Empress Chu

He stretched out his finger and pointed to himself: "At this time, the empress can think about it, and Mr. Xie."

Before the girl asked, he smiled proudly.

"Although I don't help you, but with me, no matter what your empress tosses about, you can sit firmly in the position of queen."

"so--"

Chu Zhao took the conversation here, his eyes crooked with a smile: "So I'll endure it and see who can survive who. Anyway, I'm sitting here, and no one can drive me down."

Xie Yanfang nodded arrogantly: "That's right." She drank the tea, stood up, and smiled softly, "However, it shouldn't be too long."

Chu Zhao looked at him and asked, "Really?"

Xie Yanfang smiled and said: "I said before that Miss Azhao is as tough as a rock. She was entrusted by the late emperor to save His Royal Highness, fight Xiliang and retreat from Zhongshan King. A person like Miss Azhao deserves the love of many people."

……

……

When Ah Le came in with refreshments, he saw that Xie Yanfang had already left, and only Chu Zhao was sitting in front of the table.

However, Chu Zhao didn't concentrate on reading the memorial as before, but held his pen in a daze. When he saw Ah Le coming, he didn't rush to eat, but urged her to bring the mirror.

"I don't have ink on my face." Ale held the mirror for Chu Zhao to look at, and he also carefully looked at Chu Zhao's face.

The young lady's face is clean and pink, tender and lovely.

Chu Zhao smiled at the person in the mirror: "Ale, am I very attractive?"

Ale stared: "Of course, who doesn't like Miss!"

Xiaoman snorted and turned her head.

"Sister Xiaoman always likes it in her heart, but she is embarrassed to say it out of her mouth." A Le said with a smile.

Xiaoman turned her head and stared at her again.

A Le giggled, and then asked Chu Zhao: "Miss, why are you asking this? It's a question that doesn't need to be asked. Did Mr. Xie say that you are not good?"

She snorted too.

She still holds grudges, Xie Yanfang took advantage of Miss's absence, to expose the Elder Master and Xiao Xun's intention to murder the emperor in the capital, and hurt Miss's reputation.

Chu Zhao smiled at her: "No, he praised me for being very good."

Ale snorted, then snorted again: "No need for him to boast."

Yes, she doesn't care about other people's praise or hate now, but——Chu Zhao looked at himself in the mirror and smiled slightly. Xie Lang praised her like this, raised his arms for her, and regarded her as omnipotent. ——

Very happy.

"Master Xie said." Chu Zhao put the mirror back, "I will get a response soon."

A Le hurriedly said: "I think so too."

Chu Zhao laughed: "Okay, I look forward to your auspicious words coming true."

It really didn't take long for this day.

A month later, at a thunderous court meeting, the door of the main hall could not stop the thunder, which made every official have to speak loudly, making the hall even more noisy.

When the Ministry of Criminal Justice mentioned the name of a criminal to be determined—it was actually nothing special, it had already gone through several rounds of interrogation, and the dust settled as soon as the customary question was asked.

But when the name was announced, the queen spoke again.

"This person," she said, "why is he sentenced to death?"

The sound in the hall stopped immediately, only the rolling thunder remained.

In fact, everyone didn't hear what the queen said, and now it has become a custom to hear the queen speak, just keep silent.

"I've read the file. The culprit is an official of Jingzhou Zhongzheng named Zheng Xia. It is said that he accepted bribes and sold fixed-quality test questions. However, after checking, it can't be proved that he sold the test questions."

the queen's voice asked again.

The hall is still silent.

After a moment of silence, the queen will stop talking, and then the Taifu will move on to the next topic.

As expected, the queen did not speak, and the officials lowered their hands, and those who had leisure time were still pinching their fingers in their sleeves and counting, one, two, three——

"Empress Empress Mingjian—"

The official's voice sounded.

The officials present breathed a sigh of relief, but the next moment they shuddered again, no, this is not what the Taifu would say.

No, this is not what the Taifu is talking about!

The silent court was agitated for a while, looking for the sound, and turning their eyes to the rear of the queue.

An official was coming out, he seemed nervous and agitated, and beside him, four or five officials were trying to hold him back.

"Master Zhu, no." They whispered hurriedly.

But when all eyes gathered, they retreated as if they were struck by lightning.

The official's sudden independence was particularly eye-catching.

There was muffled thunder in his ears, the official raised his head and saw countless gazes, he, who had always stood behind him, faced so many gazes for the first time, and felt a little dizzy for a moment, especially when he saw Taifu Deng Yi's heavy face, with a chilly look on his face. Eye.

But he saw a pair of eyes again, the eyes of the girl behind the dragon chair were as bright as stars, covering all the surrounding sights.

"Hanlin Bachelor, Zhu Yong." A female voice called out his name, "What do you want to say?"

The queen actually knew his name. The official was stunned, looked at the girl sitting high above, took another step forward, and bowed down.

"My minister, Zhu Yong, believes that Zheng Xia's bribery and fraud case is due to Jingzhou Zhongzheng's visit."

Chapter 33 Ignoring

A thunderstorm resounded outside the hall, splitting the condensed cloud for a long time, and the bean-heavy rain fell down.

The sound of rain was rushing, separating the inside and the outside into two worlds.

The sound of rain and officials' voices were mixed in the ears of everyone in the hall.

"I and Zheng Xia have been studying together since childhood. Zheng Xia's family is poor, but he has a high moral character. He will never do such things as corruption and bribery." Zhu Yong said loudly.

Chu Zhao shook his head: "This does not prove anything, and it is not evidence."

Zhu Yong kowtowed, of course he knew that this was not evidence, otherwise it would have worked if he had said this to countless people over the past six months.

