Chapter 48: Is the plea for affection or something else?
Lu Mingqian reasoned with her, appealed to her emotions, used both hard and soft tactics, and then analyzed the pros and cons with her. Since this matter was instructed by the Queen Mother, the Lu family must achieve the goal. After the success, she can choose whether to divorce, stay in the Lu family, or do business. This is the condition promised by the Queen Mother.
She wants a divorce!
But she couldn't give false testimony. She didn't agree with Cheng Xianzhi's behavior. But she had never witnessed whether he accepted bribes or not, and she would not use such means to achieve her own goals.
As for this account book, even if she didn't make it, someone would probably hand it over to the Dali Temple.
Lu Mingqian's action just proved that Cheng Xianzhi had never accepted bribes. She was just a sharp arrow in the secret competition between the two sides. If used well, the Lu family would rise rapidly.
What about the Cheng family?
What is the truth behind it?
The flames swirled around her pupils, igniting the fire that had been suppressed in her heart in the middle of the night.
She doesn't want to be controlled by others anymore.
Gongsun Xue returned to the Zhongshu Ling Mansion, still worried about Cheng Xianzhi's imprisonment. Gongsun Yin asked her to stay in the mansion and wait for the results of the Dali Temple's investigation.
On the second day, Lu Tingwan entered the palace on the pretext of seeking an audience with the Queen Mother. Led by the palace maids, before she entered the harem, she used the excuse of going to the toilet to leave the sight of the palace maids in Jinhua Palace and went to Hanzhang Palace.
After the court meeting ended, Li Tingfeng kept the Dali Temple Minister to inquire about the detailed progress of the case. The accounts found in Gao Heng's home did have several transaction records related to the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice had already searched Gao Heng's home before. If there was such evidence, why didn't the Ministry of Justice take it away and destroy the evidence, but left it to the people of the Dali Temple to correct himself. This method was too obvious.
Besides, there were witnesses who came forward to testify that Cheng Pushe and the imperial guards had repeatedly used brutal means in their duties, bullying people without asking for cause or consequence, and all those suspected were arrested and tortured in the Ministry of Justice's prison. The Dali Temple was unable to make a ruling and could only report it to the higher authorities.
Regarding the loan case of Gao Heng, according to the injustice in the complaint and the confession of the farmer, the Dali Temple brought Gao Heng to trial. There was nothing wrong with the Ministry of Justice handling the case according to the law. However, the law had loopholes. If Gao Heng had been sentenced to death in court, it would have been within the scope of the law.
The fault lay in the fact that the injustice involved in this case had spread widely in Kyoto, angering the people. The Dali Temple's decision to sentence Cheng Xianzhi and the Ministry of Justice's negligence in the law were justified, as long as it could quell public anger.
Now it depends on how Li Tingfeng wants to judge this case. If Cheng Xianzhi's fault is not investigated, the Queen Mother will not let it go. The anger of the people will be difficult to stop in a short time, and it will also affect the instability of the court.
If he were to hold someone accountable, it would undoubtedly be bowing to the Empress Dowager, and it would be difficult for Cheng Xianzhi to take the position of Shangshu in the future.
Li Tingfeng was caught in a dilemma. The Dali Temple Minister waited patiently for the emperor's will until the eunuchs came to report.
"Your Majesty, the second wife of Cheng Pushe is requesting an audience outside Hanzhang Palace."
Women were not allowed to enter the council hall. The Queen Mother Jiang ruling the country from behind the curtain was a precedent set by the late emperor. Apart from that, no other woman had ever entered the Hanzhang Hall.
Li Tingfeng heard this: "Cheng Pushe's second wife?"
The eunuch Qian replied, "She is Lu Pushe's second daughter, the empress dowager's concubine appointed to Cheng Pushe by grace. She entered the palace at the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet."
Li Tingfeng wondered why she wanted to see him at this time.
Eunuch Qian continued, "Madam Cheng II requested an audience with Your Majesty because she had important clues regarding the Cheng Pushe case and could prove that Cheng Pushe had never accepted bribes."
That is, they came to appeal their grievances, but there was a rule in Hanzhang Palace that women who were not of the imperial rank or above were not allowed to enter the palace to petition.
Li Tingfeng was also surprised. Lu Tingwan's identity was special, so whether there was anything fishy here remained to be seen. After careful consideration, he said solemnly, "She wants to provide evidence for Cheng Pushe. Does she know the rules of Hanzhang Palace?"
