flstandardbreds Chapter 298
Chapter 298
At the court meeting early the next morning, those officials who were affiliated with Chen Wanyan impeached Zhou Chu.
"Your Majesty, Commander Zhou of the Embroidered Uniform Guard is utterly lawless. He arrested Marquis Taihe without authorization and shows no respect for Your Majesty whatsoever."
One of the officials immediately challenged them.
“Your Majesty, Commander Zhou harbors malicious intentions and deserves to be punished.”
Another fourth-rank official stepped forward.
This group of people is already tied to Chen Wanyan. Once Chen Wanyan falls, none of them will be able to escape. They don't even need Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, to deal with them. Yang Yiqing and Xia Yan's side alone will be enough to give them a hard time.
Therefore, they had to speak up for Chen Wanyan no matter what, and at this point, being indecisive was pointless.
Immediately afterwards, another group of officials stepped forward. Apart from two people, these two were the same two who had been advising Chen Wanyan. They were the two people the emperor had arranged to be by Chen Wanyan's side.
Seeing that the two who were usually the most proactive in coming up with ideas had suddenly fallen silent, some people felt a sense of foreboding, while others, lacking such keen intuition, looked at the two with puzzled expressions.
"Weighing instruments, is this true?"
Jiajing looked at Zhou Chu with great interest.
There was no hint of accusation or blame in his tone.
Upon hearing the emperor's words, the officials who had sensed something was amiss immediately became alarmed, realizing that the matter was not simple. However, they were already in a precarious situation and had no way out.
“Your Majesty, I did indeed have the people from the Northern Garrison invite Marquis Taihe over to investigate, but Lu Wanshan and his men were very discreet; they invited him, not as these people are saying.”
Zhou Chu stepped forward.
Zhou Chu first emphasized this matter because it concerned the emperor's face. Even though many people knew what substance was, for the emperor, it was not just substance that mattered, but face was equally important.
"Go and summon Lu Wanshan to the palace."
Jiajing said.
In fact, Lu Wanshan had been waiting outside for a long time. When he heard the summons, he hurriedly came in.
"Your subject Lu Wanshan pays his respects to Your Majesty."
Lu Wanshan knelt down and said.
Ordinary officials are not required to kneel when attending court, but Lu Wanshan is different. First of all, he is a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, which is the emperor's private army, and all his power comes from the emperor. Secondly, he is being questioned at this time, so he naturally has to kneel.
"Lu Wanshan, let me ask you this: did you capture Chen Wanyan and his son and take them to the Northern Garrison?"
Jiajing looked at Lu Wanshan and said.
"Your Majesty, how could I dare to arrest Marquis Taihe? I invited Marquis Taihe to the Northern Garrison Command, and everyone in the Chen family at the time can testify to that."
Lu Wanshan answered truthfully.
Upon hearing this, Jiajing's expression softened slightly.
"Even so, without my decree, you invited Marquis Taihe to the Northern Garrison Command. Isn't that somewhat inappropriate?"
Jiajing was actually speaking to others. After all, Chen Wanyan was his father-in-law, and these days he had been very accommodating to Chen Wanyan's every request.
"Your Majesty, this was indeed a shortcoming on my part. Please punish me."
Zhou Chu stepped forward.
Zhou Chu has to take the blame for this, otherwise it will become Jiajing's intention to arrest Chen Wanyan.
“Your Majesty, Commander Zhou has always been law-abiding and dedicated to his duties. The responsibility of the Northern Garrison is to supervise all officials. Although Lord Chen has a special status, he is still within the scope of the Northern Garrison’s supervision. Commander Zhou is simply fulfilling his duty.”
The first person to speak up for Zhou Chu was not Yang Shen, but Yang Yiqing.
This is a grand drama, something that Yang Yiqing, Xia Yan, Yang Shen, and others had already foreseen.
The difference is that Yang Yiqing and Xia Yan did not know that the mastermind behind this grand drama was Jiajing. They both thought that Jiajing was just going with the flow and conveniently getting rid of Chen Wanyan.
Little did they know that it was Jiajing who had orchestrated all of this from the very beginning.
Yang Shen, Han Jie, and others could see even more; they could vaguely discern that the emperor was behind it all.
This has nothing to do with perspective; it's entirely due to the different positions of the individuals involved, which led to different angles of view and consequently, different conclusions.
Yang Yiqing and Xia Yan always felt that the emperor was wary of Zhou Chu, otherwise he wouldn't have kept delaying Zhou Chu's reinstatement.
Yang Shen and Han Jie saw things clearly because, while they weren't entirely on the same side as Zhou Chu, they also didn't have any conflict of interest, so they understood the situation more thoroughly.
"Your Majesty, Commander Zhou was only enforcing the law impartially. We hope Your Majesty will show leniency."
Xia Yan also stepped forward to speak on behalf of Zhou Chu.
It has to be said that life's twists and turns are truly wondrous. These two people used to wish Zhou Chu dead, but now they have to speak up for him.
After all, they had come to Zhou Chu to ask for help in investigating Chen Wanyan, and they had repeatedly requested that Zhou Chu be reinstated. Even though they still wished Zhou Chu dead, they still had to speak up for him.
This is the imperial court, this is what it means to be an official.
Seeing that Yang Yiqing and Xia Yan had spoken up for Zhou Chu, Yang Shen and Han Jie stopped talking.
Many things can go too far. These high-ranking officials in the court have all united to speak for Zhou Chu. What does that mean? Are they joining forces to pressure the emperor?
Although there was no such intention, and the emperor knew there was no such intention, many people only see the surface of things, or rather, those with ulterior motives will use these surface-level things to their advantage.
"Weighing instrument, have you found anything amiss with the Chen residence?"
Jiajing then changed the subject.
The meaning of this is quite clear: if you find out the results, that's fine, but if you find nothing, I won't let you off the hook.
"Your Majesty, I have uncovered a great deal of evidence. Minister Chen has embezzled more than two million taels of silver, twelve thousand taels of gold, and countless antiques and paintings. These are all listed here. Please take a look, Your Majesty."
As Zhou Chu spoke, he handed over a booklet that had been prepared beforehand.
The other officials gasped upon hearing this; they had underestimated Chen Wanyan's greed.
Chen Wanyan had only been involved with these officials for a short time, less than a month, yet he had already embezzled so much money. If this continued, they dared not imagine how much more Chen Wanyan could embezzle.
Of course, Chen Wanyan's unbridled and unrestrained behavior also played a part, since other officials, even if they were corrupt, were not so blatant.
Moreover, there are only so many officials who can have financial dealings with Chen Wanyan, so the longer it goes on, the slower Chen Wanyan will accumulate wealth.
Emperor Jiajing took the booklet from Huang Jin and grew angrier the more he read it.
"This is outrageous! Are all of these true?"
Jiajing looked at Zhou Chu and asked.
Since the house had not yet been searched at this time, this booklet is unverified.
"I can guarantee that there may be slight differences, but the difference will be minimal."
Zhou Chu said.
"Zhou Hengqi".
Jiajing suddenly shouted loudly.
"The minister is here."
Zhou Chu bowed and said.
"I hereby order you to lead the Northern Garrison to the Chen residence to confiscate its property and list out all the crimes committed by Chen Wanyan. I never imagined that my leniency towards him would lead him to such a lawless attitude."
Emperor Jiajing was heartbroken and said...