Catching Monsters

Chapter 542 The law does not punish the public?

Since the events that occurred, including the Fourth Prince Xiao Jingfu suddenly ordering the Imperial Guards to seal off the capital city.

Xiao Jingzhi knew very well that it was impossible for him to ascend the throne smoothly by relying solely on these civil officials.

Now, the eighth prince, Xiao Jingqing, has won the emperor's favor.

Those military officers and nobles who were not initially implicated by Xiao Jingfu gradually gravitated towards the Eighth Prince.

Jiang Yun was in charge of the Eastern Garrison Command and had married Xu Suwen from the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion. Xu Xiaogang was also leading a large army.

Most importantly, Jiang Yun and Xu Xiaogang are not Lao Ba's men.

In Xiao Jingzhi's eyes, Jiang Yun was a golden nugget, a real treasure.

This is a good opportunity to tell Jiang Yun the news and further win him over.

As a result, Xiao Jingzhi couldn't be bothered to care about the fate of these ministers.

……

Outside the Imperial Study, many ministers had already come to pay their respects to Xiao Yuzheng.

Moreover, all the people who came were of considerable status.

The one with the most noble status is naturally the newly appointed Prince Fu, Xiao Yuqin.

Xiao Yuqin was in his early twenties, with a standard square face and slightly dark complexion. At this moment, he was dressed in princely attire and was standing in front of many officials.

A prince of this age is considered extremely young.

The old Prince Fu was considered to have had a son late in life, and he doted on Xiao Yuqin in every way.

Beside him were many officials, who remained silent, their eyes occasionally glancing at Xiao Yuqin in front of them.

Everyone knew perfectly well why they had come, but it was a difficult thing to say.

After all, everyone knew why he was poisoned by Gu. Now, they wanted His Majesty to sacrifice Jiang Yun to save everyone's lives. Most of the people present were prominent figures in the capital, so it was really hard for them to say such a thing.

The only hope is that Xiao Yuqin, who is at the front, will take the lead and speak up for them.

Inside the imperial study, Xiao Yuzheng glanced coldly at the crowd outside the window and snorted, "What are these guys trying to do?"

Feng Yu, standing nearby, whispered, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid they've come together to ask Your Majesty to cure their poison..."

"Cure the poison." Xiao Yuzheng snorted coldly and said, "This poison was administered by Monk Hongguang. If they want to, they should ask Monk Hongguang for help."

"It's only because I'm old and don't like killing anymore. If it were when I was young, I would have killed all of these guys. How could they still be standing outside the Imperial Study?"

Hearing Xiao Yuzheng's angry words, Feng Yu whispered a reminder: "Your Majesty, Prince Fu is also among them."

Prince Fu served as the head of the Imperial Clan Court for many years and held considerable prestige among the imperial family.

"Why don't you go and see Prince Fu?"

Hearing Feng Yu's words, Xiao Yuzheng frowned, but still nodded slightly, which was considered as agreeing with Feng Yu's suggestion.

Soon, the door to the Imperial Study opened, and Feng Yu looked at the crowd outside.

"Gentlemen, please return. Prince Fu, please stay. His Majesty wishes to see you."

Xiao Yuqin was not surprised to hear this. He had already made up his mind that if His Majesty did not see him, he would wait here.

Soon, Xiao Yuqin followed Feng Yu into the Imperial Study.

"Your Majesty." Xiao Yuqin knelt down immediately after entering the imperial study, bowing his head respectfully.

Xiao Yuzheng stared at him expressionlessly and said, "Prince Fu, you've come here to take Jiang Yun's life. Please ask Monk Hongguang to remove the Gu poison from your body?"

"Yes." Xiao Yuqin was somewhat surprised to hear this, not expecting Xiao Yuzheng to be so straightforward.

Originally, he thought he needed to think about how to bring this up.

He took a deep breath and said, "Your Majesty is wise. I and many ministers in the court were confused for a moment..."

"A moment of confusion?" Xiao Yuzheng interrupted him directly, saying coldly, "To be more precise, a woman from the Western Regions whose identity is unknown came to visit in the middle of the night."

“You bunch of guys dared to bring them into the room.”

