Chapter 69
After the funeral of Marquis Jingxi and his wife, the emperor ordered the Censorate to try Xiao Luochen's case, with the Sikou Mansion assisting.
Under the care of the right prime minister, the case of the escaped imperial prisoner eventually implicated the Liguan general, the Jingxi Marquis's Mansion, the Prince Ding, and the Anguo Duke's Mansion.
Early in the morning of that day, before dawn, Su Musong wore a short coarse cloth coat and mingled with the servants in the mansion to avoid the spies outside the Anguo Mansion and headed towards Biyun Temple.
Biyun Temple is located across from Emperor Zhao's mausoleum. Standing under the green pines on Yuntai Temple, one can see the stele of Emperor Zhao's merits at a glance.
Su Musong waited at the door for the Taoist boy to pass the message. Not long after, Yu Hengzi, wearing a golden crown and silver hair, a dark green Taoist robe, and holding a green jade whisk, came out side by side with a young woman who was dressed in luxurious clothes and had an extraordinary demeanor.
"I hope Uncle Huang will carefully consider what Shuangmian said. I will take my leave today."
The woman bowed to Yuhengzi and left in a hurry.
Su Musong recognized at a glance that this young woman was Yue Long's Crown Princess Yue Shuangmian. However, he didn't know what she was asking for. It seemed that Yu Hengzi had not agreed to her request yet.
"How are you, Taoist priest?"
Su Musong bowed deeply
"It's Mu Song, come in quickly."
Su Musong had not met Yuhengzi very often, and every time he saw him, he couldn't help but feel suspicious, wondering whether this Taoist priest had really cultivated the art of immortality.
According to Su Mufeng, Yuhengzi should be over 50 years old. However, when they met this time, he was still exactly the same as when Su Mufeng first met him more than ten years ago. He looked only a few years older than Su Mufeng and did not look any older.
Yu Hengzi led Su Musong to sit in the warm room. After the Taoist boy served tea, he asked Su Musong about his purpose.
"What brings Mu Song here?"
Su Musong did not say much, and directly stated the purpose of this trip.
"Master, I have something I would like to ask you. Do you know Xuan Huiwei?"
Upon hearing the words "Xuan Hui Wei", Yu Hengzi, who was always calm and composed, changed his expression slightly. Although it was only for a moment, Su Musong saw it.
"Why do you ask that?"
Su Musong guessed that Mu Feng had returned to Kyoto for some time and must have told Yu Hengzi about Xiao Luochen, so he did not hide anything.
"I wonder if you've heard that Luo Chen arrived in the capital yesterday. We plan to seize this opportunity to eliminate the Right Prime Minister and vindicate the Xiao family."
"I see. What does this have to do with the Xuan Hui Guard?"
"The Right Prime Minister has the support of the Grand Empress Dowager and the Wang family. If he overturns the verdict, it will probably shock the whole government. I heard that the Xuanhui Guard was founded by Emperor Zhao, and it is an organization that secretly protects the emperor. If they help..."
Yuhengzi interrupted Su Musong
"I understand your intention. The Xuanhui Guard has its own mission, and participating in party disputes is not within their duties. I haven't seen you today, and you don't know about the Xuanhui Guard."
"Master..."
Su Musong wanted to persuade him again, but Yuhengzi was not ready to listen anymore. He stood up and went to the inner hall to meditate.
Su Musong had thought about such a situation, but he did not expect Yu Hengzi to refuse so bluntly.
Yuhengzi's words made it clear that the Xuanhui Guards would not take action unless the emperor was truly endangered.
Fortunately, the Xuan Hui Guard was not part of the original plan, so its help would naturally achieve twice the result with half the effort. Its absence wouldn't have affected the overall situation. However, knowing its existence gave Su Musong some confidence. No matter how chaotic the situation, the emperor, who was the foundation of the reversal, was guaranteed safety.
After Su Musong returned to the city, he sent a letter to Tieshan and informed the managers of the Su family's shops, restaurants, music halls, and gambling houses in Kyoto, asking them to arrange personnel to intentionally guide people in various places in Yongjing to discuss the Xiao family's treason in private.
Originally, Su Musong's behavior when Xiao Luochen was taken to Kyoto had caused a lot of discussion. Now with deliberate guidance, public opinion exploded like firecrackers.