"This old servant has already explained this to Second Madam Cheng, and she insists on seeing you," the eunuch said, waving his whisk. "I heard from the palace servants that she came from Jinhua Palace and walked halfway to Hanzhang Palace to specifically request an audience with Your Majesty."
"Then let's do it according to the rules." Li Tingfeng's eyes were meaningful. Just give it a try and you'll know.
Outside Hanzhang Palace, Lu Tingwan knelt on the bluestone slabs, the whip hitting her back. Every hit hurt her deep in her bones, but she gritted her teeth and said nothing.
The eunuch couldn't bear it and tried to persuade them, "Twenty lashes is not something you can take lightly. If Madam Cheng can't bear it, I can tell them to stop. You are a treasure to Lu Pushe, and His Majesty doesn't want to hurt the relationship. However, Hanzhang Palace has its own rules."
Lu Tingwan struggled to hold on, groaning a few times. Big beads of sweat oozed out of his forehead, slid along his hair, across his neck, and disappeared at the top of his clothes.
"Thank you for the reminder, eunuch. Twenty strokes," Lu Tingwan said with difficulty, and the whip fell again, "I... I can hold on..."
Eunuch Qian shook his head until Lu Tingwan was whipped twenty times and fell to the ground with a thud. His hands were unable to support his body, and his whole body was shaking and sweating profusely.
The eunuch raised his whisk and the palace maid helped the person up. Lu Tingwan's hair was disheveled and her torn clothes were stained with blood, which was a shocking sight.
"Please, sir, take me to see His Majesty..."
Eunuch Qian delivered the message: "Your Majesty, Madam Cheng has finished her flogging."
The emperor's eyes darkened: "Announce."
"Announce that the Lu family will come to the emperor for an audience."
Lu Tingwan walked heavily into the hall, and the Dali Temple Minister and Li Tingfeng looked at each other.
"Your Majesty, I, Lu Tingwan, pay my respects to you." She knelt down with no hesitation or hesitation.
This was the first time Li Tingfeng saw Lu Tingwan face to face. Although she was no longer wearing makeup after the punishment, one could sense at a glance that she had an invisible attraction. It was not vulgarity or charm, but an innate agility, brightness, and persistence that emanated from her bones.
Even her furrowed brows could not hide the sunshine beneath her face. She tried hard to smile, waiting for the majestic emperor to grant her grace.
"Raise your head." Li Tingfeng looked her over, able to see her entire face clearly. "You would rather accept these twenty lashes than give evidence for Cheng Xianzhi. If you have evidence, you can go to the Dali Temple. Why do you have to go before the Emperor?"
Lu Tingwan said, "Even if the Dali Temple had evidence, they wouldn't dare to make a hasty decision. Your Majesty, please understand that Cheng Xianzhi is not someone who would sacrifice greater justice for petty gains, nor is he someone who would bend the law for personal gain."
"You seem to know him quite well," Li Tingfeng said. "I heard that Cheng Aiqing and you are not on good terms, and that he only has feelings for Madam Gongsun. Are you pleading for him today out of affection, or for something else?"
"Your Majesty, I cannot influence who Cheng Xianzhi falls in love with. I also know that she and the First Lady are in perfect harmony, and no one else can interfere. I came to Hanzhang Palace not out of affection, but to seek the truth and justice."
"I can give justice to the farmer and her daughter, but I don't want to implicate innocent people," Lu Tingwan said earnestly. "I believe the Dali Temple should have found out by now that Cheng Xianzhi didn't accept bribes. The reason Gao Heng was sentenced to three years in prison is because of the shortcomings of Dalan's laws..."
Ever since Cheng Xianzhi explained this issue to her that night, Lu Tingwan has been studying the law word by word in Yansheng Hall. She didn't know much about the law before.
After a closer look, it was indeed as Cheng Xianzhi said, there were many loopholes in the law. If the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice wanted to avoid any fault, there would be no problem in making a judgment based on the most basic meaning of the law.
Although she had her doubts, she was unwilling to speculate that Cheng Xianzhi had other intentions. At least he would not bring personal emotions into the case, so he did not interfere with the judgment of the Minister of Justice, even though he knew what consequences this result would bring.