"I haven't even punished you yet, and you have the nerve to come to me on behalf of these bastards, even wanting to exchange Jiang Yun's head for your lives?"

Hearing Xiao Yuzheng's curses, Xiao Yuqin's heart skipped a beat. He took a deep breath and slowly said, "Your Majesty is wise. It is indeed my own fault for suffering from this Gu poison. But if Jiang Yun does not offend Master Hongguang..."

"Master Hongguang should also be able to remove the poison from us."

"To put it another way, Master Hongguang is, after all, the national teacher of a Buddhist country in the Western Regions. His visit to our Zhou Kingdom can be considered as that of a foreign envoy."

"As the garrison commander of the Eastern Garrison, Jiang Yun not only failed to properly receive Master Hongguang, but also angered him."

“Master Hongguang is highly respected in Buddhism. If Jiang Yun is not severely punished, it may cause Buddhism to have opinions against our court.”

Xiao Yuzheng narrowed his eyes and coldly retorted, "Who dares to have any objections?"

"Go ask the five major Buddhist temples if anyone has any objections."

Xiao Yuqin's mouth was slightly open, and he was somewhat speechless. After a moment, he took a deep breath and said, "But he offended the foreign envoy..."

“It was I who ordered him to offend them; he was acting on imperial orders.”

Xiao Yuzheng's single sentence completely killed the game.

Everything was Xiao Yuzheng's order. After hearing this, Xiao Yuqin was stunned for a long time, but he didn't know what to say next.

"Get out! Whether you live or die is up to fate, you bunch of good-for-nothings." After saying that, Xiao Yuzheng waved his hand and smashed all the memorials on the imperial study to the ground.

Startled, Xiao Yuqin's face turned slightly pale: "Then, I'll take my leave."

After saying that, he lowered his head and retreated with some fear.

Xiao Yuzheng took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and slowly said, "This strange poison, go ask Mr. Ye if he has a way to cure it."

Seeing this, Feng Yu understood that killing Jiang Yun was definitely out of the question.

Not to mention that Xiao Yuzheng already liked Jiang Yun, Xu Xiaogang is currently leading troops on the front lines.

To save the lives of a group of court officials, and with Jiang Yun having done nothing wrong, Xu Xiaogang's family was killed?

Xiao Yuzheng is not a foolish ruler.

However, whether it was Xiao Yuqin or the other officials who were poisoned by the Gu, their families had been operating in the capital for many years and had many kinship ties with the royal family. Many of them were people whom Xiao Yuzheng had gradually promoted.

The list contains as many as sixty or seventy people. It would be a pity if they all died because of Hongguang.

Xiao Yuzheng still wanted to see if he could find an antidote.

At this moment, when Prince Fu, Xiao Yuqin, walked out of the palace, more than forty ministers and nobles were anxiously waiting outside the palace gates.

Upon seeing Xiao Yuzheng emerge, many people hurried over: "Prince Fu, what did His Majesty say?"

"We have been loyal to His Majesty for many years. Surely His Majesty won't just abandon us?"

Xiao Yuqin felt irritated listening to these people's words. His face darkened, and suddenly an idea came to him. He said, "Let's go to the Jiang residence."

"To the Jiang residence?"

The people present were slightly taken aback and all looked at Xiao Yuzheng. Among them, Zhao Yuming, the Minister of Works, couldn't help but ask, "Prince Fu, what are you planning to do?"

Xiao Yuqin frowned and slowly said, "Follow me!"

Xiao Yuqin's eyes also hardened. As a prince, he understood that Master Hongguang's words were no joke.

If Jiang Yun isn't killed within three days, people will really die.

Isn't His Majesty reluctant to kill Jiang Yun?
Row!
Xiao Yuqin was also determined. He led his men to the Jiang residence and went to kill Jiang Yun with his sword.

Of course, he also knew that Jiang Yun, as the commander of the Eastern Garrison, was said to be a first-rate expert.

He didn't expect to be able to cut off Jiang Yun's head himself.

Instead, he went to provoke Jiang Yun, hoping that Jiang Yun would take action against him and the ministers behind him.

If Jiang Yun loses his temper and gets angered, and injures himself, that would be a capital offense.

According to the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the royal family enjoys many privileges, and injuring a member of the royal family is a capital offense.

