Chapter 172: Engagement
The hall was silent. Everyone knew that the Emperor wanted to make Princess Changle the crown prince. Yet he actually said such words. Was he trying to kill himself?
Lin Haiqiong talked about the benefits of marriage. The reason why he dared to be so unscrupulous was that he felt from the bottom of his heart that Song Yuzhu would not dare to touch him.
He is sixty-two years old this year and has no children. He served as Chongwen University Scholar for twenty-one years in the previous dynasty and has countless students. If the emperor punishes him, the scholars in the world will definitely criticize the emperor, and the princess will definitely not be able to succeed to the throne.
Song Yuzhu held the dragon chair tightly with both hands. He laughed in anger: "Good, very good!"
This old guy must be tired of living. Do you really think you dare not touch him?
Lin Haiqiong said: "Since the emperor thinks the marriage is a good idea, why don't the Ministry of Rites choose a date to prepare for the bride's wedding?"
Xu Bing hurried forward and said, "Master Lin! How can the Jin people's evil ambitions be solved by marriage?!"
Qin Fengtu also said: "The marriage shows weakness and may only embolden the Jin people."
Zhao Xiao suddenly stepped forward and said, "I have something to report." Then he took out the envelope that Liu Yanzi had handed to him from his arms.
It contained evidence of Lin Haiqiong's bribery, but she had forgotten to give it to Song Yuzhu because she had been busy with military affairs these days.
The judge handed over the envelope, and Song Yuzhu opened it and took a quick look at it.
"Someone, take off Lin Haiqiong's hair crown and throw her into jail!"
"Your Majesty, you cannot touch me! Otherwise, all the scholars in the world will poke your spine!"
Song Yuzhu sneered: "You are corrupt and have taken bribes. Which scholar dares to call you a teacher?"
Lin Haiqiong remained calm and said, "Someone must have framed me. I have no children, so what's the point of embezzling money?"
Some people around were whispering that Lord Lin had indeed lived a very frugal life in recent years, and that the emperor would probably not convince the world if he put him in jail on such a charge.
"You said you have no children, so whose child is this idiot in the courtyard outside Beijing?"
Lin Haiqiong's expression changed, "What did your Majesty say? I don't understand."
"You don't understand. I'm telling you this. Thirty years ago, you and your sister gave birth to a child. The child was born a moron. In order to avoid being discovered, you killed your sister and gave the child away. Now the moron is being raised in a courtyard outside Beijing."
Lin Haiqiong was shocked and angry, "I don't know where your majesty heard these rumors from, and you are slandering my innocence out of thin air!"
"Slander? Without evidence, I will not slander you."
Song Yuzhu stood up and said, "I have sent someone to the outskirts of Beijing to bring that idiot here. We will all know whether this is true or false in a moment."
It was really a coincidence that Xuanyilou found out that Lin Haiqiong had a stupid son.
The last time Lin Haiqiong advised the emperor to expand his harem, Zhao Xiao was angry. He asked Liu Yanzi to investigate whether this Minister Lin had ever been corrupt or committed crimes in the past.
Liu Yanzi bribed a cleaning servant in the Lin residence and learned from him that Lin Haiqiong would go to the outskirts of Beijing once a month on her day off.
It happened that the next day was a holiday, so Liu Yanzi simply followed the Lin family's carriage to the outskirts of Beijing.
The Lin family's villa is located in a very hidden place. It is difficult to find it without following the carriage. There are servants guarding the villa all around, as if they are specifically on guard against outsiders breaking in.
Something must be wrong when something is abnormal. Liu Yanzi sneaked into the yard to check, and soon saw Lin Haiqiong leading a middle-aged man to the middle of the yard to play.
The man obviously had something wrong with his brain. He kept mumbling and calling "daddy". In such cold weather, he actually took off his shoes and ran barefoot in the snow.
Liu Yanzi raised her eyebrows. Wasn't it said that this old man had no children? This idiot looked about 70% similar to Lin Haiqiong. Why did he hide him in this villa and raise him?
In the next few days, he lingered in this villa to eavesdrop on the news, and unexpectedly he really heard the truth.
On the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, Lin Haiqiong came to the villa to visit his son as usual. It happened to be the anniversary of the child's mother's death, so he locked himself in the room and burned paper money.
Liu Yanzi was lying on the roof and heard him say this in person.
It turned out that Lin Haiqiong fell in love with his own sister Lin Yang and forced her to have sex with him regardless of her wishes.
Lin Yang is a very talented woman. Ever since she was insulted by her brother, she has locked herself in her room and refuses to see anyone.
However, she didn't expect that she was pregnant with her brother's illegitimate child. After Lin Yang found out, she tried to commit suicide several times, but was stopped by Lin Haiqiong. He sent people to detain his sister in the room and had several maids look after her. After ten months of pregnancy, she finally gave birth to the child.
Lin Yang died on the day she gave birth. Lin Haiqiong was so sad that she planned to find an excuse to send the child to his wife to raise.
Unexpectedly, a few days later, the wet nurse told him that the child was probably a moron because he did not know how to swallow milk and often choked himself.
Lin Haiqiong was afraid that the matter would be exposed, so she sent the child to a farm in the countryside overnight. She did not take him to this secluded villa in the suburbs of Beijing until he grew up.
Now that he was old, he didn't know how long he could live. He was afraid that his only bloodline would be wronged after his death, so he saved a lot of silver for him.
Liu Yanzi searched the courtyard and indeed found a small treasury with millions of taels of silver hidden inside. There was also an account book that recorded the bribes received over the years.
*
The color on Lin Haiqiong's face instantly faded. He didn't know how this matter was discovered. Obviously, all the people who knew about it had been eliminated by him!
