lady, please calm down

July twenty-first.

Just after the Yin hour, the heavy palace gate slowly opened.

The officials who had been waiting for a long time straightened their robes and walked in with their heads held high, like generals rushing to the battlefield.

Xie Kuo looked around the crowd and finally found Chen Jing'an, who was supposed to be standing at the front of the queue, at the back of the middle of the queue of officials.

"Sir Chen! We are paid by the state, so we should help Your Majesty. Sir Chen was once the governor of Anfeng, and is also an old official of Your Majesty's residence. We should take the lead in making suggestions and set an example for all officials!"

Xie Kuo rudely pulled Chen Jing'an's sleeve, but the latter pointed his finger at his mouth, with a look of pain on his face, "Ah ah ~ Wuuu ~"

An official who was following Chen Jing'an immediately explained for him: "Master Chen has a bad ulcer on his tongue and cannot speak."

"."

Oh, your illness comes at the right time. Although Xie Kuo was dissatisfied, due to Chen Jing'an's reputation, he bowed and walked back to Luo Ruji, Zhou Wei and others.

It seems that Chen Jingan has made up his mind to practice silent meditation.

Fortunately, among the officials who came to Lin'an from Huaibei, Chen Jing'an had the highest status. Although he did not dare to risk the world's condemnation and stand in opposition to the officials and gentry, he was able to remain neutral during the court session, which was considered a small victory for the officials and gentry in Jiangnan.

At 2:00 pm, the court meeting began.

For the first half hour, the old minister seemed to be accumulating strength, waiting to take action.

It was not until the morning court was halfway through that the Criminal Affairs Department took the lead and said, "Your Majesty, I heard last night that the incumbent magistrate of Changhua County, Lu Xiaozhai, and the family of the gentry Cao Ling were detained. Is your Majesty aware of this?"

The Imperial Censor did not dare to be presumptuous, for he knew that this was done by the emperor's personal army, but he asked this question deliberately for the sake of the emperor's face.

However, if Chen Chu said that he did not know, then the eldest son and others would have to take the blame.
Chen Chu replied calmly: "What if I know, what if I don't know?"

It sounds like an ambiguous answer, but it also hides some dangerous information. What's the matter? Even if I asked my personal army to do it, what can you do?

Seeing that the official was lowering his head, not knowing how to answer this question, Xie Kuo, the Minister of Justice, stepped out from the crowd and said, "Your Majesty! Although the laws of our Great Chu have not yet been revised and promulgated, no matter the laws of Qi or Zhou, the punishment of officials must be tried by the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple. However, regarding the matter of Changhua County, our Ministry of Justice did not receive any news in advance."

Chen Chu leaned forward and slowly leaned back on the wide chair. Then, Ruan Xianfang, who had moved from Anfeng Dynasty to Lin'an, stood up and said, "Thank you, sir. Changhua's matter is a little special."

"What's so special about it! Can you even throw away the laws of the court?"

Dali Temple Minister Zhou Wei immediately interrupted Ruan Xianfang's speech to the emperor. They knew to be more restrained, but they would not be polite to Ruan Xianfang, a servant of four surnames who had served as an official in the Jin, Qi, Zhou and Chu dynasties.

For a time, the court officials kept questioning and rebuking Ruan Xianfang.

The emperor's act of punishing officials without going through the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple harms the interests of all officials and gentry. Now that Ruan Xianfang dares to jump out and speak for the emperor, he becomes the enemy of all officials and gentry in the world!

Here, Chen Jing'an could not speak due to his "oral disease". Xu Bang, who had reflected on himself at home all night last night, wanted to show his sudden awakening in front of Lao Wu, but as soon as he said a word on behalf of Ruan Xianfang, all the officials turned their guns and aimed at the traitor who fled from the battlefield last night.

For more than ten years, Xu Bang relied on his status as the "sworn brother" to have a smooth career. Wherever he went, people looked up to him. He had never suffered the humiliation of being criticized by thousands of people.
Although he did not have much political talent and no great abilities, he had an advantage that other officials did not have. It was his carefree temperament that came from his background as a clerk.

Seeing Zhou Wei had put his finger on his nose, Xu Bang could not help but get angry and became furious. He grabbed Zhou Wei by the collar and punched him without caring that he was in the Golden Palace.
There was an uproar in the Chuigong Hall.

"Silence! Silence!"

On the imperial steps, Cao Xiaojian kept shouting.

The officials below turned a deaf ear to them, and the old ministers even relied on their numbers to attack Xu Bang and Ruan Xianfang.

Fortunately, Liu Maodan, who was on duty outside the palace, quickly led the Jinwu Guards inside and separated the two sides.