……

“Brother Jiang, I’ve explained everything to you very clearly, so why aren’t you worried?”

In the living room of the Jiang residence, Xiao Jingzhi was sitting inside, holding a cup of tea that Jiang Yun had brewed, but he had no interest in drinking it.

Jiang Yun sat to the side, looking completely calm. As the head of the Eastern Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he knew about this matter even earlier than Xiao Jingzhi.

"Thank you for coming all this way, Your Highness," Jiang Yun said with a smile. "But there's no use in rushing this matter."

“As long as His Majesty doesn’t want my head, these ministers can’t take it away.”

Xiao Jingzhi naturally understood this principle, but since he had already come all this way, he definitely had to pretend to be anxious.

"Brother Jiang, it's always good to be prepared. What if..."

"Oh no, sir!"

Suddenly, Yun Pingchuan's voice rang out from outside the living room. Yun Pingchuan rushed in, sweat dripping from his forehead: "There are a lot of people outside our mansion who are trying to break in. We can't stop them."

"Breaking into our Jiang residence?" Jiang Yun narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "What's your background?"

"Prince Fu, the Minister of Works, officials from the Ministry of Rites, and the Censorate..."

Yun Pingchuan was anxious and couldn't explain it clearly for a moment.

Soon, Jiang Yun could hear the sound of heavy footsteps outside. He glanced at Xiao Jingzhi beside him and said, "Your Highness, please rest for a moment. I'll go out and see what's going on."

After saying that, Jiang Yun got up and walked out of the living room.

At this moment, a large group of more than forty people had arrived in the courtyard outside the living room.

The leader among them was Xiao Yuqin, who held a long sword in his hand and had a murderous look on his face.

Seeing this, Jiang Yun remained calm and slowly asked, "And who is this?"

"I am Prince Fu, Xiao Yuqin." When Xiao Yuqin saw Jiang Yun again, his eyes were filled with hatred.

Jiang Yun frowned and couldn't help but say, "So it's Prince Fu. This must be Lord Zhao Yuming from the Ministry of Works. I've met him before."

"Is this Lord Changshi, the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate?"

"Lord Zheng Yuhui, Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review."

Jiang Yun only recognized a few people in the crowd. As for the others, they were probably officials from various government departments or young sons of military officers and noble families.

There were just too many people, and Jiang Yun couldn't recognize them all.

Jiang Yun glanced at Xiao Yuqin with a calm expression and said, "Prince Fu has barged into my residence with a sword. What is your intention?"

Xiao Yuqin said slowly, "Jiang Yun, you have offended Master Hongguang. Now that the master is unwilling to remove the Gu poison from us, this debt will naturally be settled with you."

"Perfect timing, today I'll settle both my old and new scores with you."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yun quickly raised his hand: "Stop for now. Let's forget about new grudges, and how can we bring up old ones? Prince Fu, it seems we've never met before, have we?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yuqin clenched his fists and said coldly, "When you first arrived in the capital, you were so audacious that you imprisoned me in the imperial prison as well..."

"Oh, yes, yes, that's right. Were you there too?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yun couldn't help but slap his forehead; indeed, a lot of people had been arrested back then.

After Xiao Yuqin finished speaking, he drew his sword and rushed towards Jiang Yun, ready to strike Jiang Yun with a fierce blow.

"presumptuous!"

In the living room behind him, Xiao Jingzhi finally couldn't sit still any longer. After shouting loudly, he walked out. Although his fat body made him walk slowly, he still had the air of a prince.

"Xiao Jingzhi." Xiao Yuqin was stunned when he saw this, not expecting Xiao Jingzhi to be here.

After Xiao Jingzhi came out, he stood in front of Jiang Yun and said, "Prince Fu, how dare you! Jiang Yun is the Commander of the Eastern Garrison, a court official, and also the Marquis of Weinan, appointed by my father."

"You actually broke into his manor with a sword, intending to kill him?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yuqin's face also showed a solemn expression, clearly not expecting Xiao Jingzhi to appear here.

Xiao Yuqin was certainly aware of Jiang Yun's identity, but as the saying goes, the law does not punish the masses, which is why he brought so many court officials with him.

(End of this chapter)