Yang En walked into the dark and cold prison and saw Li Pu sitting slumped on the cold mud like an old dog with his backbone removed. The whole person looked so old and pitiful, but Li Chong's body was still upright.
were hung on the beams of the prison cell.
Although Yang En was free and easy by nature, he couldn't help but sigh slightly when he saw the scene in front of him.
He knew that Li Pusheng had three sons. The eldest son died on the battlefield in his early years. The youngest son Li Qi grew up with his brother Li Yu. His relationship with Li Pu was not very close. Only the second son Li Chong was always there.
He was holding the ceremony on his knees. Even if Li Pu was a hard-hearted hero, it would be difficult for him to accept the scene in front of him, right?
Yang En walked up to Li Pu and said: "I drafted the memorial last night and wanted to participate in it. I don't plan to revise the memorial. Is it okay to add a sentence at the end of the memorial, 'Li Chong is in prison for fear of crime?'
?”
"... This evil boy is still in the enemy's camp. This is the best place for him to end up - I will cross the river and return to Jinling today to plead guilty." Li Pu's old and weak hands were on the ground to stand up, and Li Qi hurried up.
He held him in front of him.
Looking at Li Qi and Li Xiu, they helped Li Pu out. The old family members around Yang En, who had entered the prison cell in advance to verify his identity, couldn't help but sneered: "The Marquis of Xinjin is really ruthless.
The two blood stains on the neck of the corpse are not like being pulled out by the belt. According to the little old man, maybe someone sneaked into the prison last night and strangled Li Chong with a bowstring."
"If you talk nonsense again, I'll cut out your old dog's tongue!" Yang En turned around and glared at his family, and shouted in a deep voice.
Yang En's eyesight was a little blurry and he couldn't see clearly the other injuries on the body under the hanging beam while standing outside the prison cell, but he didn't want to go into the prison cell to find out this.
Twenty years after the founding of the Chu Kingdom, many generals died on the battlefield. Li Chongli was defeated and captured, but he was willing to fight for Liang Jian in order to survive. As long as he lived for one day, he would be Li's shame.
.
Even if he doesn't die now, when the court investigates him, the best outcome is to die. However, in this process, he doesn't know how many troubles he will cause in order to live longer.
Yes, not only did Yang En also think that Li Chong "committed suicide in prison out of fear of crime", there was a possibility of being silenced, he even forgot that he submitted a memorial to participate in the impeachment. Last night, he was actually supposed to take over the affairs of the people including Li Chong.
Many prisoners.
Yang En thought that Li Chong had been serving His Majesty and the Queen Mother for many years, so he should know many unknown secrets, but he did not feel that it would be unsafe to reveal all these shady secrets and expose them to the broad daylight.
The situation will be completely eroded and collapsed. What can it really do to help?
Maybe if some of the filth and ugliness are completely hidden under the water, the world might be more peaceful, right?
Commitment of suicide out of fear of crime is an outcome that too many people are more willing to see, right?
Thinking of this, Yang En sighed deeply in his heart, walked to the courtyard, called over a few guards who were guarding outside, added a few lines to the memorial, and asked them to take a boat back to Jinling immediately, hoping that the whole thing would be resolved
Finish it as quickly as possible.
…………
…………
Han Qian led the Tangyi troops to fight two tough battles at the northern foot of Dasi Mountain within a short period of more than half a month. Both battles achieved great victories, almost including Dasi Mountain and Tang in the middle and lower reaches of the Chu River.
With the control of the area along the river, the crisis of the imperial capital being directly attacked by the enemy was temporarily eliminated.
This is also the little good news that Jinling City has after the depressing New Year.
Before Yang En's memorial and Li Pu arrived at Jinling City, not only Zhou Fang returned to Jiangzhou, but Chen Jingzhou also led more than a hundred soldiers back to Guangde.
Zhou Zang and Chen Jingzhou returned to Jiangzhou and Guangde Mansion. They returned to their official posts. They did not need to request additional orders. They only needed to send someone to the Privy Council and the Ministry of Civil Affairs to report.
Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, Zheng Yu and others did not realize that there was anything unusual about this incident at first. After all, they had not heard any unfavorable rumors about Han Qian in Jinling, nor had they seen any other unusual signs.
They even thought that Han Qian saw that the situation in Tangyi had initially stabilized, and asked Zhou Pan and Chen Jingzhou to return to Jiangzhou and Guangde Mansion in order to raise more grain and recruit more young men to join the army.
This is also what Han Daoming tried his best to advocate for Han Qian after he returned from the labor force in Tangyi.
Although the food and fodder materials needed by Tangyi, as well as the collection of refugees or convicted slaves from various places and exiled to the north of the Yangtze River to supplement the consumption of Tangyi soldiers, should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Husbandry, the Ministry of War, the Privy Envoy and the Duzhi Envoy, but these matters The ministries, academies and departments cannot create something out of thin air. In the end, they still need the cooperation of the following states and counties.
At this time, the higher the degree of cooperation between the prefectures and counties, the faster the allocation of grain and fodder, and the faster the gathering of refugees.
Otherwise, if you procrastinate, you don’t know how much nonsense there will be behind it.
Many times, in order to mobilize grain and fodder more effectively, gather more effectively, and replenish elite combat power, the generals often bypass the Central Academy Department and directly find influential prefectures and counties to mobilize grain and recruit troops. The Central Academy Department finally I'm just responsible for completing a formality.
Although from the perspective of centralizing power and preventing generals from taking over their power, the central government should try to avoid this situation as much as possible. However, it had only been twenty years since the founding of the Chu State, and internal and external troubles had never stopped. How could this be completely avoided?
When Yang En's memorial arrived at the Zhengshi Hall, Yang Zhitang, Shen Yang, Zheng Yu and others noticed something unusual.
However, Yang En's memorial has given a conclusion, and the impact of the whole incident on Tangyi can be said to be minimal. No one will mention Chen Jingzhou again, Zhou Pan returned to Guangde Mansion, and Jiangzhou was implicated in this matter.
As for Li Chong's surrender to the enemy, what really affected him was the accountability for Li Pu's defeat and his loss, and it also directly shook the status of Queen Li Yao.
After Li Pu arrived in Jinling, he sent someone to deliver the apology document to the political hall, and then imprisoned himself in the Changguo Duke's Mansion; Queen Li Yao also imprisoned herself in the Biyu Palace.
In the past half month, whenever there was a major matter in the court that needed to be decided, it was Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang and other ministers who participated in the political affairs. After discussing a result in the political hall, they went to Chongwen Hall and Changchun Palace to find Emperor Yanyou. The Queen Mother asked for the order. The imperial edict was issued, and then military and political orders were promulgated in the form of documents produced by the Zhengshitang.
This can be regarded as the administrative affairs being carried out by the Zhengshitang.
The reason for this situation is that there are huge differences in the court over the name under which the Queen Mother should return to court.
The new emperor may be young, or may be too weak and sick to handle political affairs, or may die of a sudden illness before the new emperor is established, or may be unruly and unruly, and is hated by the ministers. At this time, the queen mother steps forward to take charge of political affairs. This has happened many times since ancient times. Example of things.
Li Zhigao and Han Qian both dispatched troops and generals under the orders of the Empress Dowager. The return of the Empress Dowager to the court was a foregone conclusion, but the situation faced by Da Chu at this time was still very different from the past events in previous dynasties.
Although His Majesty is a little impatient and suspects that his ministers cannot fully believe him, this can be said to be a very critical reason for the sudden change in the situation in Jianghuai, and the blame cannot be placed entirely on Li Pu. However, Yang Yuanpu generally cannot say that He is a foolish and tyrannical king.
From the time Yang Yuanpu left the palace to the time he ascended the throne, everything he did was remarkable. He could even be regarded as a promising king, and his reputation among the soldiers and people of Chu was not low.