When Xu Bang saw that the person coming was Maodan, he immediately felt like he had seen a relative, and he kept shouting, "Maodan, let me go. If I don't beat him up until his face is covered with peach blossoms, I'm not the Xu family anymore."

"Everyone has the right to kill the traitor. Let's go out of the palace and fight again!"

Zhou Wei was not to be outdone.

"enough!"

A loud shout suddenly rang out in the Golden Throne Hall, which was as messy as a vegetable market.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the emperor's face was as gloomy as water.

The hall suddenly fell silent. Ruan Xianfang was the quickest to react. He knelt down and shouted, "We have behaved inappropriately in front of the emperor. This is extremely disrespectful. We deserve to die!"

Xu Bang was smart for once and quickly knelt down as well.

Seeing these two people act like this, Xie Kuo, Zhou Wei and others had no choice but to kneel down and say, "We are willing to die."

"My Lords, what's the difference between you and the street thugs? You are truly a key official of our Great Chu!"

The irony in Chen Chu's words was very obvious. After that, he stood up and walked away. It was not until his figure disappeared behind the screen that Cao Xiaojian shouted, "Dismissal."

The officials below looked at each other in bewilderment. Today they had made full preparations to make His Majesty make concessions on the Changhua issue.

How come I didn’t get the job done and got scolded?
Xie Kuo subconsciously looked at Xu Bang and Ruan Xianfang on the other side of the hall, and wondered if they were deliberately causing chaos in the hall in order to divert everyone's attention.

Thinking of this, Xie Kuo felt that he had been tricked by the two men, and without caring about anything else, he quickly got up and chased after them from the back of the hall.

Behind the Chuigong Hall is the Yanhe Hall, separated by the Jinyan Corridor. This area still belongs to the front court.

As soon as Chen Chu left the Chuigong Hall, the anger on his face disappeared.

After walking more than ten steps and entering the Jinyan Corridor, I saw several palace maids standing under the red wall. In front of the palace maids, there was a beautiful woman in palace dress sitting on a stone drum, holding a tabby cat in her arms.

At this moment, the sky was just getting bright. After being surprised, Chen Chu couldn't help but laugh, "What is Huan'er doing here?"

Hearing this, Cai Hua paused rubbing the cat's forehead with her fingers, raised her head and smiled with narrowed eyes, "Of course I'm waiting for His Majesty to leave the court."

"Haha, let's go."

Chen Chu reached out and held Cai Huan's hand.

This scene was both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

I say it is familiar because when I was in Caizhou, every evening, I could see many women waiting outside the market for their husbands to get off work and go home together.

The reason why it felt strange was that it was the first time for him to be picked up by his family after get off work.

Cai Huan handed the cat in her arms to the maid beside her, smiled and took Chen Chu's arm, and said, "How was it today? Those old guys were making a fuss again because of Changhua's matter, right?"

Chen Chu smiled before he spoke, but before he could open his mouth, he heard a voice from behind, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, wait a moment!"

When I turned around, it turned out to be the Minister of Justice Xie Kuo who was over 60 years old. He was really a lingering ghost, not letting me have peace even after the court was dismissed.

Looking at Lord Xie, who was getting closer and closer with sweat all over his forehead, Chen Chu probably remembered what Cai Huan had just said, "old fellow", and couldn't help laughing again.

Xie Kuo caught up with him, naturally because of Changhua’s matter.

But when he got closer, he found that there was a beautiful woman beside Chen Chu. Just by the latter's clothes, he guessed that this woman was Concubine Cai.

Although Cai had a bad reputation, Xie Kuo had never dealt with her.

Furthermore, among this group of old ministers represented by Xie Kuo, many believed that they were working hard for the Changhua cause for the sake of national justice and the laws of the court, and naturally occupied the moral high ground in their hearts.

Seeing that the imperial concubine had no intention of avoiding him, he could not help but bow and frown and said, "Your Majesty, if I remember correctly, this place still belongs to the front court, right?"

"Yes, what's the matter?"

"Since it belongs to the front court, the Imperial Concubine should not be here. Now the Empress is far away in Huaibei, and the Imperial Concubine's words and deeds are a role model for women in the south of the Yangtze River. The Imperial Concubine should concentrate on managing the harem. The front court is an important place for Your Majesty and the ministers to discuss national affairs. The Imperial Concubine's appearance here is inevitably suspected of interfering in politics."

"."

Cai Huan, who was teasing the tabby cat, turned around in surprise, not understanding why this old man was looking for trouble with her.

But Cai Huan's personality is such that even if others don't provoke her, there's no guarantee that she won't bully others, and this old man actually came to her door on his own initiative.

