Chapter 210 I Don’t Want to Be a Loyal Servant!
Although the emperor was deceived by his court officials about many things, he was able to win the battle for the throne and was not a fool. He knew very well that even if he killed Cao Jing, Lin Shu would not give up his rebellion and would at most find another excuse.
The so-called "clearing the court and eliminating treacherous officials" is just an excuse for rebellion made up for the sake of reputation. Anyone who believes it is a fool.
These court officials wanted to force him to kill Cao Jing. They simply felt that Cao Jing was a guillotine hanging over their heads and wanted to avenge themselves for the threats Cao Jing had made to them over the years.
The emperor was not unaware of Cao Jing's abuse of power to bully others and do evil things over the years, but he just didn't care. He felt that it was just right to have something on Cao Jing. If Cao Jing's power became so great that it affected him as the emperor in the future, he could use this as a pretext to deal with Cao Jing, and he could also gain a good reputation as the emperor who eliminated treacherous ministers.
Moreover, Cao Jing offended the court officials and was irreconcilable with them, which was exactly what the emperor wanted. He promoted Beichang and Cao Jing in order to counter these court officials. Only when the two forces maintained a balance could he, the emperor, sit firmly on the throne.
Now the court officials want to take advantage of Lin Shu's power and force him to deal with Cao Jing. They want to cut off his power and turn him into a puppet emperor. If Lin Shu attacks in the future, they might even tie him up and make him surrender to the new master.
The more the emperor thought about it, the more he felt that these courtiers who were united in forcing him had bad intentions. Even those former royalist courtiers were among them. His closest and beloved ministers actually joined in forcing him. This made him wonder if he was betrayed by his confidants. How many people in the court were loyal to him as the emperor?
If the emperor had not already killed his brothers who had competed with him for the throne over the years, he would have suspected that his dead brothers were now rebelling with the support of the court.
The more the court officials put pressure on the emperor to execute Cao Jing, the more reluctant the emperor was to do so. The more he felt that Cao Jing was his trustworthy confidant. After all, Cao Jing had offended all the civil and military officials in the court and could only depend on him, the emperor.
With the emperor's strong support, the emperor was determined not to execute Cao Jing, and the civil and military officials were helpless. After all, they couldn't put a knife to the emperor's neck and force him to kill Cao Jing.
However, the emperor's strong attitude towards protecting Cao Jing also made the court officials uneasy. They were forcing the emperor to execute Cao Jing today, and Cao Jing must hate them to death. In the future, the relationship between them and the Beichang would become even more tense. Maybe one day they would be framed by Cao Jing and thrown into the imperial prison and tortured to death.
The emperor trusted Cao Jing so much, would he really be willing to believe that they were framed by Cao Jing?
The court officials were exhausted from the constant worry that they were being watched by spies from the Northern Depot, and that the Northern Depot would break into their homes and capture them and torture them to death in the imperial prison.
The reason why all the civil and military officials today worked together to force the emperor to execute Cao Jing was not because they wanted to betray him as the emperor imagined. They simply wanted to take this opportunity to kill Cao Jing so that they would not have to live in fear every day.
After Cao Jing's death, even if there would still be a next head of the North Factory, given the precedent of Cao Jing's miserable death, the next head would not dare to go too far, and they would have a chance to catch their breath.
This is why all the civil and military officials in the court, whether they are royalists or not, worked together to put pressure on the emperor to execute Cao Jing.
After the court was dismissed, the emperor left in anger, and all the civil and military officials also left with heavy hearts.
After Cao Jing returned to Beichang, his heartbeat still couldn't calm down. It can be said that he had a close call with hell today.
If the emperor had not insisted on protecting him, today would have been the day he died.
Cao Jing knew that the emperor could withstand the pressure to protect him today, but he might not be able to withstand the pressure forever in the future. After all, as the Lin family army got closer and closer to the capital, even if the emperor knew that Lin Shu's banner of "clearing the court and eliminating treacherous officials" was just an excuse for rebellion, he would choose to abandon Cao Jing when faced with the imminent crisis of the country's destruction. At least Lin Shu would have no excuse to suspend the offensive, and the emperor could survive a little longer.
So Cao Jing had already started thinking. Either he could deal with Lin Shu's rebellious forces and let the emperor still have the upper hand, so that the emperor would not abandon him because of fear of Lin Shu; or he could think of a retreat in advance, whether Lin Shu broke in or the emperor wanted to abandon him, he could escape in advance...
Cao Jing called his adopted son Cao Jiarong and told him what happened in the morning court today: "Rong'er, what do you think of this?"
Cao Jiarong is indeed the Wen Jiarong of that year. After Wen Jiarong entered the palace, he became a criminal eunuch with only a name of Xiao Rongzi, just like Lin Zhong who was known as "Wen Jiarong" in the original plot.
Wen Jiarong was unwilling to let his life end like this. He was bullied in the imperial palace. At first he was able to fight back with the spirit of the young master of the Wen family. However, after being severely punished and almost died, Wen Jiarong realized that nothing else mattered in the face of death.
