Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 83 Zhang Yu and others confess the death of the late emperor
After Zhu Houzhao listened to the details about the arrest of Zhang Yu and other important criminals from Ma Yongcheng and Wang Yangming, he finally understood what had happened in Shaanxi before. He also realized that Ma Yongcheng and others had never come to Beijing with Wang Shu. This caused Li Dongyang to mistakenly believe that Wang Shu and his group were massacred as Zhang Yu and others were successfully silenced. As a result, Zhu Houzhao also thought that Zhang Yu and others were successfully silenced at the beginning.

Now hearing that Zhang Yu and others had not been silenced, Zhu Houzhao naturally felt more confident in declaring war on the entire civil service group outside the palace!

in fact.

At this time, the atmosphere in the Forbidden City had unexpectedly become serious.

The civil servants who had originally been furious about coming to the Forbidden City to kneel and force Zhu Houzhao to compromise because they heard that the emperor had indiscriminately thrown Li Dongyang and others into prison now guessed what this meant when they heard that Zhang Yu and others were escorted to Beijing.

Most of the civil servants in Beijing, especially those above the fifth rank, were not stupid people. In fact, they had all heard that Emperor Hongzhi might have been murdered, but they were unwilling to bring up the matter proactively. Even the censors who heard the rumor did not think of making a fuss about it.

The reason is simple: everyone is willing to see Emperor Hongzhi pass away.

Because rumors had already been leaked, Emperor Hongzhi summoned Ma Wensheng before his death, intending to order Liu Jian, Li Dongyang and others to retire and reorganize the cabinet to begin levying additional commercial taxes and reforming the civil service in order to fill the national treasury and reduce the people's suffering.

These civil servants will naturally care about who will be the cabinet ministers, but they are more concerned about whether their own interests can be protected.

Emperor Hongzhi's sudden desire to be a better emperor, that is, an emperor who ruled for the people, obviously infringed upon their interests, so they naturally wanted to see an event like the emperor's death created by the cabinet and the inner court.

Therefore, except for the rare case of Ma Wensheng, almost no civil servant was willing to be a detective and expose the truth. They also had no need to offend the cabinet and the inner court for the sake of the dead Emperor Hongzhi.

They were even willing to help cover up the fact that Li Dongyang and others were imprisoned. When they heard that Li Dongyang and others were imprisoned, they all came to plead for mercy, not hesitating to offend the emperor!
However, at this time, when they learned that Ma Yongcheng had brought Zhang Yu and other murderers who directly caused the death of Emperor Hongzhi to Beijing, they all knew that they could no longer help cover up the truth, and they even began to panic, because they didn't know how many people would be implicated once the truth was revealed. They could only hope that Zhu Houzhao would be more merciful and not implicate too many people!

Moreover, at this time, these civil servants in Beijing have even begun to regret coming to the palace to beg for Li Dongyang. Couldn't they just stay out of it?

"By order! All officials present must enter the palace and kneel outside the Fengtian Gate in accordance with the court order!"

As the official from the Imperial Household Department finished speaking, these civil servants entered the palace in an orderly manner and knelt outside the Fengtian Gate, not daring to say a word of complaint. There was nothing they could do about it, as they were deeply afraid that if they behaved improperly, His Majesty would treat them as Li Dongyang's accomplices.

Ma Wensheng also followed the order and walked to the outside of Fengtian Gate. At this time, the eunuchs had already placed a row of chairs there. Ma Wensheng, as the presiding judge, naturally sat in the center. Zuodu Yushi Dai Shan, Minister of Justice Min Gui, and Dali Temple Chief Justice Yang Shousui were all summoned out from the kneeling civil servants and sat on the left side of Ma Wensheng.

At this time, Ma Yongcheng, the governor of the East Factory, Gu Dayong, the governor of the West Factory, and Guo Rong, the deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, also came over and sat on the right side of Ma Wensheng.

At this time, Zhu Houzhao also appeared on the jade steps of Fengtian Gate in a jade sedan chair, staring at Ma Wensheng and others at the steps and the civil servants kneeling in front of him.

Jiao Fang and Xu Jin also appeared with Zhu Houzhao.

At this time, the Left Censor-in-Chief Dai Shan was obviously trembling. Zhu Houzhao could not help but ask, "Left Censor-in-Chief Dai Shan! Why are you trembling? Today you are the one who will judge others, not others who will judge you!"

Dai Shan did not stop shaking when Zhu Houzhao shouted at her. Instead, she shivered with fear and fell off the chair. She bowed to Zhu Houzhao and said:
"Your Majesty, I have no personal relationship with Li Dongyang. It's just that my student married his granddaughter, but I no longer recognize that student! Your Majesty, please understand!"

Zhu Houzhao was speechless for a while, waved his hand and said: "If that's the case, why are you panicking? Just sit down!"

