Fu Shanhe

Chapter 402: Officials Enter the Palace
The Hall of Nourishing Heart.

"Your Majesty, something is wrong!"

"The Imperial Guards reported that Prime Minister Wan's motorcade was attacked by bandits just after leaving the capital.

More than a hundred people accompanying him were all killed..."

Xu Zhongen said tremblingly.

The previous Prime Minister was also the Prime Minister of the Dayu Dynasty.

Wan Junhui could die of illness or of depression, but he could not die unclearly.

Although everyone knows that Wan Junhui failed in his political struggle and was forced to resign and return home.

But on the surface, he was retiring and returning home, not being dismissed from office for a crime. According to convention, the court should order troops to escort him back home.

But Emperor Yongning was angry and unwilling to give Wan Junhui the final respect.

The imperial court did not send troops to escort the convoy, and the convoy was attacked by bandits as soon as it left the capital, which was bound to arouse speculation from the outside world.

There is a large group of bandits in Shuntian Prefecture.

Even if there really were bandits, local officials should have cleared the area in advance and ensured the safety of the convoy for the sake of their own careers.

Ordinary bandits would not dare to attack even a retired minister, let alone a retired county magistrate.

Once the action is taken, it will be a challenge to the bottom line of the court.

Not only will the participants be killed, but all the bandits within a radius of hundreds of miles will also be happy to win the Nine Clans Elimination Game together.

"what?"

"These bandits are so bold!"

"Immediately summon the governor of Shuntian Prefecture to the palace. I want to ask him how he governs the place..."

Emperor Yongning was immediately furious.

No matter how poor your political sense is, you know this is a big deal.

Among the various forces in the capital, only a handful are capable of mobilizing manpower to ambush Wan Junhui's carriage, and the most suspicious among them is the emperor himself.

If the mastermind behind this cannot be found out as soon as possible, he will have to take the blame.

He already had a bad impression in the eyes of all officials, and if this incident happened again, the drama of "the king regards his subjects as grass, and the subjects regard the king as an enemy" might be played out later.

“Your Majesty, we have already notified the Shuntian prefect.

However, Lord Deng fainted on the spot as soon as he received the news, and I'm afraid he won't be able to manage the affairs for a while."

Jinyiwei commander Zheng Yingyi replied hurriedly.

As the first government office to discover the major case, the Jinyiwei immediately sent people to investigate.

As the local chief official, the Shuntian Prefecture Governor would definitely be questioned immediately for failing to ensure security.

Unfortunately, Lord Deng was not brave enough. He was scared half to death when he received the news. Now his life or death is unknown.

"waste!"

After the angry curse, Emperor Yongning's expression became even uglier.

"Jinyiwei, have you found any clues?"

After a pause, Emperor Yongning asked expectantly.

If the murderer can be caught, there will still be room for maneuver.

“Your Majesty, judging from the situation at the scene, the bandits involved in the attack are all experienced criminals.

After finishing the task, the team immediately evacuated to the northwest.

Jinyiwei has already sent people to chase him, and we estimate that we will receive news tomorrow."

Zheng Yingyi replied nervously.

There are only a few people in Beijing who are capable of doing this kind of thing.

The emperor, eunuchs, and nobles.

The civil service group is equally powerful, but this kind of work is clearly beyond their professional scope.

Unless several families join forces, a single civil servant family does not have the strength to do so in the capital.

For a deal involving the execution of nine generations of a clan, the fewer people who know about it, the better. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to find someone to join forces with you.

Among the noble group, only the Jing and Li families are capable of doing this kind of work.

But he and Wan Junhui have no life-and-death feud, and the head of the family is also working in the local government, so he has no motive to take action.

Li Mu was kicked out of the center of power earlier, and it seemed that Wan Junhui had a fierce conflict with the noble faction, but political issues cannot be judged superficially.

As the world's largest spy agency, Jinyiwei holds many secrets that ordinary people cannot know.

Li Mu sent his confidant to visit Wan Junhui. He was able to hide the secret from others, but not from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The most crucial thing is that after being conferred the title of Hereditary Governor of Annan, Li Mu did not make any statement, and the noble faction only made a symbolic protest.

Putting all these things together, it is obvious that both parties had already reached an agreement.

He has a lot of similar information in his hands.

In order to offend less people, he would not report to his superiors unless the emperor asked.

Knowing the relationship between the two parties, he could be sure that the nobles had no motive to take action against Wan Junhui.

After the eunuch group entered the Yongning Dynasty, it entered a period of silence and its influence was not as strong as before.

Several eunuchs of the time had no ambition to dominate the government, and they had no major conflicts with Wan Junhui.

Unless the emperor issued an order, they would not risk the wrath of the world and do such stupid things that could cost them their lives.

