The entire hall fell silent.
"...We are terrified and furious, yet entirely powerless. He commands tens of thousands of private troops, and in Yizhou, Suizhou, and throughout the entire Jiannan Road, his word is law. We dare not even lodge a complaint, let alone show the slightest discontent."
Xiang Chao said, "Those who were killed were thrown into the river and were washed away by the floodwaters. No one knows where they ended up. The breach of Qianwei Weir took thousands of lives. Later, due to lack of food, thousands more died of hunger and disease. There were even cases of exchanging children for food. Who would care about a village changing hands mysteriously?"
"After the floods, countless fertile lands turned into wasteland. The disaster-stricken refugees had not even had the chance to return ho before their hos were taken and their lands reassigned to new owners. Upon return, they found they had lost everything and were forced to continue wandering," Xiang Chao said, "Above them sits the Prince of Yizhou; whether the local authorities are willing or not, all are powerless. My cousin said that seeking revenge through the imperial court is impossible."
His eyes were bloodshot, filled with hatred as he looked towards the Prince of Yizhou. He shifted in his direction, his bloodthirsty hatred nearly bursting forth, "That’s why we started gathering so of the disaster victims, for the day when we could personally execute the Prince of Yizhou. Sadly, we failed in both our assassination attempts, and my cousin was captured."
Suddenly, Xiang Chao turned his head towards the Emperor, speaking excitedly, "Your Majesty, I am telling the truth. If you don’t believe , go search the Prince of Yizhou’s mansion in the capital. My cousin must still be imprisoned in their dungeon."
A flash of understanding crossed Wei Zhi’s mind, and he imdiately stepped forward to kneel, "Your Majesty, I am willing to undertake this task."
The Emperor, who had been hesitating, paused, then after a glance at Wei Zhi, said, "Then, Courtier Wei, you shall undertake this task."
The Prince of Yizhou’s brows trembled greatly. He bowed his head to the ground, "Your Majesty, I am wronged. This is all but their malicious conjecture with no concrete evidence. Are you going to determine my brother’s guilt based solely on the testimony of three people?"
He looked up and said, "Indeed, I have encountered assassination attempts: once during last year’s Dragon Boat Festival and once when I entered the capital this year. I barely escaped with my life, and my brother also wonders who we have offended so deeply to warrant such a swift execution."
The Emperor began to waver.
Wei Zhi, knowing the Emperor’s concern for saving face and fearing his change of heart, imdiately chid in, "If the Prince has a clear conscience, then what is there to fear, even if there is such a person pressed in the dungeons? Once the imperial court clarifies the truth, you will be vindicated. If you attempt to obstruct and resist, it looks as though you have a guilty conscience."
The Prince of Yizhou slightly turned his head and snorted coldly, "Innocence? I fear that once they investigate, I will no longer have any innocence left to speak of."
The Emperor’s face darkened as he asked, "What, is my fifth brother implying sothing about ?"
The Prince of Yizhou replied sternly, "I dare not, Your Majesty, but today is our mother’s jubilee. Can we not discuss these matters after today?"
He looked up at the Emperor, tears in his eyes, "It’s been so many years since Mother had the occasion to celebrate her birthday so grandly."
The Emperor fell silent.
Wei Zhi spoke gravely, "Your Majesty, the affairs of the state are of utmost importance!"
Lord Tang also stepped out and knelt, "Your Majesty, if the Prince of Yizhou indeed harbors tens of thousands of private troops in Suizhou, once they rebel, Suizhou, Yizhou, Zizhou, Mianzhou, and Longzhou will all fall at the first instance. The people of Jiannan Road have just begun to recover from the flooding and cannot withstand another upheaval."
The Crown Prince, who had been silent all this while, also stood and knelt beside the Prince of Yizhou, saying, "My son seconds this opinion. If Father Emperor is worried about Grandmother Empress Dowager, let your son handle this matter, while Father Emperor goes to comfort Grandmother."
The ministers thought to themselves: The Crown Prince’s words do sound pleasant, but if the Emperor were to go, wouldn’t the Empress Dowager be even angrier? However, it was indeed a good thod to divert her anger.
The Emperor glanced at him but did not agree to his proposal. Nonetheless, he gestured to Wei Zhi and sighed, "Courtier Wei, go ahead and take the Imperial Guard with you."
Wei Zhi breathed a sigh of relief, acknowledged with a word, and then stood up to leave.
This kind of major investigation wouldn’t be completed in a short amount of ti. With so many people in the hall, it wasn’t possible to keep everyone waiting. Hence, the Emperor sighed once again and ordered soone to take the Prince of Yizhou away, to be temporarily detained within the palace.
As for Bai Shan and the others, they were to be temporarily housed in the sky prison until it was confird that the accusations were not false, after which they could naturally be released.
Bai Shan looked up at the Emperor, then struggled to his feet, steadying Manbao who was also sowhat unsteady.
The two exchanged a glance, both feeling as though they had narrowly escaped disaster.
But whether they could truly survive the ordeal would only be known after they were released from the sky prison.
The sky prison was under the Ministry of Justice, and Minister Feng personally took them there.
Looking at the pair of youths and then at the young man who was lying on a wooden plank, barely breathing, Minister Feng sighed deeply. He had felt sothing was amiss when Zhou Man beca famous overnight in the capital city, but he couldn’t figure out who was behind it.
Now it seed that there was an organization involved. However, Minister Feng frowned and asked Zhou Man, "If you could infiltrate the capital without a trace, why didn’t you co to the capital to file a complaint earlier? Why not also build a reputation for Bai Shan as a genius? That would have been safer, wouldn’t it? Surely better than passing the complaint through Zhou Man’s hands to enter the palace, especially when you chose such an inopportune mont."
Bai Shan and Zhou Man looked up at him together, silently scoffing in their hearts, "What infiltration? We’ve been to the capital city for the first ti, and Grandma Liu, despite her many years of effort, only owns a residence and a shop there."
The sudden fa in the capital was clearly orchestrated by your Emperor.
But at this mont, it was obvious that Minister Feng had not yet realized this, and he was still pondering how many helpers Bai Shan and Zhou Man had in the capital.
The Emperor was also contemplating this issue, not alone, but with Lord Tang by his side. He placed the two pieces of evidence submitted by the loyal retainer on the desk, flipped through them, and asked, "What do you think? How many more cards do they still have up their sleeve?"
Lord Tang bent over and said, "This servant does not know."
The Emperor snorted, "You don’t know, but does Zhihe know?"
Lord Tang remained deeply bent over, silent.
"Dongxi Village..." The Emperor shook his head, "I thought only a few of us knew about this place, but it turns out they not only knew about it but also found its forr owner. If there wasn’t soone to facilitate the connection, how could they have possibly gotten in touch?"
Lord Tang remained silent.
"People are right under our noses, busy with their daily routines—those who needed dical attention saw the doctors, those who needed to study read their books. It seed they were preoccupied, but they were actually carrying out so many things secretly, weren’t they?" The Emperor raised his eyes to Lord Tang, "On one hand, there’s Old Madam Liu, who has been lying low for twelve years and handles matters cautiously; on the other, there’s the Xiang Family, who has been living as fugitives and is full of wariness. Without a trustworthy go-between, how could they have allied so quickly? Moreover, they struck the drum for an audience at the palace as soon as an incident occurred inside."
What could Lord Tang do? He could only kneel down and continue, "This servant does not know."
He really didn’t know!
The Emperor snorted coldly and gestured dismissively, "Enough, I’m not blaming you. Now, let’s see how far Yin Li has gotten."
Lord Tang slowly let out a breath and inwardly cursed, "Little Bunny."
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