Ziye led his men and followed the city defenders to guard the city gate all night. No one left the city except King Ruian.
I got up early and opened the city gate on time. At midnight I sent someone to ask Zhou Gu for instructions.
After Zhou Gu heard the report, he learned that Su Rong and Ye Guixue had not returned home all night, so he sent a message to him to let him come back, but arranged for someone to watch at the city gate to see who was leaving or entering the city today.
After receiving the message at midnight, he arranged for a few people to return to the Duke Protector's Mansion.
Before the emperor went to court early in the morning, he was woken up by someone. When he woke up, he saw that the person serving him was not Yu An. Remembering that Yu An was still being imprisoned and waiting to be dealt with, he rubbed his brows and asked, "Did anything happen last night?"
The eunuch who was temporarily promoted to serve the emperor was called Dewang. He quickly said: "Your Majesty, nothing happened last night."
The emperor nodded and waited for the morning court.
The second prince, Yan Lin, was not held accountable by the emperor, and he still showed up at the morning court today. In fact, he wanted to complain that he was ill and not go to court. He did not want the emperor to see him at this time, think of him, and be implicated, so he also sent him to the imperial guard. In the house.
But his staff advised him that at this time, he should not be weak and should stand upright in the morning, lest something happen to him and he could not defend himself in front of the court.
Yan Lin thought about it and could only bite the bullet and go to the morning court.
He originally thought that except for Prince Yan Huisheng, he would be the only one who would attend court today. After all, among the four princes who were eligible to attend court, the eldest prince was trapped in the palace, and the fourth prince was about to be convicted because of Li's concubine involvement. Now, although there is no imperial decree to deal with him, he no longer dares to go to court. But unexpectedly, he saw the fourth prince Yan Shen in the morning.
Moreover, there was no trace of panic on Yan Shen's face.
Yan Lin was extremely surprised.
The emperor came to the morning court on time. He glanced at the courtiers standing below and found that less than half of them were sick. Obviously they are all from the eldest prince's faction and some timid people, who are afraid that they will be implicated.
The emperor snorted coldly in his heart and glanced over Yan Lin. Yan Lin felt his heart tightening and his scalp numb. However, the emperor quickly looked away and his eyes fell on Yan Shen, thinking of Li Bin and yesterday. After hearing what happened in the palace, his face suddenly darkened.
Yan Shen clenched his hands hard in his sleeves, as if to encourage himself. Staring at the emperor's heavy gaze on him, he walked out of the queue with difficulty, knelt on the ground, and said word by word: "Father, Emperor, Concubine Li is unjustly accused. I request that we continue to conduct a thorough investigation to rectify the case for Concubine Li. I am also willing to die to prove Concubine Li’s innocence."
As soon as he said this, the hall was in an uproar.
The emperor was also surprised. He didn't expect that Yan Shen would make this matter clear in the court, and he would say it in such a ruthless manner, that he would actually say that he had died to prove the innocence of Concubine Li? The emperor's gloomy face looked at Yan Shen in confusion for a moment.
Yan Shen lowered his head and continued: "Father, please make the decision. The case of Empress Li is full of doubts. Last night King Ruian left the capital to go to the Great Buddha Temple to investigate the case, and it was also related to the case of Empress Li. Therefore, my lord. Father, please hold off on making a conclusion on this case for the time being, and wait until King Ruian gets to know the truth further before making a conclusion."
The emperor heard this and looked at the courtiers, "Did King Ruian go out to investigate the case again last night?"
The courtiers replied in twos and threes: "Your Majesty, that's right."
The emperor looked at Prince Yan and replied, "Didn't we check it out yesterday in the palace? Why did King Ruian leave the capital at night again?"
Yan Huisheng handed over his hand, "Back to my father, King Ruian has found some doubts. There are still doubts about the case of Empress Li."
The emperor nodded when he heard this and said to Yan Shen: "Get up! I'm sure."
Yan Shen stood up and returned to the queue.
Yan Lin was shocked. He looked at Yan Shen, then at the emperor, then at Prince Yan Hui Hui, and seemed to understand something. He was angry, why did Yan Huisheng help Yan Shen? Recently, King Ruian has been getting closer to the East Palace and the Protector's Palace. King Ruian went to the Great Buddha Temple to investigate the case and designated it as the East Palace.
Do you think he is not involved deeply enough and want to drag him into the water?
Yan Lin immediately forgot that he should be huddled up, and stepped out of the queue and held his hands, "Father, do you know that last night, the people in the Duke Protector's Mansion held the token of Princess Sheng'an and guarded the capital together with the city gatekeepers? "Do you want to tell me that except for His Majesty's decree, no one is allowed to leave the capital late at night?"