Relatively speaking, among the several forces, the only one who directly conflicted with Wan Junhui was Emperor Yongning.

However, Zheng Yingyi did not think that the murderer would be the emperor.

If Emperor Yongning really wanted to kill Wan Junhui, he could have handed the task over to the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

If he were to carry out the task, he would have arranged for Wan Junhui to catch a cold and die suddenly on the road. He would never do such a rough job.

No one had a motive for committing the crime, which suddenly made the case confusing.

According to the current situation, the murderer is most likely a group of bandits who strayed into the area, or a rebel group.

Shuntian Prefecture is not far from Shanxi, and it is entirely possible that a small group of rebels are flocking over from there.

"Let the local government offices cooperate and make sure to catch the murderer.

The officials in Shuntian Prefecture must also be interrogated carefully. I don't believe that the thieves fell from the sky!"

Emperor Yongning said murderously.

Regardless of who the murderer is, the local government has committed serious dereliction of duty in this case.

Either it was official dereliction of duty or it was insider collusion.

Otherwise, if there were such powerful bandits in the territory, they should have been reported to the imperial court and troops should have been sent to eliminate them.

"Sir, obey the order!"

……

Xu Mansion.

“I appreciate your kindness.

However, the matter of the Prime Minister still needs longer consideration.

Your Majesty, your suspicion of me has not ceased.

Pushing too hard at this point will only backfire.”

Having rejected the plan of mobilizing all officials to write letters of recommendation, Xu Wenyue secretly groaned as he looked at the group of enthusiastic Qingliu followers in the room.

Sure enough, they are still as unreliable as ever. No wonder the Qingliu Party is always suppressed despite having the numerical advantage.

Especially the younger generation of officials, their clear yet stupid eyes made Xu Wenyue feel uneasy.

This is a sequelae of inbreeding.

Compared with other factions, the Qingliu Party, which mastered the secrets of the imperial examinations, had a more obvious trend of family-based organization.

All the officials present had ancestors who had been appointed officials of the imperial court for three generations, which earned them the qualification to take the imperial examinations and enter officialdom.

Relying on the academy as a link, the threshold for entering officialdom was lowered, but the fighting effectiveness of the Qingliu Party was also reduced.

These generations of officials are so well protected by their families that many of them are detached from worldly matters.

When the Qingliu Party was strong, this was not a big deal.

Abilities are acquired through experience, and most positions can be handled by anyone with average skills.

They are immature now, but in ten or twenty years, they will all become qualified bureaucrats.

Xu Wenyue had no opinion on the younger generation of the Qingliu faction, but he had a lot of opinions on their fathers. At this critical moment in the competition for the position of Prime Minister, none of them showed up in person, but instead sent their younger generations to discuss the matter.

To put it nicely is to reduce the impact and avoid causing variables at such a sensitive moment.

In fact, Xu Wenyue was away from Beijing for a long time, and the Qingliu faction was once again divided into several factions.

In order to fight for dominance, the leaders of these small factions are wrestling with Xu Wenyue.

Whoever wins this round of struggle will be able to control more of the Qingliu faction's voice in the days to come.

"Lord, if we keep dragging this out, something unexpected might happen!"

"Your Majesty, we have been deceived by villains. We should rectify the chaos and get rid of these corrupt officials!"

……

Watching the passionate performance of a group of young officials, Xu Wenyue suddenly found himself old.

Once upon a time, he was one of them, and he was able to express his ideas to his heart's content.

Later, as he grew older and saw more and more things, he learned to hide his true thoughts.

"Lord, something terrible is happening!"

"Lord Wan's convoy had just traveled less than fifty miles out of the capital when it was ambushed by bandits.

More than one hundred people, including Lord Wan, were all killed.

The factory guards and the Five Cities Army have been dispatched to hunt down the murderer."

The news brought by Master Yu caused the temperature in the room to drop by ten degrees.

The young Qingliu generals who had originally urged Xu Wenyue to charge at the Prime Minister were all stunned at this moment.

The convoy of the retired elder was ambushed in Shuntian Prefecture, which was completely beyond everyone's cognition.

In all these years since the founding of Dayu, I have never heard of any prime minister dying at the hands of bandits.

"Lord, there must be something fishy about this matter!"

"Lord Wan is a man of high moral character, but he was forced to retire and return home because he had offended the nobles.

No one could have imagined that that group of warriors were so lawless that they actually dared to attack Lord Wan.

I..."

The young official's passionate words sounded like he was giving a personal speech.

If you are not aware of it, you might actually believe it.

However, everyone present knew that the deceased Lord Wan was just an old man in his mouth the moment before.

Even Xu Wenyue was amazed by the skill of face changing.