After being cornered, he could only repeat this sentence sadly.

"I met Zheng Xia once in the cell." He put away his sorrow, "Zheng Xia said that he is only responsible for keeping the exam questions set by Zhongzheng, and he doesn't know what the content is until the exam is over."

Chu Zhao shook her head again. When she looked at the case file, she felt that there were too many loopholes in the case. No matter how she looked at it, she just pushed it to a moderate official. She knew about it, but relying on the suspect's own statement was not evidence.

Zhu Yong raised his head: "Zheng Xia said that he put a seal on the box he kept, and the seal he put on was not the same one that Master Zhongzheng opened in the examination room."

Chu Zhao frowned and said, "But it's definitely his handwriting written on the case file."

Zhu Yong looked sad: "Zheng Xia is actually left-handed. Because he is unlucky, he has been covering it up. Not many people know about it. He has also practiced his right hand. It is no different from everyone in daily life. Zheng Xia told me that he used it that day. I wrote a seal with my left hand, although the handwriting looks the same at first glance, but in fact there are many differences—”

Why?Then, Chu Zhao couldn't help leaning over: "Then he—"

Before she could ask, Zhu Yong let out a sad voice.

"But when the case was first questioned, Zheng Xia was——injured his left hand." He leaned on the ground, sobbing.

Injured left hand?In other words, Zheng Xia couldn't prove herself anymore, Chu Zhao was surprised, was this a coincidence or intentional?

There is indeed a problem with this case.

Chu Zhao nodded: "This case will be retried."

Zhu Yong bent down on the ground and wept, "The empress is holy."

The two stopped talking, and there was the sound of rain in the hall, but there was no other sound, a suffocating silence.

In fact, it was only the two of them who spoke before, no one refuted, no one asked, and no one responded, the servant of the Ministry of punishment simply closed his eyes.

The previously interrupted officer pinched his fingers in his sleeve again, one, two, three—

"What else is there to start?"

Another male voice sounded, this time it was the familiar Taifu's voice.

His voice broke the stagnation, and everyone in the hall instantly came to life.

"The minister has his own play." An official stood up, "Teacher, is the birthday ceremony for the king of the town this year the same? Or a promotion?"

The King of Zhen is also the King of Zhongshan. The first emperor cared about this brother who was away. Every year, the Ministry of Rites would send a congratulatory gift to the Ministry of Rites. Now the court and the King of Zhongshan are in a faint confrontation with each other to guard each other. Should this gift be given or not?By what specification?

Before Deng Yi could speak, other officials immediately stepped forward.

"The king of the town is not inferior, and he is not qualified to enjoy the gift of the emperor."

"Lord Huang's words are wrong. Although King Zhen is full of crimes for being rebellious and rebellious, the emperor's heart is forgiving and enlightening, which also shows that he will not let him do nothing."

"If you want to blame me, send me a whip and a scroll of filial piety."

"Now that the war in Xiliang is not over, it's better not to cause any more incidents."

There was a lot of quarrels and quarrels in the hall, and Deng Yi said a word or two in it from time to time.

This is the atmosphere of the court.

Zhu Yong, who was still kneeling on the ground, and Chu Zhao, who was behind the dragon chair, seemed to have been forgotten.

Being in the same hall, they seemed to be separated by the sound of rain.

Zhu Yong knelt on the ground blankly, no one asked him to speak, no one scolded him to back down, his eyes gradually became empty and he stopped talking.

Chu Zhao didn't speak any more.

But today's embarrassment is even worse than before. After all, some people have stood up to speak to the queen, but they are still ignored by the officials of the court——

Xiao Yu was a little worried and couldn't help but look back at Chu Zhao.

Chu Zhao sat on the chair with a calm expression, without the slightest irritation. When Xiao Yu looked over, he smiled at him.

Is the child afraid that she will stand up and scold the courtiers or walk away in anger?

If she wanted to do this, the courtiers like Deng Yi could immediately ban her from going to court again.

She was doing it to sit firmly in the court, so she wouldn't be angry, and only when she was angry was what others wished.

……

……

When the court was over, the thunder and heavy rain stopped, and the servants also cleaned up the stagnant water, and the court officials walked on the road refreshed.

"I thought it was going to rain."

"This morning, it's decent."

Everyone talked and laughed and dispersed.

Zhu Yong walked out of the front hall with blank eyes, somehow he kicked his foot in the gutter, his shoes were wet, and the splashed water not only wetted his own robe, but also splashed the people next to him.

"How are you walking!" The officer next to him scolded, turned around and saw who he recognized, and immediately cursed rudely, "You're blind."

The few officials who followed were embarrassed and dissatisfied, "Don't curse people." "They are all officials of the same dynasty."

Hearing what they said, the official smiled and said: "Is an official in the same dynasty? That's not necessarily the case." After speaking, he gave Zhu Yong a contemptuous look, "Not only is he blind, but he is also dark-hearted and boneless. You can do anything to please Empress Chu."

After saying that, he walked away.

"It's not to please."

"How do you talk?"

A few officials retorted, but they didn't dare to shout loudly, and they didn't dare to chase after them. Looking at the sights from all around, they couldn't help lowering their heads, dragged and dragged Zhu Yong, and walked quickly until they avoided the officials and came to the imperial city. Outside, he stopped.

"Master Zhu, why are you so impulsive!"

"You have done your best for Zheng Xia's affairs, don't you accept the result yourself?"

Several people blamed one after another.

It was only now that Zhu Yong came to his senses. He had actually been running about this matter for half a year, and he had thought of all the ways he could think of, and he had accepted his fate in his heart. Can't stop--

He murmured, "I still can't just watch Brother Zheng die."