My father ordered me to kill the emperor, but His Majesty bestowed a princess upon me instead.

The third day of the court assembly.

The matter of the emperor using the imperial seal alone was finally brought to the last table.

There are no old accounts on this table.

There are only four seals.

The emperor's private seal.

Imperial edicts and seals issued by the Central Secretariat.

Imperial Guard Order Seal.

Seal of the Supervisor of Disaster Relief for Princess Zhaoning.

I did not display my imperial censor's seal.

It's not that it's unimportant.

Pei Shen said that if anything is placed on the table, Ah Liu's handprint must also be placed there.

Ah Liu was very excited after hearing this.

Bai Zhi kicked him out.

The Ministry of Rites proposed three solutions.

the first.

The emperor continued to use the imperial seal alone.

A separate post-event review will be conducted.

The emperor liked it.

My mother doesn't like it.

The reason is simple.

Everyone was killed.

The only thing that can be checked afterward is the coffin.

second.

All imperial edicts must be signed by all three parties.

My mother doesn't like it.

The emperor disliked it even more.

The daily tasks included providing grain relief, transferring officials, and repairing rivers.

The imperial court is harder to open than a stone gate.

third.

Categorize the imperial edicts.

For ordinary government decrees, the emperor could still use the imperial seal alone.

The four types of serious orders must be accompanied by a fact sheet and witnessed by the other party.

kill.

Imprisonment.

Seal the tent.

Large-scale troop deployment.

If the imperial family is involved, an additional party besides the Imperial Clan Court will be involved.

If the Southwest Army is involved, the Ministry of War and the Jiangbei Grain Depot shall witness and sign separately.

If witnesses from previous cases are involved, their death cannot be confirmed solely by the same party who was guarding the witness.

This method is the most troublesome.

Also the most useful.

The emperor asked:

"Who is the other party?"

Pei Shen said, "It's not fixed."

Why?

"If it's fixed, it will be replaced."

Wei Zhi is a fixed person.

One change.

All the edicts were changed accordingly.

The other party needs to adapt to changing circumstances.

The execution of an official of the Ministry of Justice was witnessed by the Censorate and disinterested witnesses.

The Jiangbei tent was sealed, and the Jiangbei representative who had returned to Jiangbei was verified by the Ministry of Revenue in a different location.

Troops were transferred from the southwest, and the source of military provisions was verified by the Ministry of War.

No one is loyal forever.

It forces anyone who wants to commit a fraud to deceive even more people each time.

The emperor finished reading it.

"the term?"

The mother said, "The old debts are settled."

"When will it end?"

"have no idea."

The emperor's face darkened.

"If you don't know, you might be ignorant for a lifetime."

"Is Your Majesty afraid of being watched over for the rest of your life?"

"I fear that some people will use old grievances as an excuse not to settle them."

"To forever retain imperial power."

That's a valid concern.

Any temporary system could grow into a new Wang family procedure.

Bai Zhi added a final point:

Unresolved matters will be made public every thirty days.

Each item must explain why it is not yet resolved.

If no new facts are added, the witness limit will be automatically reduced.

You cannot simply write "to be checked".

Even if something is pending investigation, there should be progress updates.

The emperor finished reading it.

"One hundred days".

The mother said, "Three hundred days."

"Too long."

"Eleven years isn't a long time?"

"That's not how you calculate it."

The two of them started again.

I listened for about fifteen minutes.

The final line:

"One hundred and eighty days."

The emperor and my mother were looking at me at the same time.

I explained:

"To be carried out within the first ninety days."

"A public review will be held 90 days later."

"If new facts emerge from the existing debts, the deadline will be extended by ninety years."

"If not, deduct automatically."

The emperor asked, "Who proposed the extension?"

"Any party can raise this issue."

"Who gave the permission?"

"Open court discussions."

"Another court meeting?"

"If Your Majesty doesn't like it, you can finish checking the accounts quickly."

He stared at me for a long time.

