Mysteries of the Great Zhou Dynasty

Chapter 213 Doggerel

Lord Yang presented a memorial with a few lines of doggerel written on it:
The sixth prince, with a poisonous heart, fed poisonous herbs to his horse, harming the crown prince, who then fell from his horse and died.
The second prince, poisoned, faked his suicide to cover up his crime, but his brothers killed each other and his clothes were stained with blood.

He plotted to seize power and disrupt the order of the world; his patricide was a hidden evil intention, and his wolfish nature was revealed.

The net of heaven is vast, and retribution will come. Those who commit heinous crimes will eventually be punished, and their infamy will endure for ten thousand years!
The Emperor's face turned deathly pale, his hands trembled, and the papers rustled as he spoke: "Minister Yang, what do you mean by this... What do you mean by feeding poisonous herbs to horses to harm the Crown Prince? What do you mean by the Second Prince faking his suicide? If you are talking nonsense, that is the crime of deceiving the Emperor!"

Lord Yang said, "Your Majesty, these doggerel poems do have some merit. The deaths of the Crown Prince and the Second Prince are indeed suspicious! If we have the bodies examined again, the truth will surely come to light!"

"Bang!" The Emperor slammed his hand heavily on the armrest of the jade dragon throne several times, and roared, "You scoundrel! You say you'll perform an autopsy, based on these few baseless doggerel verses? Where do you put the face of the royal family? Guards, take him away! For his careless words, he shall be given thirty strokes of the cane!"

Lord Yang immediately knelt down and begged for mercy, repeatedly crying out, "Your Majesty! Your Majesty! I am utterly loyal and devoted to you, you cannot punish me!"

"Take him out! Take him out!" the emperor roared in fury.

At that moment, a tall and imposing figure walked into the hall—it was Yan Mingzhang. He strode into the hall and said loudly, "Wait a moment, Your Majesty! All these matters are supported by evidence; Lord Yang's words were not baseless!"

Following Yan Mingzhang were four attendants, each carrying a tray filled with various items. The attendants kept their heads bowed, as if afraid of offending the emperor.

The Sixth Prince's eyes were filled with murderous intent. Could it be that this Lord Yang was just pretending to be weak in order to lower his guard and invite the Emperor out?

The Sixth Prince's face was unusually grim, his hands clenched into fists. Although he now had some trusted confidants in the court, his position was ultimately unstable. If it weren't for the recent increase in the Emperor's medication dosage, which was proving too much for him, the Emperor might have passed away if he didn't establish an heir soon. In such a desperate situation, many things were bound to be overlooked.

Four eunuchs brought up the items one after another, carrying trays, and stood in a row. Yan Mingzhang then pointed to the trays and said, "Your Majesty, this is the first piece of evidence, the record book of medicines used by the Imperial Hospital. It records the herbs allocated by the Imperial Hospital in the days before the Crown Prince fell from his horse. Among them, the dosage of ephedra was very large, and it was all given to one person—that person is the Sixth Prince."

"What did you say? Ephedra? What is ephedra for?" The emperor rose slightly, looked at Yan Mingzhang, and his gaze fell on the first tray, trying to see what was inside.

"Your Majesty, ephedra is poisonous to horses," Yan Mingzhang said in a deep voice. "If a horse accidentally ingests it, it may experience symptoms such as restlessness, convulsions, or even coma. When that horse was executed, its stomach contained a large amount of ephedra." His voice suddenly turned serious. "Where did this ephedra come from? How did the horse ingest the poison in its stomach? And on that day, someone passed by the horse farm and happened to see the Sixth Prince feeding the horses alone." Yan Mingzhang paused, his gaze sharp as a knife. "In this light, the Sixth Prince is likely implicated."

The Sixth Prince smiled dismissively and turned his head away: "I thought it was some irrefutable evidence. You said I had ephedra there, and then ephedra was found in the horse's stomach—but how can you prove that the ephedra in the horse's stomach was fed to it by me?"

“Of course, it cannot be directly proven, but with so many coincidences coming together, it’s impossible not to make connections.” Yan Mingzhang stared directly at the Sixth Prince, his tone as cold and hard as iron. “You were the only one to appear at the horse farm, the horses happened to ingest poison at that moment, and you just happened to have ephedra in your residence—if the Sixth Prince wants to prove his innocence, he might as well explain where these ‘coincidences’ come from?”

The Sixth Prince whirled around, a cold laugh escaping his lips. "I used to often go to the horse farm to feed the horses. Is that a crime? Who says princes can't be close to the imperial horses? You're making baseless accusations based on just one instance of feeding them. Are you trying to frame a member of the imperial family?" The Sixth Prince swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue—he had wanted to blurt out, "I fed the horses because I was starving," but if he said that, wouldn't he be openly slapping the Emperor in the face? His Adam's apple bobbed heavily twice, and he finally gritted his teeth, letting out a cold laugh through his nose: "Who can prove that!"

“I can testify!” An old man with a white beard appeared outside the main hall. He was hunched over and slowly walked in.

"Imperial Physician Zhuang!" The Emperor looked at him in disbelief. "Didn't you retire to your hometown? What are you doing here?"

"Your Majesty, I have indeed retired to my hometown and had no intention of getting involved in these court disputes. However, a few days ago, my good-for-nothing disciple was sent to my residence... He..." Doctor Zhuang was in tears. "I implore Your Majesty to grant permission to have my disciple brought up here."

"This..." The Emperor hesitated, looking at the Sixth Prince with some apprehension.

The sixth prince's face was ashen. He glanced at the emperor, his lips parted slightly, and he uttered two words in a very low voice, so low that only the emperor beside him could hear them: "Antidote!"

The Emperor lowered his head in distress: "Imperial Physician Zhuang, you may go back! Let the sick person stay at home!"

"Your Majesty, don't you remember my apprentice Lin Yunze? You praised him before for his intelligence. He's the one who researched the poison in the anti-aging pills!" Physician Zhuang said loudly, going all out.

"Drag him out! What are the guards doing! They're just letting this old man cause trouble in the main hall!" The Sixth Prince ordered the guards to drag the man out.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" Physician Zhuang cried out hoarsely, unwilling to leave.

The Emperor did not want anyone to know that the Sixth Prince was developing a pill to reverse aging, since he was the one who initially asked him to do it. Now, although he no longer trusted the Sixth Prince, he still needed the Sixth Prince to cure him from the poison of the Dream Eater Flower, and dared not completely break off relations.

"Your Majesty, Lin Yunze has not yet developed an antidote for the Dream Eater Flower!" Yan Mingzhang saw that things were not going well, while Imperial Physician Zhuang had made progress in developing the antidote!

"What!" The Emperor jumped up from his throne, his eyes lighting up. "Quickly! Let him go!"

"Imperial Physician Zhuang, is what Minister Yan said true?" The Emperor simply walked over to Imperial Physician Zhuang and bent down to ask.

Physician Zhuang glanced at Yan Mingzhang. If he were to deny it now, it would be a crime of deceiving the emperor. So, Physician Zhuang could only bite the bullet and answer, "Yes, Your Majesty. My disciple Lin Yunze's method of suppressing the Dream Eater Flower is not detoxification, but poisoning! Fighting poison with poison! So when people take the pills he developed, they initially feel invigorated, as if they have regained their youth. However, if they take too much..."