Chapter 51: What An Evil Idea

Translator: Peggyan

According to Hu Ying, during an eastern expedition in the early years, s.h.i.+ Qingshan pa.s.sed by the village where Hu Ying lived and did nothing to save them, resulting in the death of Hu’s parents. Hu’s elder sister was 13 years old at that year and asked s.h.i.+ Qingshan to save her dying parents, but s.h.i.+ Qingzhou made a promise to her at the cost of her body.

Having had s.e.x with his sister, s.h.i.+ Qingshan didn’t honor his promise.

In the end, Hu’s parents died distressingly, and his sister took her own life, for she lost her virginity.

Hu Ying became an orphan and then adopted by an a.s.sa.s.sination organization, so he wanted revenge.

What Hu Ying said dropped a bomb at the Throne Room.

Some ministers intimate to s.h.i.+ Qingshan immediately shouted, “Nonsense! How could Minister s.h.i.+ do such shameless things! How dare you spout such bulls.h.i.+t!”

“Right! What’s your evidence?”

“Evidence? The scars all over my body support my words!” At the Throne Room, Hu Ying was tied up, but he used his internal force to tear his clothes up, revealing his naked upper body full of s.h.i.+ Qingshan’s names and his hatred!

Some civil ministers were so scared that they took two steps back.

s.h.i.+ Qingshan said with a poker face, “The eastern expedition? It has been 20 years since then, but some people have followed me for 20 years. I never was in that village you mentioned and never did the things you said. What’s more, the eastern expedition was an important event, so many people kept their eyes on it. You said I defiled a village girl? What a joke! Why n.o.body mentioned this at that time?”

“That’s right. You’re talking nonsense! Why did no one say this at that time?”

“You ministers protected each other!” Hu Ying glared at s.h.i.+ Qingzhou. “s.h.i.+ Qingzhou, it’s a shame you’re the pillar of the state. You’re a monster!”

“How dare you say these!” One more minister stood up.

Afterward, another minister stood up, too. “It can’t be said that way…If Minister s.h.i.+ really has nothing to do with this, why does this a.s.sa.s.sin target at Minister s.h.i.+?”

“Right. If Minister s.h.i.+ really didn’t do anything…”

“Minister w.a.n.g, what are you talking about? Minister s.h.i.+ is honest and upright and has worked conscientiously for all those years. Are you blind?” roared one minister.

The so-called Minister w.a.n.g shrank his neck out of instincts and then raised his neck probably because he thought that his action made him lose face. “Am I wrong? Is he like a mad dog barking? Why does he not bite me?”

“You…” The ministers argued with each other. s.h.i.+ Qingshan frowned.

Right on the time, Hu Ying suddenly jumped up. “s.h.i.+ Qingshan, you’re gonna die!”

Hu Ying was bound but abruptly jumped at s.h.i.+ Qingshan with his full force. If Hu Ying made it, s.h.i.+ Qingshan would get wounded severely even if he didn’t die. After all, Hu Ying had a strong explosiveness force.

However, it turned out that the imperial guards pressing Hu Ying were strong enough. One of them promptly unsheathed his blade and stabbed Hu Ying directly.

Consequentially, Hu Ying jumped up but was pierced through by a sharp blade before he could approach s.h.i.+ Qingshan.

Hu Ying said with his eyes wide open before dying, “s.h.i.+ Qingshan, you’re going to die!”

He then closed his eyes…

Such a sudden episode startled the ministers who then fell into an uproar.

Long Xiaoyuan saw what happened with his eyes narrowed and glanced at the imperial guard who immediately knelt on the ground with a pale face after killing Hu Ying.

“Your Majesty, I deserve death. I worried about the safety of Minister s.h.i.+, so…I deserve death!”

Long Xiaoyuan slowly stood up. Then, all the ministers immediately fell into silence.

“What a wonderful show!” Long Xiaoyuan smiled.

“We’re panicked,” said those ministers in unison.

Long Xiaoyuan glanced at Hu Ying and said, “He deserved death since he tried to kill my minister in front of me. No, not only him but also nine generations of him deserve death!”

All the ministers s.h.i.+vered.

“As to what Hu Ying said is true or not, where is Zhong Ming?”

“I’m here.” Zhong Ming stood out.

“En, I’ll leave this matter to you. You have to get to the bottom of this and don’t wrong anyone, but don’t let go of any bad one. Is that clear?”

“I obey your order, Your Majesty!” Zhong Ming accepted the order while kneeling.

“Drag the a.s.sa.s.sin down and hang him in front of the Meridian Gate under the sun for ten days. His accusation is attempted a.s.sa.s.sination at the Throne Room.”

“Yes!” One imperial guard dragged the a.s.sa.s.sin down.

In the end, Long Xiaoyuan fixed his eyes on the imperial guard who asked punishment. “You were a little rushy, but I understand you wanted to protect Minister s.h.i.+. However, the material suspect died, making the case more difficult, so you avoid the death penalty but not the living punishment. Drag him down and give him a beating. Liu Xiangyang, you supervise the implementation in person.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Liu Xiangyang instantly obeyed the order.

