Chapter 355: Privately mobilizing troops, can you plead guilty?

At this time, Old Lady Sheng frowned. Sheng Hong thought that he had acted on his own and arranged the female relatives to Fushou Hall, which made the old lady unhappy.

So Sheng Hong quickly bowed and said:
"Mother, if you are not afraid that they will disturb your peace, I will let them stay in other courtyards temporarily!"

The old lady glanced at Sheng Hong, ignoring his thoughts, and said with emotion:
"What a troubled time!"

Sheng Hong's heart tightened when he heard this. He keenly realized that the old lady had something else in her words, so he immediately asked:

"Why do you say that, mother?"

Then he shook his head and reminded her, "Your son-in-law, when he came to propose marriage this time, he sent troops to carry the betrothal gifts!"

Sheng Hong frowned and pondered, but he couldn't figure it out. Seeing that Sheng Hong didn't understand, the old lady reminded him again:
"army!"

Sheng Hong's pupils shrank, and he immediately thought of the crux of the problem. Lin Hao was a nobleman, but he secretly mobilized the army after giving the betrothal gift. What kind of behavior was this!
The yard was filled with betrothal gifts that could not be put away, making everyone in the Sheng family happy. However, Sheng Hong was sweating profusely.

At this moment, Sheng Hong was thinking that he must remind his son-in-law.

At the same time, Qi Heng was standing on the street, looking at the huge betrothal team of the Zhang family, which was sending betrothal gifts to the Sheng Mansion one after another, and he gritted his teeth.

Afterwards, Qi Heng rode back to the Duke of Qi's Mansion in anger, hid in the room, and smashed things in frustration and rage!

Ever since he entered the Sheng family private school, he has had his eyes on Sheng Minglan. However, every time he tried to get close to Minglan, he was always sabotaged by Lin Hao intentionally or unintentionally.

Now he finally understood that Lin Hao just wanted to destroy the relationship between him and Minglan.

Three months ago, when he learned that Lin Hao had quietly proposed to the Sheng family, he was stunned.

Later, he was desperate and threatened his mother with death, insisting on marrying Sheng Minglan.

However, his mother, Princess Pingning, killed him with just one simple sentence:

"If you have the guts to threaten me as your mother, why don't you take your sword and go to the Duke of Ying's mansion and ask the Prince of Yan to give up marrying Sheng Minglan as his princess!"

So Qi Heng backed off. Having studied in the Sheng family's private school for several years, he naturally knew Lin Hao's character, so Qi Heng fell ill and never recovered.

It was not until today when he personally saw Lin Hao's betrothal team and the joyful Sheng Mansion that he knew that his Minglan no longer loved him!
He secretly swore in his heart that he would never be reconciled with Lin Hao in this life!
Outside the door, the Duke of Qi and his wife listened to the crackling sounds coming from inside, and their faces were full of worry. It was the first time they saw their son lose his temper like this.

If I had known earlier, I would not have sent Qi Hengdao to the Sheng family to study. I don’t know what kind of spell the concubine of the Sheng family cast on my son.

She actually made her well-behaved and sensible son so infatuated with him.

Of course, while they hated Minglan, the couple hated Prince Yan even more. If the man surnamed Zhang had not married the concubine of the Sheng family, would he have made his son so angry?
Duke Qi looked at his son's room, then said as if he had made up his mind:
"Someone, prepare the car!" After saying that, he prepared to go out.

Princess Pingning glanced at Duke Qi and asked:

"What do you want to do?"

Duke Qi stopped and said:

"Originally, I didn't want to interfere in the fight between Prince Yan and Han Zhang, but now, even if it's just to vent my anger on my son, I can't just stand by and watch!"

"Master, have you thought it over carefully..."

······
At the same time, at Han Zhang's house.

At this time, Han Zhang, the prime minister, sat at the top, and sitting next to him was Fu Bi, the privy councilor. Below them were officials from the six ministries, and five of them were secretaries of state.

Seventy percent of the civil servants above the third rank in the entire Bianjing city were here.

The purpose of these people getting together is, of course, to cause trouble.

Who are you targeting?

Of course, they want to deal with Lin Hao, the King of Yan!

The reason they did not turn against Lin Hao before was because Lin Hao took advantage of the rebellion of Prince Yan and Prince Yong, which led to the demolition of a large number of officials in the court, and one-third of the positions in the court were vacant again!

This dealt a heavy blow to the scholar-official class. Fortunately, many civil servants stepped up to fill the vacant positions in the court. They even cooperated with Lin Hao for a time to erode the imperial power.

Now that the civil service group has recovered, they are naturally preparing to take action against Lin Hao, the military man.

