The sun is shining brightly and spring flowers are blooming.
All the princes did not feel the bright spring breeze.
The turmoil over the establishment of the crown prince is getting more and more intense, and many important ministers, including Mr. Shangshu Ge, who have been holding back, are inevitably involved.
The four princes are fine if they don't take action, but if they do, it's a deadly move.
The Ministry of Rites suddenly revealed that the spring examination questions of the current college were leaked, and more than ten new scholars were implicated.
At the court meeting, Mr. Li Ge presented a memorial, impeaching Yue Shangshu for "dining with a corpse", "pretending to be deaf" and "doing nothing"! From beginning to end, he did not mention a word about the third prince, but it was more sinister than stabbing the third prince.
ruthless!
What is a vegetarian meal? What is pretending to be deaf? What is inaction?
Yue Shangshu is the Minister of Rites, and the third prince was assigned by Emperor Jianwen to work in the Ministry of Rites. Logically speaking, the prince nominally commands the Ministry of Rites, which does not mean he is superior to a minister. However, if the third prince wants to make some achievements, he must fight for it.
Seize power and place your own people.
As usual, this Spring Festival was managed by Yue Shangshu. The third prince was not willing to be left alone, so he stepped in and took the printing of examination questions into his own hands.
Yue Shangshu felt depressed and endured it without saying a word. This is a vegetarian meal with corpses!
Qi Langzhong, who was responsible for printing the examination questions, secretly sold an examination question at a high price of 10,000 taels. A total of thirty copies were sold, which is a total of 300,000 taels. How many of these 300,000 taels were swallowed by Qi Langzhong, and how many
Did you honor the third prince? Yue Shangshu clearly knew it, but he didn't say anything.
This is pretending to be deaf and mute, this is doing nothing!
When Mr. Li Ge was impeached, Mr. Qi, who was standing among the officials, was so frightened that his legs weakened. He knelt down and defended himself repeatedly, saying that there was absolutely no such thing.
However, Yue Shangshu looked ashamed and burst into tears. He only said: "I am incompetent!"
Then, kneel down and confess your sin!
Yue Shangshu still didn't mention the third prince, and kept saying that he failed to notice it in time. By the time he found out, the Spring Palace Examination had passed and the list of new scholars had been announced to the world. As the Minister of Rites, he did not have the courage to expose this matter.
However, the paper could not contain the fire. Some of the candidates who failed the examination were unhappy, so they went to the Li Mansion privately and reported the matter to Mr. Li Ge. Today, Mr. Li Ge impeached himself in the court. He did not dare and was unable to defend himself, so he was willing to
Plea guilty.
Naturally, there were witnesses to what Dr. Qi did in the Ministry of Rites. At that moment, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites stepped forward and opened his mouth with a list of names.
These people are all accomplices of Mr. Qi.
To put it more clearly, they are all people whom the Third Prince has won over in the Ministry of Rites, and they are part of the Third Prince’s party.
Mr. Qi's face was grim, and he denied it. The right servant came up with stronger evidence and presented a secret account of Mr. Qi. It clearly recorded the name of the examiner who bought the exam questions, as well as the money that Mr. Qi had collected.
silver.
The first payment was given to the third prince, a total of 150,000 taels.
…
The ministers were in an uproar.
The four princes clearly came prepared for this scene in the court today.
Yue Shangshu's move was indeed ruthless, and he did not hesitate to sacrifice his own future and reputation with him. He had a posture of "as long as he loses a thousand to the enemy, he does not hesitate to lose eight hundred to himself."
Emperor Jianwen was so angry that the veins on his forehead were exposed, his face was gloomy, and his eyes were full of anger.
The proud third prince's head was buzzing, his back was dripping with cold sweat, and he could no longer laugh at all.
Doctor Qi was indeed his man, and it was he who contributed to the task of printing the examination questions that fell to Doctor Qi. But he really didn't know about selling the examination questions at a high price...
No, it cannot be said that he is completely ignorant.
A few days ago, Doctor Qi quietly sent over 150,000 taels of silver. The origin of such a huge amount of silver was obviously not legitimate. He was just at the time when the spring breeze was so good that he thought that Doctor Qi had obtained it through other means.
To respect oneself, one should accept the money as a matter of course.
I never expected that these fifteen taels of silver would be such a hot potato... It's too late to argue now.
Sheng Hong's heart also sank.
The fourth prince's maternal family and his in-law family were quite powerful in the court, so they jointly set up this trap and completely trapped the third prince.
The third prince's face turned pale, he forced himself to be calm, and took two steps forward: "To inform my father, a few days ago, Mr. Qi did secretly send a banknote. However, I did not accept it. Mr. Qi had previously
I don’t know anything about what I did.”
At this moment, he could only refuse to admit it. Anyway, the 150,000 taels of silver note was not marked, so he just refused to admit it, and no one could do anything to him...
Just like the fourth prince back then, he ruthlessly pushed Sheng Xuan out to be the scapegoat. He also pushed out Qi Langzhong.
Unfortunately, the third prince forgot one thing.
Not all chess pieces are willing to be a useless chess piece. Not everyone is willing to admit guilt and die.
Mr. Qi, who was kneeling in the palace, twisted his face and shouted: "Your Highness, Third Prince, you clearly accepted the money. You can't just accept the money and then deny it!"
"If it weren't for the sake of pleasing His Highness, why would I take such a big risk and sell test questions to make money? Of the three hundred thousand taels, His Highness took half of it alone. I looked around and only kept fifty thousand for myself."
"Your Highness cannot ignore me..."
Emperor Jianwen's face became increasingly ugly.
The expressions of all the courtiers were also subtle.
The third prince's face turned dark.
Sheng Hong took a step forward and sternly interrupted the hysterical Doctor Qi: "You bastard! At this time, you still dare to bite randomly! Splash dirty water on the body of the third emperor brother! Someone is clearly instigating it! Father!
How could you, Ying Ming, be deceived by this conspiracy!"
Then he raised his head and cupped his hands, and said loudly: "Father, fraud in the imperial examination is by no means a trivial matter. It cannot be convicted based on one word! I beg my father to order a thorough investigation into this matter. Let the three emperor brothers be innocent!"
Emperor Jianwen said with a gloomy face: "Accurate performance!"
At this time, Sheng Hong stepped forward, which was far better than the third prince's "self-clarification of innocence".
The third prince, who was covered in cold sweat, cast a grateful glance at Sheng Hong.
As long as you get through the court first, there will always be opportunities for manipulation and a comeback during the "thorough investigation" later...
No matter how grateful the third prince was, the fourth prince was angry and angry. Looking at Sheng Hong, his eyes were dark and cold, as cold as a flying knife.
Unfortunately, looks can't kill.
If he could kill people, Sheng Hong would have died several times under the fourth prince's sharp gaze.
Not only was Sheng Hong unscathed, but he was also in good spirits. After the court was over, he smiled calmly at the fourth prince before leaving leisurely.
The fourth prince's expression became increasingly gloomy.
However, when he met the angry gaze of the third prince, the fourth prince's mood quickly improved and he changed into a calm smile.
This time, I will definitely peel off a layer of your skin!
