Chapter 486: The Northern Qi Emperor Helps Zhao Yi
The Northern Qi Emperor's temples were throbbing and his head started to hurt again.
Since ancient times, the poor have never fought against the rich, and the rich have never fought against the officials.
What's more, the virtuous king is the heir to the throne.
The people will understand this principle.
Even if they harbored resentment against the virtuous king and wanted to seek justice, the crimes committed by the virtuous king would not have reached the capital in just five or six days.
There must be someone behind the scenes fanning the flames.
It's easy to guess who did it.
However, after hearing what the eunuch said, the secret guard suddenly remembered something: "Your Majesty, I remember something the judge said in the dark cell."
The Northern Qi Emperor looked at the secret guard sharply: "What did he say?"
The secret guard replied, "He said that all the officials associated with Feng Zhihuan were imprisoned, except for the virtuous prince. They were concerned about their relatives and never thought of turning the virtuous prince in."
"The wise king was truly unkind and cruel. He was worried that those who knew the truth would expose his crimes, so he killed them to silence them. He even left no one alive, including his relatives who were about to be exiled."
"Fortunately, he and his family were lucky enough not to die at the hands of the virtuous king. He couldn't swallow his anger, so he betrayed the virtuous king at the execution ground. He also thought that by making the matter bigger, he might be able to save his family and prevent their deaths in vain."
These words were like a bolt of lightning to the Emperor of Northern Qi, and he was unable to react for a while.
He sent people to assassinate Feng Zhihuan in order to put the blame of the assassination of Zhao Yi on Feng Zhihuan.
As for the assassination of Feng Zhihuan's confidants, it was to silence the wise king.
Because he didn't trust Zhao Yi, he killed everyone who knew about it to eliminate the trouble forever.
Unexpectedly, by doing this, he not only failed to accomplish anything, but also caused trouble.
The Emperor of Northern Qi had made all sorts of calculations, but he never anticipated that he was the culprit who provoked the incident.
It is almost impossible to suppress public opinion at the moment.
The Emperor of Northern Qi was overwhelmed and immediately called the eunuch in to question him.
He was relieved to learn from the eunuch that the matter of the virtuous king had neither caused much stir among the people nor stirred up any waves among the ministers.
"It's better to open it than to block it. The more I try to suppress public opinion, the more I'm afraid I'll suffer backlash. It's better to let it ferment." The Northern Qi Emperor thought about it and came up with a solution: "Prince Guangling created a larger public opinion to suppress it, and it had a very good effect. When the time is right, we can also create public opinion to suppress the rumors that are unfavorable to the virtuous prince."
Eunuch Liu said, "Your Majesty is wise."
The Northern Qi Emperor instructed Eunuch Liu, "Go to the Xian Prince's mansion first and deliver the message that he has been released from his confinement." He made plans for the Xian Prince, saying, "In a few days, the wife of the Minister of Personnel will celebrate her seventieth birthday. It's time for the Xian Prince to make an appearance and appease the court officials."
He felt a little regretful that he shouldn't have thought of annexing the Great Zhou when his own strength was insufficient.
In his eyes, the most capable general of the Great Zhou was the King of Zhenbei.
Without the King of Zhenbei, the Great Zhou was nothing to be feared by the Northern Qi.
Therefore, he wanted to use the relationship between Zhao Yi and Prince Zhenbei, the father-in-law and son-in-law, to alienate the relationship between Prince Zhenbei and the Great Zhou.
Once the subjects of the Great Zhou suspected that the Prince of Zhenbei had the intention of rebellion, how could they allow the Prince of Zhenbei to lead his troops to attack Northern Qi?
At that time, he would appoint the imperial teacher as the military advisor and conquer the Great Zhou in one fell swoop.
It was precisely because of this that when the officials impeached Zhao Yi, he implicitly revealed Zhao Yi's ambition in order to clear him of the suspicion of being a spy.
Now think about it, his approach would do more harm than good to the wise king who was unpopular at the time.
"Yes." Eunuch Liu took the order and left.
He strongly disapproved of what the Northern Qi Emperor did. The virtuous king was the only royal heir with pure blood, and it was the popular wish that he should inherit the throne.
Even if the reputation of the virtuous king is damaged, who would dare to criticize him when he becomes the new emperor? How many heads would be chopped off for those who dare to criticize the new emperor?
Unfortunately, the Northern Qi Emperor lacked the ability to hold onto the throne, relying on his tutor to secure it. This led to his extreme lack of self-confidence, and he was particularly concerned about the outside world's views of him, fearing that they would see him as a foolish and incompetent monarch.
The more Eunuch Liu thought about it, the more he felt that the Northern Qi Emperor's current situation could have been foreseen a long time ago.