Yes, in the eyes of these civil servants, Lin Hao is just a warrior. Even if Lin Hao passed the imperial examination, it still cannot change the fact that Lin Hao has military honors!

The most fundamental reason is that the Zhang family is too powerful. They have a Duke of Ying leading the army outside, and King Yan Lin Hao in the court, who also occupies the key department of the Three Divisions!
Thinking back to the time when a group of military generals put the yellow robe on the Zhao family, if that kind of thing happens in the future, the thought of it makes them shudder!

However, in order to propose marriage this time, Lin Hao secretly mobilized three thousand Dragon Guards, which gave them a perfect excuse.

Therefore, after these civil servants found out, they were all excited and rushed to Han Zhang's residence, clamoring to report Lin Hao at the morning court tomorrow.

You know, mobilizing troops without the emperor's consent is a capital crime.

"So, the King of Yan secretly mobilized 3,000 Dragon Guards just to transport the betrothal gifts for him?" Han Zhang asked in disbelief after taking a sip of tea.

"Prime Minister, this is my impeachment memorial. Please have a look at it!" Then a minister handed the memorial to Han Zhang and continued:

"It is a capital crime for Prince Yan to mobilize the army privately! And we must never encourage such a trend..."

You are such a talented person. You have fabricated more than 40 charges against the King of Yan in such a short time! Han Zhang looked at the charges on the memorial and felt deeply moved!

Of course, Han Zhang and Fu Bi both knew that most of these were fake.

For example, one of the charges is that Lin Hao stayed overnight at Guangyuntai. Why does this charge look so familiar? Are you sure you are not doing this for revenge?

However, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s true or not.

As long as we provide good witnesses and physical evidence, the false will become true, and by then the King of Yan will be skinned alive if he doesn't die.

"You wrote a good memorial."

Han Zhang looked at me and handed the memorial to Fu Bi. After reading it, Fu Bi stroked his beard and smiled:

"Yes, although these crimes are not serious, they are numerous enough to deal with the ignorance of the two queens!

Hmm~ No, it should be because the two queens dowagers have always been kind and will definitely be disgusted with him after knowing about it!

"When the time comes, we will expose him for mobilizing the army without permission today. Even if he doesn't die, he will be punished."

"But this memorial cannot be submitted by our people."

"good."

At this time, Han Zhang took over the conversation:

"If our people submit a memorial, it may cause misunderstanding between the two queen dowagers, who may mistakenly think that we are eliminating dissidents, so it is more appropriate to let someone from the Censorate come forward to submit this memorial."

Then the Minister of Revenue continued:

"The Duke of Qi has a great influence in the Censorate. If he supports us, I think more people will follow suit!"

"Unfortunately, I have visited him many times, trying to win over Duke Qi to join us in a united front to deal with the King of Yan, but the old fox Duke Qi refused to give in."

"This old fellow!" Fu Bi sighed and said, "It's obvious that he wants to sit back and watch, and reap the benefits."

Han Zhang waved his hand and said, "Then don't worry about him. The Censorate is not omnipotent. Just find other censors. As long as we build up momentum, there will be plenty of people who will follow suit!"

"But, I'm afraid I have to be careful and guard against this person in the future!"

······
Prince Pu's Mansion.

The direct descendants that Zhao Zongquan brought from Yuzhou, as well as the military heroes who came to him from Bian Jing, also gathered here to discuss Lin Hao's secret deployment of troops and invitations.

"Everyone, what do you think about what happened today?" Zhao Zongquan asked with a look of eagerness on his face.

However, everyone present looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

Even Zhao Zongquan's brother-in-law Shen Congxin asked in confusion:

"Brother-in-law, what happened today?"

"Oh~, I'm so tired!" Shen Congxin cured Zhao Zongquan's low blood pressure with just one sentence.

There was no way, after all, Zhao Zongquan was just a commander of the Yuzhou militia, and he had a bunch of rough men under his command.

It might be okay to let these people fight, but it would be a bit too much to ask these rough guys to give him advice.

This is also the reason why the old emperor chose Zhao Zongquan to assist in the administration. Zhao Zongquan had no roots in the capital and did not have the strength to rebel.

"Your Highness!" Seeing that no one said anything, Gu Tingye stood up and said, "Actually, it's best for us not to do anything right now!"

"Why do you say that?" Zhao Zongquan asked.

Gu Tingye talked freely:
"I used to go to school with Prince Yan at the Sheng family. I know he is a cautious person, but I always feel like something is wrong with Prince Yan's behavior now!"

"The Prince of Yan proposed marriage today, but he mobilized the army privately. This is simply handing evidence to Han Zhang and others. How could Han Zhang and Fu Bi, two old foxes, miss such a great opportunity?
"But the Prince of Yan is the legitimate son of the Duke of Ying. He has inherited the true teachings of the Duke of Ying. He is also a strong man who destroyed the Western Xia. How could he make such a low-level mistake?"

