Fu Qing drank two bowls of ginseng soup in the sedan chair. He knew that there would be a tense imperial meeting soon. At this time, no matter how tired his body was, he could not relax. He had to hold on and hold on.
When the sedan was approaching the Gate of Supreme Harmony, he suddenly said, "Stop... There are courtiers outside. This sedan is not suitable for me to sit in. The Queen Mother will sit down and leave first... I will stay here for a quarter of an hour before going out!"
What Fu Qing said made sense. There were so many rumors in the capital that there was nothing we could do about it, but we couldn't let these courtiers see it with their own eyes. If they saw it with their own eyes, it would be unjustifiable.
It was also good to avoid suspicion. Er Mao protected Ci'an and headed south to the Taimiao Temple, while Fu Qing hid in the shadow of the square in front of the Taihe Hall and carefully analyzed the situation in front of him. A quarter of an hour passed quickly.
"Third Master, let's go... Stop blowing the cold wind here, your bones can't bear it..." the guard said softly.
When Fu Qing and his party passed through the Meridian Gate and arrived at the gate of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, they happened to meet Prince Dun's sedan chair, and Prince Dun Yi, who was pale-faced and dressed in pure clothing, came out.
"Ah? My lord... what are you doing? Why are you wearing a full suit of mourning? What... is this vitex?"
Dun Wang Yipei didn't say a word, but glanced at Fu Qing with swollen eyes and sighed as he walked into the gate of the Ancestral Temple, while Fu Qing hurriedly chased after him.
As soon as I entered the gate of the Ancestral Temple and looked inside, I saw that the empty space in front of the good guy's hall was full of people kneeling on their knees. The royal nobles of the capital and the military ministers, all of the second rank and above were all here!
Kneeling in the darkness, and looking carefully at the surrounding corridor, the exhausted Prince Li and Prince Zheng were lying on the felt on the ground, and several imperial doctors were using needles.
Other courtiers could hardly stand it any longer. These people had never knelt for more than five hours at a time, and many of their knees were about to break.
There was a pop and someone in the crowd fell to the ground. People exclaimed, "Old man... The old man has also fainted. Take him out quickly..."
Weng Tonghe knelt for a full six hours, even a tough man couldn't stand it!
A group of eunuchs carried Weng Tonghe over and walked to the side. Only then did people see Prince Dun in mourning clothes and Fu Qing following him.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, you are here. Please advise Your Majesty... Your Majesty, what are you doing?"
Prince Dun Yipei looked at the scene in front of him and suddenly said, "In the two hundred years of our dynasty, we have never treated our ministers so harshly! How could anyone be punished to such an extent..."
"Come here, bring stools to all the adults! What sins have they committed? I, a heinous person, haven't knelt down to death yet, so why should others kneel down!"
Yi Pei suddenly shouted as if to wake up Emperor Tongzhi in the hall, "The fault is mine, no one else's! Everyone stand up..."
Facing the three-layered white marble royal steps, Yi Pei said nothing, knelt on the ground with a pop and said loudly, "I love Xinjueluo. Yi Pei, the start of the army was unfavorable, the defeat humiliated the country, and he committed a heinous crime..."
"I'm sorry for my ancestors, for the emperor's great trust, for the trust of the ministers in the court... and even more... for the more than 10,000 soldiers who died in the battle!"
Saying this, Yi Pei felt sad from the bottom of his heart and burst into tears, "I am guilty of death... The crime is all on me. I am willing to serve my country with my life... Take action!"
Yi Pei roared, and the palace guard behind him came forward with tears in his eyes and slapped Yi Pei's back hard with the thorny thorn stick.
There was a snap, and a bloodstain suddenly appeared on the back. The thorns scratched the mourning clothes and skin, and blood seeped out!
After cracking the whip, Yi Pei took a step forward on his knees, kowtowed and confessed his guilt, then whipped him again, and just used his knees as his feet to walk forward step by step.
He didn't stop when he came to the imperial steps. He kowtowed on his head and was whipped one step up the high steps. At the end of the beating, blood was dripping on the white marble!
"Your Majesty... why are you doing this? If you want to be beaten, I will do it..." Fu Qing rushed over to grab the thorn stick, but Yi Pei seemed to have settled it long ago, and the guards from Prince Dun's palace rushed over and stopped him. To Fuqing.
The guard whispered in Third Master's ear, "Third Master, please understand the prince's painstaking efforts! It's better to do it yourself than someone else..."
From the corner of his eye, Fu Qing saw the soldiers of the Yulin New Army with guns and ammunition around Taimiao Square, and unexpectedly found that they were all faces of the First Division, and there were no soldiers from Xishan Camp or even Guaizima.
If you guessed correctly, these new troops should all be equipped with live ammunition!
"I...I'm going to see Your Majesty!" Fu Qing ran up the imperial steps, knelt in front of the closed door and said loudly, "Your Majesty! Prime Minister Fu Qing asks to see you! Please open the door, Your Majesty! Please open the door..."
At this moment, King Dun had climbed up to the third level of the royal stairs and knelt quietly in front of the main palace gate. He looked up at the plaque of the Ancestral Temple with tears in his eyes. Zong punishes the guilty minister, so don’t anger the emperor!"
Bang bang bang... King Dun kowtowed to the ground, and soon blood burst out from his forehead!
With Fu Qing and King Dun knocking on the door, other ministers kneeling outside also found an opportunity. They shouted in unison, "Your Majesty, please open the door! Please open the door and govern the country, please open the door and govern the country..."
At this time, in the main hall, Zai Chun slumped in his chair facing the ancestral tablet, with a dim light in his eyes, while Ci'an and Cixi sat on the left and right, looking at him with hatred.
There were only three people in the entire hall, and there was not a single eunuch serving anyone.
"Your Majesty! It's time for you to cheer up. Isn't it just a defeat? What are you afraid of? When the Holy Ancestor defeated the three vassals, the beginning was also unfavorable, but didn't he survive in the end?"
"If you are so useless after such a small setback, how can you become a big business in the future?"
Cixi still had the same temper, always blaming her, but Ci'an looked at Zai Chun quietly and felt a little pitiful!
"Your Majesty... I can probably guess a little bit of your thoughts. You are not actually doing it for the results. You are feeling aggrieved, right?"
"If the war fails, you have nothing to fear. The worst case scenario is that we will rush in. Our Qing Dynasty did not say that losing 10,000 or 20,000 people will lead to the country's destruction..."
"You are angry at the betrayal of these bullies, right? You don't understand why Nastu betrayed you? You don't understand why Ronglu turned to Yixin?"
"Haha... And Isiha, a man who was obviously dead is still alive and became a general in the rebel army?"
"You don't understand. You can't understand. You see all the familiar names among the rebels. You don't understand why they insist on betraying you, right?"
"You don't understand. You feel wronged. You can't get over this hurdle, right?"
This sentence suddenly hit Zai Chun's weakness, and Zai Chun covered his face with his hands and suddenly started crying helplessly, "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...It's hard for a son...It's hard for a son..."