Cai Hua raised her eyebrows and said, "This old man must be too old to do anything. Otherwise, why would he speak so arrogantly this early in the morning just because he saw a loving couple?"

Can’t do anything???

Although Lord Xie had indeed retired from the army several years ago due to old age, he was still a man after all! Being humiliated by a woman in front of him, his old face immediately turned red with anger.

Even his breathing became rapid, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty"

He couldn't argue with the imperial concubine, so he had to call him "Your Majesty" repeatedly. He looked like a bullied kid in kindergarten, going to the teacher to make up for himself.

Chen Chu was really afraid that he would be suffocated and die of anger on the spot, so he turned to Cai Hua and said, "Don't be rude to Mr. Xie."

Well, Cai Huan just scolded Xie Kuo for being too old and incompetent, and Chen Chu followed suit and called him "Old Master Xie", and the "old" was just the right word.

"I know I was wrong"

Facing Chen Chu's criticism, Cai Huan hummed and admitted her mistake, imitating Yunong's clapper sounds.

"Thank you, old man. Do you have anything else to do?"

"I, I, this old minister is fine now!"

Xie Kuo stomped his feet, turned around and walked back.

In the front court, everyone thought that this morning's court meeting would be a fierce tug-of-war of words, but they did not expect it to end in such a hasty manner.

Chen Jing'an, who deliberately lagged behind other officials, walked out of the palace, but saw Chen Bokang, Luo Ruji and others waiting outside the palace.

Knowing that he couldn't avoid it, he had to step forward and bow.

Chen and Luo are now in a dilemma. They don't want to make things too awkward with the emperor, but they also don't want to alienate themselves from many old ministers. They want to discuss with Chen Jing'an a solution that both sides can accept to resolve the Changhua problem.

Chen Bokang invited the two to get on his carriage, then exchanged a glance with Luo Ruji, who finally spoke first: "Mr. Liuchuan, now that the new dynasty has just been established, all industries are waiting to be developed. The Changhua issue needs to be resolved as soon as possible to avoid affecting the operation of the court."

Chen Jingan nodded, agreeing that it should be resolved early.

Seeing this, Chen Bokang was silent for a few breaths, and finally said: "Shouqian, how about this? You go and persuade His Majesty to hand over Lu Xiaozhai, Cao Ling and others to the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple for trial; I will go and persuade Xie Kuo and Zhou Wei to let the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple deal with them according to His Majesty's wishes. How do you think?"

Chen Jing'an looked at Chen Bokang in surprise. The fact that the latter could come up with this idea was already a huge concession.

Handing the person over to the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple is in line with the procedures. The officials and gentry can finally gain face.

And dealing with Lu, Cao and others in accordance with Your Majesty's wishes can be considered as a favor to Your Majesty.

But even so, Chen Jing'an still frowned and remained silent, without expressing his opinion.

"Shouqian, what do you mean?"

Chen Bokang urged anxiously that if the Changhua issue continued to be delayed, it would not only strain the relationship between the monarch and his subjects, but would also likely lead to a split between officials in Jiangnan and Huaibei.

Both for public and private reasons, Chen Bokang did not want to see this happen.

Chen Jing'an, who had not spoken a word since yesterday due to a 'mouth disease', finally sighed and said, "Mr. Chen, if you say that we hand the people over to the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple, can you guarantee that they will carry out your majesty's will without compromise? What if your majesty wants to exterminate the three clans of the Cao family?"

"Ah!" Luo Ruji was startled and exclaimed, "It shouldn't be that serious!"

"Why not? He is your Majesty's student. If you don't kill him as a warning to the rest, how can your Majesty dare to send students to the local areas for training in the future?"

Chen Jing'an hit the nail on the head. Others might think that Chen Chu severely punished Cao, Lu and others just to vent his anger, but in fact he had a deeper consideration, which was to clear away the thorns on the future road for the students in Huaibei, so as to prevent them from being hunted by local gentry after they took up positions in local areas.

There was a long silence in the carriage, and Chen Bokang finally said, "I understand your majesty's thoughts, but this matter touches the foundation of all officials and they will not agree."

Chen Bokang was just stating a fact, not threatening. Chen Jing'an said, "Your Majesty has fought for more than ten years to gain this kingdom. You are not a weak king who is manipulated by women in the harem. How can you be manipulated by others? Lord Chen and Lord Luo should persuade their colleagues not to argue with Your Majesty about this matter."

On July 21, many officials, represented by Dali Temple Minister Zhou Wei, had been waiting in the Lin'an government office, waiting to bring Lu Xiaozhai, Cao Ling and others to the government prison.

