Early the next morning, everyone from nobles to ordinary people found themselves unable to get out.
The entire capital and city are under martial law.
Every city, street, and lane is guarded by heavily armed soldiers.
This kind of scene appeared for the first time in Jingtai Dynasty.
Even when Ye Xian led the Wala army to besiege the city, the capital had never been under such thorough martial law.
On-the-job civil and military officials also have to pass layers of inspections before they can reach their respective yamen.
Even the cabinet bachelors and the six ministers were confused about this.
The ministers who were leaning toward the emperor were even panicking: Could this be a mutiny?
The civil and military officials who were inclined to defer to the emperor were full of contradictions in their hearts: they expected Emperor Gongrang to be restored and regain control of the court, but at the same time they did not really hope that Emperor Jingtai would collapse now.
Because Emperor Jingtai was really improving the treatment of officials, especially at the salary level. Once the emperor Gong Rang returns to control the court, it will be absolutely impossible to maintain the current salary level of the officials.
If the successor ignores his predecessor's account, Emperor Jingtai's salary increase plan will inevitably come to nothing. Even the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes will definitely start printing again.
As a result, civil and military officials will once again live a "good life" with waste paper used as salary.
Therefore, when Emperor Jingtai was in power, everyone found fault with him; when Emperor Jingtai was about to "fall", everyone was obsessed with it again.
But no matter how many officials speculated, no edict was issued.
Among the cabinet, it is relatively better.
Luo Tong has clearly informed other important ministers that the Ministry of War has not mobilized any troops.
In other words, those who initiated martial law were either the Imperial Horse Guards or the Imperial Guards.
If it is the Royal Horse Supervisory Army, it must be the emperor's handiwork.
If it was the Jin Yiwei, then most likely he would have ordered the emperor to launch a mutiny.
Chen Xun was the most helpless. He had just met Emperor Gongrang yesterday afternoon and came up with a very 'radical' idea, but it ended up like this early this morning. So he had to plead with Wang Wen:
"Qianzhi, please tell me, what happened?"
Wang Wen shook his head and spread his hands: "I really don't know."
Chen Xun looked at Huang Pu again: "Chengji, tell everyone, it's now time, don't hide it."
Huang Pu also shook his head very firmly: "I really don't know, and I didn't mean to deceive."
Among the people present, Wang Wen and Huang Pu were the most trusted by the emperor, but they didn't know it?
Chen Xun wanted to ask again, but Wei Ji scolded from the side: "That's enough. The martial law in the capital must be serious. Your Majesty keeps it secret for his own reasons. As assistant ministers, we can just wait and see what happens and don't add chaos." .”
The important cabinet ministers, civil and military officials were suffering until almost noon, when the news finally came out from the inner court.
The eunuchs Ruan An and Chen Mian, the eunuchs Ruan An and Chen Mian, the eunuchs Bingbi, the chief ceremonial officer, came to the cabinet in person.
Just by seeing these two people, the important ministers knew that something big had happened in the inner court.
The emperor's close confidants Wang Cheng, Shu Liang, Zhang Yong and Wang Qin disappeared.
Jin Ying, Xing'an, Chen Xiang, and Cao Jixiang, the emperor's confidants, were also missing.
The ones who showed up were replaced by two neutral old eunuchs.
When Ruan An came to the cabinet, his first words were: Your Majesty has a purpose.
Everyone's heart skipped a beat. Which emperor does this 'Your Majesty' refer to? Now the Ming Dynasty has two majesties.
After being stunned for a moment, everyone knelt down to receive the order.
Ruan An waved his hand to indicate that everyone did not need to kneel, and then continued: "Your Majesty has a decree to order the ministers of the cabinet to go to Nangong to pay homage to the emperor."
Chen Xun hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "May I ask Mr. Ruan, what happened?"
Ruan An replied with a dejected look on his face: "There are traitors in Shangshan Prison who poisoned the second and third princes with the intention of framing and putting the blame on His Majesty.
As a result, several young eunuchs from Nangong found out, and now disaster has occurred.
The person who poisoned the house, along with all the people in Shangshan Prison, have been secretly detained.
Your Majesty and Emperor Gongrang are both furious, so it is best for you all to proceed with caution. "
As soon as this statement came out, the whole hall was in an uproar.
Even the mature and prudent Wei Ji found it unbelievable and hurriedly asked: "How are the two princes?"
Ruan An shook his head: "The traitor has lost his mind in being eager to frame the prince. What he administered to the prince was strong medicine. Moreover, the method of poisoning was so clever that the palace servants serving the prince had no way to guard against it.
However, the specific process of poisoning is a secret of the inner court, so I apologize that I cannot tell you.
In short, the two princes are in critical condition. Now all the doctors from the Royal Hospital are in Nangong and have been treating them all night. Hey! "
After Ruan An finished speaking, he sighed repeatedly.
