Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 454 Wanting to impose a crime
Late at night, several streets in the Bianjing city night market are still brightly lit, but there are fewer people.

At this time, all the officials had already taken carriages and sedan chairs to the palace to attend court.

In the past, when officials met, they would always greet each other with a smile and a few words.

Today, the officials were not as lively as before, and their faces looked very serious.

After Zhao Xing ascended the throne, he killed many officials, but most of them were local officials who caused trouble in the measurement of land.

Not many Beijing officials were killed.

Of course, Zhao Xing's killing of civil servants had made all the civil servants unhappy.

However, the Song Dynasty did not have any ancestral rules that prohibited the killing of civil servants. There were records of killing civil servants from Taizu to the retired emperor, and they had no way to refute this.

The emperor emeritus was much softer in temperament than the previous emperors, and the civil servants tacitly wanted to establish an ancestral rule of not killing civil servants.

Not only did they instill in the emperor the idea of ​​not killing civil servants, they also constantly dissuaded the emperor from killing civil servants.

It was finally maintained for more than 30 years, but was destroyed by Zhao Xing.

Therefore, when faced with Zhao Xing killing civil servants, their rebuttals were very pale.

If he could maintain the rule of not killing officials until the abdication of the emperor, even if emperors of previous dynasties did not have this rule, he could still refute Zhao Xing through filial piety.

However, this time Zhao Xing arrested so many officials at once, as if he wanted to kill them all. All the officials could not sit still.

When Zhao Xing killed civil servants before, he at least had legitimate reasons.

As long as they are more careful, they will not be killed easily, although not as good as before.

Now Zhao Xing was acting like a tyrant killer, how could they bear it?

If they continue to let this go, they will either have to listen to Zhao Xing obediently and do his bidding, or they will accidentally anger Zhao Xing and lose their lives.

Yesterday, those officials went to meet Zhao Xing to plead for mercy, but were scolded back by Zhao Xing. However, that does not mean they gave up.

But at first they did not realize the seriousness of the matter. They thought Zhao Xing was just angry and would release them if they begged for mercy.

So there was no discussion at all.

After leaving the palace yesterday, various small circles of officials in the court contacted each other and reached a consensus secretly.

They must stop Zhao Xing this time, otherwise their lives will be difficult in the future.

Some people also felt that it was inappropriate to punish so many officials at once and that Zhao Xing could not be allowed to act recklessly.

But no matter what their purpose and starting point are, their goal is the same, which is to force Zhao Xing to compromise.

Even some old officials who had retired but remained in Bianliang came to court today.

Soon, the officials arrived at the side gate of the palace.

At this time, the side door of the imperial palace was wide open, and there were not only imperial guards standing at the gate, but also two officials from the Censorate.

These two officials were responsible for supervising the attire of all officials. If anyone dressed inappropriately, they would be impeached.

The officials had long been accustomed to it and no one cared about it.

However, when they entered the palace, many people noticed something was wrong.

When officials went to court and entered the palace, there was another step, which was a body search.

The body search was not strict, it was just to see if anyone was carrying any knives or anything like that.

After all, officials sometimes make their own reports, and if someone has ill intentions and wants to murder the official, it would be hard to guard against.

They had experienced this in the past, so they were not surprised by it.

However, there was an extra stool at the location where the eunuchs were searched today, and a eunuch dressed in the clothes of the chief eunuch was sitting on the stool, holding a teacup in his hand.

Many people recognized this man, Liu Sanshi, the chief eunuch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

When Liu Sanshi saw the officials coming in, he said to the eunuchs surrounding him, "Go get busy."

"Yes!"

The eunuchs saluted and began to search the officials.

"Mr. Yang, something is wrong." said an official next to Yang Shengkui.

Yang Shengkui looked at the smiling Liu Sanshi not far away and frowned slightly, saying, "Something is indeed wrong. This Liu Neiguan is in charge of the eunuchs in the inner court. Why is he here?"

At this moment, there was a sudden sound of metal falling to the ground, and the officials who were secretly guessing went over one after another.

"What is the purpose of this gentleman bringing a dagger into the palace?" asked the eunuch who was searching.

The official who was being searched was a 60-year-old official. Hearing this, he pointed at the eunuch angrily and shouted, "This dagger is not from me at all. You are framing me!"

"What's the noise?"

Just then, Liu Sanshi came over.

"Eunuch Liu..."

The eunuch stepped forward and said, "When I was searching, a dagger fell out of this man's body!"

"Nonsense, it's obviously you..."

"He brought a weapon into the palace with the intention of assassinating Your Majesty. Come, arrest him!"

Liu Sanshi gave the order without waiting for him to finish.

The imperial guards nearby hurried forward, held the old man down, and dragged him away regardless of his loud protests.

"Mr. Yang, is this news?"

The official next to Yang Shengkui said in a trembling voice.

They knew the old man, who was one of the officials who was going to die in the hall today.

"Yeah." Yang Shengkui nodded calmly.

"Mr. Yang, then we..."

The officials surrounding Yang Shengkui were all in a panic. When the news leaked out, the government actually ordered people to directly put the blame on those officials who were going to die for their remonstrance.

If a sharp weapon is found on someone's body in public, it is a capital crime.

And there is simply no way to defend this kind of thing.

"Why are you panicking, Your Majesty? Do you think you can stop the people from talking like this? This is actually helping us. Just look at the faces of those people in the Censorate." Yang Shengkui said with a smile.

When everyone heard this, they looked over and saw that the officials from the Censorate had livid faces and looked very angry.

"People in the Censorate are always seeking fame and reputation. It's going to be interesting to watch next." Yang Shengkui sneered.

Since ancient times, censors have held positions that offend people. The officials in the Censorate are all trolls who not only criticize officials but also the government.

Almost everyone in the Censorate is an honest person. It’s not that they have no selfish motives, but for these officials, a good reputation is more important than anything else.

If Zhao Xing did this, anyone in the court might compromise, except the officials of the Censorate.

The officials of the Censorate were always looking for trouble, and now that Zhao Xing had taken the initiative to give them evidence, how could they let it go?

"Go on, remember to search carefully!" Liu Sanshi looked over the officials and said lightly.

"Yes!"

The eunuch in charge of the body search responded quickly.

Subsequently, several more people were found to be carrying daggers.

"What a tyrant! What a tyrant!"

"I want to see the Emperor. Your Majesty has been deceived. If this continues, the Song Dynasty will perish!"

The officials all understood what was going on and started cursing as they were taken away.

They were not afraid of death, otherwise they would not have volunteered to die for their admonition. But now they were slandered and would bear the infamy even after their death, which was totally unacceptable to them.

As for the remaining officials, some had grim expressions, some looked sad, and some looked angry, and so on.

Liu Sanshi ignored all this. After the officials finished their search, he said calmly, "My Lords, it's getting late. Go to court quickly and don't waste time."

(End of this chapter)