“Okay, let’s call it a day,” said Long Xiaoyuan before turning around to walk away.

Those ministers looked at each other and then slowly lowered their eyelids with various thoughts coming across their minds.

After the morning session, Long Xiaoyuan straight headed for the Qiankun Palace.

Was he angry? Not at all, actually.

After all, he played a role in making this.

Otherwise, the Ministry of Punishments wouldn’t have “arrested” a criminal so quickly.

It never occurred to him that Zhong Ming really dared to direct the spearhead against s.h.i.+ Qingshan. He had underestimated Zhong Ming.

Zhong Ming, the Minister of Punishment, not only wanted to obscure why s.h.i.+ Qingshan was attacked this time but also wanted to put s.h.i.+ Qingshan in an immoral situation, thus, ruining s.h.i.+’s reputation!

The charges of defiling a village girl and doing nothing to save her parents were enough to ruin s.h.i.+ Qingshan!

What a good scheme!

With his eyes twinkling coldness, Long Xiaoyuan didn’t soften his expression until he arrived at the Qiankun Palace.

Having long received this message, s.h.i.+ Qingzhou was waiting for Long Xiaoyuan.

Long Xiaoyuan saw s.h.i.+ Qingzhou waiting by the door and walked up to hold his hands with a smile. “Has breakfast been served?”

“When you’re on your way here, I’ve order breakfast to be served. It’ll be right on the table soon. Are you hungry?”

Long Xiaoyuan said waving his hand, “I’m full of anger, so I’m not hungry, neither are you, I guess.”

s.h.i.+ Qingzhou paused and then asked slowly, “Is…this about my father?”

“En.” Long Xiaoyuan looked at s.h.i.+ Qingzhou with a smile, “I just finished the morning session, but you’ve already known what happened…”

Long Xiaoyuan felt really happy with the hint of a smile in his eyes. s.h.i.+ Qingzhou, who was used to disguising himself, directly said those in front of Long Xiaoyaun to express himself…

Hahaha, did it mean that s.h.i.+ Qingzhou trusted Long Xiaoyuan?

s.h.i.+ Qingzhou also smiled upon clearly seeing the smile in the eyes of Long Xiaoyuan and said, “Yeah, I already know that. Your Majesty, do you want to punish me?”

“Yes, I do!” Long Xiaoyuan fiercely nodded and kissed s.h.i.+ Qingzhou’s chin.

“I’ll continue at night.”

Hearing this, s.h.i.+ Qingzhou rolled his eyes.

Long Xiaoyuan held s.h.i.+ Qingzhou’s hand and walked inside before sitting down by the table. “Your father is dragged into this. They’ve crossed the line…”

Afterward, Long Xiaoyuan narrated what happened in the morning session.

s.h.i.+ Qingzhou said with a cold face, “I doubt whether they have the abilities to slander my father!”

Long Xiaoyuan said seriously, “Right. As long as I believe your father, the more they slander your father, the more clearly we get to know who help those w.a.n.gyehs.”

s.h.i.+ Qingzhou said with a nod, “That’s right…Your Majesty, have you made up your mind?”

“Of course.” Long Xiaoyuan clutched his fists and then held s.h.i.+ Qingzhou’s hand to place it on the table. “Qingzhou, I’ve received confidential intelligence and known the Northern Barbarians make moves. I guess they want to cooperate with our w.a.n.gyehs.”

s.h.i.+ Qingzhou paused and said instantly, “If my father loses his reputation when our army is about to go to the battlefront, he definitely won’t be the command in chief. How can a man with a damaged reputation be the command in chief?”

“It’s the case! I didn’t figure out why the Northern Barbarians made moves until I saw this show in the morning…The unrest isn’t kept as a secret and will be reported to me within three days. Qingzhou, we don’t have much time.”

“Three days…” s.h.i.+ Qingzhou continued with a nod, “Your Majesty, what consequences do you want to see?”

Long Xiaoyuan said with a cold smile, “Minister Zhong likes those w.a.n.gyehs so much, so why not we give him a hand?”

s.h.i.+ Qingzhou was stunned first and smiled, too. “Your idea is…too evil.”

“Hahaha, really? After all, it’s Minister Zhong who is self-defeating!”

Two days later in the evening, Zhong Ming drank with First w.a.n.gyeh.

Although they chose a confidential room in a brothel which was a good place to confuse the public, they were caught in the act.

It was a numb minister who spotted them. However, this minister was famous for his gossip and upright temper.

The minister was a little drunken and carelessly pushed a door with a man in his arms.

He blurted out, “Ah! Minister Zhong!”

“Ah, First w.a.n.gyeh! Greetings, Minister Zhong and First w.a.n.gyeh!”

That was right! The numb minister was embracing a man, not a prost.i.tute of the brothel.

Of course, this man was not his paramour, but one of his bad friends.

More importantly, the minister was here under the company of a group of friends.

