The emperor shook his head and said:
"Kou Zhun...you are really guilty of causing such an accident."
After saying that, he glanced at the ministers and said, "I want to remove Kou Zhun from the position of chief minister. Do you have any objections?"
Someone stood up and said:
"Officials, wait a minute. Although what Prime Minister Kou did was a little disrespectful to the officials, upon closer inspection, it did not violate the court's laws."
"There are precedents to follow for the sealing of the imperial edict. It is an old system of our ancestors. When drafting the imperial edict, we did not make a private seal or steal the imperial seal. How can we say that it is a false imperial edict?"
"I gave the order to the generals. I just asked them to take Pang Ji back for questioning. I didn't mean to intercept or kill him."
"The one your Majesty wants to punish severely is Uncle Zhongjing Cao Bin. He is the chief culprit for attacking his colleagues indiscriminately."
As he spoke, he asked for the imperial edict drafted by Zhengshitang from Zheng Heihu and said with a smile:
"Just writing a note on brocade without using a seal is still considered a false edict? What kind of stupid person would believe such an edict?"
As soon as these words came out, the emperor was stunned for a moment, but the eyes of several generals and aristocratic families looked angry. Is this a human thing?
Are you going to call us stupid after we finish it?
However, Kou Zhun's order was indeed to bring Pang Ji back for confrontation, and the order to intercept and kill was only to tell Zheng Heihu to act accordingly.
When Cao Bin heard this, he pretended to suddenly realize:
"It turns out that Prime Minister Kou can mobilize the generals in the court at will without false edicts. He also mobilized more than 3,000 soldiers and horses from several families just to invite Grand Master Pang back."
After hearing this, everyone's expressions changed. From the Five Dynasties onwards, the most taboo person in the Song Dynasty was military leaders.
Mrs. She couldn't hold herself steady either. They didn't dare to take this charge, so she hurriedly said:
"Cao Bin is not talking nonsense. We are also kept in the dark, and we have no intention of intercepting Master Pang."
The person who defended Kou Zhun before said angrily:
"Cao Bin, you made something out of nothing, and your heart is worth killing."
"Kou Xiang knew that there was someone to take care of Pangji, so he sent more people in order to get rid of all the people."
"What evidence do you have that the Kou Prime Minister wants to intercept and kill Pang Ji? None of the generals received this order."
Cao Bin laughed:
"The Prime Minister clearly stated in my house that he would send people to intercept and kill Grand Master Pang, and he also said in public that Zhongshu Province had issued an imperial edict. Could this be just fabricated?"
"The chief minister of the imperial court, a noble man, a man of great dignity, and a man whose word is the foundation of the constitution. How can it be said that he speaks falsely?"
"There is no need to steal the seal. As long as he says there is an imperial edict, he is falsely passing on the imperial edict!"
As he spoke, Cao Bin seemed to have remembered something and asked:
"As you said, it was some treacherous ministers who first deceived Cao with the first imperial edict, and then deceived the generals with the second imperial edict."
"I wonder if Mr. Cao has ever made a mistake? When I led my personal guards to rescue Master Pang, wasn't I safeguarding the majesty of the imperial edict?"
After speaking, he said aggrievedly:
"In the official family, although Cao Bin asked himself that he was not guilty, he was also deceived by the traitor, so he was willing to accept the punishment."
Seeing Cao Bin slap him down and calling himself a treacherous minister, Kou Zhun's nose almost became angry, so he couldn't help but go into battle himself and said:
"Cao Bin, the Liao spies have revealed the relationship between Zengtou City and Pang Ji."
"Tell me, do they want you to defect to the Liao Kingdom? What is your intention in defending Pang Ji like this?"
"Don't think that by razing Zeng Tau City, you can erase the evidence of Pang Ji's crime."
After hearing this, Cao Bin understood why the emperor had guessed part of the truth with just one word.
Cao Bin glanced at Kou Zhun and said:
"Cao Yi destroyed Zengtou City because the Zeng family was rebellious."
