Chapter 627: Drawing fire from the bottom of the cauldron
Li Zhi originally said it as a joke, but when Wang De actually nodded and acknowledged it, he was immediately shocked.
"Who impeached me? What mistake did I make?"
From childhood to adulthood, Li Zhi has always been a good boy, smart, well-behaved and positive. He has been highly praised by the royal family and both inside and outside the court. He has become almost universally known as "other people's children". There are almost no negative comments and he is as pure as a blank slate.
.
Now that I heard that someone was actually impeaching him, I was shocked and confused. This feeling was so novel...
Wang De shook his head slightly and said in a low voice: "I don't dare to say anything. Your Highness will know later."
Then he stepped into the hall.
Li Zhi naturally wanted to follow him in to see who was impeaching him and what was going on. If he really made a mistake accidentally and was caught by the imperial censors, he might as well admit his mistake to his father as soon as possible and sincerely correct it, so as to avoid being confused in the future.
A meal...
Wang De entered the hall and saw His Majesty Li Er talking to Li Junxian. He quickly stepped forward and saluted: "Your Majesty, the memorial just passed in from the Political Affairs Hall. Several censors from the Censorship Station jointly signed a letter to impeach the King of Jin.
Your Highness."
His Majesty Li Er was stunned for a moment, looked at Li Zhi who was walking back behind Wang De, and asked curiously: "What is going on?"
Wang De presented the memorial with both hands and replied: "Just now, a package of ordnance that was supposed to be loaded onto a ship and shipped to Liaodong was discovered at the Fangjiawan pier in the south of the city. The Jingzhao Prefecture and the Ministry of Justice received the report and immediately sent personnel to the site to investigate and confirm
After confirming the error, they quickly caught up with the fleet that had just set off, stopped it, and began to thoroughly investigate how the package of ordnance was lost. It turned out that a total of three packages of ordnance were stolen from one of the ships, and the sailors on the ship and the accompanying
The "Baiqisi" officials were unaware of it. It happened that several supervisory censors who were on business in Hedong returned to Beijing and came forward to ask the reason. The Jingzhao government officials did not dare to conceal it. As a result, those censors were wearing their clothes.
The impeachment memorial has been written and sent to the political hall immediately."
When Li Zhi heard this, there was a sudden "boom" in his head.
After all the calculations, I was afraid that something would happen at this time, but I still failed to prevent it. When I saw the fleet setting off, I thought everything was safe. However, during the time when I returned from the dock to the palace, so many things happened...
…
However, he was also a little puzzled: "The loss of ordnance is indeed due to my oversight, but after the survey and verification of the missing quantity, the fleet should be released and rushed to Liaodong. The Ministry of Punishment and Jingzhao Mansion can investigate slowly, so why impeach?
This king?"
In his opinion, the loss of ordnance is certainly his own responsibility, but in the final analysis, he is also a victim. Even if all the mistakes are placed on himself, he will not be impeached by the supervisory censor, right?
It's just a dereliction of duty, and it's the emperor's father's decree. What's wrong with being on the imperial censor's stage?
Wang De didn't dare to talk too much. The memorial was in the emperor's hand. It was obvious at a glance that he would not talk too much...
His Majesty Li Er glanced at ten lines. At this time, he had already finished reading the memorial. He hummed and put the memorial on the coffee table in front of him. He looked at Li Zhi and said, "Want to know why they impeached you? Humph, there are a thousand ordnances on the ship.
, many of them include armor, swords, strong bows and crossbows, and even a pack of firearms... Once these things flow into Chang'an and are hidden privately, they will be enough to arm an elite army of thousands of people..."
Li Zhi's expression suddenly changed, his two sides started to fight, and he exclaimed: "Father, my son and I have been wronged!"
He had already guessed what the censors said in their memorials.
As expected, His Majesty Li Er ignored him and continued: "...Whether it's unjust or not, let's put it aside for the time being. These people didn't say that you did it deliberately and had ulterior motives. But they said that this matter must be dealt with.
Severe punishment is to serve as a warning, otherwise everyone will follow suit in the future. All military ministries and even foundry bureaus, ordnance departments and other yamen will often lose their ordnance. Isn't this Chang'an City in danger every step of the way? If things go on like this, the entire Chang'an City will fall into panic.
and in turmoil.”
Li Zhi looked pale and pursed his lips in silence.
He just thought that the censors were making a fuss out of a fuss and wanted to go against him, deliberately using impeachment to undermine his prestige. After listening to His Majesty Li Er's words, he suddenly realized that the matter was more than that simple.
Where is Chang'an?
