Chapter 166: Protecting the Calf and Loving Wife and the Wrath of the Son of Heaven
Dongnuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace.
After the first day of October, earth dragons and braziers were set up in the palace. The East Nuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace was the place where the emperor lived, so it was no exception. At this time, a large group of black people were kneeling on the ground.
Although it has been more than an hour, no one dared to raise their heads, and none of them even dared to say a word. Kneeling here only makes your knees numb, your shoulders and back sore, but at least it is better than being sent to a freezing place outside. Kneel down and force yourself. So, even though everyone’s foreheads were shiny and their vests were getting wet, they had no choice but to hold on.
Emperor Hongzhi, who had been silent for a long time, just sneered: "Everyone talks about how conscientious and cautious they are on weekdays. It turns out that you are so conscientious and cautious. I handed over the prince to you without incident, but what about you, you guys What good things have you done! You actually instigated the prince to give up his lectures and sneak out of the palace. How brave are you!"
Although the most powerful eunuchs kneeling in front did not dare to raise their heads, they could not help but look at each other. With sad faces, they all secretly cursed Zhang Yonggu Dayong and Ma Yongcheng who had protected Zhu Houzhao today.
But at this moment, they didn't dare to defend themselves. They simply pressed their foreheads against the gold bricks on the ground and remained silent. But this time, after Emperor Hongzhi finished scolding, he shouted sternly: "Someone, please If they fight out, I will get upset just looking at them!"
, "Your Majesty, your servant Li Rong would like to see you!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a sudden voice suddenly came from outside. Emperor Hongzhi glanced at the wine bags and rice bags with disgust, and spoke impatiently. The next moment, Li Rong walked in quickly and leaned towards the people on the ground. After glancing at him, he immediately bowed. Seeing his trembling appearance, Emperor Hongzhi frowned and said, "No need!"
"Talk about the Emperor!" Li Rong knelt down after all before standing up. He immediately lowered his head and said respectfully, "I have already gone to the palace gate and asked around. The Crown Prince is leaving Xiyuan with a few people. Zhang Yong also gave the Xi'an Gate guard a chain of silver, but they didn't dare to check it because they were from the East Palace."
, "I knew it!"
Seeing Emperor Hongzhi becoming more and more irritable and angry, Li Rong's attitude became more submissive, and the word "old slave" that he always talked about was discarded because it showed that he was relying on his old age: "I have asked Wang Yue to take over the Dongchang just in case." "Zidu has been sent out, and there will be good news soon. His Royal Highness is just young and unsettled." Even if he really escaped from the Wenhua Hall to give lectures, someone must have instigated him, and it was definitely not from his heart. Please calm down the emperor. .”
These words made everyone on the ground pale for a moment. I thought that the chief minister of rituals would come over and be able to interrupt a little and ease the emperor's treatment of them." Unexpectedly, Li Rong defended the prince Zhu Houzhao, but he backhanded him. They all swept in, and everyone was resentful for a moment. Li Rong watched coldly, naturally knowing what he was doing, but he was not worried at all about what trouble these people would cause.
Although Zhu Houzhao often sneaked out of the palace on weekdays, after all, he was not studying, but this time he escaped from the afternoon lecture at Wenyuan Pavilion. The civil servants were already full of resentment before, so how can they do it now if they take advantage of the opportunity? No fuss?
So, without raising his head, he saw that Emperor Hongzhi only had a sullen face and said nothing, so he said softly: "Yinu, I want to come." Doesn't His Highness the Crown Prince admire Prince Xu of Xing'an Bo very much? Maybe people will go there, so I'm already here. Let Wang Yue personally take people there to have a look, I think there is a good chance it will be there."
At this moment, Xiao Jing, who was walking outside the door, happened to hear this sentence, and his face darkened for a moment.
He turned his head and glanced at Zhang Yong behind him, who had a worried expression on his face. He whispered an instruction, and then turned around and reported as if nothing had happened: "Your Majesty, your servant Xiao Jing would like to see you."
As the sound of Xuan Jin came from inside, Xiao Jing took Zhang Yong into the room. He didn't seem to see the person kneeling on the ground, and went straight forward to salute. He saw that Emperor Hongzhi's face was indeed red, and he was obviously angry. "It's not a big deal." He slowly said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, I have obtained the accurate information, and there is news about the whereabouts of His Highness the Crown Prince."
After hearing this, not only Emperor Hongzhi's eyes lit up, but also Li Rong and the other palace officials kneeling on the ground secretly raised their heads one by one, feeling relieved. However, Xiao Jing did not say directly, but bowed again. He bowed and said in a low voice: "This is a serious matter, so I would like to ask Your Majesty to retreat."
Although he was full of impatience, Emperor Hongzhi had great trust in Xiao Jing after all, and he immediately shouted away the people on the ground. When there were only a few imperial ministers in the Qianqing Palace in the room, Li Rong, who was standing beside the emperor, said calmly Said: "Eunuch Xiao brought Zhang Yong who was with His Highness the Crown Prince? His Highness the Crown Prince didn't come back. Why did he come back alone?"