That day, Ji Ziming passed by Wangjing Tower and remembered that Duanmin had mentioned that she wanted to eat "golden floss", so he decided to buy some on the way.
Wangjinglou was always packed, but today it seemed especially lively. Ji Ziming walked in and saw that the diners in the hall had left the delicacies on the table uneaten, but were gathered together arguing about something.
"In my opinion, the Xiao family must have intended to rebel and usurp the throne, so they colluded with Qingning to commit treason."
"I don't think so. Prime Minister Xiao is already second only to the emperor, so why would he risk his family and property being exterminated to commit treason? It's obvious that he has monopolized power and his achievements are too great to be tolerated by the late emperor, so he ordered the extermination of the entire Xiao family."
"What do you mean by monopolizing power? Could Prime Minister Xiao be more powerful than Grand Tutor Wang? Prime Minister Xiao was reported by the Right Prime Minister back then. I think it was the Right Prime Minister who framed and slandered our mentor in order to seize power."
"Hush! You guys are so open about saying things like that, aren't you afraid of getting beheaded?"
"We're not the only ones saying this. Go out and listen. Everyone on the street is talking about this. Can they really kill everyone?"
"But, I heard that the second son of the Xiao family fell into Qingning's honey trap while leading troops in the northern border, so he defected to the enemy and brought disaster to the Xiao family."
"Hey! I know it's a rumor. There's no such thing as a beauty in Qingning. No matter how beautiful that beauty is, can she be more beautiful than our girl from Xiangping?"
"I heard that the late emperor fell in love with one of Prime Minister Xiao's daughters-in-law, and in order to get her, he murdered the Xiao family."
“…”
Ji Ziming listened to these discussions and felt that something seemed wrong. Even if the people were discussing it, they would not spread so many unrelated statements. It seemed that someone was deliberately muddying the waters.
Ji Ziming quickly realized that Su Musong and Xiao Luochen had done this on purpose, and he knew they had a backup plan. Duan Min had already told him about the Xiao family's cemetery, so he and his wife were destined to be involved in this matter. With this in mind, Ji Ziming bought some cakes and headed straight for the Duke of Anguo's mansion.
Rumors were spreading all over Kyoto. At first, only the common people were discussing it in the streets. Gradually, those absurd rumors began to reach the ears of officials. Finally, even the Crown Princess Yuelong couldn't help but ask about it when chatting with Yuwen Xuan.
Yuwen Xuan was also troubled by this unexpected public opinion, although he and Su Musong had agreed to use public discussion to stir up the situation first.
However, he did not expect that the rumors spread by Su Musong were mixed with those that hurt the reputation of the late emperor. If the rumors were allowed to spread to other places outside Kyoto, then the late emperor's reputation would probably be tarnished.
It seems that in the case of the Xiao family, the eldest son of the Su family still has some grievances against the late emperor.
After all, the Right Prime Minister had been immersed in officialdom for many years, and he soon guessed that someone was deliberately manipulating public opinion in Kyoto behind the scenes. The first person he suspected was the Duke of Anguo's Mansion.
But the public opinion is rampant and has already started, and there is no way to stop it.
Since the rumors could not be stopped, the only option was to deal with the people who spread them. So the right prime minister submitted a memorial, requesting that all those involved in the case should be thrown into prison, their homes confiscated and their houses sealed.
The people involved in the case that the Right Prime Minister mentioned were naturally the Marquis of Jingxi Mansion, Mu Yi, the Duke of Anguo Mansion and Prince Ding.
This time, the emperor approved the right prime minister's report. Mu Yi was suspected of releasing an imperial prisoner privately and was thrown into prison. However, there was no direct evidence to prove that the Jingxi Marquis's Mansion, the Anguo Duke's Mansion, and Prince Ding were related to the case, but they were only implicated. So the emperor ordered the collection of Prince Ding's military token and confined all the people in the three mansions in the mansion until the case was settled. No one was allowed to leave the mansion without the emperor's order.
The court officials had not expected that the emperor would actually accept Prince Ding's military order. Even the right prime minister had not expected that the emperor would so readily grant his request.
Just when the court officials were still in shock from the sudden change, the emperor suddenly invited Princess Yuelong to go hunting in the enclosure.
In Kyoto, except for the officials investigating the Xiao Luochen case and those who were really unable to leave, all other officials above the fifth rank were taken to the enclosure by the emperor.
Princess Yuelong also brought two thousand Yuelong guards with her.
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