There was silence in the palace for a moment, no one thought that Zhu Yinxi would make such a request.
The emperor seemed a little surprised and asked half-confirmingly.
"You mean, you want to ask for a royal trial?"
Zhu Yinqi nodded heavily.
"Only His Majesty's personal review of such major matters involving the clan, county and king can the clan and the world be convinced."
This is no small matter.
Although it is said that the emperor is the master of the world and can intervene in all affairs, in fact, there are basically no specific affairs that are truly handled by the emperor himself.
Regarding the trial and disposition of criminal cases, in addition to the joint trial of the three departments, the most formal trial method is tingju.
But even for Tingju, the emperor personally supervised the trial, and the judicial department presided over the trial.
There has never been a situation where the emperor personally sat in judgment.
On the one hand, it is because the emperor has many things to do and does not have the time and energy to try such criminal cases.
On the other hand, and the most important reason is that after all, the emperor cannot be an almighty person.
Many criminal cases are complicated and require a lot of skills during the interrogation process. The emperor may not be clear about how to collect evidence, cross-examine, and various specific procedures. Even when sentencing, various factors such as laws, precedents, and public opinion need to be taken into consideration.
It is difficult to accurately judge these matters without several years of criminal case experience.
The status of the emperor is also special. It is said that his words become the constitution and his words are golden.
If the judicial department makes a mistake in deciding a case, even if it is a court case, it can still be corrected.
But if the emperor conducts a trial, then once the trial is wrong, in order to maintain the dignity of the imperial power, the face of the Tian family will never be changed.
For various reasons, there was no precedent for imperial trials in the Ming Dynasty. After the judicial trial, the conclusions and penalty recommendations were submitted, and then the emperor made final approval.
So strictly speaking, this was an infringement of the interrogation rights of the Ministry of Justice and Dali Temple, so for a while, the emperor seemed a little undecided.
Dali Temple itself was in a mess, so the emperor turned to the Minister of Punishment and asked.
"Jin Shangshu, the Crown Prince of Zhennan asked the Imperial Court to review the case on the grounds that the suspicions of Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate have not been cleared. The Ministry of Punishment should be in charge of criminal matters. What do you think?"
Jin Lian was a little embarrassed.
Logically speaking, this cannot be agreed to, there is no precedent, and no one can say for sure what the emperor can do.
After thinking for a moment, Jin Lian spoke cautiously.
"Your Majesty, I think this case is complicated and may not be concluded in a short period of time. Your Majesty has many things to do every day and is involved in the country. This case should be properly heard by the judicial department."
"If the Prince of Zhennan is afraid that the Justice Department will be unfair, he can hand over the case to Tingju, and his Majesty will personally supervise the trial."
To be fair, Jin Shangshu was really helpless.
According to Zhu Yinzhen, both the Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are suspected of being partial, so if this case is handed over to the Justice Department for trial, the Criminal Department will have to take it over.
Moreover, a case of this level could only be tried personally by him, the Minister of Justice.
So if you want to court Ju, it means that he has to do the trial himself.
But to be honest, Jin Shangshu himself did not want to wade into this muddy water.
He has been in court for many years, so he can naturally see the huge interests involved behind this case.
No matter what the final result of the trial is, it will cause an uproar in the court.
But asking him to support the imperial trial would be tantamount to setting a precedent for the emperor to interfere in the trial of specific criminal cases, and he was also unwilling to do so.
There are two evils, and Jin Shangshu can only choose the lesser.
In fact, this was also the thought of the officials present. However, after the emperor heard this, he did not express anything and instead focused his attention on Zhu Yinqi.
Obviously, he was questioning what he meant.
Zhu Yinxi seemed to hesitate for a moment, sighed deeply, and said.
"Your Majesty, I think this is not possible!"
"The people involved in this case are all members of the clan. In the final analysis, it is a royal family matter. As the clan leader, there is nothing wrong with His Majesty being the head of the clan."
"What's more, this matter is both a court matter and a family matter. In addition to considering the wishes of the ministers, Your Majesty should also take into account the wishes of the clan."
Zhu Yinqi paused, took out a memorial from his sleeve, raised it high above his head, and said.
"I respectfully request your Majesty to review the case. It was not requested by me alone, but recommended by all the princes of the clan. This is a joint memorial handed to me by my uncles before I entered the palace. I also request your Majesty to personally review this case. Please
His Majesty’s Royal View.”
