Chapter 102: Endless Rumors

  In the Yun Ge Guest House, a thin man held a book of Xunzi in his hand and sat by the window, reading very seriously. Occasionally, when he came across a place that he didn't understand, he would tilt his head to think for a while before continuing to read on.

  "Creak... The door was pushed open and an old man entered."

  The old man closed the door with a backhand and said: "Your Highness, he went to He's mansion and also had a conversation with Mrs. He."

  "Oh?" The thin man turned over a page of his book without raising his head and asked: "What did you say?"

  Yun Ge Inn was not very large in the capital, and there were not many high-ranking officials living inside. As for Wang Ye, there was only one. That would be King Xingxian, Zhu Youxiao. Since the thin man was Zhu Youxiao, then the old man standing opposite him must have been Fu Bo.

  Fu Bo Dao said: "Jiang Xia told He Furen..."

  If Jiang Xia were here, he would definitely be very surprised, because Fu Bo almost repeated word for word what he had said to Mrs. He, as if he had been there at the time.

  After listening to Fu Bo's retelling of Jiang Xia's words, Zhu Youxiao smiled faintly and nodded: "This is indeed an extremely clever person, who has seen the key to breaking the deadlock at a glance."

  "It may not be what he saw, but rather someone behind him giving directions, who knows." said Fu Bo.

  "High hand?" Zhu Youxiao closed his book and looked up, saying: "You're talking about Li Dongyang?"

  "It's also possible that Li Dongyang, having gone through the reigns of Emperor Taizong, Emperor Xianzong, and Emperor Xiaozong, is a formidable figure. However, as he gets older, his reputation grows, but his actions become more restricted. I guess he won't point out Jiang Xia to go to He Fu's house to find He Furen at this critical moment, so it can't be denied that Jiang Xia is also an interesting character."

  "What's to be done now? He has already found Li Yun, if she is moved by Jiang Xia, then..." Fu Bo said with some worry.

  "She can't be moved by Jiang Xia." Zhu Youxiao picked up the book "Xunzi" again, and said while flipping through it: "How can a dead person be moved by a living one?"

  "I understand." Having said that, Fu Bo left the inn.

  Zhu Youxiao continued to flip through the book in his hand, and with the sunlight outside the window, he could see clearly that what he was reading was the "Xunzi" - Evil Nature chapter. The first sentence of this chapter reads: "The nature of man is evil; his goodness is the result of artifice."

  The meaning of this sentence is that human nature is actually evil, and those good behaviors are just made by people on purpose. And this sentence seems more suitable for Zhu Youxiao.

  Jiangxia had guessed that the rumors would soon be known to all the officials in the capital, and then they would put pressure on Zhu Houzhao. This guess was both right and wrong.

  What is true is that the civil and military officials will naturally know very quickly, and they will not tolerate the current situation getting worse. But what is not right is that the civil and military officials will not jointly pressure Zhu Houzhao, they dare not and will not do so. This kind of thing is obviously something only a big shot can do.

  Who are the big ones? Obviously, the seven cabinet ministers are the big ones. However, after Li Dongyang retired, there were only six ministers left in the cabinet. In order to make up for the number seven, the six cabinet ministers also pulled Mao Wenhui together.

  Some people may ask why it must be seven. In fact, it's very simple. If everyone can't make a decision and needs to vote in the end, seven is an odd number that makes it easy to get results.

  Seven senior officials went to the Palace of Heavenly Purity to request an audience with Zhu Houzhao, who naturally knew their purpose and initially let Zhang Yong say that he was resting and did not meet with the seven officials.

  However, the seven ministers were determined to see Zhu Houzhao, so they waited outside the Qianqing Palace for more than two hours. Zhu Houzhao could no longer avoid them and finally received the seven ministers.

  After entering the Qianqing Palace, Yang Yiqing, a university scholar of the Wuying Hall, first told Zhu Houzhao about the rumors in the streets. Although he had tried to be tactful with his words, Zhu Houzhao was still furious.

  "Bang!" Zhu Houzhao kicked the long table in front of him flying, and he shouted: "How dare those commoners frame me? Zhang Yong!"

  Zhang Yong, who was guarding outside the Qianqing Palace, immediately entered the palace and knelt on the ground: "Your slave is here!"

  "The Brocade Guard Commander is summoned to the palace for an audience. I want to ask him, what is the use of this Brocade Guard Commander? If he is incompetent, then let him immediately return home and farm, don't block capable people from doing work for me."

  "Yes!" Zhang Yong responded and immediately withdrew.

  Zhu Houzhao swept his gaze over the seven ministers and asked coldly, "What is it? You all came to see me today for what reason? Is it to ask if I'm a good man with a taste for beauty, or if I have a fondness for cutting sleeves and sharing peaches?"

  The words of Zhu Houzhao were filled with murderous intent, and it can be imagined that if someone had said a single "yes" at this time, the next result would probably have been their head falling to the ground.

  The seven ministers did not dare to stand still, all knelt down together and said in unison: "Your Majesty's subjects have no such intention, your subjects are terrified, please calm your anger."

  Zhu Houzhao coldly gazed at the seven ministers, sitting majestically on the dragon throne, and asked in a loud voice: "Yang Yiting, tell me, what is your intention for coming here today?"

