."

The emperor was furious at the Duke of Yue for taking human life lightly, but what was recorded in the account book made him even more furious. He called the eunuch back and ordered in a deep voice: "Call the Marquis Zhenyuan over, no, call Prince An."

Although the emperor knew Pei Lingfeng's loyalty, he still didn't trust him as much as Prince An, especially since there was some hatred between Pei Lingfeng and Duke Yue.

Prince An was in the Empress Dowager's palace today, and when he heard the Emperor's summons, he hurried to Yu's study. Without avoiding Wanqing, the Emperor showed Prince An the account book.

Prince An had indeed heard Pei Lingfeng talk about Duke Yue's ambitions, but this was the first time he knew about the secret raising of an army, and his face became heavy.

"I will give you a hundred guards. You will take them to investigate first. There are troops stationed outside the capital. You will take the military token. If there is any truth to this, you will handle it."

Prince An collected the military token and left immediately. Less than half an hour later, Duke Yue arrived. As soon as he entered the study and saw Wanqing, his heart skipped a beat. He kept thinking about the reason why Wanqing was in the study. It couldn't be because of the dispute in his harem, right?

"I, your old minister, wish your Majesty long live the emperor."

If it had been before, the Emperor would have politely asked Duke Yue to stand up. But this time, after seeing Duke Yue kneeling and kowtowed to him three times and nine times, the Emperor did not ask him to stand up.

The emperor did not let the Duke of Yue stand up, so he had to kneel down with Wanqing. This made the Duke of Yue more and more uneasy. What on earth had made the emperor so angry? Did Wanqing find out something? But then he thought that Wanqing did not have that ability, and the Duke of Yue felt relieved again.

"My dear, do you know the woman next to you?"

Duke Yue could not tell whether the emperor was happy or angry from his tone, so he could only bite the bullet and answer:

"Your Majesty, she is my concubine who I just took in."

The emperor nodded. Since he admitted it, it would be easy to ask.

"Then do you remember how someone in this woman's family died?"

Duke Yue's brows jumped, and he began to think of a countermeasure.

"Your Majesty, I heard from her that she encountered robbers on her way to pay homage, and her carriage rolled down the mountain and she lost her life."

These words were indeed said by Wanqing when she met Duke Yue again. Duke Yue also created such an illusion at that time, and naturally had no doubt that Wanqing had set her sights on him.

"It's true that he lost his life, but it's not true that he encountered robbers. If the Duke hadn't asked someone to pretend to be a robber, how could robbers rob a car on the official road under the emperor's feet?"

Wan Qing was very excited, and her eyes seemed to be filled with poison as she stared at Duke Yue.

"Your Majesty, after I became a concubine in the Duke's Mansion, I also met many of their guards. But by chance, my father saw one of them by chance. He said that the guard was the group of people pretending to be robbers!"

Duke Yue was startled, but when he thought about the fact that Wanqing's family had no military power, and that his guards would not be able to reveal their true appearance and be seen by them, he snorted coldly:

"Nonsense! You saw someone from nowhere and said that the guards of the Duke's Mansion pretended to be robbers and killed your family. You conspired with your father to frame me by fabricating evidence! I was blind and doted on you all these days!"

How could the Duke of Yue still have any love for Wan Qing at this time? He had not expected that the woman he brought back would have so many thoughts and even come to complain! He just wanted to kill her on the spot.

"What the Duke said is really chilling. Ever since Wanqing entered the mansion, the Duke said that helping Wanqing catch all the robbers was to comfort the souls of her family in heaven. Given the Duke's important position in the court, it would take three or two months to catch a robber. Wanqing really couldn't agree with that."

Wan Qing was unwilling to let Duke Yue go. Since he liked to act out the scene of being completely unaware and being let down in front of the emperor, she would play along with him.

"So I didn't help you catch those robbers, and you come to sue me and slander me? This is ridiculous!"

Duke Yue's face became more and more unsightly. Of course, he would not catch the robbers. He also thought that if Wanqing forced him into a corner, he could go to a mountain stronghold near the capital to clean out the bandits and pretend to be the robbers who killed Wanqing's family.

"Well, if you are truly innocent, why don't you take a look at the evidence Wanqing sent over, and then tell me what you have slandered me for."

The Duke of Yue could not refute the emperor's words, so he could only accept it. But when he saw the testimonies of those doctors and the portraits, he was shocked. The portrait was of the steward of the Duke of Yue's mansion. The Duke of Yue trusted him very much, and all matters, big and small, would pass through his hands. He didn't expect that he would be caught here.

"Duke Yue, you have nothing to say about this?"

As soon as the emperor opened his mouth, Duke Yue kowtowed heavily to him.

"I'm sure the emperor has also seen these so-called evidences. I can only say one thing: I am innocent. There are many things in the world, so why is it strange that people look alike? You can't convict me just because of this half-like portrait! Moreover, these people said that it was my housekeeper who stopped them from treating Wanqing's father. How ridiculous is that? As a first-rank duke, why should I embarrass him? Moreover, there is no mention of me sending people to kill Wanqing's family."

Duke Yue denied it, but Wan Qing sneered.

"You are wronged, Duke. Everything you do leaves traces behind. Otherwise, my father would not have recognized the guard. Also, my fiancé had an accident during the wedding reception. There were always one or two people watching him in public."

Wan Qing looked at the emperor and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, I have found the two servants who were working in the stables of the Duke's Mansion at that time. They gave the Duke of Yue's guards the drug that made the horses crazy, and secretly put it on the horse that my fiancé rode that day. I beg for a confrontation."

Duke Yue's face became uglier and uglier. He gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty is wise. I will never admit to anything I have not done. I also demand a confrontation!"

Duke Yue believed that no one in his house had the courage to betray him. Perhaps Wanqing accidentally suspected something and deceived him. He would never panic. He just needed to find the two servants and prevent them from telling the truth.

The emperor stared at Duke Yue for a while and agreed to the request for confrontation.

"Come on, bring those two boys here."

The emperor drank his tea leisurely. Duke Yue was furious. He had been kneeling for so long, but the emperor didn't ask him to stand up. In all these years, when had he ever suffered such humiliation? When he thought that this was caused by Wanqing, he wished he had killed Wanqing all along to avoid so much trouble.

The Duke of Yue's mansion was not far from the imperial palace, so the trip there and back took less than half an hour. When the guards who went to fetch the people came back and reported to the emperor that the two had committed suicide, the emperor's expression became subtle.

"Suicide?"

Duke Yue was also very surprised, but in the eyes of the emperor, this expression was just pretending to be surprised, but in fact, he had already silenced the person. The emperor had long disliked Duke Yue, and now the more he looked at him, the more he felt that Duke Yue's position was too comfortable. The lessons of the past six months have not taught him how to be a humble person.

"It's a good thing to commit suicide. There are no witnesses."

The Duke of Yue broke out in a cold sweat. How could he know that these two people would commit suicide? He had been an official for so many years, but he had never felt so deeply as he did at this moment that the emperor really wanted to get rid of him.