Chapter 293 Privately Made Weapons
Emperor Jing'an's face darkened. Prince Rui was investigating Prince Yu's case and had come across Fengxing Mountain.
That would have been fine, but he even brought people from the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple.
Emperor Jing'an said in a cold tone, "Go and stop Prince Rui and ask him to bring people to the hunting ground to search for Prince Yu."
The Jinyiwei took the order and left.
Emperor Jing'an ordered the imperial guards to search for Prince Yu and Princess Guangning.
Shen Qingtan watched the Imperial Guards go into the dense forest, and thought of what the Imperial Guards reported, and sighed in his heart.
Prince Rui was defeated miserably in his battle with Prince Yu this time.
She had a strong premonition that Prince Yu would make a great comeback.
As Shen Qingtan expected, in the middle of the night, Prince Rui brought his men to find Prince Yu.
Prince Yu was seriously injured and his injuries were not treated in time. He lost too much blood and fell into a coma. The accompanying imperial physician was treating Prince Yu.
Princess Guangning's injuries were not serious, but she was extremely frightened, and the cold she had contracted became worse.
Emperor Jing'an summoned Prince Rui and asked him, "Why did you go to Fengxing Mountain?"
Prince Rui said truthfully, "Father, I found a clue and followed it to Fengxing Mountain."
Emperor Jing'an was moved: "How long have you been staring at Fengxing Mountain?"
King Rui said, "Your son has been keeping an eye on Fengxing Mountain for three or four days."
Emperor Jing'an frowned. Fengxing Mountain caught fire three days ago, and Prince Rui was already following them. Could it be that Prince Rui started the fire?
Before this, he suspected that it was Prince Yu who set up a trap and deliberately led Prince Rui to Fengxing Mountain.
Now it seems that this matter has nothing to do with Prince Yu?
Prince Rui did not notice the subtle changes in Emperor Jing'an. Thinking that he was about to get evidence, he deliberately showed off in front of Emperor Jing'an.
He continued, "Father, there weren't many people guarding Fengxing Mountain at first. Perhaps I've alerted the enemy, and Fengxing Mountain has stepped up its security. This shows that the clues I've found are absolutely true."
The staff first discovered the abnormality of Fengxing Mountain and arranged people to monitor Fengxing Mountain for a few days and told him the changes in Fengxing Mountain.
He originally planned to go to Fengxing Mountain to investigate the case immediately, but his staff stopped him.
The aide said, "Your Highness, Prince Yu is a very cautious person. If you investigate the case now, what if he learns of the incident and destroys the evidence? Wait a day or two for the autumn hunt, and Prince Yu won't be able to focus on matters at Fengxing Mountain. You should investigate the case later."
He felt that what his staff said made sense, so he waited until the day of the autumn hunt to go to Fengxing Mountain to look for evidence.
His staff also advised him to bring people from the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple to Fengxing Mountain to prevent his father from being soft-hearted and covering up for Prince Yu.
He thought of the Qingzhou incident, where his father had shown leniency to Prince Yu, so he followed the advice of his staff and invited people from the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple to go.
Unexpectedly, he was summoned by his father to the hunting ground to search for Prince Yu. The Junior Secretary of the Dali Temple and the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice came together to investigate the case of Prince Yu falling off the cliff, and the case of Fengxing Mountain was put on hold.
What made him even more angry was that Princess Guangning and Prince Yu were together.
He originally wanted to marry Princess Guangning to curry favor with his father.
Now Prince Yu has taken the lead.
Prince Rui's eyes were cold, and he was eager to obtain evidence to prevent Prince Yu from turning the tables. "Father, now that my brother has been found, I will lead my men to Fengxing Mountain to investigate."
At this time, Eunuch Cao said outside: "Your Majesty, Envoy Chen said that Prince Yu's injuries are serious and the medicine they brought is insufficient. We need to leave immediately and return to the capital."
Emperor Jing'an said, "Arrange troops to escort Prince Yu back to the capital."
Eunuch Cao took the order and left.
Emperor Jing'an pressed his solar plexus and said to Prince Rui, "Let's put this matter aside for now and wait until Prince Yu wakes up."
"Father..."
"Back off."
Emperor Jing'an waved his hand.
Prince Rui was unwilling, but he did not dare to disobey Emperor Jing'an, so he left the tent.