"You're becoming more and more like Gu Qinghe."

The mother said, "What's wrong with being like me?"

The emperor did not answer.

The 180-day trial period was eventually written down in twelve pages.

There was no such thing as a "restriction order on imperial seals".

This name sounds too much like a power grab.

Only call:

The interim law is attached as a supplementary document to the original order.

The name is very long.

It's not easy to just shout slogans.

This is good.

The four words that the accounting committee likes the most.

The shorter it is, the less people will ask what's written inside.

Before the emperor signed, he first asked twelve witnesses from Jiangbei to sign.

It's not about letting them decide the system of the world.

The question is whether the four types of serious orders related to oneself should be subject to further investigation.

Ten out of twelve people agreed.

One person couldn't understand.

One person objected.

The objector was a woman from Yong'an who had returned to her original household registration.

she says:

"One more person to sign."

"It could just be one more bad guy."

The emperor asked, "Then what do you think should be done?"

The woman said:

"The person signing must provide their address."

"They can be found even if they run away."

Someone inside the hall laughed.

It's not mockery.

I think it's too straightforward.

Bai Zhi, however, included this in the appendix format.

Name of the person who handled the matter.

Current position.

Place of origin.

You can ask where they live.

Palace eunuchs who had no home wrote down the names of their assigned rooms and roommates.

Soldiers wrote down their battalion numbers and sent their families to collect their grain rations.

The only thing left to sign was an official title.

The woman finished reading.

"That's fine."

The emperor stamped his seal.

It wasn't covered separately.

He signed first.

Xiao Jingheng.

Then affix the personal seal.

The Secretariat, the Inner Guard, the Censorate, and the Jiangbei Witness were responsible for sealing off the border.

The mother did not sign.

She is not a policymaker.

Write only in the witness section:

Gu Qinghe was present.

I disagree with the 100-day period.

The decision to reconsider within 180 days is approved.

Even things they disagreed with were left behind.

By the time the system was finalized, the emperor was exhausted.

The Imperial Medical Academy sent him back to Changning Palace.

But he did not get up.

"There's one more thing."

I asked, "What?"

"Shen Lie will not go to the capital."

"I will not go to Qingxia either."

His mother looked at him.

"so?"

"We can't let the disputes between the two places be resolved forever by post horses."

The emperor said, "Find a place."

"I and he will both go."

The hall fell silent.

The Minister of War was the first to object.

"Your Majesty must not leave the capital!"

The Minister of the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs also said:

"Shen Lie is a traitor."

"How could His Majesty possibly witness this in person!"

The emperor looked at his mother.

"Where do you think it is?"

The mother answered quickly.

"Yong'an".

There are six real cards there.

The stone gate is there.

Jiangbei is registered there.

Wang Heng was also imprisoned there.

It was not the emperor's palace.

It wasn't Shen Lie's military camp either.

The emperor asked, "Will he come?"

The mother said, "Ask."

Qingxia sent an urgent message on the spot.

It was not an imperial edict.

It was just a factual inquiry.

Xiao Jingheng planned to verify the grain accounts in Jiangbei, the accounts of the dead soldiers in the southwest, and the order to kill the emperor at the old granary in Yong'an.

Was Shen Lie present?

If not.

State the reason.

Do not write "By summons".

He also did not write a letter of defiance.

All I ask is whether you're coming or not.

The post horse travels day and night.

He did not return that night.

There was none the following morning.

The emperor began to grow impatient.

"Is he scared?"

The mother said, "It's not that fast to get from Qingxia to Yong'an."

"I know."

"Then we'll wait."

"I'm just asking."

I think the emperor and my father are indeed very similar in some ways.

They both like to say the other person is scared while they're waiting.

The first reply arrived in the afternoon.

It wasn't Shen Lie.

It's Xu Sandao.

Write only:

The military tents were not sealed.

General Shen will not leave Qingxia for the time being.

reason:

He was afraid that someone would change the accounts after he left.

