Chapter 126: Song Shi'an Enters Sheng'an |
After Wei Wusheng returned to Sheng'an, he took up residence in the imperial palace.
Despite having achieved such tremendous merit.
And because Song Jing had yet to be released from prison, the officials collectively chose to bide their time.
They would wait until Song Shi'an returned before making any moves.
Every day in the palace, Wei Wusheng simply read books and saw no one.
"Wei Wusheng, what are you doing?"
Princess Changqing saw him sprawled on a reclining chair in the hall, holding a book in his hands, and was somewhat puzzled. When she looked closer and saw the three characters "Spring Garden" on the cover, her expression turned suspicious. "Don't tell me this is some kind of erotic novel?"
"This is no ordinary erotic novel."
Wei Wusheng didn't even look at her, replying casually, "This book portrays its characters with extreme delicacy, and the psychological transformations of the characters are quite natural and reasonable. Strip away the erotic veneer, and it's actually a decent novel about common folk."
"Do you need something?"
Wei Wusheng put down his book and looked at her while maintaining his reclined position.
"Didn't you meet that Ji Yuan?" Princess Changqing asked curiously. "What does he look like?"
"Why are you asking about this?"
"I'm interested! I've never seen another emperor before."
"He's a false emperor."
After this correction, he sat up and told Princess Changqing, "His eyes have double pupils."
"Ah? Really?" Princess Changqing immediately grew tense. "Does that mean he's like the legends say, that he eats people's organs?"
This was the usual propaganda tactic between enemy nations in ancient times—outright slander.
To demonstrate Ji Yuan's cruelty, the Yu side claimed that whenever he won a battle and captured enemy generals, he would slice open their bodies and eat their organs.
On the other side, to showcase Wei Ye's terror, the Qi side said he was a reincarnation of the King of Hell, transforming into a long-haired red demon every night who didn't recognize even his own kin.
Most people didn't actually believe these claims, but a policy of keeping the masses ignorant could certainly fool some portion of them.
And the thing about Wei Ye—it wasn't entirely baseless slander.
If you're not the King of Hell reincarnate, why did you kill your own son?
Could a human being do such a thing?
That filicide incident meant that Great Yu had been at a disadvantage in the propaganda war for years, only able to resort to hard slander about Ji Yuan eating people.
"He only eats people after winning battles. He was defeated by me, so how would I have had the chance to see him eat anyone?" Wei Wusheng countered.
"True." Princess Changqing nodded. "What else?"
"He's different from ordinary people—he has six fingers on his left hand."
"Eww! Though as an emperor, being different from common people is understandable."
"Also, I vaguely saw that under his hair, he has a pair of very short antlers, like a deer's."
"What? He even has antlers? That's too..."
As she spoke, Princess Changqing's expression gradually darkened. "Are you lying to me?"
"The fact that you could listen all the way to this point before realizing it—you're actually pretty impressive."
"Did you learn this from that Song jieyuan too?" Princess Changqing bit her lip with a frown, quite displeased.
"If you've got nothing better to do, go play somewhere else~" Wei Wusheng waved dismissively.
Princess Changqing stood beside him and complained on his behalf, "This battle was clearly won by you, so why does it feel like the Prince of Wu won it?"
"Don't discuss state affairs."
Wei Wusheng continued reading Spring Garden.
"Don't you have any emotions about this at all?" Princess Changqing pressed. "Shouldn't they be granting you a princedom and arranging a marriage with a legitimate daughter from a prestigious family?"
"If I get it, I'll accept it. If not, then so be it."
Wei Wusheng still showed no emotional fluctuation, as if this victorious battle had nothing to do with him.
Although Princess Changqing's mother was still alive, she was merely a consort of low rank, so within the palace, her status was actually much worse.
Someone like her would most likely be used for political marriages.
To Northern Yan, to Southern Yue.
The royalty of those places didn't care much about status, but they did require one thing—that she be a princess.
Therefore, she had banded together with Wei Wusheng.
Not so much seeking additional protection, but rather feeling somewhat sad that even after Little Wei had achieved such great merit, he couldn't obtain the rewards he deserved.
A person's fate seemed to be determined from birth.
"I heard that even when Song Shi'an returns, he'll have to face trial at the Court of Judicial Review," Princess Changqing lowered her voice to ask. "Can he survive?"
Hearing this, Wei Wusheng's expression gradually grew serious. "No one would dare kill him."
"Not even Father Emperor?" Changqing murmured.
Wei Wusheng replied coolly, "Mm."
………
Court of Judicial Review.
A group of officials were discussing the trial of Song Shi'an.
Right Monitor Ji Ming spoke up, "There are too many cases involved. Though none have been confirmed yet, there are impeachments nevertheless, including those from Shuofeng and from the court. His Majesty's intention is also for our Court of Judicial Review to conduct the trial, so should we place him in manacles or not?"
The key question now was whether to treat him as a criminal official first.
Or simply as someone being questioned for information.
This discretion was extremely important.
Sun Heng said, "The Court of Judicial Review judges cases based on evidence and follows imperial edicts. Since there are impeachments, and His Majesty has assigned us to conduct the trial, we must certainly treat him as a criminal official. The officials in court are also just fulfilling their duties. Even if nothing happened and Song Shi'an is innocent, we can't punish those officials who remonstrated, can we? We can't forbid people from speaking, can we?"
"No, no one said that." Wang Chen, leaning back in his chair, pressed down with his hands and reminded with a smile, "We're just discussing whether or not to use manacles."
At this moment, the Chief Justice (chief secretary to the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review), who held the rank of Senior Fourth, spoke up, "The case of the Langya 'military rebellion' hasn't been resolved, and it also involves the Sixth Prince. We must follow proper procedure."