-
This autumn hunt ended abruptly because Prince Yu fell off a cliff.
The next morning, they broke camp and returned to Beijing.
When we were going down the mountain, there was a loud "boom" and the earth shook.
When Emperor Jing'an heard such a loud noise, which sounded very much like gunpowder exploding, he ordered people to investigate with a serious expression.
The explosion was so loud that the people sent by Emperor Jing'an spent half a day to find out the news and quickly returned to the palace to report.
The Jinyiwei replied, "Your Majesty, there is a weapons workshop built two mountains away from Fengxing Mountain."
Emperor Jing'an's eyebrows twitched. "Whose weapon workshop is this?"
The Royal Guard was about to reply.
At this time, the voice of Prince Rui was heard from outside the palace: "Father, your Majesty, I have discovered that your brother has privately built a weapons workshop."
Emperor Jing'an clenched his fists, suppressed his rising anger, and called Prince Rui in.
"Father, my brother took over the Ministry of War, and the funds are nowhere to be found. I'm afraid he embezzled them to manufacture weapons." Prince Rui held the memorial in both hands and handed it to Emperor Jing'an. "The weapons in the arsenal don't match. Perhaps he moved them out and secretly stockpiled them."
This accusation was tantamount to hinting that Prince Yu was planning a rebellion.
“Cough cough… cough…”
Prince Yu stood at the door of the hall, holding his chest and coughing weakly.
"Father, I have something important to report to you."
Prince Yu did not enter the palace, but held the palace door and asked Emperor Jing'an for his opinion.
Emperor Jing'an raised his eyes to look at Prince Yu, only to see that Prince Yu was exhausted. He was holding the palace door with one hand and the eunuch with the other, trying hard to see him.
He couldn't help but think of Prince Yu falling off a cliff yesterday, which led him to send Prince Rui away to investigate the case at Fengxing Mountain. This was the reason why the secret of Fengxing Mountain was not revealed, which was a disguised way of rescuing him.
Originally, he investigated the case of Prince Rui and found out about the Fengxing Mountain incident, but he still had doubts about Prince Yu in his heart.
It wasn't until the Jinyiwei said that the weapon workshop was two mountains away from Fengxing Mountain that the last bit of doubt disappeared.
His expression softened slightly: "Come in and answer."
"Your son obeys."
Prince Yu refused the eunuch's help and slowly moved into the hall. He had fallen hard yesterday and injured his left leg. He limped towards the center of the hall.
Every step he took felt like torture, his face grew paler and cold sweat oozed from his forehead.
Emperor Jing'an frowned and gave Eunuch Cao a look.
Eunuch Cao hurriedly helped Prince Yu to the front of the hall.
Prince Yu knelt straight down with his knees bent. The sound of his bones hitting the ground was painful to everyone, but he didn't even frown.
Prince Yu opened his mouth as if to apologize.
“Cough cough… cough…”
As soon as he opened his mouth, he started coughing.
Prince Yu stopped coughing and said weakly, "Father, I have come to you today to apologize for my crime."
Emperor Jing'an raised his eyebrows: "What crime have you committed?"
Prince Yu's bones were aching all over his body, especially this kneeling, which was so painful that cold sweat kept flowing down.
He seemed oblivious and spoke clearly, "Five years ago, I applied to you for permission to develop a crossbow, but you didn't approve it."
"I personally believe that Northern Qi's repeated attacks on Great Zhou are due to the fact that Great Zhou's military is not strong enough. If the army were stronger, and if they had extremely powerful weapons, Great Zhou would be even more powerful, becoming a truly powerful force that the enemy would fear."
"I, your son, have secretly built a weapons workshop and developed a crossbow without telling you. I used the funds from the Ministry of War to build the crossbow."
Yu Chaoyang extended his hand to the eunuch who had helped him here.
The eunuch quickly placed two thick booklets in Prince Yu's hands.
Prince Yu handed the booklet to Eunuch Cao and said, "Father, these are the accounts of the Armory for the past five years. They completely match the accounts of the Ministry of War."
"Your reasons are sound. Why didn't you confess the truth when the Ministry of War was exposed? Why did you only apologize today when you could no longer hide it?" Emperor Jing'an glanced at the account book. "Do you know what the crime of illegally manufacturing weapons is?"
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