Chapter 16 Empress: How do you explain this?
The Empress will not attend court today.
The place for the confrontation was chosen to be a side hall.
When Zhao Duan and Zhang Changshuo followed the palace maids and passed through the classical buildings with flying eaves, they arrived at their destination, only to see palace servants standing with their hands behind their backs outside the door.
The palace door is open.
There were already two figures standing inside, one on the left and one on the right, facing each other, like two clearly divided rivers.
The man on the left is wearing a black flying fish suit. He is thin and sturdy. The hands hanging by his waist have thick joints and are slightly red. They may be calloused from holding knives for many years.
His long, thin face was stern and beardless, and he was resting with his eyes closed.
Two slightly gray eyebrows grow diagonally on the slightly protruding brow bone, giving people a temperament that is irritable and irritable.
The person on the right is the complete opposite.
He was about forty or fifty years old, wearing an indigo official robe, a black gauze hat, a goatee, and he held his head high and looked righteous.
He has a typical clean-minded demeanor and sharp eyes.
"Ma Yan, Luliang!"
Zhao Duan immediately guessed the identities of the two.
The original owner had met Ma Yan, and in his remaining memories, he was quite afraid of this eunuch in charge of the imperial yamen.
It is rumored that this man was born into the royal family's internal guards. He was originally loyal to the previous emperor, and later followed the prince. During the "Xuanmen Coup", Ma Yan fought a desperate battle with the rebels.
Outstanding performance.
After the empress ascended the throne, she took over the subordinates of the old emperor and the prince. Ma Yan was given an important position and promoted to the supervisor of the "Zhao Ya".
A role similar to the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
He is responsible for supervising all officials and is also the main force in arresting rebels. He is a sharp knife in the hands of the empress.
He was nicknamed "White-browed King of Hell" and was said to be moody. The original owner kept his distance from him and the two had little interaction.
Zhao Duan couldn't help but complain, thinking that the original owner was such a coward, but he still dared to steal other people's credit. It can only be said that he is a loser.
As for the censor named "Luliang", he was completely unfamiliar to him.
All I know is that he is from the Prime Minister's faction and is the main force behind this impeachment of mine.
"Please wait here for a moment, my two envoys. I will inform His Majesty."
The palace servant who led the way left a word and turned away.
at the same time.
The two people in the hall also turned their heads to look over.
"The governor has arrived early. I am so ashamed to be late."
Zhao Duan was the first to speak, and he bowed to the "White Eyebrowed King of Hell" with a look of shame on his face:
"I've offended many people in the past regarding the rebel party. I wanted to apologize in person, but with the recent storm at the center, I haven't had the chance."
Ma Yan, wearing a flying fish official robe and with a stern expression, looked at Zhao Duan's familiar appearance and his eyes became strange.
He had imagined the scene of the two sides meeting today.
Based on his old impression, Ma Yan thought that Zhao Duan would roar at him angrily, or shrink and beg.
After all, the cause of this impeachment was that the imperial court accused him of exceeding his authority to arrest people and revealing the rebellious party.
Zhao Duan had reason to hate him.
But the scene before him was far beyond his expectations:
There was no anger, nor pleading, but rather a calm and relaxed manner, like the greetings among court officials.
Is this still the legendary pretty boy?
"Your Excellency is too polite. It is normal for officials in the same dynasty to have friction with each other."
Ma Yan spoke calmly, paused, and added:
"Today, your Majesty inquires, and I will report truthfully."
This sentence implies two things:
First, I am not targeting you intentionally. I am just speaking the truth. I am not the main force behind your impeachment.
Second, although you are very polite, don't expect me to cover for you. I will answer whatever His Majesty asks.
Zhao Duan said seriously: "It should be so!"
As he spoke, he breathed a sigh of relief... In this inquiry, Ma Yan's attitude was crucial.
Unlike Lu Liang, who represents the power of civil officials, Zhao Ya is the knife in the hands of the empress. If divided by camp, he and Zhao Duan both belong to the empress's faction.
And there was no hatred in the past.
That is to say, the imperial court impeached him purely to shift the blame and prove to the empress that it was not our fault that the rebels were killed.
Perhaps he was also a little annoyed that Zhao Duan had interfered and lost the credit.
But in Ma Yan's subsequent investigation, he will definitely know about the sorcerer's descent into the bamboo forest.
Although he did not have complete information, he might not realize that Zhuang Xiaocheng was fishing.
But more or less, I will also be thankful——
If our own people were to make the arrest, they would probably fail.
When the time comes, he will have to take the blame.
From this perspective, the resentment towards Zhao Duan would naturally fade a lot:
Who would resent a colleague who takes the blame for them?
After thinking about this, Zhao Duan understood that his main enemy was the censors representing the civil officials group.
And through the test just now, this point has been basically confirmed.
"Ahem," At this time, the Imperial Censor Lu Liang, who was standing on the other side of the side hall and felt ignored, spoke coldly:
"I will also report the truth to Your Majesty and will not allow Your Majesty to be deceived by the hypocritical faces of the traitors!"
Who the hell are you calling the traitor? It's clearly a lackey... no, a bootlicker... Zhao Duan has a clear idea of the original owner in his mind...
He had an expressionless face and stood beside Ma Yan.
He stood with his hands in his sleeves, looking up at the sky, as if he was oblivious to everything.