Who says that the younger generation of the Qingliu School is weak? This kind of shameless skill is something that ordinary people will never be able to master in their entire lives.

"This is a serious matter, let's stop here today!"

"Butler, prepare the sedan chair. I will go to the palace to see the emperor later."

Faced with the younger brother who was causing trouble, Xu Wenyue decisively chose to leave.

It is undoubtedly very dangerous to put a hat on a noble without knowing the situation clearly.

If the nobles are really pushed into a corner, they will admit the matter out of spite and simply turn the table over and stop playing.

When the scholar meets the soldier, it will be difficult to explain himself.

The situation has developed to this point, and some people dare to make random accusations. Xu Wenyue does not think that the nobles will sit idly by and wait for death.

In terms of suspicion of committing the crime, Emperor Yongning is more likely to be suspected than the nobles.

What’s worse is that a similar incident occurred during the Yongning Dynasty.

When the emperor was cracking down on the eunuch party, he sent people to intercept and kill the eunuch party members along the way.

In the context of castration, everyone tacitly chose to pretend not to see it, but that doesn't mean everyone agrees with this practice.

Similar operations are happening now, and in the eyes of many people, this is history repeating itself.

If the younger brothers were allowed to act freely, no one could guarantee whether there would be any brave men among them who would speak their true thoughts and directly target the emperor.

After a delay in the mansion for a while, when Xu Wenyue's official sedan arrived at the palace, a group of indignant officials had gathered.

No matter what kind of relationship Wan Junhui had with them during his lifetime, now that he is gone in such a mysterious way, everyone needs an explanation.

Seeing that the imperial censors were eager to try, Xu Wenyue knew that things were going to get bad.

Seeing it was one thing, but he had no intention of standing up to rescue Emperor Yongning.

The emperor blocked his appointment as prime minister. Although he said he didn't care, he couldn't help feeling some resentment in his heart.

During the years he served abroad, he worked diligently and devoted himself to stabilizing the country of Dayu.

Although he did not have any outstanding performance on the battlefield, he is a civil servant!
From the very beginning, he made it clear to the emperor that his ability to command troops was limited and he was unable to shoulder the task of suppressing the rebellion.

Even though he had made it clear in advance, he was still forcibly appointed by the emperor and sent to serve in the local area.

His greatest achievement is that he didn't cause any big trouble.

"Your Majesty was shocked to hear the tragic news of Elder Wan's misfortune. He is heartbroken and cannot see anyone now.

"My lords, please go back first!"

Eunuch Su Haoyu's words made everyone very dissatisfied.

They came in a hurry just to seek justice.

As a result, when he arrived at the palace, he couldn't even see the emperor, which was naturally unbearable.

"Eunuch Su, His Majesty is heartbroken, and as his subjects, how can we not share his worries?

Please clear the way, let us in, and persuade His Majesty to take care of his health!"

Zuodu Yushi Lai Yaohua spoke first.

The time has come to improve his reputation, and as the chief censor, he is the best person to do it.

"No need!

His Majesty has ordered that all the gentlemen go back and rest first.

The murder of Lord Wan will be announced to the public once the truth is revealed."

Su Haoyu refused decisively.

"Advising the Emperor to take care of his health" is pure nonsense.

Half of Emperor Yongning's bad mood on weekdays was caused by this group of censors.

They were originally asked to supervise all officials, but these guys ended up falling in love with supervising the emperor.

If the emperor's daily words and deeds were slightly inconsistent with etiquette, the censors would nag him incessantly.

No matter how trivial the matter is, he has to take action and not stop until the emperor admits defeat.

If we let these guys in, no matter how good the emperor's mood is, he will be unhappy after seeing them.

"Eunuch Su, there is a traitor in the court who is monopolizing power and dares to openly kill the retired Prime Minister.

You stopped us from entering, is it possible that someone has put His Majesty under house arrest?"

As soon as the big troll Shi Zhongbo opened his mouth, he released his ultimate move.

Putting the emperor under house arrest is a crime punishable by death.

"Don't talk nonsense!"

"Under such a bright and clear world, there are no traitors.

Your Majesty is in a bad mood and needs to rest, why don't you all go away immediately!"

Su Haoyu said angrily.

I've known for a long time that officials are difficult to deal with, but I never expected that these guys are so stubborn and dare to say anything.

None of them even took the emperor's edict seriously.

"Eunuch Su, we must see His Majesty today no matter what.

If you continue to stop us, don't blame us for being rude!"

Qiu Ruiyang said indifferently.

As a cabinet minister, he should not have been so reckless, but Wan Junhui's death was too much of a shock to him.

If there is no explanation for such a vicious incident, everyone in the officialdom will be in danger in the future.

……

(End of this chapter)