Chapter 273 Unable to Compare Sorrow and Joy, Unable to Melt Cold and Heat
Consort Shu was stunned. She stared at Li Yi on the high platform, her mouth opening and closing.
Whether it was treason, jealousy of concubines, suppression of others, or instigation of murder, Consort Shu still had a scale in her heart.
She gave a dry laugh, and in front of everyone, she turned her anger towards the Crown Prince: "Your Majesty! It wasn't me! It was the Crown Prince, it was the Crown Prince who ordered me to poison the palace banquet with poisonous grass!"
After Consort Shu finished speaking, there was not a single response from the audience.
Li Yi snorted coldly and waved his hand.
Even as she was being dragged away by the imperial guards, Consort Shu continued to shout that the Crown Prince had harmed her and that Su Wanying had framed her.
Inside the Taiji Hall of the New Year's banquet, a chilling atmosphere descended as the two women left.
Crown Prince Li Jing, who sat to the side, remained silent throughout.
I thought I would achieve great success tonight, but I never expected that despite being extremely careful, I would still fall into a trap within a trap, a game within a game, and end up failing at the last minute.
He underestimated not only Li Jin, but also Li Yi, and more importantly, he underestimated Song Zhen, who usually just sat by the eaves, drinking tea and playing chess.
"Your Highness, don't be afraid." Li Yi poured himself a cup of wine and said casually, "Ten thousand elite troops, it's just to scare her."
After saying that, Li Yi laughed: "With your intelligence, you would never do something so foolish as to disregard the consequences."
The main hall was completely silent.
Anyone could hear the true meaning behind Li Yi's words.
It is true that 10,000 elite troops are preparing to force the emperor to abdicate tonight; it is true that the crown prince intends to poison all officials with Hippocampus; and it is also true that an assassination attempt is being carried out openly.
But the elite troops who staged the coup would certainly not be able to enter the capital.
The scheme to poison the officials was clearly overturned.
And to openly attempt an assassination...
Li Jing's face was covered with a layer of snow, and as he listened to the still-unending sounds of swords clashing outside, it was covered with another layer of frost.
Li Yi, sitting on the dragon throne, finally waved his hand at this moment.
A group of eunuchs, bowing and hunching over, walked silently and quickly into the hall.
The small dining tables in front of the officials were all removed in the blink of an eye.
Li Yi looked at the crowd, some terrified, some shocked, and some trembling with fear. Only a few remained calm and indifferent, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.
His tone softened considerably, and he chuckled as he spoke: "My lords, was tonight's performance entertaining?"
Below the high platform, no one dared to speak.
"For more than two hundred years, the history books have recorded mostly the magnificent deeds of the late emperors and many heroes for the country and the people." He paused, "A month ago, the first woman to enter officialdom was established, which gave me the honor of being remembered in history."
He stood up, straightened his clothes, and said solemnly, "My dear ministers, behind this name that will be remembered in history lies the filth you see today."
Li Yi spoke with a resounding voice, glancing at the people kneeling on the ground in the main hall: "In the struggle for power in the harem, no means are spared, and in the struggle for the throne, the methods are dirty and despicable."
“In my Great Wei, in my capital, right under the emperor’s nose, there are people who can kill whomever they want, come and go as they please, completely above the law.” He smiled bitterly. “My ministers, aren’t you afraid? Do you sleep soundly at night?”
After several hours of heavy snowfall, Kongming lanterns, used by the people of Chang'an to celebrate the New Year, slowly rose into the sky.
The sounds of firecrackers and firecrackers, along with the deepening night, were shrouded in the heavy sky.
The joyful laughter and New Year's greetings from every household, like a great wave, seemed to surge through the palace walls, attempting to break through the cold Taiji Hall square.
At that moment, it seemed as if there was a high wall separating the inside and outside of the palace.
Sorrow and joy are incompatible, cold and heat are incompatible.
"Everyone says that the royal bloodline is high above, the chosen one, the leader of all people blessed and favored by the gods." He said calmly, "After more than two hundred years, this bloodline has been passed down to this day, but I don't know which link went wrong. Some people actually think that they are on par with the gods and hold the power of life and death over innocent people. This makes me, an old man, have no face to face my ancestors."