"Then that means manacles," Ji Ming said.
Wang Chen, however, fell into hesitation.
The officials might not be clear about it and think there was room for maneuvering, but these experts in criminal law at the Court of Judicial Review knew perfectly well—Song Jing was fine, so Song Shi'an would also be fine.
But whether he was fine or not wasn't for them to determine.
Behind the scenes, there were important figures maneuvering.
The key question was whether or not to offend people.
"We are His Majesty's sword. Everything must be accountable to His Majesty," Sun Heng reminded Wang Chen.
"Naturally." Wang Chen nodded. "Coordinate in advance, then before entering the city, have the jailers waiting. Put on the manacles, load him into the cart, and escort him to the Court of Judicial Review under guard."
"There's more." Sun Heng added, "We need to choose the timing for entering the city."
"What do you mean?" Wang Chen asked.
"Those in court understand, we understand, but those common people don't. They just think that anyone who won a battle is a loyal subject. And that Song Shi'an is best at manipulating public opinion." Sun Heng spoke very seriously. "We should arrange for him to enter the city in the dead of night, cover his face, load him onto a cart, and separate him from the others to minimize the impact."
Just conducting a closed-door trial would be one thing.
But if the common people got involved, there'd be no way to gloss things over.
This method was truly ruthless.
But Wang Chen couldn't object.
After all, he was the emperor's sword—he couldn't use the authority the emperor had granted him to curry favor with the new nobility.
"When imprisoning an official, the person in charge must be at least two ranks higher. Song Shi'an is Senior Seventh Rank, so it needs to be someone of Senior Fifth Rank to do it." Wang Chen looked at the group. "Gentlemen, who will go?"
"..."
In the entire Court of Judicial Review right now, there were only a few officials of Senior Fifth Rank.
Sun Heng and Ji Ming were Junior Fourth Rank.
The Chief Justice was Senior Fourth Rank.
Wang Chen was Senior Second Rank.
For a seventh-rank county magistrate, should they really have the acting Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, Wang Chen, go personally?
The remaining three exchanged glances.
And in their glancing, the other two caught on and looked at Sun Heng in unison—you fucking suggested it, so obviously you should go.
Wang Chen also looked at him.
With three people staring at him, Sun Heng's sphincter tightened, and he said somewhat flustered, "Won't someone of Junior Fifth Rank work?"
"Two Junior Fifth Ranks are out of the capital on cases," the Chief Justice said.
"Then temporarily promote someone to Junior Fifth Rank." Sun Heng thought of a solution.
The three continued staring at Sun Heng.
Promoting a fifth-rank official required going through the Secretariat. Although approval wasn't difficult, Wang Chen, as acting Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, was focused on a smooth transition and wouldn't do such a thing.
Their lack of responsibility instantly infuriated Sun Heng. "No, when did we become so rule-abiding in our work?"
………
On the first of March, Song Shi'an arrived at Sheng'an.
Before arriving, officials from the Court of Judicial Review had informed them in advance to arrive at Sheng'an during the night.
But Song Shi'an paid them no heed. In broad daylight, he led his group to the outskirts of Sheng'an.
During the day, Sheng'an's main gate was open.
Merchants and travelers still passed through.
When the prison warden from the Court of Judicial Review saw Song Shi'an's mounted party was only a hundred paces from the city, he hurriedly brought over a dozen jailers to block the cavalry.
At the same time, he had the soldiers below the city cooperate to impose a traffic restriction on the city gate and keep civilians at a distance.
"Song Shi'an, you face impeachment as the mastermind behind the Langya military rebellion. Dismount and submit to manacles." The warden spoke to him with stern righteousness.
Xinyue at his side immediately wanted to snap back.
But Song Shi'an pressed down with his hand, telling her to stay calm. Only then did she maintain her fierce glare at the other party.
"Are you 'Xinyue'?" the warden asked.
"Yes." Xinyue replied coldly.
"You are also suspected of participating in the Langya military rebellion and attacking General Luo. Dismount." He said.
Before Xinyue could speak, Song Shi'an said, "She belongs to the Sixth Prince."
Hearing this, after a moment of stunned silence, he said, "Then she doesn't need to."
Although this woman had participated, since those above hadn't ordered her arrest, then forget it.
Slowly, Song Shi'an dismounted.
He extended both hands.
Heavy manacles locked around them.
"Didn't we tell you to arrive at Sheng'an at night?" After the warden questioned him, he explained, "You can't enter the city yet. You must wait until after the night curfew, then have your face covered and be transported by prison cart to the Court of Judicial Review."
After he finished speaking, Song Shi'an gazed at him.
Being stared at made his heart tighten, and he immediately became uneasy.
Xinyue, who had just dismounted, asked coldly, "What's your name?"
Being asked for his name scared him into trembling. "I'm just following orders from above..."
"You've fulfilled your duty."
Song Shi'an interrupted calmly.
This statement—the warden actually detected a hint of well-meaning reminder in it...
As if... he was saving him?
"We are criminal officials who were coerced by Zhang Wen into falsely accusing Laoye Song!"
At this moment, those clan patriarchs hurriedly crowded over, one after another extending their hands, requesting to be manacled. The warden was immediately at a loss.
Song Shi'an walked past him, heading toward the city.
Xinyue walked beside him, using her left hand to hold his manacled right hand.
Accompanying him through everything.
Those dozen or so jailers, like green recruits, retreated far away. They could only follow at a distance, nominally "escorting" him.
Just like that, the moment he stepped into the city.
All the common people of Sheng'an came pouring out.
A butcher stood on a table and roared, "They don't arrest those who lost battles! They don't arrest those who lost cities! But they arrest the one who drove away Ji Yuan—what kind of logic is this?!!"