So Wen Jiarong learned to bow his head and to please others, and he finally became a fawning eunuch.
The education he received from the Wen family had enabled him to read and understand. He was quite scheming, and after letting go of his unnecessary arrogance and pride, he gradually made his way in the palace and got in touch with Cao Jing, the eunuch in charge at the time. With his outstanding acting skills, Cao Jing accepted him as his godson.
Wen Jiarong was renamed Cao Jiarong.
Cao Jing has quite a few godsons, but Cao Jing is not the kind of person who shows much pity and love to his godsons. Rather than godsons, they are more like his subordinates, and at that they are hardworking and conscientious, and are scolded as unfilial even if they rarely complain.
Cao Jiarong also suffered a lot before he stood out from Cao Jing's many godsons and became Cao Jing's trusted confidant. From then on, outsiders who didn't know Cao Jing only knew that Cao Jing had Cao Jiarong, a godson, and they didn't know anything about his other godsons.
At this time, Cao Jiarong was standing beside Cao Jing, with a respectful posture and a slightly bowed body. His face showed a respectful and humble expression, but his sinister temperament was almost exactly the same as Cao Jing's.
He said respectfully, "Dad, you can't take it lightly. His Majesty is willing to withstand the pressure and protect you now, but what if His Majesty is unwilling in the future? After all, the North Factory is not completely under your control."
The emperor was very good at playing the balancing act. In the court, he let the court officials and the Northern Factory check and balance each other. In the Northern Factory, he let the second-in-command Cao Jinger check and balance each other. In any case, he would not allow any one person to dominate.
Cao Jiarong continued, "Dad, you have to let His Majesty know that those ministers forced him to execute you in order to force His Majesty to weaken his own power. They are ministers who want to deceive the emperor!"
Cao Jing nodded in agreement. He knew very well that to the emperor, his sword was replaceable. Anyone could take the position of the Beichang Master. As long as the emperor was willing to support him, he could still create the next Beichang Master.
But the emperor can abandon the knives and dogs of his subordinates, so can the emperor abandon his own power?
As long as he tied his life and death to the emperor himself, those court officials who forced the emperor to kill him would be forcing the emperor to give up power and become a puppet emperor. Only in this way would the emperor truly protect him to the death.
After Cao Jiarong's reminder, Cao Jing figured out the key point. He was overjoyed and patted his adopted son's head, just like stroking a dog's head, and said with a smile: "Good son, you are really a good think tank for dad, and you really helped dad a lot!"
Cao Jiarong bent his waist deeper so that Cao Jing, who was sitting on the chair, could touch his head in a more comfortable position.
He felt sick to his stomach and wanted to vomit. She kept calling him a "good son", but how could she really treat him as her son? The posture of patting the head was exactly the same as the way Cao Jing touched the dog he raised, as if he was treating him as a dog too.
But even if he was working as a dog for Cao Jing, it was something he had worked hard for many years to get. No matter how disgusted he was, he had to appear grateful and happy on the surface.
Cao Jing went to see the emperor. After all, he wanted to tie his life and death to the emperor's power as soon as possible and make the emperor understand his indispensability, so that the emperor would not abandon him under pressure from court officials.
The emperor was easily convinced by Cao Jing's words, because this was what he had thought at the morning court session, which was why he was able to withstand the pressure and protect Cao Jing.
Perhaps if Cao Jing had not said these words on his own initiative, the emperor would have thought about it after calming down and would have doubted whether his idea was wrong and whether it would be more appropriate to abandon Cao Jing... But now Cao Jing said these words to the emperor before he calmed down.
When the emperor heard this, he was like, "Oh, isn't this exactly what I really think?" Cao Jing's idea is the same as mine, which means I am not wrong at all. The fact is just as I thought. Those court officials just want to turn me into a blind and deaf puppet emperor.
So the emperor and Cao Jing shared the same hatred for the enemy. They were from the same country and had the same interests.
After all, the rebels had entered the capital, and the emperor, as the last emperor of the previous dynasty, was doomed. Cao Jing, the "traitor" who was used as an excuse for rebellion, was also doomed to die. However, civil and military officials can change their masters at will.
The emperor would inevitably trust Cao Jing, who was in the same situation as himself, more and become distrustful of those court officials who might use him as a token of their rebellion.
The emperor's suspicion was manifested in the fact that he sent Cao Jing to arrange for people from the Northern Factory to monitor the court officials more closely.
Cao Jing also harbored resentment towards these court officials who wanted to kill him. He took this opportunity to arrest those court officials who had led the charge to demand his execution and framed them for colluding with the rebels and betraying the emperor. He then put them in the imperial prison to settle personal grudges.
He didn't care whether these people were really colluding or not. Anyway, they were sent to the imperial prison, so it was considered as real collusion whether they were or not.
Cao Jing only wanted to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, so that the court officials would not dare to force the emperor to execute him again.
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