Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 456: Stopping the Car to Ask for Punishment
When the convoy stopped, the front carriage had already left Dong'an Gate, but the rear guard was still guarding the entrance to the silver vault, waiting for the subsequent ox carts to drive out.

Wei Chao doubted any bandits would dare rob such a large sum of money beneath the walls of the Imperial City, at the feet of the Emperor. Anyone with even a modicum of common sense wouldn't have considered such a move. External bandits are easy to defend against, but internal thieves are harder to guard against. The guards at the front and rear of the column, and the internal transport treasury soldiers stationed beside the oxcarts, weren't there to protect the silver, but rather to monitor the drivers and each other.

But after waiting for a while, Wei Chao decided to go and take a look himself. "I'll be back soon," Wei Chao said to Wu Mingzhe.

"I'll go too." Wu Mingzhe immediately expressed his willingness to go.

"Come on, you'd better stay here." From the moment Wu Mingzhe stepped on the horse, Wei Chao knew that he could not ride a horse.

Wei Chao waved his hand to dismiss his horsemen, and then, like a hot knife cutting lard, he led a few eunuchs who were accompanying him on foot, broke through the formation of the guards, and came to the front of the team.

I saw a middle-aged man in gorgeous clothes kneeling in the middle of the road, and the captain who led the team had already gotten off his horse and was pulling the middle-aged man in gorgeous clothes.

Wei Chao immediately noticed the strangeness of the situation. If someone was blocking the road, the captain should have directly ordered the guards to drive them away. But looking at him, although he was pulling, he didn't seem to be trying to drive them away at all. Instead, he seemed to be nodding and offering compliments. The two centurions beside the captain didn't even dare to help.

"What's wrong?" Wei Chao shouted. The captain immediately turned around as if in an emergency. Seeing that it was the chief eunuch personally coming to question him, he ignored the person kneeling on the ground and quickly ran to Wei Chao's horse. He raised his head and said respectfully, "Chief Wei, that is the eldest son of the Wuqing Marquisate."

"The eldest son of the Wuqing Marquis Li family..." Wei Chao thought for a moment, "Is it Li Guochen?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" The captain nodded quickly and defended himself, "If it were anyone else, I would have kicked him away, but this is Young Master Li, a royal relative, so I'm honest."

"Alright!" Wei Chao had no interest in listening to the captain's meaningless chatter. He raised his hand to interrupt him and asked, "What is Li Guochen doing here? Stopping the emperor's carriage to appeal for justice?" Wei Chao looked at Li Guochen from a distance. Li Guochen straightened up and looked up at Wei Chao. In that moment, many speculations and responses flashed through Wei Chao's mind.

"No!" The captain shook his head and said blankly, "He said he came to surrender himself!"

"Huh? Turning himself in?" Wei Chao was also confused. He thought of various scenarios, but he just couldn't think of this possibility. "What case is he going to turn himself in to? Which one?"

"I don't know either," the captain said, looking rather distressed. He only wanted to get rid of Li Guochen so he could continue his journey, not caring what case he was going to turn himself in to.

Li Guochen's arrival had already blocked the road, potentially attracting the attention of the patrolling censor. A dissatisfied patrolling censor might not necessarily target the Imperial Household Department's official, but he would likely file a complaint against him. In other words, the longer the convoy stopped here, the more likely the leading captain would be impeached.

"Please persuade him to leave quickly! If we delay, the money cannot be loaded on board the ship on time, and I, a small captain, can't afford it!" The captain pointed at Wei Chao implicitly and suggested, "Or, I can have someone take him away?" As long as Wei Chao made his position clear, he would have the confidence to have someone forcibly take Li Guochen away.

Wei Chao hesitated, feeling that direct action wasn't a good idea, and that a continued stalemate wasn't a solution. So, he decided to confront Li Guochen himself. He dismounted and walked toward Li Guochen. The captain immediately followed, his horse in hand, only to hear Wei Chao say, "Tell those onlookers to get out of here."

"Yes!" The captain replied, handing Wei Chao's horse reins to his captain, and then commanding a group of twenty or so strong guards to disperse the onlookers. Soon, the guards had driven away all the idlers in the vicinity and simply cordoned off a small open area.

Wei Chao walked up to Li Guochen and didn't let him get up, just staring down at him. "Are you Li Guochen?" Although Wei Chao knew the name of the eldest son of the Wuqing Marquis Li family, he had never seen him before.

