It should be said that Ren Li was able to defend Chen Mao and others from this perspective, which can be regarded as a lot of effort.
The imperial trial at the Fengtian Palace had basically killed King Zhennan's case, leaving absolutely no room for a comeback.
Based on this, it is a definite fact that the trial of Ningyang Hou and others was unfair. Together with the accusations of King Guangtong and Xue Xuan, they formed a complete logical chain.
All of them were linked together, directly accusing Chen Mao and others of having a secret relationship with the clan and alienating the Tian family.
Under such circumstances, it would be extremely difficult to exonerate them.
But even so, Ren Li and the others took advantage of him.
First of all, the Zongren Mansion did not have its own yamen. After Taizong, the Zongren Mansion only had honorary officials and no real yamen or real officials. The daily affairs of the clan were basically taken over by the Ministry of Rites.
If there is a clan crime that needs to be interrogated, because the clans are all in the fiefdom, most of the time the imperial court sends personnel to investigate and then report back.
But this time, King Guangtong and others took the opportunity to report in Beijing, which was a special situation.
Therefore, Ren Li's first move was to describe the reality of their private friendship as part of an accusation.
After all, even among the people, there are still people who stop sedan chairs and complain about injustice.
Although Chen Mao was in charge of the affairs of the clan, he was still in charge, and he could do it just barely.
More importantly, Ren Li was bitten to death, and Chen Mao did not accept any bribes. The implication was that he had no motive to frame King Zhennan for personal gain, bending the law.
As for the charge of secretly making friends with the clan, he put all the blame on Huichang Bo and Prince Consort Xue Heng.
There are two of them, one is the father of the Queen Mother Sun, and the other is the son-in-law of the Queen Mother Sun.
With the Empress Dowager Shangsheng still there, it is impossible for the court to really do anything to these two people.
As for the most critical one, the charge of alienating the Tian family, Ren Li cleverly avoided it.
In fact, this is their most brilliant move.
In the case of King Zhennan, Zhu Qiyu did not come forward in person, but controlled the general direction from behind.
At that time, the reason why we were able to successfully capture the Marquis of Ningyang and others and allow the King of Zhennan to make a smooth comeback was the pressure exerted by the royal family princes on the court.
And the person who connected these princes was none other than King Min.
But King Min is very old, how can he run in vain? The reason why he is willing to work so hard, and even finally took over the errand of the clan mansion, is simply because he wants to keep the feudal status of his two sons. .
So on this matter, Zhu Qiyu and King Min actually reached an agreement.
In addition to the imperial trial, in order to reduce the guilt of Guangtong and Wang Guangtong, and also to reduce the subsequent impact of this case.
He did not characterize the actions of Guangtong and Wang Guangtong as deliberately falsely accusing his brother, but as being deceived by the Su family and not knowing the truth.
In this way, their crime was to cause a palace banquet and be deceived by others. Although the crime was the same, the starting point was good, and they barely had a reason to be pardoned.
But this point is now being used to make a fuss by Ren Li.
The most important point in Xue Xuan's accusation against Chen Mao and others is that they did not care whether the case was true or not, and only wanted to use this case to force the court and alienate the Tian family.
However, Ren Li was bitten to death now, and King Guangtong and others were deceived. Therefore, Marquis Ningyang was also deceived during the trial.
They all thought that the truth given by King Guangtong was the truth, so they made this judgment out of public conscience and denied the crime of using this case to alienate the Tian family.
In this way, Xue Xuan's testimony became an isolated piece of evidence.
Because King Guangtong and others could admit that they had made close friends in private, but they themselves could not afford the crime of alienating the Tian family.
Without the most important crime of alienating the Tian family, it would be impossible to capture the two marquises no matter what.
It has to be said that in this matter, Ren Li and the people behind him must have spent a lot of effort to find two controversial points in this complete logical chain.
After listening to Ren Li's argument, Zhu Qiyu's face remained calm and he asked.
"Then according to Ren Hou's wishes, how should we deal with it?"
Ren Li didn't hesitate and answered directly.
"Your Majesty, since both charges are not true, then Chen Hou's crime is at best dereliction of duty. Your Majesty has dismissed Chen Hou as the head of the clan, so it is enough to punish him."
"As for the Marquis of Cheng'an and the Prince Consort Jiao Jing, although they assisted King Guangtong and others in redressing their grievances, they did not participate in the trial. However, they acted impulsively and spoke uprightly in the court. I thought it was a small punishment for the sake of the court's face. Just the big commandment.”
"The one who really needs to be severely punished is Xue Xuan who falsely accused Chen Hou and really wanted to alienate the Tian family. This person has evil intentions. I think it is appropriate to be exiled thousands of miles away."
From Ren Li's perspective, what he wanted was never to save Chen Mao's life, but more importantly, to keep his title.
A Chen Mao without a title is of almost zero use to nobles.
After hearing what he said, the other ministers present frowned in unison.
Ren Li wanted to protect Marquis Ningyang and Marquis Cheng'an, which they could understand, but he wanted to put Xue Xuan to death, which was unacceptable to the civil servants.
It should be said that to this day, especially after the news of the imperial trial that day spread, the opinions of Xue Xuan from both the government and the public are generally positive.
One is because he is respected by everyone as a scholar, and the other is because although the old gentleman admitted his guilt, he was honest and upright, and ultimately promoted the mission.
Most of the courtiers admired Xue Xuan's character.
The British government is trying to rescue Chen Mao and others, but the civil servants are trying to rescue Xue Xuan in other ways.
In the past few days, Zhu Qiyu's desk has almost never stopped receiving petitions for Xue Xuan.
Ren Li put all the blame for Yiying on Xue Xuan, which immediately aroused dissatisfaction among the officials present.
Jin Lian was the first to speak.
"The words of Marquis Ren are wrong. The crimes of Ningyang Marquis, Cheng'an Marquis and others have not yet been determined. Just based on Ren Hou's words, it is concluded that Xue Xuan is framed by Ningyang Marquis. Even the Justice Department has not concluded the case in this way."
"Besides, Marquis Ren questioned that Marquis Ningyang and others had no motive to alienate the Tian family, so does Xue Xuan have the motive to frame Marquis Ningyang?"
"During the imperial trial, Xue Xuan spared no effort in admonishing His Majesty to welcome back the Supreme Emperor at the expense of his own life. It was for the sake of harmony between the Heavenly Family and the people of the country and the public. It would be too arbitrary for Ren Hou to make a conclusion based on only his own guess. Bar!"
It can be seen that Jin Shangshu is really angry this time.
In this case, the Ministry of Punishment has always maintained a very cautious attitude, but Ren Li's remarks are indeed a bit excessive.
As a result, Jin Lian, who had always disliked causing trouble, became a little rude when he spoke.
Seeing that there were signs of a quarrel between the two parties, Zhu Qiyu raised his hand and pressed it down to smooth things over.
"You two don't need to argue. Since we all have differences on this point, let's look at the areas where there are no differences first."
With that said, Zhu Qiyu set his eyes on Ren Li and asked.
"Just now, Marquis Ren said that because Marquis Ningyang did not accept bribes, it cannot be regarded as a private clan alliance. So what does Marquis Ren think about Huichang Bo and others who actually accepted gold and silver and had connections with King Guangtong? Disposal?"