The emperor sneered.

"Does he not trust his own troops?"

I said, "At least be honest."

The second reply arrived at dusk.

Written by the father.

There are four lines in total.

Xiao Jingheng left the capital.

Shen Lie crossed the gorge.

Each of them brought twenty guards.

Without a large army.

Not living in the same hospital.

Gu Qinghe sat in the middle.

The mother read the last line.

"He knows how to make arrangements for me."

The emperor asked, "You don't want to?"

"willing."

Why?

"You two speak."

"Someone has to write it down."

The emperor asked me:

"And you?"

"I will go too."

"In what capacity?"

"Censor-in-Chief".

"Shen Lie's son?"

"Also there."

"The Prince Consort of Zhaoning?"

"Also there."

The emperor frowned.

"You have too many identities."

"Therefore, each stroke is written separately."

Xiao Lingyi said:

"I will go too."

The emperor looked at her.

"You stay in Beijing."

"Not keeping them."

"The capital city needs someone to supervise the project."

"Pei Shen is here."

Pei Shen stood to the side.

I disagree.

Xiao Lingyi said, "I'll write down your opinion."

Pei Shen remained silent.

He probably realized for the first time that his way of speaking was annoying to himself.

The final itinerary is set for three days from now.

The emperor left the capital.

Shen Lie crossed the gorge.

Reconciliation of accounts at Yong'an Old Warehouse.

The message was not blocked.

It was posted next to the news of the future death of the Zongzheng Temple that day.

His Majesty will travel to Yong'an in three days.

Still alive today.

Someone asked after watching:

"If the emperor leaves the city, will Shen Lie kill him?"

The person next to him answered:

"Shen Lie is coming too."

"What if the emperor arrests us?"

The third person said:

"Gu Qinghe sits in the middle."

"Neither of them would dare."

I think the people of Beijing are becoming more and more accurate in judging accounts.

The night before departure.

The mother sat in the courtyard of the princess's residence, basking in the moonlight.

The body is still weak.

The physician Song forbade her from being exposed to the wind.

She wore two layers of clothing.

He still refused to go back inside.

I sat next to him.

"daughter."

"Um."

"Are you really going to sit in the middle?"

"Scared?"

"I'm afraid they'll start fighting."

"Won't."

Why?

"A disease."

"An old man."

She said, "I can't break through."

If the two of them heard this...

They'll probably both get angry at the same time.

I asked, "What if neither of them admits their mistake?"

"Write."

"What if they admit it but won't change?"

"Keep writing."

"What if one of us really has to die in the end?"

The mother looked at the moon.

"Then let the damned one speak for himself."

"Why do you deserve to die?"

"Don't let your son say it."

She reached out her hand.

Just like the day the stone gate opened, grasp my wrist.

"An'er".

"Um."

"This time."

"You're not standing behind anyone."

"Stand beside the tent."

Three days later.

Before the emperor left the palace, Gu Xingzhi personally inspected the three carriages.

The first car was for the emperor.

The second vehicle was placed in the public account.

The third one was empty.

Ah Liu asked what the empty car was doing.

Gu Xingzhi said, "To prevent someone from writing a living person as a corpse on the road."

My father also brought three cars when crossing the gorge.

A military tent.

A wounded soldier.

One of them was also empty.

Neither side was willing to explain.

Looking at the two vehicle brochures, I suddenly understood.

They say they don't believe each other.

The method of preventing death is quite similar.

Xiao Lingyi wrote my name in the fourth column: Accompanying Accountant.

They were not the emperor's guards.

He is not Shen Lie's son.

At least along the way, I didn't have to stand in any empty car.

The emperor's carriage departed from the capital.

The father's horse crossed the Qingxia Gorge.

Both roads lead to Yong'an.

A self-reproach edict that was not fully covered.

A decree for regicide that has not been revoked.

And then I suddenly realized...

The stone gate in Yong'an that has already been opened.

They may not have really released everyone yet.