"Their incriminating evidence, Cao, has also been brought into the capital, but no incriminating evidence against Master Pang was found in it."
"Based on the words of a Liao man, Prime Minister Kou concluded that he was collaborating with the enemy, and deceived the officials and the Manchu ministers several times. Don't you think it is too overbearing?"
"If this was a plan to alienate the enemy, wouldn't the Prime Minister be unjustly killing a loyal minister?"
He had already turned Zengtou City upside down. As long as everything related to Taishi Pang was destroyed, he didn't believe that Kou would be able to find anything.
If Kou Zhun wanted to say anything else, the emperor got really angry and said angrily:
"Shut up, you all are pushing it away. Could it be that I am falsely passing on the imperial edict and collaborating with the enemy to make a profit?"
Just as he was about to speak, Kou Zhun was startled and said: "The officials should calm down, I just want to get rid of the traitors..."
The emperor waved his hand and said: "You don't have to worry about this matter. The governor of Xiangzhou is vacant. You can go to Xiangzhou."
Kou Zhun opened his mouth and said helplessly: "I will obey the official's order."
"Cai Jing!"
Although Cai Jing has always been steady, when he heard the emperor's call, he couldn't help but look happy and left work quickly.
Kou Zhun resigned as prime minister, and his chance finally came.
The emperor said: "You are the minister and assistant, but you watch Kou Zhun and Pang Ji make mistakes and are indifferent. You have dismissed the post of the third envoy and temporarily appointed the envoy of Duzhi."
Cai Jing was immediately confused. It had nothing to do with me. He just refused to promote me and demoted me?
The emperor ignored him and continued: "Wang Yanling, Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, will be appointed prime minister in addition to the affairs of the Zhongshu family."
Wang Yanling was originally Bao Zheng's tutor, and he was a good old man. Unexpectedly, he was hit on the head by such a good thing, so he quickly left work to thank him.
"Pan Renmei, Tongzhi Privy Council Affairs, Jiaxian Grand Master, and participate in political affairs."
"Zhi Zhi Gao Fu Bi, deputy envoy of the Third Division of Quan, participated in political affairs."
Everyone was shocked by the emperor's sudden appointment, which was equivalent to changing the entire center.
But when they saw Pan Renmei and especially Fu Bi's calm expression, they immediately understood that this had been discussed long ago.
Kou Zhun's face was a little pale, and he sighed longly, feeling cold in his heart.
Among them, Cai Jing was the most depressing. He finally understood that the emperor had been holding back the change of phase for a long time and was just waiting for this opportunity.
Then the emperor looked at the general disciples and said coldly:
"And you, all those who participated in the internal strife have resigned, and all the titles in your family have been demoted to the third level!"
"Those without titles and positions will be demoted; those without titles and positions will be relocated!"
"There is also Zheng Heihu, who knows Kou Zhun's tricks and still uses private soldiers lightly."
"In recognition of the merits of your ancestors, I stripped you of your title and position, and exiled you to Jiangzhou."
Hearing this, the Zheng family cried out in mourning, and their family was completely reduced to common people.
Gao Qian took a long time to react, third-class title? Didn't his father, a third-class earl, directly become a viscount?
He wants to know that if he returns to the capital, not only will he lose his own soldiers, but he will also demote so many nobles, he will definitely be killed!
The second daughter of the Yang family also looked bitter.
The title of nobility was already rare, but now it was good. Yang Zongbao's earl became a viscount, and even the number of personal soldiers would be reduced.
Although Cao Bin was also distressed, at least he was still an earl and did not need to reduce his soldiers.
You should thank Kou Zhun for helping him get promoted earlier, otherwise he would have to become a viscount now.
Before the ministers could react to the great changes in the court, the emperor had already ordered the "dismissal of the court."
"Uncle Cao, the officials summoned me."
As he was about to go out, a young eunuch suddenly stopped him.
