Chapter 1328 An Idealist!
April 7, Daqian Palace Study

Ye Mingsheng sat on the emperor's throne with his eyes closed, looking serious and silent. In the hall, Li Jian, the Minister of Justice, held a memorial and reported:

"Your Majesty, according to our investigation by the Ministry of Justice, when Duke Yuan led his troops to capture Luo'an, he arranged for General Ye Dong to guard the Great Zhou Palace. During the period of guarding the palace, a total of 55 people, including General Ye Dong himself, Commander Wang Zhou, and Commander Zhao Bao, were suspected of hiding artifacts from the Great Zhou Palace."

"Currently, out of these fifty-five people, five died in the subsequent battle with the Cumans, and the remaining fifty are currently under investigation by our Ministry of Justice!"

"The Censorate had previously recovered 501 artifacts from the Great Zhou Imperial Palace. After our Ministry of Justice took over, we recovered another 131 artifacts. So far, a total of 632 artifacts have been recovered from the Great Zhou Imperial Palace, including 298 pieces of official kiln porcelain, 152 pieces of various gold, silver and jade artifacts, 132 pieces of cultural relics and ancient books, and finally 70 rare treasures."

"Based on the information we have collected so far, our Ministry of Justice estimates that there are still about 300 to 500 pieces of imperial palace artifacts that have not been recovered. The total value of these Great Zhou imperial palace artifacts is conservatively estimated to be at least more than 150,000 taels of silver!"

Hearing that Li Jian was still eager to continue introducing to him how much Ye Dong and his subordinates had embezzled, Ye Mingsheng became a little impatient and ordered:

“Tell me about the assassination of Liu Xinjie…”

"Yes!"

"It has been basically determined that Liu Xinjie's assassination was done by General Ye Dong's subordinate Zhao Bao. According to Zhao Bao's confession, Liu Xinjie was investigating the TF case quite deeply at the time. He was very worried that Liu Xinjie would find out about him, so he suggested to General Ye Dong to send someone to kill Liu Xinjie in order to stop the investigation of the Metropolitan Procuratorate!"

"But General Ye Dong was very hesitant and indecisive about killing Liu Xinjie, so in order to protect himself, Zhao Bao did not wait for General Ye Dong's order and directly arranged for someone to assassinate Liu Xinjie!"

"The man who carried out Zhao Bao's order is actually named Wang Dahai, from Liaoyang. He once served in the Flying Tiger Battalion, but was later expelled from the Flying Tiger Battalion for hiding the spoils of war. After leaving the Flying Tiger Battalion, he did many things, but because of the experience of being expelled from the army, he could only do odd jobs and his life was not satisfactory!"

"A month and a half ago, in order to get rid of the impact of being kicked out of the army, he came to Yijing under the pseudonym Li Teng. He wanted to do some small business, but his life still didn't improve. Half a month ago, he met his former comrade in the Flying Tiger Battalion, Liu Shan, who is now Zhao Bao's personal soldier."

"Liu Shan introduced the assassination of Liu Xinjie to Wang Dahai and gave Wang Dahai fifty taels of silver. He also promised to give Wang Dahai another hundred taels of silver after the assassination was accomplished."

"Wang Dahai took the job and killed Censor Liu Xinjie on his way home from work. He eventually committed suicide the next day during a pursuit at the Patrol Battalion."

After hearing Li Jian's long introduction, Ye Mingsheng said in a deep voice:
"What conclusion does your Ministry of Justice have on this matter?"

Faced with this question, Li Jian's eyes flickered a little, but he still spoke in a deep voice:
"Your Majesty, our Ministry of Justice has re-interrogated the prisoners involved in the case and reviewed all the materials in the past few days. Our current conclusion is that there is no evidence to show that General Ye Dong instructed Zhao Bao to assassinate Censor Liu Xinjie..."

"Zhao Bao assassinated Censor Liu Xinjie out of his own will and ideas, but General Ye Dong knew that Zhao Bao wanted to assassinate Liu Xinjie, so General Ye Dong also has an unshirkable responsibility!"

Listening to Li Jian's answer, Ye Mingsheng took a deep look at the Minister of Justice he had appointed, and then took out two memorials and said in a deep voice:

"This is the memorial submitted by your subordinates Gongsun Hao and Zhang Mang impeaching Chu Zhiyi! What do you think as the Minister of Justice?"

Upon hearing this, Li Jian immediately wanted to say that he knew nothing about it so that he could stay out of it. This was also his consistent political philosophy.