There was an explosion in the court hall. The ministers all looked at the seemingly ordinary memorial in Zhu Yincheng's hand, and a burst of discussion broke out.
No one thought that this seemingly young Prince of Zhennan actually had such a big move in his hands.
In fact, whether the emperor personally judges or not, except for the three law divisions that are related to himself, the other bosses are indispensable.
After all, even if this precedent was set, the emperor had to deal with everything on a day-to-day basis and could not really intervene in ordinary criminal cases every day.
But when this memorial was handed over, its meaning was completely different!
This means that the entire clan is putting pressure on the court, and even the emperor cannot completely ignore the clan's attitude.
Among them, the face of Ningyang Marquis Chen Mao was particularly ugly.
He knew the inside story better than anyone else, so when he saw this memorial, he thought of more.
The case of King Zhennan is already a definite fact. As the crown prince of King Zhennan, Zhu Yinqi is unwilling to accept the case and demands a retrial. This is understandable.
But this memorial made Chen Mao feel deeply uneasy.
You must know that meddling in court affairs without authorization is a taboo in the clan.
Although this case is said to be a clan matter, it is still a matter that is handled by the imperial court. It is somewhat taboo for the clan members to intervene hastily.
If they jointly submitted the petition so blatantly, if they didn't lose their heads together, it means that they are confident that they can truly overturn this case with irrefutable evidence.
For a moment, Chen Mao was a little shaken. Are all the inside stories told by King Guangtong and others the truth?
King Zhennan has always insisted on denying the poem that slandered Renmiao in the hall. Is this really a useless effort on his deathbed?
The courtiers had their own thoughts, but the chamberlain had already handed the joint memorial in Zhu Yincheng's hand to the emperor's imperial case.
Zhu Qiyu opened it and browsed it quickly. He looked a little embarrassed and muttered to the bottom.
"This memorial was written by the uncle of the King of Zhou and signed by many princes of the clan. They not only asked me to personally review the case, but also requested to go to the palace to hear the trial in person."
The discussion among the officials below became even louder, and everyone looked at each other, a little at a loss.
This is really strange. After so many years, this is the first time I have seen the clan members being so tough.
For a moment, the courtiers couldn't help but have doubts in their hearts.
Is it possible that the case of King Zhennan was really an unjust case?
At this time, Chen Mao felt more uneasy in his heart. At that moment, he didn't even care about his own suspicion and spoke out.
"Your Majesty, even if this case is retried, it will take a lot of energy and time. However, the kings of the clan cannot leave their fiefs for a long time. Your Majesty, you have many things to do and concentrate on this matter, which may delay the government affairs. Therefore, it is more appropriate to hand it over to the judicial department for trial.
What Jin Shangshu said is true, if the prince of Zhennan suspects that there is someone in the court who is partial, he can order Tingju to do it."
At this point in time, Chen Mao spoke out against this matter, and the courtiers looked at him with unconscious expressions of confusion.
For these reasons, Zhu Yinxi was already prepared and said directly.
"Your Majesty, I have been running around for many days and have found evidence to prove that my father has been wronged. There is no need to waste too much time. All I need is your Majesty's permission to summon all the people involved in the case to the palace. The truth will be self-evident."
Before Zhu Qiyu opened his mouth to speak, two more Han generals suddenly entered the palace from outside, fell to the ground and said:
"Your Majesty, more than ten princes including the King of Zhou, King Xiang, King Jin, and King Qin have come to see you outside the palace. They claim that King Zhennan has been wronged and would like to ask your Majesty to personally review the case."
Yes, this is a big decision.
So many princes have come to block the palace gate, who dares to stop them again?
After all, in the final analysis, this case is indeed a family matter of the emperor.
On the civil servants' side, several Qiqing exchanged glances with each other, and finally Jin Lian, the Minister of Punishment, stepped forward.
"Your Majesty, since the feud among the princes and clans is fierce, I think this case must be decided by His Majesty. Since the Crown Prince has spoken out and there is new evidence, we might as well try it in court and restore King Zhennan's innocence."
So, the matter was finally agreed upon.
Zhu Qiyu nodded, stood up from the throne and said.
"In this case, I will personally review the case today."
"A decree was sent to summon all the princes to the Fengtian Palace to await their arrival. The Jinyi Guards immediately went to the clan's residence and brought all the persons involved in the case, witnesses and evidence into the palace."
"Everyone, please follow me and move to Fengtian Palace!"