"Then in your opinion, in this case, Lord Cheng did not make a wrong judgment, so he is innocent. Even if he knew that there were loopholes in the law and condoned the judgment of the Minister of Justice, and knew that the consequences would arouse public anger, he still insisted on his own way. Until the public anger could no longer be quelled, the people stopped the officials in the street and threatened that the King of Dalan condoned his ministers to bully the people and held power but did nothing, he was also not wrong, right?" Li Tingfeng asked calmly.
"Your Majesty, may I ask, was Cheng Xianzhi imprisoned simply to appease public anger? If the same case were to occur again, and officials were to continue adjudicating according to the law, would they necessarily consider the unforeseeable and unpredictable consequences, disregarding the fairness of the case?"
"If the Dali Temple finally puts all the blame on Cheng Xianzhi, just to give the people an explanation, it can calm public anger and temporarily resolve the difficult issues in Kyoto, but it will only treat the symptoms and not the root cause."
Li Tingfeng scoffed inwardly, but kept his expression to himself: "There seems to be no better move than this right now."
"I heard that you filed the petition for this case. Is that true or not?"
"As Your Majesty has heard," Lu Tingwan said, "I am implicated in this entire case. For this reason, I hope the Dali Temple will give justice to the farmer, Cheng Xianzhi, and the Minister of Justice."
"It's not that there is no second option in this case. It depends on what kind of evidence Madam Cheng can produce for Cheng Pushe." The Dali Temple Minister hinted.
The account book that turned to ashes flashed through Lu Tingwan's mind, and the pain in her body warned her that there was no way back the moment she stepped into Hanzhang Palace.
Openly disobeying the Queen Mother's wishes has already caused great disaster.
"What if I can prove that the evidence found in Gao Heng's residence is false?" Lu Tingwan said.
"The Dali Temple can make the decision. It seems there is no need to trouble Madam Cheng." said the Dali Temple Minister.
"If the Dali Temple Minister had the ability, he would have produced solid evidence long ago. The case would have been settled by now. As you said, the Dali Temple's verdict is nothing but speculation. The Ministry of Justice had already visited Gao Heng's home when it was judging the case. The evidence found by the Dali Temple afterwards is naturally not real. But the Dali Temple can only make inferences. Am I right?" Lu Tingwan analyzed.
The Dali Temple Minister looked at Li Tingfeng.
This is the key point, and also the dilemma faced by Dali Temple and Li Tingfeng.
"Then how can you solve this problem?" Li Tingfeng asked with interest.
"I have witnesses who personally saw the evidence of Cheng Xianzhi and the Vice Minister of Justice taking bribes." Lu Tingwan said resolutely with a sharp gaze.
"Where is the witness?" Li Tingfeng, who was always calm, suppressed the uncertainty in his heart.
"He is currently in the Dali Temple. I hope you will investigate."
"As long as you can identify the person who framed him, Your Majesty can announce to the people that it was someone with ulterior motives who deliberately framed Cheng Pushe and the Minister of Justice, using the people to confuse the public and intentionally murder important officials. Then, you can re-sentence Gao Heng to death for his arrogance, harming the people, poisoning innocent citizens, endangering human lives, and disrupting the market. You can also order Chunfenglou to release the peasant girl."
"I hope you will draft the laws for Dalan to restore peace and order to the people." Lu Tingwan used his last bit of strength to kowtow in the hall.
His frail body seemed to be crumbling, but his expression was extremely firm, hiding a strength unknown to anyone.
Li Tingfeng showed some respect and issued an order: "The Dali Temple Minister will return immediately to interrogate the witnesses and clear Cheng Aiqing and the Minister of Justice of the Ministry of Justice of all charges."
"As for the rest, I am not against you. You should go back home and recuperate first."
Lu Tingwan achieved her goal, and the taut string was completely relaxed. The pain in her body was like a tidal wave, invading her. In this pain, she gradually lost consciousness. The splendor of Hanzhang Palace became a series of blurred words. She seemed to see the revised Dalan Law clearly, but she couldn't see it clearly.
He eventually collapsed in Hanzhang Palace. Li Tingfeng sent someone to send him back to Cheng Mansion and also sent Doctor He to diagnose him.
By the time Jinhua Palace received the message, the people had already left the palace. Queen Mother Jiang, who was usually very steady and dignified, could no longer maintain her composure after being tricked by Lu Tingwan.
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