Chapter 212 The Truth Comes Out (Part 1)
"How dare you!"
Master Yan was so angry that his face turned blue. He raised his finger and pointed at Gongsun Mo. After a long while, he managed to say, "Who gave you the guts to speak nonsense and slander the late emperor? This is a heinous crime punishable by the extermination of all nine generations of your clan!"
The other officials were also horrified, pointing at Gongsun Mo and scolding him, "I think you are really bold. Come, drag him away quickly!"
"According to what you said, Master Huang is the late emperor, and the frail young master is not... Your Majesty?!"
Finally someone came to their senses and looked at Lu Yan in shock, but the man on the high seat was as calm as water, with the pearl curtain in front of him reflecting a fragment of light, as if this storm had nothing to do with him.
Gongsun Mo ignored the scolding of the officials and said loudly word by word: "When the prince was sick, the late emperor took him to seek medical treatment at Weishan Manor in Ruzhou. Who would have thought that the youngest son of the Lu family looked exactly like the prince, so he did such a thing that angered heaven and man! The law is long and wide, and nothing can escape it. One of the guards who was responsible for the massacre was condemned by his conscience and has been suffering from a serious illness for many years. Before he was dying, he found my father and told him everything that happened!"
"My father wanted to overturn the verdict, but it was related to the political situation, so he had no choice but to retire to protect his family's lives. He was still brooding over it until his death, so he asked me to make it public for him!"
"The king is not the king, the fish and the dragon take their place in the hall!"
"When the prince was sick, the fake emperor took over the throne and ruled the country for him. When the prince was healthy, the fake emperor hid in the palace underground. For many years, he deceived the world and deceived everyone. This is the sin committed by the late emperor!"
Gongsun Moyu pulled out a blood-written letter from his sleeve and held it up in front of everyone: "This is the blood-written letter left by the guard before he died. His surname is Jiang Xing, and he used to be a Dragon Scale Guard. The files are still in the Tianfu Prison!"
"As for those innocent people who were massacred back then, I traveled thousands of miles to Ruzhou to dig them out. If you don't believe me, you can come and see!"
The entire imperial city had long been firmly under Huo Lang's control. He had kept his eyes closed from beginning to end, and only opened them slowly after hearing these words. A deep voice echoed in the hall, with an aura that could not be ignored:
"In that case, it's okay to watch."
Master Yan looked at him in shock and anger: "Huo Lang, how dare you!"
Whether this is true or not, it is a huge scandal for the royal family. Once it is exposed, it will cause unimaginable consequences. How will the civil and military officials view the late emperor, and how will the people of the world view the emperor? !
Huo Lang turned a deaf ear and looked coldly outside the palace: "I said to bring up the body, don't you understand?!"
A stench of decayed corpses suddenly filled the entire hall.
The guards outside filed in, each holding a large box in their hands. One after another, they carried a hundred large boxes. The ministers covered their noses with their sleeves and leaned in to look out of fear and curiosity.
Gongsun Mo knocked on the box with his folding fan and opened one of the lids. He saw that it was filled with broken bones that had been burned to a pitch-black color. He opened another lid, and it was filled with human heads and skulls. The whole room was immediately filled with horror.
"These boxes contain the bodies of innocent people who were massacred in Qingfeng County. Because it has been so long, I have only dug out these few. There are traces of burns on them. If you don't believe me, just send a coroner to perform an autopsy."
After he finished speaking, he clapped his hands lightly, and ordered people to bring up two corpses, a man and a woman. The two corpses were neatly wrapped in white silk, and obviously had been specially cleaned and pieced together. The bones were broken in a strange way, and Gongsun Mo used something to stick them together into large bones, and then sewed them on the cloth with needle and thread to fix them into a complete shape.
Master Yan was so shocked that he could not speak. His face turned pale and he staggered back two steps: "This... this is..."
Gongsun Mo pulled out a pair of white gloves from his pocket and put them on. He squatted on the ground and straightened the messy corpse: "This is the corpse of Lu Wuyang and his wife."
"It is no secret that Tang Pofeng, the best swordsman in the Forbidden City, was recruited by the late emperor. He has a habit of killing people. If he encounters a weak person, he will kill him with one blow. If he encounters an expert, he will chop him twelve times in a row. This sword has no blade and is made of heavy iron. He does not kill people with the edge, but with the back of the sword, which hits the bones all over the body, causing the tendons and veins to break and die. He is unique in the martial arts world."
