Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 82 Preparing for the Trial

The imperial prison was overcrowded at this time!

Many officials from inside and outside the court were detained here, from the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet and the Seal Holder of the Imperial Household to the Jinshi of the Six Ministries.

Li Dongyang became even more excited when he saw this, because he knew that Zhu Houzhao must be furious to have arrested so many people. It must be because he could not get any evidence of regicide that he did not hesitate to arrest all the officials who pleaded for him and put them in prison. The more people he arrested, the greater the resistance Zhu Houzhao faced.

When seeing Gu Dayong coming to interrogate him again, Li Dongyang laughed even more: "Gu Dayong, your emperor must be furious! You want to pry open my mouth and punish me? No way! You are just a bunch of eunuchs who have never seen the world, and Zhu Houzhao is just a 15-year-old kid who was raised by women in the deep palace. What qualifications do you have to fight us!"

"Li Gefu, calm down. Why do you have to mock these youngsters? What do they know? They think they can become the best in the world by defeating me. I only laugh at their youth, but they still say that I am overestimating my own abilities!"

Wang Yue, who was detained in the imperial prison for serious criminals together with Li Dongyang, said with a smile, and then said to Gu Dayong: "I can't escape the death by slicing, but you are too naive to think of slicing Li Gefu. Go back and tell Zhu Houzhao that if he wants to continue to be the emperor smoothly, he should listen to my advice and release Li Gefu!"

"Eunuch Wang, please don't worry. Our emperor is determined to prove himself. He thinks he has learned some tricks in the palace and calls himself the reincarnation of Emperor Taizong. This makes me feel sick. I think you ended up like this because of Ma Wensheng's plan. Zhu Houzhao doesn't have that ability! Otherwise, I would have taught him for nothing for so many years!"

Li Dongyang then added: "However, what we can imagine now is that Zhu Houzhao is being threatened by hundreds of officials. I'm afraid even Ma Wensheng and others don't dare to help him, hahaha!"

Wang Yue also laughed: "If that's the case, the imperial edict to release Li Gefu will probably arrive soon."

Gu Dayong was furious when he saw the two men singing the same tune. He wanted to beat them to death and shouted, "Well, you mocked me, but you even mocked the emperor! Come on! Keep on torturing me!"

“Gu Dayong, if you have the guts, just kill me. Otherwise, don’t think you can pry open the tiger’s mouth! How can I admit the crime of regicide? I am a loyal minister, a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, and a minister entrusted by the late emperor’s will. Do you understand?”

Li Dongyang said this and burst into laughter again.

At this time, a series of iron chain sounds were heard.

Li Dongyang couldn't help but smile and said to Wang Yue: "It seems that our emperor has started arresting people again. Is he going to arrest all the officials in the world?"

"You are still young and naive!" Wang Yue also laughed.

At this time, You Aoling, a hundred households of the Eastern Depot, came to Gu Dayong first and said, "Lord Gu! I am here under the order of Lord Ma of the Eastern Depot to bring Zhang Yu, Liu Wentai and others, the suspects of murdering the late emperor, to the Imperial Prison. Lord Gu, please arrange where to temporarily detain them?"

"Zhang Yu?"

"Liu Wentai?"

Li Dongyang closed his mouth at this time, his heart sank, and his face became strange. When he looked up, he suddenly saw Zhang Yu, Liu Wentai and others right in front of him, and they were all handcuffed with iron chains!
Li Dongyang felt as if he had been slapped hard in the face. He stood blankly in the cell, muttering to himself:

"How is this possible! How is this possible! How could this be the result! Shouldn't they have been silenced? What's going on? This is impossible! This is absolutely impossible! Weren't Wang Shu and his group slaughtered? They should have been slaughtered as well! Why are they still in the imperial prison?" Wang Yue was also stunned. He saw that Li Dongyang had been very indifferent after being taken to the imperial prison, and even ridiculed Gu Dayong from time to time. He was very proud of himself just now. Therefore, he thought that Li Dongyang had really succeeded in silencing Zhang Yu and others, otherwise he would not have been so presumptuous.

But at this moment, when he saw Zhang Yu and others appear, he looked at Li Dongyang in confusion, thinking: "My Li Gefu, the person has not been killed yet, why are you so proud!"

Now it was Gu Dayong's turn to be happy.

Gu Dayong laughed so hard that he started coughing. "My family is useless, but if you say our emperor is useless, you traitors are really blind. To tell you the truth, when the late emperor passed away, the emperor suspected you and even took out all his family assets to have the East Factory secretly send people to follow Zhang Yu and others, all for this day!"

Gu Dayong sneered as he spoke: "Li Dongyang, Wang Yue, all of you should think about how to beg for mercy from the emperor so that you don't have to take a few more cuts. This will also save your energy, so that you won't have the energy to cry out in pain when you are tortured to death!"

As he spoke, Gu Dayong asked Captain You: "Have you reported this to the Emperor?"

"Our governor and scholar Wang have already rushed to the palace. I estimate that an imperial edict will be issued soon!" Captain You replied.

Gu Dayong nodded after hearing this: "Let's eat first. There will definitely be a big case next. Only when we are full will we have the strength to work. Feed them too! To prevent them from committing suicide!"

Gu Dayong pointed at Zhang Yu and the others, and patted Zhang Yu and Liu Wentai on the shoulders: "It has come to this. I believe you all know that you are doomed and that someone wants to silence you. I will say something for your own good. Tell the truth when the court brings you to trial. Tell as much as you know and what you have done. Maybe you can keep your body intact!"

Zhang Yu also looked at Li Dongyang meaningfully. He also knew that if he didn't fall into the hands of Emperor Zhu Houzhao, he would fall into the hands of Li Dongyang and be killed by Li Dongyang and others. Based on the mentality that if I don't live well, you can't live well either, Zhang Yu said directly: "Don't worry, Eunuch Gu, we will tell the truth!"

……

Zhu Houzhao was already excited when he saw Ma Yongcheng and others appear. Without asking, he guessed that as long as Ma Yongcheng and others were not dead, it meant that arresting Zhang Yu and others was not that bad.

At this time, after Ma Yongcheng and others reported that Zhang Yu and others had been successfully arrested and imprisoned, Zhu Houzhao was in a better mood and hurriedly ordered: "Open the palace gate immediately and summon Ma Yongcheng to the palace!"

As Zhu Houzhao was speaking, Gao Feng couldn't help but ask, "Then your majesty, what about these kneeling ministers?"

"Let them kneel, let them kneel according to the court order, and all officials from various departments should kneel at Fengtian Gate. Today, I will personally hear the case of the assassination of the late emperor! The case will be presided over by Grand Tutor Ma, and the three judicial officials will join the trial. The governor of the East Factory Ma Yongcheng, the governor of the West Factory Gu Dayong, and the deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Guo Rong will be the jury. Let these officials wait at Fengtian Gate first! I will also personally come to Fengtian Gate to hear the case later!"

Zhu Houzhao said this and returned to the Qianqing Palace.

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(End of this chapter)