Chapter 436: That early summer, inside the palace, standing like a minion

Chapter 436: That early summer, inside the palace, standing like a minion

Chapter 436: That early summer, inside the palace, standing like a minion (5k)

A silence.

The chilly spring breeze blew past the hem of Zhao Duan's official robe from outside the gate and hit the faces of the ministers in the hall.

The expressions on everyone's faces seemed to be frozen, and some people raised their hands to block their eyes, as if to block the strong light pouring in from outside.

Zhao Duan... Zhao Duan... Isn't he dead? Why is he here?

Resurrection from the dead?
The moment this absurd thought arose in the minds of many officials, they were cut off and realized the truth:
"suspended animation!"

Imperial Censor Yuan Li moved his lips and uttered these two words. His face flushed slightly and a look of excitement emerged.

Then a look of "sudden realization" flashed across his wise eyes. He turned his head and glanced at Luan Cheng. Seeing that the prefect was indeed calm, he became more certain of his judgment.

Yes... He had felt that Zhao Duan's death was sudden. Although anything could have happened in the overseas struggle, perhaps the impression Zhao Duan left on people in the past year was too deep, and Yuan Li found it difficult to accept that he died just like that.

However, during this period of time, neither His Majesty's reaction nor the Zhao family's grief made him notice anything strange.

Now it seems that he really concealed it from everyone in the capital...

Faking death... Faking death... In Li Yanfu's deep eye sockets, the pupils suddenly shrank into a small dot. He subconsciously took two steps back, his hands trembling in his sleeves, and his good mood for the past few days was instantly ruined.

Realize you've been deceived.

Not only him, but all the officials in the Golden Palace, led by the Li Party, who had been celebrating in recent days, felt colder all over and their moods fell to the bottom.

"Zhao Shaobao...are you still alive?"

"This... is it possible that the communication was wrong?"

"Your Majesty, may I ask what this is..."

The ministers were in an uproar and rushed to speak.

Zhao Duan walked straight ahead, and under the gaze of the officials on both sides, he walked to the front of the hall like a sharp knife splitting the tide.

At this time, the ministers also noticed that there were two people following him.

They were Haitang, the head of the Narcissus Hall of Zhaoya, and Zhang Han, the head of the Peony Hall.

As for the senior brothers and sisters from the Tianshi Mansion, as well as Jiyue Yunxi and others, it was not appropriate for them to be here, so they did not follow.

Haitang and Zhang Han were carrying the heavy box on the left and right - the three of them had entered the palace early and pulled Zhuang Xiaocheng from Eunuch Hai to complete this public ceremony.

"Everyone, be quiet."

The Queen of Dayu smiled and looked down at the chaos among her ministers. She waited for a while before speaking softly.

The eunuch at the side raised his whip and hit it hard on the shiny marble floor, making a crisp sound.

After the ministers shut up, Xu Zhenguan smiled and said:

"I know you are all wondering why Young Master Zhao is still safe and sound. Let Mr. Zhao tell you about this yourself."

Zhao Duan cupped his hands and said, "I obey your order."

After he finished speaking, he raised his head, but instead of rushing to tell the story, he slowly walked to the large box on the ground and said with a smile:
"Before I start, there is an old 'friend' that needs to be brought out to meet my colleagues."

After saying that, without waiting for everyone to react, he pulled the pull ring, and with a "bang", opened the box that was as heavy as a coffin!

The old master who was in a coma with a talisman stuck on his forehead was exposed in the box.

"Zhuang... Zhuang Xiaocheng! It's Zhuang Xiaocheng! The leader of the rebel party!"

A censor who was nearest to him was horrified and shouted.

The ministers, who had finally calmed down, became restless again.

And this time, the commotion was even bigger than before!
"Zhuang Xiaocheng!"

Who would be unfamiliar with this name? As the leader of the rebel party, he was the most troublesome enemy of the imperial court after the "Xuanmen coup".

We have sent people to capture him countless times, but every time we failed.

This is also the reason why Zhao Duan’s “letting go” of Zhuang Xiaocheng caused such a big commotion - his identity was too special.

At this moment, Zhuang Xiaocheng, who had been "missing" for three years, appeared in the hall again. How could this not move all the officials?

"That's right, as you can see, this thief is the leader of the rebel party, the former Taifu Zhuang Xiaocheng." Zhao Duan said loudly.

He put his hands behind his back, looked at Li Yanfu in the crowd, and raised the corners of his mouth:

"Three months ago, on New Year's Eve, the Prime Minister brought up the old matter again. I said at that time that within three months, I would catch the rebels who had been released. Now, fortunately, I have kept my promise."

Li Yanfu stared at him without saying a word, only his beard trembled slightly.

The "young cabinet minister" Li Yinglong, who was also in the hall, stepped forward and supported his father to prevent him from losing his composure.

