12dz Chapter 777: Imprison the Crown Prince! Release the Military Power!
Chapter 777: Imprison the Crown Prince! Release the Military Power!
"A lenient sentence?"
The emperor sneered: "The prince brought troops into the palace, and you want me to be lenient with him?"
"Now that the Fourth Brother and a group of ministers have jointly impeached me, I must give them an explanation!"
Deng Hongwen's face changed slightly and he seemed to want to say something but stopped.
The emperor frowned at her appearance, revealing an unhappy expression: "If you have something to say, just say it directly. You are the Minister of Rites, one of the six senior officials. Why are you so nagging today?"
Deng Hongwen had served in the court for some time, and the emperor had some understanding of his character.
This is a person who plans before making decisions and cares about the court.
But now that the prince has committed a serious crime, Deng Hongwen not only did not demand severe punishment for the prince, but instead pleaded for mercy for the prince, and at this moment he even looked like he didn't want to punish the prince.
The emperor was very curious about what Deng Hongwen was afraid of.
Deng Hongwen said solemnly, "Your Majesty, there are now 30,000 Sizhou soldiers in Kyoto. If the prince is severely punished, he may take risks if he is pushed to the limit.
But you are not in Kyoto City at the moment, and the affairs in the city are under the control of the Fourth Prince, but the Fourth Prince has no soldiers.
Not only is the prince being pushed into a corner, there is no guarantee that he will not take the final step."
"last step?"
The emperor narrowed his eyes and a cold look flashed across his face: "Are you trying to say he's going to rebel?"
"I dare not!" Deng Hongwen quickly bowed his head and saluted.
Only the emperor can say the word "rebellion", no one else can say it.
But the more Deng Hongwen talked like this, the more the emperor felt that he made sense.
If even Deng Hongwen felt that the prince might rebel, how could he not make a decision as soon as possible?
"So you are worried that if I punish the crown prince severely, he will take the opportunity to rebel!"
The emperor clenched his hands suddenly, a cruel look appeared on his face: "Now there are 30,000 Sizhou soldiers in Kyoto City, these soldiers are all his. If I punish him severely, he might really rebel.
No, I will never allow this to happen!
Lord Deng, how do you think I should check and balance the crown prince? "
The meaning of checks and balances is that one does not want the prince to rebel, but at the same time one wants to punish him.
As an emperor, he certainly cannot allow the prince to do whatever he wants.
Deng Hongwen pondered for a moment and said solemnly, "Your Majesty, the only one who can check and balance the Crown Prince in Kyoto City is the Fourth Prince, but the Fourth Prince lacks troops."
The emperor's eyes lit up and he reacted immediately.
Yes, as long as the fourth prince is given troops, the prince will not dare to act rashly.
"I understand!"
The emperor was very excited: "I can hand over the city defense camp and the imperial guards to the fourth brother. These two armies together have nearly 30,000 soldiers. Together with the fourth brother's own soldiers, they are enough to deal with the prince!"
The emperor thought more and more that this plan would work, so he shouted, "Come here, bring me some writing materials!"
He wants to write the imperial edict himself!
Soon, Zhao Ming brought out the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and the emperor wrote two imperial edicts in succession.
One was about the punishment of the crown prince, and the other was an imperial edict from the city defense camp and the imperial guards to the fourth prince.
"Immediately send someone to the capital. Remember, you must first send the imperial edict to the fourth brother, and then send this imperial edict to the crown prince!"
The emperor gave instructions personally.
Zhao Ming took the imperial edict and said carefully, "Your Majesty, we just received a memorial from officials from the Censorate and the Ministry of Justice impeaching the Fourth Prince."
"dont see!"
The emperor snorted coldly: "The Censorate and the Ministry of Justice are all the prince's people. He wants to take this opportunity to overthrow the fourth prince and burn all these memorials!"
At this moment, the emperor only trusted the Fourth Prince. He was very disgusted with the Crown Prince's behavior and did not even look at the memorial impeaching the Fourth Prince.
"Yes!" Zhao Ming responded and immediately went back to convey the order.
At this moment, Deng Hongwen bowed and left.
However, after Deng Hongwen went down, he did not inspect the imperial mausoleum. Instead, he wrote down what had just happened on a piece of paper, tied it to a carrier pigeon and sent it out.
Looking at the flying carrier pigeon, Deng Hongwen had a calm expression on his face, but his heart was surging with emotion.
He knew that the city of Kyoto would be filled with blood and gore.
"I hope that this time, His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu can completely resolve this matter once and for all, and ascend to the throne of the crown prince in one fell swoop!"
Compared with the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince, Deng Hongwen hopes that Chu Ning can become the Crown Prince and completely control the court.
Only in this way can the situation in the State of Chu be completely stabilized. Otherwise, the struggle for power among the princes will never end.
As long as Chu Ning ascends to the throne of the crown prince and holds military power, no one dares to move.
Success or failure depends on this!
While Deng Hongwen was deep in thought, Zhao Ming had already headed straight to Kyoto with two imperial edicts.
At the same time, the prince in the East Palace was waiting anxiously.
"It's been several days. Why haven't the assassins I sent out to intercept the fourth messenger appeared yet? Did something happen to them?"
The prince paced back and forth in the hall anxiously, a look of worry on his face.
If the assassin he sent out was caught, why was there no news at all?
Logically speaking, if the Fourth Prince captured this group of people, he would definitely take the opportunity to cause trouble.
But now the city is calm and there is no movement at all.
But the more this happened, the more anxious the prince became.
In the hall, He Peng lowered his head with a strange look on his face.
"Your Highness, don't worry. With their strength, it will be no problem for them to kill a messenger. Maybe something went wrong on the way back."
But these words of comfort made the prince's face darken, and he snorted coldly: "It has been four days. Four days, even if they crawled, they should have crawled back!"
"Humph, send someone out to look for them right now. We must find them. If they're dead, we must find their bodies. If they're alive, we must find their bodies."
"I will personally take people to look for him right away!" He Peng bowed, turned around and was about to leave.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, a shrill voice came from outside the palace: "The imperial edict has arrived, Your Highness the Crown Prince, please accept it!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the prince's face changed drastically.
"This... Father's imperial edict has arrived. Could it be that the fourth brother's messenger has already arrived?"
"Your Highness, you should first go and see what His Majesty's edict says."
Following He Peng's suggestion, the prince came to the courtyard outside the palace with a gloomy face.
Zhao Ming was seen holding the imperial edict, followed by several imperial guards.
The prince stepped forward and bowed. Zhao Ming then unfolded the imperial edict and read:
"The Emperor issued an edict: The Crown Prince secretly brought troops into the capital, and now he is secretly bringing troops into the palace. This is treason. I handed over the Sizhou camp to you, and is this how you repay me?
I have been informed of the affairs of the court this time. You used the troops in your hands to force the ministers in the court to support you in taking on the role of Chief Censor. This is truly a heinous act of treason!
From now on, the Crown Prince will be imprisoned. Without my order, he is not allowed to leave the East Palace. This is my order!"
After hearing this, the prince froze in place.
House arrest is different from confinement.
The former can meet guests at any time, but the latter can only stay in the East Palace. No one is allowed to come to the East Palace, which is equivalent to cutting off contact with the outside world.
While thinking, Zhao Ming saw that he was slow to speak, and he could not help but frown and said, "Prince, accept the order!"
The prince's face suddenly turned gloomy.
If this imperial edict is borrowed, the situation in Kyoto City will definitely be controlled by the Fourth Prince!
But not accepting the imperial edict would be a serious crime!