Chu You couldn't bear to listen any longer and interrupted Fang Huairui in a voice as cold as ice.
He was a martial artist and knew his limits. He knew whether the dagger would be fatal or not. The Duke of England was clearly just making trouble.
Fang Huairui put down his right arm that was wiping his tears, maintained his kneeling posture, and shouted regardless of anything: "Your Highness Prince Kang is only a prince, and you want to kill the founding ministers, and get rid of the donkey after it has done its work!!"
Each word he spoke was louder and higher than the last, and he wished that most of the people in the palace could hear him.
The veins on Chu You's forehead were throbbing, and even veins on his neck were popping up.
"My humble servant and I, my father and grandfather, have been loyal to the Great Jing Dynasty. Even if we have no merits, we have worked hard. Your Highness Prince Kang's actions really make me feel disappointed!"
Scoundrel! These four words popped up in Chu You's mind, and he walked away with a heavy frown.
He did not return to the East Warm Pavilion, but strode past Fang Huairui. He heard Fang Huairui's loud crying from behind: "Your Majesty, please make a decision for me and your subjects."
Chu You walked faster and strode with his head held high.
He just didn't believe that the emperor could do anything to him? !
Fang Huairui knelt for a whole day and night without eating or drinking, until the early morning of the next day, when he finally fainted from exhaustion.
Prince Kang stabbed the son of the Duke of Yingguo, causing the life and death of Prince Fang to be unknown. The Duke of Yingguo had only one legitimate son, and he burst into tears. He would rather give up his title than let the emperor severely punish the murderer.
Upon hearing the news, the imperial censors could no longer hold back.
They swarmed to the East Warm Pavilion and presented the emperor with a series of eloquent memorials, impeaching Prince Kang Chu You for wounding people and asking the emperor to rectify the customs of the royal family. They also said: "Prince Kang was wrong and should bear the responsibility. Otherwise, wouldn't the world think that the emperor condoned the royal family's murder!"
The emperor looked at the memorial without making any comment, but only ordered the eunuch Prince Xuankang to come to the emperor for an audience.
The aristocratic families who supported King Kang exchanged glances and decided to suppress the arrogance of these imperial censors to prevent these poor scholars from acting presumptuously in front of their families.
So, the Minister of Revenue Wang Kangyin retorted: "Li Yushi, King Kang has always been cautious in his words and deeds. The late emperor also praised him for his broad mind. He must have a reason for taking action."
"How can you listen to the British public?"
What he meant was that Fang Mingfeng was behaving inappropriately.
Going deeper, it also means that if the censors still have objections, they are questioning the late emperor.
It has been less than a year since the previous emperor passed away, and even the emperor has to follow the rituals and stick to his father's wishes for three years.
The censors were speechless for a moment after hearing Wang Kangyin's words. Even the emperor seemed a little embarrassed and stroked his beard repeatedly.
After a moment, the emperor cleared his throat with a dry cough and said, "Prince Kang and the Duke of Ying are both young and hot-tempered, so they had an argument and pushed each other a few times."
Duke Weiguo, who was standing aside with a stern face, saw that those noble families were determined to drag Fang Mingfeng into the water, and the emperor still wanted to be a peacemaker. His face suddenly became gloomy and he felt unhappy.
This won’t do!
Duke Wei snorted coldly and said unhappily: "In broad daylight, you dare to hurt someone with a knife. How can you just let it go with the word 'pushing'?"
As soon as the Duke of Wei expressed his opinion, the nobles who had just come to join in the fun immediately became solemn.
After the founding of the Dajing Dynasty, Emperor Taizu conferred titles on his meritorious officials and conferred titles on four dukes and twenty-eight marquises.
According to the laws of Dajing, the title of a nobleman will be downgraded after three generations. Only the titles of the four great dukes are hereditary and will never be downgraded. They are superior to other nobles, and all the nobles follow the lead of the "Four Dukes".
Duke Weiguo continued angrily, "Fang Mingfeng is the only legitimate son of Duke Ying. If anything were to happen, the illegitimate son would not be able to inherit the title, and Duke Ying's mansion would be left without an heir!!"
On weekdays, although the four gentlemen occasionally have disputes and are unwilling to give in to each other, they will support each other in the face of common interests.
After hearing that Duke Yingguo had fainted, Duke Weiguo went to see him and tried to comfort him. As a result, Duke Yingguo burst into tears and held his hand to complain. In his words, he said that King Kang was close to the noble families and far away from the nobles, and did not take them seriously. If he dared to stab his son for no reason today, if he really let him ascend to that position in the future, he might even have to reduce their titles to make room for those noble families...
The more the Duke of Wei thought about it, the more he felt that if one of them died, the other would be in danger. He was terrified, and his voice became louder and louder: "King Kang has ulterior motives!"
His words made all the nobles present suddenly realize what was going on, and they nodded in agreement. It turned out that King Kang was after this, and he really had ulterior motives!
The emperor pondered and stroked his beard, then asked slowly: "What does the Duke of Wei think?" He was a benevolent monarch.
The Duke of Wei naturally felt that King Kang should be punished, but how to punish him was also a difficult problem.
Chu Yi, who was sitting at the bottom, asked calmly, "The sentencing varies. I wonder how badly the Prince of Yingguo was injured?"
“……” Duke Wei was stunned.
How could he know how badly Fang Mingfeng was injured? He only heard Duke Ying crying that his son had been stabbed and was bleeding profusely, and his life or death was unknown.
However, the eldest prince's words reminded him that sentencing has different severity.
Duke Wei's eyes lit up, and he had an idea. He said solemnly, "Taizu said that if a member of the royal family breaks the law, the crime will be more severe. Since Prince Kang stabbed Prince Fang once, let Prince Fang stab him back twice, and we'll call it even."