But no matter how long they waited, no one showed up. It was not until the evening that a rumor came in: more than a hundred people from the Lu and Cao clans were sent to Lin'an by His Majesty's personal army in the early hours of the morning, but they did not enter the city, but were sent to the military camp in the north of the city.

This made the officials even angrier.

Well, not only did they not hand Lu, Cao and others over to the Ministry of Justice or the Dali Temple, they didn’t even choose the military camp as the place of detention.

What is the difference between this and setting up a private court?

This is a blatant attempt to seize power from the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple. If this continues, won't the two ministries become empty shells?

That night, under the leadership of Zhou Wei, the officials once again went to the palace gate to ask to see the emperor.

But this time, Luo Ruoji had no road. After Chen Bokang came over after hearing the news, he did not act like he did yesterday. Instead, he began to persuade everyone to return home.

Someone immediately refuted: "We are ministers who govern the people for Your Majesty. Your Majesty mishandled the Changhua incident. If we cannot speak out impartially, are we just going to be yes-men who always do what's right? If we do that, we're no different from house slaves!"

Seeing that no matter how hard he tried to persuade them, Chen Bokang had no choice but to stay in the guard room outside the palace gate with other officials to prevent the situation from escalating.

This time, the ministers were even more resolute than yesterday and actually waited outside the palace all night.

But when it came to the morning court at Yinshi, Chen Chu simply claimed to be ill and did not attend the court.
On the same day, Jinyiwei Commander He Bei personally rushed to Lin'an and moved into the camp north of the city that day.

He Bei's effect was immediate.

That night, Lu Xiaozhai was the first to give up and told the whole story of Changhua. In order to suffer less, he even revealed some of the evil deeds of Cao Ling's family that had not been exposed.

However, the officials in Lin'an were unaware of the details of the situation in the camp north of the city. They had been in close contact with each other privately over the past two days and were ready to launch a fierce counterattack when the court was held.

At this point, the life and death of the Lu and Cao families were no longer important. What was important was whether the officials could restrain the imperial power and whether the monarch and his subjects could achieve a balance in the distribution of power.

If the emperor is allowed to deal with the Lu and Cao families at will, the court will inevitably become a one-man show by the emperor.

This dispute may determine the political structure of Da Chu for decades to come.

On July 24, after three days of absence from court, the officials were beginning to get a little anxious.

But at the time of Si on that day, a notice was suddenly posted in Lin'an City. Lu Xiaozhai, the magistrate of Changhua County under Lin'an Prefecture, colluded with evil gentry, causing the death of Huaibei students, and was beheaded for treason.

The Changhua Cao clan occupied the village, invaded the land and hid the households, opposed the imperial court, and plotted treason. The Cao clan leader Cao Ling rebelled and was skinned alive, and all the male members of his three clans were killed. His family members were confiscated and sent to the Jiaosifang. He was executed at Caishikou in Lin'an on July 25th.

When the news came out, the whole city was shocked.

Since receiving the news on July 20th, the officials have been running around and trying to put pressure on the emperor. However, their efforts over the past few days have not only failed to produce any results, but instead they have received a severe punishment that was far beyond their imagination.

At least, since the emperor occupied Caizhou for more than ten years, he has never heard of a precedent in which he confiscated the three clans and families of a person and confiscated the teaching office.

This time, not only was he doing it under tremendous pressure from his ministers, but he was also targeting the official gentry and did not even give anyone a chance to plead for mercy. He simply chose to carry out the execution the next day.

The officials only felt that their faces were rubbed hard on the ground by the emperor.

At noon that day, under the leadership of Xie Kuo, Zhou Wei and others, about 60 to 70 percent of the court officials in Beijing gathered outside the Lizheng Gate with white cloth tied on their heads, knelt on the ground and cried and advised.

Until sunset, Chen Chu had not seen them.

This is different from the past, when there were huge disagreements between the officials and the emperor, the officials could always find a peacemaker recognized by both sides through old ministers or royal family members.

But this time, seeing that neither side was willing to give in, the worried Chen Bokang realized that there was no one in the world who could influence the emperor.

Perhaps, the Empress and Concubine Cai can barely be considered as two people who have the ability to make the Emperor change his mind.

But the Empress was far away in Huaibei, and distant water could not quench immediate thirst.

Concubine Cai happened to be by the emperor's side, but it was a good thing that she didn't join in the fun.

Many officials even speculated that the reason His Majesty suddenly became so harsh might be because of Concubine Cai!
Regardless of whether this is true or not, no one dared to directly accuse the emperor of tyranny, and the psychological burden would always be much lighter if they pointed the finger at a concubine with a bad reputation. (End of this chapter)