The land of Gyeonggi, at the feet of the Emperor!
The most important thing for a place like this is long-term peace and stability. Otherwise, even the imperial capital will be in turmoil. How can everything in the world go smoothly? How can officials perform their duties and how can people live and work in peace and contentment? Now three bags of ordnance have been stolen, and there are still two bags left.
The whereabouts of these weapons cannot be found. Once these weapons fall into the hands of thieves with ulterior motives, they will endanger the emperor's safety and even the stability of the entire Tang Dynasty.
not only that.
Were these ordnances lost due to negligence, or did His Highness the King of Jin, who was responsible for loading and transporting these ordnances, commit theft?
If it is the former, it may just be due to poor supervision and limited ability. The emperor should issue an edict to warn him, and from then on he should do his best to achieve subsequent effects, and this will not be an example next time.
But if it's the latter, it's a completely different story...
Li Zhi, covered in cold sweat and with white hair on his lips, knelt down at the feet of His Majesty Li Er and said in a trembling voice: "Father, the candle shines thousands of miles away, and he can see everything clearly. None of my sons and ministers know about the loss of this batch of ordnance!"
He understood the consequences of this matter very well. If the ordnance was lost, it would be an oversight and incompetence. However, if someone mistakenly thought that he was "stealing and stealing", his life would be in danger.
Even though his father always loved him very much, he was very principled, especially on matters related to the stability of the empire. He would never show sympathy or forgiveness to anyone, and would punish him severely to serve as a warning to others.
What he is afraid of now is that another imperial censor will accuse him of hiding armor and concealing dead soldiers. Then the spies of the "Hundred Cavalry Division" will enter the Jin Palace and conduct a search. As a result, they will find this batch of lost ordnance somewhere in the palace.
.
This is not alarmist, nor is it unfounded. Just seeing that this batch of ordnance can be lost without anyone noticing despite the layers of precautions, you can see how powerful the thieves are, and they want to try to hide this batch of lost ordnance in their own possession.
It is not impossible to live in his mansion and then wait for someone to search the house and put the blame on himself.
Just thinking about the consequences once this batch of ordnance is discovered in his mansion, Li Zhi shudders and becomes frightened...
His Majesty Li Er obviously thought of this. He looked at his son who was frightened out of his mind, shook his head and sighed, and said to Li Junxian: "Immediately send someone to guard the Jin Palace, and any suspicious people who come in and out will be arrested and imprisoned."
, Strict interrogation.”
Li Junxian stood aside and was already sweating profusely. Hearing this, he quickly said: "I will obey your orders!"
Then he hurriedly walked away.
Originally, His Majesty Li Er sent himself to supervise the loading of ordnance because he was worried that someone would secretly sabotage and undermine the prestige of King Jin. However, he went there with great fanfare, but still failed to stop the thieves from causing damage. This was an extremely serious dereliction of duty.
In particular, I am not sure who is responsible for this matter. If Fang Jun is better, at least this guy has a bad temper, but there is a bottom line in dealing with people. As long as the purpose of undermining the prestige of King Jin is achieved, he will not take the opportunity to do anything.
Something else happened.
But in case Fang Jun did not do this, the thief's purpose is indeed to steal the weapons and hide them, waiting for the opportunity in the future to use them to arm an army of more than a thousand people to cause trouble in Chang'an, or even attack the Taiji Palace...
Then I have ten heads, which are not enough to cut off.
If you think about it further, Fang Jun would certainly not hide this batch of ordnance with the intention of causing chaos, but what would he do if he not only wanted to undermine the prestige of King Jin, but also wanted to completely destroy King Jin's qualifications to compete for the throne in one fell swoop?
?
Naturally, they framed the blame and found a way to hide these weapons in the Jin Palace!
Although Li Junxian did not think that Fang Jun would act so without a bottom line, after all, it was highly possible, and he would definitely not allow this to happen.
Watching Li Junxian leave in a hurry, His Majesty Li Er looked calm and said to Li Zhi: "Get up, what's the use of kneeling like this? You should think carefully about where you went wrong and how to make up for it. The most important thing is
It’s about how to correct it in the future.”
After hearing this, Li Zhi's uneasy mood calmed down a little. He understood that someone must be targeting him if his father knew about this matter. But having said that, he himself had long expected that someone would sabotage this matter, and even begged for help.
The father sent the "Hundred Cavalry Division" to supervise, but someone else's plan still succeeded. Doesn't this prove his incompetence from another aspect?
With a bit of bitterness in his mouth, Li Zhi got up from the ground and sat dejectedly in front of His Majesty Li Er.