The other nobles looked at each other, all of them were in high spirits, and thought that the Duke of Weiguo's idea was absolutely brilliant.
They couldn't wait to second the motion, showing that they were united.
The officials headed by Wang Kangyin were all dumbfounded, and suddenly felt that the situation was not good. They did not bother to mention how the late emperor praised King Kang, and directly said:
"Your Majesty, this is absolutely impossible. If you really follow what Duke Weiguo said, I am afraid that the safety of King Kang will be in jeopardy after these two slashes. This sentence is too heavy..."
The Duke of Yingzhou must have hated King Kang by now. If Fang Mingfeng were to stab King Kang twice, King Kang's life would be in danger!
However, before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by a burly middle-aged nobleman with a gruff voice: "It's just stabbing him twice, I didn't say I was going to cut his flesh!"
"Taizu also said, 'If you live in the underworld, you will inevitably get stabbed.' If you have the ruthlessness to stab others, you must be prepared to be stabbed!"
“…”
The nobles were talking to each other, each one louder than the other, looking like scoundrels.
The Da Jing Dynasty had only been established for fifty years, and most of these noble titles had only been passed down for two or three generations. On a daily basis, they were often secretly mocked by the aristocratic families, saying that the mud on their legs had not yet been washed clean.
However, when these people stood in a line, their power was astonishing. Anyone who said a good word to King Kang would be scolded by them.
No one could convince the other, and sparks were flying in the air.
Amid the noise, Chu Yi sighed softly, "The two swords are too heavy. It's not good to fight blood with blood."
His clear and peaceful voice was like a spring pouring down.
The ministers of the noble families were overjoyed to hear this. They echoed with delight, "Yes, yes, yes, His Royal Highness is right."
Chu Yi gracefully put down the blue and white porcelain teacup in his hand, looked at the Duke of Wei and others, and said, "But the evidence of the Seventh Prince's wounding is solid. If we do not investigate, it will also violate the teachings of Taizu."
"Yes, yes, yes!" The nobles also responded.
Chu Yi tapped the knuckles of his right hand lightly on the coffee table twice, turned his warm gaze to the emperor at the top, and said in a gentle voice: "Then demote him."
After he finished speaking, there was silence in the East Warm Pavilion.
Without waiting for others to react, the emperor raised his hand and slapped the table, responding in unison: "Okay. Then demote him to a prince."
The Duke of Wei was stunned at first, then he thought: Yes, being stabbed twice will only hurt for a while, and King Kang will probably forget the pain after the wound has healed, so how can he enjoy being demoted?
Wonderful! Wonderful punishment! It also prevents King Kang from always planning on their titles, so let him suffer first.
"Your Majesty is wise!" Duke Weiguo was the first to shout, with a smile on his face.
The Duke of Weiguo agreed, and no other nobleman was dissatisfied. They all shouted "Your Majesty is wise" in a voice as loud as thunder.
Some people were happy, but others had stiff expressions and looked at the door curtain embroidered with a five-clawed golden dragon at the back.
Prince Kang Chu You, who was summoned by the emperor, stood in front of the door curtain at some point in time, his face as gloomy as water, and a cold aura emanating from his body.
Before Prince Kang could speak, the Minister of Revenue, Wang Kangyin, took the lead in responding: "If there is a mistake, it should be punished. Your Majesty is wise."
Wang Kangyin was not stupid, and he could see that the emperor was determined to demote King Kang to a lower rank this time.
With these nobles here to disrupt the situation today, if the title should not be demoted, the emperor would probably go with the flow and let the Duke of England stab the King of Kang twice.
The current situation is all because of King Kang's impulsiveness, who had to stand out and offend the nobles.
Wang Kangyin gently pinched his sleeve and nodded imperceptibly to Chu You, indicating that he should bow to the emperor.
"Seventh brother," the emperor looked through the crowd at Chu You behind him and asked calmly, "Do you have any objection to my decision?"
"..." Chu You's ears were buzzing, and a huge rage was surging in his narrow eyes.
At this moment, he wanted to leave in anger, but there was still a trace of reason telling him that he could not leave.
If he just walked away today, he would offend all the nobles.
And now he couldn't afford to offend him! Chu You clenched his fists tightly, his tall body straightened like a spear, and there was a fierce battle in his heart.
His mood was extremely complicated, and a strong fishy-sweet taste filled his mouth. He felt as if there was an invisible hand pushing him step by step to this dilemma! He said to himself, in ancient times, there were Gou Jian and Han Xin, who achieved great things, so what if they endured humiliation for a while! Even Emperor Taizu was despised when he was young, and he made the bold statement "Don't bully the poor young people".
…
For a long while, Chu You did not move and stood there motionless.
The silence spread and the atmosphere became increasingly depressing.
It was unknown how long it had been before he finally said, word by word with difficulty: "Your Highness, I accept your order."
He lowered his head, hiding the deep anger in his eyes and suppressing the rage in his heart.
With the words of these four words, everything was settled.
Chu You walked out of the East Warm Pavilion with a gloomy face, exuding an aura that said "keep away from strangers". With a lump of anger in his chest, he continued to walk towards the outside of the palace with big strides.
The weather in Beijing today is gloomy, with strong and howling winds.
After leaving the palace, Chu You rode his horse back to Prince Kang's mansion and galloped wildly on the racecourse, running round and round in the cold wind...
He rode his horse three or four times, and a servant came running over, panting and shouting:
"Your Highness, the Emperor has sent someone to issue an imperial decree."
"They, they are also going to tear down the gate of the palace!"
(End of this chapter)
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