The emperor was very pleased to hear this.
but,
boom--
He slammed the table.
"But do you know how this great victory came about?!"
The expression that was gentle just now suddenly turned into a stern one.
Chapter 260 Anonymous
"..."
"..."
"..."
It was quiet in the warm room.
Chu Zhongtian glanced at the other ministers, all of whom had an expression of "as expected".
He lowered his eyebrows.
"Your Majesty, I am not very clear about this matter."
The emperor snorted coldly,
"Seventh Brother really pissed me off. This bastard actually dared to forge an imperial edict, saying that he agreed to let the smuggling group pay tribute to Gu, and tricked the other party into voluntarily handing over those artillery pieces, which led to a great victory."
This statement is actually not entirely true.
The emperor deliberately concealed the great victory in the previous naval battle.
As the saying goes, "one battle determines the ruler and his subjects", what really made Gu She Qufu surrender was not the imperial edict, but the book issued by the Bozhou Navy -
"KanColle: Muzan".
This is also the real reason why the emperor was angry.
deceive you?
It doesn't matter if you don't have the strength to bully the emperor. Which of the common people hasn't cursed the emperor?
They win if the emperor looks at them!
The one who hit the sore spot was actually the Seventh Prince who once again abused his military power.
It was a guard post before, so it was not so bad.
Now they are actually extending their hands to the Bozhou navy. This is really outrageous!
Chu Zhongtian actually knew about that naval battle.
But for the same reason, he didn't plan to mention that matter, and he had been pretending to be ignorant of it since just now, so he couldn't mention it even if he wanted to.
He hesitated for a few seconds.
"Your Majesty, do you have the original imperial edict?"
"Do you still want to see it?"
"I just feel that the Seventh Prince has always been kind and benevolent. It is a bit strange to say that he forged the imperial edict and committed the crime of deceiving the emperor."
"Okay! I'll show you!"
The emperor nodded to the eunuch beside him.
The latter understood and handed the copied imperial edict to Chu Zhongtian.
When Chu Zhongtian saw the first sentence, his eyes lit up.
After that, he continued reading, and had already thought of a way to refute the emperor's point of view.
He said: "Your Majesty, this is not an imperial decree."
The emperor sneered.
"That's not enough. I want to see how your eloquent tongue, Lord Chu, can confuse right and wrong."
"I dare not."
"Is there anything else you dare not do? If you have to fart, do it now!"
Chu Zhongtian: ￣□￣｜｜
He said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, it is said that 'received the mandate from heaven, and shall live long and prosper', and it is also said that 'it is mentioned in the name of Fengtian Palace', so the imperial edict must begin with the six words 'Emperor Fengtian Chengyun'."
To put it simply, it's just playing word games.
The emperor's mouth curled up.
Fighting with others brings endless joy.
He knew that these ministers would get entangled in this regard, and he had already thought of a strategy to deal with it.
"When I issued the imperial decree, were there these six words?"
Zhongzhi refers to an imperial edict issued directly from the inner court without the approval of the cabinet or the copying and filing of the six departments.
There is a lot of colloquial content in Chinese, so it is impossible to have a formal format.
Chu Zhongtian opened his mouth and said, "Your Majesty, this is for Gu She to see..."
The Emperor interrupted.
"You mean, what was shown to Gu She was not an imperial decree, so there must be a 'Fengtian Chengyun Emperor', right?"
"Yes."
"Then let me ask you, if the imperial edict with the wrong format is not an imperial edict, how did it deceive Gu She?"
"..."
Chu Zhongtian was speechless.
Although Gu She is the overlord of the sea, he is still considered an ordinary person.
In the eyes of the common people, the emperor and the imperial edict were sacred and unquestionable. They believed in the four words "golden words and jade words" even more than the ministers in the court.
So, does it matter whether what the Seventh Prince wrote was an imperial edict?
What the people believed to be an imperial edict turned out to be a trick to deceive people, which dealt a heavy blow to the credibility of the imperial edict.
This is deceiving the king!
For a time, the ministers' side was suppressed by the emperor.
The emperor clenched his fist silently.
Cool!
In the court, he was always alone facing the attacks of many ministers, and it was rare for him to finally gain the upper hand.
He said: "The mistake made by Lao Qi..."
Before he was halfway through his sentence, a noise suddenly came from the side.
Click——
The emperor frowned.
He glanced at Si Rou with a warning look and continued, "The mistake that Lao Qi made..."
Click——
There was another sound.
The emperor was completely annoyed this time. He turned his head to look at Sirou.
Sirou put her hands under the chair and moved to the left, while stretching her neck to look in the direction of the warm room door.
The emperor was puzzled.
"Si Rou, what are you doing?"
Sirou was in a trance for a moment.
"Ah, no...no."
"How can it be!"
"..."
The emperor stood up, walked around behind Sirou, and looked at the door of the warm room from any angle.
There actually is something there.
It seemed to be a memorial, but there was no text on the cover. It looked like an anonymous letter of complaint.
A group of ministers also turned around.
Someone walked over and picked it up, with a blank expression on his face.
"This……"
He looked very embarrassed.
There was no such thing as anonymity in ancient times, because anonymity would not be accepted from top to bottom.
At the local level, officials were called "parents", and "citizens suing officials" was equivalent to "sons killing their fathers", so if the people reported officials, they would first be beaten with a few sticks.
They all have to be punished, and they certainly cannot be anonymous;
As for the capital, the center of power, there is a saying that goes "no crime if one speaks". There is no such thing as being convicted for one's words, and there is no need to be anonymous.
Moreover, anonymity has another particularly serious harm, which is that it will lead to intrigue and factionalism among officials.
If this continues, the imperial court will be doomed sooner or later.
The emperor raised his hand,
"Bring it to me."
The official trotted up to the emperor and handed him the memorial.
The emperor raised his eyebrows slightly.
The memorial was sealed, which showed that it was something that had been prepared.
He tore the seal open roughly, then read carefully. After reading only a few lines, he slammed the table.
boom--
"This is really unreasonable!"
The emperor looked at his ministers.
"Whose masterpiece is this?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
An eerie silence.
Everyone lowered their heads and did not come out to claim it.
Sirou secretly glanced at the contents of the memorial.
I didn't expect that this story was actually about Bozhou, but the protagonist, the Seventh Prince, was replaced by the missing Li Qingcha.
In the memorial, everything was instructed by Li Qingcha, and the Seventh Prince was just a puppet.
This is more damaging to the royal family's reputation than deceiving the emperor.
Sirou subconsciously wanted to refute a few words on behalf of Li Qingcha.
But soon, she calmed down.
Now, the news that the emperor received should be the news that Li Qingcha was missing, or even dead. From the emperor's perspective, Li Qingcha's innocence was safe, and he was the scapegoat for the Seventh Prince.
What a good trick to make a feint to the east and attack in the west...