  Yang Yiting took a deep breath, and after a moment of contemplation, he said: "The common people are ignorant and only follow the crowd. But three people can make a tiger, and many mouths can make gold. The multitude of voices is like a flood that cannot be blocked. Lest the wise and enlightened emperor suffer damage, we believe it would be best to openly try Jiang Xia, in order to uphold the great and bright laws and regulations, and to manifest Your Majesty's sage and virtuous reputation."

  Yang Yiting's words were quite skillful, and his general meaning was that "those ordinary people are originally ignorant and foolish, and some untrue things may be taken as true after being passed around. In order to prevent this matter from getting more and more intense, it would be better to bring Jiang Xia out for public interrogation, which would also make the law of the Ming Dynasty appear fair and just, and the emperor's reputation for wisdom would not be damaged."

  This speech basically followed what Zhu Houzhao said, he first said that the common people were ignorant, which showed that he firmly believed this matter was false. Then, from Zhu Houzhao's perspective, he came up with this idea for Zhu Houzhao.

  However, Yang Yiting did not know that his sentence "openly tried" happened to hit Zhu Houzhao's biggest taboo. If he was willing to bring Jiang Xia out for a public trial, there wouldn't be so many troubles now.

  "Damn it!" Zhu Houzhao shouted loudly.

  Yang Yiting suddenly shuddered and his neck shrunk back.

  "I am the ruler of a nation, not some ordinary household's bullied daughter-in-law. Does my prestige still need to be proven with pretentious posturing? My prestige is to make them understand that the Son of Heaven's anger can result in countless deaths and rivers of blood!"

  "Your Majesty, think thrice. As the saying goes, 'The ruler is like a boat, and the people are like water; who can carry the boat, can also capsize it...' " Fei Hong blurted out Tang Taizong's famous words in his anxiety.

  But he didn't understand that such words could only be spoken by the king himself, and not by his subjects to him. Zhu Houzhao's eyes almost spat fire when he heard this, and with a sudden movement, he stood up and kicked Fei Hong to the ground without saying another word.

  Zhu Houzhao suddenly squatted down and looked at Fei Hong, saying: "What do you mean by this? Are you telling me that if I don't prove myself to them, they will dare to rebel against me? Are you threatening me?"

  "Your Majesty, calm down! Your Majesty, calm down! I, your humble subject, had no such intention, no such intention..." Fei Hong cried out in a panic.

  Zhu Houzhao snorted coldly and stood up. He waved his hand and said, "All of you get out, I don't want to see any of you."

  "Huang...." Liu Zhong Zhang opened his mouth to say something, but Zhu Houzhao suddenly shouted: "Get out!"

  "We, your humble subjects, bid farewell." After saying this, the seven ministers all left.

  After leaving the Qianqing Palace, Cao Yuan couldn't help but say: "The emperor has his own thoughts, our emperor is wise and sacred, why must you insist on letting the emperor try Jiang Xia Gong, provoke the dragon's anger, it's not worth it."

  "That's right. Don't drag me into this kind of thing again in the future." Liang Chu also said.

  Fei Hong, who had just been frightened to death and was still pale as if he had just returned from the gates of hell, didn't say a word. It was Yang Yiting who couldn't help but speak up: "What's going on? You've all enjoyed the emperor's great favor, yet now you're willing to watch him be slandered by the mouths of the common people?"

  "The clear will be clear, the turbid will be turbid. This matter is also the emperor's own affair after all, we indeed must not speak more." Jing Gui said lightly, then left.

  Mao Wenhui glanced at the six of them and left with a snort after laughing sarcastically.

  But his laughter made the six of them, led by Yang Yiting, blush with shame. After all, they were representatives of civil officials, and at this moment, they were arguing endlessly in front of Mao Wenju, a representative of military officials, which seemed to have a bit of an internal struggle.

  At this moment, Jiang Xia was standing outside the right wing of the imperial palace, entangled with the palace guards.

  Jiang Xia first took out a large amount of treasure to bribe those few guards, indicating that he wanted to see the emperor and ask them to pass on a message. The guards did not respond and also dared not accept the treasure.

  Then Jiang Xia took out the Dongchang secret investigation token given to him by Liu Jin and showed it to the guards. The guards were startled, but still did not let Jiang Xia in.

  Jiang Xia suddenly remembered something and took out a token from his money bag again to show the guards.

  That was also a copper token with "Leopard House Heavenly Character No. 1" written on it.

  Upon seeing this token, the guards immediately knelt on one knee and saluted: "We pay our respects to Your Majesty."

  "Ah?" Jiang Xia was slightly stunned: "So this token belongs to Eldest Second Brother."

  But then he thought about it and Jiang Xia was relieved. He had heard Zhang Yong say that Zhu Houzhao liked the Leopard House more than the imperial palace. He often said that the Leopard House was his home, and the person who could use "Tianzi No. 1" as a token was naturally Zhu Houzhao.

  "Alright, since you've seen this token, then you should know that I am acquainted with the Emperor. Hurry up and take me to see him, I have urgent matters to discuss with him."

  "Yes, I obey." One of the guards responded and immediately stood up, leading Jiang Xia into the palace.