"Lu Wuyang and his wife were considered to be among the best martial artists, but they were still defeated by Tang Pofeng's sword. Their bones and muscles were shattered. I struggled for several nights to restore them. Only Tang Pofeng could leave such a mark on them."
He couldn't have produced a pile of old corpses out of thin air, nor could he have produced a confession written in blood out of thin air. Moreover, it was well-founded and every word could stand up to scrutiny, so it was most likely true.
Gongsun Mo finally felt that the matter was not serious enough, so he pointed his folding fan at the dragon throne and said, "If you don't believe me, just ask His Majesty. He knows everything about that incident."
Everyone looked over subconsciously, and saw that the young emperor had walked down from the dragon throne slowly, and stopped right in front of the corpses of Lu Wuyang and his wife. He stared at the two rotten skeletons in front of him, and for some reason he laughed out loud, which seemed quite abrupt in the silent hall:
"It's true."
Lu Yan looked at Master Yan and said seriously, "Master Yan, everything he said is true."
“Wow!”
The whole room was filled with outcry, and Grand Tutor Yan was so angry that he almost fainted.
Gongsun Mo waved his folding fan gently: "As the saying goes, if the superiors are not upright, the subordinates will follow suit. The late emperor made a big mistake first, and Your Majesty has also made mistakes. This is the second injustice I mentioned."
In an instant, countless eyes looked over, wanting to know what shit Gongsun Mo could spit out of his dog mouth.
Lu Yan's expression was calm: "What other crimes have I committed? Tell me."
Gongsun Mo slowly uttered four words: "Collaborate with the enemy, and harm the loyal and good!"
This is simply ridiculous, even more ridiculous than the first case of injustice!
This was what everyone was thinking, but the Gongsun family was too famous, and with the previous experience, they didn't know whether they should question it or not. They could only watch Gongsun Mo take out a letter with a jade seal from his arms.
This was found by Lu Yan in Zhao Kang's drawer and handed over to Gongsun Mo privately. Of course, it is time to put it in a different way.
"This secret letter was obtained by chance when I was traveling in Xiling. It records that the current emperor used the salt and iron method as a deal to let the Xiling Marshal attack Guiyan Pass, and then secretly cut off the food and grass, and cooperated internally and externally to eliminate the Wei family. The imperial seal and the letter are all here. Grand Tutor Yan, you are a scholar, why don't you read it for everyone?"
Master Yan took the letter with a sullen face. A closer look revealed that his fingertips were trembling. He stared at the paper and read it word by word. His expression was even a little fierce. Finally, he tightened his fingertips and suddenly grasped the paper tightly. He closed his eyes and raised his head, tears streaming down his face:
"It is unfortunate that a tyrant ruler ruins the country! Beishu's ancestors, who were all loyal and brave, served the border, why did they end up like this?!!"
Although the actions of the previous emperor were evil, they were also for the sake of the country. Why did Zhao Kang do that? ! ! The Wei family had never been disrespectful to him and treated him with respect in everything. But because they were worried about the loss of military power, they used the country's wealth to make a deal with the ambitious gang in Xiling, just to kill all the loyal people? ! !
At this moment, a man in iron armor suddenly walked into the hall. He knelt down in front of Grand Tutor Yan in two steps. He raised his hand and took off the mask on his face, revealing a ferocious and terrifying face. He asked firmly, "Grand Tutor, do you still recognize me?"
Master Yan looked at him suspiciously: "You...you are Wei Hong?"
People said that Wei Hong had gone missing while transporting grain and fodder, and most likely had died outside the Great Wall. But unexpectedly, he was still alive, and had become this half-human, half-ghost appearance.
Wei Hong ignored everyone's surprised looks and spoke slowly, word by word, "At first, I was ordered to deliver food and grass, but I encountered an ambush at Broken Dragon Gorge. I jumped off a cliff at the risk of my life to escape. The ambushed person was Geng Guozhong. Later, my mother and my brother and sister-in-law were on their way to their fiefdom and were killed by this person when they passed through Qilin Pass. Grand Master, who do you think is the mastermind behind this?!"
Geng Guozhong was the former commander of Qilin Pass. He was found dead in the city a few months ago. The city was littered with corpses. The court wanted to investigate the cause of death, but the regent Huo Lang suppressed the matter and finally said that some thieves from the mountains had entered the city to rob. The matter was let go with this light answer.