But reason told Li Jian that he couldn't say that!

After all, Gongsun Hao and Zhang Mang came to see him the day before yesterday when they submitted their memorials. They were at the Ministry of Justice at that time, and many people saw them coming to see him. Therefore, if he said he didn't know now, it would undoubtedly be deceiving the emperor!

However, in response to the requests from Gongsun Hao and Zhang Mang, Li Jian said that he had not made up his mind yet. If you two want to submit a memorial to impeach Chu Zhiyi, go ahead, but don't drag him along.

In fact, as the Minister of Justice, the powerful cabinet minister in the court, the Ye family had already come to him long before Gongsun Hao and Zhang Mang came to him, wanting him to jointly write a letter to impeach Chu Zhiyi.

But in response to the invitation, Chu Zhiyi said he needed to think about it first!

For Li Jian, his consistent political philosophy is not to participate in disputes and to follow Ye Mingsheng's footsteps closely!

During the turmoil between Chu Zhiyi and Ye Dong, many people in the Ye family were colluding with the organization and wanted to beat Chu Zhiyi to death.

Although Li Jian also felt that Chu Zhiyi's actions were a bit outrageous, no matter how much you wanted to avenge your subordinates and arrest Ye Dong, a royal relative and confidant of His Majesty, you should have reported it and obtained consent before arresting him. How could you just force your way through and arrest someone without permission...

Although he felt that Chu Zhiyi's actions were reckless and even absurd, Li Jian still didn't want to take sides easily!
The first point is that Li Jian believes that too many people have impeached Chu Zhiyi, including Youyan Governor Zhang Zhiwen, Youyan Censor Zhuang Shanhe, Yijing Prefect Liu Ning, 17 censors from the Censorate, and it is said that some people from the Dali Temple are also ready to make moves, plus two assistant ministers under his command, Gongsun Hao and Zhang Mang.

There are too many people impeaching Chu Zhiyi and there is suspicion of conspiracy!
Although these people seemed to have their own reasons, like Zhang Zhiwen, Zhuang Shanhe, and Liu Ning saying that Chu Zhiyi privately transferred the patrol battalion, and the 17 censors of the Censorate saying that Chu Zhiyi was nepotism during his tenure as Left Censor-in-Chief in the Censorate, etc., in fact, these people were actually opposed to reform!
Everyone knows that Chu Zhiyi is a chess piece of His Majesty and a sharp knife to promote reform!

No one dared to oppose the reform openly, but only opposed it secretly. Now that Chu Zhiyi has made a mistake, everyone wants to put him to death in order to oppose the reform promoted by Ye Mingsheng!

Therefore, Li Jian believes that Chu Zhiyi’s problem is no longer just his problem, but has risen to the level of reform!

Therefore, Chu Zhiyi's role has not been completed yet. Will Your Majesty abandon Chu Zhiyi because of the impeachment of people in the court?
Based on Li Jian's understanding of Ye Mingsheng, he believes that although Ye Mingsheng is good at listening to the opinions of his subordinates, he is not the kind of weak person who would compromise under pressure.

Therefore, before Ye Mingsheng showed obvious political tendencies, Li Jian did not intend to reveal his attitude on this matter. This is why Li Jian did not agree to jointly impeach Chu Zhiyi.

But facing Ye Mingsheng's question at this time, Li Jian really didn't know how to answer, but under Ye Mingsheng's gaze he could only say ambiguously:

"Your Majesty, I think that although Lord Chu is a bit reckless, his original intention is still good. Whether to impeach him or not is up for discussion!"

Ye Mingsheng snorted coldly when he heard this: "Li Jian, you are really slippery and don't hold back!"

As soon as these words came out, Li Jian knelt down and said:

"Wei Chen is guilty!"

"As a minister, you should share your king's worries!"

These words made Li Jian tremble with fear. Just when he was thinking about saying something, Ye Mingsheng waved his hand and did not give the Minister of Justice, the elder of the Daqian Cabinet, a chance to speak.

Seeing this, Li Jian could only bow and bid farewell to Ye Mingsheng. Accompanied by Ye Cheng, he walked out of the study room in a daze.

As Li Jian left, Ye Mingsheng, who was alone in the study, shook his head slightly.

As an emperor, Ye Mingsheng knew what his ministers were thinking, but their actions made Ye Mingsheng understand a truth: if he wanted to reform, he had to protect Chu Zhiyi...
You have to make those people understand that although reform is painful, it is necessary. You have made a wrong calculation!

