A fire in the main courtyard of the Great Sect shocked the hearts of the people in the capital. Everyone could guess that tomorrow's ceremony would be unusual, but who could have known that the night before the ceremony would already be so uneventful.
There was no way that the fire in the Zongzhengyuan would start for no reason. In addition to the Jin Yiwei clearly seeing thieves in the fire scene, the Official Experience Department in the Zongzhengyuan also provided important information.
"Last night there seemed to be important matters to discuss in the courtyard. Lord Zong Ling, Zong Zheng on the left and Zong Zong on the left and right were all in the courtyard. Thieves came to the door and wanted to kill people. They probably wanted to create chaos for the convenience of escape, so there was that "Turn on the fire," said the Experience Division.
There was a fire last night. It can be said that the main courtyard of the Dazong was severely damaged. The damaged files and records were of course the most precious, but what was even more fatal was that all the five adults mentioned by the secretary were killed!
This is going to be a big change. The main courtyard of the Dazong is in charge of the naming, succession, birth and death, marriage, and posthumous burial of the royal family's descendants, which is very important to the court.
And more importantly, the Zongzhengzong and other positions in the main courtyard are all filled by the children of the royal family. This fire not only hit the face of the Jinyi Guards of Jingzhao Mansion, but also hit the face of the royal family.
Someone threw kerosene into the fire scene. The fire was not completely extinguished until sunrise. Now almost half of the main courtyard of the main hall has been burned to the ground.
On top of the ruins, the guards of Jingzhao Mansion were struggling to move the corpses out one after another. Due to the fire, all the corpses were charred, making it almost impossible to identify them with the human eye.
Therefore, the officers at the scene could only count the number of corpses first. Unfortunately, based on the charred corpses moved from the main courtyard, none of the following five elders from the Zongzong Order were spared.
Burning down the main courtyard of the Grand Sect was considered a bold move. Logically, the matter should be reported to the cabinet today, and then the ministers of civil and military affairs would go to the palace together and invite the old emperor out to discuss the matter.
But unfortunately, today, let alone the officials and ministers, even the cabinet minister was blocked outside the palace gate today. After asking questions, Xiao Huangmen, with a bitter look on his face, only said: " Your Majesty has ordered that today’s ceremony is very important, and no one can enter or leave until it is over.”
The princes had already been summoned into the palace at Yinshi. Even the fire could not stop His Majesty the Emperor's determination to hold the ceremony today. The ministers who were blocked from the door at this moment were in trouble.
"This father-in-law."
Mr. Wei Ge stood up and said: "Please go in and report that the main courtyard of the Dazong was burned down, which shocked the whole court. I also know that the end of the year ceremony is related to the fortune of the coming year and should not be taken lightly. However, this matter involves the prestige of the court and cannot be tolerated easily." treat."
This little Huangmen was being stared at by a group of old ministers, and even the backbone of the cabinet like Mr. Wei Ge was putting pressure on him. His face suddenly turned pale. He was just a little eunuch in the Clerk of Ceremony, how could he stand up to this? of battles.
Just when his face was full of embarrassment, suddenly a cold snort came from the tower. It was Xia Zhang, the admiral of Dongchang, who had arrived.
"My lords, please come back. Your Majesty has a decree. You don't need to worry about today's sacrifice." Xia Zhang's tone was full of sarcasm, and he heard the ministers below glaring at him angrily.
But when Xia Zhang's eyes fell outside the crowd, he became obviously restrained.
Next to the red-faced ministers who blocked the palace gate, there was another group of people who were clearly different and behaved completely opposite. The commander of the Jinyiwei, Lu Hanjiang, and his colleague Qiu Qingyun, plus the minister Wu Qiming and the governor Xu Le.
Almost the entire senior staff of Jinyiwei are here. On the left side of the palace gate, on a six-square chair made of golden nanmu, Mr. Lu is sipping tea leisurely and leisurely. Several senior members of Jinyiwei are also present beside him.
Ordinarily, the entrance to the palace should not be so ostentatious, but this is not because Mr. Lu is showing off on his own, but because the group of internal officials responsible for stopping people at the entrance of the palace have prepared these things for him long ago.
These things originally existed to give the elderly ministers good looks, but ministers generally declined them to show their respect for the court and the emperor.
It's just that Lu Hanjiang didn't play this trick. He chose to accept it calmly, drinking morning tea while listening to the officials and ministers spitting loudly here.
From time to time, some people would cast their eyes on him, but they would quickly move away. After all, Jin Yiwei's reputation was already like thunder, and not everyone had the courage.
While there was a lot of noise outside the palace gate, it was unusually quiet inside the Zixiao Palace. In the palace filled with fairy spirit, the old emperor was sitting on a soft roof like a colorful cloud. Behind him were six princes and an emperor. Sun Du knelt quietly on the futon.
The year-end ceremony was just a formality. In previous years, it was presided over by the main courtyard, and at most two princes were sent to participate. The emperor paid little or no attention to it.
But this time it was very different. The emperor not only personally intervened, but also personally presided over it. Even though such a big thing happened last night, the emperor was still stubborn.
At this time, even the fourth prince and the seventh prince, who were least able to deal with each other, did not dare to act recklessly. They all noticed the unusual solemnity in the air.
An hour has passed since they were summoned to the palace and sat here. The emperor said nothing or expressed any attitude. A group of people just sat there.
The fourth prince could not sit still. He wanted to ask the emperor directly several times, but Cao Yuan on the side stopped him with his eyes.
In fact, there are many people who are more anxious than the fourth prince. For example, the second prince, who was originally the eldest son, but now that something like this happened in the East Palace, his status will obviously be affected.
Not to mention, he is still a straight-tempered person who can't tolerate sand in his eyes. He has ten thousand things to say about the prince's eldest brother's fake death to deceive the king and the private soldiers raised by the East Palace, but he can't say a word.
It was not because he was also stunned by Cao Yuan's eyes, but at this moment, there was a sacrificial envoy wearing mysterious clothes and a mask of ghosts and gods standing behind him. He had the audacity to target the second prince's acupuncture points, making him unable to move. .
This was undoubtedly a sinful move, but the emperor said nothing about it, apparently acquiescing to the matter, which made everyone even more frightened.
Especially in this empty hall, apart from the emperor himself and the eunuch Cao Yuan, there happened to be only seven sacrificial envoys, standing behind each of the princes and grandsons.
The seven sacrificial envoys wore masks of ghosts and gods without anger and authority. They held ritual vessels in their hands and chanted ancient poems. Several princes suddenly realized that these seven people were as terrifying as the executioners who were responsible for the execution.
Among the seven princes and grandsons, only one could remain calm and composed, and that was His Highness Tai Sunyu.
And he was able to stand out from the crowd and not be affected by these weirdos, not because he was much better than others, but because at this moment, his face was pale and he was sweating profusely, as if he was seriously ill. There is no energy left to care about anything else.
