The first thousand two hundred and thirty-eight chapters
The next day.
After the court meeting is over, according to the custom, the next court meeting should be a week later. There will not be many officials coming to the court today.
However, because of the commotion last night and the tragic situation in the palace after dawn, all the officials gathered outside the Meridian Gate without any discussion.
In fact, more officials came to court today than yesterday.
For example, he married his daughter to King Jing as his concubine, so after becoming the king and supervising the country, he reported illness to the elder of the court who was recuperating at home.
Li Zhengfu.
At first glance, Li Zhengfu was older than the old emperor, but there was a faint sparkle in his eyes.
The officials who originally distanced themselves from Li Zhengfu in order to curry favor with him became the king, but now they didn't care about anything else and surrounded Li Zhengfu.
"Mr. Li Ge, have you heard about what happened yesterday?"
"Last night, a thunderous sound rang out in the middle of the night. My waiter was so frightened that he couldn't sleep all night."
"What happened?"
"It is said that His Royal Highness Prince Yu raided the residence of His Highness Prince Cheng last night. Is it true?"
"I heard that the Holy Spirit was involved, but I didn't know..."
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
"Yeah……"
Even so, the discussions among the officials did not stop because of the shock of what happened last night.
It was just because he mentioned the current emperor that his voice was lowered.
There was a bombing sound like thunder from the sky, troops wearing civilian clothes but showing a murderous atmosphere on the streets of the inner city, the Beijing army blocked outside the inner city, the imperial guards who were motionless...
And the tokens of the old emperor in the hands of those "civilian troops".
Even those who were slow to react knew that what happened last night was beyond their control. Although they were unable to sleep due to the sound of bombings, they closed the doors tightly and no one came out to inquire.
Even if someone hadn't discovered that the Beijing camp and the "civilian army" had been withdrawn after dawn, they would still be wondering whether to go out to court.
And those officials who passed by Prince Cheng's residence on the way to court were even more frightened after seeing the tragic situation in Prince Cheng's residence.
If it weren't for the sounds of people on the street last night, they would have doubted whether Prince Cheng's Mansion had been punished by God.
Similarly, if the dilapidated Prince Cheng's Mansion was not guarded by men dressed in black but armed with weapons, they would have even gone in to take a look before going to court, hoping to get more clues.
Although Li Zhengfu did not disperse the officials surrounding him, his frown showed that he did not know much about the matter.
However, his residence is not far from Prince Cheng's Mansion. Even though he was afraid of going out because of last night's movements, he was more concerned about last night's situation than others.
Compared to other people's guesses, he was certain that those who attacked Prince Cheng's Mansion last night were indeed people under Prince Yu's command.
Even the final result ended in failure to become a king.
It was precisely because he sensed the opportunity that he stopped pretending to be sick and took leave today and took the initiative to come to court.
If he can take the opportunity to suppress King Yu, then King Jing, whom he supports, may have another chance.
If he can be supported to ascend to the throne, as the father-in-law of the new emperor, it will not be a problem for him to take care of himself after resigning.
Although King Jing is not very capable, and his performance has become increasingly worse after being suppressed by King Cheng in the past two years, he is relatively easier to control.
If Yang Youxu is transferred back to the capital and sent to the cabinet at that time, his influence in the court will be even higher after he retires.
In this way, protecting the family's prosperity for hundreds of years will not be a problem.
However, the specific details will depend on what the Holy Emperor and King Yu say today.
If the two of them could produce evidence proving Wang Cheng's guilt, he wouldn't be so stubborn that he would continue to hit the wall.
Among the hundreds of officials, there are not a few who have similar thoughts to Li Zhengfu.
Today they came to court. In addition to being shocked by what happened last night and wanting to know the truth, they also wanted to see if there was any chance of their own.
The officials who were closest to King Cheng were considering how to get out safely if the situation was unfavorable.
This is politics.
When something happens to a person, the first thing people related to him or her think about is how to protect themselves wisely, and then see if they can profit from it.
The only exception may be Wang Pengxing.
When he visited King Yu yesterday, he could vaguely feel that King Yu seemed to have something to do and didn't want to keep him any longer, so he just talked for a few words and then left.
But he didn't expect that what King Yu wanted to do would be so big.
He led people to attack Prince Cheng's Mansion overnight.
Reminiscent of the solemn atmosphere in Prince Yu's residence yesterday, he has not fully recovered from the shock since he was woken up last night.
And he was even more worried.
It's not for myself and the Wang family.
Although he is the father-in-law of King Yu, the descendants of the emperor have no idea of executing the nine clans. Otherwise, the first person to be implicated will be the one on the throne. So whether he should be executed or not.
The person on the throne cannot be killed. From Wang Ruoqing's side, the Wang family is her mother's family, so naturally she will not be killed.
Therefore, as long as Wang Pengxing was not involved in what happened last night, even if King Yu got hot-headed, it would not implicate him.
The identity of the Minister of the Ministry of Finance is not just a decoration.
However, although Wang Pengxing was able to keep himself and the Wang family safe, he could not protect Wang Ruoqing.
As the royal concubine of Prince Yu, if Prince Yu commits a crime, she will be the first to be implicated.
Although the aristocratic family also focuses on profit, it is not as ruthless as the royal family. Wang Ruoqing is Wang Pengxing's biological daughter, so she naturally has a feeling of licking the baby.
What he was worried about was whether Wang Ruoqing would be implicated by Prince Yu.
If there is worry in the heart, it will naturally show on the face, and then it will be reflected in the actions.
Therefore, when an official heard about the relationship between Wang Pengxing and King Yu and wanted to come over to ask for some clues, he was ignored by the absent-minded Wang Pengxing.
The entire area outside the Meridian Gate was much noisier than usual before the court meeting because of what happened last night.
However, the waiting outside the Meridian Gate before the court meeting has always been a time for officials to communicate, and the guards around did not say much.
But before it was time to go to court, all the officials realized that there was one person missing.
A very important person.
His Royal Highness Prince Yu, who was supposed to appear here, has not been seen until now.
For this reason, everyone discussed again, but as before, no answer came out.
It just added a little more doubt to my mind.
As the palace doors on both sides of the Meridian Gate opened, everyone, even though they were puzzled, could only stop their discussion and stand at their respective positions according to their respective ranks.
The bell rang, and all the officials came to visit.
"All officials come to see you."
Following the voice of the young eunuch coming out of the side door, the officials walked along the road in an orderly manner and entered the palace from the Meridian Gate side door.
Then, in a tacit understanding, under the guidance of the young eunuch, they entered the Jinluan Palace.