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At the same time that Li Jian was meeting Ye Mingsheng, in another courtyard of the palace, An Miaoyi, surrounded by a group of maids and nannies, walked into a pavilion. At this time, Gu Sansi, who was teaching Jingren in the pavilion, bowed and saluted when he saw An Miaoyi appear:
"Your humble servant Gu Sansi pays respect to Her Majesty the Queen!"

"Mr. Gu, you don't have to be so polite!"

After saying that, An Miaoyi glanced at Jingren and then said with a smile:

"Mr. Gu, I didn't disturb your class, did I?"

Gu Sansi shook his head and said:
"Your Majesty, I have finished teaching the prince today. Now I just need to do some dictation and recitation!"

An Miaoyi nodded slightly and smiled:

"Mr. Gu, you can continue here. I'll listen in for a while!"

"Yes!"

After receiving An Miaoyi's order, Gu Sansi continued to teach Jingren. After another cup of tea, Gu Sansi ended the teaching and let Jingren go to the side room to prepare for tomorrow's homework.

With Jingren's departure, only Gu Sansi, An Miaoyi and several maids of the Queen were left in the room. Seeing this, An Miaoyi did not hide her feelings and asked directly:

"Mr. Gu, what did Chu Zhiyi say?"

Facing An Miaoyi's question, Gu Sansi fell into silence. He couldn't help but recall the scene of meeting Chu Zhiyi in the prison of the Ministry of Justice. He said with a complicated expression:
"The Queen did this on purpose! He has big plans!"

Although it was not the first time that An Miaoyi heard Gu Sansi say this, but now when she heard Gu Sansi say it again, her expression was still very unbelievable·················
After getting instructions from Ye Cui, An Miaoyi quickly found Gu Sansi. Gu Sansi, who knew Chu Zhiyi's character at the time, speculated that Chu Zhiyi did it on purpose, and expressed his desire to meet Chu Zhiyi.

Although An Miaoyi didn't understand why Gu Sansi said that Chu Zhiyi did it on purpose at that time, in order to get to the bottom of the whole thing, she agreed with Gu Sansi's idea, and used her connections to secretly arrange for Gu Sansi to meet Chu Zhiyi in the Ministry of Justice's prison!

At that time, An Miaoyi was thinking that although she didn't know why Gu Sansi said that Chu Zhiyi deliberately did not report it first, but directly led the patrol battalion to capture Ye Dong.

But she hoped that Gu Sansi could persuade Chu Zhiyi not to keep biting Ye Dong. In exchange, they would let Chu Zhiyi go, allowing Chu Zhiyi to keep his life and be an ordinary citizen for the rest of his life!
As the situation escalated, An Miaoyi felt that the matter was beginning to get out of control, so in order to avoid an unmanageable outcome, An Miaoyi hoped that the matter could be resolved as soon as possible so that things could return to calm!
Under An Miaoyi's gaze, Gu Sansi knew what An Miaoyi was thinking and said:
“Queen, I didn’t tell Chu Zhiyi your idea because I knew he wouldn’t compromise. Since he dared to do this, he must be ready to die…”

Gu Sansi's words also made An Miaoyi confused. The Queen of Daqian thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't figure out what Gu Sansi said.

"Mr. Gu, what are you talking about? Why did Chu Zhiyi do this on purpose? What is his plan?"

Gu Sansi heard this and said:

"Queen, Chu Zhiyi is an idealist just like Your Majesty!"

"To be honest, I don't fully understand what he wants to do, but I think he does this to intensify the conflict and force Your Majesty to resolve it!"

Hearing Gu Sansi's answer, An Miaoyi was also very shocked. She said in disbelief:

"Is Chu Zhiyi crazy? What good will it do him?"

Gu Sansi smiled bitterly and said:

"Queen, I told you that he is an idealist! For the sake of his ideals, he will not care about his personal honor or disgrace. He is willing to make efforts and even sacrifice for it!"

An Miaoyi was still a little confused after hearing this. Gu Sansi's words could be said to have touched the boundaries of her cognition, making her unable to understand someone like Chu Zhiyi.

At this time, Gu Sansi continued:
"I heard that Chu Zhiyi had written a memorial to His Majesty before. The content of the memorial was some of his suggestions for reform, but his memorial was rejected by His Majesty. I think the reason why Chu Zhiyi did this might be related to that memorial!"

“Perhaps he thinks that Your Majesty has not done enough in terms of reform, so he uses this method to encourage Your Majesty to move forward…”