Master Yan took two steps back in disbelief: "Could it be... Could it be His Majesty?"
The coldness in Wei Hong's eyes explained everything.
"Unjust and tyrannical ruler! Come forward now!!"
Master Yan suddenly let out a roar of anger, his hair and beard standing on end. He lifted up the object he had been holding tightly in his arms, threw away the cloth wrapped around it, revealing an ancient-looking golden whip, and pointed it in the direction of Lu Yan, scolding:
"I, Yan Liu, have been teaching and educating people for more than sixty years, assisting three generations of emperors. How could I have taught someone as useless as you? A son should be filial, a minister should be loyal, and a ruler should love his people like his own children. Have you forgotten all the teachings I gave you back then? Come forward! Today, I will teach you a lesson with this whip!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Yan stepped forward, slowly lifted the hem of his dragon robe and knelt in front of the bodies of Lu Wuyang and his wife. He raised his hand to take off the crown tassel and placed it beside him, and every move he made was calm.
Lu Yan said: "Master Yan..."
Yan Liu raised his whip high and said with regret: "In the past, I taught you in the palace. You are proficient in all the strategies of governing a country. You know all the poems and songs. You have the ability to draw inferences from one thing and your wisdom is almost demonic. I thought you would become a wise ruler, but I never thought you would be so cruel and ruthless that you would even do such things as colluding with the enemy. If the Northern Shu country is handed over to you, it will be destroyed in ten years!"
As he spoke, he was about to strike hard. Seeing this, Huo Lang on the side stepped aside subconsciously. However, Lu Yan was faster than him and grabbed the Golden Whip in full view of everyone:
"Master Yan, please open your eyes and take a closer look at who I am!"
Lu Yan suddenly raised his eyes and looked directly at Master Yan. His dark eyes were calm and dead, like a bottomless cold pond. He had an inexplicable smile on his face, as gentle as ever, but with an indescribable creepiness:
"Master Yan, please take a look at who I am."
Master Yan was stunned.
At this moment, Zhao Kang, who was hidden in the underground palace, was finally escorted out by a guard. The two of them walked out from the huge screen behind the dragon throne, immediately attracting the attention of everyone present.
"Master Yan, please save me!"
The moment Zhao Kang saw Master Yan, he felt like he had seen his savior. He crawled to him, hugged Master Yan's legs and cried bitterly, "Master Yan! You must save me! Huo Lang and the fake emperor are plotting a rebellion and have imprisoned me in the dungeon for several days. I'm afraid they will kill me soon. I'm alone and helpless now. Please help me, Master!"
He had just been detained in the underground palace and had no idea what was happening outside. He sat paralyzed on the ground and cried miserably. It was not until tea time that he realized the hall was unbearably quiet. The ministers were staring at him with strange eyes. There was a stench of corpses all around, and the boxes were filled with bones.
"ah!"
Zhao Kang saw the corpse and fell down again, backing away in panic: "What the hell...what are these?!"
Wei Hong stood up from the ground and stared at him with a sneer: "Your Majesty is frightened when you see this, but you know that tens of thousands of people died outside Guiyan Pass, which is far more horrifying than the scene before your eyes?!"
"Wei Hong?! Why are you here?! Aren't you dead??!"
Zhao Kang was even more shocked, as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight. Little did he know that Master Yan was almost mad to death. He pointed the whip at Lu Yan and asked incredulously, "Are you the son of the Lu family?!"
Lu Yan knelt in front of the two skeletons and closed his eyes calmly: "Yes."
Master Yan staggered back two steps, pointed at Zhao Kang and asked desperately: "Are you the real emperor?!"
Zhao Kang didn't know how much he looked like Xiao Chou now, with his crown crooked, his clothes in disarray, tears all over his face, and not even a trace of a king. When he heard Master Yan's question, he nodded in surprise, "Yes, yes, I am the real emperor. Master Yan, don't be fooled by him!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a sudden pain in his back. The several-foot-long whip suddenly hit him hard, over and over again, causing him to scream in pain.
Zhao Kang rolled and crawled to avoid it: "Yan Liu! How dare you rebel against me! I am the emperor!!"
Master Yan felt that the real emperor in front of him looked even more fake than the fake one: "So what if you committed an offense! Today, I will use this whip to teach you a lesson on behalf of the previous emperors of Beishu!!"
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