Chapter 340: The Drumming of Dengwen
At the same time, in the imperial palace in Beijing, the cabinet headed by Lord Xu was processing the war reports from Liaodong.
Just half a month ago, the entire Daxuan court was still shrouded in gloom because of the difficult situation of being surrounded by enemies on all sides, but in the blink of an eye, the war situation suddenly changed drastically.
The former rebel Xu Zhong and the Xu family army not only did not betray Prince Ding's army as the court feared, but instead turned around and left Liaodong to fight the Yuan army to the death, defeating the Yuan army that was well prepared and coming with great momentum, and directly occupying the Tianyun Mountains.
At the same time, the King of Beihai who had disappeared in the capital suddenly reappeared in Liaodong and led the Liaodong army to defeat the navy of the tiny country on the sea, killing them all without leaving a single survivor.
The hungry wolves that were lurking behind him were swept away. His Royal Highness Prince Ding, who wanted to suppress all forces by himself, was finally able to collect his mind and punch with all his strength, beating the Tatars and Wala to their knees and beg for mercy... At the same time, the Tianxin Sect, which had been ready to make a move, saw that the situation was not right and stopped making any moves.
Everyone knows that the Daxuan Dynasty has successfully survived the crisis. Now, as long as it can smoothly pass through the period of power transfer, it will be able to usher in at least several decades of stability in the future. How can this not make people excited?
But just when the officials in the six ministries were in high spirits and walking lightly, the dull sound of drums rang out.
At first, the officials didn't even react to what it was until the first person screamed in surprise.
"Dengwen drum? Did the Dengwen drum sound?"
"Someone is beating the drum!"
“Hurry, hurry…”
Since Emperor Jiaping ascended the throne, the Dengwen Drum has never been sounded again, but it sounded now, and at this time.
The Tongzhengsi official in charge of the report drum frowned and waved his hand impatiently: "Go, go, go and see what's going on. If it's not a serious matter, just send him away."
The subordinate officials hurried to the place outside the palace gate where the drum was.
The envoy from the Ministry of Public Administration cursed in a low voice, saying, "What a troublemaker!" He hoped that the people below would be tactful enough to send the man away and not cause trouble for him at this time.
However, the subordinate soon returned with an ugly look on his face: "Sir, those who beat the drum to report the incident are a bunch of untouchables."
"Then just drive them away!"
The clerk said with a bitter face: "But those people are surrounded by the King of Beihai..."
For a moment, the Tongzhengsi official was overwhelmed and asked through gritted teeth, "Why are those people led by the King of Beihai beating the drums?"
The clerk looked flustered. "Those people want to sue the Minister Xu Ji, saying, saying that the Minister Xu deceived the emperor, allowed his clansmen to occupy land, evaded taxes, and ran rampant in the village..."
The blood drained from the face of the Tongzhengsi envoy in an instant, and he even stuttered as he spoke: "Anyone who beats the drum on the bridge will be punished with thirty strokes of the cane. Go, go..."
Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by a small official with a tearful voice: "The King of Beihai has issued an imperial decree to exempt him from the caning."
The Minister of Public Administration fell into his chair and was about to go crazy: "What should I do? What should I do now?"
The sound of the drum for reporting was heard by the whole city. Even if one wanted to hide it, it was impossible. Soon, the news that King Chen Ning of Beihai had acted as guarantor to sue Lord Xu spread.
According to the law, the accused, Lord Xu, must respond in person... Soon, the palace gates opened, and all the officials entered the hall. King Chen Ning of Beihai brought the civilians who filed the complaint to confront Lord Xu Ji in court.
All the officials were silent. Lord Xu stood at the head of the court, unmoved. Opposite him, standing next to Chen Ning was Zhao Tong, his former neighbor from Pingning County...
The main reason was that the victims he found were all the most humble and timid people, who did not dare to enter the house and confront the dignified elder. It happened that Zhao Tong's family's land was also occupied, so he had no choice but to become a hunter.
When Zhao Tong learned that Chen Ning was collecting evidence and needed someone to go to Beijing to file a complaint, he stepped forward without saying a word.