"Haha," Zhao Duan did not pursue the matter relentlessly, but smiled faintly and said:

"The reason why I discussed with Prefect Luan and sent out the death notice was to safely escort this thief back to the capital..."

Then he talked eloquently and recounted the entire experience of the arrest.

And explained why it did so.

After everything was narrated, all the officials finally knew everything.

After understanding what had happened, he realized that Zhao Duan had probably returned to the capital early, waiting to go to the palace today to slap Li Yanfu in the face.

"Wait..." Someone suddenly recalled the empress's suppression of the Li Party during this period, and his expression suddenly became interesting.

If the empress had known that Zhao Duan was not dead, then wouldn't the suppression have been intentional? Did the Li Party suffer a loss?
Thinking of this, Yuan Li and other members of the Qingliu Party immediately cast "sympathetic" glances towards their group of mortal enemies.

"Good...good method..."

Li Yanfu took a deep breath, closed his eyes, opened them again, and stared at Zhao, who was full of vigor and vitality:

"What a fake death, what a plot."

Zhao Duan looked at him with a smile:

"Thank you for your praise, Prime Minister. Actually, I have to thank you for urging me. Otherwise, I might not have been able to arrest this thief so quickly."

Li Yanfu remained silent.

Haitang and Zhang Han found it interesting. It was rare to see the Prime Minister being humiliated in public.

"As Shaobao Zhao said, we were able to arrest the rebel leader today. The subordinates led by Shaobao Zhao made great efforts, and the Prime Minister also made great contributions."

Xu Zhenguan chuckled and said this, this remark which was more of a teasing than a compliment, was like a slap in the face of Li Yanfu.

However, today's purpose is not to target Li Yanfu after all.

The empress stopped at the right time and began to enumerate Zhuang Xiaocheng's crimes. She publicly rewarded Haitang and others who had participated in the battle and made contributions.

The only exception is Zhao Duan - because nominally, his meritorious service this time could be considered as "atonement for his sins."

As to whether there was any compensation in private, the ministers had no idea.

Finally, the empress announced publicly that she would hold a public trial for Zhuang Xiaocheng and other rebels, and after the case process was completed, they would be beheaded together at Caishikou.

All the officials shouted "Long live the emperor" and no one raised any objection.

……

After leaving the court.

Zhuang Xiaocheng continued to be escorted by the palace masters to ensure that he would live to see the day of his beheading without any accidents.

Zhao Duan walked among the crowd and went out of the Meridian Gate together.

Unconsciously, the ministers separated tacitly, leaving him and Li Yanfu behind.

One is too young, and the other is too old.

Two officials from the new and old courts walked down the white jade steps step by step, and the sunlight cast their shadows on the ground.

"Mr. Prime Minister, do you still remember the scene when you and I first met at the Meridian Gate?" Zhao Duan put his hands in his sleeves, walked down the long steps, and asked softly without looking around.

Li Yanfu remained silent.

Zhao Duan said to himself:

"It was the time when Pei Kaizhi was stripped of his official position. I was standing at the Meridian Gate at the time. I was not qualified to attend the court, so I just watched the officials leave after the court was dismissed. The Prime Minister didn't care much about me at that time.

I told Pei Kaizhi a joke and he was so angry that he vomited blood. Only then did the Prime Minister turn around and look at me. "

Li Yanfu said nothing.

Zhao Duan continued:

"But before that, my deepest impression of the Prime Minister was the afternoon when I 'let go' of Zhuang Xiaocheng. I went to the palace to plead guilty to His Majesty, and the Prime Minister was in the study discussing state affairs with His Majesty.

When you came out of the study, I was standing in the corridor with a group of ladies-in-waiting and called you. You didn't even look at me. "

Li Yanfu walked to the last step and took a deep breath.

Zhao Duan stopped, put his hands together to face the sun, raised his head slightly, and smiled brightly:
"From you ignoring me, to you looking back at me, to you treating me as a thorn in your side in the throne room just now... It took me nearly a year to go through these changes."

He turned his head and looked down at Li Yanfu who was walking down the stairs and straight ahead. The corners of his mouth curled up and he said teasingly:
"How many decades did it take for the Prime Minister to reach this position?"

Li Yanfu paused, his slightly hunched body trembling slightly, as if he was trying hard to suppress his anger, and his gray hair trembled in the spring breeze.

"Don't be complacent for too long!"

He uttered these words, walked away, and disappeared outside the palace gate.

Zhao Duan stood on the steps with his sleeves rolled up, looking disappointed.

Unfortunately, this old thief is not as fragile as Pei Kaizhi.

"Then... let's wait and see."

……

……

After Zhao Duan dismissed the court, he went straight to the imperial court with his two "alive" colleagues.