As time passed, the voices of the ministers' discussions entered his ears.
Many ministers had served in the same court with Lin Haiqiong for many years and had some understanding of him. After listening to what the emperor said, they couldn't help but think of the fact that he did have a concubine sister who died young decades ago.
The reason why he could still remember her after so many years was because this concubine sister was very famous in Shangjing. She was not only beautiful, gentle, but also talented in writing. Many sons of noble families even wanted to marry her as their legal wife, regardless of her status as a concubine.
As a result, the girl never got married and died suddenly in her twenties. I didn't expect that this was the reason. Lin, the Minister of Justice, usually talked about morality and ethics, but he actually had an affair with his own sister and gave birth to a fool. He was worse than an animal!
Soon, screams were heard outside the hall. Everyone turned around and saw the guards pulling a stupid middle-aged man in.
Everyone can tell at a glance that this man is definitely related to Lin Haiqiong, because they are so similar! This man is simply Lin Haiqiong when she was young!
The idiot let out a shrill cry: "Ah! It hurts, ahhh! Daddy!" As he spoke, saliva flowed from the corners of his mouth, making the brocade clothes wet.
When Lin Haiqiong saw him, she collapsed instantly. She no longer cared about anything else and knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly: "All this was done by the guilty minister himself. He is a fool who knows nothing. Please let him go, Your Majesty!"
The whole hall was in an uproar. No one expected this to be true!
"Daddy...Daddy!" The fool ran towards Lin Haiqiong, pulled his hair and grinned foolishly.
Lin Haiqiong burst into tears, if this incident had not happened that year, if her sister had not died...
Unfortunately, there is no if. Now that the evidence is available, not only will he be dismissed from office and exiled, but the good reputation he has built up throughout his life will also collapse and he will be cursed by the world.
Song Yuzhu waved her hand and asked the guards to take Chi'er away. Lin Haiqiong slumped on the ground, no longer having the energy to challenge him just now.
Lin Haiqiong wanted to strangle him many times, but she couldn't do it in the end. Perhaps it was God's punishment for him for committing incest with his sister. Apart from this idiot, he had no other children.
At this point, he had no more words to refute, so he fell to the ground and confessed his crimes. Two guards came over and dragged him out of the hall.
Lin Haiqiong fell, but he still had many disciples. In order to prevent anyone from taking advantage of this to cause trouble, Song Yuzhu prepared to send someone to report what he had done to the world.
There are now three official newspapers in Shangjing, two of which are entertainment in nature, and one is of a social and political nature called Shangjing Evening News.
The Shangjing Evening News was founded by people sent by Song Yuzhu, and the writer behind it now is Chen Huiniang, a woman who graduated from Shangjing Normal University.
After graduation, she was recruited by Song Yuzhu. Because of her brilliant literary talent and her sharp and fierce writing, she was praised by the scholars of the Hanlin Academy as "a stroke of blood." If this matter is handed over to her, she will definitely be able to control public opinion.
Song Yuzhu sat back on the dragon chair, touched the dragon heads on both sides and said, "There is no need to mention the marriage anymore. From today on, Daqi will enter a state of preparation for war. The court will be held tomorrow morning as usual. All departments should go back and count all the resources they can use. If they want to fight, Daqi will accompany them!"
"Long live our emperor! Long live the emperor! Long, long live the emperor!"
*
"What? What are you doing? Let me go, is this how you treat guests in Daqi?" Matsumoto Tsuru was controlled by a group of fully armed guards.
General Ge Zhongshun was ordered to arrest him. He took out the box hidden under the bed and asked, "What's this?"
"Those are the copper needles I use for acupuncture!"
Ge Zhongshun opened the wooden box and handed him a copper needle, saying, "Poke it into your body and try it."
Matsumoto Tsuru's expression changed, and he immediately changed his tone and said, "This is the poison needle I use for self-defense, so why not?"
"Take him away."
Matsumoto Tsuru said sternly: "I am the prince of Fuso!"
"I don't care which country you are from. In Daqi, you have to follow the rules of Daqi. Take me away!"
The residence of the Nanzhao envoy was also surrounded by a group of people. The Tubo envoy who lived next door to them was startled and stood at the door looking out, asking, "What happened?"
The Goguryeo princess who lived on the other side was also a little surprised. After the Nanzhao envoy was taken away, she hurriedly asked the officials of the mansion what had happened.
The Minister of the Honglu Temple said: "The envoys from Nanzhao and the prince of the Japanese Kingdom poisoned the prince of the Jin Kingdom, Yeluta, and have been arrested by the Ministry of Justice. It is best for everyone not to wander around these days if they have nothing to do."
"Poisoning Yelu Ta?" Several people had different expressions and returned to their own yards.
Li Xianxiu said: "I didn't expect such a big thing to happen."
The prince consort who was traveling with him asked, "What should we do?"
"Hurry up and send word back about this. Daqi may have to go to war!"
As a vassal state, Goguryeo would certainly respond once Dae-qi declared war. Although they did not need to send many soldiers, they would still provide some material support.
After all, compared to the barbaric Jin people, they were willing to be a vassal state of Daqi. In addition, Goguryeo had received a lot of favors from Daqi in recent years, so they had to help out both publicly and privately.
On the other side, the Jin Dynasty's envoy Amudan and his subordinates went to the Dali Temple again, brought back Yeluta's body, and prepared to return home that day.
Envoys from other countries also sent back letters one after another. In fact, many countries did not want the Uprising to start a war, because once a war broke out, business would certainly not be able to be done.
But looking at Daqi's appearance, he seemed ready for the battle.
(End of this chapter)
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