Among those people, two were soldiers, two scholars, two ministers with a lower ranking than him, one storyteller! What a bunch of people!

It also proved that the minister was a people person.

See, didn’t those people from different walks of life get together because of him?

After the minister shouted out, the storyteller s.h.i.+vered and sobered up…

As Zhong Ming was about to rebuke the minister to leave with a darkened face, the latter’s friends arrived.

Those people were a living example of “Birds of a feather flock together”.

Ministers often came to the brothel in disguise. But when those people knew that the two were big shots and had higher positions than their friend, they kowtowed in unison!

Zhong Ming turned livid, so did First w.a.n.gyeh!

As experienced people, Zhong Ming and First w.a.n.gyeh knew that they might have been targeted earlier. Now, they were in trouble!

Right, they were in trouble, for the news that Zhong Ming and First w.a.n.gyeh drank in the brothel went viral in the entire imperial city.

The next morning in the morning session, His Majesty turned furious! Although Zhong Ming wasn’t relieved of his post, he was no longer the Minister of Punishments and became First w.a.n.gyeh’s a.s.sistant.

Zhong Ming, the then Minister of Punishments of a country, was reduced to an a.s.sistant of a w.a.n.gyeh…How ironic!

Of course, His Majesty didn’t directly appoint Zhong Ming the a.s.sistant, but this was how it ended…

Those w.a.n.gyehs didn’t need to attend the morning session each day, but today, three of the five ones showed up.

First w.a.n.gyeh, Third w.a.n.gyeh, and Fourth w.a.n.gyeh appeared in the morning session.

But, they didn’t look good.

Compared with their darkened faces, Long Xiaoyuan was in a good mood.

The Ministry of Punishments was very important, which didn’t mean that other ministries weren’t significant, of course. Except for in charge of criminal affairs all over the country, it had the most important value, namely, intelligence.

The Ministry of Punishments was the only place where someone could obtain intelligence as much as he could.

If someone could be in charge of this ministry, then he would be able to spy on everyone through the ministry.

As the two-dynasty senior minister, Zhong Ming was humiliated very much this time.

Most importantly, the timing was bad.

Under the instructions of him, s.h.i.+ Qingshan was wronged. Before s.h.i.+ Qingshan came clean, he, the leader of the Ministry of Punishments, was so close to First w.a.n.gyeh…How come?

It was well-known that First w.a.n.gyeh held a grudge against s.h.i.+ Qingshan.

The feud between First w.a.n.gyeh and s.h.i.+ Qingshan traced back to the times of the late emperor.

At that time, the late emperor trusted them both, so there shouldn’t have conflicts between them.

The truth was, the more the late emperor trust them, the more they had compet.i.tions.

Why were the five w.a.n.gyehs still idle in the imperial city?

Why were they locked up in the imperial city?

It was related to the unrest breaking out that year.

The civilians and some ministers didn’t know the details but were very sure that those w.a.n.gyehs were believed to rise in rebellion but stopped by s.h.i.+ Qingshan!

s.h.i.+ Qingshan became household that year not only because of his military successes but also because of putting down the unrest.

In the end, the late emperor only removed two-thirds of the military leaders.h.i.+p of those w.a.n.gyehs for the sake of fraternity, leaving 50,000 disabled soldiers totaled to the command of them.

After all those years, those things seemed past as the late emperor deceased.

However, the people were shrewd and knew that they were past but indeed existed.

Besides, the five w.a.n.gyehs weren’t sentenced to die but really considered s.h.i.+ Qingshan their enemy!

Now, the Minister of Punishments accused s.h.i.+ Qingshan with something, but the next second, Zhong Ming dined and wined with s.h.i.+ Qingshan’s enemy in a brothel. Rumor has it, the two acted intimately…

What did it mean? Even an idiot knew it!

s.h.i.+ Qingshan enjoyed high prestige among the people, which the w.a.n.gyehs couldn’t compare with him. Over the last two days, Long Xiaoyuan had secretly asked some people to spread a rumor that someone tried to frame s.h.i.+ Qingshan.

The people had had some complaints. Although they didn’t know politics, they were good judges of men and could tell who were good ministers with their hearts.

How could the Minister of Punishments, by coincidence, gang up with First w.a.n.gyeh?

Thus, the a.s.sa.s.sination thing was absolutely a setup.

The people were furious, so were the ministers on the side of s.h.i.+ Qingshan!

Zhong Ming and First w.a.n.gyeh went public and exposed their relations.

Right, there was no solid evidence to prove that First w.a.n.gyeh colluded with the Barbarians.

However, when such an incident took place, they might slow down their actions or rushed to carry out the plan. Perhaps, they might make mistakes during the process.

To Long Xiaoyuan, either way was rather beneficial!

Therefore, he looked furious in the morning session, but deep down, he was exhilarated.

With a good mood, he headed for the Qiankun Palace…

That numb minister recommended by s.h.i.+ Qingzhou made great contributions to the success of this strategy.

Applause for his empress who was a real a.s.sistant to him!

He indeed wanted to shout to the sky…