After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 881 Flexibility
In the process of investigating and hunting down Sun's private soldiers, Haijiao made a lot of efforts both overtly and covertly.

With the memories of his previous life, he actually knew a lot of the Sun family's secret bases, and he could find them without much effort. However, he still spent a lot of effort to let his superiors and colleagues in the Jinyiwei know the locations of these bases without suspicion. The final result was also quite satisfactory to him. Now the Jinyiwei has a lot of evidence of the Sun family's crimes that cannot be seen in public. As long as the superiors give an order, they can arrest the culprits at any time. Now they just have to wait for the opportunity.

Having done so many things, Haijiao felt quite accomplished. Unfortunately, he was still a newcomer in Jinyiwei, and he had to pretend to be a talented rookie in front of others, so he couldn't share many things with others. Now that Xiaomei was here, she was an insider, and he could finally speak freely and show off his efforts and methods. How could such a carefree joy be compared with a few words of praise from his superiors?
Haitang felt that her brother had thought of a way to deal with the Sun family earlier than she did, and had taken action and achieved satisfactory results. She was very happy and praised him generously, saying, "Brother and I are so in tune with each other! Fortunately, you thought of this in time, otherwise, with Elder Sun's cunning, he might have already taken precautions! If the Jinyiwei had acted a little later, they might have been caught empty-handed."

Haijiao raised the corner of his mouth, "I'm not worried about this. The Sun family has been complacent for too long and has lost their vigilance. Those strongholds have never been discovered by anyone, so how could they know that the Jinyiwei would be able to find them? Although Sun Ge Lao is shrewd and cunning, his son is a fool. Without Sun Yongbai as his helper, Sun Yongping would have made countless stupid mistakes and left many small tricks behind! Others just ignored it because of the power of the Sun family. Now that the Sun family is in trouble, there are many people waiting to bring them down. Even if I wasn't there, the reckoning with the Sun family would only be delayed, and the outcome would not change."

Haitang asked: "When does the court plan to settle accounts with the Sun family?"

Speaking of this, Hai Jiao couldn't keep the smile on his face and felt a little disappointed: "I'm afraid we have to wait until the new emperor takes the throne and the government is stable. In fact, we have already submitted the evidence of the Sun family's crimes found by the Jinyiwei to the cabinet, and Tao Ge Lao also took it to the emperor for review. But the emperor was angry, but he was reluctant to order a thorough investigation of the Sun family. Instead, he advised Tao Ge Lao that he wanted to give the old minister a peaceful old age. At most, he could settle accounts with his children and grandchildren after Sun Ge Lao died. I really don't understand. The emperor can say this, which shows that he hates the Sun family and doesn't care about their life or death. Why does he have to show mercy to Sun Ge Lao's men?"

If you say that this is because of the friendship between the emperor and his subjects over the years, Haijiao doesn't believe it. In terms of the merits of supporting the emperor, the Zhou family has made greater contributions than Sun Ge Lao, but the emperor began to suspect the Zhou family a few years after he ascended the throne; in terms of the merits of reform, there were also meritorious officials among the Sun faction who made mistakes and were brought to justice, so why didn't the emperor show mercy to the old officials at that time? If you say that it was for the sake of Concubine Sun, Concubine Sun has now been demoted to the fourth rank and imprisoned in the cold palace. The emperor doesn't even want to see her. He knows that she is sick, but he has no intention of caring for her. If he is like this to his former beloved concubine, how can the emperor be particularly tolerant of her father?

Haijiao suspected that there was some inside story unknown to outsiders.

Haitang helped to guess: "Could it be that Lord Sun has some leverage over the emperor? The emperor is worried that if he takes drastic measures against Lord Sun, he will leak the secret?"