Naturally, the emperor didn't know about this, so he said "Oh?" when he heard this, "Why?"
Yan Lin shook his head, "I don't know why, I have to ask the people in the Protector's Palace?"
Today is not the Great Court Meeting, and no one is standing in the court hall at the Lord Protector's Mansion. Three of the old Lord Protector's grandsons are in the army, and a younger grandson has not yet entered the court and is recovering from his injuries. There was a meeting in court, so when the emperor wanted to ask anyone from the Duke Protector's Palace, he couldn't find anyone.
He could only look at Prince Yan Huiyi.
Yan Huihui cupped his hands and said, "Back to my father, last night Miss Su Qi and Young Master Ye left the capital to go to the Great Buddhist Temple. Aunt Sheng'an was not worried about their safety, and did not want to disturb my father late at night and not have a good sleep, so she informed me, The master sent someone to guard the city gate together with the city guards to prevent anyone from the capital from following the two of them out, which would be detrimental to them."
When the emperor heard that Su Rong and Ye Guixue were concerned about their safety, his expression immediately softened, "What are they doing out of the city to the Great Buddha Temple late at night?"
Yan Hui replied, "During the day, Miss Su Qi saved her great-aunt and mother, but at night she discovered something suspicious, so she went to the Great Buddha Temple."
The emperor nodded.
Yan Lin said: "If that's the case, why did King Ruian go out of the city later?"
Yan Huisheng glanced at Yan Lin, "Prince Ruian was investigating the case and was going to leave the city. It's just that Miss Su Qi and Young Master Ye took one step first."
Yan Lin was speechless and speechless.
The emperor waved his hand, "Okay, Concubine Li's case is very relevant and involves several major cases. Princess Sheng'an should be cautious."
Yan Lin was speechless, thinking that his father had really changed. If in the past, he had heard that Princess Sheng'an had actually used the token, he would have sent people to guard the city gate in the middle of the night with the soldiers guarding the city gate, and the designated guards were suspicious. What purpose did the Duke's Mansion have to threaten the imperial power? It's better now. With just a few words of explanation from the prince, the matter was easily dismissed.
Although Yan Lin was dissatisfied, he had no reason and could only retreat.
The emperor waved his hand and said, "Go on! I have a script coming."
The emperor was actually a little dissatisfied in his heart. He thought that the Protector's Office and Aunt Sheng'an began to ignore him as the emperor again. However, he was indeed in the wrong for leaking all the money from the treasury, so he didn't care about it for the time being. .
Su Xingze returned late from the Protector's Mansion yesterday, and it was a coincidence that when he returned home, Su Rong had already gone to the East Palace. When he woke up in the morning, he realized that he had not returned home all night. After asking Mrs. Shen, he learned that She somehow found Ye Guixue and left the city last night. Su Xingze didn't know what was going on. He thought that this was not good in Jingzhong. What his sister did was not like in the small place of Jiangning County. If he didn't keep an eye on her all the time, it would be difficult for him to know her at the first time. do what.
Su Xingze went to the Duke Protector's Mansion to look for Zhou Gu as usual.
Seeing him coming, Zhou Gu put down his book and asked Su Xingze, "Brother Su, do you know what she went out to the city with Ye Guixue last night?"
Su Xingze was surprised, "You don't know either?"
Zhou Gu looked at his expression and shook his head, "I don't know."
Su Xingze also shook his head at him, "I don't know either. When I went back last night, she was not in the house and I didn't see her. But I heard from Aunt Shen that she should have made a temporary decision to leave the East Palace, otherwise when I left yesterday , I will inform Aunt Shen."
Zhou Gu was silent, "You shouldn't have gone to Nanchu, right?"
Su Xingze immediately shook his head, "No, she said that she would not leave Daliang until she helped the prince break the situation, did not see that the prince's position was stable, did not wait for me to release the results, and did not see the sisters get married."
Zhou Gu nodded, breathed a sigh of relief, and muttered: "She has quite a lot to do."
Su Xingze speculated: "My sister must have discovered some clues, so she hurriedly left Beijing last night. She probably went to investigate something. She left in a hurry, so she didn't inform Aunt Shen and I."
"It should be related to several cases." Zhou Gu nodded, "My injury heals very slowly. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to stay in the house and not be able to go out."
Su Xingze patted him on the shoulder and said, "Your recovery is the most important thing."
(End of chapter)
