At night, in the residence of Fang Liangpin, the prefect of Pingliang, Zhang Mingyuan of Qingyang, Zhao Jinian of Gongchang Prefecture, Wang Siyu of Hanzhong Prefecture, as well as official representatives from Xi'an, Yan'an and other prefectures were all in the hall with dark faces. Things have come to this point.
These people are all deeply involved and cannot get out of the quagmire.
Fang Liangpin was sitting in the main seat, his whole person's demeanor was gone, and he even felt like the remaining candle oil was drying out in the wind. Everyone has been sitting there since noon, and they have been taking turns to use excuses, quarrels and silences several times.
But the strategy to break the situation has not been thought of at all. Chen Yunze, let's call him Chen Yunze, he has no intention of making peace at all. He just asked Chen Rongyan to threaten and extort them, and now he has eaten up their flesh.
He didn't even show his face.
Zhao Jinian, the general judge of Gongchang Mansion, suddenly said: "Everyone, this misfortune is your fate. You must recognize it if it falls on anyone. Don't hurt others. This is how you can accumulate virtue for your descendants."
Zhang Mingyuan glanced at him coldly and said: "Brother Zhao, do you mean to stay out of the matter? I'm afraid there is nothing so good in this world!"
Wang Siyu, the eldest son of the prefect of Hanzhong, advised from the side: "Brother Zhang Xian is too extreme. Chen Yunze cannot hide what he saw and heard along the way from Qingyang to Pingliang. In this case, it is better to act according to the original agreement."
"Yes, we will take good care of the descendants of your family, keep them rich and noble for the rest of their lives, and prevent you from losing your blood. Brother Zhang Xian and Uncle Fang should think more about it. If we all die, who can take care of them?
?”
Fang Liangpin coughed weakly and said: "That's it. According to the original agreement, I hope you will keep your word!"
Wang Siyu stood up and clasped his fists and said: "Uncle Shi, don't worry, everyone is looking at each other. How can anyone who goes back on his words convince others?"
After a while, all the officials and representatives from the other prefectures except Qingyang Prefecture and Pingliang Prefecture left. The people who were left behind all had livid faces and desolate expressions. They were the ones who took the blame and were responsible for embezzling the court's disaster relief food and assassinating the imperial envoy.
Wang Shijian and other charges.
Everyone slumped in their chairs. The punishments represented by these crimes made people shudder just thinking about them. But they were unlucky. Wang Shijian died in their territory, and the embezzled and hidden disaster relief grains also fell into Chen Yunze's hands...
Zhang Mingyuan stood up suddenly and slammed the tea cup next to him to the ground. He looked up at Fang Liangpin and said, "Uncle Shi himself is seriously ill and will die soon, but he can't just sell us all so easily. Even if he dies,
There is no reason to kill just us!"
Fang Liangpin turned to look at the half-burned candle and said: "No one can escape. There is nothing better to do with this last bit of time in life. Why waste it with a group of people who are also going to die? Anyway, there is plenty of time on the road to hell."
Everyone in the hall was stunned, and Li Tongpan said in a trembling voice: "Then Chen Yunze is really His Royal Highness?"
Zhang Heng screamed: "Impossible!"
Fang Liangpin said softly: "I have been unable to sleep day and night these past few days. After thinking over and over again, I confirmed that not only Chen Yunze is His Royal Highness, but that Wang Shijian should also be killed on the order of the Crown Prince. Only in this way can we successfully take over the guardhouse. Haha, Crown Prince Yingguo
Father, God bless me with the great Ming Dynasty."
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the hall felt a little calm. Since everyone would die if they couldn't escape, they felt balanced in their hearts. If they were the only ones to take the blame, and the rest of their comrades continued to enjoy the hot food, then
I really can't even die with my eyes closed.
Zhao Guangsheng, a fellow acquaintance of Pingliang, suddenly laughed and said: "It's not a loss, I didn't expect that I would be able to let the prince and crown prince call me master a few times in this life. Hahahaha, this can be regarded as a glorious ancestor."
Li Tongpan and others also showed a bit of a wry smile, but Zhang Mingyuan pointed at Fang Liangpin with a distorted expression and said sarcastically: "Haha, God bless the Ming Dynasty, is it too ridiculous for Uncle Fang Shi to be so greedy to say this?"
Fang Liangpin replied seriously: "I am a corrupt official, but it does not mean that I do not respect the Holy One and do not recognize His Majesty's policy of purging officials. I have been an official for decades and know the long-term consequences of corruption in the officialdom better than anyone else. Now that I have died,
At the end of the day, I regret it. After all, I have not read the books written by saints and sages for decades, and I really regret it."
"It's a pity that it's too late to regret it. There are thousands of magistrates in the Ming Dynasty. They studied hard for decades, but once they became powerful, they forgot their ambitions and only knew how to plunder the people's wealth. I am also very sad.
"
Zhu Biao's voice came from outside the door, and everyone in the hall was stunned. They didn't hear the other words clearly, but the self-proclaimed sentence kept resounding in their minds. The ups and downs of their emotions made several elderly officials look up to them.
Got dizzy.
The door of the room was pushed open by Tang Shizhong, and Zhu Biao stepped into the room with his hands on his back. You could vaguely see many figures crawling and kneeling behind him, and they were clearly representatives of the group of officials who had just walked out.
The officials who were still awake immediately fell to their knees on the ground. Fang Liangpin forced his weak body to stand up, but in the end he was unable to do so and slipped from the large Taishi chair to the ground. He barely adjusted his body into a kneeling posture.
Only Zhang Mingyuan still stood there blankly, looking back blankly at Chen Xiandi, who he had been chatting and laughing with just last month, walking in. Zhu Biao ignored him and walked straight past him, not even bothering to give him a spare glance.
.
Just because Zhu Biao didn't take it seriously doesn't mean that Tang Shizhong would allow someone to be rude to His Highness. He passed by Zhang Mingyuan's body and kicked him in the crook of his leg. Zhang Mingyan suddenly let out a sad cry and fell to his knees in pain.
Zhu Biao sat on the chair at the head of the table. No one among the people below dared to raise their head, and no one even dared to say hello. They wished they could dig a hole in the ground with their fingernails so that they could escape.
Zhu Biao thought to himself and said: "I have always felt that the Holy Emperor is too harsh on officials. If the water is clear, there will be no fish, and if the people are careful, there will be no disciples. It is normal for officials to use their power to gain some benefits for themselves. After all,
They are not immortal saints who do not eat the fireworks of the world."
"It's just that you waited too much. The food for disaster relief is life-changing. I borrowed it from the Jiangnan nobles at the expense of my dignity. You are so greedy!
Are you really indifferent to the victims who are starving to death? Are you really without any conscience at all?"
Fang Liangpin raised his head and said with a smile: "Your Highness is still too young. This conscience is like a wooden thorn growing horizontally in your heart. It doesn't move at all on weekdays. Once you do something unconscionable, it will turn. Naturally, it will be unbearable pain at first."
, but after a lot of work, the wood thorn turned in my heart several times and the heart flesh was worn away. No matter how much I turned it in the future, it would not hurt anymore."
Zhu Biao nodded when he heard this and said: "That makes sense. One wrong step and one wrong step after another. If you don't stop at the beginning, you won't be able to stop anymore."