After searching for a month without success, the second prince finally lost his temper and announced to the public that the emperor had died of illness and that a funeral would be held soon.
Just as everyone began to prepare for the funeral process, Han Feiyuan appeared at the gate of the palace with the emperor.
The emperor is now unable to move around easily and can only sit in a wheelchair. The wheelchair was designed by He Jinshu and made by craftsmen hired by Han Feiyuan.
The moment the emperor appeared in the palace, all the officials, princes, concubines and princesses had different expressions, some were happy, and of course some were unhappy.
The second prince wanted to turn around and say that Han Feiyuan had harmed his father, but instead he was accused of being the culprit who caused the emperor to fall into a coma.
With irrefutable evidence, the second prince's title of crown prince was abolished, the emperor abdicated, and Han Feiyuan inherited the throne.
The first thing Han Feiyuan did when he took office was to thoroughly investigate the case of He Ningyi being framed.
The He family's ancestors started out as peddlers. After several generations of development, they became considered a wealthy family in the town.
He Ningyi has been extremely intelligent since birth. He is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry and songs. He is often praised by his teacher and is placed with high hopes.
When he was 10 years old, he met Wei Mingyuan who was studying in the town by chance. Seeing that He Ningyi was smart, Wei Mingyuan thought that this boy would achieve great things in the future. So after not accepting students for many years, he finally accepted He Ningyi as his last disciple and taught him carefully.
However, their relationship was not made public at that time. It was not until He Ningyi passed the imperial examination and became the top scholar at the age of 17 that everyone knew that he was the last disciple of Grand Tutor Wei.
He Ningyi became famous at a young age. After passing the imperial examination, he married his childhood sweetheart Jiang Huixian. After marriage, the couple loved each other so much that they were the envy of others.
The following year, He Jinshu was born. More than a year later, He Ningyi was not satisfied with the comfortable life in the capital, so he asked to be the prefect of Qingzhou.
During his three years in Qingzhou, he encouraged the people to actively reclaim wasteland, develop water conservancy, research and manufacture agricultural tools, and engage in commerce, making Qingzhou the prefecture with the highest grain output in Dongli Kingdom and one of the top provinces in terms of commercial taxes paid.
The plowing tool he developed is still in use today.
After the three-year term was up, He Ningyi was preparing to transfer back to Beijing, but at this time a flood occurred in the Qingling River in Qingzhou Prefecture. In order to prevent the people here from suffering, he wrote a letter requesting to stay in Qingzhou for another two years. After being approved, he began to work with people from the Ministry of Works to study how to control the flood in the Qingling River and settle the affected people.
The Qingling Dam, which he and people from the Ministry of Works spent more than a year researching and building, is still protecting the people of Qingzhou from floods.
After the disaster was dealt with, there was still half a year before He Ningyi returned to Beijing. It was during this period that a major murder occurred in Qingzhou. All 208 members of the Zhou family, the richest family in Qingzhou, were killed, leaving no one alive.
He Ningyi has been smart and lively since he was a child, has many friends and is kind-hearted. It is because of his character that when he was in Qingzhou, both officials and merchants had a very harmonious relationship with him. The housekeeper of the Zhou family was also a close friend of He Ningyi, and they had a very good private relationship.
He Ningyi was deeply saddened by the tragedy of the Zhou family. He cheered himself up and was determined to seek justice for his friend.
After three months of investigation, the murderer was finally apprehended. When he was about to be executed, someone in the capital reported him for abusing his power and colluding with outsiders to murder more than 200 members of the Zhou family. He also found a scapegoat to silence him and cover up the truth.
The man provided the correspondence between He Ningyi and the murderer, the jade pendant that was trampled at the crime scene, and the situation witnessed by the child of the Zhou family's servant.
Faced with all the evidence, the emperor was furious and ordered He Ningyi to be brought back to the capital quickly to be investigated by the Dali Temple.
On the way back to the capital, He Ningyi "committed suicide out of fear of punishment" and wrote a confession.
After He Ningyi was escorted back to Beijing, Jiang Huixian was afraid that they would not have a good ending this time, so she asked someone to send Li Mo back to his hometown in Lingzhou to be raised by the retired soldier, while she and Grandma He took the seven-year-old He Jinshu back to the capital.
The officials, students, and people of Qingzhou did not believe that He Ningyi would do such a heinous thing. They all tried to find ways to plead for He Ningyi, and some even spontaneously wrote a "blood letter of ten thousand people" to plead for him, which was then handed over to His Majesty.
But these things ultimately failed to save He Ningyi's life.
Finally, at the request of a number of officials and Grand Tutor Wei, the emperor showed his grace and pardoned the death penalty for the other members of the He family. However, they could not escape the punishment of life. In the end, Grandpa He, Grandma He, Jiang Huixian, and He Jinshu were exiled to Linshe County, the southernmost border county of Dongli State.
Those evidences that had not been proven, the witnesses that had not been confirmed, and the letters that had not been identified were all covered up by time because of He Ningyi's death. No one mentioned them, and no one allowed them to be mentioned.
The laws of the Dongli Kingdom stipulate that, except for serious crimes punishable by the execution of nine generations of a family, or for certain things that expressly prohibit people within three generations from taking the exam, other family members who have committed crimes can still take the imperial examination if they are not at fault themselves. This is also the reason why He Jinshu was able to take the imperial examination, and perhaps this is the only comforting thing.
All of these evidences collapsed after the crown prince fell and Prime Minister Wang lost his strong backing. In addition, acts of corruption and bribery, withholding of wages and salaries, withholding of disaster relief food, bullying of men and women, and disregard for human life were also uncovered one by one. In the end, all of them were thrown into the cell, awaiting their future punishment.
In the cell, Zhao De sat on the floor, looking at He Jinshu, who was dressed neatly and respectably, and couldn't help but sneer, "I really shouldn't have pleaded for you back then."
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