He is just an empty shell, hollow inside, without any talent to support him, so he cares about reputation and is cautious about everything.
If he was resourceful and courageous, he would not be controlled by Zhao Yi.
They would not be worried about such a small matter as the wise king that was surrounded by public opinion.
Eunuch Liu put aside his thoughts and went to the Xianwang Mansion to pass on the message: "Your Highness, His Majesty has lifted your house arrest."
The gloomy brows of the wise king brightened at the news: "Does the emperor have any other instructions?"
Based on his understanding of the Emperor of Northern Qi, he would not lift his title for no reason.
Eunuch Liu replied, "In a few days the wife of the Minister of Personnel will be celebrating her seventieth birthday. His Majesty has asked you to prepare a generous gift for the banquet."
The wise king's eyes flickered slightly. It turned out that his father knew that the Minister of Personnel was in his camp?
Are they afraid that he will lose the support of the people, so they let him go to the birthday party of the Minister's wife and perform well?
Thinking of this, the virtuous prince stuffed a bag of silver ingots into Eunuch Liu's hand and said, "Thank you for your trip, Eunuch. Please tell my father not to worry about my affairs. I will take care of everything properly."
Eunuch Liu smiled and said, "Your Highness, please forgive me. This is my duty."
After saying this, he put the purse on the coffee table and took his men back to the palace.
The virtuous prince stared at the money bag on the coffee table, his eyes gradually darkening. Just as he was about to leave the palace, he saw Zhang Weiping hurriedly approaching him: "Your Highness, something terrible has happened. Feng Zhihuan's magistrate has confessed your crimes at the execution ground."
"I've heard that the people of Yongqing County are attacking you and demanding justice from the court. It's become a major incident, so serious that even Prince Guangling and Li Leshan can't suppress it. News has already reached the capital."
The virtuous prince's expression suddenly changed. "The Prince of Guangling is my mortal enemy. He's only hoping for a big fuss. How could he help me suppress public opinion?" He angrily said, "I suspect he's the one behind this."
"Your Highness, allowing public opinion to ferment will only become increasingly disadvantageous to you. What should we do?" Zhang Weiping observed the virtuous king's exasperated expression and relayed another piece of bad news: "I also heard that on the second day of your house arrest, at the morning court, officials impeached Prince Guangling as a spy for the Great Zhou, unjustly killing important officials of Northern Qi, and attempting to disrupt the government. Unexpectedly, Your Majesty exonerated Prince Guangling, even saying that he would help Northern Qi annex the Great Zhou. It turns out that some ministers were prejudiced against Prince Guangling because of his background. Now that Your Majesty has defended him, their attitude toward him has softened."
In a rage, the wise king overturned the coffee table, which made a loud "bang" sound.
Zhang Weiping was so scared that he shut his mouth.
The virtuous king instructed, "Invite the Minister of Personnel and others to the teahouse. I have something important to discuss with them."
"I'll do it right away." Zhang Weiping strode away.
The wise king ordered someone to go to the stable and bring him a horse, and then rode directly to the teahouse.
From a distance, I saw a group of people gathered in front of the teahouse, whispering to each other, with excited and angry expressions on their faces.
As soon as he arrived at the door of the teahouse, the group of people recognized him, and they all turned pale with fright and fled in panic.
The virtuous king frowned and walked into the teahouse in a irritable mood, and heard people inside talking about him.
"Bah! The taxes we common people pay support the royal family and the court officials, but they don't have us in their hearts. The virtuous prince is even more hateful. He uses his status as a prince to collude with some corrupt officials to commit countless evils and persecute us. I just hope Your Majesty will open his eyes and not let him become the crown prince."
"If he became the ruler of Northern Qi, wouldn't he be a cruel and merciless tyrant who exacted heavy taxes? How could our people have a good life?"
"Hey, I'm quite puzzled. This Xian Wang and the Prince of Guangling are from the same family, so why is there such a big difference between them? The Xian Wang doesn't do anything that ordinary people do. And the Prince of Guangling is always thinking about us people, making sure we have enough food and clothes and even have some money to spare."
"I hope that Prince Guangling will become the crown prince of Northern Qi, so that our people can live a good life."
The wise king heard the people comparing him with Zhao Yi and belittling him as worthless, worse than pigs and dogs, and not even as good as a finger of Zhao Yi.
He had never suffered such humiliation before, and was about to order the common people who had slandered the royal family to be beaten to death, but his followers quickly stopped him.
"Your Highness, please don't be angry. If you kill them today, not only will the people talk about you, but the censors will also impeach you at tomorrow's morning court."
The wise king took a deep breath, suppressed the anger surging in his chest, and went to the private room on the second floor.
After waiting for half an hour, all the officials who supported him, except the Minister of Personnel and the Minister of Justice, arrived.
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