Zhao Zongquan frowned and asked:
"Master Gu, just tell me straight away. What do you mean by what you have been saying for so long?"

Zhao Zongquan was confused by Gu Tingye and did not understand the meaning of Gu Tingye's words.

"I think this might be a trap set by the King of Yan for those civil servants, waiting for them to jump into it!"

Gu Tingye had a confident smile on his face, as if he had seen through everything.

"So that's it!" Zhao Zongquan suddenly realized, "So we should do nothing and just sit back and watch the fight."

"Not bad~!"

But Gu Tingye didn’t finish his words, which was that with their current strength, they could actually do nothing!
"Luckily I have Gu Qing by my side, otherwise I would have to rely on people like them~" Zhao Zongquan praised Gu Tingye, while not forgetting to glance at Shen Congxin and others. He could only sigh silently that there were too few talented people.

british government
Lin Hao closed his eyes and enjoyed the sunlight shining in from the glass window, saying comfortably:
"next!"

"Today, today, at the Prime Minister's residence, all of you have gathered, including Fu Bi, the five ministers, and nineteen other high-ranking officials of the third rank and above!"

After finally finishing a paragraph, Wei Yuner, with a blushing face, called out charmingly:

"Your Majesty~!"

"You continue, and I will continue. You don't have to worry about me!" Lin Hao tried to comfort her.

"They~discuss~it~!" Wei Yun'er bit her lower lip, trying to push away Lin Hao's harassment, but was met with a more fierce counterattack from Lin Hao.

So Wei Yun'er could only whisper, "Tomorrow morning, they are going to make trouble for you and beat you up..."

"hit me?"

"Impeach!"

"Oh!"

Wei Yuner finally finished reading the information, and then collapsed directly into Lin Hao's arms!
"Frost Moon, you're next!"

"Yes~ my great master!" Rong Fei helped Wei Yun'er to rest aside, and then began to read the next piece of information:
"In Prince Pu's Mansion, the five Yuzhou military generals in the army, including Gu Tingye and six other Bianjing nobles, have gathered..."

The next day, there will be a meeting.

The Queen Mother asked Lin Hao again about the issue of collecting salt tax, but Lin Hao kept shirking his responsibilities, acting like a dead pig that is not afraid of boiling water, leaving the Queen Mother helpless!

However, just as Lin Hao was about to retreat, an imperial censor suddenly jumped out.

Then the censor knelt on the ground with a thud, raised his tablet with both hands and said loudly:
"Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager, and the Concubine Dowager, I have something to report."

Hearing this, Han Zhang and others who were originally drowsy suddenly became alert.

The main dish is finally here~!

Zhao Zongquan's men also revealed inexplicable smiles, knowing that something interesting was about to begin.

Even Empress Dowager Cao and Concubine Yi, who were sitting behind the curtain, smelled something unusual, because the civil servants in the Song Dynasty had a very high status and generally did not have to kneel.

As a result, the censor knelt down as soon as he came up. Even a fool could know that the censor was going to cause trouble.

Only Lin Hao was too lazy to look at the censor. He returned to his seat and stood there with his eyes and nose in his mind, looking drowsy.

"What's the matter? Tell me!" said Queen Dowager Cao.

"I would like to report the King of Yan for staying overnight at Guangyuntai, oppressing the good, accepting bribes, and committing corruption and perverting the law..."

This censor accused Lin Hao of forty-nine crimes, most of which were trivial matters or some unspoken rules in the officialdom.

Anyway, no matter whether it is true or not, no matter what the shit pot is, it will be put on Lin Hao's head.

Finally, the Imperial Censor Da Song said loudly:
"Yesterday, the Prince of Yan secretly mobilized the army to transport the gifts to the Sheng family. I request the Queen Mother to thoroughly investigate this matter and temporarily remove the Prince of Yan from all his duties during the investigation."

"I second the proposal!"

"I second the proposal!"

As soon as the censor finished speaking, several other censors jumped out to second his opinion.

After hearing the censor's words, Empress Dowager Cao and Concubine Dowager Yi, who were sitting behind the curtain, couldn't help but look at each other. They exchanged glances for a moment and seemed to have reached some kind of consensus.

"Prince Yan, what do you have to say about the forty-nine charges that the Censor has brought against you, as well as the charge of privately mobilizing troops?" asked Empress Dowager Cao in a flat tone.

Lin Hao also said calmly: "No!"

Cao Taihou frowned and asked, "Then you plead guilty?"

"recognize!"

"Well, you, you admit it?"

Lin Hao’s answer completely stunned Queen Dowager Cao!

(End of this chapter)