The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 399 Court Meeting
clang~ clang~ clang~
The bell tolled at the Meridian Gate, the palace gates opened, and officials entered in turn through the left and right side gates, crossed the Golden Water Bridge, and arrived at the square in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Yan Song walked at the front, his eyes fixed straight ahead.

The officials following behind him began to whisper among themselves, and the conversation grew increasingly noisy as time went on.

The route is wrong.

According to the previous plan, Yan Song was supposed to lead all the officials to force the emperor to appear in court today. The location should have been outside the Meridian Gate.

In recent years, the emperor has been lazy in governing and has rarely attended court. Many officials who were promoted later have never even entered the Meridian Gate. But today, the Meridian Gate opened automatically, welcoming them in.

This doesn't seem like a coup d'état... it's more like a court session.

The officials strode forward, and the Fengtian Hall came into view.

Outside the palace, an old eunuch stood solemnly with his eyes downcast, holding a long whip. As the officials poured into the square, he slowly relaxed his shoulders, raised the whip high, and then lashed it out!

Snapped!
The long whip struck the ground, its sound echoing throughout the palace.

Snapped!Snapped!
Officials who had attended court during the emperor's early years of diligent governance were startled and fell silent.

This is called "three cracks of the whip," and anyone who speaks after this is deceiving the emperor!

And... they stared wide-eyed ahead.

After the three cracks of the whip, the next step should be—ascending the throne!

Sure enough, to their astonishment, a golden hue slowly approached.

The carriage is square, made of wood lacquered in vermilion, with four pillars covered in gold, and a three-tiered circular gold roof with twelve jade beads hanging from it. The wheels are decorated with gold and bronze, with vermilion spokes. The shafts are two zhang long. The four sides of the carriage are painted with twelve symbols, including the sun, moon, stars, mountains, dragons, and pheasants. The door curtains are embroidered with golden dragons, and jade bells hang at the four corners.

It was a dragon carriage, and the "Grand Carriage" was the highest-ranking dragon carriage.

And sitting upright with his eyes lowered on the imperial carriage, who else could it be but the reigning emperor!

The Minister of Rites, following behind Yan Song, inwardly cursed the situation. Although they had come today specifically to confront Zhu Zai, their stated reason was to request the emperor to assume personal rule. However, before they could even force the emperor to abdicate, he himself had appeared, rendering their previous plans essentially useless!

What should we do!

He looked at Yan Song, trying to make some conversation, but before he could speak, he saw Yan Song lift the front of his robe, kneel down gracefully, and bow his head to the ground.

The next moment, the surrounding Imperial Guards suddenly pounded the ground with their scabbards and chanted in unison, "Form ranks—"

He suddenly realized what was happening, immediately knelt down, and shouted.

"Long live! Long live! Long live!"

The event happened suddenly, and the officials were not prepared. The chants of praise were initially chaotic, but gradually became more orderly and eventually converged into a single sound that spread outwards from the square.

Yan Song, kneeling on the ground, sighed inwardly.

This is imperial power.

This is how power and influence are used for personal gain!
Without any special methods, simply by showing himself and cracking his whip three times, the raging fire he had painstakingly ignited in the hearts of the officials was immediately extinguished by 30%.

No matter how dissatisfied the officials were with the emperor handing over power to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, they could only bow their heads and kowtow. Because this was imperial power, this was the emperor!

Others might have hesitated because of this, but Yan Song's eyes only showed more and more greed... It was this unparalleled power that made him willing to gamble his life!
Being second only to the emperor and above all others is nothing compared to having the whole world bow down and wielding absolute power! If the emperor himself hadn't met with misfortune, he would never have had the chance to seize the greatest power in the land... but it was Zhu Zai who gave him that opportunity!

Getting rid of Zhu Zai is far simpler than seizing power from the emperor himself!
After kowtowing one last time, Yan Song slowly rose, bowed respectfully, and his eyes were filled with gloom.

"His Majesty has been forced out, and today's objective has been achieved."

"It's your turn to make a move."

His gaze swept toward the emperor's side.

There are two people there.

Zhu Zai, dressed in a blue python robe like him, and Li Miao, dressed in a flying fish robe and holding a golden mace, were also present. "As that eunuch Liu Jin said, His Majesty is now just a puppet. The real decision-makers are these two."

"Come on, come on, let me see what methods you plan to use to suppress this surging public sentiment!"

Yan Song shifted his gaze to Li Miao, a disdainful smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

Just then, Li Miao's gaze also fell upon them.

The two looked at each other from afar.

Li Miao's lips slowly curved upwards, revealing his gleaming white teeth. He moved his lips, making a few mouth shapes.

"You, laughing, where, your, mother, is?"

Yan Song's smile vanished.

The next moment, the emperor on the dragon throne spoke calmly.

"Today, I am quite pleased to find that all of you ministers are of one mind with me. I had intended to convene a meeting of all officials, but I did not expect that you would all be here. I am very pleased."

"Before we begin, I have three things to announce."

"Firstly, there was the major epidemic in Tai'an Prefecture last year."

Yan Song frowned.

After colluding with the Eastern Depot, Liu Jin naturally told him everything Li Miao had done. He naturally knew that the incident in Tai'an Prefecture was a conflict between the Ming Cult and Li Miao.

But the matter has already been settled, and even the Ming Cult has been destroyed. What does the emperor want to do by bringing this up now?
The emperor waved his hand.

"Zhu Aiqing".

Zhu Zai turned around, cupped his hands in greeting, and then took a few steps forward, spreading his voice aloud with his inner energy.

"Upon investigation by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it was found that the great plague in Tai'an Prefecture was caused by Liu Zhe, the commander of the Southern Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, colluding with the Ming Cult to spread poison into the city in an attempt to cause chaos."

He waved his hand.

A group of Imperial Guards emerged from behind the hall, dragging out a middle-aged man who was dressed in rags and covered in wounds, and pinning him down at the foot of the steps in front of the hall.

The man raised his head and looked at Yan Song, who was just inches away. His eyes lit up as if he had seen a savior. He opened his mouth to speak, but only managed to let out a muffled sob.

His tongue has been cut off.

Yan Song stared expressionlessly at the man, or rather, Liu Zhe, the commander of the Southern Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Knowing that he was an enemy of Zhu Zai, he naturally wanted to plant some spies in the opposing camp. Liu Zhe, who lived in the capital for a long time and did not go out on missions, was more like a civil official than a military general, and he was the target he chose.

Moreover, he had successfully turned Liu Zhe to the side. The fact that Liu Jinyi was able to infiltrate Zhu Yijing's side for so long before being discovered was precisely because Liu Zhe had put in the effort.

Unexpectedly, the nail became useless before it even began to serve its purpose.

Yan Song and Li Miao's eyes met in mid-air.

Li Miao smiled and suddenly waved his hand.

Puff! —

The head fell to the ground and rolled to Yan Song's feet. The empty gaze looked at his face, and the eyes gradually lost their luster.

Yan Song subtly moved his feet and kicked Liu Zhe's head away.

Then the emperor spoke in a deep voice.

"Li Miao, the commander of the Northern Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, made outstanding contributions during the great epidemic in Tai'an and was promoted to the position of Vice Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

(End of this chapter)