But now the emperor has been on the throne for more than 30 years, his position is stable, he is sick and dying, and his successor has been determined. The royal family is just clamoring secretly, and they don't have the strength to make trouble. The court officials are mainly the emperor's confidants, and the generals who hold military power are on the emperor's side. The Sun faction members who would secretly oppose the emperor for their own interests are worried about protecting themselves and will not cause trouble for him at this time. Even if Sun Ge Lao exposed the emperor's dark history, it would not affect the overall situation, right?
Hai Jiao thought for a moment and said, "Now we have nowhere to ask, so let him go. Anyway, the old emperor will not live long. When he dies, the new emperor will take the throne and Tao will preside over the cabinet. He will definitely not let the Sun family off. Even if the emperor wants to protect Sun, he can't take care of what happens after his death."

Haitang said, "Not necessarily. What if he left a will asking the new emperor to treat Sun Ge Lao well? Because of filial piety, the new emperor may not be able to order the cabinet to liquidate the Sun family." Haijiao laughed, "What's so difficult about that? The new emperor can treat Sun Ge Lao well and let him live in peace in his own home. As for his children, grandchildren and relatives, those who are guilty can be punished, and those who are innocent can be sent back to their hometown. Anyway, the emperor's will did not say that the new emperor must protect everyone in the Sun family. Who can say that the new emperor is unfilial? It is obvious that Sun Ge Lao could be punished together, but he still obeyed his father's order and spared his life. Doesn't that show that the new emperor is filial?"

Haitang raised her eyebrows. This method is quite flexible, but I wonder if the crown prince knows about it?

Hai Jiao said: "Xiao Jin came to see me, and I told him at that time not to worry. I said the same thing to Elder Tao. Even if the emperor left a will, insisting on protecting Elder Sun, they don't have to rush to persuade the emperor to change his mind. There is no contradiction between eradicating the Sun family and obeying the imperial edict. Even if Elder Sun escapes, it does not mean that he can live out his old age in peace and glory. When he is no longer served by his children, grandchildren and relatives, even the servants and guards are arranged by the palace. It is not difficult to act secretly.

"The Imperial Guards did something similar in their previous life. I heard that it was an old rule set when Sun Yongbai, the nephew of Lord Sun, was still alive. In the past, several ministers who were at odds with Lord Sun died unclearly because of this. The tricks that the Sun family came up with were used on the Sun family, which can be regarded as karma. Outsiders can't say anything. After all, the family is ruined, and the children and grandchildren have all been ruined. It is normal for Lord Sun to be sad and sick at his age, and it is even more common for him to die of illness. As long as the new monarch does not disobey his father's orders, no one can find fault with him."

Haitang raised her sleeves to cover her mouth and smiled: "Brother is right! Isn't that the truth? The emperor's grace is great, but Lord Sun is unlucky, who can he blame?"

Haijiao smiled. Perhaps because he was a spy in his previous life, he was quite practical in his attitude towards criminals. As long as he could make the other party's crime public and then kill him, it would be fine. Whether it was a fair punishment or not was not that important. He was not the kind of person who had to pursue procedural justice.

If the emperor didn't have to protect Sun Ge Lao, then of course it would be better to let the Sun family father and son be punished. But if the emperor had to protect the criminals, then the cabinet and the Jinyiwei could only act in a roundabout way. As long as the Sun family's power could be eradicated and they could no longer cause trouble in the court and disturb the peace of the Chu, Haijiao didn't care whether the means used were fair or not.

Haitang would not get stuck in a rut and find fault with the methods used by her brother and Tao Gelao. No matter whether it is a black cat or a white cat, a cat that can catch mice is a good cat.

Since Hai Jiao had communicated with Tao Ge Lao and Jin Jiashu, I think Empress Dowager Zhou, Imperial Noble Consort Xu and the Crown Prince in the palace also knew what was going on and would not go against the Emperor. Now they just had to wait for the new Emperor to take the throne, but they didn't know when that would be.
Haitang lowered her voice even more: "Brother, what is the emperor's condition like? How long can he... hold on?"