“…” Lu Liang was so angry that his goat beard trembled.
As a scholar, he could not stand this blatant neglect and differential treatment.
Upon seeing this, Zhang Changshuo took the initiative to greet him, which made Censor Lu calm down.
The two stood opposite each other, waiting in silence for a while.
…
About a quarter of an hour later, footsteps were finally heard outside the palace, accompanied by the palace servants bowing in unison:
"Your Majesty!"
Xu Zhenguan's figure appeared in front of Zhao Duan again.
Two days later, the empress had not changed. She was still wearing her spotless white clothes, and her black hair was fixed with a jade hairpin.
Her beautiful white face is breathtaking, and her eyes are so majestic that people dare not look into her eyes.
In a trance, it is almost impossible to tell whether the person coming is a king who rules a country or a cold and elegant fairy.
"Your humble servant, I pay my respects to Your Majesty!"
Zhao Duan and others bowed in greeting. Xu Zhenguan walked through the crowd without looking away and sat down on the golden dragon throne on the high platform in the hall.
The cool voice was like a spring, jingling:
"Get up."
"promise."
When everyone stood up, Xu Zhenguan glanced at them all. After seeing Zhao Duan and Ma Yan standing together, he paused for a moment, as if surprised.
But he didn't dwell on it for too long, and got straight to the point:
"I don't need to elaborate on the reason why I summoned you all here today. Ma Yan, you go first."
"Yes," Ma Yan stepped out. This cold and fierce eunuch was as docile as a cat in front of the empress. He lowered his head and said:
"I report that Zhao Du'an, the White Horse Supervisor's envoy, has overstepped his authority, disrupted my plans, and frightened away the rebel Zhuang Xiaocheng..."
Then he described the incident in detail.
Including how he hurriedly pursued the suspect after hearing the news, and how he was stopped and delayed due to the "daytime ban"...
Xu Zhenguan already knew this, and was just going through the motions. After he finished speaking, he looked at the censor:
"Lü Liang, go ahead."
Censor Lu, who was full of anger, suddenly became like a screaming chicken.
He immediately spoke eloquently and excitedly:
"Your Majesty, I report that Zhao Duan is colluding with the rebels... and over the past year, he has committed numerous evil deeds in the capital, intentionally tarnishing Your Majesty's reputation... His crimes are unforgivable!"
The censor was indeed a big talker, with a strong desire to express himself, and he spewed out all the charges he had prepared.
In his description, Zhao Duan was simply a villain who was worthy of being killed by everyone. He harbored evil intentions and had been plotting for a long time. He was a spy planted by the rebels to be close to the empress...
Throwing out a lot of big hats, the central idea is this:
If we don’t kill these evil beasts, it will not be enough to appease the public anger. If we don’t kill them, the country will be in danger!
Zhao Duan was excited and filled with indignation when he heard this.
I feel like if Lu Liang's speech were filmed and posted online, Zhao Duan would be raided and exterminated by the Weibo judges in a matter of minutes...
Xu Zhenguan waited for him to finish, then looked at Zhang Changshuo calmly and said lightly:
"Why are you here again?"
Zhang Changshuo, who had been holding it in for a long time, strode out with a righteous look on his face and bowed deeply to the empress.
When he caught a glimpse of the latter's face and the outline of the figure hidden under the white clothes, a trace of greed flashed in his eyes, but quickly retreated, and he said loudly:
"I, your Highness, impeach Zhao Duan for accepting bribes, interfering with the Ministry of Justice's judicial system, and helping criminal officials escape punishment!"
Everyone was surprised.
Even the empress frowned and said:
"What evidence?"
This was a new crime she had never known about.
Zhang Changshuo immediately took out the scroll from his sleeve, handed it to the female official next to him, and said loudly:
"This is a picture of Zhao Du'an's private meeting with the Ning'an County Magistrate. He even went to the Ministry of Justice yesterday to discuss this matter. Your Majesty, just send someone to the Ministry of Justice to ask a question, and we'll know the truth!"
Xu Zhenguan slipped his bare hands out of his sleeves, took the scroll, and unfolded it. Suddenly, images like rippling water appeared on the scroll, accompanied by a voice from the painting:
"In the capital, we have to follow the rules. You took the deposit readily, but you're still hesitant to save the person..."
"Don't forget, I have evidence that you took advantage of me..."
"Envoy...are you alright?"
"Don't worry, I've been tracking down the rebels these past few days and have no time to take care of other things. Now that I'm free, I'll take care of what you said."
Then came the sound of the private room door shattering and screams.
"Ugh...you dare...you dare to hit the noble?!"
"A poor, impoverished man from a remote village dares to challenge me?"
…
There was silence in the side hall.
Only in the scroll can the conversation between Zhao Duan and Wang Xian on that day be clearly heard.
During this period, Ma Yan and Lu Liang's expressions changed to varying degrees.
The former is surprise and contempt, while the latter is excitement and excitement.
As for Zhang Changshuo, he had already looked at his "rival in love" who was standing opposite him with his head lowered, with a smile of confidence on his face.
Finally, the light in the scroll faded away.
Empress Xu Zhenguan of Dayu calmly raised her head and threw the scroll directly to Zhao Duan's feet. There was no expression on the Empress's face.
"How do you explain this?"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