As expected, it caused a sensation. The Jinyis of Lihua Hall went from sadness to dullness to ecstasy, experiencing ups and downs in just half an hour.

Fortunately, the same explanation had been given several times, and he explained the situation very easily. The group of troublemakers who were originally leaderless and listless immediately became radiant.

Zhao Duan waved his hand and bid several hundred taels of silver in his personal name. He ordered Qian Kerou to prepare a banquet and congratulate his colleagues later.

As for the "bonuses" of the Jinyi soldiers, they were transferred from the account, and for a while the whole hall was filled with joy.

……

"How are the prisoners who were brought back?"

In the Governor's Hall, after Zhao Duan arrived, he asked Ma Yan.

As the sharpest knife in the empress's hand, although Ma Yan did not attend the court today, he had already learned the information that Zhao Duan was not dead earlier.

And last night, according to Zhao Duan's arrangement, Yunxi was sent to the imperial prison.

——This time it’s not about detention, but about persuading surrender.

"According to the list you provided, the prisoners with bad records and no hope of redemption were tortured to extract as much information as possible. As for those who have the hope of being converted into spies, they were imprisoned alone. However, I heard that the group of people is quite stubborn, so persuading them to surrender alone may not be very effective."

Ma Yan sat in the hall, holding a teacup, and answered.

Zhao Duan pondered for a moment and said:
"I'll go and see for myself."

……

……

Lin Yuebai woke up from a nightmare.

She pried open her eyelids, sat up suddenly, and shouted "Seven feet!?"

In the next cell, the young boy Kou Qichi stared at his messy hair and rushed to the railing:
"Sister, I'm here!"

Lin Yuebai gasped for breath. In the dim dungeon, a look of fear appeared on her face. She raised her chained wrists, wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, shook her head and said:
"It's okay, it was just a dream."

In the dream, Kou Qichi was dragged out by the jailer, thrown on the execution platform and skinned, and his screams echoed throughout the dungeon.

Lin Yuebai shook her head to clear her dizzy mind. The Confucian robe she wore as a man was gone, replaced by a tattered, smelly prison uniform.

There were several people imprisoned in the cell. The rest of them were awakened and looked at her with either indifference or concern.

No one spoke.

Everyone was waiting for the torture to come.

Since they were detained last night, their detention has been "disrupted". They don't know what happened to their other companions, but they can hear shrill screams that lasted the entire night.

What really made these people depressed was not the fear of torture, but confusion.

On the way, they learned the news that the Grand Tutor had died together with the Zhao thieves.

The death of Zhao Ze was certainly a cause for celebration, but the death of Taifu made this group of people lose their "guiding light" and feel at a loss.

Lin Yuebai could only continue to comfort the others:

Princess Wen is still there, the Crown Prince is still there, and core members such as Qi Yuchun and Ren Kun are still there.

The brothers and sisters of Kuangfu Society are still fighting in various places.

"Dangdang!"

Suddenly, the sound of a cell door opening was heard in the corridor. Along with the sound of footsteps, several jailers walked in and glanced at everyone: "Lin Yuebai, come out for a moment."

"Sister!" the boy next door screamed heartbreakingly.

But he was unable to stop it, and Lin Yuebai was dragged out roughly by the jailer.

When the sorceress had a blank look on her face and was ready to be beaten, she found that the jailers did not take her to the torture chamber.

Instead, they came to a quieter area.

In the dungeon corridor illuminated by a brazier, Lin Yuebai, who was shackled, saw Wu Ling and Qingniao. The two were standing on the left and right, guarding outside an interrogation room like door gods.

"It's you! Traitors! Running dogs of the court!" Lin Yuebai glared at them and cursed the two traitors.

Wu Ling was too lazy to say anything. Bluebird looked at him with pity and a sneer on his lips:

"I hope you'll be the same when you come out later."

Lin Yuebai was pushed into the interrogation room, looking a little dazed.

……

There was only a table and a few chairs in the room.

At this moment, sitting in the interrogator's position were a man and a woman, one of whom was Lin Yuebai's former friend Yunxi.

The other one...put his feet on the table, leaned back in the chair, flipped through the documents in his hands, with a look of contempt and superiority in his eyes.

"Zhao! Zhao the thief?!"

Lin Yuebai felt like he was struck by lightning, his eyes widened, and he stared in disbelief at the treacherous minister Zhao Duan who was smiling at him.

She had secretly seen Zhao Duan's face in the crowd and was not unfamiliar with him.

"Lin Yuebai, right? The information says that you are in charge of a small branch in the society, and you also participated in Hu Ting's assassination of me? Haha, interesting... In the battle of Fengcheng, when you were threatened by Qingniao, you clashed with other people in the society and fought each other... Tsk tsk, it's even more interesting..."

