Zhao Huan was shocked when he received the list: "Where did these come from?"
Zheng Xian bowed and said, "I first interrogated Zuo Heng, Zhao Ye, and Lu Pingzhi. Zuo Heng then implicated Wang Sanquan, the Infantry Commander-in-Chief, and Lin Zhenyu, the Minister of State. These two had close personal ties with Prince Kang. I then imprisoned them, and they subsequently implicated other officials."
Zhao Huan took a deep breath. No wonder Zhao Gou was so confident in rebelling. There were so many people in the court secretly opposing him.
“Who else knows this list?”
Zheng Xian bowed and said, "No one knows except me and Your Majesty."
Zhao Huan folded the list and said, "You go first. Remember, no one is allowed to disclose this list!"
"As you wish."
Morning visit to Zichen Hall.
The news of Prince Kang's rebellion had already spread throughout the capital, and the officials were trembling with fear. They were afraid that someone would frame them for having an affair with Prince Kang, a crime punishable by the death of all nine generations of their family.
Zhao Huan's face turned pale, and the ministers below were silent.
"Why are there so few people at the morning court today?" Zhao Huan asked coldly.
None of the ministers dared to answer, and some stretched out their sleeves to wipe the sweat off their face.
"Jung Hyun!"
Zheng Xian hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, the Secretary Fang Tianping hanged himself at home, the eunuch Ma Jin and the Chief Censor Liao Dajun committed suicide by taking poison, and the Minister of the Imperial Household Han Chunwei jumped into the moat this morning. The others..."
"Enough!" Zhao Huan was furious, and Zheng Xian immediately shut up.
"Since I ascended the throne, I may not be as accomplished as Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang. However, I have recovered the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, established peace with the Western Xia, rectified the administration and improved the people's livelihood, and reduced corvée labor and taxes. I can be considered diligent in my work. I never imagined that so many of you ministers would ally with King Kang to plot a rebellion! Do you still want to return to the humiliating era of servitude to the Jin, grovelling before the Liao, and subservient to the Western Xia? Ah!"
"Your Majesty!" All the ministers knelt on the ground, bowed their heads and wept.
Zhao Huan angrily pointed at his ministers and said, "Raise your heads!"
The ministers below raised their heads in shame.
Zhao Huan pointed with a trembling hand, "I don't want to see you bowing your heads and pretending to be submissive, while secretly insulting me as a tyrant and a dog emperor! You bow your heads in the dirt, turn around and bite me back. This is what you, as ministers, do!"
"We are guilty!" The ministers all beat their chests and stamped their feet, and some of them burst into tears.
Zhao Huan took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down: "You, the ministers of the Song Dynasty, are truly my loyal and faithful subjects."
Zhao Huan threw a letter sealed with beeswax to the ground and said, "Don't think that King Kang is dead and I can't find out about your conspiracy to rebel!"
Zhao Huan pointed to the envelope on the ground and said, "This is the result of the interrogation by Hu Yasi. It's full of evidence that you, the ministers, are plotting a rebellion!"
Some officials began to tremble, others wiped their sweat. Once this list was released, the capital would be filled with bloodshed. Nine clans of the deceased would be executed, and all would be implicated. They would be exiled. Countless people would be implicated.
"Why do so many people want to rebel against me? I thought about it all night, but I really couldn't figure it out. It was only this morning after I received the tax report from the Ministry of Revenue that I finally understood. You feel that I took your assets and only gave you a blank check. The money in your pockets is gone, so you want to get it back, so many of you have defected to Prince Kang Zhao Gou. Because Prince Kang promised you that once I die, he will restore the old system, and then the court will return all your property to you."
The ministers below were all ashamed when their thoughts were revealed.
"I might as well tell you this: as long as I live, as long as I am here, you, my subjects, will never think of taking a single drop of the people's money."
Zhao Huan left the dragon throne, walked over, picked up the list, and simply sat on the steps of the hall.
Zhao Huan patted the list and said, "This list concerns the lives and property of everyone present. Anyone found to be in collusion with King Kang will have their property confiscated and their entire clan exterminated!"
Some of the ministers below were trembling even more violently, while others were even more shaky and ready to collapse at any moment. Confiscating property and exterminating the clan meant that their entire family would be slaughtered.
Suddenly, Zhao Huan took the list, took out a fire stick from his pocket and set it on fire.
The ministers were shocked, and Zheng Xian couldn't help but shout: "Your Majesty."
The list burned in Zhao Huan's hands, and the flames danced in his hands.
"Your Majesty!" The ministers were shocked. People stared with wide eyes, unable to believe what they saw.
After the burning was complete, Zhao Huan patted the ashes from his hands and said, "I haven't even looked at this list. Anyone who colluded with King Kang to rebel will be forgiven."
"Your Majesty!" The ministers knelt and wept again, some even wailing loudly. If they had cried out of fear and guilt just now, now they cried out of boundless gratitude and loyalty.
"Your Majesty, I swear allegiance to you until death!"
"Swear allegiance to His Majesty until death!"
"Taizu and Taizong, your spirits in heaven can laugh out loud now. Our Great Song has produced a wise ruler for all time, haha!"
Having flattered him enough, Zhao Huan returned to his throne and said, "Prince Kang is plotting a rebellion. Zuo Heng, Zhao Ye, Lu Pingzhi, Wang Sanquan, Lin Zhenyu, and Li Chen will be executed immediately, and their families will be exiled to the border. This case is closed. If anyone dares to rebel again, their property will be confiscated and their clan will be exterminated!"
"Long live the emperor, long live the emperor!"
"Withdraw from the court!"
Zhao Huan burned the list, and the officials on it who had plotted rebellion became a mystery forever. But he also knew that those officials who had once had disloyalty had now become his diehard loyalists.
…
The Great Jin Dynasty held a national beauty pageant and selected a total of eighteen beauties. These eighteen beauties were between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, and each of them was as beautiful as a flower.
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