Dai Shan nodded and sat back down, holding onto the back of the chair.

Ma Wensheng was speechless when he saw this, and he went straight to the point, saying: "Everyone, I'm sure you have heard recently about the treacherous ministers who have not fallen and the night crying in the imperial mausoleum. Your Majesty also heard that the late emperor had appeared in his dream, complaining about the injustice of being murdered, and told me that the death of the late emperor seemed to be unjust, and might have been caused by traitors and treacherous ministers!
Therefore, Ma Yongcheng, the governor of the East Factory, requested to arrest Zhang Yu and others who were guarding the border and bring them back to Beijing for retrial. Now that Zhang Yu and others have been escorted to Beijing, the case of the assassination of the late emperor will be retried today!"

As he spoke, Ma Wensheng shouted, “Bring people to capture Zhang Yu, Liu Wentai and others!”

At one point, Zhang Yu, Liu Wentai and others were brought up. The appearance of Zhang Yu and Liu Wentai made the civil servants present tremble with fear, and they even dared not look at Zhang Yu and Liu Wentai for fear of being implicated.

And at this time.

Zhang Yu himself was quite calm. He dragged the chain and walked towards Fengtian Gate step by step as if he was strolling in the garden, with a smile on his face.

Liu Wentai was not as calm as Zhang Yu. He just trembled and said, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I really don't want to die!"

Needless to say, the other major criminals were either silent, giggling for no reason, or crying unconsciously.

The first person to appear in front of Ma Wensheng and others was naturally Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu knelt down consciously.

Seeing this, Ma Wensheng asked, "Zhang Yu, you were the one who served the late emperor when he passed away. I would like to ask you now, was the late emperor murdered, and by whom?"

"We dare not conceal the fact that the late emperor was indeed murdered by Liu Wentai. Liu Wentai added an extra coin of aconite to each dose of the late emperor's medicine, and did not boil it first, which harmed the late emperor! The late emperor died from taking this hot medicine."

As soon as Zhang Yu's words came out, everyone in the room was in an uproar. Although everyone had guessed that the late emperor might have been murdered, they were still shocked after hearing what Zhang Yu said!
Even Zhu Houzhao himself couldn't help but clench his fists and looked at Zhang Yu coldly.

Ma Wensheng's breathing became rapid. He had initially suspected that the late emperor's death was suspicious. After learning the truth from Zhang Yu, he was naturally very angry. He gritted his teeth and asked, "Is there any evidence?"

"At that time, I was the only one who personally boiled the medicine for the late emperor. After boiling the medicine, I would remove the hot medicine from the residue and then show it to the late emperor. But to prevent any changes in the future, I did not remove the residue from the day before your majesty's death, and hid it under the third stone step of Fengtian Gate! There is also a nine-dragon jade pendant left by the late emperor!"

After Zhang Yu finished speaking, Ma Wensheng hurriedly asked Zhu Houzhao for permission to have the Jinyiwei commander-in-chief pry open the third stone step. As expected, there was a brocade box inside. When the brocade box was opened, there was indeed a pile of medicine residue and a nine-dragon jade pendant left by the previous emperor.

"This item is indeed something that belonged to the late emperor. I once saw him wearing it when I accompanied the late emperor out of the palace in disguise."

Jiao Fang, who once served as a Hanlin, said to Zhu Houzhao.

At this time, Yang Yingsui, the Dali Temple official who was quite knowledgeable about medicine, picked up the medicine residue and said, "Sure enough, there is aconite, and there is obviously a lot more of it. This is a very hot medicine. Liu Wentai, what crime should you be punished for!"

Plop!
Liu Wentai, who had been treating Emperor Hongzhi, knelt down and said, "This humble official was also coerced by Shao Xia!"

Hero Shao?
It was the first time that Zhu Houzhao had heard of Shao Da Xia. He thought that there was a Shao Da Xia during the Longwan period, but he did not expect that there was also a Shao Da Xia during the Hongzhi period who could force the imperial physician to kill the emperor.

At this time, Ma Wensheng had already questioned Liu Wentai: "Who is Shao Daxia, and how did he threaten you?"

"He killed one of my servants and threatened me to kill the late emperor within three days, otherwise my entire family would die tragically. He told me not to be afraid, saying that Li Gefu and Xie Gefu would protect my life!"

Liu Wentai replied.

As soon as Liu Wentai finished speaking, the officials present were once again greatly surprised and began to become more convinced that Li Dongyang and Xie Qian and others were indeed involved in the conspiracy to murder the late emperor.

Thanks to my book friend v梦之无限√4000起奇币reward. Thank you to my book friend 羽林子息100起奇币reward. Thank you to my book friend Youku 4 100起奇币reward.



(End of this chapter)