Zhao Duan threw the book in his hand on the table, folded his hands, and stared at her with interest:
"Are you interested in turning over a new leaf and becoming a new person? In consideration of Yunxi's strong recommendation, as long as you turn from evil to good, I will forgive your assassination attempt."

Yunxi glanced at him: So direct?

"You... aren't you dead?!" Lin Yuebai was at a loss, leaning against the iron gate, as if he had seen a ghost.

Yunxi had no expression on her face and quickly explained the matter briefly.

After hearing this, Lin Yuebai's eyes suddenly lit up: "So, the master is still alive?"

"He's not far from death," Zhao Duan said lazily.
"In a few days, there will be a beheading at Caishikou. As long as you point out Zhuang Xiaocheng's crime in public, I will..."

"Bah! You dog official! I will never give in!"

Zhao Duan was not surprised at all. Looking at this familiar reaction, he seemed to see Yunxi, the girl he had once trained personally.

He sighed softly and took out a video reel from his sleeve:
"After reading this, I hope you can still curse."

Then, a light shone through the scroll, which was particularly clear in the dark dungeon.

It was the scene in the Zhao family study where the empress and Zhao Duan interrogated Zhuang Xiaocheng.

"What the Grand Master is worried about all day is how to oppose me, how to fabricate history, throw dirty water on me, whitewash Xu Jianwen's evil deeds of rebellion, and deceive people's hearts?"

"I am the meat and I am the butcher..."

The original conversation also echoed in the interrogation room.

Zhao Duan arranged for Gongshu Tianyuan to take secret photos outside at that time. The empress probably guessed his thoughts and did not stop him.

During the entire conversation, although Zhuang Xiaocheng didn't say much and looked like he was seeking death, he did not retort when faced with the questions from the empress and Zhao Duan.

It's a default attitude.

And many times, the default itself means a lot.

Lin Yuebai was stunned. After the images in the scroll were played, she still couldn't believe it: "This is..."

Yun Xi sighed softly and sneered:

"Why else do you think I turned to the imperial court? Do you think I was weak? Or was I forced by the tyranny? No, it was because I saw through the true face of the old villain Zhuang and tore open his lies..."

Then, she recounted her experience of how she had suddenly attained enlightenment, and showed her a large pile of information prepared on the table that could prove Zhuang Xiaocheng's hypocrisy and lies.

Finally, Zhao Duan looked compassionate:

"You should have noticed that too many people in the Kuangfu Society do not uphold the idea of ​​supporting the country. There are also too many people who knew that Zhuang Xiaocheng was lying and just tacitly maintained this lie."

He stood up and walked out:

"You are a smart person. Think about it carefully. I hope you make the right choice."

Zhao Duan walked out of the interrogation room and stared at the dust floating in the light from the window at the end of the corridor. He suddenly touched his pocket and regretfully thought that a cigarette would be appropriate at this time.

About a quarter of an hour later, the door of the interrogation room opened. Zhao Duan did not look back, but continued to look at the light coming through the fence on the wall.

"how?"

Behind him, Yunxi came over and said calmly:

"She was convinced by me and promised me to go back to the cell and help incite more people to stand up and expose the hypocrisy of the old thief."

Zhao Duan was not surprised: "Just follow the method I demonstrated and continue to do it."

He sneered:
"In fact, these people are not stupid, so they must have thought about it in their hearts during this period of time, and realized that they were abandoned by Zhuang Xiaocheng. Whether they don't want their faith to collapse or because of the opinions of their companions, they just hold on.

When facing this group of people, there is no need to punish them. All we need to do is to win their hearts and minds and give them a reason to justify joining the court and become ‘traitors’. They will naturally change their stance…”

One of the reasons why Zhao Duan divided the prisoners into two groups was to artificially create divisions.

And he used screams all night long to scare Lin Yuebai and his group into their hearts.

"Everyone is afraid of death. Few people are not afraid. They are just trapped by some empty moral shackles and cannot get out."

"It's like when a foreign race attacks a city, even if it's just to avoid being blamed, they have to hold on. But if the foreign race holds up a puppet emperor of their own, the defenders along the way will surrender with peace of mind."

Zhao Duan said this without any emotion, he was as cold as an ice-cold machine.

He had seen too many similar things in history books.

Yun Xi thought thoughtfully: "What they lack is just a legitimate reason to change their stance?"

"What else?" Zhao Duan turned around and pinched the girl's face:
"Do you really think that those rebels are just as stupid as you, thinking about dying all day long?"

Um...Yunxi's eyes were wide open with anger, but she was too timid to say a word.

Zhao Duan laughed and walked past her to the outside of the prison:
"The rest of the people are in your hands. Those who have been persuaded to surrender can be transformed into spies. You and Wu Ling will lead them. You will have to continue to wipe out the remnants of the rebels and atone for your crimes. Oh, it's too good to think that you can wash away your sins just by betraying once."

(End of this chapter)