Li Guochen certainly didn't recognize Wei Chao, but he was relatively familiar with who in the palace could wear what patterns. Otherwise, Li Guochen wouldn't have come running to stop Wei Chao after spotting him from afar. "To answer your Excellency, the criminal is Li Guochen." Li Guochen held up his plaque and kowtowed to Wei Chao.

Wei Chao was about to reach for the plaque, but Li Guochen's kowtow frightened him so much that he instantly withdrew his hand and dodged to the side. He didn't dare accept Li Guochen's kowtow in front of so many people. No matter how shabby and unlucky the Li family was, they were still relatives of the emperor. Even if the Li family was convicted, Li Guochen was still the emperor's cousin! If someone maliciously distorted the situation and spread some ridiculous rumors, he would be in real trouble.

"What are you trying to do?" Wei Chao's face changed drastically, and the hairs on his back stood up. For a moment, Wei Chao even began to suspect that Li Guochen was deliberately sent by Wei Zhongxian to trip him up.

Li Guochen was about to ask Wei Chao's name when he was stunned by his overreaction. However, Li Guochen quickly guessed what Wei Chao was thinking. While inwardly lamenting the emperor's great power and strict rule over his subjects, Li Guochen quickly responded.

His response was simple: he didn't respond to Wei Chao's reaction. Instead, he turned and faced the Qianqing Palace, completing the ritual of five bows and three kowtows. As he kowtowed, Li Guochen shouted at the top of his voice, "I am guilty. Not only have I wronged my father, but I have also implicated innocent loyal officials in the court. Your Majesty, please punish me!" By doing this, Li Guochen smoothly changed the target of his kowtow from Wei Chao to the emperor and also made clear the purpose of his visit.

Li Guochen's response was indeed effective. Before he finished his greeting, Wei Chao's expression had improved considerably.

"Do you know me?" After the crisis was resolved, Wei Chao began to wonder why Li Guochen came to stop him.

"I was just about to ask your name," said Li Guochen.

"I am Wei Chao." Wei Chao didn't say too many useless attributive and humble words.

"It's Chief Wei," Li Guochen's eyes lit up. Few in the palace could wear dragon robes, and even fewer, like Wei Chao, whose words reached the ears of the emperor. "I greet Chief Wei!" Li Guochen bowed again. This time, however, he was more cautious, not bowing rashly as before, but simply offering a long bow.

"If you don't know me, why would you come to stop me?" Wei Chao narrowed his eyes slightly, his eyes full of scrutiny.

"In reply to Chief Wei," Li Guochen said, not lying, "I'm not here specifically to see Chief Wei. I'm here to find someone with connections who can plead guilty and clear my father's name." Li Guochen's original intention was to come to Donghua Gate to harass the cabinet minister, or rather, the chief minister, Fang Congzhe. Unlike the eunuchs, the ministers had a very regular schedule. They had set times for entering and leaving the palace, and if they found the right spot, they could easily be stopped.

Li Guochen had originally planned to run to Fang Congzhe and plead guilty when he left the palace, thus making things worse. But now, seeing a large eunuch in a bright red dragon robe, riding a tall horse and escorted by a team of guards, about to parade through the streets, Li Guochen immediately judged that this was a better candidate than a cabinet minister. So he ran to intercept him.

"In other words, you don't know what this train of mine is about?" Wei Chao didn't believe a word Li Guochen said just now, and didn't want to ask further.

"To reply Chief Wei, I truly do not know." At this point, the first oxcart loaded with cash was still in the small courtyard between Dong'an Gate and Dong'anli Gate. Wei Chao and Wu Mingzhe were essentially trapped between two lines of guards. Li Guochen hadn't even seen the cart. The moment he saw Wei Chao, he knelt in the middle of the road to stop it.

"Hmph. I don't know." Wei Chao chuckled, lowered his head to Li Guochen's ear, and slowly said, "Then I'll tell you, what you are blocking now is the 300,000 taels of military pay that your Li family is planning to rob."

Even Li Guochen was stunned by the shock. He instinctively didn't think such a coincidence could happen in the world, but he couldn't figure out why.

"Young Master Li, please get out of the way," Wei Chaoke said, still remembering why he was here. "The streets are not the place to judge crimes, and I won't interfere in this matter. If you have any crimes to plead guilty to, or any grievances to be redressed, it's best to go to the court."