Zhang Yong just followed Xiao Jing and saluted. Emperor Hongzhi didn't see clearly for a moment, but he recognized the person at this time. He was just angry because the prince skipped classes. He was shocked and angry. He wanted to yell, but after a while he unexpectedly recognized the person. He couldn't think of more harsh words. At this time, Xiao Jing could no longer care about Li Rong's fanning the flames, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, His Highness the Crown Prince is leaving the palace this time. It seems that he does not want to leave the palace because he dislikes studying. He wanted to relax, but he had some unknown plan, so not long after leaving the palace, he found various excuses to send people away one by one. In the end, he got rid of them while visiting a gold and silver shop. these people.,
"Well!"
Seeing that Emperor Hongzhi was holding on to the armrest and couldn't sit still, Xiao Jing hurriedly said softly: "Your Majesty, let me finish speaking. According to Zhang Yong, there are some weird rumors in the Heavenly Palace, so he doubted whether it was the prince. I also heard these messy messages, so I decided to go out incognito."
"Eunuch Xiao, we are talking about the whereabouts of the Crown Prince. Have you taken this topic too far?"
Zhang Yong had already knelt down. He told Xiao Jing that he would go to Xu Xun's house and wait for the rabbit.
Immediately, A Bao came back and reported that the prince happened to bump into Xu Xun and Liu Jin. The three of them were going to do things at this time, and he felt relieved. So when he saw Li Rong saying this, he hurriedly kowtowed. He immediately said cautiously: "Your Majesty, someone has been slandering Shouning Marquis and Jianchang Marquis in the palace these days, and by chance His Highness the Crown Prince overheard it, so..."
Zhu Houzhao only sent three people, including him and Liu Jingu, to investigate this unsolved case. Including Liu Jin, only four people knew about it, so Zhang Yong would not be stupid enough to reveal such a big thing by himself. The matter was easily brought to the hands of the two emperors. Sure enough, although Emperor Hongzhi still frowned, his face looked much better.
"Although the Crown Prince and Marquis Jianchang of Shouning are close relatives, even if someone slanders him, he should come and tell me what he was doing sneaking out of the palace!"
"Reporting to your Majesty, I don't know the inside story. It's just that Your Highness the Crown Prince angrily talked about his two uncles when he came out of the Wenhua Palace today. But I am determined not to allow anyone to throw dirty water on the Queen."
Although these words were vague, Emperor Hongzhi's frown relaxed a little. As a father, he could certainly tell that Zhu Houzhao seemed to be much closer to Queen Zhang these days, and he was very close to Shouning Hou Jianchang Hou.
Although the two uncles still talked little, they no longer looked at each other coldly.
If Zhu Houzhao really left the palace today for such a reason, then this boy was still a naughty boy, but he finally got the idea and knew how to protect his family.
Li Rong on the side saw that Zhang Yong's few words actually touched the emperor, so he naturally sneered.
But he didn't intend to break up with Xiao Jing directly, and he didn't add fuel to the fire at the moment. He just coughed lightly and said: "What about His Highness the Crown Prince now?"
Zhang Yong had been thinking about delaying this issue. Seeing that the emperor actually came back to his senses and looked over, he had to bite the bullet and said: "Report to the emperor, after I was sent away by His Highness the Crown Prince, I was thinking about whether His Highness the Crown Prince would go."
Looking for Prince An Bo, I went straight to the Xu family. I didn’t want Prince Xu to be away, so I planned to wait there. Who knew that about half an hour later, several other people also came over and learned that His Royal Highness the Prince had not come.
, they looked around for someone, but the servant was still waiting there with the hope of being safe. Later, Prince Xu’s servant came back as expected, and it happened that His Highness the Prince bumped into Prince Xu in Mutton Alley, and Prince Xu
So I was dragged along by His Highness the Crown Prince to do something..."
Before he finished speaking, Emperor Hongzhi was so angry that he interrupted Zhang Yong's words: "We happened to meet him? How could such a coincidence happen? We must have colluded with each other a long time ago!" At this point, he remembered
Zhu Houzhao even dismissed the eunuchs, but he secretly made an appointment with Xu Xun. He became more and more suspicious, but think about it. Until today, Zhu Houzhao has been detained by him in Chengqian Palace and taken to Wenhua Palace to listen to lectures every day.
And the Dongchang News reported that the Xu family and his son stayed behind closed doors, so where was the opportunity for collusion?
Just when Xiao Jing was about to speak to ease the atmosphere, another voice suddenly came from outside: "Your Majesty, Princess Renhe wants to see you."
"Emperor's sister?" On a normal day, Emperor Hongrong would definitely not treat his eldest sister lightly, but he was really not interested at the moment and immediately frowned and said, "Just say that I am busy now and ask her to see the queen if she has something to do!
"
The eunuch reporting outside the door hesitated for a moment, and finally said truthfully: "Back to the emperor, it was the empress who accompanied Ren and the eldest princess."
Oops! This is really bad! Why is the queen here?
Although Emperor Hongzhi was questioning the officials in the East Palace here, he had ordered that the news be sealed in advance and not allowed to be known to Kunning Palace. Therefore, when he learned that Empress Zhang had come in person, even as the emperor, he felt a little dizzy for a moment.
Before he could think of any countermeasures, he saw the tall curtain, and it was Empress Zhang herself who opened the curtain and rushed in angrily.
"Your Majesty, what's going on? Why are all the servants in Chengqian Palace kneeling outside? What's wrong with Hou Zhao?" At this point, she suddenly saw Zhang Yong kneeling on the ground, and her brows furrowed even more.
He immediately stared at Xiao Jing and Li Rong said, "What happened, you two tell me!"