More importantly, as the only heir of the Queen Mother and the late Emperor, Your Majesty has no replacement in the clan, and no one would even think of abolishing the throne.
Even if the Queen Mother must be invited to return to the court at this time, if His Majesty is to be kicked into a corner, not to mention Yang Zhitang, Shen Yang, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Zhou Bingwu, Du Chongtao and other important ministers will not be willing.
The differences have been delayed to this day and there is no final conclusion. The main focus is on the name under which the Queen Mother returns to the court. There is a huge difference behind this.
There are usually two situations in returning to court:
The first is the regent, that is, acting on behalf of the government. It can be said that Yang Yuanpu was temporarily put aside in the name of recovering from illness. All matters in the court, big and small, were issued by the Queen Mother.
The other is auxiliary affairs, which are to assist the government. All matters of government affairs are mainly decided by the Queen Mother and the ministers through discussion, but in the end, Her Majesty still has to draft decrees and issue decrees.
Of course, the Changchun Palace hopes it is the former, so that it can be said to have great power.
Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Zhang Chao and others were close to the Queen Mother and her family. They did not have much insistence on whether the Queen Mother would eventually return to the court in the name of regent or auxiliary, and they did not feel that it would harm their interests.
Only Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, who was loyal to the interests of the Yang family, and Zhou Bingwu, Du Chongtao, who had nothing to do with the Queen Mother's line but were wary of the excessive expansion of power in the late Honglou, insisted on asking the Queen Mother to return to the court in the name of assisting the government. I hope to limit the power that the Queen Mother and her family can control to the greatest extent.
Unable to persist in this matter, the Queen Mother stayed in the Changchun Palace in the east of the city and refused to return to Jinling City.
It's also thanks to Han Qian and Li Zhigao's strong control, and it's also thanks to Huaidong that it has its own system.
Otherwise, it is really unimaginable that in such a chaotic situation in the court, Jiangbei's soldiers and horses did not fall into complete chaos and were able to secure their position in time to avoid being taken advantage of by the enemy who had the advantage.
There is no problem for the Zhengshitang to act as an administrator and maintain the daily operation of the court. However, when it comes to the prosecution of Chang Guogong Li Pu and the dethronement of Queen Li Yao, Yang Zhitang, Shen Yang, Zheng Yu and others cannot overstep their authority and discuss this matter. matter, the focus of the problem has returned to asking the Queen Mother to come forward to this matter.
The day after Li Pu returned to Jinling, Shen Yang also knew that the matter could not be delayed any longer, so he had no choice but to convene a privy meeting in the political hall to raise the issue of the return of the Queen Mother to the court.
Shen Yang and Yang Zhitang were even ready to give in, but they didn't want Han Daoming, who had never expressed his position on this matter, to publicly stand up and say: "Your Majesty is young and energetic, and his actions are inevitably a little impatient. Xiang, fought to cut down the feudal vassal, led all the troops to drive out the rebels, and regained Jinling. They all showed the image of a wise king. Not many kings in the past have been able to win. It should be enough to ask the Queen Mother to return to the court to assist in government affairs..."
"..." Han Daoming's statement shocked Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang and others.
Han Daoming had not expressed his position before. In fact, everyone took it for granted that he represented the Han family, should be consistent with Han Qian's position, and should be a persistent supporter of the Queen Mother's regency.
Who could have imagined that Han Daoming would say such a thing at this time?
Everyone's first thought was that Han Daoming crossed the river to work in Tangyi a few days ago, and his relationship with Han Qian did not improve, but worsened?
However, Han Daoming and Han Qian had broken up, so it was useless to turn around and support Emperor Yanyou.
The attitude of the entire Han family combined is not as important as that of Han Qian alone.
Yang Zhitang frowned, but thought of something, and asked Han Daoming hesitantly and cautiously: "But I don't know what Marquis Qianyang's opinion is?"
"Han Qian, he said that as the commander of the army, his duty is to defend the territory and resist the enemy, and he should not interfere in the affairs of the government!" Han Daoming said loudly.