Li Guochen came to his senses and didn't care anymore. He rushed forward, hugged Wei Chao's thigh and shouted, "Please help me tell the emperor! Father knows nothing. I killed Li Youcai. I smashed his head with a stone! Father really doesn't know anything!"

"Oh, what are you doing?" Wei Chao was shocked and pulled his legs away. But just as he broke free, Li Guochen pounced on him again.

Wei Chao tugged hard, but this time Li Guochen's arms were like a pair of iron clamps, tightly holding Wei Chao's right leg. Wei Chao couldn't break free from this restraint at all. "Let me go!"

Li Guochen was determined not to relent. He knew that doing so would definitely offend the Chief Eunuch in front of him, but he had come here today with the intention of making a big deal out of it and risking his life. Compared to the terrifying heavenly punishment, this little offense was nothing.

"Someone! Someone!" Wei Chao was anxious and shouted, "Pull him away!"

The guards directly above them already had the responsibility of protecting important people. Before Wei Chao's call had even finished, the guards directly above them all rushed towards the two of them.

"Stop!" Wei Chao saw someone draw a knife and quickly raised his hand to stop the leader. "What are you doing? Tell your men to put the knife away!"

Wei Chao was certainly worried that these reckless guys might miss and injure him. But even if they did, he wouldn't necessarily get away with it. At this critical juncture, the Li family's identity was sensitive enough to make people allergic.

"Idiot, what are you doing? Put your sword away!" The captain leading the team was also shocked. He couldn't afford to offend these two people who were stuck together. If any of his men hurt one of them, he would have to bid farewell to his official career forever. "No one is allowed to draw their swords!"

The guard who had drawn his sword felt aggrieved. He couldn't hear the conversation between the important figures, so how could he know who the "murderer" kneeling on the ground was? He still wanted to use his merits in saving the emperor to get promoted. However, since his superior had given the order, he could only sheath his sword in dismay.

Unable to escalate the violence, the guards could only restrain themselves, pulling arms and twisting fingers. Had Li Guochen resisted with all his might, it would have been difficult to deal with. Fortunately, Li Guochen knew his fundamental purpose in making such a scene was to cause trouble, not to offend anyone. So, after a few more token resistances, he let Wei Chao go. The commotion here was already loud enough that even if Wei Chao didn't want to spread the news, there were other channels through which it would spread in all directions, into the palace.

"I'm going to fuck you." Wei Chao really wanted to curse, but when the dirty words came to his lips, Wei Chao held them back and swallowed them.

As the saying goes, be cautious in what you say and do, and a gentleman should be careful. Others may not be careful in what they do, but he must be careful in what he says. This Li family mother really can't be scolded casually. Wei Chao was furious for a long time, and finally he could only say one sentence: "Do you know how much silver this robe of mine cost?"

"I'm so desperate to save my father, Wei Hai, please forgive me. If there's any damage, I'll compensate you in full." Li Guochen was secretly impressed. He was indeed a high-ranking eunuch in the palace, yet he could hold back from cursing.

However, Li Guochen simply did not meet the right person. If he had met a gangster like Wei Zhongxian, even if he did not beat him up on the spot, he would have found a way to get back at him.

"Pull him to the roadside," Wei Chao no longer looked at Li Guochen, but ordered the captain who led the team: "Don't pull him to the roadside either. Didn't he claim to be guilty? Then send him to the Ministry of Justice! Let him confess there!" At this moment, the palace officials could not be allowed to encounter the father and son of the Li family.

"Yes." The captain of the team winked at the captain who did not help Wei Chao hold the horse.

The captain, who was seen by the captain, was also reluctant to get involved in this mess. He hesitated and pretended not to see it. But all he got was the captain's urging: "Go quickly!"

"Yes," the captain who didn't have a horse had to do as he was told.

"Chief Wei, please help me." Li Guochen struggled and shouted in a serious manner.

"Keep going!" Poor Wei Chao was in a hurry to get on with his journey. Little did he know that being taken to court was also one of Li Guochen's plans.

"Chief Wei, I beg you!" Wei Chao and the convoy were getting farther and farther away, but Li Guochen was still shouting behind him, as if he wanted the whole of Beijing to hear his voice.

(End of this chapter)