"Ha!" Li Yi laughed, spreading his hands, each word laced with immense anger. "The chosen one? So what if he's the chosen one!" He roared, turning to the side and pointing to the dragon throne behind him. "To sit in this position! First and foremost, he has to be a human being!"
"He's a person with flesh and blood, full of feelings and loyalty!"
As soon as he finished speaking, all the officials cried out, "Your Majesty, please calm down!"
"Shut up, all of you!" Li Yi's roar echoed throughout the Taiji Hall, shaking a few specks of dust off the roof beams.
At this moment, he was wise and mighty, with a magnificent presence. His domineering aura, as if he were the only one worthy of respect in the world, surged like a surging wave, shattering the heavens.
"Calm down?!" he gritted his teeth, enunciating each word clearly. "More than two hundred innocent lives! A black terror that has shrouded the capital for six years!"
"Where do you get the audacity to talk to me about calming down!" He glared at the crowd, pointing at them. "I didn't keep this from you! Those who try to downplay the seriousness of the matter, I've already done more than enough by executing you all!"
He sneered, "Ministry of Justice, you don't seek justice in the world, you're always at the forefront of framing people! You're really something!"
"When it comes to registering people, the Ministry of Revenue is always short-handed, but when it comes to collecting money and taxes, no matter how treacherous the terrain, it can still collect ten or eight taels of silver from the ends of the earth."
At this point, Li Yi took a deep breath, looked at the kneeling crowd, and chuckled: "Do you know how the Ministry of Revenue reports those officials whose whereabouts are unknown to me?"
He raised his hand and took the booklet from Eunuch Chen's hand.
"Prefect Yang An of Linyang died on the eighth day of the third month. He died suddenly due to overwork and blood stasis."
Li Yi raised his eyes, gave a cold smile, and beckoned to a small door beside the hall: "Come, come." He paused, "Yang An, come here, let all the ministers see whether you are a human or a ghost."
At this moment, Li Jin frowned, raised his head slightly, and looked in the direction Li Yi was pointing.
Seeing Yang An, dressed in plain clothes, trembling as he entered the hall, Li Jin's heart tightened, and he almost subconsciously glanced at Jin Shu beside him.
Jin Shu shook her head, wondering why Yang An was there.
Clearly, Song Zhen had hidden him so perfectly that even with so many secret guards, they couldn't find a trace of him.
Li Jin's expression darkened, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he sensed something was wrong.
Li Yi did not stop. He turned a page and read aloud with a half-smile: "Chen Wen, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, died on June 18th. He died on his way home when his carriage went out of control and plunged into a ravine."
He exhaled and sneered, "Chen Wen, you come here too."
Seeing Chen Wen following closely behind, Li Jin's expression became even more serious.
He pursed his lips, sensing that something must have happened to Song Zhen.
"Look, they're all alive and well, listed on the Ministry of Revenue's register, stamped with the Ministry of Justice's seal, just like that, telling me they're dead." Li Yi suppressed his anger, staring at everyone with an extremely cold laugh, "Xu Weiyou, Zhao Wencheng, you two are really something."
He flipped through the Ministry of Revenue's register: "Come, tell me, back then, Lin Zhongyi, who delivered two carts of armor to the imperial palace, and Yang Qingyun, who escorted those two carts of armor back to the capital, did they die of illness in their own beds, just as this register says?"
Li Yi sneered: "If you can't figure it out, let him do it."
At this moment, everyone was stunned.
Looking back, the great battle outside the Taiji Hall had quietly come to an end.
Covered in wounds, Shen Wen and Fan Di helped each other into the Taiji Hall, while Lian Shui, whose hands and feet were already bound, was pushed to the front of the hall by Bai Yu, who was dressed in fine clothes behind him.
Bai Yu bowed respectfully, sheathed the bloodstained longsword, handed it to a guard beside him, and then walked straight to Prince Pingyang's side and sat down next to him.
At this moment, the Prince of Pingyang, who had suddenly become the focus of attention, laughed awkwardly and waved his hands repeatedly: "Oh dear, the young master has just recovered from his illness. It was chilly at night, so he was just moving his hands and feet to warm up. It's nothing, nothing at all..."
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