Everyone hurried to Nangong together without Ruan An's urging.
Entering Emperor Gongrang's chamber, everyone bowed and bowed. When they looked at Emperor Gongrang again, his face was ashen and defeated, as if he had aged ten years overnight.
Although Zhu Qizhen himself was still ill and dizzy, he knew that this matter was not instigated by his younger brother.
Because even if the younger brother wants to take action, he should choose to poison slowly. It is simply not in line with common sense to rush into the ground with such forceful drugs.
Besides, even if he were to attack, he would first poison the crown prince and himself, the respectful emperor. Just poisoning the two princes to death, apart from bringing them notoriety, does it have any other meaning?
At this time, Queen Qian and Concubine Wan Chen were guarding the two princes inside.
Before the arrival of the cabinet ministers, Zhu Qizhen had already persuaded Empress Dowager Sun and Empress Zhou to go back.
In Zhu Qizhen's view, Queen Zhou had a motive and was suspicious.
The Queen Mother Sun also had motives and suspicions, and was even more suspected than Queen Zhou.
Because the emperor wanted to investigate the death of Empress Hu, the news that the murderer's three clans were annihilated only spread in the palace yesterday afternoon. That night there was an incident of poisoning the prince. It was clear that he wanted to frame the emperor and divert the attention of the government and the public.
The eunuch in charge of the Shangshan Supervisor happened to be Jin Ying, Queen Mother Sun's confidant. After the incident was completed, as long as all the palace officials who poisoned the prince were silenced, everything could be blamed on the emperor.
At that time, the government and the public were shaken, the matter was boiling, and the emperor was swayed by public opinion. Not only was he unable to pursue the case, but he had to make significant concessions to calm the public anger.
Of course, this prediction is based on the emperor's previous weakness and concessions.
Just because the emperor, the crown prince, the second prince, and the third prince were seriously ill, the emperor was coerced by public opinion and made concessions one after another. If the second and third princes died, the emperor would definitely be forced to make greater concessions under pressure.
This is the Empress Dowager Sun's understanding and judgment of the emperor.
Originally, Zhu Qizhen might not have been able to figure out the joints so quickly. It was the confidant eunuch Chen Xiang who risked his life to speak out and state the pros and cons, so that the entire context of the incident was quickly outlined.
And Chen Xiang was the previous eunuch of the Shangshan Supervisor.
Now Chen Xiang and Xing'an are jointly in charge of Nangong. Zhang Min and others who discovered and captured the people in the palace who were poisoned by Shang Shan were assigned to Chen Xiang.
Why does Zhu Qizhen look like he has aged ten years all of a sudden? Because if his brother poisoned him, Zhu Qizhen would understand. But his own mother and queen instigated the palace officials to poison the prince and use bitter botulinum to exonerate the family. This was too cruel.
Although the evidence is not conclusive and the case needs further trial, Zhu Qizhen is already sixty-seven percent convinced.
Chen Xun, Wei Ji and others did not dare to say anything when facing Emperor Gongrang who was already on the verge of collapse. They can only talk about some lucky people who have their own destiny, and the prince will be able to turn danger into safety.
Zhu Qizhen was tired of hearing this and waved his hands feebly, asking everyone to wait outside the hall.
No one dared to leave, so they stayed outside the palace for two hours. Just when everyone was hungry and panicking, Ruan An came again to convey the order, ordering the chief officer of the Three Law Departments to go to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to review the case.
After Wang Wen received the decree, he left in a hurry. The remaining people looked at each other and realized that the people involved were not taken to the Jinyiwei Prison, but were sent to the Metropolitan Procuratorate Prison after a short period of detention.
This is very strange. Under normal circumstances, major and important cases are first sent to prison, reviewed by the Jinyi Guards, and then transferred to the Ministry of Punishments.
Or you can send it directly to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for interrogation.
Although the Metropolitan Procuratorate also has a prison, it is extremely rare for someone to be directly sent to the Metropolitan Procuratorate for interrogation.
But it was said that Zhu Qiyu did not come to Fengge to take care of things until the afternoon.
Zhu Qiyu leaned on the soft couch upstairs while people in the Zhongshushe were nervously summarizing the intelligence from all sides downstairs.
As for those responsible for passing information upstairs and downstairs, there are only two people: He Yi and Lian Gang.
There are only two people who have been drinking tea with Zhu Qiyu: Xu Zheng and Huang Jian.
In Zhu Qiyu's view, at the critical moment, historical experience is still reliable: Xu Zheng and Huang Jian in history were the two unlucky guys who succeeded in seizing the throne in Zhu Qi Town and were executed by Ling Chi after the restoration of power. Compared with Yu Qian and Wang Wen's fate was much worse.
Therefore, these two people cannot be traitors who are interested in Zhu Qizhen.
(End of chapter)