The Tongzhengsi envoy stammered, unable to speak. Lord Xu spoke up himself, looking quietly at the dark, rough-looking man before him: "Are you suing me?"
Zhao Tong stood straight: "Exactly."
Elder Xu nodded: "Do you have any evidence?"
Zhao Tong said in a steady voice: "Yes!"
He presented the evidence with both hands. The Minister of Public Administration looked at Lord Xu with trepidation, took the evidence with his hands, and then had to open it with gritted teeth.
Those case files were collected by Yuanyue and his team with all their efforts over the past few days.
After being released by Xiao Nanyong, Yuan Yue and the others disappeared without a trace. They did not go looking for Chen Ning, but followed Chen Ning's long-awaited arrangements and hid their whereabouts one by one to collect evidence of Xu Ge Lao's crimes in various places in Daxuan.
The Minister of Public Administration was horrified just by seeing those shocking figures. Those were not just numbers. Behind each scarlet figure were lands, taxes... and human lives.
He trembled with fear, looking at Beihai King Chen Ning, and then at Xu Ge Lao… Xu Ge Lao had been entrenched in the court for many years and now controlled the government affairs single-handedly, while behind Beihai King was Ding Wang, who had made great military achievements.
The Minister of Public Administration was speechless. At this moment, he saw Lord Xu extending his hand towards him. He was shocked and hurriedly handed over the file in his hands with both hands.
The civil and military officials were silent. Lord Xu flipped through the files, took a look, then closed them and looked up at Chen Ning: "Thank you for your concern, King Beihai, but what is said in these files is not true."
"Not true?"
Chen Ning smiled, "In the spring of the sixth year of Jiaping, the Xu family of Huicheng beat farmer Li Erqiu to death in order to seize his land. They falsely accused Li Erqiu of theft and later sold Li Erqiu's widow into slavery..."
Xu Ge Lao's expression was calm: "There is no such thing."
Chen Ning: "In the autumn of the eighth year of the Jiaping reign, Xu Ci, the youngest son of the Xu family in Yongfeng, fought with the wealthy merchant Zhang Ping over the people's farmland. After Zhang Ping seized the land, Xu Ci took advantage of the night to kill over a hundred members of the Zhang family... The magistrate ordered someone to capture Xu Ci, but he was killed by bandits. The bandits were found to be in possession of the Xu family's sword..."
The veins on Elder Xu's forehead jumped, and he said in a cold voice: "There is no such thing!"
Chen Ning: "Xu Youde, the head of the Nanguang Xu family, forged a deed and seized 15 mu of Hu Carpenter's land. Hu Carpenter was forced to death, and his daughter was forcibly taken as a concubine..."
Xu Ge Lao: "There is no such thing!"
In the court, all that was left was Chen Ning's complaints one after another, and Lord Xu's increasingly cold and sinister tone of "there is no such thing".
The entire hall was dead silent. Chen Ning sneered, "So, the Lord's words are the laws of the land? Cases with solid evidence are laid out before us one after another. Lord Xu only needs to say 'no such incident' to erase so many bloody injustices?"
"Is the evidence conclusive?"
Elder Xu looked at Chen Ning expressionlessly, then raised his hand and slowly tore the file in his hand open... again and again, until it was torn into pieces, and raised his hand in front of Chen Ning.
The old voice was calm and indifferent, emphasizing each word: "What evidence? Where is the evidence?"
There was a dead silence in the court. An imperial censor wanted to stand up with indignation in his eyes, but was dragged back by his companions without a word.
The King of Beihai has the amulet of King Ding, what do they have?
A worthless life?
Elder Xu looked at Chen Ning expressionlessly: "The King of Beihai has framed me for no reason and has ulterior motives. Come here..."
But just before Lord Xu finished speaking, a hoarse cough was heard.
In an instant, everyone in the hall raised their heads and looked sideways, only to see a figure in a bright yellow dragon robe being supported and slowly walking out from behind.
When he saw Emperor Jiaping's pale and yellow face and his vicious eyes, all the blood disappeared from Lord Xu's face in an instant.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com